Canned Sunshine (a Going Nuclear spinoff/remake)
- Thread starter YuffieK
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YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
I've tweaked the Author's Notes a bit as I thought about the next chapter. I think it's a reasonable sequence of events.
Huh she and Becky have even more in common than I thought. That means they will either become besties, or (potentially brief yet) bitter (fr)enemies.
Heads will roll for this, the little bundle of sunshine already broke Simmy and a city, of course she could brute force her way out of a hole in the ground.
Heads will roll for this, the little bundle of sunshine already broke Simmy and a city, of course she could brute force her way out of a hole in the ground.
Tisaku
Head Chief Thinkomancer
Simurgh
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
L: At least there wasn't anyone around to get radiation poisoning when Taylor nuked the door open?
T + Five Years Later
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
Next chapter is coming along well I think, but I had this bit of whimsy I needed to put down that might eventually become canon. Thank You All for your support and enjoy!
"Dragon, I'm almost there. Any problems with my signal?"
*Copy Taylor, I'm reading you five by five. How's everything look on your end?*
Taylor turned her head as she searched "It's a little weird. There's not exactly a lot of landmarks around but... Ah, there it is. Heading over now."
A minute later short pulses of high velocity alpha particles were kicking up a bit of dust before Taylor's bare feet settled on the ground. She'd landed a couple hundred meters away from the site, not wanting to disturb anything accidentally.
*I copy you down, Taylor. Is the view worth it?*
"It is. Buzz was right, it's beautiful. Magnificent desolation. Tranquility Base here, the Owl has landed."
Taylor couldn't help but giggle a bit as she carefully bounded to the Eagle's descent stage, her toes leaving impossible footprints in the regolith.
"The flag's fallen over, it's been bleached out. Should I fix it?"
*That was expected. We don't need to worry about that this second.*
"Okay." Taylor pulled a gilded plaque from her backpack and set it next to the one Apollo 11 had left there 45 years prior.
"Did you know my mom wanted to be an astronaut, Dragon?"
*I think that was fairly common for children of her generation.*
"I know. You'd think with Scion and Parahumans starting to pop up back then, Space wasn't important anymore. She was watching the Challenger launch in school. That, combined with the PRT starting up, pretty much mothballed NASA. Sphere tried to get everything moving again and, well... But we've got a chance now. Things are getting better."
*That is true. So. Any inspirational words from the first woman on the Moon?*
"Sheila Williams said: 'The human spirit is tremendously resilient. It can withstand the most horrific of circumstances, whether of human or divine creation... It is not these larger-than-life situations that beat us. It's the little things.'
I can tell you that the little things are tricky too. They sneak up on you. They're insidious. They grind away at you like the wind and waves eroding rock to sand.
But sand can become stone again. Soot and ash can forged by fire and pressure into diamonds. Keep looking forward."
"Dragon, I'm almost there. Any problems with my signal?"
*Copy Taylor, I'm reading you five by five. How's everything look on your end?*
Taylor turned her head as she searched "It's a little weird. There's not exactly a lot of landmarks around but... Ah, there it is. Heading over now."
A minute later short pulses of high velocity alpha particles were kicking up a bit of dust before Taylor's bare feet settled on the ground. She'd landed a couple hundred meters away from the site, not wanting to disturb anything accidentally.
*I copy you down, Taylor. Is the view worth it?*
"It is. Buzz was right, it's beautiful. Magnificent desolation. Tranquility Base here, the Owl has landed."
Taylor couldn't help but giggle a bit as she carefully bounded to the Eagle's descent stage, her toes leaving impossible footprints in the regolith.
"The flag's fallen over, it's been bleached out. Should I fix it?"
*That was expected. We don't need to worry about that this second.*
"Okay." Taylor pulled a gilded plaque from her backpack and set it next to the one Apollo 11 had left there 45 years prior.
On July 20th, 2014 A.D. We returned to this place where Humanity took the first tentative steps from our home.
To remember those who have come before, and to honor future explorers yet to come.
To remember those who have come before, and to honor future explorers yet to come.
"Did you know my mom wanted to be an astronaut, Dragon?"
*I think that was fairly common for children of her generation.*
"I know. You'd think with Scion and Parahumans starting to pop up back then, Space wasn't important anymore. She was watching the Challenger launch in school. That, combined with the PRT starting up, pretty much mothballed NASA. Sphere tried to get everything moving again and, well... But we've got a chance now. Things are getting better."
