2014-01-24 - Meetings and Conflicts in the Florida Keys

John Coltan, and Cyber aka Cyberdragon have had enough of the New york winter. Heading south on Cyber's power, the pair have managed to find a fairly large uninhabited island in the Florida Keys. Once the pair was sure the island was deserted, or not holding a hidden pirate base, they settled down. Clean waters, and all that. So for the Moment, In the Ocean is Cyber, Fulfilling his bet to John. As such he is swiming around like a Serpent in an aquatic form, going through the sea bed looking for large Oysters, at least 4 and one half inches across. As well as Snagging fish and putting them into a Basket, so John can cook them up for dinner. The Red and black creature moves through the water with amazing grace and speed. No need for air, no need to slow down or worry about sharks or the bends.

It had taken Dilana some time to figure out what happened to John. For a while it just seemed to her that he had disappeared, but eventually she came to learn he had left to head for somewhere in south Florida. It wasn't much to go on, so she wasn't exactly expecting to run into him right away, or even for a while. She still didn't even know why he left New York in the first place. She wondered if perhaps he hated the cold, and certainly couldn't blame him. Being originally from Hawaii, NYC's winter was getting to her also, despite having a lot more built in insulation than the average human.

It took her the better part of a week to get down to the keys, even pushing herself to swim as quickly as she could sustain, but she was here, and felt at home around the islands of the keys. Having worked up an appetite over the last leg of her trip, she goes looking for something she could hunt down in the ocean. Firing off a broad echolocation scan, she looks around to see what sorts of fish are on the menu down here.

The sonic scan catches Aquaman's ear. He can't exactly respond in kind. In fact the dolphins usually regard him with pity when he tries to use his own sonar. Speaking delphinese is another matter however and most Atlantic dolphins have at least heard of him, if not his adopted mother, Porm.



Echolocation. Cyber can hear it underwater but can't speak the language. But something about it strikes the Biosuit as very odd, and off. It's enough for him to want to return to John his host, but with the bag of Fish which are still alive, and Oysters in the other. Cyber tilts his head and then begins to move through the water, altering his coloration to match the water around him. The Water is clear enough Cyber can adjust his own sight to see fairly far.

The Two sets of Echolocation make him pause, both of them very off.

It makes him pause in the water. Echolocation when it strikes him will bounce back a hard metallic object, as Cyber swims more cautiously. Moving to investigate the first source approaching slowly ready to take action. Using a short two way radio inside him he transmits a message he is investigating something in deeper water to John, and for John to remain on guard. His first target is heading to the Dolphin lady's location.

Dilana soon gets the reflected echoes back and it creates a sort of picture in her head. There sure was plenty to eat, to the point that she would have to take a moment to decide which schools of fish to go after. But that would have to wait, as there was something much bigger in the ocean, and it wasn't like anything she'd ever seen before. Obviously not a shark, nor a whale or dolphin, or even a boat or submarine, though it was certainly hard, metallic even, very dense. She gives a kick of her tail to go and investigate, but doesn't make it far when a voice distracts her.

Now this was odd, it was like a dolphin's speech, but there was something wrong about it, not the least of which being the way the message was structured.  She replies, taking a moment to decide which unusual thing to investigate first. In the end, Cyber wins out, since she feels it might be a threat, where as the strange delphinese was a more innocent curiosity.

There's something unique about Dilana's speech to Swimmer's ear as well. He feels a little chastened he hasn't practiced his delphinese lately. Paying attention to his grammar he composes his reply. He is interrupted before he can speak by a black grouper and frowns. He reaches out telepathically trying to see what the problem is before the fish forgets it. . o 0 (Big metal thing swimming around. Not a boat, not a sub ... armored creature, moving towards dolphin thing.) The effort gives him a headache but anything metallic moving towards a dolphin can't be good. The sea king splits the water, while using his own sonar to find the metal intruder. His eyes make out a weird shape ahead but the strain of swimming at his highest speed blurs his vision.

As the Echolocation starts to home in on Cyber he slows his approach. The sound waves as they hit him are getting faster and faster, meaning the owner is approaching, so he starts to sink to the bottom slowly where he can push off the ground.

Latching his claws onto a rock Cyber debates camouflage, but chooses against it. he is able to attack and fight underwater. Finally as he comes into view, what appears to be an animal comes into view, but not just any animal, a dragon, what at first appears to be some form of aquatic sea Dragon. Closer inspection shows it's sea blue and sand colored complexion. As The Dragon sees Dilana he perks his head and offers a friendly wave. A smile gracing his snout

As a result Aquaman's charge takes Cyber by surprise. The speed and sudden lash allows Aquaman to impact the Biosuit. The Force of the Impact nails Cyber right in his waist and as a result, Cyber is cleaved Right in half!

at first it might appear to be a scene of carnage and blood but there is no blood, no organs, just a very pissed looking dragon as the lower half and upper half seem to form tendrils reaching out to pull each half together.

And those bags of fish and oysters? They scatter, the fish escape and the oysters float to the bottom....

