13075/GIRL: Double Jeopardy

GIRL: Double Jeopardy
Date of Scene:	18 October 2022
Location:	Ranagar, Rann
Synopsis:	Our intrepid adventurers go before the Ranagar High Council and it appears there is more behind the problems on Rann than anyone thought. So, Nadia is placed under house arrest while Ranagar figures out if her story about an evil clone is true.
Cast of Characters:	Nadia Pym-van Dyne, Natasha Romanoff, Victor Stone, Donna Troy, Caitlin Fairchild, America Chavez, Kaida Connolly

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Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Last Time on GIRLs in Space!:

    When we last left our intrepid heroines (and Vic), they had arrived on the planet Rann to investigate its mysterious interdiction from Zeta travel and deep space communication. No sooner had they entered the lower atmosphere than they were confronted by a quintet of yellow AIM war zeppelins. While the vessels did not pose a truly significant threat to the Tereshkova or its occupants, they confirmed everyone's fears about AIM being involved in this. Once the Zeppelins were dispatched the Tereshkova managed to finish making it's way to Ranagar, with the team's more flight capable members joining them shortly after.

Old Spaceport, Outskirts of Ranagar,

    No sooner has the Tereshkova finished than the ship is surrounded by members of the Ranagar Defense Corps. When the airlock opens, into the ship steps a rugged looking man in a Defense Corps uniform bearing what are almost certainly various rank insignia, still wearing his jetpack and with a pair of Rannian rayguns worn on his waist. He is flanked by a pair of Defense Corp members in plainer uniforms carrying what appear to sophisticated scanning devices if such were seen through an art deco sci-fi lens.

    "You will have to forgive the precautions, in the current situation we cannot be too careful. The infiltration attempts are getting more and more sophisticated every day." The commander offers, before looking at the soldiers who boarded behind him. "Scan them."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff has taken upon herself most of the weapons from the armory, and some of the ones that she's stashed. And if Nadia had given in to some of her requests to scatter small Pym capsules around in hiding with more weaponst hat could be popped out if they were disarmed, she would take a couple of those to hide on her as well if she could if there were any.
    And so Natasha is walking around in a full combat suit, mask and with as many weapons on her as he can comfortably heft in the gravity of the place without taxing her ability to maneuver. She's come to Rann expecting war. They were met with it on the way in after all.

Victor Stone has posed:
    "If you're scanning for weapons most of mine are built into my chassis," Vic says as he holds out his arms to let the Ranagar Defense Corps people do their work. "What's happened here anyway? Last time we got a really great meal and a sight-seeing trip."

    Okay, so the 'sightseeing trip' involved vicious unicorn kitties and blowing up some bad guys, that's sight seeing for the Titans! Really!

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Infiltration?" Donna asks the ranking RDC officer, one eyebrow raised questioningly. "By the people who attacked us with those ridiculous air ships, I assume? What can you tell us about them -- what's going on here since we last visited?"

    She is of course being cooperative. They're free to scan her sword all they like. Depending on the kind of instruments they're using to scan with, they may pick up some peculiarities of the alloy, but it's just a lump of sharp metal really. If they even recognize the coil of rope at her hip as being a weapon, who knows what they're going to make of that. Probably nothing.

    "Last time we were able to get here via zeta beam too," Donna adds to Vic's comment. "That seems to not be happening now. Something's blocking the signal, apparently. Do you know what's going on? We've come to help, if needed."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin brings the ship down with a deft touch and steps out of the pilot's seat. She stretches hugely, back cracking. The redhead's in a form-fitting green bodysuit, designed with a minimal atmospheric sleeve. More importantly it attaches to her respiration system, by necessity bulkier than the other's.

She depressurizes her helmet and the faceplate retracts. The redhead picks up her space harness in one hand and her heavy maul in the other, and when the Rannians ask for them both, Caitlin hands them over obligingly. She does wince apologetically when one of the RDC agents immediately throws his back out trying to prove he can manage the three-hundred-pound maul.

