revivalproject

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impact

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.

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The huff emitted by the Exo did absolutely nothing to rid himself of the glitter that had probably flown into his mouth what with Tony's firing up the speeder. He shook himself off, batting at his hood and brushing off his face with his gloved hands. "Real funny," he said.

He was still trailing glitter as he stepped around to inspect the vehicle that Tony had managed to pull together. Sparrows came in all shapes and designs and colors so really, this one fit right in, glitter and all. Oh the paint jobs Guardians applied to their rides. Standing pointedly to the side rather than behind the rear thrusters or whatever they were, in case there was somehow still more glitter hiding out, Cayde folded his arms as he nodded approvingly.

"Not my choice for color, but other than that? She's lookin' good. Nice job, chief."

See, Tommy wasn't nearly as impressed by it as Cayde was. And he'd helped Tony in some ways by doing things like really not annoying him in the process. And, well, other stuff. But the not annoying him was definitely super helpful.

"It's not his choice for color either. Tony's obsessed with everything being red and gold."

The speedster had chosen his stuff carefully for today. He wanted to see how the thing went, and since he intended to trail it a bit at first, Tommy had actually gone and grabbed his goggles for today. Those were snug over his eyes to protect him from their glitter-pocalypse.

"Didn't the Avengers used to have hovercycles or something like that which you made, Dr. Stark?"

Standing to the side didn't help Cayde much as Tony let the speeder ease back onto the ground, displacing the glitter left underneath it in every direction and making Tony laugh again. He could get comfortable with this level of spectacle. "Not obsessed," he corrected Tommy in the resulting, stark quiet, the small animals that were typically croaking in the nearby edge of the forest shocked away momentarily by the alien noise. "Everything just looks better that way." With a wink in Cayde's direction as he dismounted and gave the seat a welcoming pat, he promised, "Tell you what, if you can beat the kid, you get to pick the colours next time."

There were plenty of fantastical things that Tony had made for the Avengers to transport them around, so he had to consider Tommy's question briefly with a hand to his chin, staring distantly into the clear sky. "Probably. They weren't a big hit. Only Fury really likes my flying car, I've still got a couple of those. Mr. Fantastic's got a whole garage full, though, that's more their style," he said. Tony suspected even the quinjets only stuck around out of unavoidable necessity for the Avengers that hadn't worked out how to survive subspace yet. That would change soon enough.

Scowling under the fresh flurry of glitter, Cayde automatically began to himself off. It was kind of a reflexive thing despite knowing how much the stuff still managed to stick. "Agree to disagree," he said at Tony's quip without even a glance in his direction, which he then amended with a slight smirk. "Empty promises!" Speeder aside, he wasn't sure what Tommy's top speeds were, but if the kid could do things faster than the eye could track, he was pretty sure even a souped up speeder wouldn't cut it. Still, while not completely driven by the promise to pick the next color scheme, the Exo however rubbed his hands eagerly as he sidled up to the speeder and swung a leg over, tossing back his cloak as he sat.

"Hovercycles don't sound nearly as impressive. Maybe it was the name," he commented to both as he looked over the speeder-thing from this new angle to try and work out the controls. "Gimmee a quick rundown," he said, waving Tony over.

"You can't beat the kid," Tommy grins, arms crossed over his chest. So yeah, the speeder would stay at whatever colors Tony wanted them to have. And I've seen Richard's style. It's boring."

Tommy just approved of the unstable-particle clothing. While Cayde asked for an explanation, Tommy just worked on stretching to prepare for the little race.

"Don't worry, I won't embarrass you both as much as I should."

Mildly surprised that Tommy didn't jump at the chance to show off his work, Tony watched him start his stretches with a roll of his eyes, muttering, "What does that mean, should?" Tony hadn't done anything in whole hours to deserve being humbled.

Stepping next to Cayde as he settled, Tony braced a hand on the seat behind him to loosely gesture with the other as he itemized. "Hover engage, you might have to give her a kick to get it going, go button, breaks you won't need, if you flood it, not a problem, give that a tickle just watch out for the kick, speed, attitude, it should be pretty stable but if you have to do a manual correction, open this...." Tony had only been in Poe's cockpit briefly, but he tried to let it inform how he designed the controls as much as possible, leaving Cayde faced with plenty of buttons and not so many smooth touchscreens. Tony still dismissed most of that by pointing to the handles and announcing, "Left, right." The thing could take a few bumps, he didn't expect Cayde to become a pilot.

Cayde rolled his eyes at the speedster's smugness, but not without a smirk. "Doesn't mean I won't try," he said. That much, he could be confident of.

He nodded along as Tony started pointing out things, adding an "uh-huh" and an "okay" here and there. In actuality he really only caught about half of it and figured the rest would be fairly intuitive once he actually started moving. Lack of touchscreens was fine- sparrows were kitted out for speed and response, and then there was that growing trend for adding in some kind of additional thrust and aerial rolling capabilities. The sparrow scene was getting too fancy for his tastes, either that or he was just getting old. Hah. Getting.

"She's built solid, right?" he asked idly as he mentally ran through what he could remember of what had been pointed out. Then he gave the vehicle an experimental rev, sure that at least he'd seen Tony do so that he wouldn't accidentally go boosting off on a false start. Although if he did get an accidental head start he wasn't going to be sorry about it either, not with Mister Speedypants there.

Well of course he didn't show off his work. It didn't really feel like he had done enough work to warrant showing off. He was a helper, still unsure in how effective he was. So instead he just finished his stretching and smiles at the other two. He's excited.

