11176/Cosmic Pit Stop

Cosmic Pit Stop
Date of Scene:	16 May 2022
Location:	Solar System - Astroid Belt
Synopsis:	Star Lord and Stargirl take a cruise in the Milano, but get hit by an asteroid! Good thing Superman's there to serve as the world's strongest tug boat!
Cast of Characters:	Peter Quill, Courtney Whitmore, Clark Kent

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Peter Quill has posed:
"It's a long way, to the top if you wanna Rock N' Roll!" Peter Quill sings along to the music blasting out of the Milano's speakers. He's zipping through space. Well, the space around Earth so is it even really all that interesting? Who knows. But, Quill has someone to show off for: an attractive lady sitting in a seat behind him. He looks over his shoulder, giving her a smile, when...well...there's a reason they say keep your eyes on the road.

WHAM! A loud metallic clang reverberates through the Milano, and the ship starts to spin topsy turvy through space. "SHIT!" Quill says, as he works to quickly undo the damage, flipping switches, pulling on the control stick. The ship is sluggish to respond, but eventually he stops most of the spinning...just in time for there to be a series of loud electronic crackles, and the lights, gravity, and...pretty much everything to go out.

"uh...well...that's...not what I was hoping for..." Quill says in the darkness. "Give me a minute, hopefully we're not super damaged. Otherwise we're gonna have to find out how well you can hold your breath..." He shoots out of his chair and zips towards the back of the ship, calling over his shoulder, "Get in my chair and wait for me to yell!"

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
There was already a mild trepidation that Courtney had experienced before agreeing on this sight seeing tour. Something about the low grade Han Solo was charming, but it also exhuded that "ship is falling apart" feeling that made her hesitate when he offered her a trip around the world. So she rolls her eyes as he hits the asteroid, and shakes her head.

"Sure thing," she says, unbuckling and pushing herself towards the seat in question. Oddly, despite the change in gravity, her staff has no problem following along, although it warbles with a minor bit of anxiety at the situation.

Clark Kent has posed:
This time, on the Adventures of Superman!

The Man of Steel is flying in deep space! Specifically Superman's testing his expanded ability to manuver in space; he's much faster, he finds, free of Earth's gravity and with direct contact to the sun without an atmosphere in the way. Still Clark has his space helmet on, and the Watchtower teleporter on his cape just in case something goes wrong. More importantly, he has an experimental coms device the League wants him to test the range of just for the possibility of deep space distress missions.

Clark does a figure eight, because no one's watching.

Peter Quill has posed:
From deep in the bowels of the ship Courtney can hear banging, and cursing, and more banging. And more cursing. Eventually, there is silence. Maybe he ran out of oxygen? Just about when Courtney might feel like she needs to go and make sure the 'Star Lord' is still alive, his voice comes from the back, "Flip the red switch on the console! The Big Red One!"

After she flips the switch, some of the lights on the console turn back on. The control stick is dead though. Nothing doing at all with that. But...the sound system is on at least? It goes back to blaring 70's rock at Courtney. "Hey...uh..." Peter says as he glides back into the cockpit, "So...seems our engines are out...but...if you flip on the comms there, and grab the headset, you can send out a distress signal. Someone will probably hear us. We're somewhat close to civilization."

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
If it was possible for eyes to roll harder, Courtney's would. She grabs the headset as directed, sighs, and starts talking. "Hello Control, this is the ... " She looks around for a moment. "Uh, Doherty, I think? Anyway. We hit an asteroid and we're listing pretty heavily. If someone could come pick me up, that'd be great. It's after my bedtime."

She lets out a little smile, wondering if that will tweak a bit of paranoia in "Star Lord".

Clark Kent has posed:
Superman's ears perk.

He looks at the communicator, which picked up just enough that his super-hearing could do the rest. Fortunately his ears can pick up the subtle wail of the distress signal, despite the lack of proper noise in space. It's complicated. Superman frowns a little at the banter he can pick up, but best not to leap to conclusions.

At least it's not space pirates. Superman cracks through the air, building up speed that's a bit difficult to control, if he's honest. But he's got to get used to it. Even out here, people need him.

The Milano will pick up a gleaming red and blue blur as Superman comes into view. He waves, and tries his communicator again. "-Lord is that you? Is everyone on board alright? Where do you need help?"

