2014.05.28 - All Will Be Well: Point of Impact

"Son, you really shouldn't be down there," a rather tired looking police officer stands at the edge of a crater not far from Ducksbeard Lake in Michigan. A few days ago, something fell from the sky and crashed down to Earth. Scientists and police gathered to investigate but their equipment has been unable to get any readings from the unusual energy that seems to be clinging to the area. Some of it's even broken down. And perhaps most strange of all, rather than scorched Earth and stone...the crater is filled with lush plant life. Grass, flowers, small trees, and even some plants that were said to be wiped out of the area long ago. Animal life seems to be doing quite well too, various creatues around and quite active and healthy. Some of those officers and scientists are currently on the edge of the crater and looking down into it. Why? Because a certain costumed teen hero is down in the crater.

"It's okay, Officer. I'm h-here to help figure out what's going on," Axiom calls, carefully stepping over some flowers. Ever since he'd been summoned to the Infinite Embassy, he'd been wearing a metal bracer with an odd blue gem in it. One that lit up and teleported him suddenly from the Terminal to a small town nearby where he was given the next part of his mission. And now he's looking down at the gem and looking around the crater. "Okay...it w-was definitely here..." he trails off as the gem lights up.

"What was?" The voice comes from almost directly above as a single figure drops out of the sky from the direction of the sun. The figure is a male, probably in his mid to early twenties, and wearing a white leather costume with a light blue trim along the seams of his pants and the cuffs of the jacket. As heroes go he is not the most impressive looking, in fact he looks rather like he should be wearing glasses and spouting random facts at members of an FBI Behavioral Science Unit.

Jo was on the Helicarrier. Since getting a job for SHIELD he has been bunking there and going from there to missions. He went up to the control deck and was informed something unusual, and possibly Extraterrestrial in nature, was going on in Michigan.

Being expereienced in handling things extraterrestrial, Jo volunteered to investigate. He flew in under his own power and landed at the edge of the crater.

He says to the officer, "I am Agent Nah of SHIELD, what is the situation?"

When he heard his friend vanished from the Terminal, Zenith began to investigate immediately. It wasn't hard for the young Kryptonian to get a list of weird events happening around the world and check them out. Whatever order he's checking, he arrives at the crater as Axiom is checking it out, visible first as something streaking through the clouds far above, and then suddenly coming to a stop to hover over the crater about the same time the others arrive. To Axiom he says, "There you are! Need help with anything?"

Kilroy is here as the Economy, not because it has any direct effect, by itself, to the world's economy, or any of Kilroy's chosen passions, but because he, for once, had a bit of a breather between major crisises and was quite curious about what the hell this was. The growth concerned him, not because it was unusual in the great scale of cosmic interventions, but because...that was all there was. His grandfather's notes had explicit concerns about terraforming from the 9 prime worlds. This was more of a confirmation than anything else. No indication that was what this was, but better safe than sorry as it were. He got here by commissioned flight and then moved through the woods with moderate skill at stealth, arriving at the edge of the pit. The Oragami Armor is abandoned, though the coin chainmail is retained invisibly. For now he simply wears a green mask and a gold suit. He's still working on the costume.

Axiom is crouching down to examine a flower that's faintly glowing with blue light when that figure drops from the sky. He tenses but manages to not fall over (yay training!)...but still gives a little squeak. Turning quickly, he looks Tensor over a few times and frowns. "I c-can't say..." he trails off. He glances up as Zenith appears, offering a small smile. "Hi, Zenith. Umm...I'm not sure yet. Still getting information," he says, glancing from Zenith to Tensor and then back again. He looks up when he notices Jo, tensing even more. He does not entirely trust SHIELD.

On the edge of the crater, a few people have noticed Kilroy. They're watching him but keeping their distance. The police officer Jo speaks to whistles and tips his hat. "SHIELD is getting involved now? Your fancy spy agency didn't brief you? Something fell out of the sky and made a big hole in the ground and then disappeared," he says with a shrug.

