1487/Just (Legion) Cruisin'

Just (Legion) Cruisin'
Date of Scene:	16 July 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Invisible Kid, Magno, Brainiac 5

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Invisible Kid has posed:
    Where's the most likely place to find Lyle, at least when he's not being invisible and difficult to find? In the lab, of course. To one side, a beaker of a pale, watery green liquid. On the bench: a microscope. In hand: an eyedropper.
    Deftly, he puts a drop onto the slide under review, and watches intently.
    Let's be honest, there could be a brass band playing in the lab and he probably wouldn't notice.

Magno has posed:
Chores; Dyrk Magz's days have mostly been filled with making sure operations on the Cruiser run smoothly, that the necessary parties have been informed when something he can't fix needs to be repaired, and that supplies stay stocked. This last has been easier since the teleportation device has been (mostly) fixed.

Which is all well and good, but since his powers have been returning (yay) in fits and starts (boo), it's been full of little frustrations that he's tried to bury, too. Long story short, Dyrk has been present but not very social or keen to talk things over with anyone but Brainy. But that only goes so far, too - so here he is, trying to be out and more visible.

Which may be why it seems like very suddenly he's looming behind Lyle's shoulder. "What're you working on?"

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "Ack!" Lyle sits up and pulls his hands away from the lab table, just to make absolutely certain that nothing gets knocked over or jarred or anything. "Where did you come from? ...no, never mind, I know how I get in here," he admits with a chuckle.
    He picks up the beaker, looks at it critically, and sets it back down. "I'm working on a project. Regarding Our Little Problem. Since Salu appears to have escaped whatever sent all of us back, and we really need her to track that little so and so down... well, I figured what I did once, I can do again."

Magno has posed:
That's a lot to unpack. "Micro-Lad? How is he even still evading our life-signs trackers?" Ugh. Frustrating. "So, you're doing what, inventing a serum to shrink yourself?" Dyrk rubs his chin - he's not a *scientist* or anything, but Lyle and Brainy generally seem to know what they're doing. Generally.

"Are you sure that's wise? What if it interacts badly with whatever your original serum did to you that gave you powers?"

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "Well, if it *can* be done, I'm the one who can do it," Lyle says with conviction, and just a bit of a smirk. "But yes, that's exactly what I'm working on. And that's why I'm going to be very very careful, because I don't want it to interfere with or replace my invisibility."
    He regards Dyrk critically for a moment. "Speaking of powers, I wonder if there's a serum that might help sort out your system... theoretically."

Magno has posed:
Dyrk furrows his brow a little. He's put himself through a lot in search of regaining his powers, given up and now that they're actually starting to come back... "I don't know. I mean, I'm fine with you looking me over and ... taking samples or whatever, but to be honest I'd want you to be really sure that whatever it was is going to *work*. I can't take much more of this... this *teasing* that keeps happening." With his powers, not with people talking about it or anything.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle nods. "Oh, I understand. One's powers are nothing to mess with. That's why I'm proceeding with caution. Urgent caution, but caution. Maybe once things settle down and Our Little Problem is taken care of, we could take a closer look."

Magno has posed:
"That would be fine," Dyrk agrees. "Micro-Lad? What, is saying his name supposed to make him show up or something?" Cupping his hands to his mouth, Dyrk tips his head up and yells, "MICRO-LAD! MICRO-LAD! MIIIIIICROOOOOOO-LAAAAAAAAD!"

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle laughs. "Naw, I just don't want him to have the satisfaction of hearing his own name. And besides, we really don't know when he might be around and listening anyway. When he hears me speak his name, it will be right after I've punched him in the nose."

Magno has posed:
Laughing a little, Dyrk aahhhs, "Ok, making sense to me now." Reaching behind his head to scratch the back of his neck, he asks, "So how *is* the current experiment going? Otherwise we'll be waiting on Vi or Imra to show up, and while there are more of us now than there were a few months ago, I don't think we can count on a constant supply of refugees from the future."

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "Or, for that matter, *who* is going to show up. We can't make a plan that depends on one particular teammate being available unless they're already here, or unless we can duplicate the needed ability." Lyle shrugs, and chuckles dryly. "I'm not sure if I should be hoping more teammates show up, or hoping they didn't get trapped like we did. We need them... but so does the 31st century."

Magno has posed:
"It needs all of us back, this era's full of heroes. But one problem at a time, right?" Dyrk tries to smile - that could be the title of the holonovel of his life, really. "We'll get it figured out, and get back to our own time, and everything will be ok. Eventually. ... Fingers crossed."

