[IC] The Elementals (Chemical elemental characters)

[Professor_Wyvern]

Herschel glanced at Peaches and gave a nod to him as he helped wheel him to the waiting room, "For a Progressive, you're a good kid. And at least you're trying to join the proper branch." He took a breath in as he slowly tapped on the arm-rest of his wheel-chair.

"Ah, how do I feel about Leo?" Herschel slowly spoke, to make absolutely sure that Peaches got the message. "He's a good fellow, and a fine doctor. As you can imagine, I've had quite a few doctors over my many years." He removed his breathing apparatus as he made a hacking cough. "Ackaha! Acka!" His head violently shook forward as he spat out some phlegm. "Euuugh." Herschel noted disgusted. "As for Leo, he treats his patients well. I can respect that, he shows dedication to his work. "

He glanced down as he slowly moved his fingers. Wistfully he spoke again "Reminds me of when I was able to work. Heh." Herschel shook his head from side to side, "Oh those were the days. At least my son was able to take over the family business. I've seen other friends have the misfortune of having chayas who didn't respect the time or the passion that were put into the businesses their fathers set up. Ha, ah, while they could work their business will rot away. At least mine will live on through my kids, at least for one more generation."

[Polyphemus]

"Lufthansa Flight 709 from Frankfurt, now disembarking. Welcome to John F. Kennedy International Airport."

As she lifted her small bag, Hannelore still wasn't sure why she had decided to do this. She was not by nature an impulsive woman, far from it. She was usually cautious and meticulous in everything, carefully planning out everything well in advance. Usually, when a famously long German holiday came about, she spent it at home in Frankfurt. Sometimes, if she really felt like leaving the city, she would drive out to Cologne and enjoy some dining or shopping.

But to just up and leave the country like this for her holiday, well, that was unlike her. To come all the way to New York City, somewhere she had never even considered going, with no plan or itinerary, that was just unthinkable. Especially considering her hotel was only booked for one night. Tomorrow, she had no idea what she would do.

Everything was just so strange these days. She could suddenly turn into metal. That hadn't been the case before. What else was going to change?

She could only wonder what it meant, a faraway look on her face as she hailed a taxi outside the airport. Maybe being in America would help her to make sense of it all. Maybe.

[CLIW]

Chloe rested her head on one hand. "So...just curious. How are we going to pay for a flight anyway? I don't have a terribly big reserve of money." She envisioned herself splitting off from the rest of the group and hiking off into the woods, where she would permanently live a nomadic life, living on berries and squirrels and climbing trees to search the area for pursuers. Of course, that wasn't an option. For the moment at least she was stuck with these people, and she had no idea how to prepare herself for whatever would come next.

[Zobozun]

Detroit, Michigan. Yesterday, 12PM

"It's no matter! You, too will fall before the power of my HEAT RAY!", The Prismatic Man screeched as he let loose a blast of energy from his chest-mounted laser.

Jumpin' jimeny!, Junkyard thought to himself as the beam barely missed his shoulder, the heat from that beam will scramble my magnetic field for sure- and me with no way to close the distance! But maybe, just maybe...

He repelled a ball of metal from his armor, launching it at the villain- only for it to melt as soon as it got close to him!

"Yowch!", Junkyard cringed as a puddle of semiliquid steel splattered over the legs of the Prismatic Man's costume, "Doesn't that hurt?"

"Of course not, you imbecile! Did you think I would have a system that melts any projectile within ten feet if my armor wasn't heatproofed?"

"Good point!", said Junkyard as he began to fire balls of scrap one after another in quick succession, "Let's see how good that system of yours really is!"

[Xenonia]

"Five fingah discount. By which I mean my fists. No mattah how hahd it is ta fly a plane, I bet I could do it." Sure, Dan was being extremely cocky bordering on completely brain dead moronic, but his points were, for the most part, good. It wasn't TOO hard to steal an unused prop-plane, was it? Dan had certainly done harder. He assumed.