"I mean kudos for security, but it seems like a long shot that someone would go to Earth, join the Titans, wait for Nadia and GIRL to invent Zeta-Beam teleportation, and then hope we develop an FTL craft they can stow away on," she chimes in helpfully.

America Chavez has posed:
    America doesn't carry any visible weapons, aside from the pair of them attached to her body that most people call arms and hands. All the same she's comfortable as the Ranagar Defense Corps scans her. To be honest it's a regular gag for her these days, jumping from one world to another being a regular occurance for her scans of various sorts are more a matter of what color the beam they use--if it has one--the scan employs is more interesting than the process itself.

    She jerks her head to Donna. "That's the long and the short of it for them" she says with a friendly smile. "I was... sort of in the area and decided to lend a hand. Sort of what I do. You might have a file on me. America Chavez?" she replies. Has she been here before? Hard to say. she does tend to move around a bunch and one Rann is hard to distinguish from another, when both are alien in nature.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
If the scanner was worth anything, it'd go crazy the moment it landed on Kaida but it probably doesn't see a mouse girl with a sword as a true threat. Stupid tech, really. Either way, Kaida casually rests her hand atop the hilt of her blade and looks around from her vantage point at ankle level. She walks confidently around folks, looking at the area, assessing it. Especially the sounds and the smells.

"How are numbskulls in rubber suits with hot air balloons even vaguely a threat to you and your people?" She asks of the Rannians present and looks at them carefully before squinting her eyes a little.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    The RDC officer regards Natasha coolly. "All weapons will remain on your ship for the time being." Which is at least a step better than confiscation. It is only then that he sees Alanna and his expression falls. That the daughter of a member of the High Council might be among them was not part of his briefing. It was going to be one of /those/ days.

    "What is going on? Where is my father?!" Alanna demands of the officer.

    "Alanna..." The RDC officer has little experience dealing with emotional teenagers thanks to Rann's reproductive issues. "Your father ordered these precautions himself. Please cooperate." He then turns to the others, "There have been issues with people disappearing and being replaced with sophisticated androids from the City-State of Dys, with whom our long cold war has turned hot again. Recently with the arrival of the yellow suited outsiders they are able to evade all but the most sophisticated Lost Tech sensors and have committed many acts of sabotage and terrorism trying to bring down the city's defensive shield." He turns back to the soldiers with the scanners, "Well?"

    "They appear to be clean." One of the soldiers answers. "One of them has is a partially machine based lifeform but does not match Tak Vall's technology."

    The RDC officer nods at the analysis before looking to those on the ship again. "Leave your weapons and follow us. The High Council will explain the rest."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff would shrug over then at the man, "Having seen your security, I'll be keeping these on me." The way she speaks that in the presence of a bona fide super genius, an amazon, a mouse, and a girl who punches through dimensions, Natasha's words still hopefully carry enough authority to make the man stand down. "And if we run into any infiltrators, I will deal with them." She would have said 'when' we run into any infiltrators but she's trying to be polite here. She does, however, glance over at Nadia with a 'should I leave them behind'. Well, at least the obvious ones. Hopefully at the very least even if Nadia is insistent the fact that she'll then have to take off all the -blatant- ones means they won't scan her again and notice the less than blatant ones on her. Or they might just be distracted enough and disoirented from things to hopefully let her go through.

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic frowns at the revelation of 'sophisticated androids.' "Yeah, I'm not--I'm a cyborg, specifically. This is my own body, just augmented with a high-tech life support system. It's all integrated, I mean--the computer's hooked into my brain and all. But I'm still me. Mostly." He does wonder sometimes, after all.

