11459/Jaketch's Gambit: Park Portal Problems

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Jaketch's Gambit: Park Portal Problems
Date of Scene: 04 June 2022
Location: North Woods
Synopsis: A portal opens in Central Park and a small Chitauri force invade! Thankfully a few of New York's heroes are on hand to push back the aliens and get glared at by a mysterious alien war leader. Then it's time for beers.
Cast of Characters: Clint Barton, Emma Frost, Singularity, Hercules
Cast of NPCs: Jaketch
Tinyplot: Jaketch's Gambit


Clint Barton has posed:
At 70 degrees, it is a warmish evening in New York. Broken clouds drift slowly through the sky. They and the buildings pick up the yellows, oranges and reds of the setting sun. For once even the humidity is light, perhaps one of the few silver linings of climate change in New York.

There people spread out all over the North Woods and North Meadow. There are dates, groups of friends, lone nappers, runners, and families. Central Park in the early summer.

Clint adjusts the duffel bag slung over his shoulder. He is walking past the edge of the Great Hill. He is dressed in dark workout pants, sneakers and a black running shirt, just one more person walking through New York's most famous green space.

A few kids playing together turn it up a notch, looking like they have had too much sugar. A young woman running towards Clint starts to smile and then her brow creases and doubles down, putting that bit extra into her run. The volume in the park goes up just a little bit. The vibe is electric, like the whole world is suddenly brimming with possibility.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost is currently going through the area wearing a brisk set of breezy clothes appropriat efor the weather. The blonde is going on a casual walk, a purse slung over her shoulder and at a light jog. Whether seh's out for exercise or just simply to clear her head is up in the air.

She does, however, have her phone out and held to one ear and is talking into it about something something business.

Singularity has posed:
    Singularity is perched on one of the larger tree limbs overlooking the path, enjoying the day. Her back is leaning back against the trunk itself as she comfortably straddles the tree limb itself, her legs idly swaying back and forth. Her head tilts back and forth as she switches between people watching of those on the path below and the wildlife in the park, mostly the comings and goings of the various squirrels.

    The glowing girl draws some looks of her own, but, hey, it's New YOrk. They've probably seen weirder.

Hercules has posed:
    "You know that thing with Hippolyta really was a big misunderstanding, in truth we are fast friends. I send her a birthday card every year!" a large, burly man with a neatly trimmed beard and a head full of short, curly hair leans against a tree, a hand braced against the trunk. He's talking to a woman who seems to be debating with herself if she really wants to continue her run or share in the stranger's warm, boisterous company.

Who is this fine, muscular stranger? Why none other than-

    HERCULES
    PRINCE OF POWER

And he really has nothing better to do.

Clint Barton has posed:
It feels electric. Like being at a great concert. The energy becomes almost palpable and almost nobody in the area is sitting anymore. The volume keeps rising. It is like being on the edge of closing the biggest deal of your life. Unconvering all the answers to the deepest questions of existence. Crushing the biggest foe of your life in front of legions of adoring...

There is an audible thrum the echoes through the park. It pulses in intensity, faster, faster, faster, then CRACK. Blue-green light explodes out of the centre of the Great Hill. People scream and start to scatter.

When the flash passes there is a rip in reality in middle of the hill in the shape of a big square, 30ft on each side. Its edges crackle and shift slightly. Through it there is an enormous room made of grey steel. A huge round technological pedestal with some kind of device made out of metal rings rotating around a glowing energy ball. People, and they look like people except with green skin, eyes, and hair, work at consoles around the pedestal. A taller one of the beings looks out into Central Park grins. He yells a command. From out of view on the edges of the square, other beings come into sight. There are new screams and panic sets in. Every New Yorker, everyone in the world has seen these beings; Chitauri soldiers.

The first three charge into the park. The view into where they came from shimmers and sections of the portal square blink out, revealing the park beyond, and then blink back into existence. An unlucky chitauri following the first few gets cut in half by the portal flicker. More start coming through and the portal keeps flickering as they do. The being in charge starts barking orders at his compatriots working the consoles and sounds furious. Meanwhile, those chitauri that do make it into Central Park, 15 so far with more coming, start to open fire.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would startle over and glance up as she sees the Chitauri. Things she recognizes from the alien invasion repelled by the Avengers. The other things she does not. Emma Frost goes to try and quickly move to hide over as she scrambles to get behind the nearest bit of cover. She's moving to try and telepathically 'send' to anyone over in the area <<get out of here. Move away and do not panic. Move away and fall back>> This isl ovely.
    She's already had her fill of dealing with aliens and now she's got stuck in it again. So for now, best seh can do is try and stay behind something.

Singularity has posed:
    Singularity looks over towards the portal, her brow furrowing slightly before the portal actually opens, then teleports, reappearing on the ground a bit in front and away from it as it stabilizes. And people start charging through, shooting.

    "No!" Singularity says firmly and...well, sort of explodes.

    Or at least it seems that way for a moment as she impossibly unfolds, her now amorphous form expanding into a shield for the civilians in the area tryint to flee opposite the portal as the weapon blasts disappear into her stretched form. Her still visible head perched on top has a determined expression as she holds still to act as a shield.

