Sept. 24 - Mechanical synergy

[Calvin Strong]

Cal had looked up the Danger Room time that Zoe had booked, and seeing that he had been discharged in time, had gone and gotten himself ready and headed down to meet her there. As he waited, he sat down in the hall, opening the case with his guns in it and looking them over. They appeared to be all right, and the one that he'd had in his left hand had been thankfully undamaged after the mission. He picked one up in his left hand, testing that it would still take a charge from the electrodes on his new hand. Seeing the indicator light up that it was receiving a charge, he nodded, satisfied, and put it back in the case.

[Zoe Walker]

Zoe's running a little late, but she hurries into the area already in her team uniform. "Yay, you made it out!"

[Calvin Strong]

Cal smirked. "Yeah, I don't think the nurse on duty wants me to come back any time soon. She went to take my vitals when they checked me out and asked for my left hand to take my pulse. The aides were still laughing when I walked out," he said.

[Zoe Walker]

She giggles, "Not much of a pulse, but the reflexes check out okay.. anyway, you're out, and in one piece. It's not the same piece, but it'll do."

[Calvin Strong]

"I'm slowly but surely becoming a technophile's wet dream. But enough about me... what's the game plan?"

[Zoe Walker]

"Plan? Clearly you don't know me real well yet. Uh.. well, we could practice the skating thing some more, 'less you feel like doing a firing run on your new hand or whatever."

[Calvin Strong]

"Hey, I'm up for some skating. The gun works, that's all I need to know, I've only got them because they were at the desk in the infirmary with my uniform." He pushed the button to open the room. "So let's get slippery until we think of something else."

[Zoe Walker]

"Suits. Soo.. it takes a bit of practice to move on but we can give it a shot if you like. Seems to work best if I slick the heel of a shoe but leave the ball grippy. Then you can kinda skate along depending on where your weight is, yeah?"

[Calvin Strong]

"All right," Cal said, as they walked into the room. "Let's see if I can keep from running into things, yeah?"

[Zoe Walker]

"What's the worst that could happen?" she counters with a coy grin, "Gimme your feet." She lays her palm on each of Cal's heels, one at a time, and focuses to create a lasting effect on them.

[Calvin Strong]

"I'd rather think about the [i]best[i] that could happen, but hey, to each his own," Cal answered, grinning. He set his heels down, testing how slick they were. As he started sliding across the ground, he rated that as 'very'. Experimentally, he pushed off, gliding across the floor. "Okay, I think I can get the hang of this..."

[Zoe Walker]

"Took me a while to not look like a total idiot but it can be done. I'm working on making my power, uh, directional, but that's tricksie." She repeats the process for herself and pushes off into a quick glide.

[Calvin Strong]

"Oooh, interesting idea," Cal mused. He slid past her, managing to keep his balance as he shifted the weight to the ball of one foot to turn himself around, misjudging a bit and sending himself spinning. "Have you ever tried making the air slippery or sticky?" he asked after a possible solution popped into his head, not exactly sure what the point of that would be.

[Zoe Walker]

"Uhhh... I dunno how that would even work. I've gotta touch whatever I affect, or something touching it. It's never worked through air, dunno if I could. Why?"

[Calvin Strong]

"I have no idea, that's just the quick answer that came to me," he said. He frowned, thinking, searching for the information as he slid, pushing himself toward him. "If you can increase air resistance on your body, then as long as you get a push-off, you can steer yourself by controlling how the air can move around you?" he sounded uncertain of his answer, even though there was no hesitation like he was making it up on the spot.

[Zoe Walker]

"I thought about that back at the Academy, see if I could work out a glide or something. I had a geek crunch the numbers once and it wasn't pretty, but the math was way over my head. 'course I didn't have as much control then as I do now. I do know air resistance goes down when my power's kicked up."

[Calvin Strong]

"Yeah, I don't know. That was just the first thing I was given on how you could.. I dunno, steer yourself while you're sliding." Cal seemed to be getting the hang of it, or at least his feet were learning the mechanical movements to keep himself going without looking stupid.

[Zoe Walker]

"Well that part's kinda like skating, ice or inline. If I could set it up so pushing sideways always had friction but it was slick pushing the long way, that'd do the trick. Maybe McCoy or one of the other geek teachers can help with that, might take special boots or somethin', yeah?"

[Calvin Strong]

"Something with different surfaces on it, maybe?" he said, shrugging. "I dunno. TOo much thinking. More skating." He came in fast on Zoe, catching an arm around her waist and sending them both spinning around each other through the walless expanse.

[Zoe Walker]

She lets out a playful shriek of surprise and keeps her balance as Cal sweeps in close, spinning with him a few times before managing to straighten the pair out.

[Calvin Strong]

Cal grinned, chuckling at her reaction, hanging onto her arm as they glided through the... well, nothing. Cal looked at her slyly. "How are you at sliding from a landing?" he asked, tightening his grip on her arm.

[Zoe Walker]

"That one I've practiced plenty, deliberately or no."

[Calvin Strong]

"Well, get ready, then," Cal said, grinning. HAL? You'd better tell me what to do here.

Code: Select all

Calculating trajectory and movement, extrapolating throw method and downloading to muscle memory

Making sure she was ready first, Cal gave her a calculated toss into the air, giving her a little bit of spin while he was at it, even.

[Zoe Walker]

As Cal winds up, Zoe extends her power via touch to cover the entire soles of her boots. It's a little harder than touching them directly but it's something she's practiced enough to do reliably. As she gets tossed, she hits the ground and lowers to a crouch, keeping her balance with arms spread for the first few moments after impact. "Wheeeeee!"