6659/The Anywhere Device

The Anywhere Device
Date of Scene:	22 June 2021
Location:	Central Park
Synopsis:	Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm get some outside help to test a probe device for Reed. It doesn't go great.
Cast of Characters:	Johnny Storm, Cliff Steele, Ben Grimm, Terry O'Neil, Jamie Madrox, Cael Becker

---

Johnny Storm has posed:
Being a member of the Fantastic Four was a calling, a sacred oath between best friends to turn their combination of genius and super-powers for the greater good, a serious and important affair.

It is also a job. And sometimes you draw the short end of the stick.

"I swear to whatever, Ben, he does this on purpose." Johnny Storm complains, as he finishes setting up the Device. The Device in question may remind the unwary of the teleporter from the Fly, in that there are two large crystal domes a few feet away from each other, connected to engines and to each other by strange silver tubing. The tubing is attached to two rifles, bright white with a ray dish wrapped around the barrel and a red flashing emitted on the front. The unit took about twenty minutes to put together and Johnny has been complaining this entire time. "We're just the world's handsomest guinea pigs sometimes, Blue Eyes, especially when the setups are complicated. You just shoot the gun and it sucks in data from another world? Hah!"

"Luckily, I arranged for some backup." Johnny grins in a way that tells anyone who's known him for more than ten minutes that he has just had a terrible idea. "I put out some notices on facebook, about how the Fantastic Four are conducting an important experiment, and looking for the super-community's help. We will absolutely get some of our suce-" Johnny pauses. "Colleagues down here, and one of them can get sucked into a nightmare dimension made of smog for once."

"I." Johnny says, picking up one of the probe-rifles and aiming it like he's a GI Joe. "Am a genius."

Cliff Steele has posed:
Cliff Steele is trying to nap in central park to try to get to Lego Metropolis, since apparently big things are going on there but every time he tries something wakes him up. He's seriously considering cartoon mallets at this point and looks up as the F4 show up, curious if nothing else. He wanders over, pretending to be backup and that he is meant to be here. He totally is. Ah. Teleporter. Yeah, nothing could possibly go wrong with THOSE.

Brief montage of horrors involving memories with teleporter accidents.

He watches, quite curious about how this will work out. He is not stepping into one of those domes for all the money in the world but happy to beat up the resulting monster.

Ben Grimm has posed:
Ben Grimm looks over from where he is carrying two folding chairs from the flying bathtub known as the Fantasti-car. " He sighs a bit and says "Ok, do even odds on Thinker or Wizard, with an outside chance the whole frightful four?" He just shakes his head and sets of the two seats. "Did you at least put a lunch order in before ya did that so we might have a chance to eat?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry's involvement here is two-fold. As a superhero, he can't help but answer the call. As a reporter for the Planet who is also a public superhero... how could he resist a front-row seat to a Reed Richards experiment? Especially if it could result in a story?

He, also, has been involved in Lego shenanigans. But the vagaries of time dilation in dreamland means that... well, he doesn't need to be there right now. But he will be there soon, in a few days. Even if no time will have passed at all.
5rBecause dreams are weird.

"Cliff!"

The redhead who calls out to him is not familiar to Cliff... because Vorpal is in his human form, and Cliff has no reason to now that part of him, since their interactions have only happened in the dream realm until very recently. "It's me. Vorpal. You know. Cheshire Cat." He says, grinning. "It's good to see you in the flesh." A beat. "You know what I mean..."

Catching sight of the two Fantastics, he excuses himself from Cliff for a second to make introductions.

Approaching the Fantastic Duo, he waves. "Hey. Terry O'Neil- Daily Planet. Also, Vorpal of the Titans," this is necessary because he constantly operates on the assumption nobody knows who he is. Most of the time, he's absolutely right. "Saw you guys send out a cattle call.. so... what do we have here?" the redhead says, gesturing to the contraption.

Jamie Madrox has posed:
Jamie Madrox answers ads all the time, sometimes several of them at once. He pulls up on a Segway, his trenchcoat draped and trailing behind him, his brown hair a bit ruffled and unkempt.

