13476/Phantom In-Ze

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Phantom In-Ze
Date of Scene: 04 December 2022
Location: Siberia, Earth
Synopsis: Alura makes a desperate attempt to escape the Phantom Zone. Thankfully family and friends turned up and helped out, taking a leap of faith. Welcome to ,Rth, Alura In-Ze.
Cast of Characters: Alura In-Ze, Clark Kent, Donna Troy, Conner Kent, Monet St. Croix, Caitlin Fairchild, Karen Starr




Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura had been sent to the Phantom Zone by the angry mob of Argo City. The city was dying and resources were tight. Instead of facing the reality that ths science had given them - rationing and losses - the people chose to revolt. Alura's time in the phantom zone was not easy, it was never easy for anyone who was forced to come here. But overcoming and learning to survive against the native creatures that live here meant she finally caught up with the first Kryptonian ever sent here. Jax-Ur.

The facility Jax-Ur built in the Phantom Zone was a testament to his ingenuity. Sure, he was a science criminal with the death of thousands on his hands but he still knew his stuff. A mirror of the Phantom Zone's Fort-Roz, it was intended to create a Roz-Bridge back to reality from the Phantom Zone. Jax-Ur couldn't quite figure it out though, the science was beyond him.

Instead, he discovered fragments, shards, that shimmered a little closer to reality than the rest of the phantom zone. He set about adjusting the design of the Roz-Bridge to connect to these shards. When Alura found him in the Phantom Zone, he detested her and applauded her all in a single moment - he had clearly been losing his marbles and Alura knew if she stayed here too long the same would happen to her.

As he explained his discovery Alura checked his math. It became evident that his theory was flawed. Going through any old shard would be tantamount to death, a gamble, a flip of the coin. The conditions had to be right - they had to be perfect - and if you wanted to come out anywhere sensible you have to be patient. Jax-Ur was not patient.

Alura could do nothing to stop the man taking that first leap through a weakened shard and whether he survived or not she still does not know - but she created a program to search for the perfect shard that would lead her to her daughter, or back to Argo City. Either would do, whichever came first. One locked on to the coordinates where they sent Kara Zor-El, the other locked on to the coordinates of where Argo City was headed.

Instead of waiting and exposing herself to the detrimental affects of the phantom zone, Alura suspended herself in sunstone to be awoken when a shard was found. One moment she was standing in a chamber of circles powered by smuggled sunstone in a facility that could be considered almost state of the art --- the next the circles spun back down and Alura witnessed the destroyed facility. It had been ransacked by other prisoners while she slept, desperate to find a way out.

Clark Kent has posed:
    Another day in Metropolis. Mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent is slightly outside of the city, surrounded by the warehouses and factories that keep the city alive. He's at the opening of a new electric car facility covering the show the manufacturer is putting on celebrating the event. As always, faithful sidekick Jimmy Olsen is taking pictures right and left of just about anything he can see. He'll go through them and find the good ones later.

    Clark is talking into a recorder, putting his thoughts and feelings in to the device for when he writes the article later. It's a time-honored method for a newspaper reporter. Even in this computer era, sometimes writing conveys things better than video. And amazingly, this factory will provide what it promised, a bunch of new jobs and the cars will help tone down the pollution problems at least a little.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Notice how the shaft of this spear is much more slender," Donna says to Monet. "For a spear used in melee, you want something that's not going to break, but for throwing spears you not only want something lighter, but it's actually helpful if the shaft breaks. It means they can't throw it back at you, and means there's less leverage for trying to pull it out of a shield."

    Monet has been spending quite a bit of time at the Embassy recently. She has even been to Themyscira. While she doesn't have any kind of official position with the Amazons, she's been showing an interest in Themysciran culture, and the Themyscirans always welcome that. Today that seems to mean she's getting a personal tour of the embassy armory from Donna.

