5903/Blackbird flyin' in the dead of night

Blackbird flyin' in the dead of night
Date of Scene:	10 April 2021
Location:	Paintball Xtreme, East Coast USA
Synopsis:	May takes flight as 'Blackbird' with tutelage from Bobbi. Turns out flying anti-gravity wings is harder than Bobbi makes it look. But May is one of the best pilots around, she adapts quickly.
Cast of Characters:	Bobbi Morse, Melinda May

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Bobbi Morse has posed:
    It's hard to find the right place or the right time to teach someone how to fly an alien anti-gravity flight suit when your agency is considered illegal by the country that used to host your very public headquarters. Luckily Bobbi had found just the spot and just the time.

    4am at the Xtreme Paintball combat arena. A company that went out of business a decade ago set on a beach with a beached oil tanker that had long since rotted enough that the company had gutted it and turned it in to a paintball battle grounds. The large open floors of the tanker made for the perfect slightly lop sided setting. It had theme and gravitas but paintball combat sports simply wasn't to last.

    The wings in question were made anti-grav plates that had been sewn in to a loose split cape and harness that attaches to slightly modified SHIELD tac bodysuits. Linked to a copy of the Falcon Operating System via tactical goggles, leaving the users arms free to do ...whatever.

    Bobbi stifles a yawn behind one hand and lifts up a tablet, "Okay, looks like the arena is clear." The drone footage from one of the dwarves confirming it.

Melinda May has posed:
A 4am call means a 3am wakeup. And no real time for tai chi to settle her for the day. But May is betting learning to fly will make up for it. She probably should have planned today better, though, given she actually didn't crawl in bed last night until 1am -- thanks in part to Peggy's birthday party and, more, to Daniel's sudden revelation. Truthfully? Sleep eluded her.

Not her first sleepless night. Won't be her last. She'll cope. She's just glad she didn't get further into the booze than one bottle of craft beer.

Dressed in the black tacsuit, hair back in a tight tail, May looks out over the playing field. "Good," she says simply, enough adrenaline in her system to combat fatigue. Not that it makes her any more lively on the battlefield than usual. She's focussed, calm, and has that dark look in her eye she usually does before an op. "So, how do we do this?" she asks, glancing at her companion.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "Well naturally we're going to throw you in to the deep end," she says and begins adjusting straps so the rig will fit May. "It's quite light weight and you won't feel much of anything until we turn it on. Some operational notes though. It is alien and we used the supercomputers in the Triskelion to make an interface between them and our technology. That means when things get too extreme, sometimes, the interface can't understand the alien protocol and it has to shut down and restart."

    She holds up the cloak for May to step in to and do up, then holds out the glasses for her to put on. "First thing is first. The suit has three modes of operation - off, on, passive. Passive mode will automatically switch to on if you, say, fall off a tall building. Passive is the normal mode of operation when I'm out and about"

    "We need to get you used to the heads up display. There's a lot of information which you can mostly ignore - but flight controls and ballistic alerts are very important. You read the specs, now you have to use the interface with glances only. Try and move to passive mode. You can access the menu from the top-left of your vision."

Melinda May has posed:
"You're telling me when this this gets stressed... it reboots?" Oh, yeah. That thrills May. Right up there with being thrown in the deep end. The interface is, apparently, as tempermental as Bobbi's cardio system. That's encouraging. Eh. Again. Not the first time. Won't be the last. "Great..."

She steps over to Bobbi and shrugs into the cloak, fastening the harness as Bobbi makes the adjustments. Then, she puts the goggles on, watching the HUD light up and begin feeding her data. "Huhn," she grunts. She did take time to study the specs she was given before they got this far. So, she centers her gaze on the booting up reticule and then, as it fades, glances up to the left, looking for the little icon she expects to find there.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "Now just for the sake of you understanding the information overload that Tony and Falcon are used to, we're also going to link in the dwarf," she says and with a tap on the tablet and May starting up the system the HUD springs to life.

    Information about how much battery power is left is off to the right, but lines indicate direction, altitude, and orientation. Bobbi draws out her ICER and says, "Threat detection and avoidance - can be set to automatic in dire situations.. but check this out."

    Bobbi steps back from May and points to the gun off to the side. It indicates the weapon predicted trajectory in yellow.. then as Bobbi slowly turns the gun toward May and the trajectory moves toward her too it becomes red. "This is particularly useful when you're moving at high speeds because it can see behind you and compute trajectory intersects from thousands of objects at once."

    She motions to May, "Now it's time to fire it up in to activate mode so you can get a feel for what the anti-gravity plates feel like.." that little icon also included a huge host of menu options. Far too many to consider for a first test flight in the suit. Active, though, was right next to Passive.

