< Watching Movies | Hang Time | Whiskey Kiss >
[ PrivateComm ] Barometra: Hey Hang Time, how's it going?
[ PrivateComm ] Hang Time: B! Things have been awesome. Really weird, but awesome.
[ PrivateComm ] Barometra: That's great. Why weird?
[ PrivateComm ] Hang Time: I was taking care of a problem with the Council last night, and all the guys in the base were... kinda utter morons.
[ PrivateComm ] Barometra: Oh, you mean the *Council* were morons... that's great.
[ PrivateComm ] Hang Time: I was like... I mean, I know they aren't trained THAT well, but I caught almost all of them by surprise.
[ PrivateComm ] Hang Time: And it was pretty much the same with some Devouring Earth later -- they just weren't paying attention or something -- made things a lot easier for me.
[ PrivateComm ] Hang Time: Where yah at? I wanna come say Hi.
[ PrivateComm ] Barometra: Oh, sure....I'm at Icon at the moment.
[ PrivateComm ] Hang Time: Right.
[Two minutes later.]
[ PrivateComm ] Hang Time: Huh, I don't see yah in here
[ PrivateComm ] Barometra: Oh, cause I'm outside...
[ PrivateComm ] Hang Time: Cool... Anyway.. I mean, those missions went really well, cuz I whupped em silly, but it was weird.
[ PrivateComm ] Barometra: You said that before -- but that didn't sound that weird.
[ PrivateComm ] Hang Time: They just didn't... I dunno. It was like they just... didn't notice me?
[Jason walks up to Barometra and flips off his comm.]
Hang Time: Your hair's different.
Barometra: Hey! Don't sneak up on me like that!
Hang Time: Sorry, but... what?
Barometra: Didn't see you there....sorry.
Hang Time: Umm... I'm wearing a red and black body suit. I have on big clumpy boots. I couldn't sneek up on a guy in a coma.
[Barometra peers at Hang Time.]
Barometra: You know you're see-through, right?
Hang Time laughs.
Hang Time: Wait. What?
Barometra: No, seriously. I can see the Tsoo on the other side of you.
[Barometra walks around him and knocks all the Tsoo out with a blast, then turns back to Hang Time, who is just standing there, kind of in shock, staring at his hand.]
Hang Time: I look normal to me.
Barometra: That's really weird. When did this start?
Hang Time: When did what start? I dunno, I didn't know it was happening. I haven't seen anyone since...
[Barometra watches him curiously, then taps his shoulder, which is still there.]
Hang Time: Umm... maybe yesterday afternoon I saw Kid and... Shock? And they didn't say anything.
Barometra: Hmmm....weird....
Hang Time: So... it must have happened after that? My skins been kinda tingly or prickly since about... last night.
Barometra: Did anything happen to you?
Hang Time: We fought this major bad guy in a Portal dimension. Some kinda freakshow with a nuclear core for a power plant.
Barometra: Hmm.
Hang Time: Actually, I noticed the tingly after we got back from there. I figured it was the radiation -- hard rads always make me kinda warm for a couple days. And yeah, I know how weird that sounds, but that's all that usually happens. I've got lots and lots of energy right now, but I didn't...
Barometra: Can you make yourself not see-through?
Hang Time: I didn't know I WAS see-through.
Barometra: Well, can you try?
Hang Time: ... Okay. Never had to think like that. Let's see.
[Hang Time thinks for a second, then grins and hops up and down and waves his hands around.]
Hang Time: Anything?
Barometra: No. What are you doing?
Hang Time: Trying to be noticeable.
Barometra: ...
Hang Time: Hang on... a real idea. Come over here.
[Hang Time jogs down the street and stops next to a small group of gang members.]
Hang Time: You dudes are under arrest, okay?
[There is a big explosion of energy. All the gang members are knocked unconscious, and Hang Time is fully visible.]
Barometra: There!
Hang Time: Yeah?
Barometra: Yeah, I can see you fine.
Hang Time: Ohhhkay, that explosion thing blows off a lot of energy, so maybe... awww damn I'm getting the prickles again. Lemme try to... hang on... dammit. Nnggghh.
[Hang Time fades out, grimacing.]
Hang Time: Lemme guess, I'm out again.
Barometra frowns, "Did you do that on purpose?"
Hang Time: Nah. I tried to blow off another nova to stop it.
Barometra: Well you can't just use nova's whenever you want people to see you.
Hang Time: Right, and it's only for about what... ten seconds? I'm going to be the damn invisible man. This sucks.
Hang Time: Wait, can you see my clothes normal or is everything hazy? Maybe I could wrap myself in --
Barometra: Everything is hazy; it has to be some sort of field around you.
Hang Time: ... oh.
[Hang Time looks utterly bummed.]
Barometra: If you want I could try to help you. I AM a scientist... *mumbles* even if I'm not a very good one.
Hang Time: You are? I guess that makes sense, of course you are.
Barometra nods.
Hang Time: You mean like build something? That is, if you're a scientist that builds stuff. I'm not so much with the drinking nasty stuff, but I can if I have to, I guess.
Barometra: No....well I don't know, but I might be able to find out why it's happening... unless its magical...
Hang Time raises a transparent eyebrow. "Please, the only thing magical in my life is ... umm. Okay, nothing."
Barometra: Do you know where your powers come from....I mean is it a mutation or something?
Hang Time: Oh, you know my deal -- freak accident of science?
Barometra: Nope. Did you volunteer for an experiment, I mean how did YOU get mixed up in a science experiment?
Hang Time: Umm... I got zapped? The guys at Orion Labs said something in the out-of-court settlement about a containment breach?
