2016.03.04 - A New Kingdom 1 (Part 1)

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Who: Anna Marie, Laura Kinney, Pietro Maximoff, Jubilation Lee, Lorna Dane, Billy Batson, Kurt Wagner Corsair, Star Jammers, Shi'ar Empire Where: Xavier's School for the Gifted When: 2-11-2016 Tone: Action

What:

Prologue

Elsewhere.

Sensors and readouts whirled. The occasional flash of red ran through the crew. They all knew this was bad. For months the captain tried to stay under the radar. He knew it was only a matter of time before they caught unwanted attention. It wasn't supposed to be like this.

"What do we do Captain?" a crew member asked just before the ship jarred. They were taking fire. If a decision wasn't made now it was going to be end of everyone aboard.

"Stay the course. It's been chartered. Divert power to the defensive systems and the thrusters. The ship has to hold."

The Captain shook his head. "Hell of a way to come back," he thought to himself.

Xavier Mansion and School for the Gifted.

It was a pleasant Thursday afternoon. Sure, there was a chill in the air however it was still nice to look at from the inside. The sun was out. Yellow lights cascaded through the windows with the few hours of sunshine that was left. Everything appeared to be normal. To those just moving about the kitchen it was a normal day. The illusive quiet day that came once in a blue moon for the school. Nothing seemed amiss.

Those with science experience would have been the first to tell something was off. People like Hank McCoy, Kitty Pryde, Alex Summers, Forge and a select few. They also had to be right at the scanners. At first it was a small blip. The equivalent of a squirrel or cat setting off a motion light as opposed to a real threat, something that may have caught their attention but it was easily forgettable. Unfortunately, that blip started to grow. No visual could be made. Something was coming though and whatever coming was huge!

For those unaware the day just continued with the normal appearance. In the distance a charter jet flew overhead. Then that sound started to build up. What was the gentle sound of jet engine turned into a roar. The sound continued until a deafening "WRRRR!" blazed overhead that made it hard for anyone to think from top to bottom of the school. As the deafening sound invaded and interrupted shaking the school shook. Pictures rattled until they fell on the ground with a "ca-chnk" as glass broke, but went unheard. Thinks rolled off of nightstands and shelves. Even a few of the lamps and television wasn't safe. Those in the war room beneath the ground would have felt the shaking from above.

Those looking outside would see a ship that looked of technology far advanced commercial stands. Perhaps it was the latest Stark Tech. Maybe Bruce Wayne had something get loose. Right now it was difficult to say. The vessel had four wings that made an "X" shape. Unlike an X-Wing, the bow of the vessel extended outward quite a ways. From some angles the ship looked a coppery brown and others it looked silver. Metal and ground met, dirt was spit up all around the ship as it slowed long before hitting the gate of the school.

Mere minutes, two to three, after the ship crash landed two other noises could be heard. That roaring sound continued, but was slightly different. There were two. Both vessels were a coppery color and silver. Each vessel extended outward with a rounded shape. From the right angle, despite the small wings at the side, these shapes could have been mistaken for giant mechanical bugs. With all of the technology that showed itself it was safe to say these ships were not of earth. At least, not the last two anyway because they looked to be ripped from the pages of Dune, Neon Genesis Evangelion and other forms of fiction right before everyone's eyes.

Billy was just trying to study in his dorm room, the sounds and shaking knocking him over his bed and as he peers out the window, his eyes widen and he goes, "HOLY MOLEY! Aliens? Here in Westchester??" He looks down at himself as everyone in the school is probably rushing outside to get a better look and thinks, "I don't think the teachers are going to let students be out there. This looks like a job for... SHAZAM!"

The magic lightning comes from the sky and strikes Billy, turning him into his heroic form of Captain Marvel (Shazam) and he flies out the open window. He says in his now deep/older voice, "Captain Marvel (Shazam) and the Justice League needs to be represented if this is a first contact situation." He flies off towards the gates and crash site.