    Then he just kind of stares at Natasha for a moment. "It's their planet," he hisses. "We should probably follow their rules, huh?" He shakes his head, and grumbles something under his breath about being rude to the locals.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna's not joining in on the 'leave your weapons' thing, but she's doing it in a very understated fashion by simply pretending she's forgotten there's a sword sheathed at her belt. If someone actually says anything she'll claim it's ceremonial and that it would be deemed undiplomatic to require a princess of Themyscira to remove her sword, but she won't make a fight over it if they insist. Perhaps Natasha's refusal can be a useful distraction there, and she joins her voice to Vic's. "We are guests here," she adds with a nod of her head. "And if they're bringing us to the high council, I'm sure their security will be sufficient."

    Another nod is directed in the direction of the RDC officer. "If you can provide us with some samples of this android technology before we leave, we may be able to find some detection methods that can supplement the ones you already have. There are some areas where our technology may be more advanced than your current sensors, and we're eager to help."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin joins Victor in giving Natasha a look of mute appeal, already setting her hammer down considerately out of the way. "Romanoff, they're at *war*," Caitlin tells the other redhead, trying to sound urgent but polite. "It's not like we're going in there completely defenseless," she points out.

And Donna gets a prod just for good measure, too, and the same measured look. But it's not like they're going in defenseless. After all, if Caitlin can't reach for her trusty maul, she can just pick up a light tank as an improvised missile...

...but she does grab her backpack of medical gear, tools, and most importantly: snackies. Just in case!

America Chavez has posed:
    America sighs and rolls her eyes as some of the members of the group seem content to disregard the authority of the Defense Corps but she shrugs and shoves her hands in her coat pockets while she waits for the situation to play out. Disarming her would be a literal feat on its own so, to a degree she herself is disregarding it, but it would be a truly messy ordeal and not one that she's inclined to attempt.

    She's more than a little anxious though, she's got a number of questions on her mind concerning this war that the Rannians are engaged in. Like how AIMs beekeepers are managing to block the sophisticated science behind zeta transfer and what their involvement with this City State of Dys truly is. But those can wait until she's before those with authority; namely the High Council.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
Frowning a little, Kaida casually takes off her sheath and glares up at the guys. She doesn't like the idea of not having her sword. It's very important to her in a lot of ways. Still, all the same, she leaves it and huffs a little as they walk. It's tough not to be cute at her size but she does try to be huffy instead. Still, as they walk, it's clear she's uncomfortable, her right hand especally seems to be gripping at the air at her side on and off.

"I swear, you guys are really not cool to your guests." She states and nods her head as she walks, "I mean, honestly, who tells a mosue they can't have a sword with them? Someone who hates mice, that's who."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    The Defense Corps officer is really not impressed. It's his ass in the brig if he doesn't follow protocol and his orders after all. "Three choices." He says holding up three fingers. "One. The weapons stay and you come with us to the High Council Chamber. Two. The weapons don't stay and we're suppressing an insurrection. Three. You turn around and go home." He stands and waits for the disarmament to be complete, while the other two soldiers monitor things with their advanced scanning devices.

    Once there is a satisfactory lack of things that are obviously weapons, the group is escorted out of the Tereshkova with some of the other RDC soldiers who had been surrounding the ship falling in around them. Nearby there is a much larger and better armed version of Alanna's sky skiff waiting and once everyone is aboard it takes off through the city towards a large dome surrounded by four tour-like spires in the heart of Ranagar.

    The chambers of the High Council lie beneath that dome and it is to there that the members of GIRL and their Titan allies are escorted. While Nadia, Alanna and the others stand on the floor of the chamber in areas demarcated for petitioners coming before the High Council, the Councilors themselves sit elevated several meters above looking down, in a semi-circle around the far side of the chamber. Among the other elder statesmen and stateswomen of Ranagar sits Sardath, the city-state's chief scientist and Alanna's father.

    "Nadia Pym-van Dyne. Members of GIRL and Allies." A booming voice announces their presence before the High Council. Though at some point along the way Alanna seems to have become separated from the group.

