2014.09.28 - Stranger in a Strange World

It had been a long flight, Alphaa had spent most of it in suspended animation while the pod made it's way through Hyperspace from Almerac. The course he had managed to download from the Royal Archives was exact enough, but his ship was not as fast as Maxima or Ultraa had used when they came to Earth.

Alphaa had located the area where Maxima first came, a city called Metropolis. He orbited in and began his descent, but only as he neared ten miles above the surface didhe realize how many aircraft are above this area of the planet. He Concentrated his power into Psychic Perception and Telekinesis, pulling himself out of the way of one jet liner barely in time and jinking around several others in a clearly unnatural way before landing in the waters of the harbor with a notable splash.

OK, thinks Alphaa, that was not a very good landing, but then, I am not much of a pilot. He decides he should hide the ship somewhere and take a look around.

"Supreme Hydra, something from space has just come down. It was clearly under power, as it avoided several jet liners on the way down," a Hydra Underling reported.

The Supreme Hydra ordered, "Dispatch a team under a trusted Lieutenant to retrieve whatever landed immediately, if thereis alien technology it must belong to Hydra."

Amy Kingsley isn't in the harbor itself, but rather is down in battery park, which gives her a pretty good view of the water and whatever may be going on overhead of it. Seeing well, something landing in the water, she pauses from her tests of some carbon nanofiber-based material, and looks over. "Oh my god, what is that."

There's not only a lot of craft in the skies around Metropolis, there's people too. Zenith is up there, flying at a leisurely pace from the North towards Central Park, when the ship makes its chaotic entry and crash landing. Pulling his phone from his pocket he hits a button to alert the Young Allies that something is happening and that he's on it, and then he speeds up, flying quickly across the city to the harbor.

It's not likly a lot of people would be in the Harbor itself. Except for like...Aquaman and Namor. They're not here though. Who is? Well, Axiom's in the area. Just finishing up with saving a woman from what would have been an unfortunate meeting with a bus, he looks up in time to see that ship go splashing into the harbor. And then his YAL alarm is going off and Axiom blink. "Th-that can't be good..." he trails off, starting towards the edge of the water.

Alphaa directs his craft to sink to the bottom of the harbor, Maxima's logs indicate that most locals can not breath water nor hold their breaths for extended periods. He switched his power focus to Psychic Perception and Telepathy to observe the area

J'onn senses the presence of a substantial telepathic mind.

Amy can see the craft, it does not like like any flying machine she is familiar with, and it suddenly sinks into the water well away from any of the Islands.

Zenith can see inside the ship, it is not made of lead nor blocked by a force field or anything similar. It appears to be a two person space pod of some sort, he can see there are some kind of hibernation tubes, so it is apparently intended to sleep on long trips. There is only one person aboard, a red haired teen who is working on the controls.

And...that use of psionics pings and reflects across the astral. It's guaranteed to attract attention - especially the attention of a Martian who is always keeping one mental eye open for inhuman arrivals. Sometimes they cause trouble. More often, J'onn likes to head them off before they run right up against human customs and cause thorough embarrassment. Things like, you know, nudity taboos. His arrival is a descent towards the harbor at speed, although unlike the ship carrying Alphaa he does not hit the water, but rather slows to hover above it. It's a spaceship. It won't have issues being in the harbor.

Amy Kingsley definitely turns to watch what's going on here. She goes wide-eyed as she stands in the park, in the grass away from other people, her little bit of fabric in hand. Seeing the strange looking, large object go into the water, she tenses up, and grabs her phone to check it, seeing if anything bad's going on that she should know about. Axiom is certain this is not a magical manifestation, and it does not feel like anyone on board has overtly evil intentions.

J'onn can recognize a familiar basic metal pattern, he s reasonably certain that the youth on board is from Almerac.

Zenith takes a moment, looking down at the craft and doing a quick inspection to make sure it isn't sinking due to damage. Then he looks up, waving as he sees Axiom and J'onn arrive on the scene.

Standing as close to the water as he dares to, Axiom frowns as he tries to get a better look at the crashed craft. Taking his binoculars from his belt, he gets a closer look but sighs when it doesn't help much. He spots his teammate waving and smiles before waving back. Tapping his YAL comm, he puts the binoculars away. "Hey, Zenith. What's g-g-going on over there?"

A ship in the water. An...Almeracian mental pattern. J'onn is aware of Axiom, Zenith and...Amy. He's not about to poke an Almeracian - some of them can match Martians in prowess, after all, so he just hovers lower, peering into the water to locate the ship.

