impact

[in_extremis]

WHO: Anyone in the area!
WHERE: From the Forge to the Hangar, so clear across the whole right side of the map if you're nasty
WHAT: A race, an abrupt end, and the inevitable consequences
WHEN: Once the glitter has settled, mid-Feb
WARNINGS: Some people will probably get hurt, but I have no metric for how gory they're going to be about it. I'll let you know if it happens.
NOTES: I'll put some toplevels just to organize the sequence of events, but if they're in a weird order to you or you want a different one to do your thing and need me to reorganize, let me know. If you just want to put another one, feel free.
For any further plotting discussion of anything going on here, hit up the plotting post.


While the air was no longer swirling with it, the effect of the glitter gathered like a blanket on the ground was like that of freshly packed snow after a storm. It left Tony squinting in the glare of it with the sun revealed clearly in a cloudless sky, only to bounce viciously off of every coated surface. Even through his sunglasses and hand raised to shade his eyes as he peered down the corridor from the grassy edge of the forge toward where he knew the hangar was, Tony could only consider the path for so long before squeezing his eyes shut against the competing oases that the light threw up. It was going to feel a bit like skiing, he thought.

Returning to the site where his pit crew had been gathering throughout the development of the vehicle, he reported, "It's worth a try." The path up to the hangar was almost entirely a wide, straight road, the longest clear area they had to test the power of the speeder. As Tony mounted it experimentally to kick the power on, it flung a new rain of glitter in all directions, leaving anyone gathered doused once more and Tony snickering from the hovering vehicle. "I don't think there's going to be any problems."

It was a heavy, growling thing under the sleek body that Tony had found time to detail with pink and red glittering stars, inspired by the strange storm. Unlike the Iron Man's whispering repulsor power, the speeder purred even at rest, gnawing through the experimental fuel and whining faintly at the effort of holding itself up and in place, like it was straining against a bit. It felt more like a motorcycle that Tony would be familiar with, likely, than the speeder that Poe was expecting, or the sparrow that Cayde had tried to explain, and without having to rely on the repulsors, it could manage far more weight for longer periods than this model of Iron Man. A heavy Exo could easily take a passenger, or a haul of dinnerware, to start cutting down on the travel time around here.

Or Tommy could be given yet another thing to gloat about.

Comments

[deal_me_in]

Ignoring Tommy's comment, Cayde grinned at Tony. "Just makin' sure we're on the same page," he said, granting him a wink. While he was no Marcus Ren, he liked to think he knew well enough how to handle a sparrow and its like. He'd bet some good glimmer that he'd been riding these things longer than the combined ages of both the two here with him.

"Give me something good, Sundance," he murmured to his unseen partner. Clear road was great and all but these babies hovered for a reason!

"I wonder how much ten million dollars translates into glimmer," Cayde mused. He twisted the grips on the handles, and it really was by pure accident that he boosted forward as he tried to get his feet braced, but by that time Tony had already said go- at least he thought he heard a go, it wasn't like it was shouted or anything- so the Exo went ahead and gunned it, shooting off with his cloak waving like a tattered banner behind him.

[doubled_speed]

Tommy's power wasn't even the fastest person back home. It meant that he always felt like he had a lot to prove. Which was why he intended to make other people respect him for what he did. This was why he waited a full two seconds after the word 'go' to take off. Just trying to show off.

Tommy grinned and took off at high speed after Cayde, soon catching up. His hand reached out to twitch Cayde's cape.

Hey there dude.

[in_extremis]

The speeder snarling past him kicked up a cloud of glitter that left Tony squinting again, then raising his eyebrows curiously at Tommy's lingering. He had just started to wave his encouragement, Tommy should probably actually participate, when the kid when tearing by him as well in a renewed, shimmering shower, leaving Tony fairly coated as he spun lazily on his heel to watch them go. He should probably keep an eye on their progress.

There was no way the Iron Man was keeping up with Speed, but it could easily outpace the speeder by weight alone. He was a glint in the sky by the time they were tearing across the wide road, hovering watchfully and tracking and calculating every minuscule wobble of the bike from this better vantage point before kicking off into their glimmering wake.

[deal_me_in]

"Oh come on!" the Hunter said exasperatedly, flicking a glance to the side even though Sundance's radar told him clearly enough they'd already been caught up to.

