7587/Energy in Flux

Energy in Flux
Date of Scene:	28 August 2021
Location:	Common Area - Milano
Synopsis:	Ava and Finley begin to experiment with the q-bands, only to be interrupted by Nebula. They discuss the nature of energy in the universe, which doesn't solve anyone's problem.
Cast of Characters:	Finley Ellison, Ava Starr, Nebula

---

Finley Ellison has posed:
"You'll have to figure these things out sooner or later," Finley tells Ava, "Might as well be now?" She looks around the Milano's common area. "Might as well be here?"

Finley shrugs. She's trying to not spook Ava. Especially since the other night. She smiles, besotted, remembering Ava vacillating eager and tentative.

Ava Starr has posed:
Ava's been quiet since that night, though that's not necessarily out of character for her. She hasn't had a besotted grin on her face the whole while since, though she has, when the rest of the crew isn't around, found herself watching Finley move, watching her smile, and trying not to smile in response. That said, she hasn't been stalking her, nor has she been avoiding her -- unlike how she's largely avoided the rest of the crew.

She's come out into the common area now, because she has to eat sometime. And because the others have disappeared into other areas of the ship.

She shoots the engineer a skeptical glance. "I don't have the first clue how she used these damned things," Ava snirks, hiding apprehension behind the sharpness in her tone. "And we're stuck in a tin can hurtling through space. Do you really think this is the *best* place to start experimenting with unknown energy levels?"

Finley Ellison has posed:
"The q-bands were her ship, remember?" Finley says. "So as long as you can figure them out, you're completely safe. Also the universe chose you. So it won't just let you die. No time like the present right?"

Finley sits down at the cluttered table. "It's better to know, isn't it?" she asks.

Ava Starr has posed:
"What if I can't figure them out?" The words are out of Ava's mouth before they register in her brain. Her lips press firmly shut as soon as she ears them. At least there was no one else here to hear it. She snirks at herself and kicks a chair far enough away from the table to allow her to flop unceremoniously into it.

"I still think the universe is making a big mistake."

Finley Ellison has posed:
"You'll figure them out," Finley says. She beams with absolute faith. "Besides, if somethings goes wrong, I'm here."

She gets up and crosses to the Ghost. And, taking Ava's face in her hands, Finley stands on tiptoe and kisses her gently. "Don't worry, Ava," she says, "I'll save you."

Ava Starr has posed:
Ava closes her eyes as Finley's lips meet hers. She lets out a soft breath, her frustration clear in the sound, despite the fact she reaches out to touch and hold Finley's hands in return. "What if you can't...?"

The question has a forlorn note to it. "We don't know anything about this, Finley." Her fingers tighten around Finley's, likely she's clinging to a rope. "It's hard enough, with the QEC and worrying what all this influx of energy is going to do to me. I feel..." She releases Finley's hands and pulls back. "I don't know what I feel."

Finley Ellison has posed:
Finley reaches out and takes hold of Ava's hands, not letting her let go. "Hey, it's okay."

She squeezes gently. "Talk to me."

Ava Starr has posed:
"I don't want to talk," Ava says. She leans her head briefly against Finley's, so it's not a rejection. But she's not ready to talk. She tilts her head and kisses Finley's forehead lightly before she lets go of her hands and pulls away.

Rising to her feet she looks at her hands and the silver bands about her wrist. At least, sometime over the last couple of days, they've become slightly more discrete. She's no Wonder Woman, to have bracers flashing beneath every light. "How do you suggest we try this?"

Finley Ellison has posed:
"Start small," Finley says, letting Ava go. "Maybe try making something? That shouldn't put you in any imminent danger."

She pulls out a tablet to start taking notes. It's not an experiment if she's not tracking the data and making observations. "Can I record this?" she asks.

Ava Starr has posed:
Ava nods. She knows Finley won't be happy if she can't record things. "Make what?" she asks, her English tones more clipped now as she uses the distraction of all this to push fear and feelings away. "You know I'm not an engineer, right?"

She is, however, the daughter of one.

