2013.05.02 - Future Imperfect

High up in the air above the ocean, southeast of New York Harbor, a spacecraft appears with a thunderous crash of displaced air and a flash of light. The craft, which would make a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado have tailfin envy, is obviously trying to slow but at its speed it is racing towards Metropolis and to anyone with any knowledge of such things it appears to be out of control.

In the bridge of the ship, not allowing himself to be frozen by the shock of the sudden appearance of a planet in his path, Kent struggles to keep control of the ship. "Breaking engines to full," he yells at the onboard computer as he strains at the manual control's yoke with his right hand, trying to keep the ship from entering the spiral its sudden emersion into an atmosphere is threatening to toss it into, while he slams his left hand onto the broadcast button -- hoping someone will be able to pick up his signal -- and yells into the radio: "Mayday, mayday. This is the SS Chiron requesting assistance!"

''** Kent and the Chiron computer are speaking Interlac. **''

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania:

A large group stands around a hole in the ground. Reporters, police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians all gather around and look nervously towards the hole. A pair of civilians are crying; the female with her hands clasped together in prayer while the larger man is embracing the former.

Underneath there's a slight shifting sound from under the ground before a larger rumble of earth giving way shows this is no ordinary hole. After a moment of silence, the ground comes loose and a hunched, dirty looking Superman lifts up and out of the ground like a slow motion geyser.

By the time he lands and unfolds his body, it's clear why he has been here in the first place: the Man of Steel is carrying a toddler, no more than 2 years old. "Mommy!" the little girl says as she rushes across the grass and into her mother's arms. "That was fun!"

Superman shakes his head towards the emergency personnel, "I think she's going to be alright, folks. She was caught, but not hurt. She should be fine." Superman cuts short the Police Chief's thanks as he hears something to the East, "I'm sorry, I need to leave."

Without waiting another moment, he bursts from the ground faster than a rocket, burrowing through the air as he attempts to stop the falling UFO coming to bear upon Metropolis.

"Ugh. I'm not sure why I thought it'd be any easier in Metropolis than it is in Brooklyn. That audition was just as tedious," gripes Booster Gold; although he is in his shiny superhero costume, he has a less shiny and rather battered backpack slung over one shoulder. He is flying over Metropolis, with his small golden football-shaped companion keeping pace alongside. "At this rate, I might not be able to pay my rent next month. Bogus."

Skeets is used to putting up with the complaints of his boss, so is only listening with half a sensory apparatus. As usual, he is scanning the area and monitoring local frequencies. In a polite and conversational tone, he says, "Sir, it might interest you to know that I'm picking up a distress signal--"

"Wh... awesome! I mean, not awesome that someone's in distress, you know what I mean." Booster looks around, then hurriedly hangs his backpack from a streetlamp, as he sets his own on-suit sensors towards scanning for the signal. "Skeets! Record this in case I save the day." Booster starts to fly off, then turns and points a finger at the robot. "This time, edit it if I mess up, I do NOT want you putting that on the YouTube again, I hope that's clear."

And /that's/ a broadcast, all right. Familiar voice, Interlac, mayday: Cos immediately drops what he's doing and takes off, flying with magnetism to pour on the speed, and transmits over the Legion's flight ring comm-- "All available Legionnaires report! We've got a ship in the lower atmosphere, trajectory /middle of sprocking Metropolis/!" Of course, his broadcast's in Interlac, too. And then there's a streak of black and purple in the sky, rocketing toward the ... the ... wow, those are some /awesome fins/. No: focus. Up. Up up up.

"On it, Cos!" Garth responds, almost at once. "It's -hard- to miss somethin' that sprockin' big! What kind of idiot joyrider would be flying a rocket like that without -retro boosters-?"

The lightning-powered Legionnaire streaks upwards, a blur of blue and white and yellow, joining Cosmic Boy in intercept.

On the bridge of the ship, the Chiron responds to Kent's command, with static bursts interrupting it occasionally. "Break*sskkk* Engine*ssssh* com*sskkk* online at fifty percent efficiency." even as, outside, small flares of energy burst to life. Water from flash frozen water vapor suddenly melts and drops away from the hull of the ship.

Now that voice surprises Kent Shakespeare because last he knew Rokk Krinn was on his home world and -- in the moments he has had to observe it -- he has recognized the coastline ahead of him. He thumbs his own flight ring to activate its pickup.

"Cos?" he starts to ask before a shudder shakes thought he ship as a section of the hull implodes due of the lack of preparation for atmospheric pressure. His attention shifts back to the panels before him and he calls out -- picked up by Flight Ring and the ship's comm systems -- "Hull integrety is breached! I can't stop this thing from coming down!" even as the ship's klaxon begins blaring in the background.

Superman breaks the sound barrier and then some as he makes his way towards the horizon. His hands are made into the shapes of spears in order to cut down on wind resistance; his hair is flattened against his head from the force of the air. He flies towards the target as fast as he's capable. "Legion, this is Superman, I'm on my way, too."