It's hard to miss that much weird in the air. Running through the snow from the Boat House Lorna looks around for signs of this crash or anyone tossed loose more importantly. Running through the snow also sucks, so she takes to the air eyes glowing green as she scans the school grounds for bodies.

Rogue was in the shower when it all went down, but she could hear it and feel it through the world as it was kind of a big deal. With the shower turned off and her rushing to the bathroom window to peer out of it like a creeper she rubbed her hand against the glass to clear a little spot in the steam and she tried to see what was going on... she could see SOMETHING happened, but not exactly what... was that Lorna flying? "Sonsabitches! What happened now?!" Rogue said as she went about doing post-Shower things and then rushed out of the bathroom to throw on some clothes and throw open her bedroom windows to get a better view of what happened outside.

Every now and again Kurt takes time to himself to meditate and this happens to be one such moment. On his knees in the middle of the gazebo his eyes open as suddenly the ground shakes sending him tumbling backwards but he BAMFS in and back out to his feet looking around. Looking off towards the gates he grumbles something in German while grabbing his coat pulling it on before taking off running towards the gate.

"Bloody hell!" Jubilee scrambled across the bed on all fours and opened a (now cracked) window, screaming out of it. "I'M TRYIN' TO TEXT HERE, HAVE A LITTLE RESPECT!!"

From her vantage point at the window, she could only see what seemed to be a gigantic metal bug, sitting next something bigger. Lots bigger. She could only see a part of it, but it could only seem to be the bug's mama.

"Well, shit."

Mid-text, she broke off and added simply "Gotta go, Handsome, somebody's tryin' to turn Xavier's into Sanford & Son meets Dune. I love you." With a quick -send-, she flew out the door of her room, and slammed it behind her. A moment later, she returned, donned her peacoat, and exited with a similar flourish, only this time yellower. Better safe, than sorry.

Laura felt the approaching vessel before she got to see it, a glimpse off a window had ascertained her suspicion that something was wrong. In a mad dash, she rushes through the Mansion, before making her way to the roof, standing there for a good vantage of the crashed vessel that kinda-sorta landed before the school's gate. Tapping on her comm link, she notes the obvious, "ship, front of school gate. Investigate?"

Both of the copper and silver ships had their gangplanks open. Out from each ship walked similarly dressed men and women. Every person was wearing some kind of silver armor. Bits of black peaked out near the top of the things, the elbows, and some joint areas. Their helmets were a bit odd as they were bell-shaped. Faceplates covered any possibility of recognition. Those that have had exposure to military could have guessed these individuals were military. If someone made it close enough there was some kind of insignia on upper left portion of their breast plate. It was small. Yellow markings were in the center surrounded by red. Everyone could tell these individuals may have had bad intentions as they were carrying two handed energy based weaponry. These were the kind of guns fanfiction involving a heavily armed Iron Man to be carrying. These were long, black gunmetal colors, which had a blunted end. Each end had a bit of yellow. Small parts burned bright yellow as if there were LED lights. There was about twelve in total, seven males, five females. Everyone was humanoid looking as they had similar body structures so presumptions made about gender appearances could be done.

Lightning came crashing down changing Billy with a single word. The sight caused a few to speak to one another. No one here was close enough to hear, or understand. One pressed part of their helmet. They spoke different nonsense. Another press, still unintelligible. Three more quick tries before a command voice, slightly modulated, came forward, "In the name of The Shi'ar Empire, stand down Terran!" as Billy started to fly closer for "First Contact" the individual leveled his weapon and fired at Billy. A bolt of bright yellow energy went toward Billy.

Seeing what was going on, two males and two females joined the fray. Half focused on Billy, but seeing the approaching Lorna they opened fire on her. These were not friendly guests.

Jubilee, Rogue, Kurt and Laura could see different and similar parts to what was happening. Billy and Lorna were getting fired upon by something called "The Shi'ar." They looked to be out of this world, literally, and had tech no one had seen before. Because everyone was either going down to ground level, or across from it, they could partially make out what was happening. From their vantage point the remaining seven members were pressing toward the crashed ship. All had their weapons drawn. Looks like they were after whatever was inside that first ship that came down. Billy had three people on him, Lorna had two. Since both were flying into combat the distance was closing fast. However, each person was focused on their targets so everyone got the impression a surprise move could be successful.

