Issue 1 Downtime

Cal looked at the gym, picking a spot with a clear shot from the floor to the ceiling for quite a ways around.

This... is going to be awesome. Or stupid. Or both. But definitely awesome. So probably both.

He aimed his staff at the ceiling, targetting a portal there. Then he looked down at his feet, slowly grinning (in a slightly manic way)... and opened the other end of the passage.

So anyone walking in would see him falling from the ceiling to the floor... repeatedly... and increasingly quickly. "THIS IS AWESOOOOME!!!!"

Haley was in a corner of the room, headphones in and music blaring, as she squared off against a punching bag, doing far better a job of attacking it than when she first started while in Roland's body. She was sweating pretty profusely and was most certainly in the zone, so it took a while to notice the glowing portal...and it's rapidly accelerating occupant.

"....the fuck?"

Haley pulled out her earbuds and shoved them into her pocket with her phone, walking closer, and squinting.

what the... Oh my god, Cal? she thought to herself.

"Cal?"

It was definitely Cal. Though he couldn't exactly stop his endless dive through the floor.

Her phone beeped at her, though.

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I LOVE SCIENCE THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Haley sighed as she read the message.

So, I'm not that great with science and shit but....how are you going to stop without going SPLAT? she spoke telepathically.

The excited whooping stopped at that point. For a few seconds, there was no answer.

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See, this is a totally solvable situation.

Oh? And how are you gonna get out of this one? she asked, starting to do a bit of mental calculation on how she might be able to grab him (hopefully gently) with her TK.

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That part's simple.

Even as Cal digitally lied through his proverbial teeth, he started running the numbers. Terminal velocity, figure gravity acceleration, height of the room...

A few seconds later, he aimed the staff, redirecting the portals on the ceiling to the floor a few feet from the one he was falling toward. The end result was that Haley would see him fall into the floor and come shooting back up toward the ceiling.

Haley had practiced for this sort of thing when she started trying to fly around with her TK so she could avoid either plummeting to the ground and slamming into it, or hitting a wall of TK above the ground and doing the same thing. She held out her hands and tried to catch her boyfriend before he hit the ceiling.

Fortunately, this didn't seem to be an issue. Cal peaked a few yards from the ceiling, and started dropping back down again. With a grin, he shot a portal at the wall, so that a moment later, he was falling into the portal and skidding across the floor.

Unfortunately, he found himself skidding right at a support pillar head first.

Wait. No, we can--SHIT, CAL!

Haley's eyes widened at the sudden change in trajectory as he flew past her along the ground. She threw her arms forward trying to grab him gently enough to slow him down rather than make him come to an equally-painful sudden stop against a wall of TK.

It worked...sort of. It looked like his pants were in tremendous danger of being yanked downwards along with him.

Cal went careening through a clear part of the gym, acutely aware of his near 'brush' with the pillar and... well, not sure what to think about that.

Although, once he came to a stop, 'where did my pants go' was a rather clear thought amidst all the confusion. "What did... what... what happened?" he said, looking dumbfounded at the pillar.

Haley stood, heart racing, a bit dumbfounded by the pair of jeans that she had floating in front of her--thankfully for Cal, just jeans and not underwear too. She finally came to and rushed over to her boyfriend, jeans in hand.

"Calvin Strong, you could have killed yourself! What were you doing!?" she said, concern mixing with anger in her voice.

"I... was just testing..." he blinked, trying to go over everything and figure out where things had gone wrong, where he'd miscalculated, hadn't gone by the timing... he just couldn't find it. "That shouldn't have happened..."

Haley yanked him up somewhat rougher than she had intended with her TK and set him on his feet before punching him in the shoulder.

"Well think before you act, jerk! You scared me to death!"

Haley then wrapped him in a bear hug and buried her face in his shoulder. I like you intact and still breathing. I'm sorry.

Cal barely noticed the punch or the roughness, though his hand did instinctively go to her back when she hugged him. "I... did think... that..."

"Shocked" was probably an understatement to describe him at that moment. I'm... sorry...

Haley released him after a moment and then sheepishly picked up his pants from the floor and offered them to him. "Sorry I pantsed you. Was trying to stop you from playing chicken with that pillar there..."

"That's... ah... okay. I mean, usually I guess you'd wait until we get to your room," he joked weakly as he started running diagnostics.

Haley blushed. "Are you okay?"