[PLOT THREAD4.2] DR: Diplomatic Disarray

[Asarasa]

Despite Centerpoint's intent or desires, it was much too late for the men, the gravitic stresses too much for them to endure. Painful, but mercifully quick deaths. Full lips tightened faintly, the only evidence of the gorgeous Nova's frustration. There would be no answers from that corner.

Feet bare inches above the ground, she 'fell' or perhaps was pulled towards the strengthening gravity well. As yet, it was more a matter of delicacy, intricacy, than pure brutal power to constrain the growing singularity, her lavender eyes lambent with their own light and pinpricks of blue-white. Through the deepening haze, she could make out the cause of the incipient black hole, more from her inherent awareness of gravitational effects than from her actual vision.

Tiny bits of metal, machinery - presumably ripped from the armour of the men - were spinning around with each other, forming an intricate latticework, a multi-faceted sphere. It looked like a D20, an icosahedron, in fact. A very dangerous one. The gravity sources were in the bits making up the vertices and the energy fields around each one was collapsing. As the fields collapsed what were in them producing the gravity wells were trying to join together, amalgamating. Centerpoint was handling them individually at the moment, but if they compacted into a single source, the strength of the well would increase exponentially.

It wasn't through scientific knowledge or working out the mathematics, it was simple, certain, intuition. Her luminous eyes widened as she grew closer, just know realizing how small the technological black hole actually was. She needed to get it out of the city, in case she could unravel the individual gravity wells before they reached a critical mass and formed a catastrophic singularity.

The idea of forming a warp portal was there for just an instant before she discarded it. It took direct focus for her to spin one open, a focus she couldn't split from the disastrous D20 before her. Plus, she wasn't sure what would happen if she passed it through the event horizon of the portal, the clashing gravitic forces being unpredictable.

Dauntless came around the building, hands still alight with crackling blue-red energy, and almost skidded to a stop at the sight. Before Centerpoint was a deptless black sphere a little bigger than a fist, limned by a phantasmal accretion disk of incandescent reds, oranges, pinks, and yellows. It eerily mirrored the design on the front of Centerpoint's glossy white bodysuit encasing her extravagant, hourglass figure.

Centerpoint's eyes flicked from the black hole to Dauntless for a moment, the ominous sphere swelling perceptibly bigger. "Seems like we have a little problem, D, that's growing into a big problem." She rose higher above the ground, easing the fluctuating gravity wells with her. Her long, rose-gold streamed over her shoulders towards the black hole in space-time. "And I need to get it out of the city in case I can't solve the problem without a catastrophic solution. I think..." There was an uncharacteristic pause, something that Brigit didn't recall from Sean since she'd become a woman and a nova. "I'm going to try to bring it up and over the lake."

[Exile_Jeane]

23 hours ago, Divine Right Co-Storyteller said:

Just as Apex leapt, twin beams of energy from right below blasted the corner of the building, looking down as she glimpsed Dauntless, hands crackling with energy, as two more beams erupted from her fists at an armored man flying rapidly toward her!

 

The beams missed, and Apex twisted changing her trajectory the man and the Nova crashed together and flew around the corner out of Dauntless' view.

 

As she passed within arm's reach of the man, Apex felt herself get scooped up ever-so-seamlessly by a field of gravity contrary to what held for the rest of the world, dragged along at breakneck pace above the streets with him. She had enough experience with Sean's own fields to not freeze at the odd sensation, cool-headed certainty flowing through her thoughts as she went for a grapple. Armored or not, Apex's inhuman strength and practical experience punching monsters in the face had the man's right arm quite firmly in her grip, legs wrapped around his waist in a few kaleidoscopic moments of grappling.

 

"Down," the blonde juggernaut insisted, "Or we see what gives first: your armor or your ability to steer."   

 

Spoiler

Rolling STR+ Close Combat to Get a Grip on this guy.

Exile_Jeane — Today at 9:07 AM
!roll 8d10e7

Dice Maiden
BOT
 — Today at 9:07 AM
Exile_Jeane Roll: [10, 10, 10, 9, 7, 5, 3, 2] Huh. 10s explode I think...

!roll 3d10

Dice Maiden
BOT
 — Today at 9:10 AM
Exile_Jeane Roll: [5, 4, 3] And Nothing...

So five starting successes plus 6 for being scale 5 to his 2 means 11 successes. I think that'll do it.

 

 

[Nina]

The mans face inside the helmet grimaced, "Whatever you say doll."  Suddenly Apex felt her weight double, triple, quadruple and multiply! The two figures spun and then dropped like a meteor toward the ground. Grace felt the weight of her body  driving them down at an ever increasing speed when she realized they ad stopped spinning and she was on the bottom...

 

 

As Centerpoint zoomed off into the sky toward the lake, Dauntless cursed in frustration. First the badguy gets away by flying off and now her partner takes off, flying, leaving her with energy crackling around her fists in the middle of the street feeling like a useless lump...

 

Centerpoint flew out over Lake Michigan as fast as she could her intention to get as far from shore before she tried to put an end to this menace!  All the while the mass continued to collapse and it was straining her own ability to hold the effects in check she had to do something but what?

 

[Exile_Jeane]

She'd faced worse threats, not worse manners though.

 

"Warned you," Grace tsked in complete deadpan, shuffling any concern at the encroaching impact to the back of her mind. She'd made a promise and had but heartbeats to act on it and risk him getting away. So she squeezed, applying all the pressure she could to the man and his armor with her quantum-infused might. 

 

Spoiler

Rolling Might+Athletics

!roll 9d10

Dice Maiden
BOT
 — Today at 1:30 PM
Exile_Jeane Roll: [10, 8, 8, 8, 8, 7, 3, 3, 2] Result: 57

One exploding die...

roll 1d10

Dice Maiden
BOT
 — Today at 1:31 PM
Exile_Jeane Roll: [3] Result: 3

So scale 5 vs the armor's scale 2 means 6 extra successes added to the 6 rolled. Ow. 12 total.

