Aberrant: Phoenix Rising - Chapter 4: A Saucerful of Secrets

[Expendable]

Seven bit her lip. This was happening much too fast. But there wasn't time to second-guess. Seven nodded. These were nice people. If this Squid person was dangerous, he had to be stopped.

[NFVD]

"Look, I'm more of a scout than a warrior." Sebastian says as he gets up.

"If you need my help I'm willing to jump in. However, what can we (points out to himself and the two women) expect to gain from this? I mean, besides helping the common good, and all that...stuff? Will there be rewards of a more...er...substancial value?"

[Courier]

Doug says,

"Ignoring how awful it will be if he wins, Squidward isn't just crazy, he's crazy rich as well. He had a box on his belt capable of teleporting a mass more than that thing you brought in. He'll have other really expensive stuff too lying around. I can connect you with people who'd pay for that sort of thing if you don't know anyone yourself. I figure even split several ways that's a lot more than than I see in a year."

[SalmonMax]

Calypso smiles lopsidedly and gestures at Sebastian and Seven.

"I think we're hired. So what is the plan of attack?"

[Gregory]

Once again to Doug:

*Good to hear you! There are alot of others here. Need you to be cautious. Look at site, then make plans, but need to do before he finds IT missing.

[Expendable]

Seven nodded, smiling. It was definitely more exciting than crawling into a hole in the ground to dig up whatever was left behind.

[Courier]

Doug says outloud everything that Gregory tells him, as he's telling it, and also lets Gregory know that he's doing this.

[Mr Fox]

Raider looks to Robert and says quietly, "I know you don't like parting with it, but I'd sure like to borrow that gun of yours for a little bit. It might just save my life seeing as I have no offensive capabilities."

[jameson (ST)]

Gregory continues to crouch in the bushes the case nearby. James moves to the next work station clearly explaining to the others what the parts being manufactured are used or something long those lines. As he does Gregory notices that James has an almost predatory grin on his face, and for a brief moment Gregory could swear that James looked directly at him.

*****

Robert hesitates before pulling the gun out. "I'm not sure how much energy is left, but, if you can use it to take down James ... well I guess we can't waste the opportunity can we?"

[Gregory]

Gregory freezes. Uh Oh! Does he know I'm here? His mind repeated in fear. He then remembered that he had seen that same grin on the wasteland monstrosities that preyed on innocent people. It was not a good sign for Gregory.

He made one last communication: *He knows I'm here!

Gregory would not communicate with the others until James had taken his attention elsewhere.

[Courier]

Doug says,

"Uh oh. He's spotted Gregory. Adam! Open the gate right there."

(As best he can, Doug forward's Gregory's location to Adam.)

Doug draws four throwing darts, one with his right hand and three with his left.

To everyone else he says,

"KB is a white-blond hispanic chick without aberrations. Gregory is a wild child who's constantly crying. Everyone else is on the other side. We rush them."

[SalmonMax]

Calypso smiles a tight little smile and pulls the cork off the oversized waterskin slung over her shoulder. Ominous sloshes emanate from within.

"We rush them," she echoes.

[Mr Fox]

Raider holds the gun in one hand and dives through the warp and directly into the ground as soon as someone else jumps through to provide cover and remain unnoticed. Once though, he will travel through the ground at a diagonal away from the warp for about 25 yards before coming up for a look around. He will get his bearings as quick as possible and then head to where KB is being held. Once he finds her he will grab hold and attune her and then bring her down into the ground with him. (He will grab her, he will not allow her to grab him.) If it looks to be a trap with the shapeshifter instead of KB he will simply let go leaving the other nova buried alive.

[jameson (ST)]

Adam walks out into the garage and begins concentrating, pulling qunatum energy into himself. He begins to manipulate space-time, twisting, pulling, and soon a pair of hrozontal doors shimmers into view before him. Dropping open the doors reveal the leaf covered forest floor six feet below. "Go! I can't hold this open for long."

*****

Gregory sees James's smile deepen, his teeth now showing, it is clear he is looking towards Gregory now. The others in the group notice and begin to look in his direction but Gregory can tell by their expressions and body language that they don't see him. Behind him Gregory hears a series of thumps as Courier drops to the ground a few meters behind him in the forest followed by three people he has never seen before. Nearly invisble in his ethereal state Gregory does not see or hear Raider at all as he drops directly into the ground and moves off.