It seems like not everyone is here at the party. At least not yet. High above Earth, a ship is lowering down slowly and casting a shadow over the area. Those with knowledge of alien crafts will recognize it as a Khund landing craft. One that's aiming to park itself in the air over the crater.

Tensor raises an eyebrow watching Axiom. "Can't say because you don't know, or can't say because your not allowed too?" He is honestly curious about the answer he will get as he looks around the area getting a look at the changes created by whatever landed. He has not touched the ground yet, still floating just a little bit above it. Almost to himself he mutters, "Fell out of the sky, blue glowing and recreated life that was here before. Please let it be them."

Jo explained to the officer, "That much was known, it was apparent something else was going on. Actually I am here at the request of one of the SHIELD scientists, not the high brass. I am something of an extraterrestrial expert" In more than once sence, since he was born on another planet.

Jo looks up and recognizes the Khund ship. He has fought Khunds before, "I suggest you clear any civilians from the area, that is a Khund ship, they are rarely in the mood for friendly chats." He hopes the Khunds in this era speak Interlac like they do in his time.

Zenith nods a little to Axiom, and says, "I'll be here if you need anything." He looks quickly to Tensor, then, perhaps about to ask who he meas, but then he too notices the shadow and looks up. "Good idea," he comments to Jo Nah's suggestion of clearing civilians.

Kilroy can sense a couple of individuals on the ship with digital currency but nothing huge. Out here in the middle of nowhere, his powers are slightly weakened, but he has brought currency with him. He's not much in battle, but he's better than some. He begins creating a large amount of invisible salt in the woods by transforming the currency from the debit card on him in preparation. He knows there are more than two on the ship of that size, and that won't do anyone much good. If there are any civilians refusing to listen to law enforcement then he'll create an invisible rai stone and pick them up and shovel them out...otherwise, he just watches.

"A little of b-b-both," Axiom admits honestly. "Thanks, Zenith. I m-might need a lift somewhere if this..." he trails off when he notices the shadow and then the ship. A few people around the crater are content to be excited about the ship until Jo warns the officer. The police stare for a few seconds and the one officer is about to protest when guns on the ship become visible. "Clear the area! Everyone back!" he calls, starting scientists and journalists running.

A door in the back of the ship opens and several tall figures can be seen leaping from the ship and down to the ground. They land with heavy thuds, red skin and blue armor. And all armred with advanced looking guns and some with melee weapons. One holds up a device to scan the area and eventually points down into the crater towards Axiom. It barks at the others in a very primitive form of Interlac and they start jogging towards the crater. One lifts his weapon and opens fire on the power booster on the way.

Tensor nods at Axiom when he answers and files that away for later. Of course if the cause of the crater is anything like the last crater he was inside of he can respect someone not being allowed to tell strangers. He has still yet to tell many people he may have accidently made mankind the boogie man to an entier alien species. The shadow gets him looking up, and then canting his head ot the side as he reaches out sense what he can from the ship thanks to his powers. "Hmm, heavy worlders whomever they are." He says feeling just how heavily the gravity inside the ship feels. Tensor does not do anything as the aliens land hoping that they are at least peaceful, right up until one of them opens fire. The instant he does that Tensor holds up a hand and changes the pull of gravity around the blast of plasma so that instead of firing straight, the burst from it should get pulled up into the air away from anyone.

The dialect is primative, which Jo should expect as it is centuries less developed. He will have to stick with basic concepts, things that should be easily understood. "Invulnerability," Jo states in English, invoking that power. He flies into the air using his flight ring and Hovers in front of the Khunds, "Halt, this is a restricted world, explain your presence." Given that these are Khunds, he does not expect a peaceful response, but forms must be followed, and there are occasional pleasant surprises.