    The individual councilors sit with steepled fingers. Sardath is the first to speak. "Under better circumstances we would welcome you back to Rann with open arms, however these are not better circumstances. Over the past several months our long cold war with Dys has turned very hot again with Vak Tall bent on Ranagar's annihilation. It was only after the arrival of the yellow suited outsiders that his technology has been able to improve by leaps and bounds seemingly overnight. We have since learned that the yellow suited outsiders came from Earth using the very Zeta beam technology that we developed together. If you have any insight into how that happened, we would very much like to hear it.

    Nadia can feel a lump in the back of her throat as she stands there before the councillors, she really doesn't like where this conversation is going. "They are evil science men called Advanced Idea Mechanics or AIM for short, they cause a lot of problems on Earth, too." She doesn't really want to mention the Expo attack or the stolen emitter, awkward.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha goes to let herself be disarmed at the pleas from the others, and if she's feeling irritable over she keeps it to hereslf. She goes several meters away from the group as they enter in. Noting along the way the path they're taking, security, entrance and exit points.. Vulnerabilities that one of those infiltrators might take advantage of to strike through at the council. And at them.
    The most vulnerable point was when the entire group would be together. All attention would be focused inwards. Security, attention..
    The best time to strike as all the targets were in one area. So as they go in Natasha is on subtle full alert over in case they do get attacked. Watching warily for signs of the breaking of the pattern of the guards, of the civilians, or what she's seen of the security and everything else. She's on alert but staying still. This is something to leave to the diplomats to handle. The Amazons are more than capable of handling any sort of security that might happen.
    She listens over to the talk about AIM with an eternal sort of sigh. There was going to have to be so much updating of thier threat profile since it seemed like AIM had the capacity for sufficient offworld transit to send significant assault forces to other areas of space.. This would be a nightmare for SWORD.
    As Nadia talks, Natasha listens, watching. And listening for the tell-tale signs of anything that she knew of AIM tech just on the edge of paranoia's case. While staying completely still over in her position.

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic pays attention to their surroundings as they pass through. He's been here before, and he quietly makes note of the changes that being a war footing has made to the place. When they come to the Council Chambers he peers at the Council, and then blinks. Wait--where'd Alanna go?

    He gives a sidelong glance to Nadia, but he doesn't know much about AIM, so he keeps quiet on that for now.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Your concerns closely mirror our own, Sardath," Donna calls out. If Nadia isn't going to give more details, someone has to. And it's not like they can't put two and two together. "We have limited information about AIM, but we're here to give you any information we have, and of course our help dealing with them. It would appear that they have managed to steal the Zeta technology from Earth before there was time to finalize proper security precautions. As you yourselves must have discovered by now, AIM is a threat which is nothing if not resourceful. "

    "I am a representative of Earth's independent Star Port project, and it is a part of that project to offer the best security that Earth can provide for the Zeta technology, but that's not in place yet. Removing AIM's access to that technology is obviously a necessary step to ensuring that security. I would like to extend an invitation to your government to post a representative to the Star Port, and of course we would welcome your involvement in that security process, for your own reassurance. "

    "However the immediate threat is that AIM has access to this technology at all," Donna continues, shifting on her feet a little, and scanning the faces of the councilors seated before them. "The reason for our coming here was to warn you of the danger they represent, and to remove that threat. The involvement of AIM in your own struggles here on Rann was news to us. To our surprise we were intercepted by a group of four of their vessels on our arrival here. We destroyed them, but clearly they have a significant presence on your world. The more you can tell us about that, the more help we can give you in removing these allies from our world that your enemies seem to have acquired."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    It is not Sardath that answers Donna but another of the councilors. Her eyes looking towards Nadia as well. "So you admit that the Zeta technology taken to Earth was not adequately protected? And now we have these new invaders allying with Dys so that they can once again attempt the destruction of our city?" She turns to look at the other councillors, "See? I told you consorting with offworlders would bring us nothing but trouble!" Giving Sardath a very pointed look.