Melinda May has posed:
May listens attentively. A brow arches as she sees the trajectory interface. "Handy," she notes. "Could use that HUD in a normal fight, nevermind one with wings." Hey, she's not above putting technology to work for her, whatever the situation. She's been in SHIELD long enough to appreciate the edge it can bring. (Never underestimate the power of a well-timed plasma cannon shot.)

Nevertheless, she flicks her gase up to the active icon, focussing on it for a moment. The plates power up and she adjusts her weight automatically in response, feet shifting slightly.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    The split cape separates further as the plates embedded in them form wing shapes. Glowing purple through the material, May can feel how her weight is shifted off of her feet and in to her central core - designed by a fighter for a fighter. Bobbi smiles as she sees her wings come to life on another person.

    "Damn, that does look cool," she comments and says, "Predictive look mode is the easiest way to fly the thing. You'll find that's in the menu. It monitors internal weight shifts and matches it with where you're looking. So be careful, it's active right now."

    "on the other hand, we're here to throw you in to the deep end.. so we will worry about landings a little later. Time for you to be airbourne. Look up and open your qua," she says motioning spreading her shoulders and hips apart just a little bit. "..and away you will go."

    She checks her comms and says, "Note the power throughput diagram on the right hand side? that effectively is throttle but also power management. It should be at its lowest level right now so your flight will be slow and gentle. This thing doesn't have thrust in the traditional sense.. it's no rocket. You'll never win a race against Falcon or Ironman."

Melinda May has posed:
It's probably a good thing May has spent her life training as a martial artist. She flexes a little, settling into a loose, neutral stance that is fairly open. "More a glider than a jet," she suggests. Well, given what they're trying to accomplish, it serves well enough.

Glancing up as she shifts her weight, she's still surprised when she lifts off into the air. Her body flexes automatically, seeking balance, which, of course, means the system compensates. "Whoa..." Her arms are spread wide, like she's wanting to balance on a beam. "This is crazy."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "Well.. as you're feeling right now. Not a jet, not a glider.. we don't really have the social lexicon for this sensation," she says as her head tracks May lifting up in to the air. "Welcome to anti-gravity flight," she then motions out to the paint ball course.

    "For both our sakes, for your first loop keep the power throughput at minimum and get used to the way banking is not really a thing. Motion tends to be sheered. Tilt your body to distribute the forces, but the wings simply don't care one way or another. That means when you're going to do a hard turn or hard stop - you have to prepare your body for the very sudden reality of it."

Melinda May has posed:
"Huhn," May grunts softly again. Still, she gives Bobbi a nod and glances around to get her bearings... which means she finds herself rolling first one way and then the other unexpectedly. "Whoa!" Her arms sweep out again in that balancing mode, the system adjusting for her weight. She feels oddly like a rag doll being pulled along. It takes a roll or two before she's more or less upright and she's figured out how its responding to where she puts her attention.

"Okayokay," she mutters, forcing her gaze to focus straight ahead. "I can do this..." The anit-grav propells her forward and she automatically puts her arms out to steady herself again. But since she's not careening headlong into a bulkhead or tower, she doesn't find herself panicking as she starts to glide forward. Still, it's unlike anything she's ever experienced. Even freefall has 'weight' to it. Now, her weight feels like it's moving differently to what she's used to. Still there... but different.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi nods her head and walks along not too far from May as she moves about awkwardly. "You're starting to get it. It's easy to strain a muscle because you're fighting back against nothing suddenly. I bet astronauts go through this too, except they just float about and push off of surfaces. This thing drives us."

    She begins to motion through the muscles and facia of the body and how to use minimal effort to turn in place while reorienting with looks. None of this is straight forward yet somehow it is working. "Okay I think you're ready to start Peter Pan-ing thing May. Use the interface to push up the power throughput and try some free flight."

Melinda May has posed:
Free flight. Right... May frowns faint, more a thoughtful expression than anything else. Still, she glances at that power interface, nudging it up just a little. This is so very different from the jetpacks and jumpjets she's used. Of course, Bobbi did say it would be.

As the accelleration starts, May finds herself adjusting her arms some again and trying to tuck her legs together simply to reduce drag. It may not be drag in the traditional sense, but there's still directional air moving past the tacsuit wrapping her body. More than that, she finds it simply makes her feel a little less unbalanced as she moves. At some point, she'll have to figure out what to do with her arms better -- especially if she's going to use them for... whatever. But for now, she just picks up speed a little and begins a bit of a slalom through the air to get used to the way the resistance changes.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi is not going to chase after May now. She's already moving faster than a light jog and at 4am in the morning there's no reason for Bobbi to bust out the parkour. "Looking good. Just remember where you look is where you go. You'll have to get the hang of controlling changes in the power throughput as you change the direction you're looking. It becomes second nature eventually... eventually."

