Scott and Haroun and their poor battered plane, Friday evening

[x-cyclops.livejournal.com]

Shortly after the Blackbird touches down, Haroun and Scott assess the damage. None of the testosterone-laced nastiness from their last conversation is in evidence.


If he'd been the type, breaking down in tears would not have been an inappropriate reaction. "Not that bad," Scott muttered distractedly, surveying the damage to the wing. "I'm sorry," he said, not quite sure who he was talking to. The plane? "I've really got to learn to take better care of you..."

Haroun came out of the elevators leading down to the Hangar like he'd been shot out of a cannon. He saw the damage, and whistled. "Damn." he said, and then started circling the plane looking for more damage.

Scott's shoulders slumped a little before he shook it off, climbing down from the ladder. He was still in his leathers, having left the others to shower and change while he assessed the damage to the plane. "Couldn't do a damned thing," he said, struggling to keep his voice level. "The poor kid... her powers were totally out of control. She didn't mean to knock us out of the sky, but she certainly nearly managed it."

"Occupational hazard. This is not going to be a cheap repair. Any idea what she hit you with?" he said, moving up closer to the damaged wing to inspect it. "This looks - melted."

"She was doing something to the EM field, according to onboard sensors, but I don't know how it was producing explosions. Let alone explosions that size." Scott breathed out a little shakily as he got both feet on the floor again. "Nate caught the plane. Again. Not so much as a headache this time, apparently, which is kind of scary when you think of it..." He shook his head. "Doesn't look like any of the same warping as happened the last time he did that, either. But we were coming in for a landing at the time, so..."

Haroun nodded. "Got it. E-M manipulation would explain the melting - if she generated plasma by superheating the air with alpha radiation..." he murmured as he inspected the wing. "Shit. Be right back!" he said, dashing for the secured room where they kept the tools necessary for working on the Blackbird.

Scott sighed a bit unsteadily and started another walk-around. At least there'd been no obvious damage to the internal systems. Just from the explosion, and if they'd been any closer to it...

Haroun rushed back with a Geiger counter in his hands, and then he began taking readings from the damaged wing sections.

"So?" Scott asked tiredly, coming around under the other, undamaged wings and seeing what he was doing.

"Doesn't seem to be hot." he said with relief at the counter's silence. "I was a little worried. Didn't want to be sticking my face into a hot zone. I've mutated once, I don't feel the need to do it again."

"We may not ever know what precisely her mutation is," Scott said a bit dully, shrugging out of his uniform jacket. The leathers were heavy. "She got caught up in one of her own explosions. We took her back to the hospital in Salt Lake City... they're not sure she'll ever wake up. Fourteen years old."

Haroun nodded. "I'll read the report. Jesus, the fucking support strut's warped. I haven't seen damage like this since Shiro went nuclear." he grumped. "We might be able to save the wing, but it's iffy. We're looking at downtime here, Cyclops. I think we've got all the internals we need, but if the frame is significantly warped we'll have to lose the entire wing and replace it."

"We've got to get her back up ASAP," Scott said. "Minimize the downtime. We can't afford not to have her operational." He made a detour, setting his jacket over out of the way.

"And I want a pony." Haroun muttered. "All this damaged stuff is going to need to be stripped out. We'll X-Ray the wing structure, look for microfractures and warping. Assuming there's nothing there, then it's a couple of very long days to replace the damaged internals and test. If there is warpage, you're looking at a downtime of weeks. If not more."

"Shit." It slipped out before Scott could stop it, and he squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, forcing it all away. Task at hand. "Well, I'm yours, 24/7 if need be," he said a bit hoarsely, his voice fractionally more level. "We'll do the X-rays and hope for the best... anyone else we could use here, powers-wise, to speed things up?"

Haroun nodded. "Thanks. Give me Shiro and Alison for torches. Strip out the damaged material, cart it off. Give me Cain to haul away the big pieces rather than getting the truck. If we had Lorna, we could just put the X-Ray film down on the ground and get her to emit the X-Rays from above. But we don't, so we'll have to use the handheld device. Put the development on priority with Medical, they should be equipped to develop X-Ray film."

"Nathan could be as useful as Cain for the heavy lifting," Scott pointed out. "I'll go talk to whoever's on duty in Medical and set things up there." Debriefing. He still had to do debriefing. He took a slightly shaky breath. "An hour. I'll be back in an hour. Debriefing. Should I tell Shiro and Alison we need them now, or wait?"

"Sooner the better." he said. "I'll get started with the fuel and hydraulics dump, flush the lines so the entire thing doesn't go up by torching some fuel." he said, staring at the damaged wing. "If we get the wing stripped before doing the X-Rays, the images will be cleaner and easier to understand."

"I'll send Nate down as soon as I've gotten his report, too." Scott picked his jacket back up. Getting out of the leathers might be an idea, he thought dimly. "And I'll break the news to Charles."

Haroun nodded. "We've got the parts for the internals. That I'm not worried about. It's the possibility of frame damage. And get Cain and Nate both down here. Bigger chunks equals faster stripdown equals get to doing the X-Rays sooner." he reminded.

"Got it," Scott said, heading for the hangar doors. "Back shortly. Expect company before then."

Haroun nodded. "Get going!" he said, and then headed back to the Parts and Equipment Room to get the fuel-truck and the hydraulics kit.