    Nadia winces slightly at the politician's description. "It wasn't like that! They sent an army to our Science Expo and we fought them off really the security we had was amazing, there were tanks! They sent tanks and airships after us! But they got away with a Zeta Emitter. They shouldn't have been able to do all of this with just an emitter though!"

    "And you are sure you didn't help them?" Asks the man in the center of all the other councillors, raised slightly higher still, Xaltan Torr. Touching a control on the arm of his seat a viewing globe descends from the ceiling and begins showing footage of what looks a whole lot like Nadia with an older cybernetically enhanced Rannian man. "One of our spies managed to infiltrate Dys and capture this footage. The man is Tak Vall and the girl," He looks to Nadia. "The bio scans match. What do you have to say for yourself?"

    Nadia for her part is rather stunned, there is however a dawning realization as her brain starts to put the pieces together. Somehow Otchaya has come to Rann and is helping AIM. "Would you believe me if I said she's my evil clone?"

    "I am afraid," Xaltan Torr says, rising to his feet. "Given recent events we are unable to take you at your word. You will however be given a chance to prove the truth of what you say at trial. Arrest her." He then looks to the others. "The rest of you are free to, if you wish to help her defense arrangements can be made."

    Throughout the entire proceeding Sardath appears visibly uncomfortable, but he is unfortunately outvoted.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanoff would move over in front of Nadia protectively. "You'll retract your words. Now." Her tone has gone from diplomatic and neutral to solid ice, frozen as the Siberian Wasteland. Her hands are up and over in a defensiev position, even without weapons she stands as a guardian. "We can discuss things over and -correct- your mistaken assumptions." She's on a knife's edge now, not attacking but clearly ready to. Even as she's evaluating the positions. Security. Guardians. Counselors. This might not be a place of violence. It is intended to be a place of peace and discussion.
    Pity that Natasha is a violent woman at heart.
    There is, however, no attack from her. Yet. But should there be so much of a move over towards Nadia there would be instant reaction. However, at the behest of those whom are more diplomatic she does not strike out.

Victor Stone has posed:
    "Whoa, whoa, hold up," Vic says, putting up his hands. "If it /is/ Nadia's evil clone--and I'm sure it is, because Nadia wouldn't /do/ this--then the bio-scans won't match /perfectly/. Even a clone's gonna have differences in things like gene expression and fingerprints. So... maybe we double-check the scans, go a little deeper?"

    He eyes Xaltan Torr for a moment and adds, "Unless we're just being used as pawns in some kind of political game or something. Seems some of you are already inclined to be prejudiced against offworlders." A pause. "We came here, fought AIM, destroyed several of their blimps, and then you come and take our weapons and arrest our leader after a surprise reveal? Sounds pretty fishy. And where's Alanna, huh?"

    He folds his arms across his chest and nods to Donna. "Like Donna said--she's a representative of Earth. You /really/ want to cause a major interstellar diplomatic incident instead of slowing down and actually letting everyone talk?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna raises a hand towards Natasha, gesturing to back down a little here. Diplomacy is /always/ important. She takes a single step forwards. "Nadia has given you an explanation for your video footage, which is poor evidence to go on at best. Vic, would you like to show them footage of the esteemed councilor..." she hasn't got Torr's name "... shall we say sharing drinks with this Tak Vall? It would be very easy to provide --such footage is extremely easy to fake. No... perhaps that's not necessary right now."

    "Nadia has done you the courtesy of not questioning your evidence or your motives. Instead she has pointed out the simple answer, that the person in this footage is not her. That there is a clone of her is a known fact. Why should you believe her? Very simply, because she is your friend and ally. She had no reason to come here, but she chose to do so to aid you. We have already fought and destroyed four vessels of your enemies since we got here, and we can provide you more footage of Nadia and her people fighting against AIM on Earth, if you need it. "

    Donna turns to face the woman who is so suspicious of off-worlders. "Your enemies have some off-worlders aiding them. That makes your caution understandable, but to drive away the off-worlders who have come here to aid /you/ in turn would be foolish indeed." Her gaze returns to Zaltan. "I presume the majority of you are not so unwise as to refuse the aid of powerful allies in your time of need?" she asks pointedly.

