1023/Finding Moby

Finding Moby
Date of Scene:	18 June 2017
Location:	Legion Cruiser
Synopsis:	Space-whales!
Cast of Characters:	Timber Wolf, Brainiac 5, Invisible Kid, Magno

---

Timber Wolf has posed:
*TOOO-BWEEET!*

*TOOO-BWEEET!*

The cruiser's alarm klaxons sound while Brin Londo, ever-attentive urban predator, dozes off during monitor duty. He awakens suddenly with a cry, wildly grasping for buttons, switches, and other controls in an effort to quiet the noise.

But what he reads on the monitor displays is, indeed, alarming.

"Calling all available Legionnaires!" Brin shouts into the comm transmitter. "We have a level 4 space emergency incoming!"

Brainiac 5 has posed:
Brainiac 5 was hard at work in the lab. And he most definately was NOT asleep, with his head pillowed on his arms, while an experiment slowly congeals in the background and then reaches up to grab a pipette to stir itself, before quietly settling in to nap. That did not just happen. Well, maybe it did.

Then the klaxons go off and he falls backward off his stool. "WHaaaaa~"

A moment later, he's floating into the bridge area. "What is it, Timber Wolf? What's happening?!"

Invisible Kid has posed:
    What had been a little quiet down time -- mainly fleshing out some notes in his room -- ends with the first loud squawk of the alert and brings Lyle first running, then flying in.
    A last second trajectory change prevents an unfortunate impact with Querl. "What's the emergency?"

Timber Wolf has posed:
Fiddling with a number of dials and touchscreen menu options, Brin's face is half concern, half fury.

"Where--WHERE--is the silence button for this sprocking alarm?!"

*TOOO-BWEEEET!*

"Also," Brin calls between klaxon cycles, "the computer's sensors have picked up a temporal squall. It looks like we're about to see some serious action--because the sensors are also telling me that a number of space-wildlife are caught in the squall's chrono-magnetic waves!"

The Timber Wolf turns and stares seriously at his colleagues. "And if there's one thing we definitely can't afford to let the 21st century face on its own ... it's a pod of angry space-whales."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
"Wait." Querl says, before he moves in to hover over that console. "That can't be right--" He checks the readings, and then looks up, and then makes a face. "What are Space Whales doing in this arm of the Milky Way?" He looks down again, and then back up, and then he says "...If they pass too close to the planet, they could destabilize Earth's magnetic field. Or worse."

He double-checks the readings.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "And what's another temporal disturbance going to do to our equipment?" Lyle asks, glancing at his flight ring. "I only just started getting a handle on the damage we've already got!" He floats over to another console and tries bringing up a trace on the disturbance, and asks of no one in particular, "This is going to be a long night, isn't it?"

Timber Wolf has posed:
"Luckily, there's only four--and only one of them a calf," Brin says, folding his arms across his chest.

"Clearly, what we need to do, is herd them away from the /here/ and the /now/," he continues. "Believe me, I'm figuratively--if not literally--itching to make this happen."

The Zuunian offers a wide grin. "I just figured someone else would have a better idea of how to make that happen without endangering us all. So, Lyle," Brin says with a chuckle, "yes. Unless you want me to take the helm."

Outside, a wormhole ripple is faintly visible, as the space-whales sail through spacetime on a vector that will intersect with these coordinates.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
Brainy sucks in a breath. "And the engines aren't active yet. Okay." He straightens up, and then says, "I'm going out there. I think I can come up with something to steer them away from Earth, but I can't do it from here."

He turns, and begins to levitate out of the bay.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle is halfway to the conn when Brainy makes his remark. "Not even sub-light drive? So what we really are is an LST - a Large Stationary Target." He races after Brainy and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Oh no. Plan first. Then outside. Unless your plan is to go out there and look like lunch, and I have to say that's probably not a good idea, long term."

Magno has posed:
So he's late. But when you're in the middle of a *shower* and the emergency alarm goes off, there's some ... prep-work that needs to be done. Especially when you're of the unpowered sort.

He's still sliding bits of his uniform on as he runs to the scene, "They're headed right for us? Of *course* they're headed right for us..." Ugh. And... Brainy's going out there? Dyrk gives Lyle a *look*, "Well, long-run he might end up with Ultra-powers, so..."

No, still not a good idea. "Is Mon-El anywhere here? He could get out and push..."

Timber Wolf has posed:
Timber Wolf begins to follow the others, but then stops and looks back at the monitor.

"Guys! Guys? Guys--guys?!" he calls out. "Don't leave me hangin' here!"

