xp_logs | Forge and Crystal: High Altitudes

After considerable time in Attilan, Forge becomes bored and takes some rather extreme steps to counter his ennui. Luckily, Crystal is around to possibly prevent a rather serious mishap.

Attilan Date: 15 October 2008

Forge checked the readings again on the small meter he had clipped to his forearm. Zero microwave emissions, the tower was safe. Public records said that they had officially shut down Attilan's only high-powered microwave communications tower four months ago, in accordance with the new conservation protocols. It didn't make sense, after all, to continue using valuable power to send signals out if no one was out there to receive them. Besides, without any satellites to carry the signal, the tower was limited to line-of-sight anyway.

Nevertheless, Forge thought as he began to climb Attilan's highest structure, safety was always a precaution. The amount of power this tower could channel could easily cook him into a charred heap if he was in contact with it while it was turned on. Without a cloud in the sky, there was no risk of a random lightning strike either.

It took him close to three hours to climb to the top of the tower, ascending slowly and carefully. But as the sun rose higher in the sky, he found himself straddling the railing atop the tower's observation deck, over four hundred fifty meters above sea level. The wind whipped his hair into his face as he zipped up the outfit he'd constructed and kicked both legs over the rail. Balancing with his heels on the edge of the platform, he prepared to let go.

Crystal spun and darted through the cloudless sky. As the months continued, she found herself thinking more and more about the people she'd known in New York. What were they doing now? How were the students doing at the school? Had much unfortunate craziness had befallen them in the past sixteen months? Was Logan still nice to Yvette or had he turned on her? Had Jennie found that meaning she'd desired with the X-Men? Crystal was so wrapped up in her reflections that the slight glimpse of something rather unusual in the distance didn't quite sink in right away.

Forge slipped a pair of goggles down over his eyes, then bent his knees slightly. In one motion, he let go of the railing and kicked out, jumping into thin air with nothing but a couple hundred meters of gravity between him and the ground.

There wasn't a thought in the world deep enough to keep Crystal from noticing that. Blue-green eyes widened in surprise, confusion, and shock as a figure leapt from the top of the nearby radio tower. Recovering quickly, a horrified Crystal flew as fast as she could towards the falling figure. Who would do such a thing?! Why?! Trying to be as careful as possible, Crystal slowed her speed a bit as she grabbed the would-be-splatter before the person hit the ground. She pulled up slightly, then flew straight above the ground.

As he felt his velocity suddenly change, Forge swore, then tucked his arms in tight. He glanced down at the arms hooked under his, then glanced over his shoulder with a smile. "Howdy, your Highness," he shouted over the rush of air. "Not that it isn't nice to see you like this, but I was in the middle of an experiment..."

"Forge?!" Crystal stared down at him. "What is going on? Why did you jump?" Slowing down considerably, she set Forge down on the ground and remained in the air a couple of feet away. "Do you mind telling me what that was all about?" she demanded. "You just jumped off of a very tall tower! What were you attempting to find out? How little would be left of you after you hit the ground, or perhaps what sort of indentation you might make?"

With a flourish, Forge spread his arms widely, showing the thin nylon-and-mylar fabric extending from wrists to knees, and a smaller web extending like a parachute from knees to ankles. "Ever see those little flying squirrels on the nature shows? They use excess skin to glide from tree to tree. I designed the suit off of an old parachute model, and adapted it with this thermal sensing model," he patted a small box on his chest, "to react to rising air currents. If my calculations are correct, and they always are when not acted on by an outside force," he fixed Crystal with a quick glare from behind the goggles, "I'd have easily picked up a thermal and glided to safety."

He laughed, then pushed the goggles up onto his forehead. "What, you thought I was just trying to jump?"

Crystal fixed her own glare upon Forge, but hers was neither quick nor hidden. "What was I supposed to think?" she said crossly. "I was out enjoying a flight and suddenly some crazy person leaped off the communications tower! Yes, Forge, I thought someone was attempting to become one with the ground. How could I be expected to know that it was you attempting to 'fly'?"

