Bad Weather

December 28, 2016:

A huge supercell winter storm is headed for North America's eastern coast, and the Justice League has to stop it.

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions:

Plot:

Mood Music: [* ]


Fade In…

Another night at the Hall of Justice. Diana strides from one of the analysis stations in the secure area of the complex, heading out of the security corridor and into the main foyer. She rubs the back of her neck as she comes, massaging out the strain of hours of study. Still, there is a faintly satisfied smile on her lips that almost eases the crease between her brows.


"No sign of the satellite." comes Captain Marvel's report, as she flies deeper into the supercell storm of snow due to fall upon the East Coast some time in the next hour or two. "I'm heading in deeper. How much longer until the coast is endangered?" she queries, hoping she'll be able to hear the return communications … and that some of her teammates can still pick up her transmissions, which is anything but guaranteed right now.

It seems that a satellite has fallen from its orbit above the Earth just a few days after Christmas has come and gone. As white a Christmas as it largely was not this year, it is about to be a lot worse, and someone in NOAA has actually put forth the theory that the timing of the satellite's fall and the sudden eruption of the storm is not a coincidence. Hence why weather - not usually a cause for League involvement - has warranted some attention.


Diana's comm lights up with the call and she pauses, pressing a finger to her ear, triggering the transceiver, she says, "No more than 4 hours," she tells Carol. "Probably less. Predictions are scrambled, ranging between 2.5 and 5.6 hours, with the most likely pegging in at 3.5 to 4.2. Can you get above the storm? See a closer pattern than what the 'tower has shown?"


"I figured I needed to be in it, try to find the satellite." Carol admits, glad at least that her call has reached someone. And Diana is a mighty handy someone to reach. "You guys are already above it, right?" Which doesn't mean she can't or even shouldn't get above it. But she might as well communicate her reasons and confirm that Diana thinks above it is the better choice. "Four hours is a lot better than I was afraid of. Though it's still not near enough for evac."


"No," Diana agrees, turning down another corridor to find the ziptube to the Watchtower. "I think we may need to abandon the satellite in favour of sourcing the storm. The satellite does not control the weather, but there are others who can." Mutants. Magicians. Gods. Take your pick. Diana has faced all of them at one time or another. "I'm on my way back to the Watchtower, now." Meaning, yes, she's in the Hall of Justice. "I want to see if we can triangulate a likelier trajectory for the satellite and an origin point for the storm."


"Alright. I'll head up, try to get a look down the eye soonest. Let me know if you get anything." Captain Marvel offers, as she fights to change course in the almost blinding level of wind, half-condensed water vapor and ice crystals. It's a mess, but she's used to it, and it's a lot easier to fly through something like this under her own power than in a plane. Which still doesn't make it easy, mind you.


Two minutes later, Diana is stepping off the transport pad on the station and heading for C&C. The room is awash with blue-green light, a live-time hologram of the planet below spinning above the display table. Once there, the Princess manipulates controls, scanning back through the storm's formation to see where the energies might have originated.


As near as the sensors aboard the Watchtower and its network of satellites can tell, the trail of the falling satellite is tracked back … to the precise center of the eye of the storm as it erupted hours ago in the heart of the Atlantic. But those same sensors cannot seem to spot anything of the satellite now.

Carol struggles up into the upper atmosphere, pulling bit by bit out of the soup of the extreme winds, but it's tough. Super-cell storms reach far higher than their normal counterparts, not to mention having incredibly stronger, faster winds. "Nothing yet." she transmits, hoping her comms are still getting through.


"Carol," Diana says, looking at the replay, "I believe the satellite went down in the eye of the storm. It may have served if not as a direct catalyst, perhaps as a sign to whatever or whomever triggered the catalyst. "I can join you shortly, if you want the assist."

Like the good Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman has exceptional flight speed and Metropolis is on the coast. The Hall of Justice isn't far away in superheroic terms.


"Mighty cold, Princess." Carol cannot help but comment, wryly. Sure, she knows Wonder Woman can survive in sub-zero temperatures, even coated in ice and rain. But it honestly makes Carol shiver seeing Diana do it while dressed in that costume of hers. Brrr!

"OK. So, satellite either is the source of this, or fell and got the ball rolling. So …" Captain Marvel considers this information for a bit, and then transmits again. "I'm already here. I'll pull above, at the eye. Then pull down through, looking for a source. Why don't you head for the original origin point, see what you can find there? One of us has to find something, right?" Just another extinction-level event the League has to stop, for the sake of everyone.


"I can handle the cold," Diana assures her friend. "But, I will do as you suggest." If only because it can't hurt to check out both sites. Within minutes, she is back on Earth and soaring through the wind and rain out over the Atlantic, a Lansinar-formed tech overlay covering one of her bracers to keep her in touch with C&C in the space station above.

"I am descending," she reports as she fights her way through the storm.


"I know you can. Just seeing you do it in that outfit gives me the chilly willies." Carol comments to Diana, teasing.

