2013.10.10 - Aliens, Artifacts and Mutants (oh my!)

The morning sun rises up in this cool October sky. It kisses the ground, greeting the multicolored leaves of trees and the recently dug up earth of an archaeological dig. It is really an exceptional morning. There are a few people out scurrying about digging and working to uncover various artifacts. Pretty much a typical dig site.

"My parents are totally going to be pissed!" Roxie comments to herself as she disembarks from a bus. She looks around the familiar sights and begins wondering, laying low from the various scientists. She is on a personal mission. One that has caused her to skip school and to travel roughly 20 miles out of the city. "Okay I was walking this way. It's gotta be here somewhere."

Meanwhile the poor archaeologists working on the site has to contend with inexplicable tremors coming from beneath them, something which would no doubt cause at least a momentary stop of the digging as suddenly the ground breaks open not far from the digging area, and young girl in a black and white leotard and a 'T' motiff all about jumps out. The ground closes underneath her as she lands in an authoritative stance, arms akimbo on her waist as she calls out, "stop this immediately!" Terra looks quite serious, though it is a bit puzzling how she suddenly got there, "there is a settlement of Lansinarians nearby, and if you disturb them there will be trouble. How would you like it if someone came to your house and dug holes in your ceiling!?"

Normally, Jubilation Lee wouldn't be anywhere near the outdoors. She tried camping once, at the insistence of a teacher she likes, and it sucked big-time. This is outside, too. Normaly, she's just not an outside person. Of course, normally she doesn't have a school project due within days that concerns science in general. So today's an exceptional day in a lot of ways. Not always good ones, admittedly, as she was in the bathroom when the bus pulled up and stopped. So after a frantic dash up the aisle that involved holding up her jeans and trying (and failing) to fasten them at the same time, she's stepping off the bus right behind Roxie. "Oh, 'scuse me!" she yelps, since she's about to bump into her. She barely avoids a collision by grabbing onto the bus's door rail to steady her balance. Naturally, her pants succumb to gravity when she lets go, leaving her standing beside the road in her bright purple undies. But the sound of the ground shattering not too far away gets her attention so fast, she doesn't have time to correct the problem. "Whoa... are you seeing this, too?" she asks the tall, red-headed stranger.

The poor archaeologists look up at Terra nervously, "We were assured that this place was uninhabited and safe to dig. We've unearthed some amazing things! We found this thing. It has all sorts of strange markings on it. We have to keep going! It's for SCIENCE!!" The man exclaims.

The redhead stops and looks at the earth tunneling woman. "That is something that you don't see every day. Umm you may want to see to your pants though." Roxie moves a little bit to block anyone from seeing too much. Then she hears what the scientist says. She quickly moves to him. "What did you find? Please I have to see it!"

"Assured by who? Other surface dwellers? How would they know who lives underground where? You are too self centered in your surface world, you never care about underground dwellers! Typical!" Terra seems quite upset, going as far as to wag her finger at the archaeologists talking to her, as if she was chastising a pet. "Science is good, but it should never come at expense of LIFE!"

"Huh? Oh... thanks!" Jubilee reaches for her jeans, nearly stumbling in her haste when Roxie moves to speak to that scientist and leaves her without a person-shaped dressing curtain. She has the problem fixed quickly and hurries to rejoin the redhead. "What are you looking for, anyway?"

Of course, now she's a lot closer to the dark-haired girl in the leotard. "Hello? 'Scuse me, what are you upset about?' she asks, genuinely curious, since it's obvious how agitated Terra is.

The Scientist blinks, "Subterranean life forms?! That would make this dig even better! We need to meet them! I would love to be introduced to them." She takes a moment. "We have found the single most valuable item here anyway. We will wrap up." He gives a look to the red head. "I don't see any harm in looking at it. Hey weren't you the girl who got injured here a few weeks ago? I didn't think you would be here. If you wish to see the artifact please I have no issue showing it."

"Yes that was me. Some things happened and I need to see what you found." She looks over at Terra. "Sorry about this Miss I am sure things will get sorted out." then to Jubilee, Roxie gives a little smile. "Some things happened to me here. I need to find out what. The answer is in one of those artifacts. It has to. There is no telling what else could happen if I don't figure it out."

Terra rolls her eyes when the scientists on hand not only ignore her warning, but suggest it's a good thing. "You assume that they would love to meet you, don't you? Did you ever consider they hold you," she points her finger specifically at the scientist who spoke up, "and your people responsible for ruining their homes? Corrupting the soil? Hurting Mother Earth? This is criminal! CRIMINAL! Do you understand they are not happy to meet criminals?" Terra frowns, wondering how these surface dwellers can be so thick headed. "First you need to improve the way you treat Mother Earth, then we can see about arranging meeting with subterranean species, IF they want to meet!"