"Well, I guess that's the Fantastic Four alright. Well. Half of them anyway. The Titanic Two?" he considers to himself, putting his transport aside and his hands in his pockets as he walks up.

"You guys called for help?"

Johnny Storm has posed:
"Do you ever." Johnny looks at Ben in loving contempt, "Think about anything but food, man? There's a hot dog cart every six feet here, you'll live. Hey!"

One of Johnny's favorite things about the caped community is networking; he genuinely enjoys getting to meet all of the crazy people in their line of work, and he moves over to shake several of Jaime's hands. "Maddox, how are you! And you, and you, ah hah. Hey is that really-I haven't seen him in ages, come over here!"

There's a pause as Terry comes up, but it only lasts a second. "Oh, right, the teleporter kid. This'll be right up your alley."

"See, Reed theorizes that there's a kind of...how did he put it Ben? Like there's a sort of underspace that teleporters access, even if it looks different for everyone, and we can use this setup here to probe it. Something about a white hot room full of nothing and everywhere. Nothing really dangerous, the guns just send out a wavelength and then records the response."

Johnny is saying this directly behind a "EMERGENCY SWITCH: PULL IF WORLD ENDS." leaver.

Cliff Steele has posed:
Cliff Steele is dubious at first and then enthusiastic, "Oh hey Vorp, fucking great to see ya. Good secret ID. Totally didnt know it was you." He looks a bit envious at Ben's idea of food but doesnt harp on it.

He crosses his arms at Johnny's presentation of the teleporter but chuckles at the switch. Something to punch...fuck yeah!

Ben Grimm has posed:
Ben Grimm looks over and says "Sub atomic, max partical, dimentional.. Thats about where I lost it." He admits to not knowing exactly what Redd has them doing. He looks to Johnny and says "Hey I think of plenty of things besides eating, just know as well as you do, when Big Brain send us out with this things it is we are either fight so many things, that we miss the knicks game, or sit here for days and watch the pain dry on his new doohickies."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Too bad I don't keep it secret anymore!" Terry quips back at Cliff. It has been a while since he outed himself to the public- and although it has simplified a lot of things, it has also complicated others. Like Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say, if it ain't one thing, it's anudda...

The redhead tilts his head at Johnny's explanation, and he strokes his chin. "Funny you say that, in Wonderland there's a theory about that, too. We call it The Linear Maze, and it's the space between Wonderland proper and Looking-Glass land..." he glances at the switch, and an eyebrow tilts upwards. "So I should... probably suit up, right? For the test?" Since it sounded like he was going to be the Guinea Cheshire.

When Maddrox arrives, he gives a cheerful wave and a smile. "Hey there. You're joining in on this too?"

Jamie Madrox has posed:
Jamie Madrox slaps his hands together and dupes himself, a line of four Jamies now standing where only one stood a few moments ago, "Yup," he says in response to Terry, "Jamie Madrox, Multiple Man. I'm also a private detective, if you have any need of those kinds of service."

"And like thirty eight other jobs," says #4.

"They don't need to know that," says #2.

#3: You're making us look bad.

2 and 4: Which one of us?

#1: All of you!

Jamie runs a hand back through his hair, "So yeah, hands in abundance. What're we doing and how many of me are going to die?"

Johnny Storm has posed:
"Fair." Johnny concedes, and grins a bit. See, outsourcing is way better.

"No need for suiting up, we're nowhere near that stage yet. Though you should talk to Reed about that looking glass stuff if you get a moment, kid." Johnny says, handing the strange rifles to Terry and Jamie. "Like I said, the idea is just to try out some portable probes. No phasing into anywhere...that'll probably be the four of us in a few months if this goes well."

"How the guns work, is they analyze data and then look for a corresponding copy, uh, anywhere. I think." Johnny pauses, "So like if you shoot that tree, it looks for that tree anywhere in the universe. And then the machine cuts down the number of copies until we're left with nothing...the stuff between the universe, the theory goes. So just think of it as a super soaker fight."