    "You see Diana and I with swords a lot, spears less often. But don't let that fool you. Spears are the most common weapon you'll see an Amazon fight with generally. Contrary to Hollywood belief, spears generally win against swords. Or pretty much anything else. They're the ultimate melee weapon generally, but swords are extremely good when you're in close. Typically a warrior will use their spear most of the time, and their sword in specific occasions, but Diana and I are faster than most, and that gives us an advantage at close quarters. In close, nothing beats a sword and shield."

    Indiana Jones would disagree, but Indiana Jones never fought someone fast enough to deflect bullets with their bracers.

    While this tour is going on, back in Metropolis, in one of the labs in Titans tower, a piece of equipment cobbled together from Kryptonian sunstone parts interfaced to a more conventional terrestrial laptop by Supergirl sits quietly, where for the last several months it has been monitoring the substrate of the Null Space interface for hints of fractures to delve into, monitoring for indications of unexpected disruption to that interface, and searching for a specific trinary helical signature. There had been silence -- suspended in the protective sunstone circle, Alura's physical presence has not been detectable. On the laptop screen, a series of Kryptonian glyphs scroll endlessly up the screen, showing what they have shown for months, until a single glyph changes. Monitoring systems in the lab, set up because the Titans have learned from experience that if anything unexpected happens in an empty lab an alert should go out, do not trigger. It's too small a change to send the alert -- yet.

Conner Kent has posed:
It is a slow Sunday evening in New York. Chilly outside, but not raining, window is open, but Conner is working on a college project on his laptop. Last one! Finals are coming, but then the Winter Break.

The sounds of the Village are both distracting and comforting. No gunshots, no accidents. He still needs to master filtering what is important and what isn't, so open windows also serves as practice of shorts.

There is also a Starkphone at his side, and every few minutes he checks the texted messages, that has little to do with college or vigilantism, that is Generation Z's habits. Maybe bad habits. Whatever. He is connected.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
At the armory, Monet St. Croix is dutifully observing the array of weapons. The build of them, the balance.. The material. The way that they were forged and crafted. She would nod over at Donna, "Effective. Combat is the first to break the shield wall.." She's musing on what she knows of Bronze Age tactics.
    She's enraptured, even as she's looking at the wood that was used for them and how finely it was hewn. "Spears are effective. They give greater range, leverage, and control. They can be used against a wider variety of possible adversaries." Cavalry, fliers.. W here simple swords and pikes would be less effective.
    "Do you find swords to be more effective than something like a pike or morningstar when it comes to engagements at close quarters?" A pike more effective at least in the early days of iron when it came to crushing through heavy armor.
    And Indy, if he would face up against Amazons, would no doubt find to his chagrin that a gun didn't trump. Fortunately, he would have other ways of dealing with the situation. IF he were a real person and had encountered Amazons. Instead of Harrison Ford.
    "Does Amazon combat tend to favor formation fighting and a phalanx style or other ways of fighting? At range do you traditionally prefer bows or slingers?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin is asleep.

'Sleeping' is perhaps a generous description of it, but she's at least relaxed and quiet in the Titans' research labs. She's reclined in a heavily built chair with a complex, if somewhat out-of-date, VR learning helmet on her head. In her pink scrubs and crocs, she's clearly come straight off her residency hours and immediately grabbed what bare minimum sleep she needs. And because she has to *study* like any other med school resident, sleep time is best used as learning time to boot. It's not quite the same as being nose first in a good textbook, but its a lot more time efficient. And she's conveniently near the Titan's complex sensor systems and lab equipment just in case a warning or alert comes down the pipe unexpectedly.

Caitlin snores once and *snrks* under the helmet, rousing just enough to shift her weight around before settling down again.

Karen Starr has posed:
    In Metropolis, there is a glass tower.