Turning to face Roxie, Terra looks at her curiously, before nodding in agreement, "everything will be resolved for the best! For I am Terra! Champion of Good!" She then looks over at Jubilee rather curiously, specifically at those curious looking shades atop her head. "I am upset because those humans were about to get into major trouble, and I wanted to avoid an incident."

The Scientist high tails it away from the girls so he can get the items. More or less, He doesn't exactly want to get a beat down from Terra. Roxie gives a smile to Terra. "Nice to meet you. Sorry to interfere in your show but it's really important. If I don't find out just what happened to me there is no telling what can happen to me."

"This is not my show!" Terra looks offended at the very notion, "I am trying to help, I'm not trying to put attention on myself! I am just doing my heroic job!" Terra nods firmly, as if to show there was no doubt about her words. She does look confused about the girl's story, "...something happened to you? Do you need heroic help?" She asks curiously.

Roxie gives a nod. She pulls her top up just enough to show her belly. A strange tattooed symbol is easily seen covering the length of her torso. "This happened. I need to know why. I was just minding my business... Well I can't remember. When I came to I had this weird tattoo and I could... well other things happened too."

Jubilee, listening to both girls, holds up a hand as she realizes something. "Dunno about heroic help, but I doubt it'd hurt," she says. "'Sides, might help with the whole cause of meeting, or not meeting, subterranean folks, having somebody who can talk to them like they're... ya know, folks. Which would be you," she adds, with a smile for the passionate young heroine. She looks at Roxie, frowning thoughtfully. "I don't know that symbol... looks arcane-ish. Then again, so do some brand-name symbols these days. Did it have any effect on you?"

Terra doesn't seem to be familiar with common courtesies as she puts her face inches from Roxie's belly, studying that tattooed symbol carefully, "someone drew a painting on you! I can scrub it off!" Terra offers helpfully, and immediately reaches to scrub Roxie's tattooed belly with her ridgedly gloved hand. No doubt this will not be a successfully venture, even if Roxie doesn't back away in time.

Looking aside at Jubilee, Terra nods, "I can talk to all subterranean species, I am educated! But I will also protect them!"

The scientist returns with a container that looks a little like a rock. It is empty. "This is the find of the century! We found it after you got carted off. We have been trying to decipher it but it is like nothing that has ever been seen on this planet." The artifact is handed over to the girls. The marks look very strange. They look similar to the mark on Roxie's body. In fact one of them is the exact symbol that is on her. It appears to be something extra terrestrial.

Roxie looks at the item curiously. "I tripped over this. This is it." She frowns a little and looks at Terra, "Well then Terra. Is this something from your friends down stares?" Turning to Jubilee she nods, "It has. I can't explain it. Not here. It is really messed up." Then suddenly... She has Terra trying to rub the marking off of her. "Hey what are you!" She backs away quickly but not quick enough to avoid having Terra find out that it is very permanent.

"Maybe we should talk later about it," the California girl suggests, pulling out her phone. "I could totally meet you somewhere, if I could get in touch and set it up." Wait. Scrub it off? That looks like a tattoo to Jubilee. Which means now would be a good time to distract the young heroine. "Miss? That could be painful," she says, wincing at the thought. "I have a symbol or two if you want to see if they're familiar," she adds, touching the front of her nonsense-marked tee and undoing a few buttons on her jeans to display the signature-symboled waistband of her panties. She can deal with a little embarrassment, especially if it means that Roxie won't get the hide scraped off of her belly.

Terra looks suspiciously at Jubilee, but doesn't even provide her with a reply, instead she looks at Roxie while giving up on scrubbing. "Sorry Ma'am, it won't come off! This is a special permanent paint no doubt! We must make the culprit pay!" She shakes her head when asked if the item comes from somewhere down under, "no! This is an unidentified weird object or design!"

Turning to look at Jubilee again, Terra looks confused, "are we supposed to take off our clothes now? Is it because of the symbol on this woman's belly?" Terra asks while poking at Roxie's belly again.

"Will you cut that out!" Roxie looks at Terra, "Get naked... Umm no. I think it's a little cold out here for that." She looks down at the strange artifact. "Wait a second this looks like what is on me..." She touches it but just as she does, the ground starts to rumble. A thick glowing cloud beings tearing through the sky, breaking through the atmosphere. "Umm, that is really freaky. Terra, is this your friends from under ground?" She asks curiously.