Cliff Steele has posed:
Cliff Steele says, "Well, that is...yeah I know how that feels." He chuckles and looks at the JAmie's. He knows who he thinks should be going in the domes. "Probes are good." Ever better than going through himself. Too many people assumed he was a full on robot and therefor disposable. He isnt sure what this is, but waits and listens. He tries to remember it later to look up some of the bigger words on wikipedia but he does feel the probability is going to get to punch something seems to be constantly going higher and higher. Not that he needs to, just seeing cool wierd science shit is ok. "Be careful."

Ben Grimm has posed:
Ben Grimm looks over to Cliff, and says "Yea, they keep the guys like us around to carry the stuff." He offers towards the other outcast type. He looks over to Terry, and says "I would avoid point them at people for at least the first hour or so make sure nothing odd happens to what your probing."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"A P.I.? Cool, my mom's a P.I. too!" He doesn't do the 'Do you know her?' thing because A) it's an outsider thing to assume that all P.I.s know each other, and B) if a PI has a high rep, others in the business probably know of them already.

"So this ... probe will sort of index something in this universe, and then look up other versions of it in other universes? When you say 'cut down'... does that mean it... eliminates the other versions?"

Terry is asking questions,because he's been trained to ask them. Especially when Mad Science is involved, just in case he accidentally brings about the end of the world.

Jamie Madrox has posed:
Jamie Madrox takes the gun when offered to him, "Not the kind of probing I'm usually doing, but if that's what I gotta do, that's what I gotta do," he says.

#3: Are you sure this is a good idea?
#4: Eliminating sounds bad. Did you ever see that movie 'The One'?
#2: With Jet Li?
#4: Yeah!
#2: No and neither did you.
#4: Oh yeah.

Johnny Storm has posed:
"Oh, yeah, yeah, I know we have a rep of being a little cavalier, but we're not the Mad Thinker. No human test subjects, we're just shooting trees and sending the data to my brother in law." Johnny explains, "Terry, Jamie, grab a rifle, and point it at something inanimate. A rock, a tree, that ugly sculpture over there that's pretending to be art."

Johnny sneers a bit at some abstract nothing. "Seriously the graffiti has more energy put into it. Oh, right!" Johnny snaps on his goggles and presses a few buttons. "Okay...begin!"
#-1 ARGUMENT OUT OF RANGE'll be so nice, he thinks, not being the one sucked into a vortex for once.

Cliff Steele has posed:
Cliff Steele is dubious about...all of this. In fact, he cracks his knuckles fully intending to have to beat the crap out of the trees that animate or rocks or graffiti or whatever. He isnt ENTIRELY sure that the harmless experiment will go wrong but...well, Niles Caulder....so yeah. He watches and hopes for the best.

Ben Grimm has posed:
Ben Grimm looks to Johnny, and says "And I aint no statue, and aint been graffitied since last time I went by Yancy street." He does step over and gives the gauges and hose and such a final check before they start. Been my come off as just the muscle, but him and Johnny both have a decent mind when it comes to the mechanical side of things.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
r"Well... if you say so. But if this causes a dimensional tear of sorts, I demand at least some free gyros," Terry grins and proceeds to grab the probe. He is not much of a fan of modern art either, so the statue is the very first thing that he 'pints.'

He aims at it and says, "Take me to your leader. Pew!"

Jamie Madrox has posed:
Jamie Madrox takes up the blaster given to him and, upon consideration, looks at the dupes, "Don't think I need you guys right now."

"Probably right," the others echo adn, after a moment, they recombine with #1 and there's only one Jamie once again. He carries the rifle over to a park bench and, with a shrug, fires away at the wrought iron thing. "Gimme that data, bench."

Cael Becker has posed:
    A woman with short, blonde hair, blue eyes, jeans, and a leather jacket is walking quickly up the path towards the group and their science experiment - walking with purpose. But whatever trepidation shows in her eyes seems to relax considerably when she spots recognizeable faces like Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm.
    Still - they could be imposters. Or they could be controlled in some way. Or just off their rockers. It's hard to know sometimes with these super-types. Cael's steps slow as she approaches, watching the strange, weapon-like devices that are being aimed at various objects in the park, before she fixes her eyes on Johnny who, if she has gauged things correctly, seems to be directing this madness.
    "So What's this?" she asks simply - without preamble or introduction. Yet with an assertion of authority in her voice, despite appearing to be just a civilian.

