6657/Playing with lasers

Playing with lasers
Date of Scene:	24 February 2019
Location:	Triskelion - R&D - Weapons Testing
Synopsis:	Micah and Samantha are in the R&D wing so Micah can have Sam show off her "lasers"
Cast of Characters:	Foxfire, Nyx

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Foxfire has posed:
Weapons Testing is not especially set up for scientific inquiry. It's mostly set up to test weapons which is interested in a different kind of data. But Micah is a rather resourceful scientist and he'd made the necessary arrangements for equipment and safety measures when the request had come down to take Samantha Twinning to the range and see what she was capable of.

Safety first of course, so Micah is wearing a suit that should protect him from overpressure, backblast, falling rocks or whatever else the young lady has up her sleeve.

It's some kind of hard suit. Techy but possibly not very interesting to Sam compared to other things she's seen aside from it's power source.

"Hey there." Michah says when Sam arrives. "Ready for all this? Just give me a sec to get the spectrometers and such pointed the right way."

Nyx has posed:
Samantha still does have an escort. The SHIELD agent in tactical armor that follows her around when she leaves the medical wing. The fact she can leave though and get exercise or come out to the R&D wing for more tests is a plus in her book though.

"Spectrometers... is that something for detecting ghosts... because I'm pretty sure this is just science stuff and lasers." either Sam is being intentionally or maybe inadvertently funny. The delivery makes it really hard to say.

She looks around the testing range, thick steel targets, high ordinance range and then back to Micah in his protective suit. "Are you sure you have enough ... safety going on there?" okay that teasing is a joke for sure from Sam.

Foxfire has posed:
"Ghosts? No that's different equipment. I'll bet SHIELD has it somewhere but they don't let scientists look at it because then it stops working." Micah winks. "And no not quite enough safety. I have a helmet." He points toward what looks like a full head concealing helmet with a vaguely... fox shaped profile.

A piece of equipment on a wheely-trolly gets turned and adjusted. "Just another minute or so. Have you ever done this before? Your file, what parts of it they let me look at, suggests that you're packing a lot of power."

Nyx has posed:
"Well.. I guess I am. I'm pretty sure that bank building was worse off after being lanced with the laser. Also several trees and stumps when I was trying to practice." she is actually blushing just a touch there. Though she has meandered over while talking to peer at the helmet.

"It kind of looks like a fox.." the helmet that is. Her head tilts to the side as she studies it. "Cute" she finally decrees but keeps her hands off. She absolutely knows touching technology in SHIELD she isn't supposed to will not help her case at all.

Foxfire has posed:
"Bank vault? Nevermind, it's okay. So you've cut through steel before huh? That's okay. I brought something that should be a bit better for this."

Micah goes over to the range controls and adjusts the one for the target to bring up the sort of material they use when people a bit more... potent are practicing. Some kind of heat disappating layered ceramic probably. Pricey but SHIELD generally has the budget for this kind of thing.

"Heh, thanks. I made it myself while I was working elsewhere. Oooookay that looks good. Let me just helmet up here."

Micah puts on his helmet on and there's a hiss as it locks into place.

"Alright. Go ahead whenever your ready."

Nyx has posed:
"I don't think it was the vault... just the front of the building. I think it was mostly made out of brick?" she offers helpfully looking over to Micah as he fiddles with the controls. Sam squints a little, having no idea really what she is looking at when the alloy and ceramic target wheels out. "That looks expensive. I'm not going to be docked if I break it am I?"

The armor gets another look over. "Where did you work with a fox theme... were you a vigilante or on one of the Justice teams or something?" curiosity in her voice, and yes she is stalling a bit as she moves to the middle of the range. "My aim. Not the best." the SHIELD Agent in Tactical armor has moved behind one of the blast walls.

Sam rubs the side of her face then rakes her fingers through her hair, all she is wearing is the SHIELD Fatigues, nondescript, and definitely not armor. "Okay here I go." she warns everyone then brings up her right arm and tries to do what she heard vision say Mr. Stark does, envision where the laser will hit, not try to aim down her hand like a gun. It is really good advice.

