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Sarah made arrangements to meet Sammy.

OOC: It's perfectly okay for you to open these yourself OS.  Just follow the numbering scheme and we'll be fine.  When in doubt, make it a sub lunch thread if you like.  Chapter X-1-X as it were.

Sammy comes running from the Homecoming decorations meeting, hoping not to keep Sarah waiting.  "When did I get so busy?" she thinks.

Sarah waves to Sammy as she runs over.  When the girls get close she says, "No need to run unless you've got to run back off again soon.   Besides you're wearing out the security detail."  She points towards a puffing minion jogging around the corner and looking around frantically. 

"You're off duty kid.  Beat feat back to the sidekick lounge or wherever."  Sarah makes shooing motions with her hands. 

She smiles at Sammy, "You know, it's kind of fun having them around.  I'm sorry to pull you around this afternoon.  I have a new trick to show you and I wanted to see if we could work together.  Want to catch a little altitude?"

Sammy gives Sarah an amused look.  "No sense in making things too easy for them.  We don't want them getting complacent.  Besides, the Power is awesome."

She heads off towards an area where its not so easy to see them lift off the ground, and she takes Sarah up.  "So where are we going?"

Sarah grins at Sammy.  "Any of them try and follow you into the girls bathroom yet?" 

She looks around the quiet lot and says, "I discovered a new trick when we were fighting the witches.  Which is lucky because otherwise you'd all be crying and saying what a great person I was and how you don't know how to move on without me and all that stuff.  Because I'd be a pancake."

She shrugs.  "Anyway.  What I was wondering is if you can just take us up about... I don't know.. maybe fifteen hundred feet or so to be safe, so we have a good view then just concentrate on keeping us in the air.  I'm going to try something.  Gosh doesn't that sound like a famous last line or something?"

"Sure.  Before you try to kill us both, I want to give you something to look forward to, just to keep the energy positive... El got us a limo for Homecoming, and he was wondering if I wanted to invite anybody along.  Would you and Colin like to ride with us?"

Sarah cheers.  "Yippee!  Yes.  That would be very cool."  She thinks about it for a second.  "I'd better check with Colin.  I mean he may have already worked something out on his own.  I don't think he planned on bringing me on the handlebars of his bike."

She asks Sammy, "The theory is pretty solid on what I'm going to try.  Do you want to know before hand so your not startled?"

Sammy says, "Yes, it might be a good idea to know what's going on when you're trying something in midair."  She suddenly looks very excited.  "Did you... can you fly now?  Oh that would be SO cool!"

Sarah nods with a sigh, "That would be so cool.  I love going for flights with you.  It's awesome.  But that's not what I can do.  It is pretty handy though and more along my style.  A short-cut."

*zwip*  "I" *zwip* "can" *zwip* "hop around." she says as she teleports in a circle around Sammy in a sudden rush ending back where she started.  "Or I can take a longer jump across the street  real quick or if I take my time a really really long jump.  Want to try a short hop on the ground first?  It's not like a transporter or anything I'm not scrambling atoms."  At least I don't think I am.  Morpheus knew better than to try explaining it all again.

She looks hopeful and a little worried.  "You'll be my first passenger.  But I've tried moving furniture around and stuff that's heavier than you.  If you don't want to I can go catch Dave's helper."

Sammy's eyes go wide with wonder as she watches Sarah blip around.  "Oooooh..."


That makes Sammy laugh.  "Only if the first place you take him to is a hospital for oxygen!  No, I'll do it.  I want to try it!"

Sarah nods, "Okay.  We can try a little hop first.  From here over to the other side of the lot.  I have to hold on to you though.  I can't just give you the knack of it.  Maybe I should bring a comfy chair next time." 

She offers Sammy her hand and before she can think about it too much.  *zwip!*

"Woo!  Omigosh thatssoawesomecanwedoitagain?"  Sammy is grinning ear to ear and hopping up and down.  "And you want to try that from up there?  OK!"  They get some elevation.

Sarah is startled by Sammy's sudden woosh.  Probably just returning the favor.  She cries, "Eeep!  We're up!  That was fast.  Geesh, and here I was worried about talking you into it.  We can try two things.  Way down low or way up high.  If it's high we can stick together and I will have time to get us back on the ground.  If we're really low then if I screw up at least we just land on our asses from a couple of feet up."

"I can put up a protective barrier of air," Sammy says.  "It might act like a cushion.  If it travels with us that is.  Which do you want to try?"