Johnny Storm has posed:
Johnny looks over at Cael, and his internal Torch-sense screams 'cop'.

"Hi!" Johnny says, "We're the fantastic four. I'm Johnny Storm, and this walking modern art project is-" Johnny can't get through his spiel.

Because the second Terry fires the ray, which shoots an invisible beam, a tiny white hole opens into reality. Another hole opens on the bench Jamie just shot. Johnny shudders for a second, and is sucked through the hole. "Whaaaattttt!"

Time passes, for a minute.

Johnny Storm flies out of the bench-aperature, and screams, "Whaaaaaatttt?!" and back through the tree-aperature!

Cliff Steele has posed:
Cliff Steele says, "So...Portal Guns. I played that game. Please don't shoot the moon, but otherwise have fun." He sits on a park bench and relaxes, confident he doesnt have to punch something now and frankly, relieved."

Ben Grimm has posed:
Ben Grimm sighs a bit and will move towards the bench, fighting any pull he feels, with his inhuman strength. He will grip the bench to hold himself in place waiting to grab Johnny, expecting him to fly out again "Dang it Matchstick, Looks like Reed's been watching Rick and Morty again."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
The redhead gasps and suddenly begins to feel the pull of the other hole. "Oh god, not again!" this would not be the first time he's been sucked into a white hole before*, after all.

He turns his bracelet over to reveal the mirror he always keeps under it, and is about to Speak The Words while looking into his own eyes... but the next thing that happens is that his bracelet is sucked off his wrist and through the hole!

"Oh crap, I can't transform!" he runs, runs as fast as he can to escape the pull, and at the final stretch he leaps - and manages to wrap his arms around one of Ben's legs. "Let me guess- this wasn't part of the original plan?"

Suffice to say, the probe gun is also now in that white hole.



*Footnote: See the Titans' excursion into the White Hole after the Warworld Invasion, True Believers! ----- Editor

Cael Becker has posed:
    Supers. //Great//. Cael starts to feel the pull of one of the portals, and starts back pedaling hard - struggling against the force until she manges to wedge herself behind a water fountain. "Maybe the next time he reappears - you gentlemen stop doing what you are doing?" Cael suggests - as if the men couldn't think of that solution on their own. "Let's try not to get him trapped in-" in there?
    "Let's try not to get him trapped. Honestly, there must be an OSHA violation in here somewhere."

Johnny Storm has posed:
"Really?!" Johnny snaps, in reality, and FWIP.

"You threw the gun?!" Johnny shouts again, and FWIP.

"Who even is she anywya, OSHA?!" Johnny tries again, and FWIP.

The fourth go round, building up speed, Johnny flames on, rocketing against the pull of the Nowhere Holes. "I think I can fight it...for a few seconds...woah!" FWIP.

Cliff Steele has posed:
Cliff Steele weighs a lot but manages to finally get pulled by the thing on the park bench and puts his hands into the ground using the headers burying it and moving around making sure to grab anyone if it looks like they are going to try and grab as applicable while keeping himself firmly planted in the earth. If he can.

He's not exactly Roger Federer.

Ben Grimm has posed:
Ben Grimm frowns and was going to have Cliff turn the machine off when he grabs Johnny but the pull is to strong. Ben will grab ay Johnny each time he comes through and on this time, he does catch the other man's foot to try to keep him on this side. He looks down to his foot. "Can the bracelet be replaced kid?" He asks, waiting to see if they have to try to grab the young man's "magic" bracelet.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I don't need the bracelet per se, I just need to be able to see my eyes!" Terry says, holding on to Ben's leg the way a drunk man might cling to a lamp-post, because the rest of the world is the one that is moving, not him. "You got a mirror in your..." Terry glances up. He stares. "Briefs. Nevermind. I've got an idea..."