[Gregory]

I knew it! Squiddy does know I'm here. Gregory was thinking of his next move, when he saw his friends drop from Adam's warp. Yes! Now it time for some payback! Gregory thought to himself, as he began to imagine a large man, heavily armored, and with lots of muscles. He began to shape the surrounding energy into a construct.

Adding to the construct's power, was Gregory's fury and willpower. He was forming it as close as posssible to the ship, and sending it against the ship. It was going to knock it over and bash it into uselessness. Anyone trying to stop it would be ignored. Once the ship is out of commission, it will go after Squiddy. If he is not there, it will go after the nearest enemy.

(OOC: Spending a Willpower point)

[Expendable]

Seven scowled, stripping off her bag and her trench coat. Closing her eyes for a moment, she could feel it when her fingernails turned into claws. None too soon. A pair of doors Adam created swung open to reveal a forest floor. "Go! I can't hold this open for long."

The one called Raider leapt first, heading away at an angle. Seven lept through after him, striding to one side and keeping low, eyeing the Gregory suspiciously. Was this the one they talked about? And then something appeared, growing rapidly next to him - a monster!

Instinctively, Seven turned herself invisible, leaping softly to her right, keeping a wary eye on the creature, its master and the edge of the woods.

[SalmonMax]

Calypso lifted her chin with a defiant expression. Water gushed from the large pouch at her side and began revolving around her in a tight ring suspended in midair around her waist. Though only about as thick as a man's wrist, the water in the ring was racing incredibly fast, stirred into a white frothing frenzy. Streamers of vapor wafted off of it and curled into vortexes before drifting off.

She then stepped briskly through the door, already forming a large 'bubble' of water at the nozzle of the skin...the purpose of which would soon become abundantly clear.

(Activating the "wall" power for 6B/6L soak. The water ring will move to intercept attacks, basically. My intention is to start blastin' when I get across and assess the situation, but I have a question about that. Because my anima requires water in the environment, rather than use a "firehose" effect which would quickly exhaust my stored water, I'd like to blast using a fast-moving, re-usable water sphere. It rips around smacking people, but Calypso keeps the water bound in its own surface tension, so it doesn't lose much mass when it hits something. Just wanted to make sure that fit what can be done with Elemental Animas. Between the ring and the sphere, that probably represents almost all the water she can carry around.)

[Courier]

Doug mourned his lack of armor and flew through the gate. He’s been fearing/anticipating/exulting these next few minutes. He’ll be getting KB back and dealing with Squidward… but that’s not the same as getting her back alive and winning against Squid. So far Squid’s been prepared for everything, he might be prepared for this. Doug wasn’t sure what to expect from his new found ‘allies’ but hoped they’ll be able to do something. As for him, he intended to be simple and brutally direct. Fewer things to do meant fewer things to go wrong.

Once through the gate Doug flew up and past Gregory at an angle in an attempt to get out of range of hand to hand combat, and to give himself a clear line of fire. He figured he knew roughly where Squidward was and he knew what he looked like. Immediately after spotting him Doug intends to point his hand at Squidward and release the “spear head” that he’s holding.

From previous experience Courier knows his “throwing dart / spear head” won’t survive the stresses he’s about to put on it. His “strength field” works on objects uniformly, but the air’s friction followed by the metal’s impact will melt it and/or leave it in pieces. Raider had somehow built them so the majority of their mass was in their head and he’d put “spin” on it (whatever that was) to make sure it flew straight. It was a fairly expensive “bullet”.

Unseen by the human eye, the same strength field Courier used to pick up dozens of tons of ‘mule’ applied the same amount of force onto a very much smaller piece of metal and launched it forward like a meteor.

(OOC: Activate Flight on Adam’s side of the gate).

(OOC: Split action, primary action attack, secondary action to dodge any attacks that come my way).

(OOC: If at the end of my movement I can’t see Squidward I’ll attack whoever I do see, preferably one of his known nova crew.)

[NFVD]

After taking a few moments removing his rifle from the protective cloth that wrapped it, Sebastian rushes through going Invisible as de does so. As he comes out on the other side he readies his quantum energies to propel him at neck-breaking speeds if the need arises.

"Hope no one gets hurt" - he quickly thinks to himself.

