[b][i][center]March 8, 2:45 PM, PST
Coast City(?) USA[/center][/i][/b]

Lightning Bug stood still with her eyes closed, smiling softly to herself as she felt the wind whip her hair across her face. She was dressed in her full costume for the first time since she had put all the parts together, and she wanted to savor the moment. Not that she planned on doing anything particularly special, apart from the test flight she was conducting of her tech and the costume itself. No no, this was simply a stress test, and an added layer of disguise in case someone somehow spotted her. She had taken to wearing elements of the costume after her and Ezra's first few hits on the cities ATMs, figuring that someone wearing goggles and a full cloak would be harder to find than a girl with her face and regular clothes on display. So far it had worked, though security footage had begun to surface of herself. Nobody seemed to suspect Jessica Beedle though, and that was the important part.

Lightning Bug shifted a bit as the wind picked up, bringing a chill to the air that cut through the early spring warmth. Maybe it was time to head in, the test had been going well so far. Jessie looked up and opened her eyes, her smile widening to a grin as she set her eyes on the city, laid out below her. Jessie looked down then (Or up?) at the metallic disc pulsing with energy that her heavy boots were anchored to. After her talk with Ez in the burger shop months prior, the two had begun designing a way for Jessie to fly in their spare time. It was quickly decided that a flight suit was out of the question, as the time, energy, and materials it would require to build that was out of their grasp. But then Ezra had hit upon an idea. Hover technology was standard in a lot of Ghol devices, and with added microthrusters one could conceivably build a working hoverboard. 

And so they did. 

[hider=Hoverboard techobabble]
Ezra had designed and built the power supply and actual propulsion tech, while Jessie had worked on the software end of things, wiring it into her existing goggle subroutines. They had then collaborated on the safety features and finishing of the device. The result was a work of art, as far as Jessie was concerned. The whole thing was driven by an ecto-crystal that Ezra had produced. There had been some concern early on about using it as the power source, as it could apparently be used for so many other things that something like this could be seen as a waste. However, between the fact that Ezra could produce more over time, and that those other uses were pretty far off down the technological pipeline, they had eventually decided to use the crystal until they had a better use for it. Next was the hoverdrive and microthuster control and propulsion. Together, the pair had brilliantly tied the steering and speed of the device to respond to the riders micromovements, instead of being directly controlled by a wheel or eye trackers in her goggles. The board was capable of flying at heights of up to 500 feet (So far), and at speeds of up to 40 MPH. Not as fast as Echo or that Lady Arcana girl, but a start. As for the safety features, the board itself had a powerful electromagnet in it that would connect to a pair of loadstones Jessie installed in the soles of her boots. The board also had a weak internal dampening field so that Jessie could fly it at strange angel or high speeds and not be affected by vertigo or lose anything important she happened to be carrying. The electromagnet in the board also would hook up to a pack on Jessie's back, currently hidden under her cloak, so that she could sling the board over her shoulder and not worry about losing it. It had a 'compact mode' of sorts, where it would retract it's stabilizers and thrusters and fold up to about half its normal size to be carried more easily. Finally, 'Repulsor Mode'. In case of dire emergencies, such as Jessie falling unconscious or some catastrophic failure, the hoverboard would activate its emergency gyroscope, balancing in an upright position before activating magnetic repulsor technology. This allowed the board to hover about a foot off the ground, saving the rider from going 'SPLAT'. This mode could also be activated consciously, if the rider wished to travel by 'ground' instead of free flying.
[/hider]

Lightning Bug shifted her weight and felt the hoverboard react, flipping her back into an upright position. The young girl shook her head, her ears ringing from the sensation of her blood rushing out of her head and back to where it belonged. She angled downwards and let out a joyful holler as she went into a free-fall, the wind rushing through her hair and past her face, her cloak billowing out behind her. For not the first time, Lightning Bug was grateful for her goggles, as she knew she wouldn't be able to concentrate with her eyes drying out from the winds. Crouching down slightly, she urged the board to go faster, the city growing larger as she approached, the buildings filling her vision. Soon, Lightning Bug was descending into an open public square, screaming over the heads of amazed and horrified onlookers as she soared past. 

Leaning into a turn, Lightning Bug whipped around a fountain and flew down a main road. The streets went by in a blur of motion, within minutes she was passing the CCU campus, blowing a raspberry in the window of a particularly annoying professor before arcing up and over the building and heading up to a good vantage point. Several people had seen her by now, she was sure of that. And as intoxicating as this was, as exhilarating as showing off her skills and smarts made her feel, Lightning Bug knew she couldn't track anyone back to their hideout. Luckily, she had discovered that as long as the hoverboard was connected to her, she could teleport with it, and a few short hops later, Lightning Bug found herself on the roof of Ezra's apartment building. Deactivating the boot magnets with a quick eye movement, Jessie stepped off the board and reached down, grabbing it out of the air and slinging it onto her back which sent it into compact mode. 

Fishing the key to the maintenance shed out of her pocket, Jessie slipped inside, landing heavily into her wheely chair she had moved over and scooting over to the small bank of laptops she and Ezra had set up. Some of them were working out programming, interfacing human programming languages with the Ghol technology, some of them were monitoring metahuman references in the news, there was a program dedicated to finding potential references to herself and Ezra so they could do some damage control of need be, and finally there was a small system set up to monitor ghost hunting websites. After learning a bit more about the ectoplasmic energy source, Jessie had drawn a parallel to ghost stories and hauntings. IF even one of those turned out to be true, it was possible that the pair could find a way to create a breach into a theorized fold in space/time, a pocket dimension of pure ectoplasmic energy. IF they could do that, they'd never need to worry about power again...