Even in his human form, Terry is very agile. It's all that parkour and gymnastics! He pulls himself up to Ben as best he can, and then switching his position he wraps both legs around Ben's, freeing up his hands. "I've got a phone! I can use the selfie format-"

He fumbles at first, because it's not an easy position, but then he finally manages to extract his phone. "Got it! Alright~" he holds it up to his face and activates the selfie cam. Looking into his eyes, he begins to intone, "We're All Mad H-"

And then a flying piece of debris hits his hand and knocks his phone off!

"$*(@#(!"

Terry's phone doesn't fly directly into the hole, however, but it flies at Cael!

Cael Becker has posed:
    "What the-" Cael exclaims as the phone flies towards her. She tries to snatch. It makes contact with it - but it slips through her fingers, and 'FWIP' vanishes. "Oh for the love of-" She lets out a sigh, then digs into a pocket - pulling out a compact. She doesn't really look like a girl who wears much make-up, but there it is - a compact. "I can't exactly toss this to you!" she remarks - holding out her arm towards him as far as it'll go. "What's your plan here, buddy? We can't just let this continue!"

Johnny Storm has posed:
"Gah." Johnny holds onto Cliff and Ben for a few seconds...

...but it seems like the harder Johnny pulls, the harder whatever the White Zone is pulls back! Worried he's going to drag Cliff and Ben in with him, Johnny lets go for another go round!

"So glad I didn't get lunch!" JOhnny wails. If you have a plan to stop the cycle, now's the time!

Cliff Steele has posed:
Cliff Steele decides that this is not working out how he hoped and tosses the park bench he was sitting on at the machine. Sure, that might not be as elegant as turning it off, but it is...simple enough. Either way, he makes sure to keep a hold of Johnny and Ben.

Ben Grimm has posed:
Ben Grimm will reach down and grab both Cliff and Terry as Johnny slips from his fingers. He does not throw anything not sure if it would make it past the event horizon, he hollars to Johnny as he is about to enter the hole again "Blast the machines when your out next time hot head."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Ben! Let me go, I've got an idea!"

Terry coils his legs and suddenly /pushes/ off Ben Grimm's solid body, aiming towards the woman with the compact. He stretches his hand as he passes by Cael and snatches the compact. Rushing for time, he glances into the mirror and -

"We're All Mad Here!"

There is an explosion of color and light, and Terry O'Neil is no more. In his place, Vorpal the Cheshire Cat is falling towards the White Hole.

"Not today, Satan!" he calls out, and /another/ tear in Spacetime appears to catch him. But this one is entirely of his doing, and the Rabbit Hole deposits him back near Ben. Now, the Cat latches onto Grimm's arm and shouts at Johnny "Come out! I have an idea!"

When Johnny has finally managed to make his way out, he will conjure the Rabbit Hole again- and using both ends of it, he will seek to slam one White Hole into the other, in the hopes of collapsing them both and sealing the rupture.

Or he might as well end up unmaking space, collapse time into a single simultaneous point, and erase the fabric which holds sense and sanity together. It was a fifty-fifty.

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Okay. Now I've fuckin' seen everything," the Cael mutters - before adding more loudly, "This is why we don't do these experiments in the middle of Central Park, in the middle of NEW YORK CITY, people. Did a weasel eat your brains or something?" Yes. A weasel.
    It's at this point that she reaches into her jacket - pulling out a pistol that was hidden there. She aims it at the control panel for the worm holes, or portals, or whatever there were - and waits to see if she should open fire.
    She's still not sure if that would just make things worse, anyways. Maybe the cat's plans will work.
    God, she hopes she never thinks that sentence again.

Johnny Storm has posed:
A lot of things happen at once.
r
A magic cell phone breaks, a robotman throws a bench at a delicate piece of machinery, and Terry tries some kind of weird teleport trick. It's difficutlt to say what exactly causes the effect. This is why data collection is so important.

There is a POP and a SMACK and Johnny Storm goes flying out of the Forever Hole, and lands...right on top of the bench Cliff used to smash the machine. This is going to cost so much money, Johnny thiks.

"So." He tries, "Anyone for lunch?"