Brin clenches his fists in front of his face. "There's /finally/ some action and I'm benched! /Jo/ would never have to do this...rickin' frackin'..." he mumbles more quietly and furiously.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
Brainy tilts his head at Invisible Kid, and taps his temple. "What makes you think that I don't have a plan?" He smirks, and slips by, and then says, "Dyrk, I need your expertise. Lyle, I need your hands. Brin, I need you--"

He pauses, and then says, "I need you to stay here because who's going to defend the ship if the space whales get too close? You're the best-equipped to defend our home. I'm trusting you, Timber Wolf!"

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle grins over his shoulder at Brin. "Try not to scratch the paint, we just had it washed!"
    He follows Querl. "Of course you have a plan. You always have a plan. I'd just like to know what it is before I'm in the middle of it for a change..."

Magno has posed:
"Expertise?" Dyrk asks, almost incredulously, even going so far as to point at himself. Eyebrow raising, but... he nods. "Whatever you need." He doesn't know *what for* but if Brainy's got a plan then Brainy's got a plan.

Timber Wolf has posed:
"I hate you and your infallible logic, Brainiac 5," Brin mutters while sneering, barely audible.

Then, he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before shouting in a much more amiable tone, "Yeah, sure! Got it!"

Brin clutches the sides of his chair, tenses his entire body, and then slowly lowers himself into his seat, eyes glancing across the different displays. "Some people play 'cat and mouse'," he says to no one. "I much prefer 'wolf and whale'."

Brin grins to himself in response to his utterly moronic and self-absorbed statement.

Meanwhile, not far away, the ripples of the temporal squall grow stronger and wilder, and the space-whales' shapes slowly become visible, although they're not quite clear yet.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
"If I were in the business of explaining my plans before we started implementing them, we would've been killed by the Fatal Five or smashed by an asteroid years ago, Lyle." Brainy says, "Just do what I say when I say to do it and all will be well."

A moment later, he's dropping out of the emergency escape hatch, into deep space. He calls up his holographic computer and begins taking some scans, before he says, "All right." He turns to the ship, and lashes out with his force-field, opening a tightly-sealed port, revealing an exterior computer display. "All right. Lyle, I need you to start remodulating the energy feed to the ship's scanners in order to generate a magnetic pulse. Dyrk, I need you to use your powers and tell Lyle when the magnetic distortion field generated by the sensors is at one point six-five KiloTeslas. Exactly."

Then he turns, heading for the oncoming storm.

Magno has posed:
Out in space, Transsuit, flight ring... it's still unnerving. Never enough to stand on, or hold onto.

Wait, 'use your powers'?! "Uhm, *Brainy*," Dyrk says. "Did you hit your head? I can't *access* them..."

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "You actually could've told me that inside," Lyle says, smirking, and gets to work. And yes, this is the logical thing for him to do, even if he doesn't quite see Brainy's end-game yet. "How sharp a pulse you want? You want me to get their attention, or you want me to smack them?"

Timber Wolf has posed:
Slowly, as if through a viscous membrane, the quartet of space-whales materializes at this moment in time amid raging waves of radiation caused by the stellar squall.

The whales call out their song, realized as electric and x-ray pulses. The largest two attempt to maneuver skillfully on the temporal storm. The smallest seems entirely out of control--its movement seeming to take it further and further away from the radius of the squall's time-tunnel ... which might cast it adrift forever in the twenty-first century!

The remaining space-whale tries to swim toward it in an effort to get the runt back on track--but it, too, may be pulled out of the current by the inertial riptide and flung toward Earth.

At the monitor, Brin talks into the comm system. "Hey, team, hope you can get that whole pod on target before the squall subsides ... for now, anyway."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
"You still have the ability to sense powerful magnetic fields near you!" Brainy says, over the communicator, "And you still have your Braalian education! No omnicom is as sensitive or as precise as a trained Braalian's innate ability to perceive magnetic fields! Concentrate, Dyrk, trust your senses and your instincts and what you KNOW -- I have faith in you!"

"When Dyrk gives you the signal that you've reached the correct field strength, I want you to fire a broad electromagnetic pulse cirectly into the heart of the temporal storm."

He finds himself facing the onrushing squall, and then he sighs, and says "The things I do to make scientific history." Trivia: Brainiac 5's force-field and holocomputer are a part of him, operated off of the cybernetics that are visible as the shiny crome bits in his face. He dismisses the holo-computer, and plunges forward into that storm, putting all the considerable will of a 12th-level intellect into reaching out with his forc-efield and grabbing the Space Whale calf to pull it out of the riptide. Cosmic energy crackles around him, and he breathes through gritted teeth as dark green blood trickles out of one nostril, "They should've sent a poet--"

Magno has posed:
Dyrk sputters, tries to explain -- even starts, and then he just *closes his mouth* and shuts his eyes and takes a deep, deep breath and exhales sharply. "Fine." Live are at stake. Don't try, just do it. Just *do* it. He's seen the whispers of fields before, flickering in and out of his perception like trying to track a floater in your eyeball. There, no there...