 

[Asarasa]

High above the choppy, grey waves of Lake Michigan, a globe of consuming darkness continued to swell. Centerpoint's long, gleaming hair whipped around her in a rose-gold torrent, majestic chest heaving as she drew breath in the thinning air. Luminous pale purple eyes were shifting to solid blazing blue-white.

Sean couldn't even make out the particles causing the collapsing singularity anymore, but she could still feel the ever-increasing gravitic forces forming the knotted matrix. It had grown so close and tight, she couldn't seem to get a good enough mental grip on the virtual mass to begin unraveling it. She needed to relieve the pressure somehow, enough to get her 'fingers' into it as it were, so she could get the leverage to unknot the damnable thing.

 

That was dangerous, to say the least. The mass could expand too fast, too explosively, before she could disperse it... or she might even fail.

 

She glanced back over her shoulder, down at the sprawling city of millions behind her. She had friends there, and lovers, past and potential, and a new life just beginning, a life more exciting and thrilling and glamorous than once she'd ever imagine. She wasn't ready for it to end just yet. And she wasn't unique in that, the millions in Chicago would feel the same.

The only thing worse than failure would be not trying at all. That was a lesson she had only really learned, internalized, with the transition from her old life to her new one.

Centerpoint refocused on the mass, eyes narrowing in determination, hands balling into fist, her nails digging into her palms hard enough to draw blood. Her shapely, white-clad form looked small in front of the growing sphere of utter black.

 

"Let's do this," she murmured as she tugged at one strand of the latticework of awesome forces, forcing a breach from which she could untangle singularity and hoping the forces released from the breach didn't destroy her or the city she had decided to call home.
 

Spoiler

Gravity Sense - Cunning + Quantum, if necessary to figure out how to detangle the gravity singularity

!roll 8d10t7e10
Asarasa Roll: [10, 10, 9, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1], [7, 4] Result: 5, with Mega-Cunning 1

If a power roll is necessary..
Gravitokinesis Roll: 

!roll 10d10t7e10
Asarasa Roll: [9, 9, 8, 8, 6, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1] Result: 4

 

[Exile_Jeane]

Grace wasn't certain if the unnamed man in the gravity armor had a chance to regret his bravado. The Stormer-crafted armor crumbled under her grip, wrist, chestplate, hip-plates, folding under the pressure like tissue paper. In the spiraling downward path they tore together, heartbeat to heartbeat, she felt flesh and bone give in a way that had spelt doom to more abhuman spawn of Enchidna then she cared to remember, blood-splattered memory of melees trying to keep refugees from harm, one rock against a tide of mutated flesh.

 

This man wasn't one of those monsters and he was alone, so she wasn't certain if he even remained conscious long enough to feel his injuries before they hit.

 

Augmented gravity fields flared as they hit the street. Debris and cars flew away from the point of impact. Glass shattered for blocks around. The man, aware or not, pulped inside his armor as 14 Gs worth of kinetic energy came to sudden ruinous stop. Grace, Apex, felt the forces try and do the same to her, only to be rebuffed by her sure durability, concrete and buried cables shattering against her skin. She sucked in a breath of dust-laden air and coughed it out again, holding her breath as she worked her way of the bottom of the resulting crater. 

 

The blonde juggernaut wasn't entirely certain, but had the distinct impression there was a her-shaped dent in the rubble below her.

 

Grace cleared the rim of the crater, clothing hanging in tatters off her, modesty preserved by clinging dust and streaks of blood and pulped human being, entirely unharmed from an impact that was akin to a bomb dropping. There was a moment of stillness and then one of the emergency responders moved to meet her, offering something drapey to protect her dignity with more than a bit of awe. 

[Nina]

She found it! But had no idea what to do with it. Centerpoint had dug deep into the gravitic mess and found the source an object that was virtually microscopic it was encased in a field that held it in some sort of stasis. The field was acting like a magnetic bottle, keeping the object from actually interacting with the world and generating the positive mass which would lead to a singularity event. The Object had to be destroyed!

 

Dauntless cursed as Sean flew away into danger and she began running after her friend, her... partner. All Brigit could think as she raced after Sean on the ground her hands lit with quantum fire, was how this was all her fault and that if anything happened to her friend...

 

Brigit cursed in frustration and anger as her friend zoomed off over the lake and the emotion was just too much, the energies already at peak had to go somewhere and they did. 

 

Quantum fire blasted from her hands hurling her into the air her whole body wreathed in an aura of blue-silver flames at first her flight waas uncontrolled but in just a few moments she figured it out and realized that this power held secrets she needed to unravel. she searched the horizon and found Sean hovering and with a blast of energy Dauntless rocketed toward her friend.

 

The blast from Apex's impact was devastating to say the least. The building on three city blocks all sustained intense structural damage it was just lucky that this was a business districts and a three Am was mostly empty of people.

 

Apex wrapped in a  yellow fire Blanket cautioned the responders not to enter the crater as there was sill danger tech in there and that nothing could be done for the man that had worn the suit. As she was explaining to the police what was going on a Dark Ford SUV with incredible tinted windows pulled up and three figures got out, two men and woman, all three wore nearly identical suits and all three screamed GOVERNMENT.

 

Carson (not wearing his glasses) looked around at the damage, "Well, we have seen worse. Hey is that...?"

 

"Yes sir it's Apex, she has been working with the other two since relocating here. Eye has the other two over Lake Michigan at an altitude of six thousand feet, they seem to be stationary doing something, but he can't transmit images. He says there is some sort of massive distortion effect for about two hundred meters around them," says the woman interrupting Carson. "What do you want to do?"