When Diana finally manages to push through the incredible might of the storm's outer winds, she can reach the point where the storm began. What she will find there is a small atol, barely more than a glorified tiny sandbar. There's nothing at all to recommend it, though it is littered with scraps and pieces of metal and other materials. A good long look will tell the lovely Amazon that this is not the whole satellite: a sizable chunk of its core, likely with its reactor, is missing. And there is a rather interesting cavern that has been partially exposed down inside the island's apparently sandy exterior, bunched through by debris from the satellite …

Then comes Captain Marvel's transmission. "Hey there, Princess. Made it … up, and now down inside. There's some kind of glowing energy source. I can feel the thing … and it's alive. Not sure how … but I'm convinced it's powering the storm somehow."


"I've found some sort of cave," Diana reports in turn, "On an exposed sandbar. There's debris here; I think it's from the satellite. Be careful, Captain. Keep me posted. I'm going in."

She clears some of the debris out of her way and carefully, begins making her way into the maw of the cavern.


Ozymandias is still feeling the effects of his last battle, and is getting around slowly as his body continues to heal itself. When the initial calls about the satellite come into the WatchTower, He was meditating with the comms unit off as he continues to heal his mind and body from his recent dealings. As he winces around the WatchTower he continues to monitor the conversation between Diana and Captain Marvel he goes over to the communication stations and begins to work on boosting the power between the WatchTower communication systems.

Ozymandias leans back in a chair with a wince, "I will try to do my best to keep the communications up, or do you need down there at one of the sights.

Ozymandias taps his left foot on the ground as he remembers thatmthey will need to get remote video devices too, so the Prophetess and others on watch can always see what is taking place on the ground.


As Diana descends into the cave, she will find lighting rather minimal, only a tiny stream of it through the hole punched in its roof by the debris. But with but a thought, the Themysciran princess can command her Lansinaar tech to give forth more light … and what she finds would astound lessor mortals.

Probably not Diana, though. She's not exactly a 'lesser' mortal, now is she?

The cave reveals ancient runs inscribed upon its walls, floor and ceiling, derivations of ancient Greek, Babylonian and the like, carved into the stone and then filled with precious metals - gold, silver and platinum. It would not take much to realize that this is - or was - a prison of sorts, built in some long-ago time to entrap something very dangerous.

And the runes seem to spell out a name. Good thing Diana is such a gifted linguist. She might recognize the name of Boreas.

"Hey, Ozzy. Don't worry about it, OK? Just do what you can to boost the signal on the comms. Can't afford to lose touch." Carol transmits.

Carol's transmissions cut out, then return as Ozymandias starts fiddling. "Definitely looks like … a super-sized humanoid figure, composed of a white, swirling glow …"


"Stay there," Diana suggests to Oz, agreeing with Carol, knowing he's really not in any condition to be in battle. "If we need backup, we know you can provide." Even if it means haranguing the Green Lantern. As if the cocky ring jockey could resist the chance to say he saved either Captain Marvel or Wonder Woman.

She raises a fist high, the light of the Lansinaar construct illuminating the ancient writing. "Boreas…" Diana says softly, reading the name. "Carol," she says louder, now. "I believe the satellite has disturbed the resting place of Boreas, God of the Winter Winds." And, apparently, Old Man Winter is very, very grumpy. "I believe… he was imprisoned here." Though she cannot entirely say why or how. Yet.

"Be wary, my friend. Gods are very mercurial."

She spends several moments studying the ruins in hope of finding some way to draw the god back into his prison. If not, she'll have to go face him down the Aegis and the Perfect and hope to High Athena together she and Carol are enough.


Ozymandias is no Oracle, but he has been working on communications systems since the Korea War. He continues to work on boosting the gain, while trying to block out in extra noise coming into the circuits. He spins around in his chair and begins using the WatchTower computers to research Boreas, beore going back to monitor the communication systems.


"Can you figure out how to bottle it back up, if we can get him in there?" Carol asks, having to shout, apparently, given the strident tone of her voice, though thankfully the noise cancellation on the comms is working well.

Ozymandias can find that Boreas was seen in different timeframes as alternately a deity, or a titan, or simply a mighty spirit of nature. But he was always related to winter and cold winds. Which would rather suit what's unfolding right now and headed for swamping the entire East Coast.

With effort, Diana can indeed find the piece of the roof that was splintered and driven in by the crash of the satellite's debris, and can discover that doing so shattered one of those runes. That seems to have made it possible for Boreas to escape.

"Looks like the power core of the satellite is inside of him." Carol transmits. "Maybe if I grab it, he'll follow?" Or freeze her to death in place. Either one.


"It's worth a try," Diana tells her, rising into the air towards the dome overhead. "There's a breach in ceiling of the cave. It has, I think, shattered a ward keeping Boreas within. If you can lead him back, together we may be able to hold him long enough to seal the breach. But, Ozymandias, I will need you to tell us how to re-form the ward." She uses the Lansinaar tech construct on her wrist to give him a visual of the broken pieces. Perhaps he will be better than she at putting the jigsaw back together again.


"Alright. I'm on my way … I hope."

That's Captain Marvel's last transmission, before she dives hard and fast into the almost absolute-zero cloud of energy that is Boreas, arms open, trying to seize the power core of the satellite and fly straight down into the ocean with it, pulling out to try to even out and 'fly' underwater across the breadth of that huge supercell storm towards the atol and the cave where Diana is still checking out the former prison.