In a blink, Zenith is flying down to position himself between Axiom and the incoming fire... or, at least, where the incoming fire would have been if Tensor hadn't suddenly changed its direction. His eyes glow red, almost unleashing his heat vision but hearing Jo Nah speaking in a language he doesn't recognize, he waits just a moment to see if it works.

Kilroy understands now why Umoja uses all kinds of tricks and a utility belt. He can't multi task as easily here, though fortunately, it is not as bad as it could be. He considers his options and creates an individual out of salt that walks towards the beings attacking Axiom, and creates small pockets of alochol near each of the attacking soldiers, igniting it with the plasma pistol and creating a boom and flash as it goes. Then he has the salt soldier say, "That was a warning shot!"

Kilroy himself asked the place, in case it had some kind of magical spirit..."Who are you...and why are they after you?" in Spirit Speech. Worth a shot.

The only spirits in the area happen to be the standard nature and animal spirits. A few are curious about Kilroy and give a very general response. 'Hope has come!'. Seems like they're in a good mood about that. They're unhappy about the alien invaders.

The Khunds slow, scowling and snarling at Jo. They consider him a moment before laughing and opening fire on him. As Kilroy's alcohol flash goes off, several of them curse in their native tongue. They don't seem all that fazed by the warning, shooting at the salt soldier too. Still more rush for the crater, shooting at the three in it.

Axiom blinks when Tensor deflects the beam and offers him a quick smile. "Th-thanks," he says. And then the aliens are charging and he's drawing his staff. "Khunds...they're like m-meaner versions of those Klinger guys from the Star Trek show Wiccan showed me," he tells Zenith, ready to fight.

Tensor nods at Axiom when he thanks him and can't help but grin a littel as Axiom speaks. "Klingons, gotcha. Warrior species, make a big show about honor then? Also heavy worlders if what I can feel out of the ship is right, which means walking on Earth is like you walking on the moon." That and they are probably stronger, denser, and a lot tougher than most things on Earth. Which is not that big a problem for Tensor since he is more or less immortal. As a wave of Khunds rushes the crater he reaches out with his powers again and and simply negates gravity right before the edge of the crater while neglecting to warn the on commong aliens that if they stomp too hard when they get there they are more than likely to launch themselves high enough that they will likely go right over the crater to the other side. 

Well, he was right that the Khunds are not going to listen to Diplomacy. Fortunately the standard issue Khund blasters can not hurt him while he s invulnerable.

Jo tells the others, "An average Khund is about 10 times as strong and tough as an average human, and their hand weapons are proprtionately powerful. They worship a war goddess and glory in battle."

He has to decide how to deal with them, well how HE is anyway, as he is not certain what the other here can do. He can not just defend, so he will need to attack...and when he attacks he better be sure it is effective, "Ultra Strength," he says and launches an attack on the largest and most heavily armored Khund in sight.

Zenith nods to Axiom and says, "Ok, so guess talking won't work.. copy me if you want," he adds, and then at Jo's quick brief on the Khund he says, "Cool, thanks." He then flies forward, leading with a punch to the khund that attacked Axiom a moment before.

The Salt Soldier is heavily wounded by the shot, but the salt is recreated and it moves forward. The plasma pistol lays down cover fire for the others, shooting the ground in front of the others to improve their positions and the salf soldier moves forward, as if intending to shoot one of the soldiers, then it picks up a stick as if to engage in melee, but as it does so the trick becomes manifest as it attempts to wrap around one of the soldiers and in a cloud of salt and mayhem, lift them up into the air about the right height (between two hundred and twenty) and then drop. The math is simple...if a human would be hurt but not dead dropped from 20 feet, someone with ten times the endurance should be OK at that height...