Peter Quill has posed:
He doesn't say anything out loud, but rather just mouths something very filthy and annoyed looking at the viewscreen, before he sighs and reaches out to take the communicator from Courtney, a little roughly, like he's annoyed with her joking. Maybe. Or probably the guy in red and blue spandex outside his window. "Yo, Supes. Yes. It's Star Lord. Here. We are all alright. Just, burned out or engine. Randomly. No reason at all. Weirdest thing." He then considers his next words, before he says, "You got like jumper cables or something in that suit? Or, you want to drag us to like, NYC?"

When he finishes, he looks at Courtney, and says -- in a voice that suggests he thinks this is a turn for the better on what he absolutely assumes is a date -- "That's Superman out there. He knows me."

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
Courtney knows who Superman is. Who doesn't? Her eyes go wide as she sees the Man of Steel. She is aware that Peter is saying something - or at least, there is a quiet warbling sound next to her. But the stars in her eyes start spinning as she sees the greatest hero the world has ever known.

"Wow..." she murmurs to herself.

Clark Kent has posed:
Superman gives the Milano a sheepish wave as Star Lord confirms. He wonders what's up; the Guardians tended to come and go as they pleased, and often brought trouble with them. Still, he owed Quill something fierce for the whole Oa incident, and a little good will could go a long way even with a rogue like Star Lord. It sounded like he has a passenger too.

"Okay. Over." Superman says, messing with the com. It's patchy at best, to be honest. "Did you say a jump start? Peter I don't even know what your engine runs on man. What did you do to the thing?" Clark's eyes gleam white as he scans the Milano's engine. "Maybe a focused blast of my infrared vision could get her going again? I don't really do electricity. Does your friend have any powers that might help?" Here's hoping this isn't a smuggling job.

Peter Quill has posed:
The wow from Courtney gets a very confident smile from Peter, until he realizes that she's practically drooling at the sight of the Man of Steel. He turns a very unflattering shade of green as he reaches out to start flipping switches on the console, "Yeah...wow. He's...well he owes me...so...but we should close this. The view port. Don't want to get..there's radiation out there you know. I'd hate if like the sun...burned you or something." Eventually the viewscreen starts to close. One problem down. Now he has to figure out what to tell the Superman outside who he's just not at all suspiciously closed the window on.

"Right...right...no. Don't go shooting infrared beams at my engines. I think maybe just a tow this time. Just a quick lift somewhere I can get outside and figure out what Rocket did to the engines to make them act like this. It's weird he was telling me he scraped the ship against this big rock on purpose to like make the engines run faster, that's why you probably see a big dent and scrape on the bottom of the ship if you're looking, but I don't think it worked? I'll have to...wait let me see if he's on board. ROCKET??" And then he's off, storming towards the back to find the Racoon. Who is DEFINITELY not on board.

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
As Peter moves off, Courtney grabs the headset. "I'm not his friend, Mr. Superman sir. I was just curious to see his rocket, and well, here we are." She smiles as if Superman can see her. "Can't you just grab us and fly down to the Earth? Set us down somewhere near Metropolis, and I can walk home?" The staff next to her warbles, and she shakes her head as if to quiet it. "No, I don't need to tell Superman I will fly home, he'll thnk that's weird!" The button she thought was mute was actually the volume up button, unfortunately.

Clark Kent has posed:
"Gosh, that's a heck of a dent." Superman says, getting used to Quill's aversion to the truth again as he floats under the Milano, frowning at the damage. The ship shakes, slightly, as if something with terrible strength had gripped it. Superman pulls the hunk of asteroid out of the Milano, tossing it into space, and with a quick blast of heat vision patches the hole that made.

Perfect, he thinks, sweating internally.

"Miss?" The woman sounds a little young for Quill, but maybe she just speaks formally. Star Lord was a bit of a pip but he wasn't that kind of guy, right? "I'm afraid I can't do one way trips, getting up to the speed to get back to Earth still takes a lot out of me, and I can't strand anyone here. What was that about flying home?" Another flier might be enough of a boost to make Clark more secure in, as undignified as it sounded, towing the Milano back to the Watchtower.

Peter Quill has posed:
"ROCKET! I SWEAR!" Clark at least can hear Peter yelling inside the ship. Until it shakes as he tugs out the chunk of asteroid. Then Quill gets really quiet for a few moments. Before he rushes off to the engine room again. "Uh...oh..ok. Well, good news is we still have life support!" he yells in the direction of Courtney. He does not mention the bad news. Maybe there isn't any?

He leaves the engine room and starts back towards the cockpit. He missed the whole 'can fly' bit of the conversation, and he moves to sit in the other pilot's chair. The one that smells like raccoon. He frowns, before he says, "Pretty romantic, right? Trapped out in deep space. Superman coming to help us." He is about as thick as the hull of the Milano at times.

