2013.10.13 - Caela

Pyre arrived in local space around the vicinity of Earth in a 'shuttle' that was more like a warship in appearance and dimensions and capabilities. A mile-long vessel with manufacturing, living quarters, an extensive bridge, research and development, plasma baths, stasis fields able to hold a thousand people easily and convey them across the known universe in their sleep, and more. This is not a 'shuttle' by most civilization's definitions, but it is by Pyre's people. That says something about the probable scale of their bigger vessels. The vessel had been buried in the ocean floor by Supergirl originally, after the necessary parts to set up a room for Pyre in Titans Tower were stripped from the 'shuttle'. Heat shielding and heaters that could keep her room 300 degrees Farenheit (almost 150 degrees Celsius). Nothing major.

But there was major stuff on the shuttle itself. Stuff that shouldn't fall into the wrong hands. And also something else -- or rather someONE else -- who Pyre has left asleep because she was finally enjoying some FREEDOM in her life for the first time in her entire... Uhh... Life! That someone was very much in control of what Pyre did or did not do whenever she was around. Pyre had never gotten to make choices for herself or pick her own path or learn from her own mistakes. Aside from a few rare -- and disasterous -- situations, she hadn't been 'on her own' even once in her 17+ years of existence.

And now the woman whom Pyre had come to see as the very representation of all the control and restrictions on her that came with being a princess was needed, because that same woman's own people were coming to Earth, and they had both the desire and the means to make Pyre dead. And only another of their people had a feasible chance of providing effective counter measures at this point.

Alien assassins whose entire lives were more rigidly controlled and narrowly focused than anything Pyre had been subjected to? An entire species whose only purpose was to kill members of other species for payment? These were professionals. Masters. Every last one of them. Pyre's safety or her freedom?

She had not been able to express this feeling adequately thanks to her mangled English -- a result of her translator implant getting fried -- but they were not necessarily that much different from various people right here on Earth. Maybe you can be 'protected' by some greater force or organization and never choose anything for yourself. But is that kind of life worth living?

Pyre had thought about that. And if it was just her, she'd have chosen freedom. But now her friends and team mates were involved. And so, after several days spent both digging up the shuttle and dealing with the whole 'evil Kara' situation, Pyre is finally ready awaken her protector and submit herself once more to being 'protected'.

The vessel is huge. Ever see Star Wars? A Star Destroyer is 5,200 feet long. Pyre's ship is 5,280 feet long, about as tall, and has such an aggressive forward-sweep to its design, with flame-like edges, and so on, that it would be easy to mistake it for a military craft.

Right now, it is flying over the water outside New York Harbor. The authorities have already been made aware there's nothing to worry about, but there's probably people amongst them worrying anyway. A lot of people are out on the harbor or other places in the city taking pictures and gawking like tourists.

Princess Pyre is inside already, getting the systems online as much as she can. The ship took a lot of damage, and the red-headed, elven-eared alien in her body-covering, padded thermal suit and her hamster-face scarf and ear muffs is having to rely on her arm-mounted super-computer to walk her through getting just enough stuff going to safely disable stasis for the only 'good' Assanti known to exist.

"Is suck," Pyre grouses. "Yes, your highness. Next, please rebalance the atomic reconfiguration engine," Karkel replies.

Kara Zor-El had reacted negatively to the initial finding of a woman who was, more or less, a prisoner on board the ship. But given the helluva week she's had so far, what with fighting herself (and losing both times) and dealing with the fallout caused by a doppleganger wearing both her crest and her face working so hard to destroy what she'd fought so hard to protect. She'd been more withdrawn from the group lately, more reserved, standoffish, even. Almost as if the once overly-polite and friendly alien had closed off part of herself from her team.

And it was done out of fear, of what she suspected really happened when that black kryptonite beam had hit her.

So she'd thrown herself gladly into the task of digging out and lifting the giant fire-themed vessel out of the water and making sure it stayed in the air long enough to be able to hold its own altitude. By the end of it she had been tired and more than a little strained, but her Kryptonian DNA ensured that she recovered quickly.

The blonde had come aboard at the same time as Pyre, and offered her assistance in starting up the vessel. After all, as far as she knew, she was the only other member of their group familiar with advanced alien technology, even if that technology was separated by light-years from Pyre's people. And was more crystal-based than most. She just presses what she's told and zips up and down the corridors doing whatever startup tasks need doing, using her superspeed to go between the bridge, engineering, life support, and whatever else needed handling.

She doesn't really talk, merely going through the motions like a blonde, wet-haired, automaton, her cape dripping all over the floor.

Kaydin sighs as he watches the ship. He had found where the ground of the ocean was disturbed covering something but he didnt investigate because he was busy. Now, the Atlantean was with the others, having come with them and was on board a vessel not of this world, perhaps one of the few atlanteans to even be on a intergalactic vessel. And the atlantean's response?

"IT is still much too hot." He says uncomfortably.

Seems if Pyre's people ever met Kaydins, there would be disagreements. The Atlantean wore his breath mask and simply seemed to sweat more then the normal person, even with the above room temperature warmth. He also breathes a bit heavily. "How a race can survive in such heat is something only Poseidon knows." He says as he paces which probably makes him hotter.

Wonder Girl is kind of tired. It's been a rough week for a lot of the Titans. First assassins, then Kara being split in two, then the whole... Conclusion... Thing. She has basically been taking as much of a break from super heroics as she is able to spend time with her girlfriend, but sadly that break mostly seems to be comprised of an hour or two at most. It seems like something comes up EVERY TIME she starts to relax. She has SCHOOL to attend to also, you know! But right now, the blonde psuedo-olympian is flying around OUTSIDE the ship with her magic sandals she's no longer sure she even needs. The cold air in her face is helping her stay awake.