By the time everything comes into view around the curvature of the planet, Superman's eyes go wide with momentary fear? He's not going to make it, is he?

Putting that much more effort into his speed, Superman is determined to prevent what would be a massive catastrophe, no doubt the size of multiple nuclear weapons. The shockwaves alone could kill masses of people, let alone the destruction of massive amounts of buildings and other property.

Luckily, he's able to reach the craft. Unfortunately, there's little time to stop the full brunt of the falling heavenly body. His hands push back against the craft, and the force of his hands pushes part of the craft back into itself, crumpling upon the impact. Though the craft slows, it doesn't look as though he can bring it to a stop before impact.

Booster Gold is rocketing upwards, concentrating on this task. He falters only slightly when he realizes that he's picking up another broadcast, in a language that he has not heard since travelling to this era. "Um..." Glancing around, wide-eyed behind his goggles, he brings his ring-bearing hand closer to his face and cautiously says, in Interlac, "...hello. Uh, we... we can chat later. And I'm also responding to the incoming disaster. So." Yeah. That's all kind of weird, but now it's time to focus on whether or not this ship can be stopped. A moment later, his gloved hands slap onto the fore of the craft as well, even though at the back of his mind he is already doubting he can help--if Superman couldn't stop the ship on a dime, what could he possibly do?

"Looks like he's got his retros on, but he wasn't expecting atmosphere-- coming in too fast--" Rokk's voice comes over the comm, Garthwards, and then there's Superman's voice, and that streak of primary colors, and the plan solidifies. "Kent! Shut off your thrusters, you're gonna shake your ship apart! Try and steer west--" Because Jersey won't notice? "--Lightning Lad, get anything you see falling off it!"

Close enough to make an impact, finally, Cos veers off to pace the ship and *PULLS*. He's not trying to stop it so much as help slow it down, maybe get its nose up. Magnetism! It works great on metal! How much of the ship is actually metal? And then there's the heat, which *never* helps magnetics. And then there's a stranger on the line, so to speak, and the Legion Leader's too busy already squinting from the ship's reentry heat to squint at the unfamiliarity. "Fine! Whoever you are, whatever you can do, do it!"

"Right, Cos!"

Executing debris-blasting maneuvers (not to be confused with saving escaping bodies, because they were -very- different - the mishap with Quislet taught him -something-), Garth ignores the unfamiliar Legionnaires, simply because he hadn't the time to sort it out and Rokk would take care of it, although he -does- blink. "Kent?" Didn't Rokk just get through telling him -not- to give away secret identities, when SUPERMAN was RIGHT THERE?

Oh whatever, think later, just get in there, and...

"Sprock it's -hot-!" Garth exclaims, as he adjusts his lightning into a welder's lightning bolt, adjusting it to try and -maintain- structural integrity long enough to give the others a chance to catch a -whole- rocket instead of having it fall apart.

Breaking engines, Kryptonian might, augmented strength from future technology, magnetic force manipulation... all are making a dent in the velocity of the falling spacecraft, as it is subsonic well before entering New York City airspace. Still in doubt is the ship's actual touch down site -- Will it be Gotham? the Hudson River? Metropolis proper?

Hearing an order from a familiar voice of authority, Kent Shakespeare yells out to the ship computer "Disengage breaking engines!" only to hear as a response of "Unable to comply... total... *ssssh*i*ssssh*tem... failure... emmmmmm-ennn-en," from the computer as its voice fails.

Shakespeare yells "Releasing controls, I have to abort the engines manually, Cos!" into the air as he lets go of the yoke and finds the manual abort switch.

Outside the glow of the engines fade.

Superman's hands burrow deeper into the ship's hull as he pushes against it in hopes of preventing the crash. He and the other heroes look rather ridiculous at initial site: small ant-looking creatures trying to push against the massive ship carrying an unbelievable force. As best he can, Superman attempts to help Rokk rally the troops by yelling, "Keep pushing! Don't give up!"

"It's just too big, the momentum--" Booster stops talking and his eyes get wide for a moment. "Hey! Superman! I can give this thing a more uniform integrity, you might have a better time manipulating this thing..." He is still speaking in Interlac, either assuming the Man of Steel will understand, or simply too stressed out to realize he is not using 21st Century English. Taking in a deep breath, he grits his teeth. The faint glow that surrounds him seems to wink out, and his hair starts to whip around wildly in the generated wind. His forcefield reforms around the plummeting ship, thin, form-fitting, and sparkling golden. Booster still has his hands planted against the ship's hull, although he is no longer pushing against it; he is concentrating on keeping the forcefield intact.

For once it's *Cos* biting back a 'that's what she said' at Booster's comment-- but he's trying hard not to grin for a second while he's upping the forces being brought to bear on the ship. "Grife, who's ever heard of a SPACESHIP made of-- of stupid *$#@$@ing high-tech !*@(#ing nonferrous graphite composites-- get out here, Kent, help push! This is TwenCen! That's SUPERMAN! And that's *NEW YORK* under you! Oh wow, is that a forcefield?-- NEVER MIND, we're not gonna be able to stop the impact, Superman! Leave us the ship, get on evac!"

