2013.10.06 - Waking Up The Killer

So a shape-changing metal sphere death robot seemingly specifically designed to kill Pyre personally attacked yesterday. While it used various other attacks against those who aided Pyre, it clearly preferred her above others it could have targetted, and only fought to get free of them or ward off interference. Supergirl managed to smash it into Greenland eventually, and some sort of energy beacon was sent out into space when it broke. Pyre isn't sure, but this seems far too intentional to say it's one of the various enemies of the Fire Natures just randomly sending out a robot. There are only two known sapient species in the Living Natures Galaxy that have functional, more-or-less perfected cold-based weaponry, and since most people outside the Living Natures Galaxy don't know the Living Natures Galaxy exists, it is likely to be one of those two.

Here's the thing. The Living Natures of Ice (aka Ice Natures or Ice-People) wield their ice powers naturally. They wouldn't bother to invent technology that can do it for them, because of their pride in their own innate abilities. Since Supergirl's X-Ray vision discerned there was no living thing inside the metal sphere (though the metal may have been some sort of 'organic steel', potentially, it still wasn't truly alive in any meaningful sense of the word. It was a machine. A very adaptable machine, but still just a machine, programmed with a mission and nothing more), the Ice-People could be ruled out. One of them would have had to have been present in order to do those things, and it had other weaponry besides.

That left the much scarier of the two alien species as the most likely culprits.

The Assanti.

Pyre has requested the other Titans meet her in the Meeting Room of Titans Tower to discuss all this, and is in the middle of explaining as she sits in a chair in her thermal suit, with a red scarf with yellow koi fish on it wrapped around her neck and the lower-half of her face, a red woolen cap on her vividly bright-red-haired head, and a pair of red ear muffs also with koi fish. Where does she find these things? Still, they keep her warm without requiring the entire Tower be set to 300 degrees Farenheit.

"Assanti is bad news bears," she explains succinctly. Just like when it was explained after the attack itself, it winds up being up to Pyre's super computer, Karkel, to describe in more detail. "What her highness means is that the Assanti are a mysterious, primarily-humanoid alien species on which we have little information that is not extremely classified. What is known is that -- to all appearances -- the entire species appears to be comprised of assassins for hire. The entire species have a variety of special abilities that differ based on the individual, and perhaps other, unknown criteria, and they both wield extremely sophisticated technology that rivals that of most of the Living Natures, and exceeds it in at LEAST one area." Karkel allows for a dramatic pause and also maybe just so people can take in what the arm-mounted computer is saying. He doesn't have to breathe after all, but they have to think.

"Genetic engineering and manipulation is that area. We only learned this last due to a //certain individual// with 'inside information' about the Assanti. Essentially, the Assanti are capable of custom-designing life forms for a specific job or even a specific target, programming them with all the skills they could conceivably need from hand-to-hand combat, stealth, hundreds of thousands of languages, spaceship operation, voice mimicry, knowledge of particle physics, swimming, or basically any other skill set they have records on. Beyond this, and the fact that the Assanti have a reputation for never giving up, we know little else about them. But there are likely any number of enemies who have cause to hire the Assanti to eliminate the princess of the Fire Natures while she is aware from the protection of her mother. To-date, Queen Blazei is the only known individual whom the Assanti have given up attempting to assassinate. ...If appearances are to be believed." Pyre frowns when Karkel is done, not that her expression can be seen through the scarf. 'If appearances are to be believed?' What does THAT mean!? Either way, Pyre folds her arms over her chest and huffs a bit. "Titans now is knowing why is so-so bad that Assanti after Pyre. Before Pyre is 'setting up the bomb shell'--" "'Dropping a bomb shell', your highness." "--IS QUIET NOW, KARKEL! ...Before Pyre is dropping bomb shell, Pyre is hearing thoughts from friends and the teaming mates."