"Less honor and more umm...violence," Axiom tells Tensor. Zenith makes him smile though. "It's alright. I c-c-can feel that here I've got a little edge..." he trails off starting to glow. Anyone that's able to sense or pay attention to energy will have noticed there's been an unusual cosmic type energy around. Vaguely similar to the Green Lantern Rings' but having significant differences. And as Axiom starts glowing a faint white, that energy is drawn too him and the white glow gets brighter. When another plasma blast comes in, he simply swats it away with his staff. "This is almost like when Channel t-turned me into a bomb...um...less explody though," he says, moving engage one of the Khunds coming down the edge of the crater with an axe.

The biggest and strongest Khund? Well that would be the apparent leader of this landing party. He's got a pair of rapid-fire energy blasters which get focused and fired on Jo with a deep laugh.

The one that attacked Axiom is looking pretty angry. He's shooting again, this time at Zenith. Of course the energy blasts won't do much more than make the little Kryptonian's suit a bit dirty. And when that punch hits there's a CRUNCH as helmet and teeth break, the alien knocked off his feet and out cold.

That one Khund is not expecting his target to burst into a cloud of salty mess when he strikes it with the blade on the edge of his gun. He goes up in the air cursing in Khundian and leaves an alien-shaped impact in the ground. He's still awake but not getting up just yet.

One Khund gets into the crater to fight Axiom but the others are in for quite a surprise. The first few get launched right over the crater and land somewhere near Kilroy. They're mad, armed, and getting up again. Others stop on the edge of the crater and opt to start shooting at Tensor instead.

Tensor blinks, and takes his eyes off the aliens. "Turnd you into..." You know what, he will ask later. Maybe. If he does not decide to forget that entierly. The Khund that get launched get a smile out of Tensor before the others open fire on him. The first shot gets through and hits his shoulder burning away leather and a good chunk of skin and muscle before a mostly invisable barrier appears between him and them only visable as a distortion of light when the plasma bolts hit it. Tensor says a number of rude things in a mix of Arabic and Latin. "Got to get faster with that..."

Jo is knocked backwards by a burst from the Khund blaster, before he reflexively raises his Invulnerability. It is a good thing his Shield uniform is lightly armored and he has a good bit of practice rolling with attacks. As it is it will take him severa seconds to recover...

Zenith looks around quickly, confident his punch knocked the khund cold, and on seeing Jo get knocked down he turns his attention on the leader that just shot the SHIELD agent, blasting with his heat vision as he flies in with another punch.

Kilroy is not in a bank...or even a city. A half size Rai stone or a salt soldier is all he can muster....his mind racing but he's a bit out of creative solutions at this point. Technically speaking, they didn't see the soldier coming from him but really? He's dressed in a costume and these guys are fruitloops...he's not entirely sure they'd care if he hadn't done anything. He could shoot them with the plasma pistol, but he doesn't want to use lethal force...., but he gets an idea. He hits the deck, and expands his penny staff to maximum size at 20 feet, twirling around and using his magic to enhance the strength of the blow, attempting to trip as many as he can.

The leader Khund laughs more as Jo gets knocked back. It keeps firing on the SHIELD agent, tearing up the ground around him and giving that armor a lot of work to do. Then there's beams of heat vision blasting one of his guns to bits. Snarling, the alien warrior leaps back to avoid the punch and starts shooting at Zenith.

The Khund keep firing at Tensor and his shield, determined to break through it. They're rather rudely interrupted when the alien that had been fighting Axiom gets launched by the power booster and knocks down several of them. "Are y-you alright?" Axiom calls to Tensor, glowing bright white while the gem in the bracer on his right wrist is glowing blue.

The bird spirit had been debating whether or not to answer Kilroy. Eventually it decides to though. "Hope is everywhere. It went to spread. That human feels it," it replies, indicating Axiom. Meanwhile, the four Khund that landed near Kilroy are charging him. Three go down to the staff swing but the fourth, a female with a pair of hand axes, leaps over the staff and towards Kilroy with a swing of her weapons.

