2014.03.19 - Like Clockwork

SOMEWHEN ELSE

Time starts to lose meaning when it is experienced as a non-chronological series of events. With only his own circadian rhythm acting as a pendulum to measure duration, Booster Gold is still unsure as to how long he has been or is or will be lost. More than a relative minute, certainly--he spent several just talking to Tony Stark in the past, after all. Possibly slightly more than a relative day; he is exhausted and has been unable to sleep due to the constant temporal skipping. With no chance to rest or to recover from his injuries, and with nearly depleted power cells, this is turning into a really drawn-out death.

Clutching his hands to his head, to either side of his broken goggles, Booster tries to shut out the aches, the flickering distractions, the hunger pangs. Man. He is really freaking hungry. Nevermind that, concentrating now.

With effort, he steers his haphazard tumbling through spacetime, but it is like trying to guide an ocean liner with a broken rudder; unwieldy and imprecise. The first attempts miss the mark by a hundred years in either direction, but this drops to a dozen, and then a few. He is starting to realize that he cannot keep this up, not in his current condition.

When Booster lands several months before the battle with Darkseid that sent him careening on this catastrophic chronal course, he staggers and has to sit on the ground until the world stops spinning. His flickering, dying HUD gives him a readout of the local date, and this re-energizes him. He knows exactly when he is. Jumping to his feet, he flies off as fast as he can.

SEVERAL MONTHS AGO

"," says Michael Jon Carter, also known as Goldstar, or at least will be known as Goldstar if he has any say in the matter. He speaks in Interlac as he moves away from the Time Sphere, taking his first steps into the 21st Century, gazing at the skyline of Metropolis. He is wearing a skin tight aqua and grey-violet powersuit which is totally hideous.

"Sir," says Skeets, "You really need to practice your TwenCen English if you are to fit into this society." The golden robot serenely offers his advice as he floats near Michael.

Both of them turn in surprise when the Time Sphere powers up behind them, its pale blue glow preventing them from getting a good look at the figure at the controls. The silhouette of the thief gives them a thumbs-up, and then the time machine blinks out of existence.

NOW

It is chilly and breezy at the top of Stark Tower; this is because it is a tall tower, and this is the kind of thing that happens on tall towers. There is also something like a static charge building in the air, as if a storm were approaching, but the scattered clouds in the sky do little more than hide a few stars.

And then, abruptly, a bright pinpoint of pale blue light appears a few meters above the roof. It expands, looking like a miniature star, and then there is a spherical vehicle within it, spinning, its surface glittering with frost. Energy crackles around it, static discharges grounding on bits of metal around the rooftop, and then the sphere drops down. It is not a graceful landing when its platform hits the roof, but it remains upright as its glow fades out. Vapor flows out of the base as the rime covering the sphere cracks and begins to melt away.

The Cheshire was standing at the rooftop looking at the city. It was a good place to think, to be away from everything and everone for just a little while. It was windy, but it didn't bother him- he had his own personal fur coat with him at all times, after all.

He senses the buildup, though, and he feels his fur standing on end-- it's not actually doing it, but that is the sensation he experiences.

"Holy... holy hell!" he takes several steps back as discharges ground themselves on the metal- a quick construct bubble appears around him to shield him from any attacks as he watches what is transpiring. His hand quickly goes up for his earpiece... and realizes it is in his room.

"Oh sh"

The vapor trickles away, and enough of the frost has faded to show that most of the sphere is translucent, and someone is in there. The silhouette moves towards the edge, and then there is a crackle as little sheets of ice flake away, a door opening upwards from the vehicle.

The figure that steps out is Booster Gold, who has clearly seen better days. Millennia, actually. His goggles are broken and his powersuit is torn, and his left eye is starting to show a dark bruise and swell shut. He looks more or less just as he did right before Darkseid blasted him. Booster raps the side of his goggles with his fingertips a few times, as if he were trying to get his technology working with some percussive encouragement. The moment he staggers free of the sphere, its lights wink out and there is a whine that falls into silence as it powers down.