She's supposed to be on the look-out for trouble-makers or LexCorp or whoever else who might be trying to do something about the giant alien ship, but she's just so tired. "Any luck in there, guys?" Cassie asks over her communicator.

Oh, Heather was just as angry about the woman being held in stasis against her will as Supergirl was. One might never know if she was -exactly- as upset about it, but it obviouslty got to her. She had spent the last few days... well, after healing from becoming the literal melting pot of Evil Supergirl's heat vision... trying to figure out the best way to address this prisoner so that she didn't go on a killing spree. She's no technician though and she knows that. Once aboard the ship then, she stayed out of the way and asked to be relegated to heavy lifting jobs, manula labor, things that didn't require technical skills that she did not possess. Either way, she's on board the craft and trying to show some energy for it. But for probably the seventh time in the last hour, she asks over the comm, "So... when are we waking this woman up again?"

Supergirl zipping around is MOSTLY unnecessary (though there are some things that actually need to be done thay would take more time for Pyre to do them, but that's mostly manual repair related things). Pyre's people make heavy use of two particular hands-off technologies. One is voice-based, the other is 'intent' based. Not quite telepathy, but rather a reading of where one's 'will' and 'focus' are directed. It allows responses to different situations without it having to be specifically stated. If, for instance, one wishes to communicate with someone in a different part of the ship without actually GOING there, the ship would detect that 'intent to communicate' and prepare a communication link without one specifically having to be ordered to be set up. It has various other uses, mostly subtle convenience, but on a military vessel it allows unmatched efficiency for a well-trained crew, allowing them to battle without having to touch anything or order anything by directing their intent to act -- offensively or defensively -- in various ways.

It's one of the reasons why the Fire-People are such a dominant force in the Living Nature galaxy. It's also a system that is completely offline presently. Buttons are, as a matter of course, avoided as much as feasible in most Fire Nature buildings, vessels, and so on. So when she has to rely on voice commands and the sparse array of manual controls, Pyre is simply at a loss in most instances involving button-pushing. Working with her hands is really unfamiliar. Since monkeys and whatever Kryptonians are descended from are all about pushing buttons, she gladly leaves that part (and the parts with rearranging cables and such) up to Supergirl.

"Is soak head," Pyre responds to Kaydin's complaining. It's not clear if that is meant to mean, 'shut up', 'go away', or if she realls means 'go put your head in a bucket of water'. But she's too distracted to respond further beyond pointing out, "Fire-People not has hurt from fire or heat. Would be so-so stupid for fire to be 'the hurting' from fire!" When Wonder Girl talks over the radio, Pyre replies somewhat tersely, "We has signal!" Then she returns to issuing voice commands. "Main screen turn on!" The bridge suddenly illuminates with the back-up display for when the 3-D holographic displays aren't working. A wrap-around screen that spans the entire bridge (the bridge looking like one could play football in it if there weren't all the furniture and controls and such in the way.

Pyre answers Heather even more snappily than she did Cassie, throwing her arms up dramatically. "Noh-meh-daa! Pyre no can has work in such condition! Pressure not good for Pyre's brain!" The screens finish booting up and are displaying Heather from numerous angles in various picture-in-picture windows all over the entire bridge. Pyre is startled. "It's you!" she announces, rather unnecessarily. Then various text starts scrolling, detailing the reason why Heather is showing up, and Supergirl and Kaydin also appear as the screen compresses the Heather windows to one-third and assigns a third to the other two. "...Hoh. Ship is think you intrusioner." Karkel speaks up with, "I can assign them to the crew database if you desire, your higness." Pyre nods, and says, "Is do." Then she orders away all the other screens and various other information starts showing up, including a display of the stasis chamber bay where it looks as though more than one of the tube-like contraptions is occupied. But only one has any actual detail to her. And she is very clearly a her. The screen starts flickering slightly. "Pyre must has do quick like lightning-rabbit! Supergirl, is go to place what appear in front of your face." Ever since the whole... Evil Kara thing, Pyre has not referred to Kara by anything other than Supergirl and does not act in the somewhat shy and emotionally open fashion around Kara that was she was starting to previously. She is right back to 'normal'. Which is, though Kara might not realize, how Pyre hides her insecurities. This whole bossy spoiled princess thing is how people expect her to act, so she does. Exposing her real feelings leaves her too open to getting hurt. And as that's exactly what happened to her, she is now back to hiding in her snobby, short-tempered shell. Kind of. She still hasn't resorted to belittling others for their species or the temperature of the planet or similar.

But she has stopped smiling.

A holographic display appears in front of Supergirl wherever she is that leads the way, the same as when the Kryptonian first entered the shuttle months ago. Pyre also floats into the air and starts heading the same direction, but she is a bit more distant and can't fly as fast. "Heather Healerface, Kaydin Fishlobster, is with me. Wonder Girl... Um... Girl, you is see any danger yet, tah?" Both Supergirl and the others should eventually arrive in a darkened area with many many many cylindrical tubes at a half-vertical angle. Only one of them has any lights. It is the one with a blue-haired woman lying within, arms at her sides, in basically no clothes at all. There's a reason she wanted the super-fast one to go first. Over the communicator, she says, "We is wake up Caela now. Supergirl, when arrive, there is control thing. No open for voice. Is seventeen red buttons. Press button what is shade of red not like fire but like inbetween shade of ruby and blood. No press fire-red button or tube explode. Pyre is think third from left on top row."

There's also what appears to be a plastic bag or some similar material hanging on a hook from the side of the tube. It has a bunch of cloth in it that is probably Caela's garments.