Brilliant energy starts to ripple around her arm and then there is this waaahwUUM noise as it lances out and strikes the target. A bit to the right really not at all dead center. Just one blast, you didn't tell her too sustain it. Really it is a good question if Sam can sustain it or how fast she can do what she just did.

Because the thing is, the lightshow.... well that was the molecular structure of the air around her arm and down the path of the particle beam going plasma. The target, well it can dissipate heat of lasers sure, but its basic structure on the molecular level just got excited, very excited, and that beam just explodes through it and hits the wall behind it, hard, leaving a mark but not a hole, this is the high ordinance range. Maybe a tiny divit.

Foxfire has posed:
"DARPA. Then the CIA. The Fox theme was me though, not them. Sort of a nod to the thing that powers it." Micah-in-foxy-armor says as he steps behind a blast shield and watches the instruments.

"WOAH!" She might not be able to hear him over the sound of the target exploding. No she won't get docked for that. It's a target, it's meant to be ruined but holy hell he hadn't expected it to be ruined that fast. He's seen a power profile like that before.

From CERN.

"Let me, uh. Let me get you another target Sam. That was good. But I don't think my isntruments got it wrong. I'll set up a sequence so you can hit three more just to make sure I don't have an equipment problem here."

A few more switches and the targets are ready. "Okay. Try again."

Nyx has posed:
Sam was listening to the response about the armor. "What's DARPA?" because Sam legitimately has no idea, and then it is show time.

She may or may not have heard that WOAH from Micah. Samantha is definitely staring a the exploded target. "Was it supposed to blow up?" which is a fair question really. She seems quite unsure. Though Micah reassures her when he talks about getting another target.

Not just one target but three of them. "Okay if you're sure!" Sam notes because she is still pretty convinced she may end up billed for this somehow. Stipends. Not that she has any more so SHIELD will be very unhappy if they did try to bill her. Right into debt collections probably.

The young woman raises her arm again and tries to picture where it should go. She isn't showing off trying to use both hands and do it fast like a sharpshooter. No she is still trying to just figure out how best to aim and hit those targets. At least they are big Sam figures.

There is another wahhwUUM.... and an explosion of ceramic armor plates, and then another wahhhwum and a second explosion of plates.

Sam utterly misses an scores the wall behind the targets with the third blast "Fuck!" she exclaims and tries again, a bit flustered and misses again "Damnit!". At that point she brings her other hand up and puts them together and a beam twice as large goes down range and annihilates the target.

Okay she can do it with both hands. The WAAaAAHuuUm was bigger too.

There are also definitely better readings now, and no the equipment was not miscalibrated. Five shots in about sixty seconds with a lot of aiming going on.

Foxfire has posed:
"Okay, that's enough for now." Micah waits for the fumes to get vented out and takes off his helmet.

"Holy fuck..." He mutters to himself as he looks. "Whelp... they're not lasers. That's the first thing I can tell you. The second thing I can tell you is that they're scary as hell. I've never seen anything with a power curve that looks anything like that. Other than a star."

Okay he's exaggerating a little bit. A lot. But it's still way more power than she SHOULD have by any scientific measure.

Nyx has posed:
That much is true, it is more power than she should have by most scientific measures, at least terrestrial measures. She could probably power the eastern seaboard, or at least New England.

Sam though looks bambozzled for a moment when Micah says they aren't lasers and exaggerates about the power curve. "Um... fuck." she finally mutters "I hope that doesn't screw up my not being isolated.. I won't use them unless we are practicing like this." yeah she is worried about going back to isolation. The thing is, she could blast her way out of the Triskelion at any point, she is clearly staying out of good behavior.

"If they aren't lasers then what are they??" Sam still seems worried, though she is walking down range to crouch and poke one of the targets with her fingertip. Well what is left of it. There is a lot of ceramic alloy dust all over where they were and she runs her hand through it and scoops up a handful of it and fragments.