*That is true. So. Any inspirational words from the first woman on the Moon?*
"Sheila Williams said: 'The human spirit is tremendously resilient. It can withstand the most horrific of circumstances, whether of human or divine creation... It is not these larger-than-life situations that beat us. It's the little things.'
I can tell you that the little things are tricky too. They sneak up on you. They're insidious. They grind away at you like the wind and waves eroding rock to sand.
But sand can become stone again. Soot and ash can forged by fire and pressure into diamonds. Keep looking forward."
Chapter 6 T +60:30:00
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
Boston PRT Medical Bay
"Doctor Wells? Doctor Wells, I'm sorry you need to get up."
Ruby blinked the sleep from her eyes and cracked her neck before focusing on the PRT trooper who had woken her. She looked over at the hospital bed where Jessica was still blackout drunk. The monitors weren't showing anything unusual though, which brought a sigh of relief. Blearily she asked: "Sergeant? What time is it? What's happening?"
"A bit past oh-two-thirty hours, Ma'am. An automated alert came in from Station 42 about five minutes ago. The emergency self-destruct triggered."
That woke her up in an instant. "Causalties?"
"Not sure. Lieutenant Richards is looking over the feeds now. He's passed it up the chain to Directors Armstrong, Wilkins and Piggot, but given the hour it might be a while for a response from everybody."
Ruby pulled on her lab coat. "Take me down there." She needed answers. What the Hell had gone on while she was asleep?
T +60:03:00
PRT Remote Station 42, Sub Level 3
Taylor stared closely at the hole in the doorway she'd just blasted, poking at the edges of the hole, then looking down at herself. While she was fine, the sleeve of her sweatshirt was in burnt tatters. Several spots on the front were also smoking from where bits of molten metal had spattered, so she quickly patted them out.
"Okay. I've got explodey fists. Good for me to get out of here, bad if I actually run into anybody. For them maybe. I don't want to hurt anyone, I just want to talk to Doctor Yamada. So where is everyone?"
Dr. Wells looked over the comm logs and was furious. The chopper that had transported Jessica and herself had barely been off the ground before that cowardly weasel-faced shit Forrester had, as ranking officer on-site, ordered all staff to 'temporarily evacuate to the Plattsburg barracks until morning' citing 'lingering potential health hazards in the building'. Miss Hebert had not been informed of any of this, as by the time all the other people were heading out, she was apparently asleep.
When he'd communicated his decision at the time, he'd gone on record as saying: "We're nervous, tired and prone to not thinking straight right now. We can all use six hours of proper rack time, her included. She'll sleep right through the night and not even know we left. Besides, it's not like something's going to hurt her, right?"
Barring the possible security breach about Miss Hebert's existence, the fact he'd just abandoned a highly traumatized young girl like that was gross incompetence of the highest order in her mind.
"Lieutenant." Wells said in an absolutely frigid tone. "The Chief Director needs to be notified of this right away. My discretion." Dr. Wells wasn't in the direct chain of command of the PRT but her security clearance did make her the equivalent of a Deputy Director in this sort of situation. "Then call Plattsburg. Have the ranking officer secure Captain Forrester immediately. If he wants to take a nap so fucking badly he can do it in the M/S Tank."
Station 42 had been built in the now abandoned small town of Chazy, New York as part of the Ellisburg Containment Zone
The 'room' Taylor had been in was originally built for the possible study of Nilbog's creations.
The disastrous raid on Ellisburg had meant that the station had not been used before now, but the various automated safety features built into it were still present. The first of those activated now. The elevator to the holding cell was disabled and armored doors sealed the shaft.
Taylor thought a bit more about how she was going to get the door open. "Explodey Fists aside, I really don't want to end up naked again. Maybe I can tone the boom down a bit?" She looked at hands and concentrated. Bursts of blue light began to flash from her fingertips.
"Well that's neat, but I don't think being a human sparkler is going to help me right now. This must be something like what that guy from New Wave can do."
Taylor racked her memory for a moment then snapped her fingers. A fat blue spark popped in front of her. "Right! Flashbang! But I need something more like Photon Mom's lasers. Or maybe Brandish? She can do lightsabers, right?"