    It is many floors high, most of which are Research and Development. On one floor, a brilliant scientist uses nanotechnology to perfectly recreate a 1970 Dodge Charger from a supplied block of raw materials, and nothing but modified blueprints. It is, in every way, a perfect recreation: Save for the experimental engine that powers it; a high performance electric model that is not yet ready for mass production, but shows incredible promise in charge longevity and charging speed. The designs for this engine are revolutionary, as once it is ready, it will be effectively low-cost, and will fit most engine bays- which means that Starrware will eventually either license the design, or purchase licensing rights to recreate vehicles on demand for customers. Karen has not yet decided which, once the product is out of the trial phase.

    Sadly, that brilliant scientist creating that revolutionary new automobile is not Karen Starr.

    Karen Starr is on the topmost floor of the building proper- her penthouse is the only floor above it- staring at a pile of paperwork that, in her duties as Power Girl, has grown to be perhaps the second largest tower in Metropolis. For a moment, a split-second and yet somehow an eternity for the Kryptonian, Kara Zor-L considers burning that tower down. One finger extends, pressing down on a section of the glass top of her desk. "What's the status on going paperless for all records at Starrware?" she asks. "We went paperless a year and a half ago, Ms. Starr." comes the reply. "So all of this is over a year old?"

    "Yes. It's been on your desk for the last year."

    There is a sharp intake of breath. Her finger lifts. "Should probably have gotten to this sooner. Shit." As she is dutiful in her work as Starrware's founder, owner, and CEO, Karen looks at the pile of paperwork, and then immediately goes about looking at various other readouts from the holographic interface on her desktop.

    Ever sensitive, there is a single, solitary blip on a form of radar- Karen is, constantly, looking for any small weakening in the barrier between this universe and all others. Each one she finds is a point of interest, a possible route home. This is not that at all- but so sensitive is the equipment that she recognizes that something is happening- something is coming through.

    There is a rush of air, a pink blur- and Karen Starr's status now reads Out Of Office.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura checked the logs: more than a few had taken the leap of faith and dived through a random shard. Suicide, as far as she was concerned. Even if they were lucky enough to survive it who knows where they'd end up. Probably in the void of space.

But now her shard was here, was ready. A motion over the golden bracer on her arm and her holographic interface returned. Shimmering golden Kryptonian symbols hovering above her forearm. With a touch to the symbols, she activates the make-shift Roz-Bridge, it is time for her to leave this accursed place.

The rectangle mirror like shard would have passed harmlessly through the Earth, unnoticed by anything but perhaps the IceBox, a massive neutrino detector underneath the Antarctic. But as Alura pumps energy in to this fracture, it becomes visible and snaps in to place, frozen by observation from the phantom zone.

There are creatures in the phantom zone that defy explanation. The 'lightning' as Alura had named them were one such anomaly. Like a bolt of lightning caught in the moment of striking; but inverted black sucking in the light. These things appeared and drifted about, drawn to technological activity. Deadly, she had learned to limit the time power sources were active. One had just appeared on the far side of the room.

Alura increases the power output to the shard between zones. The fracture stabalises - a frosty mirror like surface that barely lets the light through. She approaches and places her hand to it. It's cold to the touch and firm. This shard is not as thin as the others. She should have anticipated this but she didn't. A mistake. She can tell this place is getting to her by the number of mistakes she's been making. There's been a lot. Too many. But everything decays in this place - even her white gown she wears has frayed to almost rags.

In the planes of Siberia, a glass like frame burns the air about it and the snow sizzles on the ground around it. It too is like a foggy mirror showing the blurry shape of Alura on the far side in darkness.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Up close, a spear or pike is awkward," Donna replies. "And a morning star is front-weighted, which gives it more hitting power but less control. Amazons are generally not short of hitting power. As for slings versus bows, they're not really that comparable. Slings have excellent range but not the best accuracy. They have the advantage of being able to pick ammunition up of the ground. They're relatively easy to learn. However in the hands of a skilled archer, a bow... excuse me a moment."

    Donna pulls her T-Com from her belt, where it has started bleeping. She flips open the screen and studies if for a few moments, before tapping at the screen a few times. Supergirl's T-com is switched off, and she sighs slightly. A quick message is sent to her com, and then she sends an emergency alert to Caitlin's T-com.