"....Boo..." The construct bubble disappears immediately as Keith runs forward once the figure becomes recognizable. But he stops a few feet away from him, "....Michael? Michael... is that really you?" he asks quietly, his voice as full of tension as much as his posture.

Booster stops trying to get his goggles to work correctly. Keith showing up and knowing him is enough evidence to ensure him that he has probably made it to the correct timeplace. He manages a grin. "Hey, Keith. Good to see you," he says, amicable as usual, if a little wan. "Dude, I'm going to need some kind of power nullification or I'm going to time-jump again, probably in a few hours. Probably some medical attention, too." He blinks a few times as if he were trying to clear his head, and then with more concern he says, "How is Ms. Potts? Where is Mr. Stark, is he alive?"

Keith goes stiff. "Booster... Tony was destroyed body and soul by Darkseid. Thor and Sif are dead... You've been gone for... more for several days." His shoulders begin to shake and he looks at the verge of tears, but he controls himself. "I thought you were dead too, until Superman..." he steps forward and takes Booster's forearm, because he looks worn and he fears he might fall over. His other arm circles Booster's back. "... tell me what you need, very carefully, please," he asks, eyes glistening.

Shaking his head, Booster says, "I talked to Tony, I mean... in the past, I told him. He said he'd come back." It is possible he is in denial. He does seem rather dazed, which may be due to exhaustion, or injury, or a mixture of the two. "Is Ms. Potts okay?" He shakes his head again, not a negation, just trying to clear it so he can answer Keith's question. "I need some kind of power negation, a dampener or something. Whatever Darkseid hit me with, some kind of energy, I can't get rid of it. It keeps triggering my chronotons." He does seem like he is on the verge of collapse, Keith would be able to feel him swaying where he stands. Then, Booster gestures back to the spherical vehicle he arrived in. "That's a time machine," he explains.

"Answers later, right now let's get you safe. Alright... here... just ease into me. I'll take you to the infirmary and I'll have someone help you with the power dampener."

Seeing how bad Booster is, Keith frowns. "... Michael, we're going to go to the infirmary, okay? Just tell me if you can't walk and I'll take care of it the rest of the way. 'Cause if you fall on me, you might crush me." He says trying to inject some lightheartedness into the situation as he tries to guide his friend.

"I'm so glad you're alive." He says, keeping his arms in position to support Booster. Yeah, if Booster toppled on him, it'd hurt with that armor and the extra weight.

Someone who, without powers, still can't help but want to be in the air... Carol checked out a SHIELD V-Tol craft to putter about the skyline in. She can at least fly patrols with the other pilots, and she's got a lot more experience (and skill!) than most of them. Her comm squawks, and she mutters into it, "Say again Andy."

"... seriously?.... you're saying it just... appeared... at Avengers Tower..." Carol is already twisting the control stick and vectoring the craft that way. "Good copy. I am en route. Will report in if backup is required."

And then a few moments later, as Vorpal is helping Booster, the craft flits overhead... way too close of course. As she flew by, she had the craft angled so that she could see the rooftop, and banking, she gets a good view. "Andy. Danvers... backup not required. I'm going to investigate personally."

That said, she angles and vectors the thrusters to decelerate and come in for a landing on the helipad, or as close to it as she can get.

Booster frowns a little, because Keith's seeming reluctance to answer his question about Pepper is getting him worried. "Ms. Potts isn't dead, is she?" It becomes a bit more difficult to coax him to walk, because Booster is a stubborn individual, and even when he is battered and concussed he is difficult to move when he does not want to move.

The spherical vehicle is not well-parked, but it is at least out of the way of the helipad. The sphere has a base, and an open door, and there is a bank of controls inside of it but it seems to be completely inert at the moment. There is still some frost riming its translucent shell, but it has been slowly melting away.

Perhaps it is not a surprise that Booster is a little on edge, because when the V-Tol comes in to land he tries to straighten up. The torn areas of his powersuit crackle and spark, but he does not seem to be able to bring up his forcefield or power up his blasters.

"Pepper is alive, but she's not doing well emotionally. Please, just let me get you there--" Keith glares at the V-Tol mostly out of surprise. "C'mon. It looks like one of ours..." he says, tugging gently at Booster.