Hercules has posed:
    Has the world felt this electric in a long time, the crackle of myth and possibility. Could this be the start of a grand adventure? Hercules looks down at his companion and she looks up at him, her lips crooked and eyes slightly narrowed. Hercules is talking nonsense but... he is awful cute, maybe she'll-

Then comes the sound. It shakes both God and woman from their potential randevous. She gazes with slack-jawed surprise while the Scion of Zeus wears a look of stiff-jawed wariness. The clap like thunder came and Hercules brought a crooked smile to his features, "Ho, it seems-" he begins, turning a saucy gaze to his companion.

Who is gone. She's not some tourist, she knew better.

Hercules cast his gaze after her, sorrow resting lightly upon his heart. He reaches out towards her figure as she shrinks into the distance... He hadn't even gotten her number.

Emma's mental broadcast traipses into the God of Might's thoughts. His jaw firms from it's downcast gawp and he reaches up, rending a limb from the tree as a make-shift club.

"The Lion of Olympus shys not from battle, he accepts it as one should; a gift!" he orates to any who would listen before he stretches his legs, hurtling into the first wave, sweeping his club left and right to greet the uninvited menace!

Clint Barton has posed:
The screams drop down three notches immediately when Emma reaches out. People slow from running in blind panic. They hunch over, move behind trees. Two rough looking youth who barrelled through a family picnic and knocked over an older man stop, go back and help him up, and help usher the family towards the other side of a long raised garden bed with cement sides.

"I just wanted to go home, have a shower, and get wings and a beer at the Bard and Banker," Clint grumbles as he drops to one knee. Eyes up toward the invaders, he unzips his duffel back. He pulls out and quickly slings his quiver, then grabs his bow. He presses a button and it snaps to full-size as he does a crouching run forward. He ducks behind a large tree and puts his back to it. He finds himself shoulder to shoulder with a teenaged girl and her girlfriend. They look at Clint with huge eyes. "Hey. Ah, my name's Clint, and this is probably not a good place to be right now," Clint says conversationally. He pokes his head out around the tree and a stray Chitauri bolt goes flying by. He ducks back.

"Do you think I could borrow this tree? You two should try getting behind that one," he says and points to the next. "When I say, you run behind it, then you keep running? Okay? Okay."

"Go!" Clint shouts. The girls takeoff. Clint leans around his tree and snaps out an explosive tipped arrow.

The lead Chitauri see Singularity inflate to a huge size in their line of fire and intensify their shooting. They make furious, frustrated noises as nothing seems to be happening. Five more who charge out of the portal behind them armed with some kind of poleaxes are about to charge Singularity when they see the Olympian charging at them. They turn and counter-charge, swinging their weapons towards Hercules.

Clint's arrow lands among the Chitauri shooting at Singularity and it explodes. A few go flying and the others are a bit confused, with no idea where the attack came from.

From her vantage point, Emma can see into the flickering portal. More chitauri are coming through, but many seem to be getting cut up by the portal's instabilities. A female alien on the other side of the portal rushes into view, dressed like the scientists or technicians manning the consoles. Everything about her body posture says she's in charge of the technicians and she is shouting orders. If Emma checks, her mind is clear, sharp, laser focused, with much more purpose than the aliens she is ordering around. The only one more determined than her is the male alien barking orders at the Chitauri. If the stench of blood could leak through into the astral plane, it would come from him. His bloodlust is unbelievably intense, but he is controlled, professional. Whatever she is saying it seems to be helping because the portal starts to stabilize a little.

"Great, aliens. Some kind of living universe I don't even understand. A god. And me," Clint mutters and gets ready to fire off another arrow.

Emma Frost has posed:
The blue girl that is appearing out of nowhere gets Emma's wide eyed attention. Now Emma goes to ponder over as she moves to try and take a psionic flow through the woman's mind if at all possible. Darting through it as she would consider. Moving over to try and if she could get over into the mind of the male. The seeming male that is unstable and just having his bloodlust repressed here. Then Emma goes to try and focus her mind through..

She's trying to get the bloodlust of teh alien up. The male. How-dare- this woman tell him what to do. How dare she think herself superior to him. How dare she prevent him from taking his rightful place over in the greater scheme of things?

Emma goes to try and build up all that thing over in the male seeming alien.. And tries to get him to start to threaten if she can the female, or perhaps even better to attack!

Singularity has posed:
    Singularity shimmers, swallowing up the weapons fire apparently without harm as she glances behind her to check that the civilians have exited the area. And heroes are here! She looks cheered as Hercules piles into the invaders and the arrows start being fired, before her body abruptly shrinks back to her normal size as she frowns, cocking her head at the new arrivals as her eyes glow.

    There's a flicker as a bluish portal spring to life under the the survivors of the next wave, allowing them to plummet. Somehow...the OTHER end of the portal sudden appears in the room over the aliens, positioned over the ones working the controls, particularly the male one and female one as the Chitauri plummets towards them.

    She figures that may distract them from sending more for a bit, at least! "Stay!" she says firmly, apparently to the teleported aliens.