Unbeknownst to Taylor, her inadvertent display of Cherenkov radiation had produced an electromagnetic pulse. This not only disabled the facility's cameras, someone would now have to be physically present to override any system responses.
"Fuck." Dr. wells muttered as she read through the last of the sensor logs. "Contact the Department of Energy. I think I'm going to need a NEST team scrambled."
Taylor placed her hands against the door and pushed without actually trying to force it open. Immediately it began to glow red hot, then a brighter orange as her fingers sank into the metal like it was made of clay. The room was getting quite warm by the time she'd melted a hole large enough to step through. Taylor stepped back, licked her thumb and smiled as she touched her butt. "Tsss. Hot!"
The sudden temperature increase though had finally triggered the Halon fire suppression system.
"Wait... isn't water supposed to be coming out of the sprinklers?" Taylor asked to no one in particular as she stared at the plumes coming from nozzles that had popped out of the ceiling. "Are you idiots trying to GAS me? Screw this!"
With that Taylor slammed her hands on the outer door of the airlock and burned through in seconds, stumbling through into the hallway.
Where she saw the pile of clothes Doctor Yamada had been wearing hours before on the floor.
The lights were still flashing red, alarms still ringing, but for a moment Taylor didn't see or hear them. The buttons on the blouse were torn off. Her notepad and pen dropped haphazardly. Her glasses, shoes... bra and panties even.
Taylor didn't think, she just rushed the elevator doors and SLAMMED into them. Another explosion tore them loose, loud clangs echoing as they bounced off the far side of the shaft and down into the service well. Taylor was flung backward to the other end of the hall. She sat dazed for a moment, her clothes now substantially more tattered.
"Right. Third Law and Sir Isaac Newton is a sonofabitch." Taylor took a moment to think. If someone had abducted Doctor Yamada, it had been as soon as she'd left Taylor, and that had been hours ago. That must have been why nobody had answered her. Someone came in and rounded everyone up. The PRT presumably, because who else knew about this place? There hadn't been any blood, so they probably didn't kill her, but why strip her? Maybe she had a panic button or something? She'd seem psychologists and doctors on TV use something like that when patients got violent.
Speaking of violence... Taylor was feeling a definite need right now for some creative expression thereof.
Taylor stuck her head in the shaft and looked up. No lights, but darkness no longer mattered to her. No access ladder though. Weren't there supposed to be ladders in elevator shafts in case there was a fire? What she did see though...
"Is that a BLAST DOOR? Is this place some kind of Endbringer shelter or something?"
Taylor shrugged and reached into the shaft. She stuck her hand against the concrete and it only took a second to melt a handhold. Swinging fully inside, her other hand and feet quickly made holes of their own in the wall.
"I guess I do get to go rock climbing this summer." Taylor mused as she began moving upwards.
The blast shield was rather thick. Taylor made her hand white hot to carve a hole though the edge of it. She had to push into it to the wrist before her fingertips broke through. Squeezing through the small hole lined with red hot metal had been too much for her clothes though. Finally standing on top of the door she brushed off the soot and slag she'd gotten covered by, then noticed the nozzles in the corners of the shaft just below another bulkhead.
"Sorry, you jerks! Gas still isn't going to work!"
It wasn't gas that sprayed out from them.
When the facility was built, it was wisely decided that there had to be contingencies in place in the event of a breakout. Had Emily Piggot been present during the design phase, with her experience in Ellisburg, the 2nd to last protocol she would've suggested would be fluoroantimonic acid, or in her mind, Xenomorph blood.
Sadly, the builders neither had access to her personal experience on the subject, nor was the budget available to actually implement that, as HF/SbF5 Is prohibitively expensive and difficult to store in quantity over long periods of time.
They decided that simple hydrofluoric acid was more than sufficient.
Taylor lay on her back, looking up at the second bulkhead. Puddles of acid fumed around her as it drained through the hole. She spat in disgust, it tasted terrible.
"That all you got you pieces of shit? I am VERY disappointed!" she shouted in frustration. "I swear to God if this ruins my hair I am going to shove my Glowy Fist of Doom so far up your asses..."
Taylor got up and started climbing again, being careful not to overheat and start melting the walls too much.
The final failsafe in the event of a containment breach was a thermobaric explosive. When detonated, it would fill every part of the complex with a cloud of gas approaching 3000 degrees Celsius, carried forward by a pressure wave strong enough to pulverize reinforced concrete. Anything that could possibly survive that would still be thoroughly buried in the rubble as the ground collapsed.