 

"Thanks Gina, let's let them do their job. You and Pierre check with the local authorities and get the situation report, and  in the mean time, I am going to see if I can get an autograph.

 

 

Sean felt Brigit's arrival and was extremely puzzled she pulled her senses out of the threatening puzzle while maintaining her metaphiorical grip on it and looked over toward where her friend floated at a spot several meters way wreathed in blue-silver quantum fire, floating as if gravity had no effect on her whatsoever. "What the...?"

 

Brigit grinned her eyes storms of lightning, "I can fly now. Grace showed up and was handling the last guy so here I am. What do you need me to do?"

 

 

[Asarasa]

"Oh, my!" Sean purred, taking in the sight of Brigit joining her several thousand feet above the grey waves of Lake Michigan. Keeping enough of her attention on slowing the expansion of the incipient singularity didn't preclude her from returning Brigit's grin with a warm smile of her, eyes of electric indigo roving of Dauntless appreciatively, taking in the way the blue-silver flames licking over her emphasized her curvaceous and muscular contours. "My hero!"

Centerpoint slid smoothly through the air until she was right in front of Brigit, meeting her eye to eye. She placed two fingers at the hollow of Brigit's throat and dragged them down lightly between her collar bones, almond-shaped nails tickling the taut flesh. Her smile grew wider as the blue-silver energy wreathing Brigit rippled over her fingers with a hot tingle.

"We are so going to have to talk about this... later," Sean assured Brigit suggestively, spreading her hand out flat just in front of her, moving it in a small circle as though cleaning a window. Then she moved so she was shoulder to shoulder with her partner, crossed her legs as though sitting on an invisible chair, and gestured gracefulling towards the swelling sphere of darkness as through she was a game show hostess. "But first, I need your eyes with this tiny little matter before us."

Centerpoint primly folded her hands in her lap and squared her shoulders, as though there wasn't potential for an artificial black hole destroying Chicago and maybe a large portion of North America. "There's something in there making all of this. I can feel the gravitic forces its causing, but can't actually see what is causing them. If I can't see something, I can't work my gravitomancy on it. And whatever it is, it's itsy-bitsy. Microscopic. I don't need glasses anymore, but my eyesight still isn't that good. There's even some sort of countervailing field preventing me from attempting a brute force gravity crush of the area with any certainty I'll catch the damn thing, let alone smoosh it. Your mission, Hon, should you choose to accept it, is go in there - I can lead you to the general area, and... "

Centerpoint held up a hand, extending a forefinger and thumb and pressed their pointed manicured nails together with a tiny click. "... using those great big muscles of yours, pinch off the problem at the source. I should be able to deal with the untethered gravitic forces afterwards without having to worry about them going critical. Up to saving Chicago, at the very least, today, Babe?"

[Nina]

“In for a dollar…” Brigit says hoping this crazy aura would hide her blushing cheeks. She turned her vision onto the source and with a flare of energy adjusted her vision and peered into the beyond.

 

Down and down she cycled her vision beyond the microscopic and into an area she had never imagined, Sub-Atomic Quantum Space, the realm of creation!

 

“The movies got it all wrong and right at the same time,” she muttered, amazed, “Okay I see what’s doing it and yes, it is some sort of construct but not like anything I have even seen. Maybe Deezy could make heads or tails. I think I can punch through that field but I’m going to need your help.

 

I read a lot and one of things some of the science fiction books I have read talk about is a Gravity Lens. In the stories the bend gravity to help them look at distant stars and stuff. Same principle as a magnifying glass. Can you do that? If you can, I can use my Q-beams and shoot them through the lens and hit this thing and maybe take it out.”

[Asarasa]

Sean arched an expressive, elegant brow. She pursed delectable, raspberry lips. She inhaled, taxing the limits of the protective, super special spandex suit Deezy had made for her. She wasn't a genuis, by human standards, let alone Nova standards. She was a more than decent architect, not an astrophysicist. She was good physics, as it applied to stresses and structure design. As for gravitational lensing, she could recall hearing about it in a lecture or an article years ago, but either didn't remember or didn't understand the math behind it.

Deezy Sean was sure could explain all the math and science behind a gravitational lens. What Sean had was inherent, instinctive control over one of the fundamental forces of nature. If you looked at it in a certain way, the portals she could make were a type of gravitational lens, contracting the distance between two points, or magnifying how much distance one could cross stepping through the portal. If she could manipulate one of her portals, not to cross distance, but magnify the force of passing through it...

Sean let out a long breath, brushed some of her long, rose-gold hair from her face, and gave Brigit a slow nod. "I've had a lot of firsts in the last six months, Bri. What's one more. In theory, I can do what you're suggesting. Let's see if I can make it fact. I'm gonna need your help to make sure if have the gravitation lens oriented properly so it focuses directly on the damned thing in there, and we're gonna need to be fast. Making the lens, I'm not to be able to constrain the singularity's growth as much. Ready?"

Brigit nodded, hands balling into fists, the sheath of energy enveloping her growing deeper, boiling even more actively. She raised an arm and pointed towards the sub-quantum sized machine only she could see. "That way. Ready."

"Here we go," Centerpoint breathed dulcetly, apparently calm and collected, sitting with legs crossed in midair, her eyes a glow with roiling blue-silver incandescence.

A ring of fluorescent reds, oranges, and yellows spun into existence before the two municipal defenders of Chicago. Immediately, Centerpoint and Dauntless could see the sphere of darkness of the incipient singularity visibly swell. The ring of the modified portal spun, spun faster as it grew larger, twice as wide as they were tall, the thickness of of the ring itself growing thinner, tighter, until it was a band thinner than a finger of almost blinding, dawn-coloured light.

Instead of a portal opening to another place on the planet, this one was filled with an eye-wrenching, consuming black. It might have been a flat plane, but it gave the illusion of a bubble, maybe a fat lens, far thicker, more... substantial towards the center.

