The Universe's Mixer

Find yourself in a strange place under less than explainable circumstances? That had to have been listed somewhere in the 'what-to-expect-as-a-green-lantern' guide, right? Except for that little piece of helpful literature didn't exactly exist. The blue midgets (aka the Guardians) expected you to learn on the job, improvise when necessary, and all that jazz. Up to this point in his relatively short career as GL, he had done so surprisingly well, and never made a big deal about it. Spending time on an alien planet? Typical Tuesday night, no problem. Except for the part where there was a problem; a glaring one. He had always been able to leave said places.

Kyle Rayner had found out the difficult way that The City would be having none of that. First, he'd tried to conventional method, just walk right out of the City. That would've been fine until he encountered a wall that put the 'Great' one in China to shame. Still, that wasn't such a hurdle when you had superpowers. So, he decided to put those powers to good use and fly over the wall. That didn't go over so well either. He'd never been great at measurements but the wall must have been hundreds of feet high, and when he'd actually made his way to the top, he discovered there was an even more frustrating hindrance to his escape. Some kind of invisible force (the ring hadn't been able to identify it) that prevented him from rocketing skywards.
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Harley was not wearing a happy face. Because Harley was not a happy camper. This was the second time those butterfly bozos had managed to slip away before she could find out where her Puddin’ was. She was gonna tease it out of them. Or maybe exchange the skull for it, except Selina had managed to swipe it right out of her hands. But even the option of tailing them back to wherever they had their hide out was lost to her.

Because the morons snuck out while she was distracted with the kitty. What kinda henchmen were they that they just gave up in the middle of a job? They sucked. They sucked a lot. And they made Harley feel all kinds of cranky, so she’d done what she could to make herself feel better.

( She stole something else. )

SNOW, MORE SNOW, AND SOME PRECIPITATION
Special Story By Windy Weatherton

Hello citizens of The City. You can't actually see me as I write this, which is a crying shame for you, but I assure you all that I am in my normal Windy glory. I've come to you via print today to tell you a little bit about our weather conditions. Because that's what I do, inform you on the weather.

We've got a standing foot and a half of snow right now. Record falls, considering that we've never experienced snow in this place before, and guess what! It just keeps falling! We see no end to the snow any time in the near future. Or even the remotely far future. Our weather satellites tell us that there's going to be snow for a good long while, and it's not going to melt at all, either. Just snow. Lots of snow. White, fluffy, powdery snow.

Now here are some interesting little facts for all of you out there that might not understand snow or know what it is:

Snow is a type of precipitation in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. The process of this precipitation is called snowfall.

Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by external pressure.

Snow crystals form when tiny supercooled cloud droplets (approx 10μm in diameter) freeze. These droplets are able to remain liquid at temperatures colder than 0°C because, in order to freeze, a few molecules in the liquid droplet need to get together by chance to form an arrangement close to that in an ice lattice; then the droplet freezes around this 'nucleus'. Experiments show that this 'homogeneous' nucleation of cloud droplets only occurs at temperatures colder than -35°C.[1] In warmer clouds an aerosol particle or 'ice nucleus' must be present in (or in contact with) the droplet to act as a nucleus. Our understanding of what particles make efficient ice nuclei is poor - what we do know is they are very rare compared to that cloud condensation nuclei which liquid droplets form on. Clays, desert dust and biological particles may be effective,[2] although to what extent is unclear. Artificial nuclei include silver iodide and dry ice, and these form the basis of cloud seeding.

Once a droplet has frozen, it grows in the supersaturated environment (air saturated with respect to liquid water is always supersaturated with respect to ice) and grows by diffusion of water molecules in the air (vapor) onto the ice crystal surface where they are deposited. Because the droplets are so much more numerous than the ice crystals (because of the relative numbers of ice vs droplet nuclei) the crystals are able to grow to hundreds of micrometers or millimeters in size at the expense of the water droplets (the Wegner-Bergeron-Findeison process). The corresponding depletion of water vapor causes the droplets to evaporate, meaning that the ice crystals effectively grow at the droplets' expense. These large crystals are an efficient source of precipitation, since they fall through the atmosphere due to their mass, and may collide and stick together in clusters (aggregates). These aggregates are snowflakes, and are usually the type of ice particle which falls at the ground. [3] The exact details of the sticking mechanism remains controversial (and probably there are different mechanisms active in different clouds), possibilities include mechanical interlocking, sintering, electrostatic attraction as well as the existence of a 'sticky' liquid-like layer on the crystal surface.

The individual ice crystals often have an hexagonal symmetry. Although the ice is clear, scattering of light by the crystal facets and hollows/imperfections mean that the crystals often appear white in color due to diffuse reflection of all spectrum of light by the small ice particles.

And now, this is Windy Weatherton signing off with my patented smile, enjoy your day.

Fred had been waylaid enough. Ships in the park, pancakes with ex-preachers, tacos and new receptionists. It was all going to have to wait because she was going to do some investigating on her own. Sure, it might mean running into people she probably shouldn't see, but how many of them would be at the Hospital?

It'd taken sometime to get to the Hospital mainly because she kept passing diners that looked just right for waffles or pancakes. One even looked like it had fried chicken and waffles, which was actually better than it sounded. But, she wouldn't be deterred from her mission, not today. Not this time. Well, maybe for a moment.

She came out her favorite City diner with a full bag and a carrier for two large cups of coffee; the hint of steam leaking from the cups made her smile and concerned her a little. She didn't want everything to be cold. It wasn't like she could be sure the intended recipient would be there. But, she trudged on, and much to her delight, there it was, the Hospital.

She went to the front desk and asked very politely for Sam. She even described him, much as she had for Angel. The nurse looked at the young woman with food and grumped something about outside food was not permitted. The nasty old woman even threatened to throw her out. Of course, Fred could have made a dash for it; she could have tried to fight her way through security, who were now looming.

"It's not very fair. Lettin' me get the waffles only to make me leave them outside." The nurse stared at Fred, and a few other people did too as she walked outside. Well, at least she'd get to do one good deed. Two homeless looking fellows got the still hot waffles and coffee. With that settled, Fred walked right back in, right on by the grumpy nurse, and into the Hospital. It was going to take some time, but she'd ask some questions, see what might have happened, and actually be directed right to the room with the someone who fit a good bit of the description Fred was using.

She gave a little knock before peeking in, giving a quick "Hello?"