[jameson (ST)]

Gregory concentrated, envisioning the largest creature he had created by far, a towering monster which would have the strength to damage the scaffolding around the rocket and hopefully bring it down. Behind him the others began to exit the portal. First Courier, massive metal shards in his hands, he flew directly away from the warp towards Gregory at an angle that would have him just miss the roof of the nearby building. Raider and seven were next both heading away from the portal and the group. Seven vanished from view quickly, quantum energies warping and bending light around her. Raider sliced into the ground as easily as a light beam through fog and moved off on his own the gun at the ready. Calypso emerged next a ring of water flowing in loops and spirals around her body, a sphere of pure water floating in mid-air between her cupped hands. Lastly Sebastian dropped to the ground and also embraced quantum, turning his body translucent to light, as invisible as Seven but by as different a mechanic as they were different novas.

For a moment time seems to stand still. The event crystallizing for a moment for Gregory as something seems desperately, terribly wrong. The look of contempt, amusement, and most of all, predatory satisfaction on James’ face, the fact that he was looking right towards Gregory but had not raised any alarm, none of this felt right to Gregory. Oh no! Gregory had only enough time for an instinctive leap, he threw himself away from the case as fast and as far as he could. The quantum construct forgotten completely in this moment of sudden, instinct level, awareness Gregory shunted the quantum already forming into a shield about his body to protect himself rather than give form to his quantum monster.

And just like that time ground back into motion and a massive explosion rocked the camp. Gregory was tossed back out into the woods upon a billowing cloud of flame and force, his leap exaggerated by the force of the explosion. Courier, already flying away from the epicenter of the blast was propelled, out of control up and into the sky. The blast billowed out propelling fire, smoke, shrapnel, and raw force outward. Subconscious control over the water surrounding her already in a defensive screen allowed Calypso to throw a shield up as the blast hit, the flames were blocked but she was still thrown backwards by the force of the explosion. Beside her Sebastian has little time to react; backpedaling as fast as he could be was nonetheless tossed to the ground by the force of the blast. Seven, also received a sudden overwhelming sense of danger and having moved away from the gate was spared the full force of the blast and though tossed to ground was spared the full fury of the blast. Raider alone was immune to the effects of the blast; the shock of the explosion passed through the ground like a thunderous wave but was unable to do anything to Raider’s displaced body.

For the moment all was quiet save the buzz in his ears. Disregarding the problematic hearing issues, Courier righted himself in the air and moved down into a strafing attack, his makeshift throwing weapon pierced one of the novas cleanly, a fountain of blood an entrails exiting the deceased body from either side as it pitched toward the ground. Courier noted with satisfaction the snarl of fury on James’ face as he flew by.

For Gregory the ringing and buzzing in his ear was unable to completely blanket his hearing, the quantum energy coursing through his body ensured that. He righted himself and poured his fury into the quantum monster, the towering creature once more began to take shape but this time Gregory was able to complete the monster and it immediately began to crash through the trees as it headed toward the rocket bellowing a fearsome roar.

Seven rolled with the blast and came up in a crouch, her tail whipped about wildly, bristling as though it contained it’s own anger apart from Seven’s. She watched as the young man once again created a monstrous creature though this time the creation solidified and began to reap a path of destruction toward the rocket ship.

Sebastian tumbled to the ground but was more than able to get back on his feet quickly. With his quantum speed he was by Calypso’s side in a fraction of a second and helping her to her feet. She was soaked to the skin as was the ground around her. Irritated she pulled the water back into the air, out of her clothes and the earth and reformed the sphere and shield.

*****

Gregory – 6 levels lethal damage

Courier – 5 levels lethal damage

Calypso - 3 levels lethal damage

Sebastian - 4 levels lethal damage

Seven - 3 levels lethal damage

[Expendable]

Seven shook her head to clear it and scowled. The people in the camp knew now they were coming. But did they know about her, Calypso and Sebastian?

The creature the small one made was lumbering through the camp. Being big, it attracted a lot of attention. Good. Pulling the quantum around her tightly, she ran towards the camp, her claws out and ready. If she came out a few places from where the creature did, she could attack the ones who tried to stop it from behind.

She grinned fiercely. It was a good plan.

[Gregory]

From the moment of the explosion to the final creation of the construct, Gregory was on autopilot. He reacted out of fear, anger and survival. Only his keen awareness of danger saved his life when the briefcase exploded. How could I be so gullible! Gregory's mind screamed back at him, as he quickly surveyed the damage.