[RomanAria]

Aria blushed under Jaden's stare. "My father teaches Classical Studies and he wanted me to learn Latin and Greek..." She mumbled. She raised her eyebrows at Dan's cockiness. But it was Aura who piped up. "No, Dan. I was learning to fly, among other things," To the questioning looks she elaborated. "Our mother is an adventurous soul and wants us to learn as much random stuff as we could. Anyway, even if we could steal a plane, it would have to be single-engine, and I REALLY don't want to chance a crossing of the Atlantic in such a tiny plane, since we'd run out of fuel before we'd even get halfway. And I never actually got to solo, so I wouldn't be confident flying. And YOU certainly couldn't fly it, Dan. You'd crash on take-off, with that attitude."
Aria took up her sister's train of thought. "I vote we head for Italy and talk to this Maria person. And after that, perhaps Wyoming. Or Montana, or... Alaska. We can go hide in the Alaskan wilderness and they'd never think to look for us there." She laughed. "Of course, we'll be extremely conspicuous, since we're not farmers and not Native Americans, any of us, but... If we head off into the wilderness, disappear entirely, no one will ever find us."

[Xenonia]

"My vote's still foah Sarasota. I really want tah see me one a' them Skunk Apes. They'ah real, I tell ya. But... If ya all insist on Italy, my vote is at least we go see the Leanin' Towah. If some nutcase is gonna kill me foah my powahs, I'd prefer it be while lookin' at monuments." Dan was absolutely certain there was no way this plan would work out well, but he wasn't going to start another crazed, period-table-clearing brawl over it. Worst case scenario, it'd definitely the be the world's most /unique/ terrorist plane hijacking. "Maybe we could use false names foah the plane. I'll be 'Radito Danito'."

[Nerevarine]

Mahmoud Nobakht

The darkened sky served as a nice backdrop for the events transpiring in the London Oxford Airport.

"What...what do you want from me..?" The air traffic controller stammered out, backed against the wall, eyes filled with tears and fear of the man before him. The control room was littered with ash, bone, half burned vicera, and some guards who had been shot up by Mahmoud's men.

"I want all flights going out of this airport cancelled, immediately." Mahmoud said, his hands outstretched and engulfed in white hot fires pointed towards the shaking man, the last survivor in what was once a loud and vibrant room with commands being shouted around.

"I...I..I can't-"

A quick punch connected to the traffic controller's stomach as he fell to the ground moaning in pain.

"I will tell you one more time, end the flights. If you do not comply, I will kill you. And because you made me wait for this long, I'll be sure the way you die leaves you wishing in your final minutes you had been burned."

The man stayed on the ground, unwilling to comply. "No...I'm not going to give into the demands of scum like you."

Mahmoud did not look angry, rather he simply shrugged in agreement. "That is quite the honorable responce from a man like yourself. But it was just a formality, we don't actually need you. Dmitri here can just enter the system for me." Mahmoud responded as he pulled the man to his knees. "But I respect your honor, sir. After all, a man's honor is most important." Mahmoud extended his hand out as one of his men handed him a leather belt and a wooden rod. "More important than his life." Mahmoud stopped there, as he placed the belt around the controller's head and began to tighten it with the rod. "Dmitri, cancel all flights out of here, we will stall those brats as long as we can". So long as they were in England or Europe. It was no problem at all.

[CLIW]

Chloe groaned. She knew Dan wasn't being serious, but...come on. She didn't even know what a skunk ape was, but she wasn't going to admit that. "I say we pool our money and head somewhere in the US. It's a better bet than that...what'd you call it, Radito? A 'five fingah discount,'" she impersonated his voice. "And wherever we go, we'll have to move on to somewhere else from there. Just to be sure. I don't have a feeling that guy will just give up on finding us. He probably wants us experimented on or something."

[RomanAria]

It took all of Aura's self-control to not facepalm. Aria wasn't so in control of herself, and pressed her face into her hands, her shoulders shaking with laughter.
"Well, if we're using psuedonyms. It's got to be more... cryptic... than that." Aura said.
"And anyway we'd need passports. With our fake names. And no, we won't steal them. We don't need to break any more laws than we've already broken today." Aria said. Then burst out laughing.
"What's so funny, Aria?"
"I was thinking--" She snorted. "--About getting a passport for Dan."
"Under what name?" Aura seemed wary.
"Superbus. Augustus Superbus." She burst out laughing again, and Aura joined her.
When they finally quieted down, Aura asked, "And for us?"
"Calliope and Thalia Tiberius."
"No."
"Why not?"
"Classics references are just SHOUTING that our father's a Latin nerd. And how many classics teachers are there at colleges in Oxford?"
Aria pouted. "You're no fun. Alright. Then what?"
"Anna and El--"
"NO!"
Aura's turn to pout. "Seriously, though. How are we going to do this, as legally as is possible? The more laws we break the more publicity we'll get."