Hercules has posed:
    Blaster fire peppers the God, his body jerks with the impact but he does not slow. Met with resistance he barrels ahead. It has been so long since he faced even a small phalanx. It tugs at a nostalgic cord in his heart. The plucked string humms inside of him even as he sweeps his club from left to right, batting aside two of the weapons. Two more sink into his chest, their foul alien science searing the rippling, olympian flesh of Hercules; chest. Those twin, mountainous heaps of flesh swell and rise as Hercules tighten his shoulders and holds them at bay. The fifth and final weapon is caught at the haft and used to batter it's user and cohorts.

He takes stock of his surrounding, a titaness of the night sky and-

Twang, K'boom!

Is that an Avenger or one of the Arrowlings...? He'll have to squint.

Clint Barton has posed:
Emma reaches through the portal for the mind of the war-leader. Focusing on him is hard, not because his mind is difficult. His mind is strange and he has had some training in resisting influence, but Emma's powers are immense. No, it's hard because he keeps moving. Flickers and shifts of the portal make it feel like the warleader is flickering back and forth over interstellar distances, wholly or partially. But Emma feels the red rise in his vision, the agitation, there...

Through the portal Emma sees the warleader lose his mind. He draws a blaster and fires, narrowly missing the scientist or whoever the woman who just arrived is, and shoots one of the technicians behind her dead. He throws himself at her and the two go down in a life or death brawl.

Just then as Singularity returns to normal size, Chitauri literally rain from the ceiling of the lab on the other side of the portal. The technicians are caught completely by surprised, some are crushed, some scatter. The Chitauri are half-crazed and start firing in the lab.

Three last Chitauri make it out of the portal and raise their weapons. Clint runs out from behind the tree to get a new position and sees the arrivals. He grabs three arrows from his quiver, knocks them all and fires. One arrow passes Hercules close enough the god can hear it whistling, the other two slide past Hercules' attackers by inches. All of them find their marks in the throats of the last Chitauri arrivals.

Meanwhile, the five attacking Hercules are brave and show no fear, but they are out-matched. The two that find their purchase in the god's body exult momentarily, only to fall victim to their own compatriot's weapon being used against them.

Clint jogs over as the last of the Chitauri fall. Everyone hears an enraged yell through the portal. The warleader stands up in the chaos in the lab. He is blood-soaked and tosses the limp body of the scientist aside. His face is a mask of pure rage as he stares out at the heroes he can see. Then the portal flickers one last time and dies.

"I get the feeling that guy's not a fan of ours," Clint comments. He looks over his shoulder. People are starting to pop up out of cover as they realize the portal is gone and the threat has passed. Sirens are starting up in the distance. The grass and trees show some blaster marks. A log-sized branch cracks and falls to the ground, causing a few more startled yells. "City works probably doesn't like us, either."

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost goes to duck down as she's able to start the group that are wrecking the lab. Hopefully which at least slows reinforcements. emma is going to move to more cover now, going to brace herself against the rocks and scatter behind some trees. As the warlord is shooting at the technicians, Emma goes to try and focus her mind on the woman. Now having some experience on how these creatures thought (hopefully) she's able to keep them distracted an dfocus.

Then the Chitauri are seemingly done with and Emma lets out a low groan. Lovely.. Aliens she didn't recognize, some sort of interdimensional portal.. And most importantly, her designer outfit is ruined. The one she bought the business in Paris to have made personally.

It's all right, she owns other tailors in Paris that can make her new ones.

Singularity has posed:
    Singularity looks relieved when the portal closes, then looks over at Hercules and Hawkeye as they step out, then grins big and gives them a thumbs up! Mission accomplished! NO one hurt! Well, the aliens, but probably just banged up. Except for the ones that shot each other. She does feel bad about that one. But no civilians hurt!

Hercules has posed:
    The fervor of the God of Might is just starting to rise up in his chest, yes, the one now leaking his semi-vital ichor. Having lived when bows and arrows were absolutely in vogue, he knows well their sound as they whistle pasthis ear. Feathered little devils, he glances away to see them find home. He is heartened to see them addressed to the uninvited throng and not the proverbial barn-side that is his unclothed back.

With little more effort the day is won! With a wrench and tug, Hercules turns and spreads his arms wide, a sandeled foot hefted upon the remains of the defeated.

"Hail and well fought good friends!" he bellows in triumph. He goes on, something about a chalice of victory quenching a thirst. He name drops some cousins. The man loves the sound of his own voice.

Clint Barton has posed:
Emma manages to catch the lead scientist's thoughts just as the warleader was squeezing the life out of her. She gets an image of the warleader and a name, Jaketch. And she gets a sense of the machine they used, a portal device they hope to perfect to bring large numbers of soldiers to Earth one day.

"If that means beer, I know where we should go," Clint says to Hercules. "Cause I know I need a drink."

Clint looks in the direction of their blue friend. "I don't know what you drink, but I bet they have it... If you drink. You coming?" Clint asks with a bit of a grin, then heads off with whoever will join him to find somewhere to take the edge off alien invasions.