Planning

[time_dancer]

Val's room is something like a mix between a New York warehouse studio and a high tech lab. Instruments glow and beep along one wall and the windows (or are the flat screen monitors?) show the New York skyline in the early evening of Autumn. Over the center wall is a large portrait of the Fantastic Four family; Reed, Susan, Johnny, Ben, Alicia, Val, Franklin, and Jennifer figure prominately. On an opposite wall another family portrait shows a happy Susan with a seemingly equally happy Victor von Doom (in armor), an older Franklin (teen aged) and Val. Over by the lab area there is a dry erase board with the words "Save Johnny" written very large.

There is a round table in the center of the room with enough chairs for everyone. Food and drink (digital variations are present) are on a side table next to plates and cups. Floating above the table is a 3D holo-map showing a flat asteroid about the size of a couple football stadiums with several smaller asteroids floating about it. There is a red light blinking just off the center of the large rock island.

"So here's the landscape. Aunt Jen, you've had more experience with the Negative Zone. Would you mind explaining its nature for us?" Val asks once everyone is settled. All traces of her usual cheery self are gone, today Val is all business. At the head of the table there are also a few floating screens showing several different species of the insectoids and some stills of the character of N-Zone space.

Comments

[a1enzo]

"I was thinking more for steering when the gravity's off. See, the jetpacks kind of have two parts, the lift is like all our other vehicles and that doesn't usually work in matter worlds, but the rest is air jets for moving around once you're in the air. Would that be any use?"

[gammagammahey.livejournal.com]

Jen's not an expert of jetpacks, but she's used them a time or two. When you can jump a mile at a time, flying becomes irrelevant.

"I assume they would be of use, Enzo. Try it and see."

[a1enzo]

"Okay. I've got my own. Anyone else wants one, we can get them from Bar, but make sure they're matter before taking them out of Milliways."

[gammagammahey.livejournal.com]

"Hmmm. I have no idea how a jetpack will work in the Negative Zone."

She taps a finger against her lips.

"Your sister will kill me if anything happens to you. I'll kill you if anything happens to you. The most important thing to remember is that what's in the Negative Zone is fast, hungry for blood, and can come from any direction. I'm tempted to forbid you from coming but I know that it's useless."

She sighs, then smiles. "Besides, now I get to see a Guardian cadet in action. Or did you graduate?"

[a1enzo]

Enzo grimaces when Jen mentions his sister.

The upcoming battle is actually a source of less anxiety for him than, well, Dot finding out. About any of this. They say it's better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, but in this case 'better' is simply defined as 'a non-zero chance'.

He forces a smile, though. "Nah, not for two more years."

[time_dancer]

Val had been listening with half an ear while she discuses the schematic of the alien guns Ellen had.

"A jetpack is an interesting idea," Val muses while making a promise to herself to make sure everyone gets back no matter what it takes. In her panic and worry for Johnny's fate she hadn't considered the lives of these people. Enzo and Jen's talk brought that point home quite acutely. "It might make you a target though if you're the only one in the air. Does it work with your force field?"

[a1enzo]

That last question hadn't even occurred to him. "Haven't tried them together yet. I'll have to test it first. But what I'm saying is, it won't lift me in the air. But if the gravity's screwy and I'm already in the air, it might help me move."

[time_dancer]

"Oh sorry," Val says blushing a bit. "That's what I get for only listening with half an ear. Are the controls easy to learn?"

[a1enzo]

"Sure, it's just leaning, really."