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "Yeah. But just think - as long as we're here, can you imagine the opportunity to meet, even work with, the original Justice League?" There's more than a little awe in Lyle's voice.
    "But," Lyle goes on, "as you say, one problem at a time. So let me ask you this -- if you were Our Little Pest, where do you think *you* would hide, that would confound our scanners?"

Magno has posed:
"Probably the sensor-banks themselves. He can be almost atom-sized, right? Why not hide inside the sensors themselves? If you stick to the consoles and lenses and places that the scanners aren't trained to scan through and recognize, you can stay out of the range of any sweeps." Dyrk pauses for a moment, adding, "Not that I've given it much thought."

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle just stares for a moment, mouth open in a little 'o', and you don't need to be Saturn Girl to read his thoughts: 'now why didn't I think of that?' And you can close your mouth now, Lyle. "Of course! The sensors can't scan themselves, certainly not directly -- if they could, they'd feedback destructively and if they scan themselves indirectly they can't get fine enough detail to... nngh!"
    Witness the lab genius under compulsion of an idea: muttering under his breath, going haphazardly through drawers and cabinets looking for things, pausing once or twice to bring back a tool with a slurred "Gonnaneedthat!" until "AHA! I knew we had a stash of these! I was going to get to them once things settled down a little, but this is the perfect chassis to build on. Stick with a winner!"
    And what he has in his hand is a standard issue Omnicom, with a neat little label reading 'BROKEN'.

Magno has posed:
His science police training has been good for something! Dyrk smiles a little proudly as his suggestion turns Lyle's gears of creative science. "Glad I could help!"

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "You are officially a genius. I can't believe I never thought of that. Brilliant! Brilliant!" Lyle yanks open a wide and deep drawer that can only charitably be called a 'junk drawer'. It's more of a graveyard for old projects, things that didn't work, things that he got bored with, things that only just technically got off the drawing board (or CAD software) before being obsoleted by either events or a better idea.
    It is an electronic engineering Sargasso.
    He can not *possibly* know what all is in there.
    So when he plunges his hand in there and pulls out a... a... -- oh, who knows, just call it a 'metal dingus' -- with a triumphant "AHA! I knew I had one of these!" one might justifiably be tempted to think that was witchcraft.

Magno has posed:
"It's just police training," Dyrk blushes, not really able to help with all the the science and gadgetry. "Find criminals that hide in the places where people who have everything to lose want to hide;" like that's usually obvious or something. But then he covers his mouth, "I hope he didn't hear me possibly give away his hiding places, though."

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle looks up and grins, maybe a little manically. "That's the beauty of it - if you're right, it doesn't matter. If he stays in the scanner system, I'll just build a sufficiently powerful handheld scanner to scan the scanner itself, non-destructively. And if he leaves it, the scanner itself will find him. And it makes no difference whether he hears us right now or not! Although I hope he doesn't," Lyle finishes, dropping his voice a little and looking around suspiciously.

Magno has posed:
"You're sure to catch him, then," Dyrk ahs, watching Lyle with only light trepidation. The Mad Science Brigade tends to have a certain reputation; not exactly unearned, either. "You wanna tell Brainy you've got a plan or are you going to give him Micro-Lad on a keychain while wearing a smug expression?"

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "Well, maybe. Depends on if your hypothesis is right. Although having a mobile scanner would be a good idea even without Junior running around." Lyle shudders. "*Ugh*. It makes my skin crawl just to think that he could be on me somewhere right now."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
From nearby, there is a crackling sound, and a sense of something greasy pushing at the boundaries of reality. A doorway opens, and Brainiac 5 is followed through it, followed by a mass of grabby tentacles and a single, sideways-blinking eye. Brainy floats backward and grabs something that turns out to be a fire-suppressant, before he sprays the thing with foam, which makes it let out a gurgling noise and back up, at which point he manifests his force-field into a giant hand that smacks the thing dead on with its palm and starts to force it backward through the door.

Magno has posed:
"Help push!" Dyrk decides quickly and loudly. Because keeping Cthonian Horrors OUT OF THE SCIENCE LAB is exactly the sort of reason Dyrk feels trepidation when Lyle and Brainy make excited science faces! He just moves immediately to grab the closest long-handled thing to hand in this case some kind of electro-prod, and start *POKING* at *TENTACLES* back through the breach.

"NEW FRIEND?" he asks Brainy.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle grabs something that packs way too many volts that can be discharged way too many times and flicks out of sight with it -- tentacles can't grab what they can't see! (HOPEFULLY!) -- and joins in helping push Doctor Calamari back into his cabinet. He'll ask when he's visible again.
    On second thought, no, he really doesn't want to know.