Getting caught in it would be like being inside the barrel when a naval artillery shell was fired.
Which is why, as Taylor was looking up at the top of the elevator shaft, halfway through the second blast door, she was very suddenly accelerated into a high ballistic arc at approximately 900 meters per second.
T +65:00:00
Doctor Wells looked aghast at the shallow sinkhole that was once Station 42. Somewhere buried under hundreds of tons of rock, lay Taylor Hebert.
Alone.
"Doctor Wells? Doctor Wells, I'm sorry you need to get up."
Ruby blinked the sleep from her eyes and cracked her neck before focusing on the PRT trooper who had woken her. She looked over at the hospital bed where Jessica was still blackout drunk. The monitors weren't showing anything unusual though, which brought a sigh of relief. Blearily she asked: "Sergeant? What time is it? What's happening?"
"A bit past oh-two-thirty hours, Ma'am. An automated alert came in from Station 42 about five minutes ago. The emergency self-destruct triggered."
That woke her up in an instant. "Causalties?"
"Not sure. Lieutenant Richards is looking over the feeds now. He's passed it up the chain to Directors Armstrong, Wilkins and Piggot, but given the hour it might be a while for a response from everybody."
Ruby pulled on her lab coat. "Take me down there." She needed answers. What the Hell had gone on while she was asleep?
T +60:03:00
PRT Remote Station 42, Sub Level 3
Taylor stared closely at the hole in the doorway she'd just blasted, poking at the edges of the hole, then looking down at herself. While she was fine, the sleeve of her sweatshirt was in burnt tatters. Several spots on the front were also smoking from where bits of molten metal had spattered, so she quickly patted them out.
"Okay. I've got explodey fists. Good for me to get out of here, bad if I actually run into anybody. For them maybe. I don't want to hurt anyone, I just want to talk to Doctor Yamada. So where is everyone?"
Dr. Wells looked over the comm logs and was furious. The chopper that had transported Jessica and herself had barely been off the ground before that cowardly weasel-faced shit Forrester had, as ranking officer on-site, ordered all staff to 'temporarily evacuate to the Plattsburg barracks until morning' citing 'lingering potential health hazards in the building'. Miss Hebert had not been informed of any of this, as by the time all the other people were heading out, she was apparently asleep.
When he'd communicated his decision at the time, he'd gone on record as saying: "We're nervous, tired and prone to not thinking straight right now. We can all use six hours of proper rack time, her included. She'll sleep right through the night and not even know we left. Besides, it's not like something's going to hurt her, right?"
Barring the possible security breach about Miss Hebert's existence, the fact he'd just abandoned a highly traumatized young girl like that was gross incompetence of the highest order in her mind.
"Lieutenant." Wells said in an absolutely frigid tone. "The Chief Director needs to be notified of this right away. My discretion." Dr. Wells wasn't in the direct chain of command of the PRT but her security clearance did make her the equivalent of a Deputy Director in this sort of situation. "Then call Plattsburg. Have the ranking officer secure Captain Forrester immediately. If he wants to take a nap so fucking badly he can do it in the M/S Tank."
Station 42 had been built in the now abandoned small town of Chazy, New York as part of the Ellisburg Containment Zone
The 'room' Taylor had been in was originally built for the possible study of Nilbog's creations.
The disastrous raid on Ellisburg had meant that the station had not been used before now, but the various automated safety features built into it were still present. The first of those activated now. The elevator to the holding cell was disabled and armored doors sealed the shaft.
Taylor thought a bit more about how she was going to get the door open. "Explodey Fists aside, I really don't want to end up naked again. Maybe I can tone the boom down a bit?" She looked at hands and concentrated. Bursts of blue light began to flash from her fingertips.
"Well that's neat, but I don't think being a human sparkler is going to help me right now. This must be something like what that guy from New Wave can do."
Taylor racked her memory for a moment then snapped her fingers. A fat blue spark popped in front of her. "Right! Flashbang! But I need something more like Photon Mom's lasers. Or maybe Brandish? She can do lightsabers, right?"
Unbeknownst to Taylor, her inadvertent display of Cherenkov radiation had produced an electromagnetic pulse. This not only disabled the facility's cameras, someone would now have to be physically present to override any system responses.