Alphaa senses several people about, including two who appear to be flying under their own power, one being a potent telepath. He sends a polite telepathic greeting, "I intend no harm sir. Is there a better place to hide my craft nearby? I understand the locals are only a level 3 or 4 culture and do not have advanced space capabilities."

Amy finds an FAA alert involving several airplanes being diverted, and some local news stations talking about dispatching camera crews to the Harbor to find out about the crash.

Zenith sees the stranger get an abstracted look on his face, kind of like he is talking on a cell phone or something, but he does not hear any words.

Axiom gets no immediate answer from Zenith.

J'onn can sense that the person speaking to him telepathically is fairly powerful, but by no means the most potent telepath he is ever encountered, probably not his equal telepathically.

Amy Kingsley breathes relief right away, when she checks around and sees that there's no (known) terrorist attacks or such going on, and that it was "just" a mysterious crash into the water. She takes a couple deep breaths and walks closer to the shoreline to try to see what's going on, if anything. If there are boats approaching the landing spot, she takes pictures of them, otherwise she just watches the water to see what happens next.

<< This is definitely not a good place - it is a fairly major port. I assume your craft can handle underwater transits? >> J'onn sends, his mind voice rich and deep and carrying the sense of his power...he's not *trying* to intimidate the alien visitor, but he might have that effect anyway.

Zenith pulls out his phone again to answer the comm, and responds, "New arrival. Slightly better pilot than I was when I arrived. Not sure yet if friendly or hostile yet." He, of course, is clueless about the telepathic conversation happening.

Since no alerts other than crashing craft are showing up on his phone and Zenith tells him what he knows, Axiom relaxes a little. Not entirely but he's not as on edge. "Hopefully it's n-n-not a hostile one," he sighs. "I'm here if you n-need back up," he says over the comm.

Alphaa replies telepathically, "I designed it to function in space mostly, but it is capable of underwater work. Where would you like me to take it? By the way, who are those persons in the golden underwater vehicle? It appears they are heading this way at a fair clip, are they some kind of local authorities?"

Since Amy is looking, she realizes there are a group of small water craft converging in the area, they appear to be speedboats of some kind (This should also be visible to Axiom, and they do not feel very friendly). Zenith can hear the motors of the speedboats, but unless he changes where he is looking he is currently focused on Alphaa's ship. J'onn can hear the speedboats and, if he looks, can see the submarine, it appears to be the ship of Commander Kraken, a notorious pirate who sometimes works with Hydra.

Amy Kingsley takes out her phone, has it held up, turned sideways to take some pictures. She would assume it's some sort of rescue craft for whatever crashed. She hopes they're getting there in time.

A quick reach out of his mind gives J'onn a clear identification of the intruders. << No. They are not. They are, I am afraid, local criminals. Prepare to defend yourself and your vessel, but try to minimize lethal force - the locals frown on it. >> J'onn then turns his attention to the other supers in the area. Axiom, Zenith and Amy will all receive the next message. << The alien is friendly. The incoming speed boats and submarine are Hydra. >> That should be all they will need. It's all they get before he angles out above the water towards that submarine.

Zenith looks up quickly at the sound, simply looking curious until J'onn sends the message that they're Hydra. He frowns immediately and flies forward. "Turn back now," he calls out, putting his Kryptonian lungs to use to be heard.

The message from J'onn makes Axiom scowl. "Really not good," he says, looking around quickly. He doesn't have any way to get out on the water on his own but he does have a method. "Brace yourself, Zenith," he sends over the YAL comm. First he boosts the Kryptonian, increasing his abilities. And then he mimics him, his costume shifting into a fusion of his own and Zenith's in a flash of light. With mimicked Kryptonian powers, he flies out to join his teammate.

Alphaa starts seeking out the hostile minds in range and preventing them from recognizing his ship as a target, or registering any input that would identify his ship as a target. He is a bit confused, but if local customs say not to kill these criminals he will follow them. He realizes, however, that there are a handful of minds that are somehow shielded. He is fairly certain that is not good news.

Amy hears J'onn in her head, and is probably familiar with HYDRA. Zenith feels the burst of power from Axiom, and is momentarily distracted...however he sees someone in the nearest boat looking at a tablet computer and hears himself being identified over a radio, "Zenith, Kryptonian child, set laser blasters to red sun frequencies."

J'onn can feel that at least one person on the ship and some of those on the speedboats is protected by what seems to be a mechanical mind shield. Axiom Flies up to join Zenith, he is not as experienced with his super senses and does not hear the Hydra broadcast.