The dark distortion of the event was already double the size it had been when Brigit arrived.

"That's... it, Bri. It... feels, right, but I can't assure you how stable it is." Since Sean had erupted into a fantasy of a woman, this might have been the first time Brigit had heard genuine doubt, real worry taint her sweet, sultry soprano. "Your show now."

[Nina]

Dauntless peered through the lens at the wonder of the sub-quantum universe and the machine itself a quantum construct. She could see the way the lines of gravity played out the “cage” Sean was using to contain it and even the strain it was taking on Sean.

 

She realized she needed to hurry.

 

“Alright,” she shouted over the raging wind and crackling energies, “I want you to get behind me and as far back as you can and still maintain your hold.” Brigit looked into Sean’s coruscating purple eyes as the other woman nodded and swiveled in the air to move. Wait!” Brigit raised a hand as Sean turned back to face her and she cupped Sean’s face and leaned in and kissed her on the mouth. The kiss lingered for a few seconds the energies surrounding them crackled and throbbed with minor instability then Brigit pulled bac and shouted again, “Go”.

 

Sean pulled back as Dauntless face the lens with her full concentration.

 

Brigit marshalled all of her force and unleashed her power into the Gravity Lens! The power flared lighting up the sky for miles, it was visible back in the awakening city some fifty miles away, a bright blue-white star super low in the sky pulsing…

 

The twin beams filled the lens and were condensed down into one single beam by the intense gravity of Sean’s Lens. The beam followed the path created by the Gravity field and left the macro universe for the micro, the beams a construct of pure Quantum energy flashed through the multi-versal realms unchanged and struck the source, the Gravity inducing construct of some unknown Stormer.

 

Beam and shield met and grappled the beam twisting and tearing, the shield spinning and folding, one had to give. Seconds passed but felt like hours, Brigit summoned reserves she hadn’t know she possessed, the beam became and incandescent glare and the shield Crack and broke.

The beam and the construct touch and the energies contain in each mingled.

 

The blast was immense, had it been possible to measure it would have been in the megaton range. The energy followed the path of least resistance, reversing beam straight back into the lens, which folded and into Dauntless, who absorbed it with another flare of Blue quantum fire.

 

Spoiler

Sean was caught in the over flow of the energies not enough to damage her but she too absorbed some of it. if it had been sunlight she would have a very irritating sunburn on exposed skin... you may describe it as you wish.

 

[Exile_Jeane]

On 2/15/2022 at 9:40 AM, Divine Right Co-Storyteller said:

The blast from Apex's impact was devastating to say the least. The building on three city blocks all sustained intense structural damage it was just lucky that this was a business districts and a three Am was mostly empty of people.

 

Apex wrapped in a  yellow fire Blanket cautioned the responders not to enter the crater as there was sill danger tech in there and that nothing could be done for the man that had worn the suit. As she was explaining to the police what was going on a Dark Ford SUV with incredible tinted windows pulled up and three figures got out, two men and woman, all three wore nearly identical suits and all three screamed GOVERNMENT.

 

Carson (not wearing his glasses) looked around at the damage, "Well, we have seen worse. Hey is that...?"

 

"Yes sir it's Apex, she has been working with the other two since relocating here. Eye has the other two over Lake Michigan at an altitude of six thousand feet, they seem to be stationary doing something, but he can't transmit images. He says there is some sort of massive distortion effect for about two hundred meters around them," says the woman interrupting Carson. "What do you want to do?"

 

"Thanks Gina, let's let them do their job. You and Pierre check with the local authorities and get the situation report, and  in the mean time, I am going to see if I can get an autograph.

 

Grace was, before gaining her powers, used to people trying to curry favor with her and her family.

 

Grace was, after gaining her powers, getting used to being debriefed by government agents.

 

Grace was, before or after gaining her powers, *not* used to a government agent trying to curry favor with her and her family.

 

"Miss Williams! Miss Williams," called a man in a suit that screamed government agent, waving a badge to cut through the chaos of first responders containing a crisis. Something in his mien betrayed a certain over-eagerness that she'd expect at one of her charity events and not a shattered street. She frowned mildly, pulling the yellow fire blanket more securely about herself, contemplating the need for a suit of clothes that could stand up to the kind of damage she could shrug off. Brigit and Sean probably wouldn't complain either, run it through some kind of PR for a shared logo somewhere on it... The business side of her brain started up and ran down again, stifled by her surroundings. 

 

The blonde juggernaut waved off the paramedic who was hovering near-by ready to defend her, nodding thanks. She mustered a smile as he reached her, keeping the worry at her teammate's continued absence firmly out of her manner, "Much as I wish the situation was better, a pleasure to meet you, Agent..?" 

[Nina]

Paul smiled even broader, "Agent Carson, I'm with Homeland Security, the office of Enhanced Persons Interaction Collective, and I must say it is an incredicble pleasure to finally meet you Apex."

 

He shows Grace an ID card as he glances around still grinning, "Wow, this is some damage. You're unhurt thankfully and while the two police officers sustained some serious injuries. their covered. We still have to check for civilians but at this hour we should be clear... hopefully."

[Exile_Jeane]

"I've had worse, Agent Carson," Grace commented mildly, looking around and grateful to see that for all the damage from the impact, a distinct lack of mass human losses. No blood, no weeping, no chaos of ongoing battle. It niggled at her thoughts, the entire concept of Nova crime/domestic terrorism when there was more than enough fame and money to be made by all of her peers on the legal side of the fence. But this was exactly what it seemed like from the fragmentary information she'd gathered between hearing about the crisis and leaping here.

 

"I don't suppose you have any more information about what happened here? I haven't heard about any tinkers with both ability and desire to rob banks," she continued, leaving out any possible thoughts on her mysterious pykrokinetic contact in Chicago's underworld, "If your agency would be willing to let a friend of mine in Houston get a look at that suit when you're done with it, she'll be sure to get us something, smart as I am tough."