---

Meanwhile, there's a man in the crowd -- one among many -- in a brown long-coat, slacks, and a warm black turtle neck sweater shirt. He is tall, with brown hair, brown eyes, and dark-toned skin. Standing next to him is a woman of similar description, though with blonde highlights and a paler skin tone. She is also much shorter. This pair doesn't stand out in the crowd that is gathered to look at the ship.

But the man is looking up at the flying blonde girl rather than the ship itself, and the woman is following the movements of those inside the ship with her eyes as though she can see right through the hull. She bends her wrists outwards a bit, and a pair of black metal rods slide out of her sleeves and into the palms of her hands.

The woman simply jumps.

She jumps from the sidewalk back on the shore all the way to the 'shuttle', in one go. She does it when Wonder Girl is not looking, though it's definitely possible she might be noticed anyway. When she lands, her feet don't strike the ship so much as meld with it. In a matter of moments, she sinks into the hull, flesh and clothing merging with metal, and seemingly absorbing her.

The tall black man unleashes an invisible assault on Wonder Girl whether she notices the woman or not. A psychic stunning attack that attempts simply to paralyze her completely and utterly -- and temporarily. Long enough to keep her from warning the others, if successful.

Caela needs to be woken up to help the Titans defend against the Assanti.

But the Assanti are already here.

<> Supergirl speaks monotonously into her commlink, not showing much emotion as she goes about her designated tasks, really only speaking when directly spoken to. "...I'm on my way." The blonde-haired alien responds to the red-haired alien as a picture appears in front of her. The zips through the corridors at full speed before appearing in the place she was told to go seemingly out of thin air.

"Okay." She replies to the command to press the red, but not too red or not red enough button. So she zooms in at the microscopic level to try and differentiate colors, then gives that up and uses her x-ray vision to just peer THROUGH the console and find which button would be connected to the right wire that leads to the right switch that doesn't look like it's hooked up to some kind of explosive. When she thinks she's found it... she presses the button, then starts to walk over towards the bag of apparent clothing to retrieve it.

But if that thing starts to explode, well, she'll use super-speed and artic breath to try to freeze the cryotube, if that even makes any sense. As the glass retracts and leaves a blue-colored woman in her underwear behind, the Kryptonian turns her x-ray visions onto the frozen Assanti, checking for lifesigns, damage, any chance that the cold has damaged her.

"Your people does not seem to be fond of water." Kaydin says back to the com about the is soak head comment from Princess Pyre and goes about helping Heather. "Personally If this Caela becomes upset I would not blame her. I know I would feel responsible if something happened to my liege and I was kept from protecting them." He says to the Model before he glances about, wiping more sweat off his brow. When the order comes to join the Princess, he nods and takes about a few steps before he stops. "Did...She just call me Fish Lobster?" He asks Heather, slightly annoyed. Thank his father and years serving in the Atlantean military enforcing discipline to his atlantean hot temper to keep him from being only slightly annoyed as he goes about trying to track down the others.

Whatever problems others may have had, Wonder Girl still trusts Kara. That... FAKE they fought, no matter what may have been said or done, wasn't her friend OR her team mate. Even if there's parts of Kara buried deep down that DO include that 'evilness', in whole or in part, she doesn't blame Supergirl. Cassie doesn't now of anyone who DOESN'T have that sort of stuff in them somewhere. Herself included. The near-monotone that Supergirl keeps speaking in makes Cassie's tired voice sound lively by comparison. She decides after this mission she should give the other blonde a pep-talk and let her know how the team feels (or at least how Cassie feels). At the inquiry of danger, she takes a look around -- the only thing that allows her to catch sight of something pass by silently next to her. She starts to say, "I just saw something!" but only gets out an excited, "I--!" before she gets hit in the brain with an invisible sledge hammer. There's no pain. Her body just goes completely limp, unable to even close her eyes, and plummets out of the sky and towards the waves below.

Splash.

Well, suddenly, Heather is on camera. So she does what is quite normal and natural for her to do when on camera. She smiles and does her best to strike a good pose. Duh. This is one of those rare times when she actually had time to put on a costume for an event. She's trying yet another new design out since she really hasn't settled on any one in particular. In essence, it's a royal blue one piece spandex thingee with tennis shoes, fingerless gloves, and a nifty little matching domino mask. Of course, there are darker blue highlights accenting her figure and... assets. But when she's told she is being treated as an intruder, Heather blinks a bit and asks, "Um, Princess... tell me your ship is not about to blow me up... please?" It's not that she's really fearful. She's not sure that even she could heal if the ship like... disintegrated her or some such. "Oh phew.." she replies when she is added to the crew list. "So, where are we going then?" she inquires as she takes a moment to study the displays. But she does pause to say to Kaydin, "Could be worse. You could be a hero on a half shell." She smirks a bit then, enjoying the chance to both flirt with and rib a teammate. "But hey, good thing she's not down here... she might refer to your nice tight little...." and then she shakes her head and cuts off there, not continuing that thought. Walking down the high ceiling corridors of the ship makes Heather whistle softly, "Either you're super short for your race, your people bought this ship from a race of giants, or.. they just built ships with space to spare." And then Cassie announces that single word over the comm. "Cassie?" she says into her comm. "You what? What's up?"

The stasis tube doesn't appear to have anything cold-related going for it. Another difference between Fire Nature technology and Kryptonian (or possibly just everyone-else-ian). Thus Caela appears to be completely unfrozen and healthy -- though with weird internal anatomy. It looks like she has at least one redundant 'back up organ' for every vital organ, and many of those vital organs are in shapes that simply do not match a human's. There's also stuff that doesn't look like anything familiar at all in there.