"So you don't know what it is, either?" Jubilee asks, holding up her pants and looking at Terra in consternation. "I know I don't! Maybe it's like the one on... what she said. Um, did." Terra's question only makes her look at the other girl in confusion. "Huh? Oh, no! Definitely not, unless you want to or something. But this time of year, that'd get chilly in a hurry." She looks carefully at Terra's outfit. "Okay, maybe for you it wouldn't be such a big difference." The sudden earthquake is both unexpected and startling. If it weren't for Jubes's impressive sense of balance, she would've ended up on the ground. "Okay... earthquakes, and now weird glowing people? This is /totally/ not on the playlist! And they look maybe kinda dangerous..."

"Cut it out?" Terra looks horrified at Roxie's request, "if I cut that symbol out of you, then you will lose a lot of blood and you could die! It's dangerous! I recommend not cutting it out!"

When the spectre-like cloudy beings zip through the skies, Terra looks up, and then at Roxie, "no, they are from the sky, it's up...different direction from down!" She holds up one finger pointing skywards, and one finger pointing downwards, "see the difference?" She asks Roxie with a helpful tone.

"Then why are you taking your clothes off if we're not supposed to be taking our clothes off now?" Terra asks Jubilee, looking a bit confused. Terra doesn't seem affected by the rumbling at all, looking almost connected to the ground the way she doesn't even shake much. "STOP SHAKING THE EARTH! I WILL NOT ALLOW IT!" Terra screams at the cloudy beings in the skies, and starts to use her powers to force the ground to stop shaking.

The strange thing penetrating the sky keeps moving. Finally it begins taking form. A massive vessel, Easily close to a mile long begins moving in the direction of the dig site. It is in the shape of a spear but just massive. It pierces the sky and comes to rest just above the site. "I've got a bad feeling about this. Maybe we should get out of here." Roxie comments. As if on cue a violet light begins pouring from the strange mark on her. Her eyes ignite with that light. The ground does stop shaking. Though that would seem to be the least of their worries.

"No, she doesn't mean cut the symbol out of her!" Jubilee says, startled at the dark-haired girl's way of taking everything literally. "She means cut it out... to stop what you're doing," she explains. "It's just a figure of speech." And there's /that/ question again. "I'm not taking my clothes off, I was just trying to show you a symbol on..." And then, UFO overhead! Well, closer and more obviously so, anyway. Purple light! And now the redhead's turning into a light herself! "Whoa! Watch out!" she cries, taking two running steps and stopping behind Roxie so she can wrap her arms around the taller girl's body so she won't fall. She doesn't look any too stable right now! Naturally, now Terra can not only see the symbol, but could legitimately make a good case that Jubilee was indeed taking off her clothes.

Terra looks confused at Jubilee's explanation, not quite following that logic, "if she wants me to stop doing what I'm doing, why doesn't she just tell me to stop what I'm doing? It's very dangerous asking people to cut something out of you, lucky I am very responsible and made sure to explain to her how dangerous it is first!" Terra blinks when Jubilee tells her she is not taking her clothes off, "I saw you starting to take off your pants! Don't lie! Lying is bad! And evil people do bad things! You don't want to be evil! I fight evil!" Terra closes one hand to a fist and punches the palm of her other hand as if to demonstrate she means business.

Looking up at the UFO, Terra looks stricken with awe, as a segment of the ground she's standing on detaches and starts to fly high into the air, elevating Terra closer to the UFO, "are you a messenger of the Space God?" Terra asks the object, not considering it may not be able to understand language, she even tries to speak in the native Stratan tongue <>.

The odd ship does not respond. However something does open up on the ship. A white light appears, sending a beam of light down to the ground. What appears next are several humanoids. The beings have four burning eyes. Long pointed ears pointing outwards. Their bodies are bulky, filled with muscle. They begin speaking an unknown language. All in unison. Suddenly a beam of red rings descend onto them and suddenly, they are speaking english. "We are Asmidians from the planet Asmidia. We've come for the heart of Tamia. We will kill anyone who gets in our way. Turn it over or else."

Roxie looks at the beings. She is not turning into light but her eyes and the mark on her torso though are. She looks up as Terra does something weird. Then to the aliens she asks. "What is the Heart of Tamia?" The beings glare and quickly move towards her. Weapons are drawn and they are ready to kill.

"You will come with us. Now." They say in unison.

"Uff... I'm /not/ lying! I tried to tell you already," Jubilee snaps, doing her best to stay on her feet and keep Roxie from falling over. Which isn't too easy, despite the fact that she's strong for her size: Roxie is both much taller and heavier. "Stop calling me a liar and start watching that ship!" Well, great... not just aliens, but evil alien treasure-hunting maniacs. What a day this has been. "I don't think I'd want to go with them," she says quietly to the redhead. "I'm getting serious monster vibes from them. Plus, they just threatened to kill all of us. That says 'evil' in my book. Oh, can you stand up by yourself now?"

