19772/The Great (and Near Great) Race!

The Great (and Near Great) Race!
Date of Scene:	29 December 2024
Location:	Penthouse - Kord Co
Synopsis:	Audra, Courtney, and Ted have a race. What could go wrong?
Cast of Characters:	Audra Meridian, Ted Kord, Courtney Whitmore

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Audra Meridian has posed:
One... Two... Three Plugs, a final lock in place, and tucking wires safely into position. "That should do it..." Audra murmurs as she closes the hatch on her booster pack. With the access to better equipment Ted has provided her Audra has been working on making her own tech more modular so it's easier to repair and upgrade. "Of course it's still going to need some proper field testing." But her fellow tech said he had an idea for handling that so we'll just have to wait and see what he came up with. Meanwhile she went about connecting the booster pack to the harness that intergrated it with the rest of her power suit and gadgets.

While she'd made several friends amongst both street and heroic circles it was certainly nice having someone with similar interests that she didn't have to stop and simplify most things for.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord always found Sundays a lazy time. This disgusted Ted, who was a workaholic. He always had to do something. Work and recreation blurred together. It was only his father's Christian principles that made it ingrained not to work on a Sunday. However, he was brought up to be generous and a good host and Audra was his first engineering buddy, since Uncle Jarvis. Right now, his tech was already upgraded, restated, debated and... he's an engineer, not George Carlin. He was ready to go. The course around his building was marked by off the shelf drones, and backed up by his bots, aware and not. At the moment he was floating, Kirby krackle trailing from the aerodisks he wore. "Sweet! Meet you outside." He's gone in a crackle.

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
"Short shame me..." Courtney grumbles as she drives her....er her father's..1955 Bel Aire up to the starting line of the race she's been roped into. "You better be ready to go..." she adds to the car itself. Then, she stares at the dashboard for a few moments, "How do I turn on...wait..here!" She stabs a button.

And with that, the car starts to transform from a standard looking Bel Aire to a...car plane. Wings shoot out of the side, a rocket engine appears in the back of the car, and small hover jets lift it slightly off the ground as the wheels fold in for maximum aerodynamics. She revs the engine a couple of times, just enjoying the feel of the thruster under her.

Audra Meridian has posed:
Audra Meridian watchs Ted zip away. "Don't let anyone bitter they don't have hoverboards yet see you riding those things," she jokes as she shrugs on the harness and once it's resynced with the rest of the suit she deploys the ion arrays. Which do warm up must faster thanks to those additional microprocessors Ted suggested, allowing her to head outside quickly and hover down to the starting point.

Though she's initially distracted by the transforming car into a flying craft. "That's pretty impressive."

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
"My dad built it, it's not THAT impressive..." Courtney says, deflecting a bit. She might be blushing. But, either way, she revs the engine again. "We gonna do this so I can get you both telling the world how great I am, or what?" she calls out to the pair of other racers, clearly ready to go. It's then that she actually looks at the gauges on her dashboard, and hmmms, "Hope I've got enough fuel to do this..." she murmurs under her breath.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord is not distracted by the car. He's focussed on it. Hyper attention disorder is what they call it. Most of his life it was calling him a pain in the ass, or a nut. Genius was not regarded as a special needs category either, but it was.

"Hiya Kid, glad you could make it! My friend Windrose will be joining the race... I disagree. COnsidering the technology your dad had to work with, this is a work of genius and also a classic that will never go out of style! See all this bug related stuff will be passe. I don't care. Anyway the drones mark our course. We have emergency bots on standby and we have victory lunch and champagne inside!" Glee!

Audra Meridian has posed:
"A nice car is a nice car no matter what. Turning into a jet rocket is just a bonus. And hopefully there won't be any mishaps and pool dives this time," Windrose replies with a teasing wink to Ted before pulling her goggles down over her face. "Not going to pass the chance to give the modifications a good solid test before having to deal with an actual crisis situation though."

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
Courtney Whitmore flicks a couple of switches as Ted talks to her, and then grimaces a little bit at the mention of 'bots,' "Sounds good!" she replies in a bubbly tone. She then looks forward and waits for the go signal, revving her engine again, just for fun.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord syas, "The bots didn't mean anything about your statue. It turned out great actually. they were making an observation based on volume and working materials. And, here's one now!" Bot #1, Bobo by name, floats up on its thrusters and holds up a flag. It regards the trio, and waves the flag with a snap!

The race is on. Ted has no conventional engine to rev. The disks emit a whine and their trail glows brighter and grows as he begins!

Audra Meridian has posed:
On the other hand Windrose... kind of has a rev? Though technically it's not an engine, it's from her pointing her arms back at her sides and unleashing a stream of pressurized air from her gauntlets to give herself some additional thrust while launching off the starting point. So it's more of a woosh than a revving, but you get the idea. Plus the ion arrays do leave similar streaks in her wake.

"Those discs are faster than their size would suggest!" Then she glances over, curious to see just how the rocket car performs.

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
At the drop of the flag, Courtney shoots ahead. She was ready to go, and the comment about 'working material' seems to have really pushed a button. She floors it on the rocket car, and...well...it accelerates, FAST. She belatedly flicks down the goggles on her helmet to cover her eyes, and takes the first turn of the course sharply, foot still slammed to the floor. Her supernatural reflexes make it so that she's more than able to hit the apex of her turns easily. The problem is...inertia is real, and her large, heavy, 1950s car, turns like a battleship compared to the jetpack and...nothing that her competitors are using to fly. So, while she has an early lead...that's going to get eaten into real quick.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord armors up, his goggles snapping into place, his mask extending to cover his lower face. Courtney pulls ahead but as indicated, this is a course, not a straight line sprint. As she battles her way in the turn, fighting momentum, Ted cuts inside narrowing her lead. "Don't hit us, you have no idea of the paperwork involved. Also check your right front tire!" Beetle needles people almost like Spider-Man.