"Fuck." Dr. wells muttered as she read through the last of the sensor logs. "Contact the Department of Energy. I think I'm going to need a NEST team scrambled."
Taylor placed her hands against the door and pushed without actually trying to force it open. Immediately it began to glow red hot, then a brighter orange as her fingers sank into the metal like it was made of clay. The room was getting quite warm by the time she'd melted a hole large enough to step through. Taylor stepped back, licked her thumb and smiled as she touched her butt. "Tsss. Hot!"
The sudden temperature increase though had finally triggered the Halon fire suppression system.
"Wait... isn't water supposed to be coming out of the sprinklers?" Taylor asked to no one in particular as she stared at the plumes coming from nozzles that had popped out of the ceiling. "Are you idiots trying to GAS me? Screw this!"
With that Taylor slammed her hands on the outer door of the airlock and burned through in seconds, stumbling through into the hallway.
Where she saw the pile of clothes Doctor Yamada had been wearing hours before on the floor.
The lights were still flashing red, alarms still ringing, but for a moment Taylor didn't see or hear them. The buttons on the blouse were torn off. Her notepad and pen dropped haphazardly. Her glasses, shoes... bra and panties even.
Taylor didn't think, she just rushed the elevator doors and SLAMMED into them. Another explosion tore them loose, loud clangs echoing as they bounced off the far side of the shaft and down into the service well. Taylor was flung backward to the other end of the hall. She sat dazed for a moment, her clothes now substantially more tattered.
"Right. Third Law and Sir Isaac Newton is a sonofabitch." Taylor took a moment to think. If someone had abducted Doctor Yamada, it had been as soon as she'd left Taylor, and that had been hours ago. That must have been why nobody had answered her. Someone came in and rounded everyone up. The PRT presumably, because who else knew about this place? There hadn't been any blood, so they probably didn't kill her, but why strip her? Maybe she had a panic button or something? She'd seem psychologists and doctors on TV use something like that when patients got violent.
Speaking of violence... Taylor was feeling a definite need right now for some creative expression thereof.
Taylor stuck her head in the shaft and looked up. No lights, but darkness no longer mattered to her. No access ladder though. Weren't there supposed to be ladders in elevator shafts in case there was a fire? What she did see though...
"Is that a BLAST DOOR? Is this place some kind of Endbringer shelter or something?"
Taylor shrugged and reached into the shaft. She stuck her hand against the concrete and it only took a second to melt a handhold. Swinging fully inside, her other hand and feet quickly made holes of their own in the wall.
"I guess I do get to go rock climbing this summer." Taylor mused as she began moving upwards.
The blast shield was rather thick. Taylor made her hand white hot to carve a hole though the edge of it. She had to push into it to the wrist before her fingertips broke through. Squeezing through the small hole lined with red hot metal had been too much for her clothes though. Finally standing on top of the door she brushed off the soot and slag she'd gotten covered by, then noticed the nozzles in the corners of the shaft just below another bulkhead.
"Sorry, you jerks! Gas still isn't going to work!"
It wasn't gas that sprayed out from them.
When the facility was built, it was wisely decided that there had to be contingencies in place in the event of a breakout. Had Emily Piggot been present during the design phase, with her experience in Ellisburg, the 2nd to last protocol she would've suggested would be fluoroantimonic acid, or in her mind, Xenomorph blood.
Sadly, the builders neither had access to her personal experience on the subject, nor was the budget available to actually implement that, as HF/SbF5 Is prohibitively expensive and difficult to store in quantity over long periods of time.
They decided that simple hydrofluoric acid was more than sufficient.
Taylor lay on her back, looking up at the second bulkhead. Puddles of acid fumed around her as it drained through the hole. She spat in disgust, it tasted terrible.
"That all you got you pieces of shit? I am VERY disappointed!" she shouted in frustration. "I swear to God if this ruins my hair I am going to shove my Glowy Fist of Doom so far up your asses..."
Taylor got up and started climbing again, being careful not to overheat and start melting the walls too much.
The final failsafe in the event of a containment breach was a thermobaric explosive. When detonated, it would fill every part of the complex with a cloud of gas approaching 3000 degrees Celsius, carried forward by a pressure wave strong enough to pulverize reinforced concrete. Anything that could possibly survive that would still be thoroughly buried in the rubble as the ground collapsed.