And yep, the SHIELD logo is plain as day on the craft. Stenciled on the cockpit is DANVERS. Yeah, they put her name on it since this is how she flies now. The cockpit opens once she is down, and Carol steps out while peeling her helmet off her head. "Booster?" she asks when she sees you both. Then to Vorpal, she looks and raises a brow. Lastly, her eyes slide towards the sphere before they settle back on the two of you. "Okay. There's a joke somewhere in all this but... suppose someone just tells me what's going on?" she adds, dropping off the craft to the roof agilely.

Booster relaxes a little once he recognizes Carol. "Captain," he says, sounding slightly hoarse. He seems to be upright due to sheer stubbornness, and the assistance of Keith. Gesturing back at the sphere, he explains, "It's a time machine. Darkseid drop-kicked me through the timestream. I need some kind of power dampener or nullifier or I'm probably going to vanish again in a couple of hours." This does not provide answers to everything, but it is all he seems capable of, at the moment.

"I was about to take him to the infirmary, Carol... Captain... Captain Carol. Danvers." DAMNIT stop confusing the cat with ranks, he's got enough to deal with as it is. "I'm not sure about the power dampener... Without Tony here I thought maybe we could call Doctor Richards." It was not that Vorpal doubted the ability of anyone working for Stark, but if time was of the essence as much as Booster said it was, they needed some solution quickly. Tony could have stormed something together... but Tony was dead. So his mind immediately went to everybody's favorite mad scientist.

"Just Carol is fine." remarks ... well ... Carol. She shakes her head. "Captain is more of a title, I retired at Colonel, and right now I'm just operating as Agent." She smirks as she reaches up and unzips her flight jacket. "Dampener eh?" she asks. "I know a certain mutant who might be able to help but.. she's not exactly on my favorite person's list, and isn't readily available. Are you like... oozing temporal energy or some such?" she asks Booster. She moves to get on the side of him away from Vorpal. "Either way, explain on the way to the infirmary, eh?" she asks as she obviously intends to doubleteam helping him with Vorpal.

It is just as well that Carol moves in to help, because Booster is a big guy, and while he is still able to walk, it looks like he may not be ambulatory for much longer. "Yes. Exactly. Whatever Darkseid hit me with, the energy isn't leaving me alone and it's triggering my chronotons." Booster briefly sags a bit, once he has support on both sides, but then he manages to straighten up again so he can walk. His head stays down, however. "I've time-jumped thousands of times, now. I probably have a couple of hours before it happens again. I dumped a lot of it into the Time Sphere."

The Time Sphere being the time machine Booster parked on the rooftop. Check. Vorpal nods, heaving a sigh of relief when Carol moves in. He's quite strong, but Booster is taller than him by over a foot or so.

"We'll take care of you, Michael..." at Carol's words, the young feline frowns. "Are you talking about Channel? She's a friend, I can get her to come... but let's explore all other avenues to help him just in case, I can't guarantee I'll get a hold of her fast enough."

"Well Booster, I can try to get Al, maybe even Ziggy on the case. I'm sure they can figure something out." Okay, so Carol is a bit of a sci fi geek. But then Vorpal brings up Channel and she just blinks a bit, a bit stronger than even she looks. "Actually, no.." she remarks, shaking her head, "I was thinking about someone else, but yeah, Channel would be awesome. I bet she could help." Carol shakes her head. "I can't believe I didn't even consider her..."

The lift arrives then, and she moves to get everyone into it. Into her Avengers comm, she remarks, "JARVIS, bringing Booster in from the roof. Could you prep the infirmary, and alert nursing staff?"

Booster is nodding a bit, as if he were actually falling unconscious. He takes in a breath, trying to fight it and he says, "Don't let them remove my suit until then. If I jump without it... some of the eras I was in, I'd be dead already if I wasn't wearing it." He stumbles a little as he is guided into the elevator, and then he rouses himself enough to say, "Energy drain might work too, for a while. Might be easier, suit has biotech interface, can hook it into my bracer." He continues talking after this, but it isn't in English, it's muttering in Interlac. And then, he passes out, dead-weight.