Barometra: Oh okay. I getcha.
Hang Time: *very tiny* iwasdeliveringpizzatothelab
Barometra laughs.
Hang Time blushes. "Anyway, I've been reading, and I think maybe it was nanites or something."
Barometra: Nanites? Like nanites still in you?
Hang Time: Yeah, this big glass coffin-sorta-thing broke open when the other machine that I bumped into blew up, and I got gunk all over me. I've been thinking maybe it's nanites, and they process light or something into energy, like a plant, and I siphon it off by doing stuff. If that's right, then maybe I'm not siphoning off enough, anymore.
Barometra: Hmm... I don't know a whole lot about nanotechnology, but Dark Neutron... he's a Storm Knight, I hear he knows about that stuff.
[Hang Time nods, sighs.]
Hang Time: Maybe just hook me up to the power grid. I can light up houses and people can come visit me.
Barometra sighs.
Hang Time: Sorry, I'm being a downer. I mean, it's cool, the bad guys don't see me -- but I'm sorta friggin' invisible enough anyway.
Barometra: Don't worry, the thing about science is, if there's a scientific problem, there's a scientific solution. It's just a matter of finding it.
Hang Time nods, taking comfort. "Yeah. Okay. That's cool." *thinks* "Maybe just wear some kind of bio-cybernetic power leech, located over one of the three main power points in the body... something to pull off the excess energy signature."
Barometra gives him a look.
Hang Time: Umm... I've been reading maybe a lot.
Barometra: Hmm... alright, pizza boy.
Hang Time: Oh yeah, I brought the cunning good looks in the Paragon Pizza outfit, you betcha. Bike courier, at least I looked like I was doing something athletic.
Barometra laughs and pokes Hang Time, "And it could be worse. It could be a lot worse."
Hang Time: Yeah, how? Oh, your hand could go though me.
Barometra: Yeah.
Hang Time: That would suck.
Barometra: Yeah it would, then try getting a date. *grins*
Hang Time: Pffff, like I can anyway.
Hang Time: You know what's weird? I look normal to me.
Barometra: Hmmm...
Barometra: Maybe because... never mind.
Barometra looks away.
Hang Time: Don't say I'm fading out of this dimension, cuz I'm pretty much *over* being a Doctor Who extra today.
Barometra lies, "I wasn't going to say that."
Hang Time nods. "M Mmmhm?."
Barometra: Listen, it could just be that the field or whatever that's around you is allowing photons to pass through...
Hang Time: So maybe I finally do have a glass jaw.
Barometra smiles weakly.
Hang Time: Yeah, not funny to me either. Listen, thanks, I better go for now.
Barometra: Alright, keep me posted, I wanna try to help.
Hang Time nods. "I will. Heck, I dunno who else I'd ask."
Hang Time: I like your hair.
Barometra smiles, "Thank you."
[Hang Time takes off.]
"Toughness doesn't have to come in a pinstriped suit."
-- Senator Dianne Feinstein
---
I've been beat before. The first time I had to take down a nest of Tsoo -- jesus, that was awful. Goddamn nightmare, really.
First time I was out with Barometra and Ulric -- yeah, that was pretty awful down near the end. I mean, great to be working with some of the team, but it was a rough night.
Devouring Earth. Those damn Banished shamans...
I've been beat before, but I've never given up.
My eyes have always kind of glowed, ever since the accident. At first, it was just a little freaky -- I could see em in the mirror even in a dark room -- kinda like those glow-in-the-dark rubber balls you can get out of the vending machines at the supermarket. I really have done a lot of reading, and I'm pretty sure I've got some kind of nanobots in me: stuff that should have died off or killed me by now, probably, so maybe I am some kind of mutant, just because I'm not dead from all this stuff.
"Hi, I'm Jason, and my mutant power is not getting killed by stupid stuff I do."
If that were true, I'd be the most powerful hero on the planet.
Anyway, I figured it was nanites, and they were probably powered by light or something -- so I figured it made sense that my eyes would glow like that, because that's the place were the most light comes in.
Then the glow got worse. I wore sunglasses, because it was noticeable in the daytime, that the whites were too bright.
Eventually I noticed the light was enough to read by; more than enough.
One night in the shower I noticed my skin on my arms and face was glowing too. Wearing too many t-shirts, I guess.
It's pretty much all over, now. When I wear the Phalanx Whites, it shines through the clothes.
"Hi, I'm Hang Time of the Freedom Phalanx, and I use Colgate Super-Whitening. A *lot*."
It's been great doing this work -- I'm good at it. I've been good at lots of things, but this is the first time I've been good at something that mattered -- something that helped. That feels good.
I don't really hang out with that many people. I try to keep it restricted to comms most of the time, because people see that glow around me, thinking I'm a hero or a leader and expecting that halo to mean something important -- something that isn't "I have no idea what's happening to me."
I guess I just got uncomfortable with people looking at me.
Huh. That's sort of funny, now that I think about it. I got my wish.
And actually, that's not true -- I *love* hanging out with people, but I always feel kind of weird anymore -- trying to keep my distance, I pretty much pushed everyone I like away from me, or they just talk to people who have their crap together better than I do. Hell, I don't even see Hushman much anymore.
Of course, he doesn't see me, either.
My skin's finally gotten to the point where light just shines through it. I don't so much glow anymore as fade. Everything looks normal to me, but to everyone else, I'm only half as there as I was.
And I was only halfway there in the first place.
I've been beat before.
But I never wanted to give up.
< Watching Movies | Hang Time | Whiskey Kiss >