Amy Kingsley shakes her head. All this is pretty weird to her. She stops taking pictures, and just steps back now, Biting her lip and trying to decide if it's even a good idea to be here now.

J'onn Jonzz changes course abruptly and flies into the harbor. Under the water - able to hold his breath for a substantial amount of time - he moves to simply press his hands against the nose of the HYDRA sub. Should slow it down, at the very least. And probably piss off the pirates. Zenith has partially disconnected.

Zenith, hearing the response from Hydra to change set their guns, looks down at the water and blasts his heat-vision in a line in front of the speedboats to try to kick up a lot of blinding steam. "Stick to X-ray," he suggests to Axiom. Then he's flying forward.

Axiom may not be a kryptonian himself but he's not inexperienced with their abilities. He's mimicked them several times in the past as well as similar powersets. He glances over as J'onn dives into the water and then looks to Zenith. "X-ray what?" he asks, not sure what his teammate wants him to X-ray. He takes a guess though, using the X-ray vision to see through the steam as he flies down and tries to knock some of the HYDRA goons into the water.

Commander Kraken does not take long to figure out his sub is stopped and start checking for why, he spots J'onn on one of his cameras and says, "The Martian, fire the magnesium rounds. Magnesium burns under water, fire weakens Martians." The torpedo room starts preparing the special rounds.

Alphaa decides to refocus his powers, sticking with his Telapathy, but switching to Telekinesis.

Amy sees a massive plume of steam cover the harbor, she can not see what is going on within.

Zenith and Axiom can see well enough through the steam, which fortunately the HYDRA agents can not. Axiom easily flips over a boat with his duplicated strength.

Amy Kingsley goes wide-eyed when she sees steam escaping from the water. She posts a picture of THAT on the Internet, along with a note onto Twitter "OMG I hope it's not going to explode" Now she definitely backs up, staying where she can see but not standing close to the water's edge or anything like that.

<< Zenith. Trade off! >> Meaning J'onn wants, for whatever reason, to switch places with the Kryptonian. Yeah. He can't hear Kraken, but he can hear the crew, and he's not taking his mind off them right now. If they switch quickly, then hopefully they'll waste the magnesium rounds on a Kryptonian...

Zenith laughs a bit, "See through the steam." And he starts to fly down to attack the speedboats with Axiom, but at J'onn's mental call he changes course quickly and dives under the water. He takes a place near J'onn, and grabs hold of the sub so J'onn can head up to the speedboats.

"That m-makes sense," Axiom calls back, checking to make sure the HYDRA guys can actually swim before he moves on. He dives under the water as well but rather than going to team up with J'onn, Axiom tries to come up under another boat to flip it too.

Amy gets several nice picture of the steam spreading over the water, it appears to be starting to thin out. Zenith trades places with J'onn quickly, getting J'onn away from the sub before the water around it starts boiling from the burning masgnesium flares. Axiom has no trouble flipping over another boat. Alphaa starts reading the minds on the subs and using telekinesis to keep various controls from responding.

Amy Kingsley is just posting on the Internet what she sees at this point. Taking pictures of the boats from a distance, which would mean she can only see that they're boats, without knowing who or w hat is on them. Talking about the steam, which may or may not be smoke from this distance. And if anything changes that gets posted.

And the emerging Martian? He uses his force breath to try and make the lives of the speedboat pilots very difficult indeed. There. Have a nice...wave.

Zenith, of course, is completely unharmed by the flares going off around him. But, as he holds the submarine in place, he turns to his heat-vision once again, focusing it on a tiny point of the submarine's hull.

It's a doubly bad day for those guys in the speedboats. After flipping a second boat, Axiom tries to land on a third. If he's able, he'll try to toss the HYDRA guys overboard to take over the boat himself. He's got a plan. It may not be a good one...but he's got one.

Amy can see that the steam is still getting thinner, and sees a wave appear in front of a flying figure rushing towards the boats. J'onn creates a moderately sized wave and sends it off towards a group of speedboats. The Water boils around the place Zenith is heating up, but is keeping the metal from melting so far.

Alphaa continues to mess up the sub controls, this is getting difficult as the HYDRA agents become increasinly desperate and start applying more force. Commander Kraken is getting mad and yelling his orders louder, but with the contols frozen it is not working.

Axiom tries to sneak up on the next boat, but with the fog lifting they saw what happened to the last one and are firing shots into the water with their lasers. The bad news is, the lasers are tuned to a frequency that hurts Kryptonians. The good news is, the water renders the Lasers VERY short range.