[Nerevarine]

Alessandra Guillory

Alessa had fallen alseep in the cab, apparently the southern scenery was not interesting enough to keep the tired new yorker from dozing off

"Alright, you're here!" The driver shouted at her as she woke back up. The ride had been payed for by the school, and took her right to the dig site, not too far from the resort.

Alessa's face twisted in discontent, "I kind of wish we got to stay there," she uttered out. None the less, she was here. Walking into the camp, she was greeted, or more accurately glared at by the camp overseer.

"You must be Alessandra Guillory. My name is Wilson Schulz" the man, probably not much older than Alessa herself told her. "You can sent up tour tent anywhere around the others. The equiptment is over there. Jason, our technician, will teach you how to properly handle it." He said, befoe adding in one more thing. "Oh and if the owner of the land comes by, do not speak to him. I will handle all relations."

Zaynab Rousani

Hiding out in Dearborn was working for the moment. A persian woman was nothing unusual here, Mahmoud's spies probably wouldn't take notice of her among the legions of other Muslim women that i habited the city. Still, she needed a better plan. Living in a large city was eventually going to fail, and Mahmoud would find her.She needed a place away from others.

She remembered somewhere, a resort out in North Carolina, the hinterlands of the mountains would be sufficient.

[Earnest Evans]

Peaches nodded sagely. "See? Life can't be that bad, if your family's doing well! You know, I should probably go back to medical school. Hey, old timer... do you happen to know if foreign credit hours can be transferred to American universities? Like, I heard about studying abroad, but I never did it."

Leo wheeled his skeleton model into Room 2, and gave it a brotherly pat on the shoulderblade. "Me and ol' Roger here, we go way back. I found him at a yard sale a while back, and he's been in the break room ever since. Okay, so..." Leo pointed at the skeleton's middle-right rib, "This is the rib that hurts, right? Now, if we replace all the marrow with the outer layer of bone, a few things are gonna happen. First, it's gonna get much harder to break. Sounds good, right? Well, after that, it won't be getting any more nutrition, since the marrow's gone. What's gonna happen is it's gonna degenerate until it gets brittle and eventually crumbles. Not a good thing. Of course, this is if your issue is relegated entirely to just this rib. We could have a bigger problem on our hands, like... bone cancer."

Instantly, Fargus' mind was filled with hideous imagery, of osseous tumors sprouting from ribcages like bulbous flowers, of bones withering and disintegrating as organs fall out of place. As his imagination ran wild, so did the model skeleton's bones!
"Now, if you've got bone cancer, it can either be degenerative or hyperactive. For the former, you'll get something much like what I just described, but throughout your skeletal system. The latter is much less common, but basically it FARGUSLOOKATROGER!"
Fargus's focus snapped away from his mind's eye as he directed his attention to the now rapidly-disintegrating Roger. Leo cried in alarm and backed away towards Fargus. "The hell's going on with Roger?!" "I don't know! Leo, make it STOP!"

Instantly, Roger's degeneration ceased. What was crumbling before now looked as sturdy as steel. The pile of bonemeal at the base of Roger's stand, however, didn't change. Leo gave Fargus a Look. A Look that said everything it needed to say, but still needed dialogue to be completed.
"Fargus, what'd you do?"
"Fucked if I know! I just was thinking about all that nasty shit you were talking about, and then your stupid skeleton broke apart!"
"Fargus... do something for me, would you? Imagine a femur."
"What? Why the hell do you want me to think about bones?"
"Just do this for me. Think hard about a nice cartoony dog bone."

Fargus stared heavily at Roger's desecrated remains, and thought. Summoning up decades of cultural osmosis regarding bones, he thought of humeruses and femurs. With a relatively-disappointing POP, an adult femur appeared in the mound of bonemeal at Roger's base. The mound of meal seemed to shrink, as well. There was a pregnant pause. It gave birth to many smaller pauses that only perished when Leo gave a nervous chuckle. It quickly segued into genuine laughter, but the tinge of confusion and fear hung in the air like a questing beetle.
"Fargus, you just turned Roger into a pile of dust, then turned some of that dust back into bones. Fargus, do you know what this means?!"
"What's it--"
"Fuckin' SUPERPOWERS, man! You can control bones! Hey, listen... I got an idea for how we can show the world superpowers exist. I gotta make a phone call to this one guy. In the mean-time, call Peaches and Gunther over here. This is some big news! Oh, and bring Herschel in here, too. I'm gonna expedite his check-up."
"Sure, whatever." Fargus left the room, glad to be free of Leo for just a moment. He called down the hall and into the lobby. "Yo, P an' G! Get over here, and bring the old man with you!"