Supergirl is in the Tower, in the room with the others, but not dressed as Supergirl. Instead, she's wearing a light gray t-shirt that swallows her with a Hello Kitty logo on front and a pair of faded-pink jean-shorts. She sits in one of the 'ultra-modern' pod-chairs, one foot drawn up into the seat, her chin resting on her knee, and her arms draped loosely around her shin while she listens.

She's silent for a long moment afterwards, before glancing at the others in the room, and then finally back to Pyre. "It's pretty easy. We only have one choice. We can't go to them, not even sure /I/ can travel all the way out of the galaxy without a Boom Tube, and we're not even sure who or where the group is that's been hired. We don't know who hired them, but we can't let them have Pyre or get at her again."

She takes a breath. "So all we can do is wait, keep tabs on our 'Princess', and capture the next one that comes, find out WHO hired them, and then find them." Her lips take on a hard edge. "And bring them to justice."

"Karkel, is there absolutely /no/ way we can use Pyre's ship to send even a one-way transmission back to the Fire Planet? Tell them what's happening and where to find us? The Queen may be able to help or negotiate or at least tell us where to start looking!"

Wonder Girl came into the fight late yesterday. It had already started when she arrived, and she's not sure how much good she did. That thing was possibly not the toughest thing she'd ever fought... But she has no doubt that if it had been just her and the robot, she would have lost. Possibly died. It seemed to change form based on every attack it got hit with. Only overwhelming it with a variety of different types of massive damage sources faster than it could adjust seemed to slow it down enough that Supergirl could then throw it all the way to Greenland. And from what she heard, the robot landed safely after being thrown. It took Supergirl piledriving it into the ground before it actually broke and stopped working for good. At which point the components started disintegrating, probably to keep anyone from examining it and learning anything about how it worked.

The news about the beacon had been unpleasant because Wonder Girl assumed that it meant they'd have to deal with MORE of those things. But when it's explained in more detail like this, she has... An uncharacteristic cold feeling in her belly. Part of it is fear, but there's also something... Deeper and more pervasive. If she had to describe it, Cassie would probably call this feeling 'dread'. That drone had just been one of many weapons in the arsenal of an alien species so adept at murdering people that their entire civilization was based around it? And it sounds like the aliens themselves are even worse. They could be equipped with any skill-set. Any ability. They find out your weaknesses and then they just grow a new alien or two that are experts at exploiting your flaws like they'd been training their whole lives for nothing short of doing so. All so that you'll die at their hands.

Wonder Girl raises a hand after Supergirl speaks, leans forward in her seat, and says, "Yeah, uh, hey. Capture might be a good idea, but... Okay, I don't really know of ANYONE who is keen on tangling with people who are specifically trained to kill them, personally, but even so I'm thinking of looking for alternatives just in general. Is there any way we can talk to them when they show up? Maybe put out some kind of... 'Peace beacon' or something that they'll pick up when they arrive? I mean, if your starship thing can send a transmission, why not send it to the ones coming here? Who knows, maybe we can convince the it's not worth their time. This planet alone has TONS of super-powered people, we have some tech geniuses too, and we've dealt with entire invasion forces in the past and we're still here! So, it's... Really in both of our best interests that they reconsider their contract, right?"

It's not generally like Cassie to NOT bash her head against a problem until either she or it breaks, but she's trying to learn, to exhibit leadership qualities. Supergirl seems more experienced in that department, but the psuedo-Olympian is trying. Maybe Supergirl is really powerful, but she can't be everywhere at once. And as much as Wonder Girl likes to feel confident in her fighting skills, an entire species of professional killers is a bit above her 'level', so to speak. She doesn't know if she can protect Pyre. Maybe her feelings about Pyre are mixed, but she doesn't want the red-haired girl to get hurt, and Pyre HAS been making a clear effort to change her behavior to fit Earth culture instead of telling them how stupid and dirty they are all the time. And... Pyre in general is just another teenage girl. Regardless of species, getting tangled up in this particular mess isn't something the princess deserves.