She tires to remember what Phyla did to create that strange scanning device they left behind on Earth. For just a moment, she wonders if she'll actually see Earth again. She holds her hands as if she were cradling a baseball, thinking about the strange ball of energy Phyla made, instead.

Finley Ellison has posed:
Finley holds up the tablet and presses the record button. "Start with something you know. Intimately. We don't know how specific you need to be."

Ava Starr has posed:
Something Ava knows intimately well? Frankly, she's just thinking about making a simple blue marble. A round piece of glass with nothing particularly special about it.

Not that she's ever played much with marbles. She spent most of her childhood playing with teddy bears and board games. A marble isn't that different from a game piece, really.

Energy coalesces between her palms, spiking and flaring unpredictably. A hint of frustration shows on her features as the energy tries to get away from her...

Finley Ellison has posed:
Finley doesn't dare interrupt. She might cause Ava to lose her concentration. Besides, she doesn't want to compromise the experiment.

Ava Starr has posed:
The energy continues to spike erratically, and Ava fights to control it. Eventually, she closes her eyes, feeling the blood pounding in her temples. A small, hard piece of glass drops into her palms. When she opens her eyes and looks at it, she groans.

It's misshapen, a little oblong and rippled along its surface. The glass is milky instead of translucent. At least it's mostly blue. Even if it does kinda look like the Earth through a really warped lens.

Finley Ellison has posed:
Finley gets up to record the item Ava produced from all angles."Oh, wow. You did it! You made something," Finley grins. Her awe is clearly audible. "Can you tell me what that felt like? What did you do?"

Ava Starr has posed:
While this may excite Finley, Ava flops back down into the chair she'd kicked out earlier. "It felt like my head was going to explode," she says bluntly, flexing her hands as if they've gone stiff or cold. She looks at the misshapen mass. "I was trying to make a marble."

Finley Ellison has posed:
"Well, it's glass," Finley says encouragingly. "And it's almost round."

She sits down next to Ava. "Are you tired? Hungry? Thirsty?" There's concern, yes, but Finley is also trying to track how the energy expenditure affects Ava. It's all unexplored territory,

Ava Starr has posed:
Ava considers all that. "Not... really?" she decides tentatively. She looks down at the bands. "It was just... really hard. Like... I couldn't hold onto the energy. Couldn't make it go anywhere or do anything. It just wanted to fly away."

Finley Ellison has posed:
"What made it work? In the end, I mean," Finely wants to know.

Nebula has posed:
    The doors to the cockpit open. They weren't locked since Nebula's argument with Gamora. The very loud argument she expects everyone on the ship heard. Stalking past Finley and Ava she picks up something that looks a little like an apple but definitely isn't an apple. Too juicy, too purple on the inside, but a nice red on the outside.

    She leans up against the wall and bites in to it, her eyes studying Ava and Finley for a moment. Finley was flying the ship. Ava has the q-bands on her wrists and could disappear. Interesting pair. And, apparently, Ava is an assassin. Something Gamora and Nebula can relate to given thats the profession father trained them for.

Ava Starr has posed:
Ava sits flopped on a chair she's pulled out from beside the messy table. Fin is nearby recording everything with her tablet. Neither of them have any real clue where everyone else has buggered off to. And, for her part, the Ghost doesn't really care.

She's feeling a little recalictrant and sullen about the whole thing, right now. Mainly because she doesn't know how to answer Finley's question.

"Brute force," she decides. "I don't know. I felt like I was wrestling a firehose that didn't want to turn on and then didn't want to turn off."

Then, the cockpit door is opening and Nebula stalks in. The Terran assassin's mouth shuts. She glances briefly to Finley, her expression shuttering quickly. She's not sure what to make of the blue alien woman. Hell, she's not sure what to make of most of their new company.

Finley Ellison has posed:
Finley gives Ava a concerned look as Nebula comes in. She stops the recording and puts down the tablet. "Do you want to stop?" She asks in a low tone. She gives the blue woman a bright smile, though. Too friendly. But obviously she's all concern for Ghost. It radiates off of her, unmistakable.

