12063/Sometimes You Guesstimate Wrong

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Sometimes You Guesstimate Wrong
Date of Scene: 19 July 2022
Location: New York Harbor Docks
Synopsis: A foolish Skycrane pilot nearly ruins a Naval Air and Sea show when Hulkling with some help from Colborn saves the day. Kaida also was there, ya know, doing mouse stuff.
Cast of Characters: Kaida Connolly, Colborn, Teddy Altman




Kaida Connolly has posed:
A very special treat was happening at New York Harbor today. Many passenger ships come and go from the harbor but today as the Navy is showing off several new vessels to the public (at least the ones that aren't secret) and has set up a whole festival for kids and adults alike. A great many people are visiting to see the newest and coolest things that they are willing to share, not to mention enjoy the food, drink and attractions that have been set up.

While this in and of itself is nothing to worry about, what might be a worrying thing is happening nearby. Aaron Matthews, a pilot of an S-64 Skycrane is using the powerful helicopter to move freight at a greater pace that is strictly safe and moving freight that isn't being precisely weighed. He and his whole team are nearly 12 hours behind schedule and their boss is breathing down their neck...

Kaida smiles as she steps up to the festival. She isn't super interested in what the Navy has to offer but she's heard the Blue Angels are going to potentially put on a show at some point and that's just always cool to see. Not to mention, there's lots of food to eat! She grins as she walks along, dodging feet casually and being generally unnoticed as she heads for a stand that smells like it has grilled street corn!

Colborn has posed:
    Snort. New. High Tech. Colborn finds himself shaking his head a little bit as he turns a corner and sees the goings. By the celestials, how do these people survive in such a low tech society? It's primitive... I mean it's ironic passing through the mind of a guy who makes swords with a hammer and anvil. But that is his obsession and has nothing to do with tech levels.

    But that is how the dark haired, bland man known as Colborn finds himself observing the Skycrane and enjoying a hot dog... though he gets a weird look from the vendor when he puts nothing but yellow mustard on the thing before taking a bite. Either way, he's just watching... peoplewatching, and bitching in the privacy of his own mind.

Teddy Altman has posed:
Teddy loves the sort of festivals. Sure, seeing Navy ships and planes is kinda cool. He's patriotic and all that, and who doesn't love an air show? But the real draw for him is cheap food. He doesn't have real deep pockets, so he's always on the lookout for good eats at a good price.

He's already on his third fried dough when his path leads him in the direction of Kaida, who no doubt is getting a fair number of looks from various passersby. Teddy recognizes Kaida! He 'helped' her subdue some bank robbers (which is to day, he stood outside and listened to her mess up a bunch of fully armed, grown men. Thing is, Teddy is really new to this whole dual identity thing, and at first he doesn't put together that he met Kaida as Hulkling, not as Teddy. So he smiles brightly and waves. "Hey, Kaida! Nice t'see ya again!"

Then his smile quickly fades as he realizes the mistake he just made. "Shit," he mutters low. And then his solution is just turn away quickly like it never even happened, which leads him to accidentally walking directly into Colborn. He looks like he's built pretty decently, but he hits like a truck.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
Leaping up on to the counter of the stand selling Corn, Kaida grins as she drops a few dollars down on the counter (table with a cloth) and then goes to snag one already wrapped and leaps off with it. She is used to helping herself as people tend not to notice her usually. Then someone does notice her and she blinks! She looks over and sees...some guy.

"Uh, hey there...guy." She sniffs at the air and tries to place it and blinks a few times. Familiar and he's leaving. And she's following! And he's assaulting someone on accident! And she's catching up.

Meanwhile...

"YOu sure?!" Aaron calls into his headset and looks out the window.

"Yeah! Course I am! Just over ten tons! No biggee!" The man calls back into his own headset and gives the signal to pick it up. Of course, the problem was is he was just kinda guestimating. Sure, the paper said it was a full train car, filled with gravel and that it weighted in at 14 tons but Carl Jennings has been doing this for forty years and no gravel in no train car weighs more than 10 tons. 11 tops! He knows his shit! Of course, unfortunately for Aaron and Carl, Aaron had disabled a few safety features to get things moving and Carl is a dumbass.

Aaron pulls back on the stick, the helicopter goes up and immediately lurches a little. It levels out a moment later and Aaron keeps moving, his path taking him straight toward the nearby overhead cranes. If Aaron himself wasn't stupid, the helicopter's alerts about being over weight would be going off. The only clue that anyone gets is a faint smoke that begins to come out of the exhaust.