So Cassie breathes out a bit, trying to think of a way to keep her team mate safe WITHOUT getting into a fight she's not sure she's good enough to win.

Mend missed the fight altogether. In uniform, she comes in as the meeting starts, in time to hear Pyre's explanation. "Great. So, we have alien assassins specifically looking for you." She lets out a breath and glances at Supergirl. "You're right. We can't go get them, so all we can do is use Pyre as bait, as much as that sucks." She seems a little tense and, for some reason, her hair is still damp. She turns to Wonder Girl. "If they can. Their professional reputation might be ruined if they ever reconsider a contract. Mercenaries can be like that." Sitting down, she frowns at her hands for a moment. She too has mixed feelings about Pyre, but one doesn't let a teammate down...not when there are alternatives. Which they are. "I'm all for *trying* to talk to them, but..."

And there was a darned good reason Heather missed the initial giant robot incident. She was out in LA, filming a cameo appearance in some action movie. But she's back now and she listened to Pyre's words while munching on a bag of pretzels. Her nose wrinkles up as Pyre starts talking and she mutters, "I'd rather it was -the- bad news Bears. I mean that Kelly kid was kinda cool... even if he did grow up to be Freddy Kreuger..." But then she goes silent again and listens to the rest of it. There's a pause as she inclines her head a bit and then offers, "Could we maybe arrange a little bait 'n switch trap? Maybe dress someone up to look like the Princess, lure out an attacker, and then jump -them- after they've tried something that should only work against her?"

Pyre listens, considering the options presented and then nods. "Okay, we is try that." She starts to get up from her chair but then Karkel says, "Your highness, please wait." Pyre pauses where she is and then plops back down with a sigh. "To answer your question, Miss Zor-El, our communications equipment can be repaired but I have thus far been unable -- with the resources available to me -- to identify manufacturing facilities or even the appropriate raw materials to construct the replacements for her majesty's shuttle's communications array. There were indications there might be something in the continent of Africa, sophistication-wise, but the readings were unclear and the matter of the materials is still an issue. In essence, the most efficient way to get the onboard equipment functional would be to make repairs to the power plant of the princess's shuttle, so that it can use its on-board manufacturing capabilities to produce the needed components for repairs. Any mechanical or scientific experts you feel are both qualified and trustworthy should perhaps be contacted and asked if they will assist in the repairs through some sort of temporary measure that employs Earth-based materials and technology to get the power plant running. I estimate we will need at least 25% power to be able to construct the necessary replacement parts."

Pyre is tap-tap-tapping her foot on the floor, with her arms folded throughout, and then says, "Hoh! Is good! We fix shuttle, we use master bait trap to capture Assanti, we end danger. No is problem!" Then she starts to get up to leave again, only to be interrupted by Karkel again. "Your highness, there is that other matter." Pyre seems... Fairly agitated. Assassins coming after one is 'bad news bears', but it seems more like she's trying to avoid discussing it than actually resolve it. Pyre snaps, "Pyre no want talking about!" But Karkel says, "It is overdue, princess." Letting out a girlish growl of disapproval and frustration that is not really at all threatening, Pyre turns back around and sits down again. The pouts heavily, rolls her red eyes and finally tosses her hands up. "Pyre already has Assanti in oh-so-is-stupid-cold sleep on spaceship. Maybe she is know how stopping the others." Oh, there's that bomb shell she mentioned.

She looks around at Supergirl, Wonder Girl, Mend, and Heather, all in turn, then she tosses her arms up again. "Pyre no has wanting to waking her up! So-so jerk Karkel has thinking is important. Pyre agree if Titans has thinking is best, Pyre wake up Caela."

Kara looks at Wonder Girl, then slightly shakes her head. But her expression is gentle, even as she shuts the other girl's hope down. "Even with what little I know about them, I know that won't work. If they've modeled their entire race into assassins, then no amount of threats or talk from their intended target or her bodyguards will dissuade them. Even professional hitmen from /our/ world would still try to find ways to 'get their man' despite all obstacles." With a sigh, she lets go of her legs and leans back into the cushions of her 'pod', folding her hands over her stomach as she slowly moves her upraised knee from side to side.