He now felt the pain. Chunks of shrapnel stuck from his body in various areas, while in others, pieces of charred flesh hung loosly from limp limbs. He quietly sank to the forest floor and forced his wounds to heal. All the while, he kept his forcefield up. He knew he was getting low, but he was not sure by how much. For once, he hoped that Raider would come and help him.

[Courier]

Gregory or something next to him blew up, Doug had closed with Squid's group and thrown a spearhead at a vaguely human shape. Squid's expression told him all he needed to know, including and especially where he was. Doug decided to get a little more distance between them and throw another spearhead, this time at Squidy. In the back of his mind he noticed the pain seemed to be fading but he dismissed that as something he'd worry about later.

(OOC: Get about 35 meters up in the air above Squid's group, throw another spearhead, and regen).

[Guest James O'Reily]

As the explosion rocks the compound James smiles, It's almost too easy, he thinks as he watches the orange blossom toss one of the nova into the air. Oh wait, that's the heavy ...

James begins to bark orders out the others as Courier and company recover from the blast. A sprap of blood an gore hits him as Courier's "dart" nearly cleaves one of his men in half. "You two go defend the ship!" he yells as he sees the towering creature headed toward the rocket and scaffolding.

[Expendable]

Moving swiftly to the edge of the treeline, Seven paused, looking for anything out of the ordinary before heading into the clearing and between two of the camp's buildings several yards from where Gregory's construct walked through.

[Mr Fox]

Raider will surface and orient looking for where ever KB might be held and head for that point, though he is very sorely tempted to forget KB and go directly after James. Once oriented, he heads directly to find KB, and will attune her when he finds her.

[SalmonMax]

"Thank you," Calypso growled at Sebastian, though her anger was obviously not devoted to him. Her body was a mass of bruises, though thankfully the majority of the blast's damage had been blunted by her liquid shield. "I will be all right. For now let us concentrate on returning the favor in kind!"

She made a low pitching motion, and the ball of water swirled and frothed in her hand before leaping out at dreadful speed, arcing slightly through the air towards the tentacled aberrant who had seemed so pleased by the bomb.

(blasting squiddy if he's a valid target...otherwise any nova antagonist that looks ready to do us harm)

[jameson (ST)]

Rolling into the shattered ruin of the building Gregory pushes quantum into his body, pure energy suffuses his wounds, crystalizing and turning into new, whole, flesh.

Above Courier spins into a corkscrew altitude climb and comes out lobbing another of his deadly spearheads at James. As the massive metal shard hurtles through the air it unexplicably slows, much to Courier's surpise. It's impact still carries a great deal of force and it buries itself deep within James' good arm.

Fox resurfaces for some air and to get his bearings, the camp has erupted into a marginally organized brawl with a great many aberrants trying to take down Gregory's construct while others attack Courier and Fox's other friends. He steels himself and heads toward the building near the center of the camp, the one which Gregory said he thought the were holding KB in.

Seven, cloaked in invisiblity is spinning and weaving her way through the wake of Gregory's creature. Taking the opportunity she attacks the vital, unprotected areas of the aberrants around her, bounding off before they can strike in retaliation.

Calypso directed the sphere towards James, it wove its way through the chaos. The sphere clipped James leg as he was forced back by Couier's attack and he spun and fell to the ground, his leg clearly broken.

[Guest James O'Reily]

James has barely any warning before the projectile hits, smashing his upper arm and sending him backwards. Without warning a second attack, a ball of water traveling at breakneck speed, slams into his leg. The sound of the bone snapping was audible, James spun and slammed into the ground.

"ARRGgg! You son of a ..." James cut off, he concentrated and unleased a psychic blast at Courier. This isn't the last of this, we'll meet again ... he transmitted with the psychic assualt.

At the same time he spared a moment to activate the controls on the small device at his waist. A sudden loud tearing sound rent the air, as though a sheet of canvas was being torn in two. Then an audible "POP" and James vanished.

[SalmonMax]

Calypso's expression darkens further.

"Sobeit, slug of a man. If I cannot have you...I will have your little toy."

Her eyes flash to the towering rocket and her lips curve in a cruel smile.

"Men and their symbols."