Colborn has posed:
    Giving the vendor a look involving raising both eyebrows, Colborn just turns to walk away. He lifts that hot dog to his face and just before he can take that first bite.. *BAM* He's just about bowled over. The hot dog is halfway smooshed in his hand and against his chest. The other half goes flying off down the sidewalk as he staggers back against the hot dog cart...

    "Sorry." he says to the vendor as he catches himself there... and then he looks down at the hot dog he was about to eat... that he is now wearing. Then his eyes come up and take in the guy who ran into him. Again, both eyebrows raise. But he doesn't -say- anything just yet.

    And then his eyes lift skyward, taking in the helicopter. Those eyes narrow a bit and he shakes his head. "Well, that's going badly." .. he lets his eyes come back down and he scowls. "That load is going to fall, and people are -going- to get hurt." he says.

Teddy Altman has posed:
"I'm so sorry, sir!" Teddy exclaims with genuine remorse in his voice. "I shoulda looked where I was going." He glances over his shoulder to see if Kaida noticed him. He's a six-foot tall blond kid who loudly greeted her by name. Of-fricking-course she noticed him. Don't be dumb, Teddy.He lets out a groan and turns back to Colborn to maybe apologize one or twelve more times, but he catches the comment about the helicopter.

Glancing up to the flying vehicle, Teddy wrinkles his nose a bit as he peers at it. "Are you..." he sort of stammers as he stares skyward. "Nah...those guys know what they're doin', right? I mean, they gotta! Right?" A frown.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
Coming up on the pair, Kaida sniffs at Teddy once she gets closer and then she blinks. She tilts her head, looking him over and trying to place it in her mind before she points and him and is about to say something. That is, when she hears Colborn and looks over toward the helicopter in question.

"What?" She asks and looks at the helicopter. She stares and then her right ear twitches. The tiny mouse then goes wide eyed.

"Grinding...gears are grinding! Crap!" And she races off and starts looking around. She can't fly and can't catch a helicopter but what she can do is be loud if she finds hte right...then she spots a stage and a microphone!

Meanwhile, up in the sky. Aaron is just moving along, unaware that he is about to cause a disaster until he hears a grinding right as he nears the bridge crane. It's nothing big normally. The helicopter bucks slightly. He regains control. The engine makes a popping sound but he stays in the air. He gasps in surprise. HIs heart rate speeds up and as the massive helicopter levels, he breathes a sigh of relief that resolves in a gasp.

He lost altitude. Nothing major most of the time. Twenty yards. Recoverable. Sixty simple feet. Sixty feet that puts his load, hanging by cables under his helicopter, fifteen feet beneath the skycrane. The cables hit the overhead crane nearly smack in the center.

Meanwhile, at ground level, Kaida flips on the mic and yells, "LOok up! The helicopter!" And then she falls from the mic, screaming. Why? Well, everyone starts to go into a panic as the overhead crane buckles with the weight, the load hanging twists and spins, and the helicopter goes nearly vertical. Cables begin to snap, the helicopter literaly buckles and then rips free of its load which goes crashing downward.

The helicopter is starting to spin out of control and is heading straight for the crowd.

Colborn has posed:
    Right. This is what people get for using such primitive equipment. Colborn doesn't want to watch people die though... He sighs and starts to stride forward. He's not really moving like he has a purpose. He figures he has a little time, and he doesn't really want to out himself.

    But then he sighs. In an ancient tongue nobody uses anymore. Well a few might. . . he says, <<Mother Box. Activate Stealth Suit.>> which.. while everyone is looking at the Helicopter... basically makes him look like he's wearing a full covering black bodysuit, mask, gloves, the whole works. I mean he has no costume yet. But he just doesn't want people to be able to ID him. But.. he's moving slowly enough that anyone who -is- in a rush can easily beat him to the rescue.

Teddy Altman has posed:
Well this is just lovely. He has spent his entire life hiding, being cautious, never letting his secret be discovered. And in junior high school and high school, when his body was going through crazy changes, that wasn't easy. Now that he is past the worst of it, he figured pulled it off. Now a ten-ton helicopter is going to crash into a crowd of people, and there will be no more restful nights of sleep if he lets that happen.