Amy Kingsley doesn't have any sort of super vision or anything, and well, she's just using a phone camera here, so the details of waht's happening here are lost to her. Especially with the steam going on. She tries to watch though, mostly in case anything blows up.

Kraken is yelling at his poor crewmen. J'onn continues to focus on the speed boats. Swamping them worked well, so he aims it again at the ones trying to shoot the Kryptonian mimic in the water.

Zenith gives up his plan on melting through the submarine hull pretty quickly, once he realizes it isn't working fast enough. Instead, he just focuses on keeping the submarine away from the space ship until the others can come back to help.

Since he's being shot at, Axiom's plan is interrupted. He yelps as a laser whizzes by, switching up to dodging and weaving around blasts at super speed. He's letting J'onn handle the attacking now.

There are two problems Alphaa has with holding the controls. First, because he is using telepathy to keep from being a target and to read where to aim his telekinesis, he can only hold against things the person does intentionally. Second, his telekinetic strength is limited, if enough people push enough things, eventually something will move. Whatever reason, the sub suddenly switches to full reverse, with Zenith's push sending it backwards even faster. It seems likely the current course will cause it to hit a pier where several people are taking pictures of the fight.

The Speedboats seem to be retreating, the ones that are left anyway.

Amy Kingsley is back a good distance from the water, so something underwater probably would miss her notice, especially since her eyes are towards where that plume of steam was, and the occasional flash of... well something, she's not sure what, and laser beams probably aren't the first thought to cross her mind... is visible.

As the speedboats flee, J'onn turns his attention back to the sub and aims his force vision at it. He's not seeming at all alarmed by the fight. He's aiming, of course, for the propeller. Trying to disable it before it hits the pier. << Zenith! >> Rescue duty, Kryptonian?

Zenith blinks as the submarine suddenly speeds away from him, caught off guard for a split second. But then he launches up, flying over the submarine. There's no way he can evacuate the pier fast enough, even as fast as he can go, so he dives down and places himself between the pier and the submarine, trying to catch the sub and stop it, even if it means trying to grab hold of the propeller.

Axiom winces as a few stray blasts wing him but he pushes past the hurt. He'll heal soon enough under the yellow sun. With the boats fleeing, he turns to look for more enemies to make sure they're not going to be ambushed. His eyes go wide when he sees the sub and Zenith. Tapping into copied speed, he zips after his friend to lend a hand.

With the main heroes busy stopping the sub, the remaining speedboats make their escape, with only Amy and her Camera recording where they head off to. The Martian Manhunter, Zenith, and Axiom manage to stop the sub before it strikes the pier, getting a round of applause from those on it. Commander Kraken has left the sub in a lead based paint coated micro sub, hoping to escape while the heroes are busy. Alphaa, his Telekinesis no longer needed, switches his powers back to psychic sensing and telepathy.

Amy Kingsley takes a few pictures when things heat up, but at her distance, it's not always entirely clear when things are heating up. Real life, unlike a movie, doesn't have close-ups for the spectators.

Alphaa can tell the powerful mind is still there, although J'onn's more interested in the submarine. He's going to drop down to finish disabling the engines so it can't escape, not realizing Kraken has already bailed.

Zenith would probably sigh in relief, if he wasn't underwater, as Axiom comes and helps him stop the sub. He, too, stays underwater until the propellers are disabled, and then flies back up into the air.

Axiom continues to help out, breaking parts of the sub to help keep it from getting away. When they finish off the job, Axiom floats into the air as well. "Woo," he shakes some of the water from his head. "Is everyone okay?"

The sub is stopped and disabled, there are a number of HYDRA agents aboard and floating in the bay to be rounded up. There is also a space pod to be moved to someplace less conspicuous. HYDRA, at least, did not have a good day. Oh, and there are some men in black cars arriving, they appear to be associated with the Department of Extranormal Operations and want to talk to the pilot of the crashed vessel.

Amy Kingsley gets approached by a reporter as things are getting attention, both local and national. She laughs, and shakes her head at how insistent these reporters get about getting information. She's not really... wanting to blab stuff on camera or anything like that. She doesn't want that kind of attention, but she does tell them where they can download the photos that she posted online, while asking questions about what exactly they know about what was happening, since she couldn't see even half of it.

Zenith nods to Axiom and says, "I'm fine. That was a close one," he says, though smiling. Then, glancing at the cars arriving in the distance, says, "I'll see you at the Terminal." He waves and flies off quickly.

"H-hey, wait up!" Axiom chimes, following after Zenith. He's pretty sure J'onn has things under control and that government types will pay more attention to the JLA guy than him even if he is a pretty popular hero these days and a member of a definitely popular team.