iamresponding: (bucket - serious)
Nova Prime / Rich Rider ([personal profile] iamresponding) wrote in [community profile] legionmissions2016-05-16 10:59 pm

[closed] Speaking Softly (The Big Stick Comes Later)

Who| Rich and Grif
What| Rich tries to talk the Silver Surfer into leading Galactus away from Braal, before they try any plans. It doesn't go well.
Where| Braal
When| Right when Silver Surfer and Stardust reach Braal but before Galactus arrives
Warnings/Notes| Severe injury/gore

They managed to threshold in pretty close to where the heralds were last spotted by the Science Police. They could see them floating up there over the planet, near the rust-colored clouds, looking down on the terrified people of Braal.

They'd explained the situation to the Kwai navigators and the one that had agreed to take them had agreed to do it despite the danger. To make it so the heralds couldn't go through the threshold gates straight to Legion world, they went to a threshold hub outpost first before thresholding to Braal. If they were followed, they'd only find a skeleton crew of volunteers at the otherwise evacuated hub, not Legion World itself.

Now all that was left was for Rich to talk to the heralds and hope that Surfer would pull seniority and agree to take Galactus elsewhere despite Stardust.

And if that didn't happen, the only other thing they could hope was that they could at least walk away.

Because of the risks, Kid Quantum had agreed to Rich's demand that he go without a full squad. That meant it was just him, their navigator, and Grif, of all people.

"I know Kid Q told us that you were coming along to make an extraction if you can, if something goes wrong, but you better damn well pay attention to the 'if you can' part," Rich said sharply to Grif. "If I go down and you can't grab me safely, you and Kraylo here need to leave me behind and run."
whyarewehere: (D)

[personal profile] whyarewehere 2016-05-17 03:21 am (UTC)(link)
"Don't worry about me," Grif replied, waving an arm as if he could brush away concern. "I'm not the one with the compulsive ass-risking problem."

Every ounce of Grif was drawn tight with nerves. He could really, really, really die out here and he was putting forth a valiant effort to not think about it.

Thinking about someone else dying instead didn't help as much as one might have hoped.
legionnpcs: (galactus plot - Silver Surfer)

[personal profile] legionnpcs 2016-05-17 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
The Silver Surfer looked down first, clearly recognizing Rich's voice, and then Stardust looked down as well.

Stardust started to fly down towards Rich, her body language clearly aggressive, but the Silver Surfer caught her by the shoulder and gave her a stern look, clearly pulling some kind of rank. They both flew down to Rich in a terrifyingly, impossibly quick, fluid way, as if the laws of physics didn't apply to them as they moved. As soon as they were in front of Rich, he slowly floated back down to the ground and they floated down to join him there.

"Finding you here is...unexpected, Nova Prime," said the Surfer. "I've told you before, stay out of my Master's way."
whyarewehere: (C)

[personal profile] whyarewehere 2016-05-17 03:39 am (UTC)(link)
Grif breathed in and found it was pretty hard to let that breath go with the heralds so close. Shit but they were spooky.

He hoped that whatever Rich had to say to them, it was really good.
legionnpcs: (galactus plot - Silver Surfer)

[personal profile] legionnpcs 2016-05-17 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
The Silver Surfer wasn't capable of hiding all of his emotions and the thoughtful look on his face made it clear he wasn't unmoved by Rich's words.

But he wasn't the only herald and it was also clear that despite the fact he had a little bit of sway over his partner, he couldn't act unilaterally, either.

"This insect had no part in freeing the Devourer from his humiliation, Surfer. Your misguided feelings won't stop me from crushing the remnants of the Nova Corps if he tries to keep my master from granting his blessing to these insignificant specks," Stardust said, pointing her spear at Rich.

The thoughtful look left Surfer's face and all that was left was resignation.

"No," the Surfer said, staying his partner's hand. "The Earthling, like others of his race, are my responsibility. Go to your mindless slaughter, Ethereal. I shall deal with Nova Prime as I see fit."

With that, Stardust flew off, looking back once, making it clear she didn't like what the Surfer was doing. Rich and the Surfer were left standing there.
legionnpcs: (galactus plot - Silver Surfer)

[personal profile] legionnpcs 2016-05-17 04:06 am (UTC)(link)
"I respect what you've done in the war. And I respect what you're trying to do. Understand: this is why I'm letting you live."

And that was that.

Except it wasn't. Instead of just turning to leave, the Surfer suddenly put his hand straight through Rich's chest. There was no resistance; it went through like his body was made of pudding. Then he pulled it back out again, also with no resistance, like he was only pulling it through air.

"My master must feast -- and you must stay out of his way, Nova Prime."
whyarewehere: (J)

[personal profile] whyarewehere 2016-05-17 04:24 am (UTC)(link)
"You motherfucking cockbite!"

Grif had exactly one thing going for him in this entire universe: he was goddamn fast.