"Their entire reputation would be destroyed and, as far as they know, they can just keep throwing expendable resources at the problem and we can't do a thing to harm them back. Even if we make the cost higher than the price they were paid, they'd likely have to stick with their contract just to 'make a point'." She pauses for breath, and to consider Heather's point. "The problem with that is that we have no idea when and where they will attack her next. It's not a charade we could keep up for long, even if Koriand'r were currently around."

But at the mention of one of them stuck on Pyre's ship, the blonde leans forward, putting both feet on the floor and resting her forearms across her thighs. "Pyre, I wouldn't want ot wake an assassin up, either. But if we can get any information out of her, any at all, isn't it worth it? It's to save your life. You don't have to be in the same room as her, we can choose someone else to interrogate her." She frowns, brows drawing down. "But you have to stop holding out. You have to /trust/ us."

Wonder Girl sighs and nods. She knows Supergirl's right. "Yeahhhh, just... They gave up on ONE target, according to Karkel, because she was too much trouble. I guess if we made the cost higher than they could afford, like you said, MAYBE we'd get a repeat, but from what Pyre told me about her mom, she's some kind of badass with a hotass -- literally. I couldn't quite follow the whole story, but I think there was something with a lizard-person who was practically immune to the weapons and fire blasts of her Pyre's people, and the queen came to the princess's rescue and just turned him to ash like THAT." She snaps her fingers. Then she focuses back on the matter at hand. Yeah, Pyre does seem kind of worked-up. She doesn't immediately connect it with reluctance to talk about this, except in the sense of 'discussing people coming to kill me is not a happy fun-times topic'. But when she hears what's going on, she stands up rather quickly. "Uh, and you're sure she doesn't have like... Some kind of tracking thing on her or something? Is that how they found you? Maybe that's why your shuttle is broken."

Yeah, this is news. She wants to think of the best way to deal with it but... Supergirl is already taking care of it. What is Cassie's problem? She should just wait until it's time to punch things, not keep trying to be all clever. "Well... If you need someone to hold her down or something, let me know. As long as she doesn't spit acid or something." Then she looks at Mend, and then at Heather speculatively. "...Though I guess that might not stop some of us." Is she really considering using team mates as acid shields!? ...Probably not, but hey, if all she can do is punch, then people who can heal should do what they can do too, right!? And stop SUGGESTING ALL THESE GOOD IDEAS. Gawd, she feels so dumb around these chicks.

...Except Pyre.

"Your ship's broken?" Mend flickers a grin. "I can take a look. I can't promise anything, but I should at least be able to work out who's best to talk to." She's trying to conceal her enthusiasm at getting to play with extra-terrestrial technology. She's even mostly succeeding, this being a serious situation and all. "And maybe we can track down a telepath to interrogate that assassin. I haven't seen Miss Martian in forever, but there *are* others around. Hard to resist that unless his species is immune or something." Mend, yup, full of good ideas. "And please don't use me as an acid shield. That would take hours to regenerate." Beat. "Use Heather." She's clearly joking, though.

Shrugging her shoulders, Heather remarks softly, "See, my experience with assassins is all from the point of view of someone trying to prevent assassination. I've had training and experience as personal security. Learning to recognize dangerous situations and the body language of someone preparing to do something monumentally stupid. I don't however, really have the least bit of an idea of how to stop a whole -race- of assassins other than maybe paying their leader a visit and knocking the head of the whole pyramid off its shoulders. Even that might not work." she sighs and shakes her head, "Sorry, I wish I was more help here."

And at that, Heather maintains decorum. She merely sticks her tongue out like a kid towards Mend.

