2017-03-20 A walk in the park
This scene is rated Everybody
Warning: N/A
2017-03-20
Players: Kent Nelson, Atalanta
GMed by Kent Nelson
Title: A Walk in the Park

Rating: everybody

Early afternoon in the the City of the Future. The birds are singing in the park, squirrels running around on ground that's only been without snow for about a week. Spring is definitely here. Or very close. The is a bit of chill in there air, but the bitter cold of winter is all but gone.

The city is busy as per the norm, traffic flying by at 'get the heck out of my way' speeds. Couriers on bikes are weaving in and out of traffic, sometimes in the streets and sometimes not. The sky is clear and the air is crisp. A good day to be out and about.

And so Kent is out and about, right now he's seated on a park bench near the main road, focusing his attentions on a pair of squirrels chasing each other around the base of a tree.

Atalanta is on patrol…she has a computer program to set the time and path for her patrols so they can not be easily anticipated. Patrolling a regular route is just asking for an ambush…or for someone to act while they know you are elsewhere. Of course…some smart crooks stage distractions instead. In any case, as she nears the park she sees a bike pull around a corner, taking a left turn, and a car moving faster than the posted speed limit heading towards the rider. She has a trick she has been meaning to try. Ever since she learned how to cling to surfaces in fact…before she could not stop a car without being knocked backwards…well not from in front. She could run beside the car and pick it off the ground and then slow down while carrying it…most cars are well within her weight limit. She wants to know if she can stop a car by anchoring herself in place and exerting her strength to stop it though…a classic move her father has done more than once and one that is generally impressive. She stops near the bike and between its projected path and the car's and sets herself in place…

Kent turns when he hears the brakes start screaming, the driver trying like hell to stop when the masked woman plants herself in it's way. He hadn't even considered the courier beyond her. That slip of a girl trying to deadstop the car. But ten feet to go.. it's going to hit with terrible force.

A reaction that Kent sometimes cannot control. An urge.. a demand. Kent cannot easily resist it despite almost a century of practice. In the blink of an even he reaches out, into a place that is not a place.. and pulls a golden gleaming helmet from it, and slips it over his own head.

A pulse of golden energy erupts from him. An explosion of golden power. The epicenter of a timeslip spell. Fate appears in Kent's place. Golden helmet, bracers, belt, boots and flowing cape over a dark blue bodysuit. Chiseled from muscle and grace. All time around him caught between the seconds of the clock. Fate steps forward, the grass under his feet released from the spell at his touch. He approaches Atalanta, eyes dispassionate. He can sense her power.. but wonders if her stopping the car like this is .. premature. He reaches out and touches her shoulder with a finger, releasing her from his spell, into a frozen world.

Laura feels a touch on her shoulder and everything freezes. She is used to everything seeming to be in extreme slow motion when she is using her speed, but this is more than that. She looks over and recognizes the costume, "Doctor Fate." She looks around, at the stalled time, "Your work I assume?" She looks at the car, "I was attempting to test myself…I think I can do this…but I need to KNOW in case I ever HAVE to."

His gaze rests on her for a moment, and nods once acknowledging her statement. "The same." Then stops and motions to the man behind her, the bike courier whose face is very very slowly contorting in fear, seeing the car about to smash him. He tells her pauses. "Potentially risking a civilian life? If you choose to play the hero… then you know saving lives is paramount. If you are wrong, perhaps you can take the abuse. But he cannot." He says and lowers his hand. "If you do not know beyond all doubt that you can achieve a thing, then putting others at risk while attempting it is nothing short of foolish. You would would do well to practice where others cannot be harmed."

He states and raises both hands. His fingers work in a pattern, arcane symbology appearing in the air and he touches the car with it, stealing its kinetic energy, and releasing it from the spell in the same movement. The driver looks around in his now motionless car, just short of terrified and very confused.

Fate works another, more complicated symbol and time resumes around them. The courier lets out a small scream thinking he's about to be pulverized. Then very confused why he's not. Then he screams again, at Atalanta's presence and Fates sudden appearance.

"If you wish to be tested… that can be arranged Daughter of Krypton."