    Her head is down at the tablet watching the video feed from the goggles and the dwarf. "Okay I'm going to switch on your tactical overlays. This is mostly visual noise but it'll start to make sense - don't let it distract you."

    An icon for the dwarf appears up in the top left near the menu - but more important, suddenly it's like May can see through certain things. Slight transparency where the dwarf has vision that she currently doesn't. The dwarf is up much higher than she is -- and has high spectrum passive night vision. The goggles provide regular standard SHIELD passive night vision only. The moon is nice and bright tonight though.

    "Gives you a real appreciation for what Tony and Sam are working with. The number of sensors and things built in to the Ironman suit must be.. well.. lots. I have no idea but I can guess. In the case of the Mockingbird wings, we're only packing the weapons we're carrying on person. This shouldn't be an issue for you - but you need to be able to draw and aim independently of where you're looking - and re-holster of course."

Melinda May has posed:
Tony's a supergenius and Sam has had years of training. But May is one of the best pilots on the planet. She's used to busy instrumentation and a highly detailed HUD. Which means, of course, the increased transparency, while startling, isn't debilitating. "Cool..." she says softly, allowing herself a small smile at the overlay. She starts testing the sensation of banking by tilting her weight one way and then the other. It's a little more deliberate than the gentle slalom she was working on before. And as she starts to reach the end of the deck run, it needs to be done, anyway, to keep her within the course.

"Does the HUD track the trajectory of your own weapon?" she asks, not drawing any weapon just yet. One thing at a time. At this point, her goal is to get used to the flight interface. She *can* fire without consciously aiming. But that's usually on the ground where she can hear and -- since Nepal -- feel people moving. It occurs to her that '6th sense', may be highly beneficial in that regard in flight, too... but only if her targets are within 300 yards or so.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "Nope, the weapons are not networked with the operating system. I'm sure it could be done but given I'm usually rocking a standard ICER and my staves... seems unnecessary and an added security risk. Now - you need to practice faster tighter turns.. and also a turn stop. Avoiding buildings is the name of the game here. You're going to be in an urban environment which means walls and cars and power lines and street signs."

    She checks the diagnostics, "Interface is stable and within predicted norms. Push the power up and start practicing stops and turn stops. Keep in mind this is anti-gravity still.. if you turn 180 you don't suddenly change direction. The plates don't care, they just keep you going the way you were going like you're on ice. So turn your head before you turn your body so that the motion is tracked and the anti-gravity plates work against your existing momentum."

Melinda May has posed:
May resists the urge to nod, relying instead on a pilot's, "Copy that," instead. She turns her head and, an instant later, finds her body pulled in a sharp bank away from her intitial trajectory. "Whoa!" Her legs kick out and she ends up barrel rolling before she throws her weight back to stop... which really just sends her flipping backwards in a tight spiral until she can get herself back under control. "Shit." Not so much a curse of frustration as an exclamation of surprise.

Still, it doesn't deter her. Another small smile touches her lips and she begins to fly forward again, stopping, beginning again, making a quick turn and skidding to an airborn stop. None of them are quite as spectacular a flip as the first one. But they each get a little better until, given enough time, she's starting to get the hang of it and able to brave the stacks across the center of the course.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi's eyes widen a bit as May almost has her first full on crash using the wings. That would have been a painful one too. She lifts her chin a bit and says, "Important safety tip - do not alter the biometric settings. I turned them down to regular person because it's tuned to.. my.. status."

    Super soldiers can take a lot more torque than a regular person. Also they get to do cool squirrel landings. "Okay now we need to make sure you know how to land. My usual go to is to move in toward the ground, reduce power, then swap to passive mode when I have a small hop's worth of distance to land. Relax the body and imagine you've just jumped so you don't sprain an ankle.."

Melinda May has posed:
"Yeah," May says dryly. "I had no intention of altering the settings." And, boy, is she glad they got adjusted for 'normal human'. Otherwise... this will be the shortest offensive of all time. Bug paste.

Still, she *is* getting the hang of it. Sometimes it takes suppressing her natural instincts, though. That's a challenge. But the intiutiveness of the interface helps. She heads back towards the platform they started on keeping her attention focussed on her landing spot until she needs to turn down that power. The glance down does adust her trajectory slightly, which she corrects in a damned hurry. But she figures out fairly quickly how to orient herself upright since body position doesn't much seem to matter to the wings. Thus, when she does try for a landing, switching back into that passive mode with a glance to that icon, she ends up doing a quick stumble-jog to accomplish it. Not graceful, but not a bloody heap, either. She can walk away from it. Therefore... she'll take it.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi offers the obligatory high-five for the second person ever to fly with these wings. "Welcome to the club Blackbird," she says with a grin. She's excited and it's evident on her face and the emotions she's expressing. "When you get more hours under your belt we will have to compare notes."