Terra immediately descends again, once she's down the rock she was flying on crumbles into the ground, "I will not allow the death of innocents!" She calls out to the Asmidians, "hold it!" Terra cries out when the aliens advance on Roxie, and all of a sudden the ground stirs to life and shoots up to form a cage around the aliens, preventing them to get to Roxie with thick walls of rock and only a small slit open to allow communication. "You will explain what the Heart of Tamia is, and then maybe I will let you go if you behave." Terra offers her alternative.

The Asmidians are having none of that. A massive explosion goes off within the rock tomb sending a chunk of it flying. Two of them seem to vanish. The rest take aim at Terra and begin firing some sort of strange weapon. "You do not give orders to us. We give orders. You obey."

Roxie gets off of Jubilee, "Sorry." When all hell breaks loose her jaw drops. A large rocks begins to float upward and not by Terra's doing. The rock comes down on two more of them with enough force to lay out the remaining too. "You have two options. Lay down arms or get squished. We are asking the questions now. You are going to obey. Got it?" The rock is lifted again.

"S'okay," Jubilee replies, quickly toeing off shoes and jeans to free her legs and rolling to her feet. Plasmoids flare into brilliant life, swarming around her hands like angry bees awaiting release... And it looks like Terra and Roxie have it covered. How embarrassing! Well, at least she can add in some moral support, right? "Yeah, /we/ ask the questions! Now let's talk like civilized beings, huh? Because you /really/ don't want us to get uncivilized. Trust me."

The explosion is very well contained by Terra, as soon as the structure starts to break, Terra gathers all Earth material and immediately forms a thick shield infront of her, with all four walls combined, so whatever it is they fired on her wouldn't quite reach her as she evades. "I am a Champion of Good! I don't bow to evil!" Terra shouts at the aliens. Her violet eyes start to glow, as she seems like she's preparing for something crazy. "I am Terra, I stand for Mother Earth and I wield her power...if you persist, I will teach you her true power..."

The Asmidians resolve begins to break. Their weapons fall to the ground and they all look up to the ship. Idly they start backing up. "We do not answer to humans. We are Asmidians." They are moving toward the beam of light.

The rock drops into their path and one of them is lifted up, immediately preventing them from escaping. "Where do you think you are going. Now then, we have some questions and we want answers. You can either help us or those nice people at Star labs. Your choice. I have nothing but time to hold you here." The other one continues to move towards the light.

"AND I AM NOT A..." Terra starts, before realizing she's essentially disclosing the fact she is not human, so shuts up, as the aliens retreat. Looking at Roxie, Terra adds, "don't kill them, that's what villains do!"

"Careful, okay? She has a point: Killing helpless victims is what villains d..." Oops. Explosions and rock walls aren't a good combination, even as fast and powerful as Terra is with her native element. Jubilee, watching for Asmidian treachery, instead gets clipped on the side of the head by a chunk of stone from the walls, knocked loose by the explosion. Her eyes roll back into her head and she collapses to the ground. She's out like a light, miles from home, and in her underpants to boot. Hopefully Roxie, Terra, or Both Of The Above are in a forgiving and generous mood once this is over...

The Alien remains defiant as ever. The one does get away and gets to the ship. The ship promptly gets out of the atmosphere. Roxie still has the one though and he isn't talking. "I am not going to kill him. I didn't want to harm the other ones but I didn't have a choice. Seeing as he is not very talkative I am going to escort him to Star Labs and they can poke and prod him until they find out just what in the world an Asmidian is. Maybe then he will feel like talking. I would really like to know what the Heart of Tamia is and why they wanted to take me anywhere."

"That is never true, there is always choice," Terra exclaims, frowning, "I could offer you lessons in being a true hero!" The young girl offers passionately, for a moment ignoring the captured alien. Hesitant, Terra offers, "always value life and consider the feelings of other species and races," she then looks at the alien, "I would treat you with respect if you'd given me a chance. But since you all decided to attack, I will let you go with that human, be nice, and good luck." Terra then waves at Roxie, "I'm sorry, but I'm needed elsewhere!" She then dives into the ground, which opens just for her and closes behind her.

Roxie nods to Terra, "We could teach each other some things. That would be awesome!" She smiles and then looks at the alien as Terra vanishes into the Earth. "So then, lets go for a little ride." With a small burst of violet light, She vanishes with the alien and Jubilee. It would take any number of teleports for her to get back to the city but, she does make it. She will be sleeping very well later.