There's a static discharge in the area but it appears Supergirl is immune to frizzy hair since she is unaffected. The blue-haired woman with lightly tanned skin is already starting to awaken moments after the casing of her stasis energy field is deactivated. After a few moments of her 'mmmngggh'ing noises, her eyes blue eyes open and she glances around--and spots someone who isn't recognized standing next to her and going through her stuff.

The woman is already reacting, doing a complex and rapid shift from lying on her back to hand-springing out of the tube and into a crouch behind one of the other tubes in a matter of maybe a second or two. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" Caela asks coldly, only a deadly focus and preparedness to fight at the drop of a hat evident in her expression. For someone who was just in stasis for several months, she sure is alert and agile.

Meanwhile, in the hall outside the stasis room, the trio is approaching. Pyre shakes her head as she floats along. "Is just big. Big is 'the awesomes'," she explains. Great. So the Fire-People just like their stuff way larger than is even remotely necessary. They've probably got a thing for over-kill too. Back on the bridge Pyre had reassured Heather that the ship wasn't going to blow her up because most of the weapons systems were off-line and Heather was standing too close to Pyre for the atomic dismantler rays anyway.

But now here she is, outside the room, hesitating. "Is give Caela privacy. No has wake up in big clothes." She jerks a thumb at herself and her padded body suit. When they hear something from Cassie, Pyre frowns. Just that one syllable. Then nothing. "Wonder Girl?" Pyre prods as well. Then she looks to Kaydin and says, "You has good swim, tah? You is check on Wonder Girl." She pauses for a moment then adds on. "Please." Karkel says, "There is a hatch available directly behind you that will lead you outside, Mister Kaydin. Please let us know what you find."

Pyre turns to the door, hoping that Caela has had the opportunity to get dressed by now -- it doesn't take the counter-assassin long, thanks to her special abilities -- and as the door irises open, Pyre sees the situation with Supergirl and Caela. And has no time to react other than her red eyes widening and her mouth opening to warn her body guard. "Caela, no has--"

Then a pair of black metal rods thrust up out of the floor in front of Pyre, and directly into the princess's torso in the vicinity of her lungs. Time seems to stand still. Pyre isn't even aware of the pain at first, just the feeling of being impaled. For those behind her, they'd just see two black things sticking out of Pyre's back, up and at an angle. And something nearly-molten and quite red starting to leak out around the edges of the holes and run down from the injuries.

A black-haired head with blonde highlights, pale skin, and eyes so red they're almost black emerges part way from the metal floor, to make sure the attack was successful. Her hands are still wrapped around the ends of those rods even as Pyre bleeds flaming blood all over them, herself, and the floor. Caela can't see all of what's going on from her position, but her eyes are wide. She can see enough.

Kara's head comes up and around as Cassie abruptly cuts off communications. With a frown, she ignites her x-ray vision and begins to peer through the hull of the ship, turning away from the blue-haired alien with a scowl as she tries to spot her friend who was supposed to be patrolling outside. But she wasn't... The blonde looks down, spying the other blonde as she falls towards the water like she'd just been hit by a surface-to-air missile. An invisible surface-to-air missile.

She doesn't even really look so much as glance at Caela as she goes bounding over behind the tube, spotting the others coming even through the ship's door. She just tosses the clothes one-handed in a bunch in the direction the voice came from. "Get dressed, I think your charge is in danger."

And that's when Pyre is attacked and impaled, quickly enough that not even super-speed can prevent it. But it shouldn't prevent her getting TO the assassin. The blue-clad teenager becomes little more than a streak of blue and red, across the room in a span of time measured in nanoseconds. She makes a grab for one of the hands holding one of the rods, the other hand going for the back of this strange person's neck.

If she grabs that hand, she simply exerts all of her strength into snapping all the bones within it to make her let go, and give her something else to think about besides her target. And then she tries to use the other to spin around and fling the would-be murderer across the stasis-bay with the same force she'd use to toss a tank or two.

She was not pulling the punches this time.

"My tight little what?" Kaydin asks, seems even Atlantean males are as oblivious as surface males. Kaydin just simply glances, not seeming to notice or care about the space. When Wonder Girl says only one syllable, he draws his sword and is about to ask where the nearest exit is before it seems the fire princess read his mind. "Right. Stay Alert." He says as he draws his short sword and runs towards the hatch at top speed, definatly faster then a normal person. Just as he reaches the hatch however, was when the sound of something piercing through a body is heard and he turns. He was just about to turn and run back when the blue and red streaks across.

With Kara there, he simply turns back to the task at hand and goes through the hatch, and once the door opened to outside he leaps out to the ocean below, mask coming off once he hit water. Kaydin finds when Cassie hits the water and immediatly the atlantean swims to her, trying to grab her gently and bring her back to the surface as quickly as he could.

She hits the water like a board. She can't swim. She can't struggle. She can't even blink as the salt water stings her eyes. Most autonomous functions are still going. Her heart is still beating, for instance. And she's still breathing as she sinks deeper and deeper into the water, her lungs filling with more of the ocean with each breath. If not for Kaydin getting to her so quickly, she wouldn't be salvageable. But he drags her to the surface just as the feeling is returning to her and she thanks her rescuer by barfing sea water all over, coughing and hacking, panicking but still not in enough control of her limbs to swim on her own -- just sort of slightly move her arms really limply and ineffectively. She can't speak. Just try as hard as she can to get all the water out of her. She doesn't even know what happened exactly.

But the warning she wants to give is a bit late anyway, so it doesn't matter too much.