    Donna rests a hand on Nadia's shoulder, and gives a slight nod in Vic's direction. "There's certainly no need for any diplomatic incidents here. We understand your security concerns, and I am sure that Nadia will have no hesitation to offer you what information and clarifications she can. However we must insist that she be treated as a guest who is helping you with your enquiries, rather than as a prisoner. After all you have no actual /evidence/ against her. I'm sure you would not have yourself arrested if my companion were to present you with that easily faked footage I mentioned, after all."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin steps closer to Nadia and rests one hand on her shoulder opposite Donna's, but instead flashes a very reassuring smile at the shorter scientist. It's partly a calming gesture, and partly a very clear statement that the Titans are not going to just hand her over to the Rannians-- particularly after the show of good faith they'd displayed leaving their weapons behind.

It also puts her in a position where Donna has a clear run at the upper floors and Caitlin can make a direct line for a squad of guards waiting for the Council to decide how big of a fight they want on their hands.

wewre one to think back on it, this isn't even the first time the Titans have had to interdict to keep one of their members from being arrested and dragged in front of a kangaroo court.

America Chavez has posed:
    America looks around and considers her options. Causually--or at least as casually as a 6 foot tall, Utopian woman can--she positions herself as much in the center of the group as she can. She scuffs a toe of one of her hightops on the ground of the hall and says under her breath to Donna and Cait, "Just say the word and we're back on the ship."

    It'd be flashy, but it'd get them all to safety to just open the ground beneath them and portal to whole lot back to their ship to make an impromptu escape. Would it cause diplomatic tension? Absolutely. But... it would also save one of their people. One of them that she considers a close and personal friend--and prospective teamate to boot.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    "Guys, guys, GUYS!" Nadia holds up her hands as all of her friends seem suddenly ready to throw down with the High Council of Ranagar. "It's Otchaya. I know it's Otchaya, you know it's Otchaya, they don't know it's Otchaya. Let's, what's that expression kill two stones with a bird, that doesn't seem right... anyway! I think it's easy." She looks up at Xaltan Torr. "I surrender." And then looks between him and Sardath. "How about this, I stay at Sardath's house as a guest like Donna said, you can surround it with guards if you want, so many guards, all the guards. I won't leave I promise. My friends go and capture Otchaya and then you see we're not the same person and we help you get rid of AIM."

    Xaltan Torr looks at Donna, "That may be but I am not inclined to doubt the integrity of the Defense Corps scouts. There is no reason them to fake such material. Be that as it may, there is merit in what you say." He then shifts his gaze to Nadia when she speaks up and to Caitlin, Victor, and Natasha standing protectively over her, before finally looking at Sardath and the other xenophobic female councilor, and back to Nadia again. He steeples his fingers. "I can see why you are friends with Sardath's daughter." It's not entirely clear if that's a good thing or a bad thing in his mind. "Very well. You will serve House Arrest as a Guest in Sardath's home while this matter is sorted out." And to the others. "Bring us this one called Otchaya or sufficient evidence of her existence and we will consider this matter settled."

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic glances back and forth at the Amazons as they surround Nadia, then listens to Nadia herself make her suggestion. "I mean--sounds good to me. Win-win. Nadia gets to chill for a bit, we get to nab her evil clone, you get a major threat out of the way. Win-win-win, I guess?"

    He shrugs, and glances at Donna. He's okay with this plan. Is everyone else?