Brainiac 5 has posed:
"Time travel experiment!" Brainy retorts. "I think Mordru left this on the back end as a little surprise! It's one of the Bitter Leavings of Shuma-Gorath, if I have my extradimensional entities right!" He pushes it back through the door, and then grabs it with that force-field hand, bodily hurling it through an energy portal, which he then closes it using his holographic computer.

Then he brushes his hands off. "Well." He says, nodding once. "Carry on."

Magno has posed:
Drooping, tossing down his prodder, Dyrk just tries to catch his breath from the sudden excitement...

and reaches over and punches Brainy lightly in the shoulder.

"Carry on," he mutters.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle flicks back into view, mostly to rid himself of the impulse to use the remaining charges on the back of Brainy's head. "So, no getting home *that* way, then," is all he says, and hops back up on his lab stool.
    "Dyrk has had an inspiration. Maybe the reason the scanners can't pick up Our Little Problem is because he's hiding inside the scanner system. It can't scan itself, not at the same--ooo."
    Distraction for shiny thing: Lyle reaches into his open parts drawer and pulls out... oh, just call it another 'metal dingus', Bob only knows what it really is. "Need that too." Now, where were we? Oh yes.
    "--resolution it can the rest of the ship. It's worth a try; I just need to build a handheld scanner that can scan the scanner system at the same resolution the scanners use, without inducing destructive feedback."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
Brainiac 5 rubs his shoulder, and closes one eye, before he ruffles Dyrk's hair with one hand, and then moves past him. He yanks the scanner out of Lyle's hand -- *yoink* and breaks open the back, before he pulls a little tool out of his belt and begins making adjustments. Because Brainy hear, BRAINY DO.

"It's an excellent idea. You're both brilliant," He says, with that paying attention with only one of his 12 simultaneous thought processes air.

Magno has posed:
"I've been complimented on my brain twice in less than ten minutes," Dyrk says beneath ruffled hair, tone sarcastic but actually quite smiling. "I'll have to go do some situps or something with Jo to maintain my reputation."

"But back on topic, I'm sorry I didn't suggest it sooner. I've been mulling it over since the announcement he'd sneaked aboard with one of us, but I've been too... well, frankly, antisocial to let it come up in conversation. Lyle threatened to shrink himself, though, so I had to say *something.*

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "Not threatened. Prepared to," Lyle says simply, taking the scanner back from Brainy and wiring in Metal Dingus #1 from before the invasion of the tentacle beast. "I mean, finding him isn't the same as actually capturing him. Once we know where he is, we still have to get him somehow."
    He looks up at Brainy and grins, and jerks a thumb towards Dyrk. "He also suggests keeping him on a keychain once we have him. I vote yes."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
"My plan as it stands is to put him in my little cell on a shelf in the lab and when I get really frustrated with something I'll take him down and give him a shake."

Brainy squints at Lyle as he yanks the widget out of HIS hand, with a look that says only BRAINY gets to do that-- then he hip-bumps him and moves in to start working on it at the same time. He says, with an air of airy distraction, "If you wish to do sit-ups Dyrk..." Then he adds, "Triplicate Girl has found a specialist for this sort of problem from Earth, so Miss Janet van Dyne is going to be coming in to give us some support. DID you complete the serum, Lyle?"

Magno has posed:
Shooting Brainy a *look* - he can decode that himself as he likes - Dyrk just shakes his head. "I'm going to let you two work this out, happy to be of idea-providing service." He starts gently extricating himself from the lab. Because yeah, this conversation is moving beyond him.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "Nearly," Lyle says, making room maybe just a little grudgingly. "Just a couple tests to go, to make sure it doesn't interfere with my invisibility." He grins. "Priorities, you know. How much time do I have?"
    Metal Dingus #2 gets attached, and he glances up at Dyrk. "I'm going to set up a box for you to stuff your ideas into. They're good ones."

Brainiac 5 has posed:
"Yes. Officer Magz was always an asset to the Legion, before and after losing his powers. And I'm utterly thrilled we finally seem to have convinced HIM of that." Brainy says. Then he says, "By all means, take all the time you need, because it could come in incredibly useful once you've got it working." He continues making adjustments to the microcircuitry in the widget, and says, "Oh, that reminds me. Tryouts. I think we should hold them. I want you to sit as a judge, Lyle. You, and Triplicate Girl, and me."