There?

Dyrk *grunts* in frustration, "It's... Lyle, give it *more*, I... it's not enough yet!"

Moving over to where Lyle does his work so he can *really get close and look* "I've almost got it..."

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "Roger that, chief." See, Lyle *can* be all business when he needs to be! "Hey, wait, you didn't say you were going *in* there--!"
    "Let me tighten the focus. I am *not* blasting Brainy in with them," he says. "You hear that, Greenie? You're going to remain stuck as leader, I'll make sure you survive this!" Well, so much for all business.
    Quietly, to Dyrk, he adds, "I'm doing the best I can, the flux is all over the place. If it levels off *at all* let me know. Then I think I can get this."

Timber Wolf has posed:
In his chair on the cruiser, Brin raises an eyebrow slowly.

"Guys," he transmits, "I think the sensors are being affected by the storm. Brainiac's not showing up at all."

Trivia: Brin Londo had that really awesome hairdo way before Wolverine did. Also, he hates monitor duty.

"Testing?" Brin adds, tapping a few buttons. "Testing?"

The space-whales float about Querl, the squall's radiation waves causing all manner of hell to space-time outside the visible spectrum--and some within it, too! The space-whale calf cries out in terror via infrared hues and a bit of radio static. The largest of the whales begins passing out of the twentieth century, although it tries to slow and resist the time-shift, its partner--its mate?--also trying to fight against the current.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
"What's that? --" Brainy's communicator crackles with interference. "...Focus! Stabiity -- *nnngh* -- Stop FIGHTING me, Sprock you--" He puts more power into his field... which exposes him to dangerous amounts of cosmic energy. Now both of his nostrils are bleeding -- with a tremendous effort, he pulls, but if something isn't done, it's not going to be enough.

Magno has posed:
He hates this - chasing down what should come to him like breathing, like *seeing.* Dyrk curses this struggle for the umpteenth time, then chides himself again to *sprocking quit whining and just DO THE THING*

And for a brief, glorious moment, almost all of it comes back. He can see the spinning of the fields, sense the power, gauge the strength. It's a rush.

"NOW! NOW LYLE, DO IT NOW!" before he loses it, before the field shifts again. But of course right after he shouts, the moment is gone and it slips away again.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle's calculations were prepared, and really, he half expected Dyrk's notice to come as a shout. In a very underwhelming way, the keypad goes 'click'... and a very focused, very tuned pulse of magnetic energy gets fired dead center into the disturbance.
    Lyle turns around to watch -- this should be good.

Timber Wolf has posed:
The space-whales nearest the squall's center are sucked in immediately, as if zipped along without any sort of friction or resistance.

The two other whales take more time, as they swirl about in the squall's current like objects going down an ancient drain. The larger of the two calls out in its electromagnetic song and slips into the squall's chrono-path.

The smaller of the two moves more slowly--which is still quite rapid, just slower in comparison to the other whales' movement--and the squall's center flickers for a moment in response to Lyle's pulse-blast.

Through the eye of the squall, the stars in the distance--at some point in the future--seem to shift position, and then back, and then again ... at which point the whale cub slips along into another time and place, separated from its pod.

Then, here and now, everything grows calm and still. Cosmically speaking, at least. Only Querl is left in the space where the temporal storm had just raged.

"Testing?" Brin calls through the comm. "The monitor's /definitely/ busted. I'm not reading the storm at all any more. And Brainy's showing up again."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
Brainy tumbles end over end, in space -- alive, but not moving. An emergency mode of his flight-ring has activated, keeping him from drifting.

Magno has posed:
"Dammit, Dox," Dyrk mutters, moving immediately to fly to Brainy and take hold of him when he'd really rather stomp back into the cruiser and sulk. Looking him over to make absolutely certain he's still breathing and all in one piece, he just... holds him while he makes his way back.

"I think it worked, Brin. Whatever it was we just did."

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle darts along with Dyrk to help with Brainy, who's a lot less mobile than he'd like to see. "He's bleeding - Brin, get Medical ready!" His voice is a bit more panicky than he'd like.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
Brainy's *alive*, but his eyes are wide, unseeing. It's weird. His expression is placid, and his pupils have dilated wide. He has green blood dripping from his nose, though.

Timber Wolf has posed:
"So ... the action's over? The day's saved?"

Brin slumps forward, putting his head in his clawed hands.

"Yay," he says in a decidedly non-celebratory voice.