Peaches shrugged, and diligently wheeled Herschel into Room 2. "Looks like your appointment's up, old-timer. Yo, Gunther!"
"I heard him! Hey, didja know Leo's got Twinkies in his vendors? S'been a while since I had one of those! So, Fargus, what'd you want us over here for?"
"We gotta wait for Leo to make a call first, then I'll explain it. In the mean-time, how's the old man been holding up?"

Further down the hall, in Leo's office, Leo was making a phone call.
"Hello? Is this the JREF? It's about the Challenge. Yeah, I got someone with actual powers! You'll send a rep over now? THOUSAND DOLLAR COVER CHA--fine, sure, just get them over here now! It's the Oberschmidt Geriatric Clinic down on 45th street. Okay, see you soon!"

[Xenonia]

"It's Radito Danito or nothin'. Ain't like that fuckah knows my real name anyway." something occured to Dan. "Othah than what we look like, this fuck knows next ta nothin' about us. Hell, maybe he think's we'ah actually named aftah the elements. Tell ya that much, my name ain't Chromium." Dan felt surprisingly proud of himself. His train of thought was actually good, for once. "Theyah's nothin' stoppin' us from jus' hoppin' on a boat ta the mainland. No need foah passpoahts oah anythin'." Man, the good ideas were just FLOWING from his magnificent brain today.

[Tracyarmav]

An observant person might notice, despite the new arrival, that some of the dust being blown across the dig site, wasn't quite moving with the wind as is passed Schultz's feet, though it was only slightly deviant. As the steady breeze blew the dust along, a piece of paper was left lying between Schultz's feet. It had four words in smugged block letters printed on one side, the top side.

Is that a fact?

Tecumseh let the wind blow him past the edge of the camp, and knew he shouldn't be tormenting the man, but well, he wanted to know just what he could and could not do while in his alternate form, and this was good practice, okay so it was barely decent practice but it was all he had to work with for the moment. Once out of sight of the camp, he changed back into his usual form, and slipped into the clothes he'd left nearby in preparation for his little blow by, the note had been a last minute addition to his little game. Once dressed, he moved towards the camp to see how work was going at the new dig site.

[Professor_Wyvern]

"You should." Herschel gave a nod to Peaches. "Depends on the score, and the university in question. I'm sure you can transfer the credits over. Good idea to keep up your education, alongside mastering a trade." Herschel paused for a moment before removing his mask as he coughed violently again. "Euugh." He placed the respirator back on and took in a deep breath.

"Ah, my appointment." Herschel glanced back at Peaches, as he helped him to the room. "Ah, you're a good kid." Herschel glanced around in the interior of the room, "Alr-" He took his mask off as he began coughing some more into his left hand. He stared at the gooey substance of phlegm. He held it over the side of his wheel-chair as the viscous fluid slowly began dripping towards the floor.

"Euugh." Herschel made a loud snorting noise, as he tried to clear up his nasal passageway. "Alright, let's get to it."

[CLIW]

"I don't know, man. He looked like the kind of guy who could have people finding shit out in a snap. But maybe as long as we all manage not to kill someone or otherwise make the front page, we can stay off the radar."
As for the idea of being stuck in a boat with Dan, Aura, Aria and Jaden, it gave her the urge, just for the moment, to run to the nearest bathroom and hurl. Not to mention the other issues in that plan. "We're in a world of shit," she muttered softly.

[Earnest Evans]

Leo came into Room 2 with a grin on his face.
"Okay, I'm done with my call. Fargus, would you care to give the news?"
"Uh, sure. So, apparently, I can... psychically control bones or something. See that pile of bones over there? I made that just by thinking about it."
"Are you kidding? How do you expect us to believe that, boss? It's absolutely fucking batshit"
"Just watch. Here, I'm gonna turn that femur there into a skull!"
Fargus concentrated heavily. He imagined the femur twisting and popping into a different shape entirely. As he thought, the femur condensed into a spherical form. A cloud of bonemeal rose up to enshroud it, before being sucked into the bone-ball itself. Eventually, familiar features began imprinting into the ball. A jawline was carved, then eye sockets and nostrils. At last, the skull dropped uneventfully into the mound of bonemeal. Fargus looked at the others with a smug grin, and shrugged his shoulders confidently.
"Holy shit."
"Boss, you've got superpowers!"
"You're damned right he does! I've got someone coming over to get this on the news!"
"Hey, that's a good idea! We can get some publicity out of this, and cash most of all!"
"Well, I was more thinking we could get you to a university and have you studied. See how this turned up, and if it can be spread. This is gonna be a major paradigm shift to phyics, biology, medicine... fucking every field!"
"You know, that sounds like a better idea. Hey, so... when's the representative come over?"
[color=skyblue]"Shouldn't be too long. I should have just enough time to give Mister Orenstein a check-up before they show up. If you would kindly leave the room, I can get started sooner." Leo gave Fargus and the gang a very implicative look.