 

Grace chuckled, grey eyes scanning the skyline for signs of her returning friends. 

[Nina]

Carson glances around taking in the impact site finally his eyes rest on the remains of the armored suit. "Yes. No really, Apex. There has been starangly enough an uptick in crime even in places that haven't been as affected by the Storm, like Chicago. But so far this is the first openly Stormer related criminal activity varified. and this is the second time your partners..." 

 

At that precise moment there is a huge flash in the eastern sky that literally turns the fading night to bright day.  The light last for barly a half second then fades down to a bright dot then out. Before Grace can say anything Carson his grin now gone holds up a hand to have her wait and puts his other to his ear. "Report."  a few seconds pass and he drops his and and grins at Grace again.

 

"Seems your partners have solved their part of the problem. Don't worry their okay. Back to what i was saying. No this is the first stormer crime that we have seen. So were are very grateful to have some physical evidence to work with now. . I know you have had a long night and I don't see any need to keep you. We will probably have some more questions after we collect all the evidence but we can do that later. Just one more thing." Carson pulls an old fashioned pocket note book and a pen out of his jacket pocket, "Could I get your autograph?"

[Asarasa]

Absorbing the blast, Dauntless blazed like a miniature azure sun and Centerpoint winced against the blinding glare. Even through her eyelids, she could see the incandescence. Heat like that of scalding desert washed over Centerpoint. It had an almost gritty quality and Sean felt like she was being rubbed with fine grain sandpaper. It wasn't entirely unpleasant.

A profound silence fell, paired with utter stillness. When it finally dimmed to darkness behind her eyelids, Sean opened her eyes. Brigit float ahead of her, naked save for a corona of rippling, cerulean energy. The thickly muscled superwoman spun around, and her eyes widened as they alighted on her partner.

The leggy, improbably curvaceous fantasy woman was even more naked than Brigit was. There was no sign of Sean's special spandex super-suit. Brigit could tell Sean's gravitic forcefield was still active - she could see it as few others could, who could barely discern a higher contrast to her contours - yet a layer of peeling skin as though from a bad sunburn was flaking away.  Under it, with her enhanced sight, even at this distance, Brigit could see a new layer of flawless, fair golden tanned skin replacing it before her eyes. Her bare scalp glinted with new bristles of metallic rose-gold, which began to unspool, slowly but visibly reaching her ears and then further.

Sean let out a long exhale, then her luminous lavender eyes blinked, clearing the green spots from her eyes. The sky was impossibly blue and clear. Her gaze fell on Brigit and she inhaled with indulgent desire. For good or ill, Sean had been metamorphosed into a prurient dream of a woman, and she had dived head first into a her new life, with a sex drive to match. She was pretty much always aroused, to some degree or another, but right now, it was an almost overwhelming need.

They had come face to face with their mortality and come on through to the other side. Sean had been exploring her new life for just a few months and hadn't been ready for it to end yet, but it hadn't stopped her from doing what she thought she had to. Now, she was still alive. Brigit was still alive. Chicago was still alive. 

Her full, perfect lips curved in a warm, wanton smile. Surviving mortal peril, Sean could think of few things that could be more life affirming, and even few she'd want to do it with. Thought about who had caused the mortal peril were for later.

Sean slid, fell, across the sky, closing the distance between her and Brigit in an instant. Long, smooth, shapely legs snaked around Brigit's tight, muscular waist. One hand caressed a bulging, impossibly firm bicep. The other hand glided gracefully over a powerful shoulder, up Brigit's hand to tangle in her hair and pulled her close, magnificent breasts pressing tight against Brigit's broad, taut chest.

It was Sean's turn to kiss Brigit and she didn't hold back. It was unrestrained, ardent and passionate, Sean's tongue wicked and teasing. "Still alive," Sean murmured after a kiss long enough to leave most regular humans dangerously breathless, her forehead pressing against Brigit's. "Chicago saved."

Sean had already regenerated back to her inhumanly beautiful, immaculate self. Flawless flesh silkier and softer than a babies, her incredible hair grown down to her pert, plush behind, which was being effortlessly supported by one of Brigit's hands. Sean chuckled with smoky desire as she trailed kisses up Brigit's neck to her ear.

"Considering our state of undress, we should probably go some place discrete to take care of it." Sean's warm breath tickled Brigit's ear. "I don't care if that's back home or in a fucking a cloud, but if we don't go soon, I'm going to do the things I've been wanting to do to you right here, thousands of feet above Lake Michigan."

"What things?" Brigit asked, voice slightly tight and breathless with anticipation and the continuing ministrations of Sean's hands and lips. Gravity itself seemed to flex and flux around them with Sean's every breath.

Sean's sweet, sultry soprano whispering in Brigit's ear, informing her of exactly what things made every word particularly explicit and salacious. Brigit's face reddened and that seemed only to encourage Sean, Brigit's face reddening even more as Sean mischievously went into even more detail. Finally, Sean relented, resting luxuriously in their embrace, legs locked around Brigit's waist, hands looped over her glorious shoulders.

"My life may have restarted in Chicago, but I stayed because of you, Bri. I've been given a second chance to do things, and while yes, I have been, and enjoying every bit of it, it's your concern, your love for the city that has encouraged me to no only live my life anew, but to do something better with it. I'm far from perfect, but I think you've helped me be a better woman than the man I used to be."


 

Edited March 21, 2022 by Asarasa

[Nina]

Brigit was surprised but her heart fluttered, and she was lost in the moment embracing the woman of dreams fully as she returned Sean’s kisses and caresses and held nothing back.

 

The two women spun thought the sky then zoomed away into the darkness and out of sight of the prying eyes that had been observing them.