    Back in the Titans Tower lab, a cluster of crystals has started glowing a dull red color, the ruddly light enough to trigger an alert. The lab alerts are pretty non specific, but a glance at the monitors had shown Donna that it was Kara's detector that was lighting up, and that's important -- it might mean her mother has been found, but it might also mean that /something else/ is attempting to break through the barriers between the Phantom Zone and local space. That's not generally going to be good news.

    Donna steers the camera through the T-Com remote access to point at the screen of the laptop. The glyphs covering the screen are now dramatically different from those that have been there for the past few months. She studies them with a frown of intent concentration -- though she can read the language, she can't determine much from the esoteric mathematics. The symbols in a box at the bottom corner of the screen look like geographic data though....

    "Cait? You seeing this? I can't rouse Supergirl, but I've left her a message. I think we should investigate."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would nod over, "OF course. Thank you for explaining. I'm only passively familair with the Roman Legions and their tactics so that forms my only real basis of fluency." She finds this very educating to learn. And asks her questions as she gets teh information. She would pause over then at Donna as the Amazon goes 'excuse me'.
    She pays a distant attention over to the T-Comm, which she recognizes over as the unfamiliar sound of the alarm 'pings' over it. She doesn't bother to ask what it is, she'll be updated if appropriate over.
    She would look over at Donna, reading the other woman's facial expressions as best she could. She can get 'message to Kara' pretty simply. "I'm coming along to help." Her tone is firm. Kara is someone close to her. So if the Kryptonian can't be there, then Monet shall do what best she can to render aid in obligation.
    "Have me do whatever is useful." She would look over at the camera, presuming Donna lets her. She would furrow her brows. Not recognizing the language or the symbols beyond that it was Kryptonian.. But she recognized mathematical notation and symbology when she saw it. Her eyes would alertly view over what she could make out.

Clark Kent has posed:
    On the opposite side of the planet from the IceBox, a structure of massive crystals reflects the sunlight. The Fortress of Solitude does provide just that when Kal-El needs just a little break from the world's problems. It also houses what is probably the largest collection of Kryptonian scientific devices remaining in the known universe. They've been carefully collected or built over a good number of years at this point.

    And one of them has just woken from it's perpetual slumber.

    The energies from the potential opening between Earth and the Phantom Zone are precisely what it existed to watch for, and now here they are. If it was alive, the sensor would celebrate being able to do it's job. Since it isn't though, it fulfills it's function by sending a signal to Kal-El that a potentially major problem is about to pop up.

    Looking around the area of the opening celebration, Clark looks for somewhere private. It doesn't have to be too private, as countless changes in telephone booths, which are mostly glass after all, have shown. And these days, those phone booths are becoming quite rare, especially on the grounds of brand new factories. Fortunately bleachers have been erected for the public to observe from, so the reporter ducks under some festive bunting and vanishes under the bleachers.

    Almost invisible to the naked eye, Superman blasts into the sky after emerging from the other side of the bleachers, turning to a northward trajectory and going supersonic once he's high enough not to rattle windows.

    Back on the ground, Jimmy lets his camera rest by the strap around his neck and turns, saying "Clark, I thin -" and then looking around for the now vanished reporter.

Conner Kent has posed:
As Conner speed-reads over the raw data needed to describe the sorry state of journalism in modern Russia, he hears a faint beep. The young man checks the cellphone. Nope. But then...

He stands up and rushes to the nightstand, pulling out the small Outsider communicator, which the team uses only in official missions. Amber light. Not red. Whew. Still, he better check.

A minute later, after using the bat-vpn to the Outsiders computers, he finds out something-something Kryptonian in Siberia. "Why Siberia? Why not some nice place like Hawaii?"

Siberia. Calling Kara first. No luck. Okay, then a ballistic trajectory over the North Pole and that means like... he better get a breather. Save the work. Text Tim. Open GPS app. And off to Siberia!