On edge now, Heather was already worried by the single word of Cassie. The fact that it was cut off. "Princess, can you ask your computer to give us a visual outside where Cassie was at?" she asks, eyes narrowing as she starts seeing things through a bodyguard's eyes. Ambushes around every corner, every nook and cranny is a place a bomb could be set. "I wish you'd let me go fir..." and Heather cuts off. She was just reaching to pull Pyre back from the doorway. Something was wrong. She knew -something- was out of place. If someone was going to try something stupid, this would be the place to do it. Then... impalement. "Grah!" exclaims Heather. Sure, Supergirl is there, but Heather already had a hand on Pyre. "Caella!" exclaims Heather, "She's wounded! From beneath the floor!" She's hoping that the bodyguard who knows the methods of these assassins might be able to predict the next move at the very least, even as she tries to cradle Pyre in her arms. "I don't know her anatomy! I don't even have a clue what sort of first aid to use!" she adds. This is the one thing she's never run into in her bodyguard experience... failure to protect someone... watching them in her own arms as their lifeblood flows from their body. "Computer.. Karkle or whatever your name is... what do I do?!"

Supergirl succeeds in grabbing the Assanti just as she is attempting to meld back into the floor when she sees that her attack did not go as planned. Unlike Heather, the Assanti have complete familiarity with Fire Nature anatomy. She knows from sight and feel that the lungs were not punctured. Also because when a Fire Nature's lungs are punctured they start spewing flames from their mouths and wounds as their organic oxygen-furnaces that pass for lungs are connected to their organic-incinerator stomachs. This causes a break down in their digestive system -- essentially causing them to start digesting themselves. It is a hideously painful way to die and outside of magic there's no way to stop it once it starts.

That didn't happen. And now the assassin has been caught. When Supergirl crushes the Assanti's arm, there is a slight grunt and not much else in the way of indicating discomfort despite the tremendous amount of pain she is likely in. Even her face is as blank as a mannequin's. As Supergirl pulls the assassin up out of the floor by her neck, the lights in the ship start flickering and there is an easily-felt lurch as the vessel loses altitude suddenly. The floor comes up with the woman's body when Supergirl tears her from the floor -- and the floor seems to still be part of her body when she's thrown across the room. By linking with the shuttle, did she actually LINK with it? Either way, her body is now half-machinery and half-flesh, with a broken arm, and whatever other damages were suffered when she was thrown across the room. Something black dribbles from the corner of her mouth as she stares blankly while lying half-on and half-off of one of the remarkably undamaged stasis tubes.

Alarms go off all over the ship about damage reports, but at least it isn't falling anymore. The clothes that are thrown to Caela fly out of the bag seemingly of their own accord, winding through the air like serpents and wrapping themselves around Caela. A collection of blue scarves of various hues, it seems. Not the kind of clothing one would expect of most body guards. An assassin, sure. Seducing a target with one's beauty in order to get close enough to strike is an age-old strategy. But for one who is meant to counter assassins... Caela looks quickly between the Assanti on the stasis tube, the injured Pyre, and the unfamiliar faces, coming to quick conclusions based on behavior.

She has failed as a bodyguard, she is looking at the one she is supposed to be protecting bleeding on the floor, and one of her own people has just been hurled across the chamber by a girl in a cape with more butt showing than Caela herself. If Pyre were a target, taking her out while Supergirl is distracted would be easy right now. She's already injured with one panicked protector who has no obvious weapons (that Caela notices at least). Yes, six years of serving the Fire-Planet's queen, three of them protecting the princess. If this were some deep-cover work, she could strike right now and finish her mission.

She starts snapping orders. "Cape-girl, destroy her brain. She has a micro-anti-matter self-destruct in her head. Even if she can't set it off herself, whoever she's here with can do it remotely. Don't assume she's dead until she's dead." Seems she doesn't know about the whole Super-family code against killing. She focuses on Heather next as she moves to go PAST her and Pyre. "Mask-girl, do as Karkel instructs and DO NOT LEAVE HER SIDE. Assanti never work alone. There's at least one more." She may be all business and giving orders as she heads for the same hatch that Kaydin went through, but inside Caela is tearing herself apart. How did this happen? Who are these people? What planet is this? How did she let this happen? Why was she still in stasis? Why didn't she spot the threat in time? Despite what Pyre might think, Caela cares about her and her well-being a lot. And her failure is eating her alive as surely as Pyre's own body would have if Heather hadn't kept those lungs from being punctured.

As Kaydin brings Wonder Girl back to the surface, the dark-skinned man back up on an observation pier watches and analyses calmly. Then he forces his way through the crowd that has been in a buzz ever since that woman leapt like 800 feet into the air and vanished into the spaceship. He performs a leap of his own, athletic -- beyond human -- but not as impressive as his companion's. He runs swiftly to the water's edge, discarding his coat in the process, and then a pair of bulges appears on his shoulder blades and he suddenly runs... On the water itself. Some sort of cybernetic implants that let him regulate his weight distribution enough to stand upon the waves. Two of them are distracted and a mental 'light' went off in his head when his partner was taken out. He pulls back a hand, palm open, and aims it upwards, as though he plans to slap the spaceship from all the way down wher he is.

What follows is nearly exactly that. He thrusts his arm forward and an immensely sonic blast erupts from his hand that makes the water in front of him mimic a chart of how sound travels and reverberates. The water JUMPS up out of the ocean in a extremely wide cone that nearly doubles back on itself. But that's nothing next to what happens to the spaceship. The shuttle rocks and starts to roll onto its side from the impact, the entire vessel vibrating madly with sound waves that bounce off each other. The vibrations last several seconds before dying down, and the shuttle starts to automatically right itself.