The sphere of water jerks into a high arc, over the melee, returning to its mistress. She claps her palms together and lowers her face to her fingers, concentrating.

Even on a sunny day, there was water in the air; nestled comfortably in between the wild motion of those tiniest bits of things. Now she called water to water, and water to will. Molecules made tiny droplets, droplets met and became larger. Around Calypso, a fog began to rise.

(Spending Willpower point for autosuccess in creating fog bank using Weather Manipulation. Dice pool is Int + WM for 5 dice, and it costs 6 quantum pool (double). Ideally it'll provide some visual cover for her next trick, which will make a pretty big target of her. )

[Gregory]

He was feeling a little better. His wounds were healing slowly, and he was safe. His companions rushed to where he sent his construct; to aid it he hoped. He felt well enough to look up from the ruined structure in which he lay. Smiling, he saw James get hit, not once but twice, and he hoped that he would fall. Unfortunately, James survived and was able to activate his teleportation device. "Coward!" Gregory yelled from his demolished hiding place.

Gregory's construct was wreaking havoc on James's camp and men. The towering beast was shoving everyone aside on it's way to the scaffolded ship. There were more aberrants than Gregory had expected, and he hoped that someone would find KB in time. He was not sure his creation could hold out for long. But as long as the bad guys were focused on the creature, Gregory was free to move about.

I'll start moving in a minute, he reasoned, as he used more quantum to heal his wounds.

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: Dr. Raphael Bradford

Above Courier spins into a corkscrew altitude climb and comes out lobbing another of his deadly spearheads at James. As the massive metal shard hurtles through the air it unexplicably slows, much to Courier's surprise. It's impact still carries a great deal of force and it buries itself deep within James' good arm.

Courier manages to combine a smile and grimace. Something had deflected his bolt, it had still landed, James was still alive but was hurt. His expression changed to more of a grim smile when Calypso’s “ball” landed. Doug had two more bolts out before he’d need to take them off his clip. Holding one in each hand he pointed both of them at the hopefully unable to dodge Squidward and got ready.

Originally Posted By: James O'Reily

"ARRGgg! You son of a ..." James cut off, he concentrated and unleashed a psychic blast at Courier. This isn't the last of this, we'll meet again ... he transmitted with the psychic assault.

At the same time he spared a moment to activate the controls on the small device at his waist. A sudden loud tearing sound rent the air, as though a sheet of canvas was being torn in two. Then an audible "POP" and James vanished.

Doug grunted with frustration and pain. It wasn’t a surprise to learn Squidward was a poor loser, but they’d come so close.

Doug changed course and moved so he was 40 meters above and to once side of Gregory’s creation, then launched both his bolts at two “aberrants” chosen because they had aberrations and were facing away from Doug.

(OOC: Split action, two thrown ‘bolt’ attacks, continue to regen).

[Expendable]

Seven whirled and lept, raking the aberrants with her claws as they came running up to defend the rocket against the giant creature the little guy made.

She paused for a moment, sniffing the air. It seemed to be filled with a strange bitter smell she'd never smelled before.

[jameson (ST)]

Although not very loud the POP! of James' teleportation does not go unnoticed by the aberrants. Some of the workers flee, flying, teleporting, or running away as fast as they can believing the situation to be dire. The others however rally and make a concentrated attack on Gregory's monsterous beast. It's quantum armor cannot keep up with the amount of punishment and it collapses, evaprating back into the aether just short of its goal.

Calypso meanwhile is bending her talents against those of the weather controller. Above the sky roiled sickly as clouds formed and disapated, lightening lancing between them as the two fight for mastery.

Gregory forced still more quantum into his wounds, cells divided as breakneck rates and gashes closed and cut veins sealed as his body's natural regeneration was pushed into overdrive. Above him in the air Courier, frustrated with James's escape begins to target the aberrants who appear to be leading the rally, whilst focusing his own superhuman regeneration.

With the construct downed Seven finds herself in the midst of a great deal of aberrants who are suddenly without a foe. She holds back an attack, considering that her invisibility may not be enough to keep her safe among this many enemies.

Raider pokes his head above the ground level once more and sees he is just a few meters from the central building. He rushes over the its exterior wall and pushes slowly into it until he is far enough to see the interior. Sure enough KB is being held, shackeled to the ground, at the center of the building. An anulus above her head allows light and a view to the sky. Nearby an aberrant sits his eyes closed in apparent meditation. KB rocks in her chains and sweat is beginning to pour from her body, she appears to be struggling. Through the anulus Raider sees the torment of the skies and wonders what is going on.