 

Grace had gone home and checked on Konami who had slept soundly through the night. it wasn’t long before the news services, TV and radio started reporting what had happened downtown and speculating about what had happened over Lake Michigan.

 

Grace flipped channels and paused on CNN. A young woman who didn’t seem to know how to smile, wearing an almost exact copy of Agent Carson’s suit was giving a interview with little detail about the battle in Chicago. Grace recognized the location as that of where the battle had begun, the wrecked bus was visible in the background.

 

She had tried contacting both Sean and Brigit but their phones both went straight to voice mail. Another thing to get with Deezy on, some sort of secure communications that can survive these things. Her phone vibrated on the table where she had set it a text had been received.

 

From: Agent F. Carson

Good Morning sorry to text so early but would like to invite you to breakfast. Completely informal. Please reply back to this text.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Brigit rolled over; this bed was so comfortable…

 

 Her eyes sprung open this wasn’t her bed and … she took a sudden breath, Sean was standing a few feet away looking out her bedroom window perfectly, gloriously naked. The memory stunned Brigit and she felt heat and desire all over again. She swallowed and asserted control. “Sean you do know that people can see into windows too, right?”

 

Sean languidly looked over her shoulder at her lover. “So. I’m not ashamed of my body.”

 

Brigit sat up and the blankets fell away revealing her own nakedness. “I know but someone will take pictures and put them on the internet and I will have to kill them.”

 

[Asarasa]

Heavy-lidded luminous lavender eyes lingered with unabashed appreciation on Brigit and her marvellously massive shoulders. To Sean's sensitive nose, her bedroom was still deliciously redolent of their unhindered passion. Her luscious lips spread in a slow, suggestive smile. Over half a year a woman, she definitely seemed to have a developed a preference in choice of lovers. She was somewhat of a size queen and absolutely loved muscles. Brigit might not have been particularly tall, but that physique! Mmm!

Sean made a low, amused sound deep in her throat, tickled by the hint of possessiveness in Brigit's comment. With the endorsements and spokesmodel gigs Karen had arranged for her, Sean's image littered the internet already, and that wasn't even counting all the candid shots taken of her when she was out and about and didn't bother Clark Kenting herself so attention skipped over her unless she wanted it. She hadn't sent anyone nudes - yet - not when it was more fun to show up in person. 

"I promise to visit you regularly in prison, for conjugals," Sean teased, turning away from the floor to ceiling windows and gliding over - barely seeming to touch the floor - to sit on the bed and leaning back into Brigit. It wasn't like there was a prison that could contain Dauntless unless she was willing. A precise manipulation of microgravity pressed a button and roller blinds began to descend over the windows. She murmured in delight as one of Brigit's hands went about her tiny waist, as she brushed aside her long luxurious hair to press lips against the nape of her neck. "Not that I don't want to indulge in continuing distractions, but we should probably get cleaned up and dressed."

Sean twisted around in Brigit's embrace, giving her a quick kiss then an indolent smirk as she glanced significantly through her walk-in closet and the ensuite beyond with its big walk-in shower. A shared bath would just be too indulgent. "Well, maybe we have time for a bit more distractions."

She playfully threatened Brigit to make her walk down the hall naked to her own apartment or flying around their abutting balconies, instead of opening a portal for her. The only thing she had for Brigit to cover up with that would remotely fit was a blanket. "Still, we have to get new phones activated - really gotta look into better and more durable communications if we're dealing with other enhanced folks -  and check in with Grace to make sure she's okay and see if she managed to capture some of that tech for someone to look into it. Klatta maybe, or those EPIC folks."

If Sean had been really concerned about Grace's health, she would have zipped over to her apartment to make sure, but Grace was practically invulnerable, and she hadn't noticed any other catastrophic event while she and Brigit had been dealing with the singularity. Besides, afterwards, there had been more pressing needs. With her transformation, Sean felt emotions more intently, even if she had far more control in how she revealed them, but she wasn't sure if she could even feel shame or guilt anymore.

"We should probably talk with our liaison with the city and tell them what's up too. Y'know, let them know that we stopped a Black Hole from eating Chicago. And somewhere in there, squeeze in breakfast and a walk for Keesha."

As if she heard her name, there was a click of nails on slate tile, and the gorgeous golden retriever poked her head through between the wall of windows and the wall that separated the bedroom from the kitchen and living room, to regard the two superwomen with loving amber eyes. 

"I haven't forgotten you, Princess," Sean sighed with warm fondness.

Edited April 2, 2022 by Asarasa

[Exile_Jeane]

Well, at least something was simple about this. Grace checked her schedule, found an empty block of time early in the coming day promised by the hints of encroaching dawn, and replied 'I'm free from 0700 to 0745. Name a place we can get some privacy, Agent Carson.'

 

That done, she turned back to the nested series of tabs and programs on the laptop in front of her, fingers defly navigating through them. Where did the time go? 24 hours in a day, and she still felt like she wasn't doing enough by the people who needed her, both personally and professionally. Stormer super science crime... They had been lucky yesterday. For all that everyone, herself included to be honest, loved the idea of superheroes brought to life when a person was a weapon of mass destruction or, even worse, could make others into weapons of mass destruction... The prospect of escalation weighed on her. Repeat mass collateral damage would chip at the confidence, the stability, of any place, nibble away at the economy until at the far end of things, systems broke down and it became about surviving instead of thriving. Too many were like that in this country now.

 

She'd seen and read enough about to know and let it nibble at the root of her thoughts. Especially with the example of Konami sleeping a room away. There was her stake in that future, the gate she had to help hold. Hopefully this meeting would help.

[Nina]

Grace arrived at the designated address and was a bit surprised at how crowded it was this early but then again Bryn Mawr Breakfast Club was one of the top rated breakfast spots in Chicago. She wasn't disguised but she did wear a scarf over her hair and dark glasses so her features were somewhat obscured, and so far no one seemed to have recognized her or if they had no one had made a fuss about it.