Pyre nods and grunts an affirmative. "Shuttle has broke. Is why Pyre has be here instead of other place that is not here. Kara Zor-El stop shuttle from crashing into planet. Marissa is free to look." She jerks a thumb rather unintuiviely in the direction of her mile-long 'shuttle' that looks more like a warship and has been sitting underwater in concealment, outside the Tower, for several months to keep it from being investigated or looted. After they stripped metal panels and such off the ship to modify Pyre's quarters in the Tower she stopped staying in the ship itself. But then, when people start talking about how to deal with the Assanti, things get weird.

What is this, the Twilight Zone? For once it's Pyre looking at everyone else in the room like they're crazy! Usually, it's the reverse. Karkel starts, "That is... Actually not exactly the situation--" but Pyre interrupts. "Caela is Pyre's guard of body! Counter-Assassin! Caela is Assanti, but she has been protecting Pyre for so-so many 3 years!" Pyre, for a third time, tosses her arms up dramatically and says, "Pyre no has wake up Caela because Caela is //so-so bossy//. 'Pyre no can fly around wherever Pyre wants!' 'Pyre is stay close!' 'Pyre is not eat strange thing what find off the ground even if Pyre is hungry!' 'Pyre not accept gifts from strangers in robes!' 'No, this!' 'No, that!' Noh-meh-daa!"

Finally she settles down, and after several seconds of silence, Karkel says, "What is more important, your highness? Your life or your freedom to eat strange things off the ground?" Pyre fumes and says nothing. "...Your highness--?" "PYRE IS THINKING!" If computers sighed, Karkel would likely be doing it right now. Instead the artificial intelligence says, "Allow me to put it differently, your majesty. Your friends and team members are also in danger because they are trying to protect you. Will you endanger THEIR lives as WELL as yours out of simple stubborness?"

Pyre's brow furrows, and then she tosses up her arms a fourth time in this one conversation and declares, "Is okay!" That seems to be an agreement to wake up the Assanti.

"You've... been keeping you bodyguard in stasis because you don't //like// her?" The blue-eyed blonde looks incredulously at the red-haired alien. And their might be just a bit of outrage in her expression, too. But then she'd also been stuck in stasis for some 30 years against her will, trapped, unable to move on with her life. Only to then, by freak chance, arrive miraculously at her destination and get unfrozen... mere moments, in her mind, after her planet had been destroyed, to find the infant she was supposed to raise and protect turn out to have to guide and protect HER.

"Pyre that is..." She holds up her hands, closing her eyes and bitting the insides of her cheeks as she breathes out through her nose, shaking her head a few times. Then she opens her eyes again. "//NOT// okay." She'd known Pyre was haughty, but then she'd been raised as spoiled royalty. But keeping someone purposefully 'on hold' for the crime of 'being bossy'. It's obvious that if it weren't for the gravity of the current situation, she'd have more to say about it.

Instead, she simply tosses her head, despite being in her bare feet, towards one of the large windows on the 'face' of the Tower. "Let's just go, then. We'll talk to Caela and find out what we can. ...And then we're //NOT//," And here she cuts a look at the Fire Planet Princess. "Putting her back in stasis."

Cassie waves apologetically to Mend and Heather. She will not use them as acid-shields. Considering Cassie's own habit of clashing with people trying to tell her what to do, she may not exactly be the best person to make a comment on whether this was called for or not on Pyre's part. If you're royalty or not, someone ALWAYS following you around trying to control everything you do is going to cause you to want to rebel. At least for humans. Who the hell knows how it goes with fire elementals in fleshly form. But from what she has seen, if Pyre is any example of what is average for her species, the Living Natures of Fire or whatever they're called are a very passionate people. They don't do things in half-measures, and when their emotions are running high, they're hard to rein in. So, she decides to play devil's advocate a bit.