Fargus, Peaches, and Gunther left the room, leaving only Herschel and Leo. Leo, knowing how Herschel felt about nurses, always tended to do the whole process himself. "So, mister Orenstein... how have you been? Any noteworthy events or emergencies, lately?"

[Professor_Wyvern]

"Besides my lungs acting more meshugge than usual?" Herschel inquired as he stared at the doctor.

"The bones in my fingers ache. I've got this weird feeling between my right toes. I swear I've got a bunion on my left foot. My mouth feels drier than usual. My sinuses are stuffed up like who knows what. I've been feeling cold, but that's just because the air conditioner can't be left at a proper temperature." Herschel went on as he glanced back at Leo, "I've been producing more ear-wax than usual, at least it seems that way. And that's just to start with. Feh."

"The living assistance has been a paain. Oh how I wished I was young and spry again." Herschel rambled on, "Lapping, oh how I miss the craft." Herschel scowled, "My boy has this one little meeskait working for him. He was far from blessed, you wouldn't believe me if I told you he was never in the human sideshow. Because boy, this kid looked like it. When I saw him, oh jeez!" Herschel reached for his chest as he took a deep breath in.

"It gave my heart a startle I tell you. One that I didn't need. But boy, did that little fellow have nimble fingers for lapping jewels." Herschel chuckled a bit before scowling again, "Ugh, and he still hasn't given me a call in weeks. Feh, I've talked enough about this Bobbemeysh."

The old man glanced back at Leo, "But yeah, the lungs are acting more meshuggee than usual, for whatever reason."

[Earnest Evans]

Leo scratched his chin thoughtfully.
"There might be something wrong with your respiratory system. I've noticed you've been coughing up a lot of phlegm recently. Is there anything unusual about this phlegm? Coloration, thickness, anything inside the phlegm, something like that?"
Leo briefly ran through his encyclopaedic knowledge of respiratory diseases.
"It might just be the flu, Mister Orestein. If anything new comes up, I'll have to give you a bronchoscopy. Of course, that's going to be only if something really bad comes up, so we shouldn't need to worry about having one, just yet. I'm sure things will turn out fine, Mister Orestein."

[Professor_Wyvern]

Herschel listened to the doctor, as he paused for a moment. "Anyth-" He made another hacking cough. Herschel wracked with pain as his eyes watered up a bit, as a few discolored saline drops ran down his face. With a sudden movement his head jolted forward as he coughed once more. Another gooey orb of phlegm splatted into the palm of his left hand.

Herschel glanced at it carefully, as he gingerly moved his right index finger over. He poked the substance, as it slightly moved a bit. Herschel raised the phlegm towards his face as he glanced at it, while it slowly dripped through his fingers and onto his tweed pants.

"If only I had my jeweler's lens. And it was solid." Herschel paused for a moment as he left his mouth agape at a discovery he noticed. "I, there's no way there should be grey flakes in it." He peered at his phlegm as he did in fact notice, that within the ooze were scattered grey pieces within it. Oh the bits of arsenic.

Herschel's face contorted into a grimace as he began hacking some more. "S-eheee. Mu-shogge" This time some it wasn't phlegm that was released but rather, quite a bit of mucus smearing out from his nose. Herschel grumbled as he licked at his dentures, which had a bit of a black tint to the usual white condition they were supposed to be. "Ackhaaa-!" Again the fit came upon him, this time, he released a light and somewhat and strangely airy cloud of spit which was far from clear. It held a grey quality to it, much like the flakes that he found in the phlegm. It wafted a bit, before quickly descending to the floor.

Herschel took in a deep breath from the respirator as he stared at Leo. He continued breathing to maintain a calm and consistent breathing pattern instead of a coughing fit like he did before. "Doc, I think, I think something is up. Respirator may have finally gone fercockt. For sure somethin', something isn't right."