 

She saw Carson sitting alone, the agent was dressed very casually, no jacket or tie. She let her gaze travel around the room, the other agents from last night were not present and she didn't spot any other government agent types. Carson spotted her and waved her over. When she arrived at the table he stood and pulled her chair out.

 

After sitting Carson waved at a waitress who came right over and they ordered.

 

"I hope you don't mind this place, I wasn't sure what you liked and they have a very eclectic and wide ranging menu, so i hoped something would appeal." Carson explain and then made general small talk until Coffee and food arrived.

****************************************************************************************************************************************************************

 

Sean, after walking Keesha and bidding a fond farewell to Brigit had portaled to Ottawa and her appointment. She had been ushered into the office of Dabney Franks. Franks was a middle aged man salt and pepper hair worn short in a conservative style, bushy mustache and a perpetual frown. He had stood when she entered the room, his movement masking his deep breath at the mere sight of her. "Please have a seat Mist...Ms Cassidy." He indicated a chair in fron of his desk.

 

"I will get right to the point, you are obviously and Enhanced person, your applications tendered for um...sexual reassignment were all proper and approved even if the circumstance were extraordinary. You are now legally in the eyes of the government of Canada a woman. Here," he slides a envelop of documents across the desk, 'your documents updated. we took the liberty of using some of your photos acquired online for your passport and other IDs."

 

Franks sits back and placing elbows on the arms of his chair he steeples his hands under his chin. "Now onto other matters. The State, in general, is haveing difficulty determining the position persons that have become enhanced stand in. And it is not just Canada or the UK, Russia has declared all Russian Nova's to be a National Resource and ordered all enhanced persons to a base in Siberia, North Korea has declared their Nova's as the pinnacle of North Korea's military might and already threatened South Korea and the United States with utter destruction by unleashing the might of their Novas. We haven't even confirmed that there are any North Korean Nova. And we have no clues as to China's position. Thats just the top three.

 

Britain has decided to assemble a Reaction Group. Its made up of a fellow you may have seen in the broadcasts called Einherger, a former SAS Sargent and a few other novas including an American ex-pat. They have extended an invitation for you to join their little party through us.

 

The reason they didn't go to you  directly is two fold, one, we here in Canada have decided to consider Enhanced persons special resources and are requesting that all those affected by the storm to register and in certain case to fulfill service to the country. And two, your activities in America have the home office concerned."

 

 

[Asarasa]

 "Mmhmm," Sean murmured with alluring delight at the mention of Einherjar as she glanced through her new documents and identification. She was aware of the British Viking Stormer and he definitely ticked off all the boxes she found attractive in a man. She certainly wouldn't mind meeting him one day. Enticing lips curled in wry amusement as she glanced at her Driver's License and saw her face, a face belonging to a woman who looked barely looked old enough to drink - in Canada - next to a birthdate that meant she was forty-one.
 

Dabney shifted self-consciously in his chair at the enticing sound Sean made and the silken whisper of her dark stockings and navy blue pencil skirt when she recrossed her long, spectacular legs. He thought long and hard about his wife. He loved her, still thought her beautiful, even after over twenty years of marriage, but he knew he was just being dutiful.

Sean Cassidy, this Sean Cassidy, existed on a different plane than Margaret. She was practically of a different species, let alone gender. He had a daughter who was older than Ms. Cassidy appeared, but she exuded the self-possession and self-assurance of a mythological queen. The unnatural shade of hair and eye granted her an exotic appeal. She was glamorous, elegant, undomesticated, sensual and erotic and unambiguously feminine with just the vaguest shadow of a masculine edge if you knew to look for it. And she was potentially very dangerous, quite aside from her mastery over gravity.

Dabney's breath caught when she arched a brow at him, full, raspberry lips quirking, as if she could she see the thoughts running through his head. She leaned over and slipped the folder with her new documents into her purse, then folded her hands in her lap.

"Thank you, Mister Franks, everything seems to be in order. And I have no problem with registering with the Government. However!" While Dabney doubted Sean could make her smooth, mellifluous soprano anything but sultry, she managed to add a subtle tone of warning frost. "There is a reason why I haven't joined the military or other public service. That hasn't changed. If my Country wants something of me, they can ask, and I will decide if and how I'll help. Do you remember the brain drain of the 90s, Mister Franks, when our doctors and engineers went South as soon as they graduated?"

Dabney nodded. It had been an issue. It wasn't nearly as severe now, and it was shown that such professionals often moved back from the US after several years.

"The same will happen, I think, if Canada tries to compel or demand service from its Enhanced Persons, rather than ask, encourage, and offer incentives for such service." Sean folded her arms and Dabney couldn't help but notice how it emphasized her magnificent bust within the ribbed-knit, champagne-coloured cashmere sweater. The way Sean had intended.

"Just because now I'm a hypersexualized woman able to manipulate one of the fundamental forces of the universe, that doesn't make me an object. A resource, whatever the country decrees. I may be an asset, but first and foremost, I'm a person, and whatever other changes in my life, that isn't one of them."

Sean held her gaze on Franks until he glanced away. He wasn't sure if her lavender eyes were actually glowing or if it had been a trick of the light, but either way, they were disconcerting. Very dangerous, indeed. Sean nodded in satisfaction and relaxed her posture, lounging indolently in the office chair, one high-heeled black suede ankle boot bouncing lightly, voice sweet and rich as honey.

"Now, if there is a service I can do for my Country, please voice it and I'll see what I can do. As for my actions down south, what exactly has you all concerned? Through my manager, I - we - have an arrangement with Chicago, to aid the city upon request and proactively. And I just spoke with an agent of the American  Enhanced Persons Interaction Contingency the other day. Other than a polite warning of what my Country may require of me - and what that might mean for me and my status in the US - they have been very accommodating and pleased to have me. And I have been quite taken with starting my life anew in Chicago. I would be rather displeased if something or someone started impeding it."