Then he pulls back his other hand. He releases it just as Caela is leaping out of the hatch that Kaydin used and falling towards the water. This time the vibrations last for nearly 15 seconds and are even more intense. Caela's scarves unwind from her body seemingly on their own and move into her hands. She starts spinning them rapidly, and then hurls one of them at the sonic-powered Assanti. He has to dodge the spinning cloth as it comes at him like a giant saw blade instead of mere fabric. That keeps him from a third attack for the moment.

And it distracts him from the two heroes already in the water, both of whom are close enough that if they move quickly they can join the attack as well.

Pyre was pulled back, those rods that seemed to be immune to the intensely hot blood -- or whatever that flaming red fluid is -- slipping out. Though Pyre is bleeding, it's not as much damage as if it had hit her lungs or the lava-pumper she has for a heart, and she still seems to be able to breathe enough to yell out as the pain finally hits her. Heather is probably one of two people presently on the ship other than Pyre herself who can survive contact with Pyre's life's fluid. It is ON FIRE. It would probably hurt Heather like hell but it wouldn't kill her and the damage would heal eventually. Karkel responds calmly considering the circumstances, though by no means in a monotone. He has always had a voice that sounds like a person's, even if he's an A.I. No robotic synthesizer voices here. But he keeps the concern he has out of it.

"Analysis indicates no vital organs were damaged. The weapons entered less than half an inch below her lungs and have gone out through her back without striking major arteries of any kind. It will be painful for you to transport her if you come in contact with her blood, but more so to handle her medical treatment. I recommend moving her out of the immediate area to avoid further attacks. I can direct you to the medical bay. I am attempting to dispatch emergency response drones but the depleted power is hampering my efforts. If possible, I will have them meet you half-way." Then the ship rocks almost all the way over on its side. The interior of the shuttle shaking and ringing painfully in everyone's ears. Pyre practically slides across the hall if Heather isn't holding tightly.

A holographic display appears in the air, projecting up from the floor and showing an arrow and map to indicate where Heather should go. If she follows it, with Pyre bleeding and wailing the whole time, and a second -- even worse hit -- nearly finishing the job the first attack started, she'll eventually make it to a flickeringly-lit room with gel-filled tubs of sorts scattered around. Drones eject from the walls and ceiling just outside the medical bay and help with lifting the princess so that Heather can deal with the flaming blood all over her that is gradually cooling from 'can melt steel' to 'can boil water'.

Karkel controls the drones to manage the healing tub silently, and verbalizes how Heather can use the same if she needs to. If she'd rather heal on her own, she's free to do so.

"No." Kara's cold voice comes automatically, almost before the strange alien woman snapping orders has even finished snapping orders to her. This woman had either mortally wounded, or at least severly injured one of her team mates, one of her friends, and her hands had the desire to hold her up by her throat and burn straight through her brain with heat vision. But it's tempered by the good that she isn't so sure is as fundamentally a part of her core as she once was.

Instead the blue-and-red-and-blonde Supergirl flies across the bay at breakneck speeds, like some kind of humanoid, Kryptonian-shaped hunting falcon, to try and pick up the would-be assassin. If that's successful, she simply... exits the ship! Via the nearest hatch available, she'll fly out with her prey held at arms length, and give her/it a few punches to the FACE if the Assanti looks like putting up resistance might be an option.

Provided that has been accomplished, once nearly a mile high in the sky, having streaked upwards like a reverse comet and braking several sound barriers, where the air is thin and hard to breathe and the clouds scuttle by BENEATH them... She turns her freezing breath onto the strange alien. She might not have cryogenic status, but she's going to try and freeze this being to death before she can detonate, and hopefully she's got her far enough away from the others and the city to be outside of the blast radius!

Besides, this bitch might have answers they need.

The ship is under attack, but she can't handle the Megaman down there with his Sonic Blaster and try to keep the potentially-exploding Assanti at a safe distance at the same time! Not without destroying that brain... No! No, she didn't care /what/ was inside her, that was NOT an option!

Kaydin keeps an arm around Wonder Girl, keeping her above the water easily, more easily then any human, it was as if he was standing in the water instead of swimming. "Easy." He says, only managing to say this. See, people have to hold their breathe underwater or they drown. Fish, and Atlanteans have to hold their breathe out of water or they suffocate and Kaydin is no exception. He manages to keep his own head despite the fact he cant breathe anymore and Wonder Girl's safety was more important to him before his own. However once she starts puking out water, he puts his mask back on, taking a deep breath.

"I have her. Any later and she would have drowned, whatever hit her seemed to keep her breathing, she couldnt stop even when she went underwater." He says to his communicator to let the others know she is safe. Once he lets them know, he begins to look around to try and find whomever caused it, as if expecting them to have a big red neon sign which said guilty about one of the many air breathers on the surface. When the one discards his coat and runs on water, he redraws his sword. "Hold on." He says to Wonder girl as he swims about the parting waves, trying to keep her on the surface and move at top speed and once he was close enough, lunges in with his sword and free hand to try and cut into the man, grunting as he tried to keep Wonder Girl away from the man as he tried to cut into the alien.

Wonder Girl is slowly starting to regain feeling in her limbs AND coordination. When some asshole runs up while she's still trying to figure out how to get her head to move the way it should be and unleashes a Sonic Boom that gives her a headache on TOP of everything else, she manages to get her eyes to close finally as she squints and grits her teeth against the pain. And that was just on the periphery of the attack. She has no idea how the blue-haired chick falling out of the sky and throwing razor-scarves (a term she never thought she'd come up with to describe anything ever before now) is still able to attack after being right in the way of a direct blast. But as Kaydin lunges at the bad guy, Cassie has enough control to, if not fight, at least control her flight power. She adds the speed of her own magical propulsion to Kaydin's lunge, hopefully making it really damn hard for black-Guile or whoever this is to avoid the sword.

