shatterverse | (no subject)

"Yep. Belongs to this crazy chick called Lucy. Sometimes she turns into a dragon, but I've never seen her breathe fire or eat anybody, so it's all good. Oh, and she likes fruit."

...

"I'm starting to understand why you called it Bizarro World."

"Yeah, just a bit, eh?"

Adam lapses into a thoughtful silence.

(In part, he's waiting for Orlit to get bored of shouting and shut up.)

Beat.

Two beats.

"There's the farm," she says, nodding up ahead. "With the boat and the big-ass robot."

Adam is staring all over again. Okay, he's seen his fair share of crazy electronics, but when it comes to Shay's fort...

"What is that? Some kind of overgrown example of surrealist art?"

"It's exactly what it looks like. A boat. Buried in the middle of a field. We've got some weird characters around here."

"No kidding."

Adam? Still staring.

"...is that some kind of bomb shelter?" Now his attention has turned to Toph's earth bunker.

"Nope. It's the bunker. People live there. You'll get to see it close up in a minute."

A minute, because Val's wings are tucking in and folding down into the rough shape of an arrowhead, and she's starting them on a nice lazy glide down to Earth.

Well. Nice and lazy by Val's standards. Adam's mileage may vary here.

Hey, the guy has been in Bug fighters. Which isn't to say he particularly likes flying precariously and at speed, but it does at least mean that he's used to it.

Once again, he braces himself grimly against the sides of the glowing cocoon that carries him.

The ride is smooth, you can say that much. Val has an excellent intuitive grasp of aerodynamics.

When they're about fifteen feet above the bare space to one side of the bunker, she flares her wings and kills their horizontal speed, which isn't terribly impressive by that point anyways. The extra surface area serves as a nice parachute while they lose the remaining height.

Then she dissolves the cocoon, lets off her armour, and steps back.

"Ten to one Stevie is working on the robot, if you wanna go tell him about your radiation problem."

Adam shifts from foot to foot a few times, getting his land legs back, and is immensely grateful that he doesn't feel vertigo easily.

"Did he build it?"

If so? That's pretty damn impressive, and likely to be someone he'd trust to build some kind of working Kandrona generator.

"Nah, he's just repairing it."

"That's still impressive."

<This isn't going to work,> Orlit tells him flatly. <You have no blueprints. You have no idea how to build a Kandrona.>

<It'll work,> Adam argues. Sorry, Val; that means he's spacing again, and frowning faintly as he does. <I have some idea, and there'll be two mechanics working on it.>

<What makes you think that the parts will even be available? Will even exist? I didn't see any factories in all that rubble.>

<There are enough resources to repair that robot. There must be a source of them somewhere.>

Val is already on her way towards the back of the bunker. Those clanking sounds promise an 85% certainty of Steve.

The odds are good; the Steve is present!

As Val approaches, he looks up from an exposed shock of tangled wires at the base of one colossal leg and raises a hand (plus blowtorch) briefly in greeting. His face is obscured by a sizeable and very sooty safety mask.

And here comes Adam, jogging over the grass to join Val, and slowing to a walk as he gets closer. He lifts one hand as well, then lowers it again, peering up at the robot with interest.

"Steve, this is Adam. He flashed in today and he has dietary requirements involving radiation. I figured you were the fluffy bastard to ask. How's Dyna coming along?"

Yes, she nicknames robots. Deal.

With a gloved hand, Steve shoves up the mask to reveal a face that's just as covered in soot, and lacking the slightly manic grin that's usually the end product of the equation Steve + technologies.

"She's about a thousand times better than she was," he answers. "Going to be a thousand times better than this before she's up and about, though." He turns his face to Adam. "Hey, there."

"Pleasure to meet you."

Well, it's best to be on good terms with the guy who's going to build your source of sustainance. Even if he does seem a bit of a party pooper.

"Okay," says Val, smiling. "You two talk tech. I'll be back in five minutes with snacks. Heard Luce dragged in a sack of pineapples this morning. Who wants?"

"Sure," says Steve, who didn't have breakfast.

"I'd love some pineapple."

Adam turns to Val and adds: "thank you", with enough significance in his tone to mean the finding and the flight as well as just the fruit.

"No prob."

What she doesn't say, because she doesn't need to, because her eyes do the job for her: Stevie, you bastard, I know that look. You're eating lunch today if I have to make ~~Mister Rebound~~ Neil hold you down while I shove fruit down your throat.

She just offers the pair of them a twinkling grin and vanishes kitchenward.

At the look in his sister's eyes, Steve suddenly finds the grass a terribly interesting thing to examine.

Once she's gone, though, he offers the other man a hand and a smile that's only 91% hollow. "Adam, right? I'm Steve."