While there wasn't actually a road in that direction, Cayde veered off sharply to the left, cutting past remnants of buildings as he broke off from the main street, wondering if the kid would follow. They'd all been confident that the speeder was built tough, so Cayde was going to see what it could do. Anyway, what fun was going in a straight line? There were however a lot of things to make sure he didn't run into.

So of course the smart thing was to go faster, right?

Some zigging and zagging, a scrape here and there from getting a liiiittle too close for comfort with a broken wall. He knew what he was going for, and from Tony's vantage point above, he could probably see it too; a sizable chunk of a collapsed wall that had remained more or less in tact, settled at enough of an angle that theoretically should give some decent air time if some maniac driving, say, a hovering speeder at something-something kilometers per hour could clear that weird angular inner road to get onto the main one running parallel to the initially designated speedway.

An unreasonable detour? Oh, completely. But it was way more fun.

[doubled_speed]

OF course Tommy follows. This adds more fun. If he goes straight, he'll beat the guy, easily. For all he knows the Sparrow is more nimble. So he just runs along with Cayde, laughing as he does so, following with ease. He's running along and twisting to keep up, because wow this is so complicated. Wow, why is this so complicated.

"Just go in a straight line you idiot," Tommy grins as he keeps going. And then... Wait, is he...?

Shit. Tommy speeds up a little to get toward the base of the ramp. This could be a mess. Jumping is stupid.l

[deal_me_in]

"Why, having trouble keeping up with the turns?" Cayde quipped. Because that was the whole point- making this not easy for a smart-mouthing speedster!

Leaning forward, the Exo pushed the speeder as fast as it would go, zooming off the ramp in a sparkling wake of glitter. "Woohoo!!" he couldn't help but shout, but he managed to suppress the urge to try and do a trick, even as Sundance mentally suggested not to. He felt the vehicle start to list and frantically tried to remember what Tony had said about this and that as he started to come down from the- in his opinion- magnificent leap.

"Hover, hover- what was the- oh right..!" Cayde yammered, jerking his leg back to give the speeder a kick as the ground came up closer. There was a bounce as though the thing landed on a cushion of air, and he swerved to keep on the road as he evened it out and picked up speed again.

[doubled_speed]

Tommy stayed back, mostly watching for now. He wanted to make sure that he could do something if the jump went wrong. But with Cayde past him... Tommy grins and piles on even more speed. Enjoy that sonic boom, and the way the glitter expands outwards in a cloud as Tommy didn't catch up but passed Cayde.

"Keep up snail!"

[deal_me_in]

"Boy am I glad I don't have a tongue because I would've bit it clean off with that landing!" Whether he had an audience or not didn't seem to matter; Cayde did love to talk. Sundance gave a warning as the Exo caught a blip on her radar, right before the heavy thump of a wall of sound practically created a glitter storm. "Damn kids!" He juked the speeder this way and that against the buffeting force, and then ran his hands over toggles and switches as he hunkered over the handles, keeping himself low against the wind.

It wasn't a smooth pathway to the hangar from this route. There was no longer a straight shot of road as the main street they were on turned away from the corner of the city the hangar was located. Attempting to cut back towards the outer road would either way mean navigating through rubble and unless anyone had done some serious gardening in the past months, a large overgrowth of greenery spanning along the remaining rugged area of ruins.

But then maybe that was exactly why Cayde decided to go this way. And why he turned sharply past some of the ruins to head back to the road they'd initially started. To be fair, it wasn't all that clear up that way either, but it was at least on the fringes of the ruins and flying at breakneck speeds through uneven terrain wasn't something that the Exo seemed inclined to balk at as he pressed on, the vehicle making shorter leaps and turns as he took advantage of makeshift ramps he could use to circumvent more problematic areas. The hangar wasn't far off now, but he left that detail to his Ghost as he concentrated on the best way to get there.

[doubled_speed]

Oh come on, Cayde. Tommy wasn't exactly certain the speeder should be doing these speeds through this terrain. When he noticed the man was going off, Tommy slowed down and twisted away from his own, easier path to follow Cayde. Not that this terrain would ever bother him, he's done worse.

He trails after Cayde, growing concerned with the landscape. It's okay to hang back, right? He has to think so because there's no way he can't dash past Cayde once they're on the clearer parts.