AGAIN with the Kent! "Grife... _KAL_, just get in there already before Cos says anything else!" Garth exclaims, as he tries to figure out what lightning would do against a heated up rocket that -wasn't- ferrous...

"Sprockin' hell..." Garth dives down lower, looking about. Firing lightning into a cloud formation... it might not be the best thing he could do, but if he could just set up some sort of -lightning- cloud, he might actually stimulate the electric field in there and charge up the cloud into something -more useful... like, oh, a bloody thundercloud. MAKE IT RAIN, DAMMIT. ... well, if that -actually- worked. Grife, if only he'd studied SCIENCE better...

In Metropolis, the common man has become aware of the craft hurtling towards the city. Some panic starts to set in but the familiar red and blue blur was seen and once the ship is close enough to see Superman and others virtually plastered to the front of it this settles to a deep concern. Air traffic is cleared from the midtown area as the operators in the Midtown Skyport frantically divert helicopters and other aircraft from the area while the larger airports have planes in a holding pattern. Ground traffic, both vehicles and pedestrians, grinds to a halt as people crane their necks to watch. It is now clear to anyone able to calculate it fast enough that the ships trajectory is going to intersect with the city somewhere between Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen.

Inside the bridge of the ship, what with his front row seat for the event, Kent Shakespeare realizes this but since he doesn't know how to describe this he doesn't bother. He starts to move and then pauses for only a moment. He doesn't take time to comment on the information he is absorbing, instead he calls out, "It looks like we'll have damage, I have something to do before I bail!"

Kent runs from the bridge to the next compartment where he hopes to find the controls for the installation kit still functional. Luck is with him as he quickly gives it instructions to begin a build and repair routine after any detected impact. He then dives into the last remaining escape pod and braces for it to eject as he hits the emergency launch button only to have it shutter against Booster's force field and remain in place. Realizing he has no other choice now he races though the ship's corridors, dodging little bits falling in his way to the section with the hull breech. Reaching his destination he finds a force field that he tries to batter down with his fists only to find it opens momentarily, allowing him to fly out of the breech.

Below, in High Line Park, people who have come to the realization that they are in the path of the crashing ship begin to panic again as it is looking more and more like Superman actually can't stop this tragedy from happening. Queue screaming. Running and screaming. And -- naturally -- the obligatory "My baby!" from a woman struggling with a baby carrier.

Booster Gold has his eyes shut, as he concentrates on keeping his forcefield intact; he has certainly never pushed it to this degree before, and is trying not to think about how it might fail at any moment, because then it WOULD fail. His focus barely wavers as he feels a tapping by something alive against the interior of the form-fitting shell of force, and he allows egress for Kent to slip free. It then starts to dawn on Booster that if he is between the ship and the ground when it hits, without the forcefield around -him- he is going to get fatally squashed. His eyes pop open, then shut again momentarily as he contemplates the words "splash radius".

The heads up display granted by his goggles calculate the probable crash site. Then, Booster flies towards the ground, the forcefield around the ship winks out at the last possible moment, and he swoops towards those people who are not quick enough to get away. He can't gather them up, but with the last of his strength as well as the remains of energy in his power cells, he throws a force field up to shield some stragglers.

"It's too late!" exclaims Superman as he responds to Cos' plea to move from protection to evacuation. Just before impact, those close enough will see Superman's eyes close in anguish as he puts more and more weight against the force-field in a desperate attempt to cause as little impact as possible. Preventing the collision is impossible.

*KABOOOOOOOOOOM!*

The 7 Eleven that used to sit on the edge of the park in High Line is completely obliterated once the UFO slams into the Earth, and the millions of shards of debris are flattened like paper as the ship continues on towards the park itself.

Eventually it comes to a skidding stop. Despite the mayhem, it is momentarily quiet.

Superman is nowhere to be seen; presumably, underneath the ship itself.

Okay, that's more cussing than Cos is generally apt to indulge in, but at least none of it's in English. And then he veers off, himself. "Damage control and evac--" he calls over the comms just in case there's anyone who didn't put that together themselves. He rockets down to pick up some abandoned cars and flatten them into really bumpy discs, picking up people where he can, and otherwise gathering the stragglers to get them out of direct impact range and into where he can at least shield them from debris. There's not a /lot/ he can do, but he does what he can.

At least he did what he could up there, and now Garth is swooping down as quickly as possible...

And then there was a blue-white-yellow streak, a scoop, and Garth is holding a baby and the mother, and flying off to a safepoint.

Having been left behind after evacuating the ship, Kent Shakespeare flies down to where his fellow Legionnaires have brought those they rescued. He begins checking the civilians for injuries, bringing out his medscanner to supplement visual observation and polite inquiries.

After the impact, the last of Booster Gold's energy is sapped. First his forcefield drops, and then he does.

"Sir! Are you all right?" Skeets zips over to hover by his boss, radiating concern as much as a golden egg-shaped robot can do so.

"My... hair." Booster remarks weakly. "How's... my hair?" And then he passes out, snoring quietly.