"Well..." Brin pauses and sighs heavily. "Go team. Now, if you'll stop interrupting me, I have sensors to monitor."

He sits up and then leans back in his chair, frowning. "Bleh," he says to himself but still manages to transmit it over the comm.

Suddenly, Lyle's alert comes through. "Frack!" Brin shouts, scrambling to act, running to the sick bay.

Magno has posed:
"Lyle, I..." I'm a cop, not a Doctor, dammit! "Tell me what I can do," Dyrk finally gets out, as they rush their Coluan to the medbay. Dyrk is just... there, ready for commands or to just plain get out of the way. He's not a scientist.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "Right now, we just need to be speed demons and get him to the medbay," Lyle says tightly. "I'm not a medic either."
    He stares into Brainy's open eyes. "C'mon, Querl. If you don't wake up, I'll paint your lab pink!" Well, that ought to get his attention.

Timber Wolf has posed:
Brin Londo flashes his claws. "I'm no doctor, but these babies are like scalpels. Let me know if I need to operate."

He grins, but his eyes reflect a different emotion, and he looks down at Dox's catatonic form.

"Last chance, you unconscious genius," Timber Wolf whispers. "Don't make me be /me/."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
Once in the medbay, Brainy gets settled onto a bed -- vital signs are heightened but within safe parameters. His brain scan, however, is lighting up like a Klordny Board. Blinky-blink-blink.

Then he suddenly closes his eyes tight, and he says, "Every extremity of my body is tingling. My hair is tingling. And my cybernetic computer just rebooted. I think... I need to lie down... for a while."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
"On the plus side, I think I just calculated a line of of the Life Equation."

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "It's not 42. I heard that rumor and checked it out already. And blast you for waking up, now I can't paint your lab pink." The relief in his voice can't be hidden, but Lyle is *not* happy with what he sees on the scans. "I want you to take a few slow, deep breaths and try to bring your vitals down to something that doesn't look like a jackpot in New Vegas, okay?"

Timber Wolf has posed:
The Timber Wolf turns and leans toward Lyle. "I have no idea what he's talking about," he whispers loudly, hand covering his mouth.

"Well, I guess you look good enough, pal. Rub some dirt on it and get back out on the prowl." He blinks and adds, "But, you know, in whatever way you do that."

Brin clears his throat. "Alright. Crisis averted. I've got more exciting things to do than watch Brainiac /not/ die. Like watch nothing happen on the monitor."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
Brainy tilts his head. "You narrowed the focus of the Electromagnetic Pulse. I told you to keep it broad." He says. "On one hand, there was a non-zero chance that being caught in it would've overwhelmed my force field and I would've died. On the other hand... I lost the calf. I find myself at a loss." He closes his eyes, and takes a deep breath.

He doesn't seem... angry. But that could just be because he took a temporal storm to the face. "Brin?" He smirks. "Thank you. I know you'd rather be in the fight, but space whales move fast and if they couldn't be diverted... well... we would've needed your reflexes on the guns."

"Magno? I knew you could do it."

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "Yes, you told me to keep it broad but you *didn't tell me you were going in*, you great green... oh, grife!" Lyle splutters in frustration. "I wasn't going to blow you into who-knows-when. We have enough temporal trouble!"

Brainiac 5 has posed:
Querl Dox smirks, and says, "Let Brin take the rest of the night off as punishment for not following orders. I'm just going to lie here for... a few days maybe and be smug."

Timber Wolf has posed:
"Ugh," Brin says, walking away in disgust. "Guns."

"Brainy," he calls over his shoulder, "I know you mean well, but it's like you just don't know me at /all/."

As he turns the corner, Brin shadowboxes. "Space-whales!" he says excitedly, dancing down the Cruiser hallway. "Ka-pow! Slice! Boom!"

Brainiac 5 has posed:
Then Brainy begins to laugh. Oh, it hurts to laugh. It hurts!

"He's *such an idiot*!" He wheezes, to Lyle. Then he breaks down into a painful mess of Un-Brainy-Like giggling. "Hee hee hee!"

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle pokes Brainy in the side. Hard. "He's not an idiot. Let's see you face some of the things he has. Hand to hand. Without a force shield."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
"Ow!" Brainy says. Then he lies back. "Okay. Okay." He closes his eyes. "I meant it, go relieve him on monitor duty. He's earned it. I'll be fine. Go, go."

Timber Wolf has posed:
Timber Wolf, meanwhile, has already leapt back into his monitor seat, excitely examining the computer displays and readouts. "Come on, space-sharks! Space-piranhas!"

Some time passes.

"Space-anacondas?"

More time.

"Space-catfish?"

Brin sighs and knocks the back of his head against his chair. "I hate you, you evil genius..." he mumbles.