2013.07.20 - Form a Line, Please

Flying around Metropolis, one couldn't miss the Baxter Building being as prominent as it was. And while the Legion had flown about here and there, the one time it actually -looked- like someone was home and not adventuring into the unknown, Garth Ranzz had taken advantage of it. 
Looking around in the lobby, dressed in his uniform, the young Winathian from the future scratches his goatee, looking about the lobby as he introduces himself to the receptionist. "Garth Ranzz. Lightning Lad. Just wanted to see someone for consulting." 
Sue Storm is indeed home, as is Reed, though he's been oddly secretive about that new spaceship thing he's been working on lately. She saw the paint booth in use a few days ago, so she knows the thing is nearly done, but has been diligently curtailing her curiosity. 
Currently, Sue is seated at the desk near one wall of the 'common room' of the Fantastic Four's home, getting some of the increasing paperwork related to the new FF Inc. business entity taken care of when the lobby rings for their attention. "I got it!" she calls out, so Reed doesn't have to leave his lab or similar to reach for the phone. Answering briskly, she listens to the front desk clerk before saying, "We'll be happy to speak with Mr. Ranzz. Please send him up." 
The phone is hung up again before Sue once again uses the oldest of instant messaging systems: yelling. "Reed, someone's on their way up to talk with us!"
There is a voice that reverberates throughout his lab. A familiar one that causes him to smile. As he looks up from his current project. What it is, who knows? Reed has a dozen or so going at once just to keep him from going mad. "On my way!" He replies back. "Eleven continue the analysis on these scans and I will be back." With that said Reed heads in the direction of the call. 
Amy Winston is just another tourist. Lots of them pass through or by New York City's famous landmarks every day--the Baxter Building qualifies as one of New York City's famous landmarks to superhero fans. She had spent the past hour trying to block out the tour guide's perky voice, only to find that they were going to pass the Baxter Building and not go inside.
The teenager isn't here to just look. Fortuitously, someone's going in right before her standing around turns from hesitation to loitering. Amy breaks off from the tour group, darting through the lobby doors after Garth.
She doesn't follow him up to the desk. Big empty lobby and she didn't think this through very well.
"Great, thank you!" Apparently flashing the Legion ring, and flying in and introducing himself made it easy enough. And apparently Reed must have been expecting a visit -from- the time-lost people from the future at some point... 
Not that he didn't expect Brainy to solve the situation at some point, but a bit of meeting of minds might not hurt... 
And there was a blink, as an older teenager comes in, gawking to look. 
"Hi," Garth offers. "Uh... there something I can help you with? I was just on my way to meet with the Richards. Uh..." Wait, they had a receptionist for this. Stepping aside, Garth motions towards the receptionist. "Do you need to see them too? Uh... do you mind if they'll come down?" 
Sue Storm gets a follow-up message from the front desk -- apparently Mr. Ranzz was expecting to meet them in the lobby. That's easy enough. She stands, intercepts Reed on his way to the common room and tries to straighten his clothing while telling him about the minor change in plans. "Let's go meet them down in the lobby, okay?"
As Sue starts to straighten him up he smiles as her. He's lost without her. "Lobby right." he says enthusiastically as he walks beside her all the way to the elevator. As he turns to face the front, Reed cocks a brow up in curiosity. Then with a turn of his head to her he asks. "Wait? Who are we meeting again?" And with that the door shuts. 
"Hey," Amy replies, surprisingly nonchalant for someone in her position. She scans the lobby, leaning to look past Garth before addressing him further.
"Me? Actually, yeah. That'd be super helpful." She grins, genuinely. Strangers are being way more kind to her from when she was last on Earth.
Sue Storm takes the time in the elevator to smooth her own clothing, though she wasn't that rumpled to begin with. When the elevator doors open, she steps out ahead of Reed and approaches the front desk and the two visitors first, smiling and offering her hand to Garth then Amy in turn. "Hi, Mr. Ranzz? I'm Sue Storm, and this is Dr. Reed Richards."
As the door opens, Reed steps aside and lets Sue do what Sue does: Meet and greet the visitors. There's no need for him to introduce himself, she already did. "Welcome to the Baxter Building. If there is anything we can help you with please feel free to ask and we will do our best to help you out." Yup The Fantastic Four, well two, willing to help out anyone who needs it, no matter what and with no charge.