[SalmonMax]

Impossible! Something is...resisting me!

Clenching her teeth as her anger mounts, Calypso lifts her fists skyward and glares at the weather that is being contested for. She raises her voice and howls in rage at the heavens as the veins in her temples throb with effort.

"Fool! I am the fury! I AM the storm! I AM CALYPSO!!"

(Bwahaha... This time using Weather Manipulation, trying to create a damn huge windy thunderstorm to screw that rocket up, which has no extra cost nor penalty to difficulty. However, I shall POWERMAX! RRAGH. And if I can spend a Will point for autosuccess AND powermax, I'll do that too! CALYPSO IS UPSET! :-0)

[Mr Fox]

Raider quickly takes in the situation and will glide through the ground and reach up and grab KB's wrists from below. Once he has them in hand he will phase her out and pull her into the ground with him. He doesn't think this is a trick, but he is prepared to let go if necessary. Once he has her underground he will move to where he last saw Gregory and surface, hopefully out of the battle. As a precaution however he will only bring KB partially out of the ground until he verifies that it is not the shapechanger.

[Courier]

Still angry at Jame's getting away, Courier sees no reason to stop what he's doing... and then he does. Jame's followers, well, the one's who weren't fleeing, were mostly gathered around the towering space ship. They'd successfully warded off what Doug assumed was Gregory's creation, but the point was when they'd moved between that creation and the rocket, they'd gathered more or less together.

The whole situation just begged for a building to be dropped on them, and Doug had one handy.

Courier attempts to fly to the other side of the rocket and push it over on top of the gathered aberrants.

(OOC: Push it over and keep healing)

[Gregory]

His wounds were healing, and Gregory felt well enough to rise from where he lay. When he did, he saw chaos. There were dead bodies, blood, a large group of aberrants, and his friends, all in various attack postures. Most noticeable, was that his construct had been destroyed before it even got to the ship. Hopefully, it gave his friends enough time to do something about the ship.

He also wondered if they would rescue KB. But first, he would heal a little more; then help his friends.

[Expendable]

Seven caught Courier moving in the corner of her eye and turned, staring in horror as she realized he meant to knock the rocket down - while she was in the midst of all these people.

She turned, teeth gritting and tail lashing, Seven LEPT, the quantum-fueled muscles in her legs propelling her towards the place they came in.

Seven let her invisibility slip away as soon as she was clear, hoping someone from their side spotted her as the tree line rushed towards her. This was going to hurt.

[jameson (ST)]

Gregory continued to lay low as his body repaired itself, but now at least he was able to keep his head up and keep and eye on the situation. He saw the aberrants massing near the rocket coming to it's defense. Above him with no warning Seven appeared in mid air and crashed through the trees, branches whipping the young novas body as she landed in the forest nearby. She landed hard and lay still, either stunned or unconscious.

Meanwhile Courier made a hasty loop up and around, coming at the rocket from an oblique angle he hit is hard near the nose with his hands and shoulder and pushed. Above him the sky roiled and thrashed, clouds forming and spitting lightening before evaporating away and revealing the calm blue sky above. Whether the rocket or the scaffolding was beginning to give way was hard to determine, he could hear very little between the intermittant thunder than the chaos below.

Raider slowly moved up through the earth KB was sweating now and struggling in her bonds, the other man was also weating and his face was contorted with concentration. Raider allowed his hands to solidify just enough to grasp KB's arms and then brought her into phase with himself. As soon as the bonds no longer held her she bagan to thrash about and the other man's eyes snapped open. Raider pulled and KB slid down into the earth like a fog. He began to pull her along behind him as he retreated towards the forest as fast as he could go.

Overhead the weather made it mind up witha ferocity that reaked of too much power in one place. Where one moment Calypso was fighting with all her strength against the weather it ran like a torrent towards the massive wind and thunder storm she had been fighting for. But now the power unleashed was too great and the chaos of the storm was more powerful than she expected. Lightening flashed from cloud to cloud and the air began to get cool and dry with alarming speed. The clouds crashed and rolled and Courier wondered just who had now wrested control of the weather.