Nebula has posed:
    This is appropriate. Some semblance of fear. She doesn't need it from these two but it's what she expects. But is it fear for the right reasons? is it even fear at all? best not to second guess these things. Another slow bite as she contemplates the way the pair completely shut down when she entered the room.

    She has, in all fairness, hijacked the ship. She is, of course, still one of the Black Order. Presumably she may even still at this very moment be working for Thanos, her adoptive father. There's plenty about her to be scared of. "You should go back to Earth," she says demonstrating her form of compassion. Things are only going to get crazier from here.

    "Terrans don't belong in space." An opinion held by most people who have met Peter Quill, but it makes it no less insulting. On the other hand, testing a persons resolve usually results in interesting outcomes. It's a favoured tactic of Thanos on his children after all.

Ava Starr has posed:
No. It's not fear. It's mistrust. Ava knows this is the woman they fought to bring back from Sanctuary II, but she also saw her fighting before she tore the racoon apart. She's not entirely convinced Nebula is actually in control of her own mind and actions. And unlike the Guardians, she's not blinded by familial or crew loyalty. These people aren't her friends.

Not yet.

"Love to, mate," the Englishwoman says. "But we were promised a ride to Hala and back. So, until that happens, you're stuck with us." Or, until Ava actually can figure out a way to turn the q-bands into her own 'spaceship' so to speak.

She glances sidelong at Finley, giving a subtle nod. She's not ready to start experimenting in front of a stranger she fully suspects is a walking enemy surveillance unit. Though, if she is that... their plan is already fucked.

Finley Ellison has posed:
Finley's not afraid either. Not really. Just concerned because Ava's gone all prickly. Maybe she *should* be afraid. But she's not.

"We're getting closer to interstellar travel all the time," she tells Nebula. "As a species, I mean. Not as individuals. By our own technologies. Although I don't know that I see the purpose of reinventing the wheel, to be honest."

She puts the tablet away. She's not going to try to convince Ava to continue the experiment if she doesn't want to.

Nebula has posed:
    Darn. Not fear. She misjudged. Oh well, she has plenty of time to scare them later. "Hala," she replies with a small snicker. "You want to fly in to the heart of the Kree Hegemony?" What is it with Humans and doing crazy stuff like that? may be they are brave, foolhardy, or perhaps just don't know any better.

    "Nothing but misery will await you on Hala," she says thinking the moment the supreme intelligence becomes aware of Ava all heck is going to break loose. No doubt Carol will have opinions on that course of action too.

    A small moment of a wince of pain. She rubs her left elbow and then grimaces. "Adorable," she says through gritted teeth at Finley's excitement at Humanities first steps in to the stars. "we should take bets on who tries to conquer you first."

    She's seen enough of Earth now to suspect no one would -actually- conquer the planet if they tried, but plenty of will try. Armadas will come. It's how space works. "Probably the Kree."

Ava Starr has posed:
Between the Kryptonians, the Asgardians, the various Mutants, Metas, Inhumans, and countless superhero teams that litter the Earth like pigeons on a New York street at lunch hour, Ava's placing her bets on the home team. Besides. Someone attacking Earth *might* actually be enough to make Ava actually *want* to use the q-bands on her wrists. Want and willing. "Let 'em try," the Terran says staunchly.

She shrugs about Hala. "Phyla said there was some scientist there..." She searches her memory for the name. "Yv-Kar. She said he could help me. That's why we're here."

Finley Ellison has posed:
Finley notices the grimace. "Something wrong?" she asks, nodding to the elbow that Nebula is rubbing.

The Earth has plenty of big damned heroes. And some of them are just plain people -- Agents of SHIELD. The other divisions recruits are little more advanced, but they still play for the home team. And once they get back, Earth will have Ava -- and Finley -- too. So she's not so worried. Perhaps after this adventure she'll know better.

Nebula has posed:
    Nebula pauses in her eating for that one. "Woooow," she says, "that's messed up. Quasar drags you out in to space with promises of a Kree doctor and gets herself killed, then leaves you a parting gift on your wrists you can't get rid of."