Atalanta acknowledges, "I probably should have moved the rider first, but I do know I could have succeeded…the only question is whether I could have done it the way I wanted…or if I would have had to use an alternate means." She could, she knows, have used the car's momentum to throw it over the biker, and would have if the attempt to stop it had seemed to be failing. Landing it on the other side would also have been relatively simple. There is always more than one way to do something…it is just a matter of finding the one that works you can do. Sometimes she does act without sufficient forethought.

She adds, "If you can help me test myself more safely, I am willing."

Kent makes a fist, then extends thumb, forefinger and pink. This generation knows it as the 'rock on!' symbol. A golden Ankh shimmers into existence around his hand, and he casts it out, the symbol growing until it's roughly the size of a doorway. Which of course.. is what it is. "If you know you can.. you are not testing yourself. If you doubt yourself, then you do not know you can. If you wish to find out.." He says motioning to the glowing hole in reality.

He ignores the courier, staring at him, slack-jawed. He ignores the driver of the car, who is opening the door slowly. He ignores the crowd gathering for a glimpse of Dr. Fate, cellphone cameras snapping away. "Shall we?"

Knowing she can do it SOME way is not the same as knowing she can do it the way she WANTS to, however she does not quibble. She winks and says "Ladies first," before she steps through the opening.

The doorway leads to.. well.. nowhere. It's blackness. Like stepping into a pitch black room sort of. But there is a ground. Stone hard if you stomp or test it.

Fate steps in behind you and the doorway shimmers and vanishes. He waves a hand and the black brightens, a light source coming from the ground itself to illuminate the space.

Remember the training program in the Matrix? Much the same.

Fate takes flight and drifts into the 'air' and floats past you. "A pocket dimension.. similar to my Tower. You cannot damage anything here. But it can damage you." He tells her

As he speaks he waves a hand, the car from before.. the very same make and model, the same terrified driver appears ten feet away, rocketing at her, going to collide and pulverize the courier that is suddenly behind her.

Atalanta reacts with Kryptonian speed, stretching out her Kryptonian Aura into the ground around her, rendering herself nearly immovable, and crouching forward with her arms extended. The car touched her hands and she slowly (for her) increases the pressure, moving her arms inward towards her as she increases the force with much less sudden pressure that simply stopping it…though still far faster than it is built to stop. It is a strain for her, and if it reacts like a real car there are dents in the metal she is pushing against. The strain has her muscles and tendons painfully pushed…but it does work.

The physics are real, the vehicle is real steel and plastic and such just made and bound by Fate's magic.. The weight is real. The car crumples the front end and the back end lifts up a bit, slamming back to the ground and bounces once on rubber tires. The drivers is jolted forward, slamming his forehead on the steering wheel, but aside from a migraine it looks like he'll be fine. Then the illusion vanishes. "Well done. Perhaps something bigger?"

Fate calls out and a semi truck appears and the same pedestrian is about to be crushed.

A semi is too much mass for her to stop…at least that way. The first thing to do is move the biker out of the way…extending her aura enough to keep him from being damaged. She considers stopping the truck…she does know a way to do it. She is pretty sure there was nothing else she would need to save though. She says after it passes, "I can lift a car, or even an Elephants as it happens, but I can not lift a truck. If I can not lift it I can not safely stop it by brute force. I COULD stop a truck, or even a train, but the way I would need to do so might be damaging to the environment or any people nearby. I have been practicing using my speed to move masses of air…I could create a huge mass of wind to slow the train or truck…but it would produce local winds that would be quite forceful."

Kent shakes his head, and the truck vanishes. "You performed as well as any. The truck was irrelevant. You saved the man." He says motioning the man. He smiles and waves at you before vanishing. "Being a hero means helping those who cannot otherwise help themselves. It's not about flashy powers or speed or strength. It's about having the strength of will to step up to the moment. You may be surprised at how many lack that."

Laura nods, "The ability to not freeze in a crisis, the will to act rather than let someone else do something, the ability to risk yourself for others…all are required. It is why I consider people without powers who possess those qualities greater heroes than I am."

Fate nods. "Then you have learned what I have to teach. All you need to do.. is remember it." He says and both he the white fade away, leaving you in the park where you where just minutes ago.

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