Getting caught in it would be like being inside the barrel when a naval artillery shell was fired.
Which is why, as Taylor was looking up at the top of the elevator shaft, halfway through the second blast door, she was very suddenly accelerated into a high ballistic arc at approximately 900 meters per second.
T +65:00:00
Doctor Wells looked aghast at the shallow sinkhole that was once Station 42. Somewhere buried under hundreds of tons of rock, lay Taylor Hebert.
Alone.
Yay! Taylor is out and about! Naked as a jaybird but she has other more pressing concerns at the moment.
Enosburg Ellisburg, Vermont is about 30 miles due east of Chazy, NY, on the other side of Lake Champlain.
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YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
Taylor's quite tall and slender for her age. She's just turned 14 and is 5'5 and 110 lbs (165 cm/50kg) She's not going to fly nearly as far as a shell from an Iowa's main gun because that wasn't a barrel she just flew out of and she's neither dense nor particularly aerodynamic.
If by "slow down", you mean she'll only hit the ground at terminal velocity (100 mph or 45 meters/sec), then yes.
Maaaaaaybe.
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Tisaku
Head Chief Thinkomancer
-HF is a relatively weak acid, although toxic as hell. Sulfuric is one of the strongest acids, although hot piranha is incredible at removing anything organic. Mix of sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide. It's self heating when mixed.-
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
Taylor's not made of nitroglycerin. She won't even leave cracks in the ground unless she lands on something soft enough to make an impression.
It's the toxicity they wanted. Piranha compound could be made in situ coming out of the sprayers, but the 30% peroxide solution they'd need for it isn't 'shelf stable' enough.
They would've used VX, except they already know nerve gas has only a 50-50 chance of working on Nilbog's shit.
KX-19 was not available.
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That Officer is so going to be court marshaled. And he is going to be a Legend in WHAT NOT TO DO!
I'm loving the comedy of errors, and I can't wait to see what Taylor has to deal with next!
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
P: If I had to guess? Taylor ends up landing inside the Ellisburg Quarantine Perimeter, and goes on a riptear.
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
Captain Forrester's fate is going to be incidentally referenced in a couple of chapters.
Ashley Stillons is NOT someone Taylor wants to run into now. Or ever, since Damsel of Distress is an Annihilator cape with severe power control issues. Taylor might be able to walk into Ash Beast's zone of influence just fine, but dimensional disintegration effects are bad. (Sleeper too, Maybe even Sophia.
)As for Purity, not right now. Taylor doesn't have enough fine control yet to emulate near-sunlight for Kayden to charge off of.
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Chapter 7 T +60:23:14
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
Climbing rapidly on a southeasterly trajectory
There were a few thoughts that were running through Taylor Hebert's mind at the moment.
First: She was damn sure she hadn't used her Explodey Fists or Feet or anything like that to lead to her current situation.
Second: Based on the wind whipping past her she was going very, VERY fast.
Third: Being shot through the top of the elevator shaft had caused her to tumble wildly. She had no idea which way she was going except UP.
Fourth: She instinctively knew she'd survive whatever happened over the next few minutes. Nothing else had done anything to her thus far.
Fifth: She hoped she didn't accidentally take down a plane. That would be her luck wouldn't it? Literally human cannonballing a 747.
Knowing she couldn't do much about any of these things, Taylor grabbed her knees, tucked her head down, closed her eyes and started mentally reciting the names of beings of power. Invoking the names of Jesus, Allah, Buddha, Zeus, Asmodeus, Kyne, Aslan, Mairon, Q, Godzilla (it's in the name!) and a whole fucking pantheon of others in the desperate hope that one of them might be listening and decide to take pity on her because the last half hour had been NUTS.
After about twenty or so instances of possible heresy, the wind seemed to die down a bit as it had been whipping hard at her hair. Her initial chaotic tumble was now a slow spin.
Using her Notsight she focused on her attention on the Sun and tried to orient herself. Apparently she was now going ass first, her long raven locks working like the feathers on a badminton shuttlecock. Taylor started to uncurl, putting her arms out to slow her rotation further. After a few awkward flips she'd managed to get herself into the position of moving head first and spread eagled.
She then opened her eyes, looked around and...
"Oh... WOW." she whispered.