Foxfire has posed:
"Particle beams. You're shooting particle beams." Micah looks up and seems to sense that might confuse her a little bit.

"So, imagine a machine gun. But the bullets are sub atomic particles, and they're moving at significant fractions of the speed of light. Scientists use them to experiment but they're huge. Tunnels that are miles long powered by multi gigawatt reactors. They're defintiely not something you should be able to fit in your arms."

The scientist gives Sam a little smile and a teasingly annoyed look. "You're breaking physics. Stop that."

Nyx has posed:
Sam listens, and Micah is right in his assumption that just saying particle beams is confusing for the young woman. Then she tilts her head at the more detailed description. It is a bit like a dog listening to a noise it doesn't quite grok still.

"Gigawatts.. so like nuclear reactors?" and yeah Sam sounds a bit confused still. She lowers her hands letting some dust fall back to the floor, though not as much as she scooped up. "I'm not meaning to break physics!" a bit overwhelmed, missing some of the joke. "I just... I didn't do this... I was surprised as anyone when I shot a laser.. particle beam" there is a slow pause "Oh jesus christ I almost hit Wonder Woman with one of these" she sounds petrified.

It isn't really breaking physics, you could definitely theoretically accelerate particles fast enough out of a very small frame, if you had the right magnetics and power source. That is really the problem, where is she pulling the power from. She should probably just be pasted with sensors next time she shoots one of those and scanners on her not the target.

Foxfire has posed:
"Usually a couple nuclear reactors yeah. When we do this on earth we need miles of circular tunnels just to get the particles up to the right speed and even then it's usually only a couple particles. You're doing whole streams of them and accellerating them over the length of your arm or less. The science needed to do that..."

Micah shakes his head. "It's pretty well beyond us here on planet earth. It's really impressive and... no you're not in trouble. They're gonna be really interested in this though, Sam. REALLY interesteted."

Nyx has posed:
The young woman makes a face. "They better not want to dissect me or anything. That would suck. I do not consent to being dissected." she crosses her arms, half hugging herself and kicks some ceramic dust. "Damnit." Sam mutters and kicks some more dust, a small dust cloud around her as she kicks this time harder towards the back wall and its pock marks from her shooting. Okay that kick was definitely super strength too.

"Agent Hawkeye was right!" or well Agent Barton. "It is aliens or something... I ... argh." she kicks another chunk into the back wall causing it to disinigrate against the wall. "Aliens!?" she isn't raging out of control, more a teenager temper tantrum on some already destroyed target chunks. Sam might need this moment.

Foxfire has posed:
Micah watches for a couple of moments. He hasn't dealt with someone Sam's age in quite a while, but the temper tantrum seems almost reasonable. It sounds like she didn't ask for what happened to her. It just... did. Of course. It's made her dangerous. And led to her being semi-locked up here.

BWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEM.

The noise is of a violet energy beam from Micah's hand severing one of the steel targets. He gives the young woman a kind of ironic smile. "Yeah, aliens kind of suck sometimes."

Nyx has posed:
The Bwheeeem nose makes her stop kicking rocks, literally really, and turn to look at Micah in time to see the steel target be severed. Samantha blinks a few times there and then tilts her head and walks over to it. "Your armor fires lasers?" then she pauses "Plasma beams actually." okay she has no good reason to know the difference and her own self correction doesn't really seem to register with her.

"I just touched a silver sphere.... it looked so cool and wow it has made things really messed up." Sam walks over to the target and crouches down and pokes the metal where you severed it and yanks her hnd back "Fuck hot..." suckling on her finger out of habit really. "Did aliens make your armor suit then?" then asks "And SHIELD still is happy to have you?" she may have motives to ask that part.

Foxfire has posed:
"Yes, Plasma Beams. Very good." Micah does really want to ask how she knows that but he knows that he really SHOULD focus on what's upsetting her right now, which is indeed what he does.

"They made the power source. I made the armor after studying it. The first time I tried to use it to power anything though, it performed impromptu spinal surgery on me..." She can't see... well she can't see directly. She kind of already did see the power signature in his back from the alien biotech.