Tensor waves his hand in the general direction of Axiom. "That hurt like a sonofa...it hurt but I am ok. Healing already, or repairing or...not sure what the right word is really." He takes a second to grit through the pain as his shoulder starts to knit its self back together. "But now I am angery, and it is time they learned the gravity of thier situation." Tensor drops to the ground to stop flying so that he can muster up his full strength. Eyes glowing a bluish black color he gestures with his uninjured hand first towards the aliens shooting in his directions forming dense gravity wells directly in front of thier weapons and then gestures his hand to the side making the gravity wells fly that direction with strength enough to each pull about 25 tons of material with them. After his bid to disarm the aliens he starts turning up the gravity under their feet, first to twice what they are used too, then four times, slowly increaing it more and more till he can get them to collapse to the ground.

Jo shakes off the effects of the attack, though he can still feel a few bruises as he gets back the breath that was knocked out of him. All right, time to try different tactics. These Khund are foot sloggers, time to knock the feet our from under them.

"Ultra Strength," Jo says and slams his fists into the ground creating a shock wave...

Zenith keeps his feet off the ground, easily able to stay flying despite the increasing gravity. While the others focus on area attacks, he keeps his attacks up on the khund leader, following up his missed punch with an airborne kick.

Kilroy is really good for a guy who has been doing this for a year...self trained. In fact, he's beat a lot of odds, including standing for a few minutes against Darkseid himself. His stealth and concealment has been able to give him a mighty edge, but...still. He summons two small Rai stones at the last minute working as a shield. The invisible armor helps a lot since blows that would otherwise cut or wound bounce off, but she's an experienced warrior and stronger than him...Kilroy is distracted and out of sorts and weaker than usual. Attack, shatter, recreate, block. This goes on for thirty seconds before a final blow slams him in the back of the head as she spins around to the side, cracking him on the back of the skull dazing Kilroy. Kilroy pages: not going for full out unconciousness, but at minimum she'd win that fight.

The Khund that had been firing on Tensor are starting to get up, shoving their unconscious crew mate off and starting to shoot at Axiom again. They only get a few bursts of plasma and projectile blades off before their weapons fly from their grips and break apart. They reach for secondary weapons but end up pulled right back down to the ground. They're fighting through, all the while snarling and cursing at everyone in sight.

Things are going quite well for Ultraboy and Zenith. Jo's mini-quake shakes up the leader enough that he can't dodge Zenith's kick. There's another CRUNCH as the alien goes flying and gets knocked out.

She is indeed a skilled and experienced warrior. This band of mercs was hired for a reason after all. When Kilroy goes down dazed, she grins. The warrior woman spins her axes around and raises them to go in for the kill...but doesn't quite get the chance. Axiom had been dodging blaster fire until he finally noticed Kilroy in the area. When he sees the other man about to get the closest haircut in the world, he scowls. There's a bust of blue light as he launches himself and sends the Khund woman flying with a kick. Landing next to Kilroy, the power booster blinks. "Okay...whatever this p-power is, I like it..." he trails off. As he's using the energy in the area, it's disappating though. Shaking his head, Axiom moves to check on Kilroy. "Are you alright?"

With all this happening there's only a few Khunds remaining. One calls for a tactical retreat, waving to others to lead them away from the battle and towards a beam of light that's coming from the ship. The Khunds that make it to the beam vanish from sight...reappearing in the ship if anyone can sense or see.

Tensor grits his teeth as his wound continues to heal at a rate far faster than any normal beings but still too slow for his sake. As the beam of light starts picking up the retreating Khunds he grins and does the gravity well TK trick, although much more gently, again with the unconcious body of the obvious leader dragging towards him while doing the same thing with the ones he had trapped to the ground only tossing them at the beam of light. The minions can escape for all he cares, but the leader he wants to have someone interogate about whatever the hell is going on. Jo switches to Ultra Vision and sees what he can read of the controls and displays of the alien ship. Possibly he can mae sure they are actually retreating...and find out more about why they are here at the same time.