Laura, since she went up to the roof, could see the situation. The other ship was opening their gangplank hatch. As troops pressed in they were suddenly pushed back by a hail of red energy. Whatever was inside that ship could have been a friend, or at least the enemy of a new enemy. What Laura did with this information was on her.

Billy blinks as he was about to say something when all of a sudden he's shot at! He oofs and is blasted back a bit and then gets up and says, "Gosh, that was rude!" He takes off at speed and gathers up all their weapons and then drops then down on the ground before him and says, "There we go... now... can we start over now?" He says his voice pleading a bit.

He glances behind him for a moment to make sure that Lorna is ok and then says to the Sh'iar, "If you plan on causing problems here on Earth, then you're going to have to go through me first, I'm Captain Marvel (Shazam), and I represent the Justice League." He stands there and sets his jaw, "Gosh, I'm willing to forgive the fact that you fired on me with no provocation, but I want some answers. Who are you, and why are you here?" Privately, he hopes disarming them will cause them at least to settle down and talk this over peacefully... but in his experience, generally that just doesn't happen.

Laura observes and reaches for her com link again, chirping over com, "I think a galactic war just pit stopped in our house. It's a fight, not sure who is good and who is bad, or if they're all after us." She remains on the roof for now, observing, from what she's seen so far Lorna and Billy should be able to handle themselves.

Rogue, with her bedroom windows open, looked out at the scene unfolding off in the distance... Was that laser gun fire? "Oh my god..." Rogue uttered in a dark and dramatic voice as she eyed the situation unfolding. "We're being attacked by... nerds..." With a heavy exhale, Rogue crawled up onto her dresser in front of her window, she shoved her collection of wrist watches that she'd stolen from hot guys out of the way and then leapt out of the window and started to fly toward the fight with the intention of killing any nerd who shot at her friends.

Lorna gets her force field up, but she lands roughly. "Oooof." Looking about it seems like they might be the only bodies on the ground so she flanks Captain Marvel helpfully.

Kurt Wagner frowns seeing the hostiles and while running he BAMFS out in a poof of smoke. Coming back into view he attempts kicking one of the hostiles in the back using it to bound a kick to another nearby. Indeed fear the purple keebler looking fuzzy elf!

"The fuck, man, you guys just step out of your big flying phallus and start shooting people? We're the GOOD guys! Jesus." Jubilee was rounding the corner, fists clenched at her sides. But not out of anger. The fear of what was happening alone could cause her to prematurely spurt fireworks all over the place. "Whatever! Stop with the pewpew, and everybody just friggin chill, before you make me angry." Her wild shock of black hair was beset with a pair of tinted steampunk brass goggles, which she pulled down over her eyes, CSI-style. "YOU WOULDN'T LIKE ME WHEN I'M ANGRY."

God, she'd always wanted to say that.

Billy had the wisdom of Solomon, but as the man was taking the energy weapons the three weapons unloaded on Billy in the first cluster. Energy weapons had the ability to hurt people like Rogue, Superman and the like especially if the blasts were held down and continuous on them, like it was for the first three whose weapons were taken. If he did the same for the two on Lorna then he was going to be feeling it more. The man was going to be in pain. Sure, people were disarmed, but what was the cost? Solomon may not have aided Billy in that decision. What made matters worse were two, the head speaker and one woman pulled out smaller side arms then began to open fire.

These two weapons were smaller, they couldn't have been held down, but were the same yellow color.

