Date Night (part 21)
- Location
- Hampden Park
31st March
08:17 GMT -11
"Okay… Now try both hands?"
Beatriz points both palms forward, steady green flames sitting about a centimetre from her skin like someone turned a candle flame through ninety degrees. My temperature monitor constructs register almost no change in the temperature of the surrounding air except where they intersect with my girder construct. That is already starting to give way, so I delete it and replace it with a slightly tougher one.
Hmm.
One hand or two, the flame has roughly the same effect. She's not splitting power, which could have explained the limitation if it were true. She can't burn herself with them; she can wave one hand through a flame floating over the other without taking any injury at all. The flames don't consume oxygen from the surrounding environment and the conditions in the air around them don't seem to affect them at all. Gloves which can fit under the flame will survive it being summoned above them. Thicker ones which touch it don't.
"Okay, stop." She shuts off her flames and closes her fists. "Still not feeling tired?"
She shakes her head. "Have you actually learned anything, or have I wasted my evening?"
"The rune didn't react at all, so it's definitely metahuman. Your brain structure appears to be normal, though there are a few unusual patterns of activity in your cerebellum when you generate your flames-"
"I knew that."
"-suggesting… It's linked to your capacity for proprioception. Hm." I think for a moment. "Have you tried making flames while drunk?"
She nods her head to the side. "Yess?"
"I mean, falling down drunk? It would be interesting to see how it affects your control."
She puts her hands on her hips. "Are you trying to get me drunk?"
"Urgh." I remove my remaining constructs and sit down on the deck of my fortress. "Are you going to keep doing that?"
She frowns for an instant, then looks blank. "Doing what?"
"You've been snapping at me all evening. I got.. the first thing, the Ophidian and I scared a lot of people with those eyes. But we were using them to hunt down the League of Shadows and.. the unaided Human brain can't retain all of that information. And I saw everyone, young and old, beautiful and ugly… I wasn't looking for wank material. And the thing with Guy-."
"No, I was just…" She looks off to the side for a moment, then walks over and sits down next to me. "That time, I was trying to joke about it."
"Oh. Sorry, I-."
"No, I didn't judge it right."
We stare out across the Bering Straits for a moment, admiring the view.
"You really don't remember what you saw?"
"I remember the bits we were actually looking for. The place in the Himalayas where the remaining League officers were hiding out. And.. occasionally, I.. see something or hear something and I suddenly-" I gesture at the side of my forehead with my right hand. "-get a flash of something we saw, but for the most part I really don't."
She glances at me, a playful smile on her lips. "So you really don't know what I look like naked?"
"No, pretty much as soon as you said it I got a flash of you." I shrug. "Sorry."
She goes back to looking out across the ocean. "Oh."
"If it helps, I'm.. pretty much team medic, so I've got detailed scans of both my team mates and the Justice League."
"You know what Wonder Woman looks like naked?"
"And Superman. And Plastic Man. And.. Guy, actually. You ever had a male gynaecologist? Because for me it's pretty much the same thing. It's not.. erotic, necessarily. It's just what they look like under their clothes."
She doesn't say anything for a few moments. Then she nods to herself. "Last time I was drunk, I could make the flames go further but I couldn't control where they were going. Tora had to stop me burning our apartment down."
"Hm. Well, there are exercises you can do to improve your proprioception. I can't promise they'll actually help with your flames, but it's the simplest idea I have at the moment. There are some things we could try with magic, but I'm dumping quite a lot of stuff on my magic guy already."
"You said my power wasn't magic."
"Yes, but that doesn't mean that you can't affect it with magic. We could-."
"Proximity alert."
Oh, right.
Beatriz sits up slightly, suddenly alert. "What does that mean?"
"It means that something's getting clo-." She glares. "Probably the Russians noticing that I've come further south this time. I thought that they might radio first, but I guess that they want to make an impression."
I flick my right forefinger out, creating a glowing, curved-cornered rectangle in the air, marking the location of the incoming power armour suits. The elite model, I note. I create a construct of them just in front of us.
"Are they a problem?"
"No. Unless they're a lot better armed than I think they are they wouldn't be able to pierce the Fortress' force fields. But I'm trying to maintain good relations. You know that evaluation thing Guy said I was doing for the League?"
"Yes?"
"They want a guy because the Chinese have a guy."
"How highly does he rate?"
"Pretty high, actually. His power armour's good even by my standards and it includes some sort of localised machine control." I stand up and walk towards the edge closest to them. "If the summary they gave me was honest. I could forcibly check, but that seems impolitic."
I remove the constructs as they come in, gravity repulsors on their legs stabilising them in the air just over the edge of the rim. There are three, the one at the front possessing a Major's two lines containing a single star. "Orange Lantern. You are moving uncomfortably close to Russian waters."
"I made a deal with your government. I'll be recommending to the Justice League that they consider offering your colleague Dmitri Pushkin a spot. I was told that would be enough that they wouldn't bother me about coming south."
"Ah, that is good! I was worried that we might have to stop you!"
"Yes, that would have been awkward. Do you intend to escort me the whole way?"
"No, the air force can handle that." He begins floating backwards. "Just remember not to go too close to the shoreline. This is still a restricted area."
