[Open] Rebuilding the Labs

[trustycrowbar]

Date & Time: October 2nd
Location: Lower Labs, upper tunnels.
Characters: Gordon, anyone who volunteered here and anyone else who wants to join
Summary: Mastering futuristic building techniques to give the lab a floor and the catacombs a ceiling again.
Warnings: Wear your hardhat.

There's a steady buzz of activity in the echoing chambers several floors below the Hold. The cave-in left a large hole in the floor of the lowest levels of the Labs and a large pile of rubble, metal, crushed computer parts and office equipment. Up above the echoed voices of scientists can be heard barking orders like "Nono, it has to be LEVEL!" And "Be careful over there!" like labcoated terriers, and receiving just about as much heed.

Volunteers can clean rubble and scavenge check out the ruined equipment, others might set stays and metal bars to form metal framework overhead, and others are handed these odd tubes that look like ordinary caulking tubes, but instead spray a huge cloud of foam that quickly turns into something light and harder than any rock. Careful not to get any on you. Still others may be set on refreshment duty or gofers, if there are enough people.

Gordon, for the record, is down in the rubble pile, suited up and lifting slabs of old stone and concrete the size of small cars. Not on his own, but lifting them with... some kind of weird gun-thing? What the hell is that?

Comments

[trustycrowbar]

[He pushes himself up against the force between them, enough for conversational distance. He's still lying there and staring down at her, face centimeters from her visor, however.] This, uh... particular Oh No? [He coughs awkwardly.] This means that we may have gotten the lamellar layer of my suit charged with graviton energy when I and the gravity gun collided with you.

[Wait, that can happen?]

That can happen. And since yours is anti-grav charged, well, I don't think I have to explain the rest.

[raisedbybirds]

[She opens her mouth, then closes it. Then finally opens it again.]

So we just turned our suits into two magnets until the charge dissipates.

Or we figure out a way to reverse the charge.

[She's optimistically and stubbornly thinking MAYBE SHE'S STRONG ENOUGH TO RIP THE BOTH OF THEM APART until one or the other happens. So she's trying to stand, unannounced of course.

The extra weight on her front side is of course throwing off her equilibrium.]

[trustycrowbar]

[This is not his finest moment. He grunts and twists to the side and finds a reasonably dignified leaning position against her back. He can tell what she's thinking...]

All right, you run that way, and I'll run this way. If the field is a simple inverse-square--and I have no reason to believe it ISN'T--we should be able to stay away from each other if we gain enough distance between us. On three: one, two... three!

[raisedbybirds]

[She similarly squirms and twists, the uncomfortable sound of metal scraping every now and then making her wince. This was VERY AWKWARD but okay good they've finagled themselves into a sturdy, stable position.]

Alright.

[She likes this plan. One, two... three! They're off! The hardest part is of course the first few steps. Her boots scrape gravel and she struggles and, with a lot of effort, manages to put a few inches between them--a few feet--a few yards--hey, it feels like it might be easing up a little...

That might be because all this running causes her speed boosters to kick in, filling her Power Suit with a sudden surge of energy...

...which adds another charge on top of the charge her suit had, duly amplifying it. She feels herself being flung backwards!]

[trustycrowbar]

[Gordon had started at a run himself, and his own suit had similarly boosting his sprint after a few moments--and for a moment he honestly believes he's going to make it!]

--whoaSHIT[...And then he's suddenly jerked back by the same force as Samus and he's yanked backwards several feet, bashing into her with a loud CRAASH and a thud as they settle to the ground in a metallic heap. While his suit chimes an alert about losing some power to the impact, he grunts and rubs his neck from the whiplash and turns to look around Samus' shoulder pauldron.]

...alright, I think it's safe to say that won't work... Are you all right?

[raisedbybirds]

[She groans a little, feeling that one far more than the first bump.]

Yeah. I'm fine.

[A sliver of damage, though she didn't want to incur anymore. Hrrrgh... what to do? Oh, wait...]

...Roll over.

[Which she did regardless of his permission or not, so she was sprawled on top of Gordon, easily dwarfing him. It was a simple fix, really; she'd just take her suit off, it fading away in a sparkly blaze of digital light. There. Problem solved!

And no longer was she dwarfing Gordon at all. Did she suddenly lose a few inches out of the armor or what...? Not to mention the blue skin tight suit left little to the imagination.]

[trustycrowbar]

OOF, hey what the--

[He would have complied, really, if he hadn't been shoved over so quickly. The whole thing happens quite fast in fact; one moment he's pinned under a couple hundred pounds of combat-suited hunter, and the next thing he knows the suit has evaporated away and left this beautiful blue-suited creature in his arms.]