Edited April 9, 2022 by Asarasa

[Nina]

Sean felt a presence outside the door to the office they were in, one glance at Franks convinced her that he was oblivious to the presence about to enter the room. She stood and faced the door as it opened and found herself facing a tall thin man probably older than Franks or not it was hard to tell with Stormers.

 

It was difficult to place him from his features, they were rugged with a wide nose and narrow eyes, his skin was at the dark end of Caucasian, swarthy but smooth and unblemished. He was clean shaven, with a strong chin and a high forehead. his full head of hair was white and neatly styled.  He wore along overcoat and an expensive suit underneath. He dressed like a government agent but he didn't look like one.

 

"That will be all Franks. Let us have the office please." His voice was strong, midrange and his accent was pronounced and probably from Newfoundland. He stood aside as Franks departed and closed the door as the other man exited.

 

After the door closed he turned back and held up a hand to forstall Sean. He approached the desk took a small rounded cone shaped objetct out of his coat and set it onthe desk and depressed it. It began to emit a low hum. "There. Now there be no recordins nor listnin in. Cassidy, I'm called Garrick, and we need you."

 

 

 

 

[Asarasa]

"Cone of Silence," Sean murmured, lush lips curving in amusement. Get Smart was before her time, but she had watched reruns as a kid, on Sundays when she used to visit her grandmother. Garrick flashed a brief, tight smile, acknowledging the reference. With a hand on a flaring hip, posing just so to emphasize her dramatic hourglass figure, her own grin widened, though her lambent lavender eyes were speculative. "You are far from the first man who's claimed he needed me, Garrick."

Garrick wasn't nearly as phased or distracted as Franks by her appearance and presence, though he didn't ignore the sight presented to him. He wasn't really her type. Tall, though still an inch or two shorter than she with her four-inch heeled ankle boots, and slim, if far from frail. She did like his voice, though. He reminded her of a classic Maritime fisherman, the ones that faced the harshest storms without flinching to bring in the haull. A fisherman that had made good and polished himself up, with his clean shaven face and lack of weathered lines that made it hard to guess his age.

Then again, it was even harder to guess her own age. It wasn't uncommon among Stormers and EPs in her experience. Just like the electric quality to Garrick's natural scent that she associated with Stormers, mingling with his very subtle cologne.

 

She glanced at the cone of silence once more, then arched a perfectly shaped brow and looked around the room, looked beyond room, a silent but emphatic inquiry into why Garrick thought he needed extra precautions while in the midst of a supposedly reasonable secure government office.

"I'll admit, I am curious. What would you like to request my help with?"

She was a decent enough architect without a firm, a hypersexualized woman who was once a man, and a mistress of gravitic manipulation. What would a federal agency - a nation - need from her, specifically?

[Nina]

Garrick tilted his head looking her in the eye, "Said we, not me. And if I'm being honest, I'm not so sure yer needed at all. But that's not me call. 

As you were told Canada is assembling their own Super-team, problem is t'aint gettin many a volunteer.  Ya see, seems most of the Canadians who seem to have gotten themselves enhanced are folks who don't have much use for the Canadian Government. That includes you apparently.

 

After all you got a nice life as a celebrity superhero down down there across the lake with a pretty little girlfriend keeping ye warm at night. But again T'ant me call.

 

The ones putting this shindig together think you'd make a good postergirl and could help convince some o' t'others to come aboard.

 

So that's where we are."

[Asarasa]

"I don't entirely disagree," Sean murmured wryly. She folded her arms below her fulsome breasts and shifted her stance, ameliorating her potent, inherent sex appeal, though hardly eliminating it.

 

It wasn't that she was opposed to the idea. Karen had gotten her several endorsement deals and spokesmodel gigs. They'd even been rather fun, for the most part. But she was well aware of the influence she could exert. She dealt with high-end, luxury brands, targeting those that had the disposable , some would say excessive, income to afford what she promoted. What galled her was that the first thing her country asked of her was to be a pin-up recruiter for the enhanced.

"Please, Garrick, don't try to sell me on patriotism and duty," Sean said drily. Her lambent lavender eyes narrowed slightly. "Just because I moved south of the border doesn't mean I care for my Country any less. And my parents both worked for the government. Most of my friends here do, too. It wasn't for duty or love of country. It's just a job. Pay's okay, strong union, pretty good benefits. But just a job, all the same."

She pursed her full lips and tossed her head, long, gleaming rose-gold hair flowing around her. "The problem I think you're having is you want a super team like several other countries are assembling." She held up a first, then extended a finger. "One: Canadian Pride is more low-key than, say, our Southern Neighbors, and many other countries." A second finger followed the first. "Two, the Enhanced, fairly or not, have far more opportunities available to them. What you're offering comes across as limiting them, even if that's not your intent."

She pace in thought for a moment, heels clack-clacking. "Now, I don't mind promoting Canada, some, nothing ostentatious or overblown. And I'm not opposed to encouraging other Canadian Enhanced Persons to offer their time and abilities to Canada's service." She arched an inquiring brow at Garrick. "But may I make a suggestion?"

Garrick gave the exaggeration of a woman a guarded nod.

"Instead of the Northern Avengers, propose something akin to what NovaStorm is doing. Let the Enhanced sign on as, let's say, consultants or contractors, instead of dedicated team. The ones who are interested can make known their capabilities and the type of endeavors they are interested in, and then government can call on them as agreed and needed. This would let the Enhanced pursue whatever other paths they wish, while still contributing to the benefit of the nation. I believe you'd have more of them willing with terms like that. And with such, I'd be far more willing to promote them. What do you, say, Garrick?"

Her smile briefly flashed teeth that shamed the finest pearls.