    Another bite, she kicks up one foot against the wall and casts her dark eyes over the pair. "That's some luck you have." May be all humans are like Peter. The universe should possibly be concerned if they do start venturing out in faster than light spaceships.

    She lifts her chin a touch as Finley asks about the pain. "Every thing hurts, always," she says flatly as if she were stating what the weather would be today. It's possible the new ones don't know much about her plight. Thankfully, it seems, Gamora hasn't told them anything. Story time.

    She tosses the remainder of the 'not an apple' in to a bin and says, "My father would pit us against each other, the black order. Every time I lost," her nose wrinkles a moment in pure hatred, "he would... 'upgrade' me." Her jaws shifts a little to the side. "So that I could be 'better'." The words leave her mouth like a bitter taste.

Ava Starr has posed:
Ava can't argue with Nebula's assessment of their luck. She chuffs a soft grunt in agreement. She's pretty sure the universe hates her. Which, she reflects, just might explain why it saddled her with the damned q-bands.

Her eyes dart to Nebula. She knows a thing or two about constant pain. The fact it's bearly more than a whisper in the background of her consciousness now is... actually something she notes actively for the first time. "So, why were you so willing to defend the bastard?" she asks. "You fight like a viper. Why not grab a ship and head for the opposite end of the galaxy?"

Finley Ellison has posed:
The word 'upgrade' tugs at Finley's curiosity. But she can tell that whatever they were, the process wasn't pleasant. "Do you want me to take a look?" she offers.

What is it about women in constant pain? Or what is it about Finley, that she has to try and make them feel better?

Nebula has posed:
    Her eyes narrow toward Ava at her question and then open again with what might be best described as alarm at Finley's. "No," she says and her arms fold across her chest.

    "You don't just walk away from Thanos. The number of worlds he has conquered, the lives he has taken. No one can escape his reach. If you tried, someone like me would hunt you down and kill you."

    She frowns, "Gamora tried. I found her quickly enough. Stuck around on this stupid ship with her." She huffs, "As for why I fight for him? he's all I know and in case you missed the memo I ...." She pauses and frowns deeply.

    "There was a time when I believed all his crap, despite how badly I had been treated. About the coming darkness, about saving the universe despite itself. It's his favourite time of mine.. whenever I fail him or stray from his path.. he resets my emotional state in my brain to that moment."

    She grits her teeth a moment, "Gamora calls it a reset. I call it yet one more unforgivable invasion of autonomy. Too bad for him he didn't know that while I believed.. believe his crap, I still wanted him dead. It doesn't take me long to snap out of the fervour these days after he's done it. This time..."

    She shuts her eyes remembering the feeling of digging in to Rocket with those daggers and seeing all his cybernetic bits on bloody display. "This time was quicker than any of the previous." But it does mean she also reset to hating her sister - with plenty of good reason. She hates all of the black order just as much.

Ava Starr has posed:
Ava hears Nebula's story and finds memories of her time in the HYDRA-run SHIELD lab surfacing. She pushes them away, only a faint tightening around her eyes betraying them. "So, what's the coming darkness?" she asks. "What's this guy's deal? I know you said he wants to wipe out half of all life in the universe, but... we're still a little out of the loop, here." And she'd like to get caught up.

Finley Ellison has posed:
"I just wanted to help," Finley says softly. "If I can." But she raises her hands as though there's a weapon pointed at her. Nothing up her sleeves.

Nebula has posed:
Nebula eyes Finley for a moment. The distrust in her eyes is clear. She then rolls those eyes and makes an ughlk like noise to Ava. "Must we?" She sighs, "Very well. Thanos believes that an entity called the darkness, which existed before our universe, intends to destroy our universe. Consume it. He believes it's real and it's coming and the only thing keeping it at bay is the nature of our universe - energy. The more energy we use, the less defence we have against the darkness. This isn't just some philosophical kind of entropy is bad sort of thing. No, he believes the darkness is sentient and extremely hostile to life."