It had come out as a whisper because the air at this altitude was probably too thin to breathe. Also, HOLY SHIT the view was amazing. Near total silence. More stars than she'd ever seen, their light pure and steady. Above her, the sky was darker than pitch. Below, there were lighter gray clouds extending off into the distance, like a layer of fresh snow on the ground in the dead of night. Past the edge of those, she could see a large cluster of city lights defining a shoreline on the visibly curved horizon... Was that BOSTON?
HOW HIGH WAS SHE?
The sheer absurdity was too much. A heaving started in her chest which came out as peals of soundless laughter for which she had no breath to give voice to. She reveled in the sudden boundless freedom from the shackles of gravity, the pure joy of flight just too much to her to contain.
After a minute of this blessed wonder, she finally noticed the clouds seemed closer, the glow from Boston had dipped below the skyline and the wind began to whistle past her head. Taylor tried to use her explosions to actually fly but a couple of attempts only caused her hands to glow and created more blue sparks, Taylor then realized she didn't have anything to explode off of.
Rectifying that unfortunate quirk of physics was now something Taylor felt determined to do. Powers were bullshit and Falling With Style was no longer an acceptable option after this experience.
The clouds now covered her entire view of the ground, small lumps and gaps becoming visible to her. Taylor couldn't really see anything underneath, but kept herself in the skydiving position she'd been in. Despite what Wile E. Coyote might have dealt with, face planting into the ground at terminal velocity usually just killed normal people and she was far from normal. You didn't make a silhouette crater on impact.
"Better cover my face though. Don't want to be spitting out gravel... or piano keys." Taylor mumbled as she reached the top of the fog, taking a deep breath, closing her mouth, putting one hand over her eyes and pinching her nose shut with the other, while otherwise trying to go limp.
<SPLASH>
The impact drove the breath from Taylor's lungs and she reflexively inhaled, filling them with water and removing any buoyancy she might have had. She quickly sank to the bottom of the lake and settled into the mud. The water seemed fairly deep and the silt came up to her knees.
Now though, she had something to launch from. Facing her trusty sunbeam, she knelt down until her butt touched the ground, gathered her internal fire in her heels and blasted off. She erupted from the inky water. clearing the surface by a good 10 meters before she splashed down again. She'd seen land a short distance away during her mighty leap and two more bursts had gotten her close enough to crawl onto shore.
Taylor heaved on all fours, vomiting lake water out, She inhaled deeply then coughed as more liquid drained down out of her sinuses. Taylor then spread her internal heat through her chest, boiling out the last of the fluid in her lungs.
"Congratulations Taylor, you just skydived naked from... well... higher than an airplane anyway." Setting the dark humor aside, she got up and looked around, noting lights from some buildings on the far side of the lake.
"And there's something over there. But... I think that can wait until morning. Rght now... I just wanna find someplace to collapse. She walked up the rocky shore and noticed a trail, following it to a pair of open lean-tos with a couple of bench tables in front.
"Stony Point Campground, Knight's Island State Park, Vermont" Taylor read off the placard inside. There was also a simple map of the island, showing a trail leading around to other campsites and a boat dock at the little island's northern tip.
No one was staying here right now, which was a good thing, seeing as Taylor probably looked like a drowned kitten. But, maybe someone else was on the island. There wasn't anything to cover up with though, so she huddled up into the corner of the building, facing out to watch the sunrise.
And finally... FINALLY, after nearly three days of Hell, began to tremble with all the pent up emotion she had.
To quietly weep tears that refused to fall.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
There were a few thoughts that were running through Taylor Hebert's mind at the moment.
First: She was damn sure she hadn't used her Explodey Fists or Feet or anything like that to lead to her current situation.
Second: Based on the wind whipping past her she was going very, VERY fast.
Third: Being shot through the top of the elevator shaft had caused her to tumble wildly. She had no idea which way she was going except UP.
Fourth: She instinctively knew she'd survive whatever happened over the next few minutes. Nothing else had done anything to her thus far.
Fifth: She hoped she didn't accidentally take down a plane. That would be her luck wouldn't it? Literally human cannonballing a 747.
Knowing she couldn't do much about any of these things, Taylor grabbed her knees, tucked her head down, closed her eyes and started mentally reciting the names of beings of power. Invoking the names of Jesus, Allah, Buddha, Zeus, Asmodeus, Kyne, Aslan, Mairon, Q, Godzilla (it's in the name!) and a whole fucking pantheon of others in the desperate hope that one of them might be listening and decide to take pity on her because the last half hour had been NUTS.