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
Looking over at Peter, Courtney just rolls her eyes. The trifecta. "No, I at best can kind of float. It's not really suitable for what we're trying to do, Superman." She sideeyes Peter. "So, I know you said you can't bring ships. What about, like, one person?"

Clark Kent has posed:
Superman raises an eyebrow, again. He's doing this a lot.

Still, far be it from him to get in the way. "Alright, I'll need to build up some speed then, and this might be a bumpy ride." Superman confides, flying away.

Did. Did he just ditch them?

No! Superman flew a ways away, landing on one of the larger asteroids. Doing some math in his head with his Super Intellect (good for these sort of complicated rescue operations.). Sticking his tongue out, Clark kicks off of the rock, building up speed, shaking through the air as he feels himself nearing what he believes is his full potential. As he moves to impact the Milano, well. Ever been on a REALLY FAST roller coaster?

Peter Quill has posed:
Inertial Dampeners buddy! It's how you avoid getting splattered through the back of your seat when going to relativistic speed in a space ship like the Milano. So, while the initial bang is a bit of a jolt, the dampeners kick in and the ride isn't so bumpy...for the first thirty seconds, before they overload and fail as well. THEN it's like a really fast roller coaster.

"Hey....can...you....slow...it...down.....a.....little?" Quill gets out into the headset, as the blood in his body rushes to his various extremities. Which, is not great, but it's not like he's going to die or anything. At least not right away.

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
"Whoa. This is really cool." Courtney says as she floats up to hover near Peter Quill, her legs wrapped around the Cosmic Staff. "Somehow it seems to be compensating for the inertia..." Even her blonde curls are simply hanging normally beside her, as she watches Peter gyrate and swing and probably turn a little green.

Clark Kent has posed:
"Um." Superman says, which is never a good thing for Superman to be saying.

The Milano flies! It is, fortunately, a smooth trip despite the fact that Clark broke the Milano's inertial dampeners because of not knowing his own strength. Struggling to keep the ride straight, Clark has to detach from the ship and push it properly several times. A toe chain, he thinks, would've been easier. No wonder Lobo always carries one around.

"Let me try and even this out!" Clark shouts, and pulls on the speeding spaceship in a way that might even it out, or might cause the entire thing to do a somersault. You are, at least, halfway there.

Peter Quill has posed:
Peter's luck is that the ship goes tumbling, and so it does. The ship starts to flip end over end, which really doesn't help the man any as he's pressed into his seat, groaning quietly, and trying to keep his lunch down. The viewscreen is still closed, which is a mercy in it's own way, as he's not also seeing the universe spin around quickly in front of him. Just suffering the gravitational effects.

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
Somehow, in some way, the Cosmic Staff keeps Courtney's orientation normal, despite the way the ship spins. "Are you okay, Peter?" asks Courtney, in a very concerned voice.

She doesn't know how it works either, but...it does.

Clark Kent has posed:
"Sorry! Sorry!"

The ship soon stablizes: Superman flew around the ship at super speed the opposite way it was listing, finally forcing the Milano to balance itself out. He definitely needs to do more training for space based missions, he's never this clumsy in an atmosphere. "We're nearly at the Watchtower, I can see it. I'll hail our repair crews." Superman says over the line, and redoubles his speed.

Fortunately the crew on the other side are competant and reliable, and soon a repair arm is extended from the Justice League's great satellite base, as troops of purple clad challengers move in to help with extracting the passengers. There's hot coffee, snacks, and space blankets in case someone's suffered exposure.

Peter Quill has posed:
Peter Quill catches his breath as the spinning and the super speed stops. He looks..flattened. But, he puts on a game smile for Courtney and says, "Not such a bad time, was it? We'll have to do this again."

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
Courtney smiles sweetly at Peter. "It's so cute of you to think that." She leans over and gives him a brief kiss on the cheek, and then heads towards the exit. "Oh my god, The Watchtower!" She squeeeees with excitement and starts bopping out the exit to explore.

Clark Kent has posed:
The Milano is pulled into dock; the locals will offer Quill their help, but if Quill insists on Rocket doing the repairs they'll respect the skill of an expert, too. Courtney's allowed the basic tour because everyone wants to avoid some kind of breakdown from being stranded in space. Superman gets on board after helping secure the Milano.

"Phew." Superman says, clapping Quill's shoulder. "Maybe listen to the raccoon when he talks about the autopilot, next time, huh Peter?"