"Someone from a species known primarily for the proficiency with which they kill people belonging to other species who is following around a very emotional teenage girl and bossing her -- even if it's for her own safety -- is going to meet some extreme resistance in most teenage girls I know, myself included. There may be cultural differences, or species differences, but Pyre is not someone who we know to be real great at containing her frustration and anger.--No offense, princess.--And I think that might be common for her people. So, best thing we can do now is look at the solution to the problem. Yeah, it was dangerous to keep her bodyguard on-ice, but we know now, and HER MAJESTY should keep in mind in the future that maybe this 'Killah' or whatever her name is might be protecting you because she cares, not just because it's her job. I can't imagine someone with a background like hers would be keeping someone alive instead of terminating them unless they had some sort of investment." Or unless it's part of a plan. Cassie is, while trying to play peacemaker once again, kind of suspicious of this 'just happens to be onboard when the ship malfunctions and strands a princess outside the range where help from the super-badass mom can be quickly delivered.

And if these Assanti can really be expert in ANY skill-set... Who's to say acting isn't part of that? Pretending to be reformed, even keeping a princess safe against various 'attacks', and then when the opportunity arises to isolate the target... Taking it? She's going to bring that up privately with Supergirl and the others when this is over. Color her suspicious, but if an ENTIRE species is made up of killers except for this one special snowflake... Half the story is inaccurate. And she'd rather not find out it was the second half after their team mate gets stabbed in the back.

Mend nods. "Well...let's go, then. I'll take a look at the ship. Heck, maybe Tony will be willing to look at it, but he'll also try to reverse engineer everything he can. So will I, but I'm not nearly as good at that as he is." Mend, being honest. She wants her own spaceship, darnit. "Bodyguards...oh man. Security can be so difficult and possessive. I'm sort of glad I don't have to deal with them any more. No offense, Heather."

"I agree. As someone who has -been- security. I would be -pissed- if someone kept me on ice, just because they didn't like the whole idea of... security." Heather shakes her head and looks to Kara for a moment before her eyes go back to Pyre. "Look... you've basically held her prisoner.. or hostage... because she was just trying to Do.. Her.. Job." Heather is -angry-, and it shows. She just stands up and clenches her fists. "Yes, Kara... you're right, we should get her out of that deep freeze ASAP." she says, never looking away from Pyre, her eyes showing a level of condemnation they almost NEVER show.

Well, now Pyre just feels bad. She goes quiet, and just gets up out of her chair and starts heading outside. Supergirl helped bury that ship, so she's sure the older girl can help dig it up. After that it's just a matter of getting the power rerouted to turn off the stasis without harming the person inside. She never really considered how Caela felt about her or this 'job' of protecting her. The Assanti was always just 'that bossy woman who was suddenly in her life'. She had body guards before, but none of them were as strict as Caela, always measuring everything, analysing everything, trying to assign values to each part of each day and calculate the pros and cons like... Like a walking calculator!

Considering the feelings of others in more than a general sense is something she has had to start learning since coming to Earth. But whereas she was using it for the people of Earth, she still hadn't applied it to the people from her life BEFORE coming here. And now that she is, she feels bad about it. Caela is a person too. Before she departs with the others, she stops and turns around to face her team mates and friends. "Pyre sorry for upsetting. Pyre is apologize to Caela also. Pyre--" she pauses and then rubs at her eyes with the back of one gloved hand. "Still is much learning." Then she turns around again with only one more sentence. "Pyre has thank for teaching."

As they head out of the room and into the open air, Kara sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. "Pyre." The blonde-haired alien reaches out to lay a hand on the red-haired alien, still not quite looking at her. "You just... I hope you know why this was wrong. I lost thirty years of my life in stasis while life went on without me."

She pauses, frowning down at the water she was soon going to be diving into in her t-shirt. She could change, but it wouldn't really matter. Wet was wet. She lets go of the alien's shoulder, a bit of steam probably coming off of her hand where she'd touched. "When we release her, I just suggest you not tell her she was voluntarily left in there. ...And you should probably apologize for not getting to her sooner."

Sure, lying wasn't the RIGHT answer, but telling the truth in this case wouldn't do anyone any good, either! Especially when they needed this strange, frozen woman's help stopping others of her kind. The truth could come out later.