    She tights her shoulders a bit and says, "The problem, as he sees it, is that no one is taking this threat seriously and by the time they do it'll be too late. So - he wants to use the infinity stones to do two things. Firstly, reduce the amount of energy we're all using. And secondly, unite everyone so that we can face off against the darkness when it comes. Hence, remove half of everyone alive. Less energy use = more time, a common enemy = teach the universe to unite against a threat. He has decided he is okay with being that taster enemy for the sake of everyone else."

Ava Starr has posed:
Ava looks to Finley. She stands and moves to partially tuck Fin behind her -- less in a threatening or overtly protective way, but more casually than that. Still obvious, perhaps, but directed more to make Fin feel more secure than to tell Nebula to back off. Ava's not quite sure how her skill will stand up to the blue alien's yet.

She is sure, however, that Thanos is nuts. But she's not a scientist. Her lips purse slightly. She glances to Nebula but then returns her attention to Finley. "I remember one of those bastards at SHIELD telling me something about how the total energy in an isolated system remains constant over time. Doesn't that mean we actually don't deplete the energy, we merely transform it?" It makes sense to her. And since her whole life is very much about understanding how energy is used and replenished... yeah, she paid attention to that. "I suppose the question is, then, are we in an isolated system? If I'm not considered isolated, according to Dr. Varner, would our universe be considered isolated? And if it isn't... does that mean that there's more energy availble than we realize? Or less?"

Finley Ellison has posed:
"That's...really fucked up," says Finley. She lowers her arms very, *very* slowly. And wraps them around Ava's waist.

"Energy is neither created or destroyed," she quotes, "merely changed from one form to another." Nodding in agreement, "It depends if we're isolated, or if we're all connected."

Nebula has posed:
    Nebula stares for a moment. The words coming out of Ava's mouth and Finley seemingly right there with her. She narrows her eyes a moment. Perhaps these two are more dangerous than she first considered. "Not much is known about the multi-verse, but we are just one tiny bit of it. Whether it's isolated or not," she shrugs her shoulders, "I'm an assassin. I kill people."

Ava Starr has posed:
Ava's in a unique position -- an assassin who's had to learn enough science to, quite literally, survive. As Finley wraps her arms around Ava's waist, however, the Terran assassin, lets her arms settle lightly over top Fin's. She gives a wry smile at Nebula's assertion.

"Energy and I have always had a kind of love-hate relationship. Pretty sure it wants to kill me. So, you know... know thy enemy and all that."

Finley Ellison has posed:
"I'm just a scientist," Finley says over Ava's shoulder. "So much of what we're experiencing has been theoretical up to this point. At least our understanding of it. But, well, I'm always eager to learn."

She gives Ava a little comforting squeeze. "You're just complicated, is all," she whispers in the Ghost's ear.

Nebula has posed:
    Nebula winces a moment and lowers her leg to the floor, "Right..." Know thy enemy. Her eyes glance at those q-bands and then at the comfort the two humans are sharing. She's never had time for any of that; only in service of killing her target. That's why she generally opted for the more violent and direct approach than to lure them in like Gamora likes to do.

    "It'll be a lot less theoretical when it starts trying to kill you," she says with a small little smirk to Finley. "We're almost there. Don't get in my way," she adds as a warning. No one on the ship has any desire to get in the way of saving Rocket's life but she feels the need to say it anyway.

    She pushes off the wall and walks back to the cockpit. She leaves the door open.

Ava Starr has posed:
Ava watches Nebula retreat. A brow arches, but a faint smile touches her lips. That smile, however, is purely for Finley -- her generousity in describing Ava as merely 'complicated'. "I'm a walking time bomb," she corrects the young engineer as the alien cyborb disappears through that cockpit door. "But maybe not so much as that one." Her chin thrusts in Nebula's direction.

She tightens her hands on Finley's arms, tilting her head towards her a little. "If you decide to poke at her," she advises, knowing the fact the alien is a walking engineering wet dream waiting to be explored, "try not to piss her off. I *will* kill her, if she hurts you."

Finley Ellison has posed:
"I'll do my best," Finley promises, and she kisses Ava sweetly. "I think the universe may need both of you."