Lorna could sense no other bodies. That was good. Other things she was able to sense was the armor and weapons all had metal. Less reputably people in her position would have turned this opportunity into a slaughtering field. Between the weapons, armor and the ship it had the potential of leaving a child unattended in a candy store. Lorna was able to feel the armors and weaponry to everyone in the field. The ship in the distance had at least four individuals inside if they went on a one-to-one weapon ratio. Rogue had at least two nerds to pick from. Billy was still getting fired upon. As she was swooping in from up high the woman could see the goings on of the crashed ship. If she focused enough it sounded like someone said the word "Course," but it could have been her imagination. This was between tons of alien babble, the chaos of all the goings on. However, she could see the other seven aliens getting held back by the shots. Kurt vanished and reappeared. One was knocked to the ground. Both were down, but far from out. Kurt had a good vantage point of the two with side arms. He could have easily appeared behind one. Or the man could have pressed ahead to see further goings on.

Jubilee could see everything that was happening. Billy that wanted peace, others that were defended friend and proving loyalty. She could see everything save for the happenings at the latter situation. Her friends were still getting shot at thanks to side arms. If she was going to lose herself at least there were some targets on the field, right?

Laura chirped over the com-signal for everyone to see. Looking over the situation she could assess the X-Men were not the priority. The crashed ship was. This meant that whatever quarrel this was happened to stop at their doorstep. Bad luck was out tonight.

Well, it WAS a good idea at first, he thought disarming them might make them a bit more amenable to diplomacy but all that went out of the window. He grimaces in pain from the blasts and then says finally, "Alright... that's enough..." He goes to his knees, the blasts making it hard to focus as he clenches his fists and then slams them down with the Strength of Hercules into the ground and causes a localized earthquake, hopefully strong enough to knock the Shi'ar off their feet.

Billy bites his lip, glancing around, and slowly gets up, still a bit sore from the blaster fire directed on him. He then says, "Holy moley! Let's try this again, lay down your arms and let's try and talk this out!" He then mutters, "I wish Hal was here, the Green Lantern Corps probably would know who these Sh'iar are and what they're about." Not to mention that anything not of Earth, the Wisdom of Solomon wouldn't tell him.

"Hey Captain, there's a lot of metal here." Polaris says quietly. Her hands open at her sides as she targets the weapons to see if this non-earth metal is at her mercy. If it is, she means to crush the weapons in on themselves nice and harmless like. She's willing to play along with the aliens-if they could just stop shooting. "They're so American already! Shooting away like this."

Rogue observed what she could see, her friends being shot at... the aliens doing what aliens seem to like to do. She swooped in low to the ground and landed with a HUFF of exhaled oxygen and then ran toward a pile trees that had been cut down and drawn out of the forest this past fall. She jumped right into the top huge old tree-trunk and slapped her arms and legs around it like she was hugging the big ol piece of wood! A moment later, Rogue and the felled tree trunk were floating up into the air and she shoved it forward right toward those first two aliens she saw. "Suck on that, nerds." She huffed out in a winded husky voice after throwing the tree-trunk.

Kurt Wagner bounds onto the back of one of those he attacked his hands coverings its eyes. "YEEE HAWWWWW!!!!" he calls out.

"All right, ALL RIGHT ALREAAADY, GAWD!" Jubilee opened her hands and braced herself with one foot against the ground behind her. Hoping that none of the laser geeks had spotted her or taken her for a threat, she let go. First came the fireball. It was to be expected, after being pent up for a few moments. It was hot and bright - startling, but fairly harmless. Then, the flourish. She squinched her eyes and screamed as a brilliant spectacle shot forth from her hands. Lights...or fireworks? They shimmered and interwove as they began to arc just over the heads of the tin-canned freaks. The finished image was one that she was more than pleased with, herself. But no time to enjoy the aesthetics, this time. The pulsing streams of light formed the image of a ship, not unlike the two smaller ones, and of similar size, above the heads of those embroiled in the fray, in an attempt to draw their eyes upward. Hopefully the good guys had sense enough to look away, cause this was about to get brutal.

She did not break the connections, instead pumping all that she had into the spectacle until it grew so bright she would've had to look away, herself, if not for the welding glass lenses in her goggles. "Eat ship, Assholes!" And with that, the image exploded, the blast intensifying in brightness tenfold. The concussion was one that made her proud, too, as it reverberated through her body - the sole reason for bracing herself. The sound, however, left something to be desired, as it bore only the lackluster "paf" of a single. dud. firecracker. "Aww."