When he finishes that he notes, "Not killing a Khund when you defeat them is considered a major crime. They take their religious injunctions seriously."

Zenith watches the Khund retreat, and comments, "They really should know better than to come to Earth." He looks back and then floats over to land by Axiom and the downed Kilroy, looking concerned as well. Not that there appears to be much he can do to help if Kilroy is injured. He looks back to Jo, though, and says, "I'm not killing no matter what they prefer."

The little bird he'd been speaking to, spirit as it were, invisible or otherwise has multiplied and begun singing songs of hope and joy as it flies around his head. He looks at Axiom and says, "It's...hope. The power is hope. And it seems to be...everywhere. Am I fine? Mild concussion, probably slightly loopy for a few days, nothing that time and sleep won't hurt. Name's The Economy. Pleased to meet you. Have you met my friend?" He looks at the bird, "Chirpchirpchirp the bird." The bird spirit is likely invisible. Kilroy sounds slightly out of it. Healing will leave him looking slightly odd, but slightly less looopy. "Thanks. I appreciate that."

The Khund are indeed retreating. They'll probably be coming back later but for now, run away! Once the ship has all the Khunds it can get, it starts flying off. There's not much information on why the mercs are here though.

Axiom just blinks. "I know b-but, wait. How did you...nevermind," Axiom shakes it off. He frowns a moment when there's no friend to meet. "Uh...I think we should g-g-get you to a doctor. I'm Axiom and this is my t-t-teammate Zenith," he gestures to the Kryptonian.

Tensor looks over at Jo with a raised eyebrow. "Really? I already have one alien species that can manipulate the basic forces of reality like playdough that thinks humans are the biggest boogie men in existance thanks to me. Anyway I can appologise to them without having to kill any of them?" There is a touch of hopefullness in his voice but, the probability is that he is going to get a solid no. Great. All he needs now is a bounty of some kind on his head. Not that it would do the Khund any good. "You spoke thier language right? Any chance you're going to be able to get anything out of this one here when he wakes up?" Tensor asks pointing to the probable leader of the group. "Oh, ahh...call me Tensor."

Jo says, "You get used to it, all of my team were considered criminals by the Khund because we refuse to kill."

Jo frowns, "I can try, the version of the language I know is a bit different...but I do not expect to get much unless I can trick him somehow. If we have a telepath or something handy, it wll likely work better."

Zenith looks back to Axiom and Kilroy, giving a small wave to everybody as he's introduced. Then, to Kilroy, he says, "I'm a fast flyer, I can get you to a hospital pretty quickly."

Kilroy considers a moment. He has a personal physician, but concussions are serious business. Besides, letting people help is always a good thing. "Sure. I appreciate the help. Nice to meet you all. A doctor would probably be a good idea, thank you."

Axiom glances up and frowns. "We don't kill," he says firmly. He'd likely go after anyone that killed today. Shaking it off, he smiles to Zenith. "You g-get him to the hospital and I'll wait here. I've got to keep examining the area f-f-for clues," he says. He then looks to Jo and Tensor but doesn't comment. He's got a feeling SWORD will be showing up soon to handle that sort of stuff.

Tensor nods and sighs a little. "Mind reading, now that is a power that might have been intereting to be given...and one I am happy as a clam didn't end up on the list. Never works out well in fiction...no idea how often it goes off the rails in real life." He just shakes his head not sure at all what else to say or really what to think about what is going on. "Honestly, I am only here because this sounded a lot like the people I wanted to straighten out a missunderstanding with but...guess not so much."

Before being flown off, Kilroy says, "They were paid by a bunch of loony scientists called the Psions...light years away. They were to attack 'the unknown entity that came to earth'....that's probably all commander idiot knows."

Zenith nods and reaches to gently pick Kilroy up. He waits for him to say what he needs to, then says, to Axiom, "Call me if they come back," and then he flies into the air, taking Kilroy to the nearest hospital he can find.