...

Warning: extreme jump in blood pressure detected. Respiratory rate increase by twenty-two perce--BEEP!

[Ahem.] Well. This is... I... uh... Good thinking! Great idea. [His eyes not quite so wide now, he props himself up on one elbow to look around. His other hand rests on her back. Not purposefully of course, or at least not consciously...] What happened to your suit?

[raisedbybirds]

[She raises an eyebrow, thinking he really needs to get his HEV checked out sometime. When he shifts she goes to slide off him, only to be thwarted by his hand. Or at least it thwarts her for just a moment, enough to let the... compromising nature of their current position sink in.]

I took it off.

[Yes that sounded... completely appropriate. She's quick to get back up on her own two feet--grateful for not being a human magnet anymore.]

...conscious dematerialization. I am a magical girl can make it come back later the same way.

[trustycrowbar]

[Of course, the moment she draws any sort of attention to the hand resting at the small of her back it curls away as though she were red-hot. Then he once again follows her lead and climbs to his feet.]

So it seems every part of that suit has an energy component that it can change to at will... I'm impressed, and envious. It takes several minutes for me to get out of this damn thing. [He taps the lambda on his chest with a tight clank. There's usually a lot of squirming, grunting and swearing involved. The image brings to mind some kind of giant, grumpy molting insect with an orange exoskeleton.]

[He leans over and picks up the gravity gun again, checking it over... the better not to stare at her too much.]

Also the charge should dissipate now, or at least have no meaning since your suit is currently part of the proverbial aether. I'm sorry that had to happen in the first place, that was, uh... a little awkward.

[raisedbybirds]

[She runs a hand through her air. It was largely her fault, though she's not entirely apologetic about it. It did satisfy her curiosity, after all.]

That's what I get for fooling around.

[Which brings her attention to the lab. Without her suit she's not at lifting car-sized debris without trouble strength, though she's still able to lift and move far beyond the average human. Still, she feels her place might now be better suited to the floor above. She has both her hands now, after all; far more efficient at soldering wires and delicate equipment.]

What else needs repair?

[trustycrowbar]

[Hey, it WAS fun experiment for a while... He whaps the gravity gun a few times and his eyes follow hers up through the hole.]

Up there? The shorter list is what doesn't. Doors, mainframes, interferometry equipment, laser arrays, spectroscopy frames, security sensors, containment fields, probably half the cages in bio...

[Whap, thud. Zzzt. Sputter.]

Dammit... and I guess you can count this thing in that list too. [He gives up and slings it over his chest on the leather strap.]

[raisedbybirds]

[She quirks a smirk as he lists off the potential problems. Especially that shiny toy now on his back.]

Hardware was always my favorite. [Though the smirk fades as she registers something he said.]

Wait... bio...?

[Her eyes narrow, bordering quick suspicion and disapproval.]

You have live specimens here? Of what?

[trustycrowbar]

[surprise and honest approval of her playing with electronics, fizzles into a confused stare when the topic swings.]

So I'd heard! I'm not part of the bio team, never was. I imagine it'd be examples of more irradiated wildlife, like the cockroaches we fried earlier.

[...]

And... whatever they are they likely have the run of the rest of the labs now. Shit. [He sets out a disgruntled growling sigh and runs a hand down his face, upsetting his glasses for a second it's a remarkably immature gesture, like he were a teenager that had just been reminded to take out all the garbage ever.] ...alright, taking care of that'll be my next trick before I get this thing working again.

[raisedbybirds]

[Or you could leave it with me. She'd almost said it aloud. To be frank, blowing up over-sized vermin excited her about as much as the prospect of tinkering with a gravity gun she'd never seen before.

Priorities, though. Samus knew them all too well.

She flexed her hand, orange armor fading around her arm in a shimmer of light--testing just enough of it to see if the charge didn't linger, as Gordon suggested.]

No... projects, no bioweaponry or anything like that, as far as you know?

[trustycrowbar]

None to my knowledge. [Two things stand out. One: her suit is working fine and that's good. Two: bio projects are a sticky subject with her for some reason.]

...You want to go up there, don't you?

[raisedbybirds]

[She's sparkle-shining that suit back on now.]

Better safe that sorry.

[trustycrowbar]

[On the one hand he's sad to see her but that armor on again. On the other, the sparkle effect DOES look really damn cool. He nods, Slinging the gun over his shoulder again.]

Alright. Thanks. I'll head up as far as the lower levels. Your suit have a communicator? I can send you the frequency for mine. Just call it if anything happens and you need some support.

[raisedbybirds]

[She taps the side of her helmet with a tink tink.]

Built in. I promise I won't make too much of a mess.

[No she doesn't.]