Sarah considers before answering.  "This is the first time I've ever tried mixing my powers with someone.  This is the first power I've ever had I could mix with something.  I'm used to falling on my ass so why don't we try a few feet off the ground first and make sure it doesn't zap your power in the transfer."   

When Sammy gets them to the right height Sarah picks another spot across the lot.  *zwip*

OOC:  do you want to wait for a GM's verdict?

OOC:  ;D  Gosh that would be nice of us wouldn't it?  I've got to crash soon to rise amongst the other workaday zombies in the morning. 

OOC: In a non-combat situation I see no reason to require rolls unless it's a non-standard application of the rules.

Sammy squees in delight.  "Sarah! Sarah! You know what this means, don't you?  You can fly now!  OK, no gliding or soaring, but you can zwip from spot to spot in the sky, and as long as you do it fast enough and pick an appropriate spot to zwip to, you can stay airborne as long as you like!"  She's grinning with continued excitement.  "Want to go higher?"

Sarah laughs, "Yes let's try higher.  But I'm not flying!  I'm falling with style.  If you weren't here it wouldn't even be with style.  Just *blip* 'Waaah!' *blip* 'Waaaah!"  She waves her arms in panic indicating the style she would display. 

Sammy shakes her head quickly back and forth.  "No, you're not getting my point!"  She uses her finger to poke at spots on the ground and in the air as she continues.  "You start here.  Then you zwip up here, into the air.  From there you go to here, still airborne, and so on until you decide to come down there.  If you only zwipped a few inches or a few feet at a time, it would be almost like you were flying."

Sarah nods, understanding Sammy.  "The only problem is that between teleports I have to take a moment to focus on the next one.  I have to see where I"m going so I start falling for a few seconds.  So I start here," and she points at the ground, "and then I go here," pointing into the air and then slowly dragging her finger back towards the ground, "but then I start heading back here until I can port again.  At least I can remove the velocity of the fall from the next jump.  It took a few tries to figure that out.  My ass is purple and green."

"Sure that's not from Colin pinching you?," quips Sammy, who then ducks like she's afraid she'll get socked in the arm.

"OK.  Higher we go.  Tell me when to stop... hey, I haven't shown you my island, have I?  I think the only ones who have seen it are Donnie and the dragons.  Its out in the middle of the Lake.  Want to go there?  There's lots of nice soft sand to land on."

"You have an island!?!  Of course we have to go there!  In Lake Michigan?  Where?"

"And no, Colin isn't a butt pincher."  Sarah adds as an after thought. 

"How far away is your island?"

"Yeah, its in Lake Michigan.  Sometimes I go out there to practice by myself.  Its not really my island, but its not like anybody else is using it right now.  It takes about 15-20 minutes for me to fly there from here.  Is that too far to go?"

Sarah shakes her head and says, "No let's go.  Maybe I can help shave some time off the trip.  I can jump us about a mile at a time if you can point the right direction.  Eight jumps and we'll be in Chicago.  I've got a clear line of sight up here so it only takes a few seconds each jump.  So we can be above Chicago in a couple minutes.  Or do you fly faster than that?  I've never seen how fast you can go." 

"I've never really tried to see how fast I can go.  I guess I could get somebody to time me sometime, but it hasn't been important so far."

Sammy points at a television tower on the horizon.  "That way."  She gives other landmarks until they get to the water.  "If there was more light you'd be able to see it.  Since there isn't, we'll follow these channel markers out.  Keep the green on your right going out, and the red on your right coming back and you'll be fine.  I should probably fly us so you'll see where to turn."

They get to the little islet, with its driftwood and fire pit and scrubby growth.  "Here we are!"

She looks around at the small little island.  "This is a neat getaway.  Does it have a real name?  Have you given it a name?  Nomanisan is already taken I think.  I wish I had a place but I guess my room has always been my quiet spot so I don't know that I should bother changing that."

Sarah grabs a stick of driftwood.  "Do you come out here a lot?"

"I only found out about it a few weeks ago, but I come when I can.  I don't know if its big enough for an official name.  I was told that people usually just come out here in the summer, with their boats.  The water isn't too deep just off shore."  She looks around.  "Now that you know where it is and have a way to get here, feel free to come out here anytime.  Bring a blanket, or carry a lighter to start a driftwood fire in the fire pit over there.  It gets cold out here."

Sarah rubs her arms a bit through the sleeves of her light sweatshirt.  "It is already cooling off a little bit.  Thanks for showing me this.  It's really nice .... I almost said 'Doing normal stuff' but then it occurred to me that we flew out here."  