Amy keeps her hands shoved in jacket pockets. Suspicious for most people trying to get past security, merely expected for a surly teenager. "Yeah, tell me about it," she says with a laugh. "I don't usually mix well with security, you know?"
"I'm Amy. Amy Winston. Ranzz is a pretty cool surname--" Amy cuts her sentence short, looking past Garth again and nodding her head toward the elevator. Her smile fades fast and she composes her expression. The teen remains silent while Sue and Reed cross the floor, graciously removing her hand from her jacket to shake Sue's when offered.
"Oh, it's actually from..." 
But Garth is distracted by the arrival of the Richards. With Sue's hand occupied, Garth offers his hand first to Reed, then afterwards to Sue's. "Ah, Mr. and Mrs. Richards. Just call me Garth, please... I'm from Winath. I was hoping to stop by and see if the Legion could consult... ah, share information on a temporal time-space dimensional problem." He indicates Amy. "And this is Amy... Winston. Uh... tourist?"
Sue Storm actually blinks and looks a little bit taken aback by Garth referring to Reed and her as 'Mr. and Mrs. Richards'. What's really unsettling about that is that he's not the FIRST person to make that slip. And yes, it's a slip. Sue just introduced herself by her maiden name, and she's not wearing any rings. "Uh, hi there, Amy. Good to meet you." She's clearly flustered, but she's trying to recover.
Reed is quite puzzled by the slip as well. Mister and Missus Richards? Its perplexing to say the least however when the mention of temporal-time causes the scientist to perk up, even to retrieve a scanner from his pocket. With a smile and shrug to Sue, who's told him never to scan visitors at random, begins to do what he does best. SCIENCE! "Just for the record Susan I didnt drag anyone from the future. Im still tweaking my 'Time And Relative Dimension In Space'." Somewhere Nerds are squeeing.
Amy stays a step behind Garth, but her positioning can't save her from being dragged into the conversation. Legion, though. She studies the back of Garth's head, but her concentration is diminished at Sue's overreaction. She slips a hand over her mouth to hide her grin and successfully stops herself from snorting.
"Umm, hi, Ms. Storm." When she lowers her hand to talk to the older woman, Amy tries to give her a sympathetic look.
"I'm not actually a tourist. I'm a princess."
Amy waits a moment for that to sink in.
"From another dimension."
Amy waits a further second.
"And I need your help tracking down a diamond that's trapping a guy that's supposed to be the angel of death or something. Unless, um, you're busy at the moment with time stuff."
"Oh, uh... sorry. _Ms._... Storm?" Garth's mind had been more on explaining to Reed what was going on, and so now he offers a sheepish apology. 
Reed's scan would likely show both a) human but with a large amount of genetic drift that would be about a thousand years, b) high amounts of electricity and c) some hints of chronons that might be indicative of -something-. 
However, any explanation was forestalled by Amy's story, which causes Garth to double-blinks. "... Uh. Huh. Did you get dropped through time and space too?" 
Wow. TWO people from other places and times at the same time? Reed might go into ferret shock. So, she tries for a 'divide and conquer' strategy, and offers Garth a smile. "It's okay. I've been getting that kind of a lot lataely." She then focuses her attention on Amy and doesn't protest Reed breaking otu the scanner. Not this time. "What kind of diamond, if I may ask?"
As Reed looks over his scans of Garth, a broad smile appears on his mouth. "Intriguing. The analysis says youre from roughly around the Thirtieth Century. On top of that you have an interesting electromagnetic field surrounding your body. Possibly even to your DNA." Yeah Reed's talking to himself now. "Possibly even have the ability to control said field and use electric at a whim. Magnificent." 
Amy exhales sharply and raises her eyebrows. "Wait, you believe me? Just like that. Wow. I would have had a way harder time."
"Then again, you guys probably hear a lot of weird stuff, huh?" she continues, rubbing the back of her neck while looking upward toward the lobby ceiling. She looks sidelong at Garth, smiling apologetically. "Sorry, Garth Ranzz. I think I'm just space. Maybe a little bit time."