She coughs a bit more too. Fricking sea water in her lungs. Ugh! She better not get, like, a plankton infection or something. (SHE IS NOT A MARINE BIOLOGIST OKAY.)

"Right, so she's not going to die right away." Heather reaches up, activates her comm earbud and says, "Good news, Pyre is in pain, and wounded but it's not a fatal injury. Transporting her to medbay." She then says just to Karkel, "Thanks little buddy. And don't worry, pain is something I am not worried about. It's kinda part of me these days." And she is about to lever herself to her feet when the ship lurches and she reflexively reaches for Pure, holding her ... more like cradling her and using her own body to absorb impacts and whatnot from the rolling over of the ship. Then she gets up, hefting the woman as the blood burns at her flesh. She grits her teeth and ignores the pain while staggering like a drunken sailor to get the the medical bay. Once there, she follows Karkel's directives and says, "Is there anything else I can do to help?" once she has relinquished Pyre to the medical tube. She's ignoring anything about her own injuries, blood having seeped onto the floor all the way to the medbay from the burns on her own flesh. But that's healing already... So she simply turns her eye back to ... guarding. Yeah, she's not planning to let -anyone- into this room. "Karkel. Tell me that you can scan and make sure nobody's coming through the walls or floor again..." So her eyes flicker about, assuming that an attack could come from -anywhere-....

Caela didn't have time to argue with Supergirl. If the blonde wasn't going to eliminate the woman who could wipe out everyone nearby in a heartbeat, then someone had to take out the one holding the trigger. And now as those sonic waves do internal damage to Caela's body, causing her very bones to vibrate in agony, cells to rupture, her hearing to go away completely (at least for the moment), and she seems to pay as much attention to the harm and pain as that other Assanti who is presently being flown high into the atmosphere. Speaking of whom, she seems pretty unresponsive. Infact, if it weren't specifically for Caela's warning not to assume she's dead until she's dead, it would be easy to assume that she is, infact dead. No breathing, no eye dialation, no sign of a pulse, no heart beat. Just black blood dripping from her mouth and trailing out behind as she and a large chunk of the floor of the space-ship, still fused with her body, are flown higher and higher. As freeze breath is applied, suddenly that huge chunk of shuttle floor seperates from her. Just slips right out of her like water through a seive.

As her head, upper body, and both the broken arm and the intact once freeze over, her legs act seemingly independently, bending at joints that don't exist in human bodies in a multi-segmented, nearly insectile way. One of them tries to shove a boot in Kara's face to try to block her view and perhaps slow the freezing process even if only by a second. The other sprouts a long blade from the front of her foot, tearing her own toes off in the process, and swings that blade-foot up in an arc aimed directly at her own forehead.

It sinks in to the base.

No explosion.

She freezes completely now. No more surprise maneuvers.

Meanwhile, the dark-skinned Assanti who Kaydin attacks performs an incredibly dextrous weight-shifting maneuver, sort of 'standing up sideways' on the rolling waves like Michael Jackson could only dream of. This is not an untrained mook. This is a master. The kind of guy who could give any martial artist on the planet a challenge at the least, and using alien technology that raises that bar even higher.

But as he ducks under the spinning cloth-saw (or 'razor-scarf', if one prefers), the sudden change in speed when Atlantean swimming power is combined with magical flight sends the sword plunging right through the center of the assassin's chest. He is hurled back from the impact, possibly dragging Kaydin and Wonder Girl with him if they keep pushing forward. The water sprays up around him. Then he starts to sink as the cybernetics in his back are damaged in an exact opposite of what happened with Pyre. Instead of a miraculous near-miss, the sword happens to strike the exact right place to shut off his technological ability to walk on water.

Caela hits the water herself finally, creating a large splash a significant distance away from where the assassin, Kaydin, Cassie all are. She's already swimming, but she's too far away to attack again. He swings his arms together, the air distorting around them, and prepares to unleash a sonic blast at point-blank range, right into Kaydin and Wonder Girl's faces.

The cloth that was thrown before suddenly saws through his right shoulder, severing the arm and preventing the attack. Caela is controlling the thrown scarf still. When it missed, she simply made it turn around and attack from behind. The assassin oozes more black blood from his shoulder. His eyes are wide, but his expression is otherwise surprisingly calm. His mission has failed. Wordlessly, he directs his left hand at his own head, prepared to unleash a sonic blast to set off his own brain bomb. Caela is already yelling, "STOP HIM!" She's unable to respond in time, even as her razor scarf tries to wrap around the arm to restrain it -- at least slow it down. It's not enough on its own. That leaves it up to the two super-strong people to disable that arm so that he can't blow them all to pieces.

There's little else that Heather can do in the way of medicine for Pyre, and Karkel says as much. "Your efforts thus far have been quite meaningful," the A.I. assures. "For now, I recommend that you do as Miss Caela instructed and watch for more attackers. However, further scans of the ship are ongoing but indicate no more intruders -- either in the halls or within the structure of the ship itself. I will alert you immediately if this changes." Pyre's wounds are already starting to close up as she tries to slow her breathing and lies in the gel-like substance that heals her gradually. "Heather," the princess gets out. Then she turns her head to look at the regenerator and says, "Not your fault."