    She shows the battery, "You've got hours of flight time left and the sun is two hours from rising... so... if you're ready why not pump the power up and start moving faster." The perspective of how Bobbi flies with these things is now there since May has been up there in them.

    There's a few coughs in to her hand briefly.. she's still healing from the mission at The Rat. It speaks volumes of how good their tacsuit armor actually is. She glances up higher on the ship and says, "Running jump off of the ledge is super fun too. Skyscrapers in New York is where it's at but this place'll do." Ever the adrenaline junkie. You kind of have to be to be May and Bobbi calibre spies.

Melinda May has posed:
Hell, May's own ribs still smart from that fight. She just got off with bruises instead of the cracking she initially feared. Funny, though. Doesn't stop her any. She gives Bobbi a small grin and looks back out over the course. "Yeah," she decides. "Let's see what I can do."

She takes a moment to breathe, strangely enough, drawing in some of Bobbi's excitement to push away the anger that's been her companion since she held that damned staff again. She very nearly pushed the anger away entirely last night... until it became her only defense against the fear and loss her friends radiated in the wee hours after the party. Then, it became a protective cloak, as ever.

But it's impossible to fly and stay angry. It's why she loves to fly.

She checks the passive mode and makes a running leap off the side of the platform. Her arms and legs spread for a moment. She glances up at that active icon and then shoots forward, arms and legs sweeping like she's thrusting through water -- just because it's fun. She'll challenge herself, now. Probably end up a little bruised when an inevitable rookie mistake pulls her up short, too. But it sure won't stop her. Indeed... for people like Bobbi and May? It only ups the ante.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi flicks through her playlist and loops it in to their comms system as May takes flight again. She's not going to shout after all.. and then she starts playing Blackbird by the Beatles in to the system. She smirks to herself because it is an excellent codename for May wearing those wings. At least Bobbi isn't singing!

    "Ready to practice dodging?," she asks and picks up an airsoft rifle. The software can't tell it's not lethal. She lifts it up and simply points it toward May to begin with - no need to fire, she just wants to let her get used to the alert red lines and reacting at high speed. She gives her some time to get the hang of it before she begins to actually shoot the harmless pellets.

Melinda May has posed:
"Alright," May says, after she's had time to get used to the faster speed and sharper turns again. "Let's do it." She circles around one of the stacks and then begins to fly the course again.

The HUD lights up with yellow and red lines as Bobbi changes her lights. May begins adjusting her course to accommodate what she's seeing. Doesn't mean she won't get hit with pellets at first, as she starts to understand how the trajectory tracking actually works. And begins to understand how the physics defying speed and non-existent turning radius actually work to her advantage, however, hits become far fewer.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    After a while Bobbi lowers the rifle and says, "Well I'm convinced. I think you have enough understanding for the mission." She nods her head and then takes a seat on an old seat. "Stop flying when you hit 15% left on the battery. SOP, in case we get attacked on the way back to base. Always need to leave a little juice in there for that next emergency - because there's always another emergency."

Melinda May has posed:
May can't argue that. She comes in for a landing, a little steadier on her feet, this time. It's not like she's going to have to go into full battle, after all. Slip in, ask a few questions, slip out... Yeah. It never goes that easily, and she knows it. But, it's the plan and it works for now.

"Helluva ride," she says, pulling the goggles off, once she's safely down. "Seriously." She wants one. No surprise there.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    She nods her head, "Mhm. Sure is! quite the thing. Dangerous too. Daisy and I almost lost a body part more than once when we were creating the interface for it. This set up pales in comparison to the source flight suits though. Thanigarian.. you might remember a group of them attacked the expo early last year. Turns out alien technology is tricky to adapt."

    She smiles and helps May undo the harness and packs it away in to its storage suitcase. "We should hit the road, it's a bit of a drive back," she says and then stretches out. Something somewhere in her torso makes an unhealthy sounding pop. "Ouch... good ouch I think?," she says with a wince and then rubs at her side. She's still wearing body armor under her clothes.

Melinda May has posed:
Gee, go figure. Alien technology is a pain in the butt. May would *never* expect that. Nope. She snirks softly as she shrugs out of the flying rig and moves to pick up the leather jacket she was wearing over top of the tacsuit on her way over.

"I can drive," she says, having some sympathy for the 'pop'. "You sound like you're still on the DL." Not that she can't understand why! But, privately, she'll conceed she understands why Bobbi refused to be sidelined for that last fight. She wouldn't have been sidelined either. "We'll find a diner along the way. Get a proper breakfast."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Bobbi fishes the keys out of her pocket and tosses them to May, "Okay. You're driving. Diner you say.. noooow you're talking." She grins and grabs all the gear and heads back to the car. "So, Daisy's bowl. Science or Magic?," because it's the latest gossip in the base these days ever since she set off a fire alarm and made Jemma even more stoic than usual.