Audra Meridian has posed:
While Audra is keeping pace with the other two is behind them, her speed starting to top out at something... Well it would be incorrect to say it isn't impressive seeing as it's being accomplished through a system of ionic propulsion and air force at a personal scale. But it's probably not going to beat out a rocket powered flying car in the speed department.

What she does do is make the turns and weaves of the course with little issue, especially now with the more refined tech she has at her disposal. Her flight ability was by design meant for dealing with raging storms and natural disasters, so mobility was more premium than velocity to her. If it wasn't for the multiple layers 'Windrose' worked on she probably could of pulled something like Dragonfly for a super moniker.

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
Courtney Whitmore waits til she hits the straightaway in the course, and then hits the turbo button on her dash, "Hope this still works..." she murmurs, and then she's pushed back into her seat as the device REALLY works. Perhaps a bit too well! She goes shooting forward, passing Ted for a moment, but then she has to make a turn and well....she goes flying right past it! There is swearing as she tries to get her car back on track, turning around ponderously, and starting back onto the curvy portions of the course as she notes, "Don't hit that..."

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord pulls ahead. he's an ass when he competes. Do not play mini-golf with Blue Beetle. Problem, he's slower than Courtney's flivver, less maneuverable than Audra's armor. Getting a momentary lead, he redlines it to increase it on the straightaway. His goggles input his optimum course and he tries to keep at it. Nearing the next turn red lights shine in his goggles.

Damn off world tech.

Audra Meridian has posed:
Audra Meridian doesn't have fancy course plotting. Nor does she really want it, having that level of direct control with her precise environmental awareness honed in experience helps with maintaining her maneuverability. Agility alone isn't going to overcome speed, but being able the maneuver the twists and turns without sacrificing much of the speed she does have enables her to actually catch up to Ted at the end of the straightaway. "So what do you think?" she calls in his direction.

Courtney may have more momentum to deal with, but with the speed of the rocket car that's more like keeping a balance to the race than actually handicapping her. Or at least how it seems for the time being.

Courtney Whitmore has posed:
The whole 'hope I have enough fuel' thing Courtney mentioned earlier? Maybe...is a thing. Her engine sputters a couple of times, warning her that she's running low on gas. Apparently that afterburner thing ate through a fair amount of it, and she grimaces. The end of the course is in sight, and she pushes down on the accelerator, willing herself to get across the finish line. As it gets closer, and the engine starts sputtering more....well....time to dive and try and salvage things. She heads for the ground and as she does so, she flicks the switch to go from plane, to car. This is a successful maneuver, as she is able to land on wheels...but...uh...now she's in traffic. And has to find a way to dodge through it.

Extraordinary reflexes help with this, thankfully, and she's able to not only dodge oncoming traffic, but get onto the right side of the street, and even skid somewhat close to a parking spot before her engine sputters to a complete halt. She slams her fist on the wheel of the car, and shouts, "Damnit!" Probably more from losing than anything else.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord . o 0 (I need to drive that car. I'll let the Kid drive my Bugatti. She'd like that I bet. Ahhh concentrate!) Audra pulls ahead. "I think the new tech looks good on you... I mean in your... suit. How's it feel?" He wishes someone would shoot him at that moment. He slows down, then adjusts the power grid, removing some of the red indicators. This is what happens when a glorified nerd fiddles with God Tek. No manuals, no exotic materials. He's amazed the Kurtzman and Royer relays were holding. Courtney flashes ahead. He's in last place. then he sees her land and drive. Uh oh. He drops down to make sure she and the vehicle are okay.

Audra Meridian has posed:
"There's always a bit of fine tuning to do for efficiency but everything is operating as intended... and I added firmer clips to the new plugs to ensure no more things getting knocked loose." When it comes to science and engineering sometimes failures are just how you figure out where a design can improve. "Normally I'm not flying this fast as I would also be trying to control a jetstream to knock down fleeing crooks or something, so this is a really good stress test!"

But then Courtney has to land her car in traffic. "Uh oh, she going to be okay?" Stuck in middle of the street isn't a pleasant situation. Audra doesn't stop but she does slow down to get a better eye on the situation, having more concern than a desire to win or anything.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord lands and begins directing cars around Courtney's car. "Go get some fuel, mix number three," he orders a bot. Another bot floats over to Audra and presents a bouquet to her and another with a winner's sash. Fortunately it's a Sunday and traffic in the plaza Ted owns is mercifully light, "Fun race! We'll have to top off the Rocket Racer next time!! I guess you're the winner. Bots don't lie. You completed more course then we did."

Audra Meridian has posed:
"I wouldn't call it winning but I will accept a completion achievement. Celebrating can come later though." Being a heroine that often does rescue work during weather related disasters like snowstorms and landslides Audra is prepared for helped with a stuck vehicle. That being one of her storage compartments containing expandable warning markers and lights, which she sets around the Rocket Car to keep the traffic moving around it and avoiding causing more obstructions while Ted sends his bots to get a refuel.