The boot to her face stops her from being able to get her hand in front of that blade in time to stop the apparent suicide. Stupid, stupid Kara, she berates herself as she holds a now-lifeless chunk of ice with what used to be a being inside. She should have known that an assassin born and bred literally for a single job would end their own lives once it was apparent they couldn't complete that job. Once her ex-ray vision and super-hearing fail to confirm anything like a heartbeat or continued breathing or... anything else, Kara simply /throws/ the assassin. Yes, into orbit, on a collision course with the moon, where she can safely explode, or be retrieved, at Supergirl's own convenience.

She doesn't send her sailing off like a comet, though, and once she hits orbit she should only have enough speed to cause a small crater. Hopefully the ice would shield the body from being utterly smashed beyond recognition.

She can see Cassandra and Kaydin battling down below, but they seem to have the matter at least as well in hand as she could if she flew down there to try and restrain the bastard. For now she had two other friends on the ship who might get attacked at any moment by a third hidden killer, one of whom was already hurt.

The cape-wearing blonde streaks through the sky, dropping like a stone before suddenly reversing direction and re-docking with the craft, Kara Zor-El slashing through corridors at the highest speed she can go and stop herself if she runs into Heather or Pyre unexpectedly. She reaches the medical bay within a dozen seconds or so, along with a gust of wind following her entrance, hair and cape blowing as she comes to a sudden stop.

"Heather. Are you all right? How is she?"

Kaydin smirks as he runs the man through and as the two handed sonic attack comes, he tries to brace himself between wondergirl and the attack only to see it stop. He gives a sigh before looking to as he is about to sonic his head. He tries to pull his sword out of the man and grunts as it is stuck. He keeps pulling and pulling,before finally grunting as he slices up the torso and the man's arm off completely, using every ounce of strength he had. He then mentally thanks poseidon for having remembered he sharpened his sword before this.

Her constitution aside, Cassie is still (as far as she knows) human. And whatever this jerkface did to her, it's taking time to 'relearn' how to use her body. Things she took for granted before now require conscious effort. Lifting an arm. Moving a leg. Turning her head. Blinking her eyes. Even as more and more of it returns to 'automatic', she's still struggling to do something NOW when it's NEEDED. She feels the disturbance the air, 'hears' the silence as something creates two big blank spots in all the other sounds around them, both of them to her left. She turns her head and sees the man making to clap. With sound waves he could shoot just by impacting his hand against the AIR what kind of death and doom could he achieve by impacting his hands against EACH OTHER!? She can't do anything except try to fly them away, and she lacks the focus to do that. Thankfully, she spots that razor-scarf come spinning back from behind and saw right through the black guy's shoulder, pre-empting the clap attack.

The left hand whooshes through empty air and does not release the sonic build-up in attack form. Instead he turns it and aims it at his own head. She doesn't know about the bomb thing. But even though he's a bad guy, she's not going to let him commit suicide. As the scarf wraps around his left arm to slow it down, and Kaydin tries to tear his sword right out of the bad guy's torso (which she will totally bitch him out about later), she breaks free of Kaydin's other arm and uses her strength to grab the bad guy's arm with strength that can crush titanium. 50 tons of force. Then she tries to crush that left arm beyond any capacity for use, and punch the man repeatedly -- though significantly less forcefully -- hoping to knock him out. She doesn't know what his story is, or what this is about with someone else on the ship and Pyre, but if she has to she can fly him and Kaydin both up to the ship and find out.

Assuming he doesn't attract any not-friendly sharks with the smell of his blood in the water.

"... Still.. my job is to keep folks safe, I can take it y'know?" asks Heather of Pyre as she paces back and forth, like a mother bear protecting her cubs. "I understand but... yes Karkel, I know. I am doing just that, watching for potentially new attackers...." and then Kara whooshes in and Heather almost -tries- to attack her out of kneejerk reflex, a reflex only reined in with difficulty since... well she did recently get pretty much melted by evil Kara. But she backs off and says, "She's going to be okay, so long as there's not some other mysterious attacker sneaking in through the plumbing. Can you do that X-Ray stuff and make sure we're secure here?" she asks, her own wounds mostly healed... still painful as burns are wont to be...

The assassin's various organs and redundant organs are shredded by the sword tearing its way out. His arm is utterly crushed into pulp. He is being bludgeoned repeatedly in the face by a very strong person, and there's a third enemy swimming up behind these two right in front of him. What other choices does he have? The Assanti activates the secondary self-destruct. He sub-vocalizes and something goes off in his throat.

....

No explosion.

But he starts to melt, still alive -- even if wounded. His skin runs like melting wax, like he's being bathed in acid. As Wonder Girl holds him and tries to fly him up to the ship, his flesh, muscles, bones, even his blood all turn to an awful black-and-pink goop that decays in fast-forward and pools on the surface of the ocean.

The secondary self-destruct is for when you can't take your enemies with you.

Pyre shakes her head, color returning to her face already. Her hamster ear muffs fall off her head after surviving the entire trip here on their perch. "Karkel say no more on ship. Ship not has safe here anymore though." She looks at the Kryptonian heroine for a long moment, then, whatever was said in the past, seeing what Supergirl has gone through today, she decides to forgive hurtful words. She'll talk this over with Supergirl later. Right now they should get somewhere they can more easily defend and get Caela caught up on the situation.

Still, one offering can be made right now. "Pyre has thank Kara." Then she also directs her red eyes to Heather and adds on, "And Heather." Don't want the other blonde to feel neglected! ...And she should thank Cassie when she gets here. So many blondes to thank! "...Where has Caela anyway?"

Caela is presently floating in the ocean, waiting for someone to remember she's there and give her a lift. Despite the cold water, she seems relatively okay with the environment. But her mind is whirring with thoughts, and concerns. Where is this place? Who are these others? How long was she in stasis for?

So many questions... But the most important is, 'Is Pyre okay?'