"I'll be certain to keep that in mind."
08:17 GMT -11
"Okay… Now try both hands?"
Beatriz points both palms forward, steady green flames sitting about a centimetre from her skin like someone turned a candle flame through ninety degrees. My temperature monitor constructs register almost no change in the temperature of the surrounding air except where they intersect with my girder construct. That is already starting to give way, so I delete it and replace it with a slightly tougher one.
Hmm.
One hand or two, the flame has roughly the same effect. She's not splitting power, which could have explained the limitation if it were true. She can't burn herself with them; she can wave one hand through a flame floating over the other without taking any injury at all. The flames don't consume oxygen from the surrounding environment and the conditions in the air around them don't seem to affect them at all. Gloves which can fit under the flame will survive it being summoned above them. Thicker ones which touch it don't.
"Okay, stop." She shuts off her flames and closes her fists. "Still not feeling tired?"
She shakes her head. "Have you actually learned anything, or have I wasted my evening?"
"The rune didn't react at all, so it's definitely metahuman. Your brain structure appears to be normal, though there are a few unusual patterns of activity in your cerebellum when you generate your flames-"
"I knew that."
"-suggesting… It's linked to your capacity for proprioception. Hm." I think for a moment. "Have you tried making flames while drunk?"
She nods her head to the side. "Yess?"
"I mean, falling down drunk? It would be interesting to see how it affects your control."
She puts her hands on her hips. "Are you trying to get me drunk?"
"Urgh." I remove my remaining constructs and sit down on the deck of my fortress. "Are you going to keep doing that?"
She frowns for an instant, then looks blank. "Doing what?"
"You've been snapping at me all evening. I got.. the first thing, the Ophidian and I scared a lot of people with those eyes. But we were using them to hunt down the League of Shadows and.. the unaided Human brain can't retain all of that information. And I saw everyone, young and old, beautiful and ugly… I wasn't looking for wank material. And the thing with Guy-."
"No, I was just…" She looks off to the side for a moment, then walks over and sits down next to me. "That time, I was trying to joke about it."
"Oh. Sorry, I-."
"No, I didn't judge it right."
We stare out across the Bering Straits for a moment, admiring the view.
"You really don't remember what you saw?"
"I remember the bits we were actually looking for. The place in the Himalayas where the remaining League officers were hiding out. And.. occasionally, I.. see something or hear something and I suddenly-" I gesture at the side of my forehead with my right hand. "-get a flash of something we saw, but for the most part I really don't."
She glances at me, a playful smile on her lips. "So you really don't know what I look like naked?"
"No, pretty much as soon as you said it I got a flash of you." I shrug. "Sorry."
She goes back to looking out across the ocean. "Oh."
"If it helps, I'm.. pretty much team medic, so I've got detailed scans of both my team mates and the Justice League."
"You know what Wonder Woman looks like naked?"
"And Superman. And Plastic Man. And.. Guy, actually. You ever had a male gynaecologist? Because for me it's pretty much the same thing. It's not.. erotic, necessarily. It's just what they look like under their clothes."
She doesn't say anything for a few moments. Then she nods to herself. "Last time I was drunk, I could make the flames go further but I couldn't control where they were going. Tora had to stop me burning our apartment down."
"Hm. Well, there are exercises you can do to improve your proprioception. I can't promise they'll actually help with your flames, but it's the simplest idea I have at the moment. There are some things we could try with magic, but I'm dumping quite a lot of stuff on my magic guy already."
"You said my power wasn't magic."
"Yes, but that doesn't mean that you can't affect it with magic. We could-."
"Proximity alert."
Oh, right.
Beatriz sits up slightly, suddenly alert. "What does that mean?"
"It means that something's getting clo-." She glares. "Probably the Russians noticing that I've come further south this time. I thought that they might radio first, but I guess that they want to make an impression."
I flick my right forefinger out, creating a glowing, curved-cornered rectangle in the air, marking the location of the incoming power armour suits. The elite model, I note. I create a construct of them just in front of us.
"Are they a problem?"
"No. Unless they're a lot better armed than I think they are they wouldn't be able to pierce the Fortress' force fields. But I'm trying to maintain good relations. You know that evaluation thing Guy said I was doing for the League?"
"Yes?"
"They want a guy because the Chinese have a guy."
"How highly does he rate?"
"Pretty high, actually. His power armour's good even by my standards and it includes some sort of localised machine control." I stand up and walk towards the edge closest to them. "If the summary they gave me was honest. I could forcibly check, but that seems impolitic."
I remove the constructs as they come in, gravity repulsors on their legs stabilising them in the air just over the edge of the rim. There are three, the one at the front possessing a Major's two lines containing a single star. "Orange Lantern. You are moving uncomfortably close to Russian waters."
"I made a deal with your government. I'll be recommending to the Justice League that they consider offering your colleague Dmitri Pushkin a spot. I was told that would be enough that they wouldn't bother me about coming south."
"Ah, that is good! I was worried that we might have to stop you!"
"Yes, that would have been awkward. Do you intend to escort me the whole way?"
"No, the air force can handle that." He begins floating backwards. "Just remember not to go too close to the shoreline. This is still a restricted area."
"I'll be certain to keep that in mind."
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