After about twenty or so instances of possible heresy, the wind seemed to die down a bit as it had been whipping hard at her hair. Her initial chaotic tumble was now a slow spin.
Using her Notsight she focused on her attention on the Sun and tried to orient herself. Apparently she was now going ass first, her long raven locks working like the feathers on a badminton shuttlecock. Taylor started to uncurl, putting her arms out to slow her rotation further. After a few awkward flips she'd managed to get herself into the position of moving head first and spread eagled.
She then opened her eyes, looked around and...
"Oh... WOW." she whispered.
It had come out as a whisper because the air at this altitude was probably too thin to breathe. Also, HOLY SHIT the view was amazing. Near total silence. More stars than she'd ever seen, their light pure and steady. Above her, the sky was darker than pitch. Below, there were lighter gray clouds extending off into the distance, like a layer of fresh snow on the ground in the dead of night. Past the edge of those, she could see a large cluster of city lights defining a shoreline on the visibly curved horizon... Was that BOSTON?
HOW HIGH WAS SHE?
The sheer absurdity was too much. A heaving started in her chest which came out as peals of soundless laughter for which she had no breath to give voice to. She reveled in the sudden boundless freedom from the shackles of gravity, the pure joy of flight just too much to her to contain.
After a minute of this blessed wonder, she finally noticed the clouds seemed closer, the glow from Boston had dipped below the skyline and the wind began to whistle past her head. Taylor tried to use her explosions to actually fly but a couple of attempts only caused her hands to glow and created more blue sparks, Taylor then realized she didn't have anything to explode off of.
Rectifying that unfortunate quirk of physics was now something Taylor felt determined to do. Powers were bullshit and Falling With Style was no longer an acceptable option after this experience.
The clouds now covered her entire view of the ground, small lumps and gaps becoming visible to her. Taylor couldn't really see anything underneath, but kept herself in the skydiving position she'd been in. Despite what Wile E. Coyote might have dealt with, face planting into the ground at terminal velocity usually just killed normal people and she was far from normal. You didn't make a silhouette crater on impact.
"Better cover my face though. Don't want to be spitting out gravel... or piano keys." Taylor mumbled as she reached the top of the fog, taking a deep breath, closing her mouth, putting one hand over her eyes and pinching her nose shut with the other, while otherwise trying to go limp.
<SPLASH>
The impact drove the breath from Taylor's lungs and she reflexively inhaled, filling them with water and removing any buoyancy she might have had. She quickly sank to the bottom of the lake and settled into the mud. The water seemed fairly deep and the silt came up to her knees.
Now though, she had something to launch from. Facing her trusty sunbeam, she knelt down until her butt touched the ground, gathered her internal fire in her heels and blasted off. She erupted from the inky water. clearing the surface by a good 10 meters before she splashed down again. She'd seen land a short distance away during her mighty leap and two more bursts had gotten her close enough to crawl onto shore.
Taylor heaved on all fours, vomiting lake water out, She inhaled deeply then coughed as more liquid drained down out of her sinuses. Taylor then spread her internal heat through her chest, boiling out the last of the fluid in her lungs.
"Congratulations Taylor, you just skydived naked from... well... higher than an airplane anyway." Setting the dark humor aside, she got up and looked around, noting lights from some buildings on the far side of the lake.
"And there's something over there. But... I think that can wait until morning. Rght now... I just wanna find someplace to collapse. She walked up the rocky shore and noticed a trail, following it to a pair of open lean-tos with a couple of bench tables in front.
"Stony Point Campground, Knight's Island State Park, Vermont" Taylor read off the placard inside. There was also a simple map of the island, showing a trail leading around to other campsites and a boat dock at the little island's northern tip.
No one was staying here right now, which was a good thing, seeing as Taylor probably looked like a drowned kitten. But, maybe someone else was on the island. There wasn't anything to cover up with though, so she huddled up into the corner of the building, facing out to watch the sunrise.
And finally... FINALLY, after nearly three days of Hell, began to tremble with all the pent up emotion she had.
To quietly weep tears that refused to fall.
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Black raven locks, Nuclear power and funny commentary?
Is this another Utsuho!Taylor?
Either way,this is great!
Is this another Utsuho!Taylor?
Either way,this is great!