"Hey!" Forge snapped back, pointing a finger at Crystal. "I don't attempt anything. When I put my mind to something, I do it. And if..." He shook his finger in frustration, then balled up his fists and began pacing. "I didn't mean to startle you, that's why I figured I'd go out here where no one works or even observes much." He paused, looking back towards where Crystal had flown from. "Wait a minute... how far away were you? I didn't have more than a few seconds of freefall."

"What a very intelligent decision to make, Forge," Crystal retorted, continuing to glare, "going somewhere where you did not think anyone would see you. What if something had gone wrong? Yes, yes, I know; whatever you made is flawless and would have worked perfectly if this 'outside force' had not interfered. Scientific experiments tend to be repeated before a conclusion is stated, sim? An unknown variable might occur somehow. Surprise! An outside force interrupted what you wrongly assumed would be an uninterrupted test flight." She scowled slightly. "I do not know how far away I was. I was not on any certain path, just one of my own choosing."

"I wanted to take a risk!" Forge said sharply, taking a step towards Crystal. "Call it crazy - and knowing you, you will - but it's just... argh. Sixteen months here and there are days when it's so quiet and well-run and safe that I just expect something to happen. A tidal wave coming from all horizons to take us back home, the moon falling out of the sky, Atlantis rising and declaring war - I know you thought life back at the school was horrible, but for me... some of those moments were the only times I felt alive. There in the jungle, in the conservatory? I almost died, but when I came over that hill and I saw everyone covering each other's backs and fighting those dinosaurs... it felt right. I miss that, as much as I miss my friends and my family." He sat down on the grass, wrapping his arms around his knees, the billowing folds of the suit enclosing him like a small cocoon. "Scott was going to teach me to fly the Blackbird. Well, not so much teach me as allow me to fly it. Now? This is as close as I'll get."

There were several questions and comments Crystal could have tossed at Forge, things such as "Oh? Would you rather have the entire country embroiled in chaos?" and "Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep things as calm as they've been?" and "Perhaps you would prefer it if we chased my cousin out from wherever it is that he is hiding and encouraged him to begin the widescale slaughter of innocent citizens so that you could come alive once again?" However, she chose to keep all of those thoughts unvoiced.

"How long did it take you to climb to the top of the tower?" Crystal asked, sitting just above the top of the grass. "Was climbing to the top part of this whole experience, too?" Again, memories from her time in New York flashed into her mind. They had all climbed up the frozen waterfall, climbed, not flown or levitated or ran, climbed. She'd even worn the insanely stifling outfit Nathan had 'encouraged' her to order, even if she had removed the offending garment the moment she reached the top.

"About three hours," Forge said, then waved his hand and averted his eyes. "I know, I know. Pathetic. But hey, two years ago I couldn't have made it at all." Which was the truth. Taking his weekends to work with Paulo on the boat and occasionally go out to sea and work the nets had managed to give Forge some muscle definition, if not mass. Instead of a pale, ill-defined skeleton, he was beginning to look like a tanned, better-defined... skeleton.

"Do you want the option of ending up... 'splat'?" Crystal asked. "You have already proven that you can climb up the tower and jump off of it all on your own. I can fly you back up to the top and let you jump off again, and I would like to remain nearby just in case some other outside force decides to wreak havoc upon your well-thought out 'jumping off a building' idea, but if part of the thrill of it is the thought that perhaps you might fall to your death..."

"Actually..." Forge said slowly, looking sideways at Crystal. "If you wouldn't mind... I haven't had the chance to see Attilan like you see it. You know, from..." He pointed up to punctuate his sentence.

She wasn't ever going to see machines the way he saw them and he wasn't ever going to perceive the air and the world from a high up view the same way she did, but she could certainly take him for a flight. Without the risk of splattage. Unless some unknown variable outside force messed with things and swooped in for an attack, but! how likely was that?

"I took Mr. Summers for the sky tour of Attilan before Medusa and Blackagar's engagement party," Crystal replied, smiling slightly. "I suppose I could take you for one, too." She stood, her feet never touching the ground. "Are you ready?"

Uncoiling like a spring in slow motion, Forge stood and stretched, the small motors in his leg barely audible as he came to his feet. With a snap of his wrists, the thin material of his outfit billowed out, parachute-like. With an impish grin, he pulled the goggles back over his eyes and gave a thumbs-up to Crystal.

"Up, up, and away."