Laura remains on the roof, she's been through a whole lot while serving the Facility, she still hasn't been exposed to the likes of this, leaving her standing on the roof at a loss of action. She's not sure who to attack, if at all, and it seems like everyone else has an idea what they're doing while they're taking after the aliens and their ships. Hopefully Lorna alone can negate all hostilities with her impressive actions.

Both side arms went "CRUNCH!" as metal groaned under pressure. Suddenly, weapons started to spark. Energy lashed out. Something was becoming unstable. Suddenly, two explosions went off sending the two figures off. They were out cold. Smoke rose from their bodies. A second later Billy came down with the localized earthquake as his fist pounded into the ground. As two were rising to their feet, thanks to Kurt, they immediately fell back down. The third that was up went down too. Now, three prone targets were before the group.

Two of the three people started to slowly rose up. A second later Rogue launched a tree into them. Between all of the knockdowns, earth quakes and weapon snagging, the tree connecting with them was the final straw their stamina could handle. Unlike the last few times, they weren't getting up this time. From this high up Rogue could see the others by the downed ship. Since she had several projectiles in her hands seven troops could have easily fallen.

Although the third was up. Moments later Kurt was on their back screaming as if he was riding a bucking bronco. Blinded the man flailed. Kurt was going to have to hold on, but he was totally in control of the moment.

Jubilee's light show was that of a Marvel. Kurt saw the fireball coming toward the enemy he was riding. *BAMF!* A cloud of smoke that smelled of rotten eggs dazed the alien log enough to leave him open for a brightly colored assault. Like the others before him he was down. While others had the opportunity to press forward, Jubilee focused on the lightshow. The ship above the others further down caught the eyes of everyone. Energy blasts ceased for a moment. In that pause two red beams went off. Each found their marks, two Shi'ar members went down thanks to the opposition having a moment to aim. Turning their attention away from the show, and the lackluster pop didn't distract them any further. Four were still up. Polaris, Rogue and X-23 had an idea of how many targets were left.

X-23 had the ability to communicate intel to Kurt and Jubilee on the ground. She could also tell the flyers how to move in just right. While Rogue and Lorna had the possibility of being scene, X-23 had years of forced training that could have made her a brilliant tactician in moments like these.

Billy gets up and nods to Lorna, "Now... let's see if we can't get some answers here." He floats over and grabs the most vocal one (the one who told him originally to stay out of this and flies him (or her) up high into the sky and then says, "Ok... now that we're all alone, you look like you're the leader of the... 'Shi'ar', do I have that right?" Unlike Batman, he's not holding him by the ankle or doing anything threatening. This is Billy we're talking about, it's just a nice friendly conversation that happens to be high up in the sky away from the person's comrades.

Billy continues, "Gosh, if so, could you please kindly tell me who you people are, and why you want that ship so badly? I'm sure if you can convince me that you have a legitimate reason for coming down here guns blazing, golly, we'd all be willing to help. There's no need for anyone to get hurt after all." And Billy sounds earnest about this, employing the lessons in diplomacy he learned from Diana when he spent some time with her on Thymascira.

Polaris remains on the ground, green energy around her hands and in her eyes. If the weapons go kaboom imagine the ship. "I'd work with Captain Marvel." she yells at the invaders, "Or I'm tearing your ship into ribbons!"

With the tree thrown, Rogue looked over at the impressive display from Jubilee and it made her gawk a moment at it all. "Damn." She mumbled and then turned her gaze around toward the others, trying to get a situation-feel for the field around them... She was just hovering there a good fourty feet off the ground in the air, looking toward Billy now to see what he was doing with that alien geek.