Crouching down she writes her name in the sand along the shore.  "So how is everything going with you?  You and Elrod seem pretty pleased with each other.  Then again it's not every day a guy gets to date a Trombonist.  He's in it for the strong lips right?"  

Sammy smiles but it looks forced.  "Its all about lung capacity."

She gestures at the beach.  "I haven't brought him out here yet.  The age difference thing forces a lot of... restraint.  Sometimes its just easier to not risk a situation."

Sarah nods, "I'm sorry.. I didn't want to um...  I understand?  I think?"  She shakes her head, "Actually I probably don't.  I am such a child.  I'm dating Colin and honestly I have no clue what I should be doing.  I spent all my preteen years playing video games and day dreaming about powers and all this stupid stuff instead of imagining which pop star I was going to marry or how to dress on a date or anything.  Colin's probably lucky that I kiss him good night instead of punching him in the arm and saying see ya later."

She looks at Sammy, "Did you want to talk about that?  I mean.. I'm not really what you might call sophisticated and worldly about this stuff yet.  Colin's stuck at first base."

"There's nothing wrong with you.  I think my head's too full of "ought to"s and "should"s that I borrowed from other girls.  Maybe I only think I want it because I know I won't get it, therefore its safe to want it?  Kind of like crushes on certain boys.  Before Elrod, I swear, I was part of the crush of the week club.  Its embarrassing."

She squirms a little inside her jacket.

"Want to go up now?  Or do you want to get a good look at things down here first, so you can pick where to land?"

"Good thinking."  Sarah gathers up a few more pieces of drift wood and finds a rock to tuck them next to.  She looks around the area for a little while getting her bearing.  "Wish I had Colin's perfect memory.  This would all be a cinch.  Heck, Morpheus could have explained all this to Colin using the big words and he would probably have understood." 

Sarah nods at Sammy.  "I've got a pretty good fix I think.  It's pretty dark.  Can you fly us back okay?  Once we're in the city lights I can pop us towards home.  I told Colin I'd drop in later tonight.  He doesn't quite know for sure yet if I can really do this or not."

"I can fly us back, no problem.  Colin's not going to be jealous that you picked me to maim instead of him, is he?"  Sammy fails to keep a straight face.  "So do you want me to take you up, or do you want to leave from here, meet me up there, then move both of us elsewhere?  Or is this guinea pig pushing for too many tricks too soon?"

Sarah shakes her head, "Sounding more like a lemming racing off a cliff than a guinea pig.  I'm going to stick with just letting you fly us back towards Chicago and I'll just jump you ahead when I'm able.  I'll let you be in charge of altitude.  I'm more of a chicken than you.  Before I try launching myself into the sky on my own I want a parachute, an altimeter and... and you next to me in case I screw it all up."

"Colin's cool.  He's pretty laid so I don't think he'll be bummed he wasn't my first.  Besides I HAD to take you first.  I'm not going to risk my date to Homecoming on a test flight." 

As they drift through the night sky she says, "It is pretty cool to be super sometimes."

"Sometimes.  The people trying to hurt me part gets old quick.  This Bee Guy thing has me totally paranoid."  Sammy pauses.  "Oh; Breanna knows about me.  She recognized my scent from when I got her off the school roof.  I didn't tell her about the rest of you; that's your business, not mine.  I have her listening for the sound of bees."

"Listening for bees?  That's pretty smart.  Maybe we should ask Dave to have his tribe keep their ears open as well. "

She sighs as they sail along.  "I agree about the hurting thing and any stalker boy is creepy.  The fact that this one can apparently command bees is super creepy.  I hate bugs.  I understand the whole ecological niche thing and everything but I still hate the creepy crawly flying biting stinging icky lot of them.  Butterflies are acceptable... at a distance.  You're lucky though.  You can just blow away his bees if he messes with you.  I just have to run away.  At least I can do that really well now."

"I'm only good with them for as long as it takes me to drown them all."

"Wait, are you talking about the bugs or Dave's minions?" asks Sarah. 

Sammy snerks.  "The minions clean up all right with a little soap and a clue or two.  No need to drown them yet.  So," she looks out at the distant Chicago skyline.  "Are you ready to try this distance?  Sand's never going to get much softer."

OOC:  I thought we'd already taken off. 

OK, I adjusted my words.

"You bet!  Hold on tight," says Sarah and a moment later the two vanish and reappear directly over the bright lights of Chicago.  "Unless you need some late shopping I should get back home.  I told Colin I'd stop by later tonight."

*zwip* *zwip* *zwip* *zwip*