Then they're broken off into teams, with Amy being sectioned off by Sue. Probably for the best, considering how obsessive Reed is getting. Amy gestures toward Richards. "Is he always so, um, focused?" Another apologetic smile. "Sorry. Um, it's a black diamond. Probably magic. I didn't get a chance to really look at it. Do you guys do magic stuff? It's totally cool if you don't, I've got backup plans."
She realizes she's babbling and abruptly shuts up, giving Sue a chance to talk.
"... I've heard stories like that one with the Legion," Garth sighs. "Mostly from other Legionnaires who're from different times and dimensions. Say, I don't suppose... no, you don't have a flight ring, do you?" 
Yet another thing Reed could go ga-ga over, the flight ring, a unique compound of metals providing anti-gravity... speaking of which... 
"Uh, are you... well, do you mind not looking at me like that?" Garth comments, as Reed is examining him in such an... uncomfortable manner. 
Sue Storm smiles as Amy starts to babble, and looks over at Reed amusedly. She's likely very used to babbling. Surprise, surprise. "He's almost always that focused. Sometimes he's worse," she offers to the teen conspiratorially. "Hm. Black diamond." When the teen mentions magic she holds up a hand and shakes her head no, hoping that Reed didn't hear it in his excitement over Garth. "We can at least try."
Reed doesn’t hear Garth but wanders off to go over the data he just received. As he focuses on the scanner starts to mumble to himself "Send to the mainframe. Run all variables. Pinpoint era. Begin time portal ig... wait, no broke it down for parts." Taking a moment from his findings Reed looks up. "Did I miss something?" 
Amy frowns at the silent component of Sue's answer.
"I've heard that magic from where I'm from is different from magic on Earth. I thought that could be a lead or something." The teenager looks Sue in the eye, which is a change from her looking just about everywhere else while talking. "A lot of people died last time. When he got out, I mean. I'm sure he's somewhere on Earth."
Wow does it feel weird talking like an alien.
Sighing as Reed wanders off, Garth moves on over to listen to Amy, pausing long enough to observe, "You sound like the White Witch. We've got a Legionnaire like that." At least in the Omnicron, although... "... though she hasn't shown up here yet. Uh... you were looking for someone in a black diamond?" 
Sue Storm looks after Reed and sighs faintly, beckoning him back with a gesture. "Sorry about that, Mr. Ranzz. Miss Winston, maybe you can help us narrow down the unique energy signature of that black diamond? Once we can identify it, we can probably track it back to its location."
"White Witch?" Amy replies, regaining a fraction of her grin. "I feel like a witch sometimes."
She looks down at her hand, the one she shook Sue's with earlier. Amy makes a fist, and then spreads her fingers in a strange gesture. A purple light streams from an invisible source seemingly held in the palm of her hand, casting a glow throughout the lobby. "I put him in there. Maybe that means something. I'll let you scan me, or whatever it is you want to do."
Amy closes her hand again. The light disappears. "Nothing that I'd need to put on a hospital gown for, though. Right?"
Quirking an eyebrow, Garth comments, "If you're going to scan her, I'll give you some privacy," the Winathian grins. "I'll uh, come back later. Oh Amy... if youre having time and dimensional issues, stop by the Legion headquarters? Maybe you're not a Legionnaire, but it might be worth talking to you in case you're connected to one." Nodding at Sue, and at the distracted Reed, Garth excuses himself.
Sue Storm smiles and nods to Garth as he leaves then looks back at Amy. "Well, I don't know what else Reed might be working on currently so we'd have to schedule a time for it first so he won't be... well, distracted. Do you have a way to keep in contact with us?" She steps over to the front desk and reaches to pull a business card from a small stack kept there. "I don't want to keep you, so I'll look into Reed's schedule and give you a call. Will that be okay?"
Amy follows Sue to the desk, taking the card and testing it in her hands. It's more durable than she expected. "I don't really have a phone. Um. I'll call this number in a few days, when I'm able?"
She turns to leave, but stops. Amy takes a moment to continue: "Thanks. I'm really glad you want to help."
Sue Storm smiles and nods. "Or stop back by. Which ever is easier for you. And I really hope that we will be able to help. It is what we do, after all." She watches the teen take her leave, then goes to find out where Reed wandered off to. He's usually kind of scattered, but that was honestly worse than usual.
Category:Log