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Cait jolts awake and bangs her helmet against the seat she's on. She tries to sit up too fast and the safety cables yank the whole affair backwards again, making her flail as she tries to discombobulate herself.

"Yes. No! Uh, I'm-- darnit, hangon," she says, and fumbles with the straps that hold the helmet in place. Somewhat sleepy-eyed and with her hair going in haystacks, Caitlin gets out of the unit and stumbles towards one of the monitor readouts.

"Uh... yeah, I'm seeing it. Huge bursts of... anti-neutrinos?" Her nose wrinkles in confusion. "Why are we even scanning for those..." It takes her just a few moments to track down the source of the notification, and she draws the line between the sensor readouts and Kara's long-dormant science project. "Oh crabapples, it's that Nullspace detector going off," Caitlin informs Donna over the T-comm. "Some gravitational anomalies, it looks like it's out near ... Siberia, maybe." She frets her lip in thought. "Neutrino emissions spike during dimensional breaches. This might be something similar. Come to the Tower, 'kay? I'll get the coordinates punched in and load up a Javelin."

She hesitates for a moment and sends out a text message to the Kryptonians in her contact list. Karen and Clark, Kara obviously, and Conner as well. It's an alert about the sensor spike and she follows it up with a question: 'Titans moving to intercept signal. Scale of 1:10, how bad is this?'

Karen Starr has posed:
    A small computer in her gauntlet informs Power Girl of the location of the incursion- and of its nature. This suddenly becomes less of an inquisition into a possible breach point, and more a peacekeeping mission.

    Of course, there is something to mention about laws. There are numerous monstrosities contained in the phantom zone that cannot see the light of Earth for more than a spare second. That means that some laws are about to get broken. Laws of man, and laws of physics. There's an obnoxious pop over the northern United States, audible to people on the ground, as Karen rips past acceptable speeds, racks up more than a few warnings about respecting sovereign airspaces, and becomes, for a moment, the fastest flying thing on the planet.

    <<"Power Girl to all available members of the Justice League, we have a Phantom Zone incursion in Siberia. I'm en route.">>

    The last bit is a lie: She is not merely on route. By the time she's finished speaking, she has arrived in the snowy planes, drifting down from the sky and observing the glass plane that holds behind it a familiar shape- but one for the moment, that she cannot trust.

    Who knows what is really behind that visage- and whether or not, if it even is Alura, her mind remains stable having spent so long inside the Phantom Zone. Caution is always advised... No matter how much an unfavorable encounter is going to hurt, and in what myriad ways.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
A firm push of her hand. This feels very thick. A step back and then as strong a kick as she can muster. Not even a scratch. ":dol," (that's bad) she whispers to herself. She needs more leverage, more mass. Her eyes sweep over the destroyed consoles, the shattered windows, the cracked floors. There, a standing stool, that'll do.

Approaching the barrier keeping her from freedom she drags the chair along the floor. Its scraping sound summons another of the lightning creatures. It appears with a crackle off to her side. She pauses, glancing at it side long for a moment. She's still not sure how it is these things hunt exactly but as it starts to drift in the wrong direction she keeps on moving.

The symbols hovering above her forearm morph and she looks at them, "nim iuz chedehdh" (time is short) the stability is slowly ticking down. She grips the chair and gives it a mighty swing in to the barrier. It bounces off violently but a small little chip appears, a crack, a tiny ray of hope. "jivehd," (success) she says with a draw of deep breath. The phantom zone drains you of your strength. The reverberating echo summons a third lightning in the hallway. Alura looks back at it and frowns. If this doesn't work she isn't sure she'll make it out of this ruined facility alive.

And yet, in the real world time moves so differently to the phantom zone. Nullspace and time have a very strained relationship. It takes Clark and Karen no time at all to get to the strange anomaly in Siberia but everyone else more time to gather there. The shape inside the rectangle moves like in slow motion sometimes, other times quickly, it is unsettling. But so far it is the least eventful incursion ever witnessed.