Time slowed for Grif with more than just adrenaline as he surged forward to grab Rich's bod- Rich. Not a body yet dear fucking Jesus-

Then Grif arced up, straining with every fiber toward the kwai and the Threshold gate.

He almost forgot to slow a little as he hit poor Kraylo, shoving the kwai through the gate ahead of them.

"Shit shit shit shit shit!"
Edited 2016-05-17 04:27 (UTC)
legionnpcs: (galactus plot - Silver Surfer)

[personal profile] legionnpcs 2016-05-17 04:32 am (UTC)(link)
The Silver Surfer watched as Grif grabbed Nova Prime at superspeed and powered through the gate.

After the gate closed, he used the power cosmic to tap into the comms of the medicos in Legion World's Medbay, even though Legion World was systems and systems away.

"This is the Silver Surfer. I have injured Richard Rider. With your level of technology, you have fifteen minutes to save his life. Nova Prime is a friend. Don't give me a reason to be disappointed."

And with that, he flew back up into the air, to survey the newest target of his Master's hunger.
whyarewehere: (J)

[personal profile] whyarewehere 2016-05-17 04:51 am (UTC)(link)
Grif was angry and scared, and angry about being angry and scared, and it was forming a feedback loop going way too fast for him to even try and deal with constructively right then.

"I fucking warned you!" he snarled as he charged through the gate to Legion World.

"I told you!"

None of it mattered now, he just needed to get Rich, the goddamn idiot, to medical before he bled out.

Grif wasn't remotely equipped for any of this hero crap, but for now being fast was enough. He ran full tilt straight into Legion World's medbay, blessedly close to the hub just for this sort of occasion, where other people who were trained and capable and knew what they were doing could take over and maybe fix what he hadn't been able to prevent.
Edited 2016-05-17 04:53 (UTC)
legionnpcs: (legion - Dr. Gym'll)

[personal profile] legionnpcs 2016-05-17 05:11 am (UTC)(link)
Fortunately, the staff in Medbay had taken the Surfer contacting them very seriously and already had a stretcher prepped, hovering there, with techs and nurses holding life-saving equipment also hovering nearby.

"There they are!" said Dr. Gym'll. "Is surgical suite one prepped?"

"Yessir," said a tech. "What about the organ-cloning lab, sir?"

"Rider's body is resistant to cloned organs due to alteration on a molecular level, we have to repair what's already there."

"Ah, grife," said the tech, making it clear how much harder that would make things.

The technicians took Rich away from Grif and got him up on the stretcher. Holo-displays of his vitals suddenly flared to life and the immediate flashing red warning messages, irregular heartbeat display, and warning beeps made it clear that his condition was not good.

They took his helmet off and cut open his transuit and uniform with laser shears, and started attaching tubes and masks and inserting IVs and doing everything they needed to do, with Gym'll shouting out instructions every step of the way.

"Move move move!" said Gym'll, and they started to run him towards the surgical suite.

One of the nurses, a pink Ralmusian, put her hand on Grif's arm.

"Are you injured, Doubletime?" she asked.
whyarewehere: (F)

[personal profile] whyarewehere 2016-05-17 05:23 am (UTC)(link)
Grif startled at being touched, moving back a step before figuring out that nothing bad was happening to him.

"What? No! No, I'm good."

He forced his face into an extremely unconvincing grin.

"I just... am fine. And good."

It wasn't like an alien demigod thing had almost killed him.

Pull it together, Grif, it's not you bleeding.

"What was that about his organs?"

He was hoping he hadn't heard that right.

It was really a shame Rich was such an idiot. He was a nice guy. Then again, Grif had long since decided that idiocy was an essential part of niceness.
legionnpcs: (generic - woman)

[personal profile] legionnpcs 2016-05-17 05:28 am (UTC)(link)
The nurse was clearly hesitant to explain because of patient-client privilege, but Gym'll had practically shouted it...

She opted to explain in general terms.

"Most patients are capable of having organs selectively cloned to replace any that are damaged beyond repair, but our cloning technology isn't perfect. Certa meta-powered individuals that don't match their species baseline sometimes have a genetic or molecular makeup that makes it so we can't successfully clone a replacement. Their bodies would just reject any cloned organs -- sometimes technological replacements, as well. For them, all we can do is try to repair the damage and save the original organs."

Something that was a lot harder to do, even despite all their technology.
whyarewehere: (G)

[personal profile] whyarewehere 2016-05-17 05:35 am (UTC)(link)
"...And he went out there knowing that."

Grif knew it. Goddammit.

"I'm just... going to go find somewhere to sit down," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose. The panic that had gotten him here had faded. Now, Grif's body was cheerfully reminding him that he was not in the shape necessary to pull off stunts like that without paying for it later.

God save him from caring about what happened to brave, heroic jackasses with no sense of self-preservation.