Dilana soon gets close enough that she can see Cyber with her own eyes, and her focused echolocation scans are also starting to give her a very detailed sonic picture. 'What on Earth is that!?' She wonders to herself, blinking in surprise as the creature seems to wave at her and even smile. Then suddenly Aquaman comes and rams the strange creature so hard that it splits in two, and she winces sharply, but as much as she is shocked by the lack of blood, seeing the thing start to pull itself back together really took the cake. 

Aquaman watches a moment as the biosuit residue cleans itself from his hands to rejoin the rest of the creature. The impact stunned him a little, but he realizes he may have made a mistake in his choice of tactics. He's actually a little relived the creature isn't badly hurt. It might be endangered. Of course he never thinks he might be endangered. King of the Sea you know? He reaches out telepathically to tell the big fellow to get lost and leave the dolphin alone and encounters nothing marine or animal in the creature's frame.

"Wait a minute, I know you ... Cyberdragon. Uh ... sorry I broke you in half. Are you okay?" Now he is ready to retreat. He did attack after all and could see where the dragon would be ticked off being slit asunder and really doesn't want either of them to be hurt. "Can you understand me? I thought you were attacking a dolphin. I'm very sorry if I hurt you. I'll take you back to my people for repairs if you need them."

If one had ever seen the movie Terminator two, the T-1000 that is Cyber to a perfect match. His loose components, or parts form small serpent like creatures and reform. Once he is reformed and Cyber can get a good look at Aquaman, that impact would have no lasting harm but his entire attention is on Aquaman. From the Right front limb a 4 foot long blade seems to grow and takes on the appearance of a Harpoon. Sharp, barbed, serrated. Designed to do maximum damage on a strike.

Cyber's thought processes are along the line of retaliation. But something Distracts him as he looks toward the near by island. The event in the water was enough to attract John's attention and use the Radio, his voice comes over the underwater radio, as Cyber looks and just glares murder at Aquaman before that Harpoon becomes a tendril as it lashes out through the water to retrieve the radio. Adjusting his voice so it can be heard.

"Yes John I am alright. Aquaman made a mistake in identity and rammed me, cut me in two. I'm alright, but I kinda lost your dinner. Also the Dolphin lady is here." Cyber once more reabsorbs the radio as he pushes off the rock and starts to slowly approach Aquaman, and says, "NEXT TIME CHECK WHAT YOU ARE ATTACKING!" He screams out in english before he moves away to try and salvage the Oysters from the bottom.

Dilana had noticed the bag of oysters and the net of fist that Cyber had dropped, and was a bit curious that this metallic beast ate fish. But he seemed to speak english, and even managed to speak it underwater, which was better than she could muster. As Cyber goes to retrieve the oysters, she turns to Aquaman.  She asks with a wave of her tail.  She says quickly before swimming off to catch the net and promptly making her way toward some schools of fish, stunning them with sonar pulses and scooping them up in the net. Soon she had more fish than Cyber had in the first place, hoping Cyber would be willing to share after she went through the trouble to catch them again. She finally swims over toward Cyber and offers him the net carefully to avoid letting any of the fish get out.

"You can talk? Huhn. Here let me make it up to you. Considering they were caught already and it was my bad ..." Aquaman says apologetically. A large group of fish present themselves for Cyber's selection.

AS Cyber gets most of the oysters back up and then accepts the Bag from Dilana, he looks at the fish as they come up and says, to Aquaman "Not exactly sporting if they don't have a chance to escape you to live another day." Cyber's previous hosts, a large number of them while the idea of such a power is useful. To use it to hunt? No those that are caught are the slow or weak need to be pulled from the gene pool. So that the strong pass their genes onto the next generation. Cyber understands the Survival of the Fittest. At least those he hunts down and captures have a chance to escape and survive. Besides hunting is fun.

Narrowing his eyes at Aquaman and will make a motion for them to follow him as he swims to the island. Getting out of the Water on the beach is a young man, one who Dilana will know from their talks over the internet, and their encounter in Gotham that one late night. John has a fire roaring, a lean to build, even a tidal Trap for fish With a Net to keep pesky Seagulls away from his future meals.

"Hey I'm rescued!" Although John is playing and joking. With Cyber he is far from trapped.

Dilana shrugs as Aquaman doesn't respond to her and moves to follow Cyber to the island, keeping up with him easily. Soon she's up on land again and she smooths down her swimskirt a bit before making her way over to John. "Hey, long time no see stranger! I really didn't expect to just bump into you right after I arrived in the area. I thought I might just slowly make my way north from here and see if we crossed paths."

Aquaman follows the dragon and delphinoid out of the water and says, "They were the ones you caught. Give me a bit and I'll see if I can find a suicidal grouper. I did apologize. I am sorry for my mistake and... perhaps it'd be better for me to leave and meet with you a different day to make a fresh start." He nods to John and dives back into the water.

When Aquaman Dives back into the water Cyber gets a look from John as he just Glares at his companion who drops the Fish into the tidal trap. Cyber shows no signs of accepting the apology as he moves off to an area in the Sun and returns to his normal Red and black colors to lay on the beach spreading his wings out as he once more assumes his default dragon form.