"You really going to suggest Dr. Stark doesn't build things solidly?" Tommy asks, rolling his eyes. That sounds stupid.

It was possible that Cayde had seen more of Tony's impulsive choices than his thoughtful designs, so Tony wasn't in a solid position to take as much umbrage with the question but appreciated Tommy's defence with a wry smile his way that became a smug grin when turned on Cayde. See, Tommy thought he was capable. "You're going to put her through the wringer and find out," he pointed out with a clap to Cayde's back, what did he think they were doing here?, that lingered with a pointed tug twice at his cape, out of Tommy's sight. It would be nice to outmanoeuvre Speed in the meantime, and Tony wasn't above a sly trick. He wasn't delusional, he knew the easy money if the bet was on raw speed.

"Places, racers," he insisted as he went strutting away again, waving Tommy back next to the speeder as he positioned himself ahead of them, back to the expanse of field then the clear road they were aiming for beyond. Both arms grandly in the air, he welcomed, "Welcome to the inaugural Temba Grand Prix, we're all very excited to be here and celebrating this occasion together in this very exclusive, best in their field tournament. Racers are competing for the coveted Speed Demon Cup and a small tip of ten million dollars at the finish line. Who will take the prize today?"

Without an audience to reflect the energy back at him, Tony didn't feel nearly as grand as he hoped. He dropped his arms, shoulders sagging slightly, then raised one more listless hand to announce, "On the count of three--onetwothreego."

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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

"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.

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!"

"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.

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.

"What's up, Buddy?" Poe asks, looking up from his inspection. It's habit more than anything. There's not much left to repair from the crash, and without use daily maintenance is next to none.

BB-8 gives a curious string of beeps in return, looking off and rolling away to try and suss out whatever's caught his attention.

It takes a while longer before Poe can catch the unfamiliar sound in the air, frowning and pushing to his feet.

"...What is that?"

When the smoke had cleared and it was obvious no one was going to die from anything Cobb stood back from it all with his arms crossed over his chest. This sort of shit reminded him of being a teenager, bored out of his mind and desperate for any sort of entertainment that wasn't sabacc or throwing chance cubes. Run a speeder through the commune just to scare up trouble.

"Gotta get out of this hangar," he muttered under his breath.

Cobb had wanted to for awhile. The ship was too cramped and cold. He knocked his head on pipes too often. He missed sleeping in a real bed. Honestly, he kind of missed the quiet as well. Tomorrow he'd take a walk around the city and see what he could find. He might have to fix something up but at least that would give him something to do with his time.

All the inactivity had probably caused all this as well. These folks seemed a little stir crazy, like they weren't used to the quiet or something. He didn't know. It was a hard group to read.

Well, he started walking towards what remained of the mess. Better go see if he could help with the clean up.

In the distance, something is flying. Well, almost flying. Skimming and bouncing over and between the rubble and overgrowth that made up most of the road further up towards the hangar, something very speeder-like is fast approaching. It glitters when the light catches it in all those lovely colors that people have likely gotten sick of from the past week.

Cayde doesn't drive speeders. He drives sparrows, and while they're virtually the same when it comes to function, sparrows tend to get banged up all the time depending on how reckless its owner is. Guardians ride them up old stairways and through ravines, fly across chasms and skim between canyons and boulder-ridden terrain. You get from point A to point B, sometimes dodging enemy fire, sometimes barreling right through it.

All in all, Cayde's been pretty impressed with the vehicle's handling. There's some things that are different but he's gotten the hang of it pretty quick, and with the goal in sight he's pushing the speeder to see what it can give. After everything else, he's confident it should be fine.

And then he hears just a slight whine that he's sure hadn't been there before, and then a rattling, just as Sundance speaks up in his head. ...I'm detecting a power fluctuation, she reports, when suddenly the vehicle shudders beneath the Exo before boosting forth to careen towards another ragged outcropping. "Whoa-!" Cayde yelps, giving the handles a jerk, hard enough to avoid snagging the rising edge, which while it saves a potentially nasty flip into the nearby ruins, sends the speeder shooting off the makeshift ramp. It's shallower than the wall he'd purposely made for, and at the speed he's traveling, Cayde's left no real time to adjust as the thing fishtails briefly before plowing ahead- right for the hangar's opening.

The roar of the speeder's engines grew louder in the hangar as the echo of the sonic boom faded, and in the metallic crunch of the speeder hitting the ground too fast and too hard out of Cayde's control, the whine of the Iron Man's repulsors dropped from the sky to join the cacophony. The armor appeared in the wide entranceway to the ship hangar, casting up the glitter that had gathered there on the ground in the rush of his jetboots as he dropped to hold himself tensely just above Cayde's path, hands up like he might be there to blast the speeder off its collision course with the hangar.

"Time to test the brakes, Hot Stuff!" Iron Man shouted, sure already he didn't have the volume or time to be at all effective. But Tommy was right behind him, and at this angle the best Iron Man could do was blast the vehicle's nose down into the ground, which would have easily calculable consequences for the Exo. Iron Man spun instead just as the speeder hurtled under him, hands still up to blast a hard shove at the first ship planted in perfect t-bone position in Cayde's way, to send its front skidding a few feet across the floor with a groan from the bulkhead and metallic shriek of locked wheels along the ground.

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Page 1 of 5

impact

Forge and Race

Hangar and Collision

After the damage is done

am I supposed to tag here is this the right place

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