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Ther'es a look of passive irritation that goes over Natasha's face over that quickly vanishes and switches over to neutrality. Even as she goes to just look over at the xenophobic councilor over with a thin smile. "We look forwards over to presenting our case and convincing you of it and resolving the issue." Even with her on edge, there's still a sadistic looking smile on her face.
    One should probably stop her over before she would go to start putting up covert surveilance on the rest of the council and planning out proper ways of blackmail, assassination, and perhpas the occasional kidnapping to ensure the 'proper' verdict was achieved.
    Probably best to make sure she's not left alone.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna gives Nadia's shoulder a gentle squeeze. She's rather proud of the small Titan. "Nor do we believe your Defense Corps has faked this evidence," Donna reassures Torr. "It's undoubtedly Nadia's clone who is causing this trouble. I suppose we should not be surprised that AIM would seek to work with her. As Nadia is content with this solution, it is acceptable to us too. This is your world and we have no desire to cause you any extra difficulties. Until you are convinced of her innocence, Nadia will remain under house arrest for as long as we stay here on your world to help you, so that you may have no concerns as to her intentions."

    Diplomacy is never just about making agreements, even when you're agreeing. It would take a little thinking about Donna's words to notice her implication that a more /extended/ arrest is not on the cards here. No doubt Xaltan Torr is quite experienced enough a diplomat to recognize both the message and the fact that it is presented in a way that defers the question behind willing cooperation rather than presenting it as a direct challenge.

    Donna gives Vic a quick wink before turning back to give Torr another nod. "With your permission, we'd like to accompany Nadia to Sardath's house to settle her in and discuss things with both her and Sardath while we make plans to deal with the AIM menace and remove the threat Otchaya represents to you as well. Please ask your Defense Corps to prepare as much information as you feel comfortable sharing with us - the location this video was taken, and the scope of AIMs activities so far, for example. The more you are able to share with us, the easier it will be for us to aid you."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Once that's done, Caitlin drifts away from Nadia in a silent expression of relent; she's not compeltely thrilled with the idea, but diplomacy is often a game of compromises and Nadia's quick thinking defuses what was about to become a really sticky diplomatic incident.

"With the Council's permission, I'd like to visit one of your Academies or public labs that specializes in genetics," Caitlin offers, speaking up a little. "I'm one of a handful of medical experts on earth with experience with clones and xenobiology. I'm confident I could show your people how to analyze our DNA and chromosomal markers to identify the clone and distinguish her from our Nadia."

America Chavez has posed:
    So that's the play then. They give Nadia over to the Rann as a bargaining chip while they go deal with this clone? America doesn't like it. Not one bit. "Why is it always clones?" she mutters under her breath. "No one ever goes with the classics anymore."

    She moves over toward Nadia. "We'll get this squared away ASAP, Waspette. -Promise-." Her gaze to Donna and Cait is pretty direct, before she offers her fist to her friend. "Until then, think of it as a vacation. Bit of a house arrest level vacation, but still a vacation."

    She smiles. "We'll have a true one when this is all over. Trust me, there's some places out there I want to show you that put this place to shame." She winks. "But... let us handle this clone business first."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    Nadia smiles at all of her friends. She appreciates their willingness to fight for her, she really does. "I'll be fine, really! And there's plenty I can do even from Sardath's house, like investigate the Zeta dampening." A bright side to everything. It's not like she couldn't escape if it came down to it anyway, even the Red Room couldn't hold her.

    "It is settled then." Xaltan Torr agrees. "You may accompany her to Sardath's dwelling." His head turns in Sardath's direction. "You are excused to accompany them as well Sardath. This Council appoints you as our representative to oversee this matter until this 'Otchaya' has been captured and brought before us. Kal Jat will also accompany you to see to the security arrangements personally." Another councilman in the uniform of the Ranagar Defense Corps, almost certainly their chief, nods in agreement with Xaltan Torr. Torr looks to the other councilors and then those below in the gallery again. "If there is nothing else, this Council is adjourned."