Looking at Cyber, "Oh Don't mind him, he's more upset he was taken by surprise is all. Good to See you Dilana, Hey with how I came across Cyber, Almost nothing surprises me." He says and than comes to check the large fish in the trap, as well as the Bag of Oysters, "Up for a Oyster bake?" He offers to share with Dilana... "Good not one under four and a half inches."

Dilana nods and moves to sit near the fire, but not too close that it will dry her skin out. "Nice to see you too, and very nice to be down here where it's warm. That New York winter weather was bringing this Hawaii girl down." She says with a grin, then her stomach growls as if on queue when John mentions oyster bake. "You said the magic words, I'm starving. Just got done swimming down here, took me 4 days."

John will look over the Fish and smile pulling out a Pot fairly large with both sea water and fresh water in it, he's a good cook as he uses a second pot to put the oysters in pulling out to shelling knives. Handing one to Dilana, he also has some fairly large crabs and what looks like spiny lobsters in his water container.

Pulling out some soda and Drinks he says, "Yeah I got sick and tired of the cold, and issues with the Avengers Academy. Oh If you haven't guessed, Cyber is Cyber the dog. Shapeshifter." he says and opens up one of the Oysters and says, "Hey a Pearl!"

Dilana nods, taking the soda and carefully popping the top, which was a bit of an extra challenge when you don't have fingernails. "Oh, you had trouble with the Academy too? Anything you want to talk about?" She asks with a soothing tone as she takes the knife and begins opening some oysters for herself and eating them..

"Long story short, three of the academy students chose to form the Young Avengers and head to Geonosha to rescue someone while talking about fighting their way in and out. So... my desire to let professionals handle things. Did not go well with them." He explains As he will open the bottle for Dilana if she wants and as the water turns boiling hot, John will grab hold of the crabs and Lobsters putting them head first into the water. He winces when they go in, but knows that when he eats steak it's a cow that gave it's life for him.

Dilana manages to open the bottle and pours some into her mouth, finding it easy to drink from the narrow opening. "I see, sounds like a lot of unnecessary drama, but I guess these other students wouldn't be soon to forget that you chose not to help them when they felt they needed you. I suppose I would have left too if I were in your shoes." She says with a shake of her head, then blinks as she watches him start cooking crab and lobster. "We're having crabs and lobster too? Trying to make a date worthy feast?" She asks with a playful wink.

"No I put up with enough of that drama bull shit in highschool. Trouble is two of them are hot heads, and one doesn't have enough common sense to keep her mouth shut on the way to the malfunctioning guillotine that would not kill you when activated. She would look up identify the malfunction and them blurt out how to correct it without thinking." He says firmly and coldly. "So yeah," Then when she mentions a feast for a Date John blushes scarlet red. "No It was just for me until you and Aquaman showed up. Well despite Aquaman left."

Dilana grins and laughs, deciding to leave the subject of the drama with the academy behind and move on to happier subjects. "Seems like a lot of food for one person, but hey, don't let me spoil your vacation pleasure." She says before working to finish off her share of the oysters. "Of course, after Cyber lost the fish because of Aquaman, I went and caught more, even more than he had in the first place."

"Well The others were for dinner later tonight. So." John's not wasteful as he goes through the oysters and finds only one other pearl before letting them Close and then dump them into the boiling water as well. "Yeah that cold seemed to be soaking through Cyber when I was wearing him." Ok That should strike Dilana as an odd statement, how does John wear the dragon? which almost begs the question.

Dilana nods. "Ah, well that makes sense. In any case, now with me around, between Cyber and I, we should be able to catch plenty of food for... Does Cyber eat?" She asks curiously before taking a long pour of the soda, and probably would have spit it back up into John's face if it weren't impossible now that her mouth and lungs were no longer connected. "Wait, what? How do you wear Cyber?"

John smiles as he says, "Cyber is a Sentient, universal environmental survival suit. A Living weapon. He's... he's like a suit of armor. Liquid metal infact. We Merge and become Cyberdragon. I can go anywhere, he can pull oxygen out of the water, recycle my breathing when at high altitude, in a nutshell there is no place I can't go. Well a few because trying would be stupid." John says. "I can show you later. As for eating... he doesn't eat, more absorbs energy from around him."

Dilana blinks a bit, her mouth hanging open for a moment. "Wow, that's quite an impressive companion you have there then... Can you both even survive the vaccum of space?" She asks curiously, and gives Cyber a glance, the biologist in her really growing curious exactly how he works.

"Yep! did a simulation run and he was able to get me to the moon in a few hours. Although we had to cut it short because he can only recyle my breath for so long. Next time I try I will bring an O2 tank." John says pleased, "Once we are done eating, if you want we can go out into the ocean and I can show you how well he works. One of the reasons I came out was to push him to his absolute limits. He's adaptive...."

Dilana blinks again and nods. "Wow, that is pretty impressive I must say. Wish I could join you for that trip to the moon. But back here on Earth, I'd be happy to help you test his limits. He certainly looked pretty impressive down in the ocean. I wonder who is a faster swimmer?" She poses, obviously impling between herself and cyber.