From what Ozymandias can find, given the images passed along, it should be possible to reassemble the prison. The challenge will be doing so while still leaving a way for the merely mortal to get back out. It will require reassembling the pieces - something the computer can provide a guide for - and then replacing the seal symbol in place, which will require somehow rejoining the pieces of the run into a single contiguous whole. Some melting of precious metals and stone, most likely.


Diana is smart enough to see the pattern. But, she's no Superman. Smelting is beyond her immediate capabilities. However, Captain Marvel might have the means for that… and maybe Diana can use the lasso to keep Boreas in place while Carol works. She unslings the Perfect from her belt and loops it over a wrist, moving to one side of the erstwhile entrance to await what she expects will be a fairly explosive entry. Fortunately, she's often been told she's faster than the wind. Today… she'll find out for sure.


Ozymandias turns away from the WatchTower's communication system, and turns back to WatchTower's database to start his research. Ozymandias combines his own knowledge of occult and history as he tries to narrow his search for the correct information. The continuous taping of Ozymandias left foot signifying that he is in deep thought as he puts together the various pieces of information to discover how to put together the ward.

Ozymandias begins searching the mineral contents of the island. "I am sending you a transmission on how to put the rune back together, The islands has a some pockets of heliolite. There is a pocket a few yards from where you at, Wonder Woman. I am sending the coordinates."


By the time Captain Marvel emerges from the ocean, she's basically a flying mini-iceberg, a Capcicle clutching a (literal) cold-fusion core. But she keeps herself moving out of sheer force of will - thank goodness she doesn't have wings that need to flap or anything for this to work! - and aims directly for the island and Diana in hopes of getting there … even as the supercell storm reverses course and speeds up, charging after her with Boreas still at its core.

Incoming!

By the time Carol manages to defrost enough to speak, her teeth are chattering. "OK. I've … got … it. … He's … after … me." She may be immune to the cold of the depths of space, but there's just something about being wet and cold that pierces even that resistance at least a bit.


Diana can empathize. Seriously. But, there's an angry god coming, so empathy will have to wait. A mental command to the Lansinaar projects Ozymandias' coordinates. "I will hold him," the princess promises the astronaut, lifting her rope as the projection identifies the ore they need. "You're going to need do the artistry." There might just be an unspoken 'good luck' in her tone. Sometimes, holding onto rampaging gods is the easy part. When the god inevitably comes crashing through, Wonder Woman is planted and looping the golden rope high around him in an attempt to hold him fast. "But, hurry!"


Ozymandias sits in the tower and mumbles to himself about being old and broken down.


Better old and broken down than young and broken down, right? At least Ozzy had his heyday.

Maybe it's a good thing Carol is too darned cold for the banter right now. It would have been rather mean if she'd have delivered that one, right?

Captain Marvel dives through the open hole in the atol cave's ceiling, reactor in hand, and she drops it at the bottom of the cavern as she turns around, pulling up Ozzy's latest artistic guide on her barely-defrosted comm unit and then diving back out the hole as poor Diana struggles to hold into the fearsome and ferocious Great North Wind.

Heliolite, heliolite, what the frell is … oh. There. That must be it. Carol punches down into the stone and fetches the heliolite, then heads back to the cavern. "You're kidding. You want me to do arcwelding? Seriously? OK, put up the pattern I'm making, will you?"

Yes, Princess Sparklefists can actually weld metal. It's not her specialty by any means, but she can do it. Which means she can reassemble the rune in working order.

But now they need to get it into place. "Now what?!"


Diana whomps into a stone wall as Boreas struggles. But, her grip is iron and will steel. She flies up off the wall, a growl of effort in the back of her throat as wind and ice pelt her, quickly turning the small cavern frigid. "Back… into… your cage, titan!" Straining and pulling with a doublehanded grip, she jerks the god to return him the favour of an impact with the nearest wall. "The ceiling!" the princess calls to the captain, "The rune needs to fill the hole in the ceiling!" Another growl of effort, followed by, "After we get through it, but before Boreas does!"

Sure. Why don't they just lasso the moon, while they're at it.


"Use some of the sunstone or heliolite to slow the process of Boreas" Ozymandias raises up in his seat in excitment of coming up with a plan, but quickly bring his left to his left ribs as he winces in pain." Ozymandias says, "Maybe that will get you enough time to finish the rune, and make it through the other side. It will be close."


"You don't want much!" Carol snarks. Because, see, she can only contain the snark so long. Then it leaks. Sorry!

Captain Marvel gets the thing welded back into shape, and attached to a capstone of … well, stone. Heliolite to be precise.

And then Carol cries out, "Leggo the eggo!" and zooms off at her top speed, aiming for a rather rib-bruising tackle of the Themysciran princess, zooming right out the hole in the roof … dragging the completed capstone with them, attached to Diana's magic lasso … and then plucked off as it is pulled tight to plug the hole.

Wasn't that exciting?

"Fiji. Seriously. Maitais and Fiji. We deserve it."

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License