"We'd better get everything we can on this, Carol." Keith grunts a little as Booster passes out. "He can't jump like this- he looks like shit. I don't think he'd survive any more of what he's been doing!"

A few ideas have occurred to Carol. But for now, she just hefts Booster's weight.. dead weight. Over one shoulder. "Why don't you go ahead and keep the way clear. Maybe help prep stuff?" she asks. C'mon... if she could only absorb the chronotons or some such. Hell, if she could absorb energy at all...

"Er... alright." The feline does as she asks, teleporting ahead so he can gain distance and dashing off to prep. Prep what? He doesn't know. But Carol told him to go prep, so he's going to go help prep, goddamnit!

It doesn't take long for Carol to carry Booster... Michael, down to the infirmary. The bed is likely all set up and JARVIS probably has Vorpal busy grabbing stuff that can't be automated, while the nursing staff is brought up to speed and/or woken up. Carol lays her burden down gently and steps back. "Okay Michael." she mutters, "Wake up and talk to us before you vanish again." she mutters before saying, "Keith... if you can try to call Channel. That would be a good idea."

There is a groan from Booster as he gets moved, and set down. He has broken ribs, and the pain is enough to rouse him briefly into consciousness. His muttering is not very useful, however, since he is not speaking English. Then it becomes more understandable, because on some level he is aware that he needs to be speaking a language that can be understood in this time period. "I had an idea while sleeping," he murmurs, raising one hand. He touches the bracer on his wrist and a little door opens up, showing off some of the inner circuitry and a few ports. "Plug me in. JARVIS can probably regulate my energy readings. I hope. He might be able to drain it if it starts to spike." His other hand comes up and he mutters something in Interlac, into his Legion ring.

Keith had, indeed, grabbed everything JARVIS instructed him to grab as fast as he could. When Carol comes in, he is frowning at the smartphone he teleported to grab, and shakes his head. "...I've left a voice mail, but she's not answering. I told her to come here as fast as she could and made it urgent..." he looks at Carol. "I'll go out and call the Baxter building and see if Dr. Richards has anything ready-made there, just in case." He stops by the side of the bed to look down at Michael. He reaches over and puts a hand on his shoulder lightly, giving it a squeeze and then looks up at Carol. "Plug him in. I'll go to see if I can find Channel at the last place I met her."

Nodding to Vorpal, Carol gives a bit of a grin. "By the way Keith... you're awesome. Don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise." she says before she settles into a chair beside Booster's bed. She just reaches a hand out to place it on Booster's arm. Her plan? Well, assure him that he's not alone, and be here for whatever he might need for now.

Booster drops his hand again, the one with the ring, and explains, "I was just letting Skeets know. He's on his way, here, he can help with the energy regulation. It'll buy me a lot of time, I think." After a pause, he weakly adds, "Heh." Turning his head, he says to Vorpal, "Thanks, Keith." He pulls off his cowl now, as his goggles are broken, anyway. "Thank you, Captain Marvel. I really appreciate the help. I wish I could focus more."

And yes, Carol is hooking up the bracer. "So you think that we can really draw off enough of the chronal energy here? Is JARVIS's tech leval capable of chronal energy manipulation?" she asks. As Booster say thanks, she just pats his arm and keeps working on the connections.

"You're pretty fantastic yourself," the Cheshire answers. He looks rather haggard as he keeps getting a busy tone. He knew a good number of people who could help, but he was having trouble reaching them immediately.

"Don't strain yourself, Michael," he says, looking at him severely. What he doesn't add is, in case you end up jumping again, you'll need the energy.

He's trying his best for it not to happen, though. If only Patrick were here--

Wait. Patrick.

With the futuristic Starktech suit. The kind of suit that flowed around an individual and had a multiplicity of--- It could work. At least until they got Channel or something from the Baxter building, the suit might help with energy regulation...

"Iron Spider!"

If there was ONE person he could reach, no matter where and when, it was the man he was about to marry. The ring on his finger was a beacon and a tracking device. "... I'll be back. Don't go anywhere." This was to Booster. And then he ran out the door as he activated the ring.

On the way to the Lobby, he sent out three more messages to Channel and Dr. Richards.