Trying to take advantage of the crowd's attention being pulled toward Spinning Sky Death, Teddy sneak into a food stand and ducks down and quickly transforms into his natural form. Into the Hulkling form. In addition to his normal body, he sprouts broad, green wings and takes to the air, propelling himself at a fairly impressive speed toward the out-of-control helicopter. "Oh hell," Hulkling murmurs to himself. For a moment he hovers in mid-air. He's certainly more than strong enough to catch something of this weight, but he's inexperienced. And the thing is spinning crazily. Finally, he lunges at it and manage to grab the fuselage where it narrows toward the tail. He groans and struggles using his wings to try to stop the craft. He manages to stop it from spinning, and he even slows it a bit, but the momentum is hurdling the helicopter AND Hulkling toward the crowd still, albeit more slowly and not twirling and spinning.

Colborn has posed:
    Okay. Big green winged dude is heading up there. Colborn lifts both brows and tilts his head a bit to the left. Rather than charging in, he simply helps while being as subtle as he can be.

    By subtle, I mean he reaches out telekinetically and though he really can only exert about a single ton of lifting weight and pressure with that power... it should be enough to nudge Greenie and Chopper -away- from the crowd... towards the water.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
Kaida takes several deep breathes as she lays there on the stage, having done what she could in this situation. The people in the crowd are starting to calm as several point up and a few seem to call out that a hero is here.

"Is that the hulk?"

"Kinda small to be the Hulk!"

"Is it Beast Boy?"

And more questions as well as just general statements of relief are heard as many still flee while a few that feel safer point and stare and comment.

Of course, Aaron blinks in surprise as his momentum is arrested. He doesn't know what is going on, he only knows that he's now heading slowly toward the water and people are rushing about as the combined efforts of Teddy and Colborn send his overburdened and basically wrecked helicopter into the nearby harbor.

Colborn has posed:
    Having done what he could to help, Colborn repeats the same language, <<Mother Box. End glamor.>> And he's back to normal. It was a holographic disguise after all. But the fact that the helicopter and the big green demangel or whatever it is, seems to be guiding it along... makes him just start guiding people away from the area. "This way. Come on. Stay calm." he says as he gestures and maneuvers the crowd as well as he can.

Teddy Altman has posed:
If Hulkling is surprised that he is now moving out to sea, he doesn't show it. More likely, he's just falling out of the sky with a ten-ton helicopter and doesn't know WHAT the heck is going on here! He could be falling landward or seaward or skyward, and he wouldn't know the difference.

Powerful, alien muscles knot up all over his body as he fights with all of his considerable strength to bring the craft to a stop. Finally and in no small part thanks to Colborn's telekinetic nudge, Teddy manages to stop the craft from falling. For a hot minute he hovers in the air, wings flapping furiously, trying to catch his breath. Then he begins a controlled descent to one of the piers, preferably one with very few people on it. He sets the helicopter on the pier and rips the door off with one hand. He probably...didn't need to do that. He probably could have just opened it. But, you know, adrenalin (or the Kree-Skrull hybrid version of adrenalin). "Is everyone in here alright?" asks the muscle-bound green man. "Does anyone need a doctor?"

Kaida Connolly has posed:
People let out a resounding cheer when the helicopter touches down and some MPs are already getting people away from the initial site of things. Colborn is gestured at to get moving as well. Kaida, as per the usual, goes mostly unnoticed as she slips away into the crowd but not before sneaking back over to the intitial stand and collecting her street corn. No reason to go hungry.

The man inside the helicopter is alone and he looks shocked as he looks over Teddy before nodding.

"Yeah, bu...umm, green...whatever you are." He looks around at the helicopter and slowly extracts himself before looking at things around. Letting out a couple of surprised expletives. Seems that things are good for now. Even as people try their best to get reorganized and the people running the show do their best to recover from this set back.

Teddy Altman has posed:
Hulkling reaches into the helicopter and gives the pilot a surprisingly gentle pat on the shoulder. "The name's Hulkling. I'm glad you're okay, sir." He takes a step back, peers around, and then rockets up into the sky.

Colborn has posed:
    Indeed, Colborn happily moves as instructed. Along the way, he asks, "Can I please get a replacement hot dog?" from the vendor.

    So it is that with mustard stains on his tee shirt, he is walking away with a hot dog he will actually get to ea.... *HONK!* a car startles Colborn, and the hot dog hits the street as he flinches.... *sigh*