"Well, we'll see if they're happy to have me. They're happy to let me try out. I'd expect they'll give you the same opportunity."

Nyx has posed:
"Ooh.. that is what is wrong with your back. Deputy Director May didn't really answer me when I saw you in the Gym and all... I figured it would be rude to ask about it." yeah she cant see but she seems to have had a clue about your back despite it. Sam definitely makes it harder to focus.

"Deputy Director May and Agent Johnson do seem to think I might be able to make a good rookie and Skye seems interested in helping me learn how to use my powers." she peers down at the severed steel target and points her hand at it and then there is a BWAAAOOM and she melts a hole right through it and then drags it across it this way and that maintaining the beam to cut it in half, a quick clean slice. It is sustained though which is... something. "I find it really weird they are more freaked out about the whole controlling laptops with my mind and not the whole las... particle beam thing though. Is that weird?"

Not in a spy agency.

Foxfire has posed:
"It's not really weird that they're more concerned about that. Agent Johnson and Director May are spies, not scientists." To be fair Micah is kind of a weird hybrid, having time in both DARPA and the CIA doing field intelligence.

"They'd have to be aware of the physics to realize how scary you are on that level and they're not. I'm scared, if it helps." Micah winks. He's not scared enough to not be talking to her like a normal person. Though his report is likely to be a touch... alarmist.

The man in the fox armor - sans helmet - watches Sam cut the plate. She can do that a lot faster than he can. "You'd be powerhouse of an agent though. Well above my league, really."

Nyx has posed:
Honestly that beam of hers could probably just slice right through a tank. She is going to have to be very careful about her aim if she is ever deployed into the field.

It really is like a teenager was handed weapons of mass destruction.

"Huh... spies.. I guess that makes sense. Deputy Director May seemed mostly concerned about me walking into the White House and hacking all the computers by accident. Skye has been giving me exercises with laptops to learn how to control taking them over and getting the information out." which right that would be useful for a spy agency.

"I doubt I'd be that good an agent." then a pause "Does being an agent pay well?" god knows Sam it has to pay better than Big Belly Burger.

Foxfire has posed:
"Everyone can learn. But they're likely to ask you about being one I think. Even if you don't wind up being a great spy, you'll be a pretty good field agent for getting people out of trouble."

Micah is careful to frame it like SHIELD might want her to rescue people rather than attack them. He doesn't think she needs to see herself as a weapon right now.

But she is. She really really is. A young woman walking around with more power than several dozen nuclear weapons.

"It pays well enough. I mean, there are ways to make MORE money but you know. House, car, nights out. It covers all of that."

Nyx has posed:
"Huh.... well I think I would be a pretty bad criminal." okay to be fair she knows she is a pretty bad criminal. "So that doesn't sound bad at all. The idea of helping people is pretty cool too." the teenager actually flashes a smile there as she looks Micah over.

Yeah it is probably best to not call her a weapon, make her think of herself as a weapon, or point out that SHIELD is liable to turn her into a weapon, but just hopefully for the good guys right. While the energy output is the equivilant of several nuclear reactors, she is probably with those beams only as dangerous as maybe one nuclear weapon. Maybe.

"So are there more tests?" Sam looks at the targets curious now and back to Micah.

Foxfire has posed:
"If you wanna practice a bit more I'll keep the instruments on and see what we get. But if you'd rather get a bite to eat I've got everything I need to write a report on." Micah smiles. "As much a test for me as for you I think. Don't worry, you did well."

He suspects she'll opt to eat. She's got to be generating that energy from somewhere and anyway teenagers are always hungry. Right?

Nyx has posed:
Teenagers are always hungry, though she isn't generating the energy.

"Food sounds great. Phil can make sure I don't get lost." there is a bit of a grin there as she steps back towards the exit now. Poor Phil looks even more disturbed than when he came in. I mean really it is like escorting around a young irresponsible rookie Captain Marvel.