There wasn't time to gloat. Even though that WAS awesome. Except the bit at the end where it sounded like an underwater buffalo fart. "YAAAAAAHHH!!" Jubilee screamed, recovering her plasmoids and running around behind the fray to clamber up on top of one of the little ships. "How'd ya like that, shipheads?" She quickly began shooting fireworks into the faces of the remaining canned aliens, fast and furious. No time for flair, this time. They came out pink, and in rapid succession. Each exploding with a paf as little as the last. But bright. Like a flash of welding arc in front of their faces. The heat and concussion of each would be utterly ineffectual - she was depending on the brilliance to daze and confuse.

<<Guys, there are two vessels in pursuit of the downed one...I don't think they have qualms with us, I think they are after the other space people, talk seems to be reasonable action,>> Laura relates as she starts walking, and just like that jumps off the roof, and after she lands, she just continues to walk towards the group by the downed ship.

As late to the party as Quicksilver is, it's possible the man was lounging on a beach in the Caribbean as he's occasionally intimated would be preferable to cold season in New York. With the chaos unfolding, he seems to just blink into existence with a quick rush of air. He narrows his eyes and appraises the situation for nearly a full second. It's enough time for him to scout the situation, consider multiple plans of action, and decide to put one in place. As any who have come up against him in the past, it's predictably straightforward.

"Well, now that I'm here?" He becomes a blur, darting toward some wreckage first before abruptly changing direction back toward the apparent opposition. Whatever he's armed himself with is hard to tell? a chunk of pipe, maybe a pointy rock? "Perhaps you should.." He begins taking impossibly swift, nimble swings, zipping about, trying to remain as mindful of defense as his ego allows, "Reconsider surrender or retreat?"

Blindfold calmly walks out of the mansion and towards the fray with a sword on her back in uniform. Reaching out without warning to poke around in the minds of the invaders, hoping to understand why they had come and why they were after the crashed ship. Her face turned toward the four invaders, she presses her lips together in a tight line of concentration "Excuse me please, I'n sorry for this inconvenience yes" using her levitational ability to raise them into the air where they hopefully couldn't cause more trouble, although her fine motor skills in such could use some work.

Billy began to question people, but individuals were being taken out one after another through his own actions, and that of others. However, they were outcold. The man could have unmasked them. Asked questions later, or see one of the remaining four further up were taken consciously. He had the speed and they were distracted enough.

Polaris was on the ground yelling. Some of those further up saw what she did. One even surrended not because they understood what her or Billy were saying, but even aliens understood the concept of feeling outnumbered.

Rogue could see this display along with the three that remained by the open gangplank of the last ship. It was like they were not letting go of whatever wild notion was going on. There was a story here because soldiers that kept going when three-fourths of their unit were down, or surrendered, that took dedications.

Laura belayed the orders what she thought was going on. The two landed ships, and the twelve people (now three) were after whatever was inside. The X-Men were just somehow caught in intergalatic crossfire. She landed on the ground. As Laura pushed toward the ship she could see the same dedication Rogue caught. The former student of the Weapon X program may have been reminded of darker days with such dedication at work.

Quicksilver was a blur. As he was able to grab a piece of wreckage. Speaking english toward those near the open gangplnk of the down ship, the opposition just stared at him. They began to point as if they were going to open fire. From inside the ship a bit of red energy came out. It hit one of the armored aliens.

A voice in English yelled out, "They don't understand English, Kid! Not without a translator," whoever was speaking was human, or at least had a great handle at English.

As Blindfold peaked into the mind something peaked back. A sea of images came to her mind. They were under orders of something, someone one. A combination of fear and dedication was mixed in it before th efear overtook them. By this time they were in the air. Words were lost on them. Next a voice called out, "Stand out. They're after me," from inside the crashed ship walked a man wearing a red and black suit. Red was along the outside of the arms and legs. Inside the thoughs and core was black. A yellow "X" like symbol was on his chest with two spots beneath it. Wrapped around his face partially was a blue scarf. It matched the headband he wore. The man had chestnut hair and a bulldog mustache the same color. His brown eyes looked at the people around. "They're after me," his brown eyes would have been recognized by one person here. They were the same shape as Alex's.

"I'm Corsair, I'm captain of this ship. They're after me because I defied their Emporer...I came here for help."