Alura swings the chair again and strikes at the surface with another gooong that reverberates through the base. Another small chip. She pants for a moment, leaning against the chair. ~"Come on Alura. You have to do this. If you don't - you die."~ she says trying to pep herself up.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna gives Monet a quick nod of agreement, and is already fetching her sword and lasso when she responds to Caitlin. "Potentially an eleven, Cait. Get straight to the T-Jet, will meet you over Wharton state forest. Then we go ballistic, do a micro-jump once we're safely exoatmospheric. No time to waste flying the conventional route. I'm going to try rousing Terry -- if I can get him he can intercept us en route and take us straight there from the T-Jet, but I don't think we can afford to delay while we see if he's available."

    She taps a quick alert to Terry's T-Com, but there's no immediate response, so she clips the T-Com back to her belt, and gestures to Monet. "Come. No time to waste, this could be serious."

    As she leads Monet up to the roof, Donna calls back over her shoulder, "We're going to meet an aircraft mid-air in New Jersey. You up for that?" Then one final call via her com, down to the front desk. "Gala... when Diana comes in, tell her to contact me immediately. Potential emergency."

Clark Kent has posed:
    Superman is bare seconds behind Power Girl, a mere blur of blue and red before he's standing beside her, looking at the window into (and out of) the Phantom Zone. Glancing over at her he says "Hopefully we won't end up with another Zod, but be ready."

    As is usual for Siberia, the wind causes his cape to billow and snap behind him, the freezing temperatures not even felt by the two Kryptonians as they watch the blurred window intently, ready to leap into action should anything dangerous come through.

    The sensors in the Fortress continue to gather data on this particular incursion from the Phantom Zone, expanding the information Kal-El already had by quite a bit since this one is actually staying semi-open and in one place. Usually this sort of thing vanishes almost as soon as it has appeared.

    He's a bit puzzled, as the blurry figure behind the mirror seems to be throwing furniture at it. That's a new twist on these things.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would nod over and listen. She goes along over with Donna and floats along so she's not having to waste time over by putting her feet on the ground. The nod from her is acknowledgement that it's understood. She glances at Donna and goes to speak telepathically.
    <<Permission to pull the information from your mind to brief myself?>> ALways best to ask for such things if it wasn't an emergency. It was the quickest way to (with okay) bring herself up to speed as she's heading along towards the roof with Donna, ready to launch and render aid.

Conner Kent has posed:
Flying at a much more rational speed of maybe around Match 20 on a parabolic trajectory, it takes Conner a bit over 30 minutes to get to the signal point, which due to temporal weirdness matters little. He is, nevertheless, a minute or two after Clark and Karen. They can hear him coming by the music blaring on his headphones. Highway to Hell from AC/DC. Totally coincidental.

And the Starkphone says it is here. So music is off, and... oh, big S is here! Also PG. "Damn, this one must be serious? What is going on, guys?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Fortunately MARVIN is more than able to spool up a Javelin-- indeed one of the reasons the Titans *have* one is for exactly this kind of emergency. By the time Caitlin's changed into more rugged attire, the vehicle is warmed up on the launchpad. Caitlin stomps up the deck in her heavy boots and tosses her backpack into a cargo net to hold it in place. Once at the pilot's seat she takes off and arrows directly for New Jersey and the Themysciran center. Picking up Monet and Donna is just as easy as opening a door. She doesn't even slow the jet down.

They leave atmosphere, burn hard and fast northward, and re-enter on a gliding vector. It's the slowest response time, well after the House of El has already arrived on scene. The Javelin swoops past and lands on a rocky promontory not far away. Caitlin looks as unbothered by the cold as anyone else, wearing a simple aubergine bodysleeve with green piping. Her hips are laden with gear on her belt and a large backpack holds a slew of things that cover a surprisingly wide array of contingencies.

And she's got her Srs Bznsis face on, whipping her now-braided hair into a tight bun pinned at the back of her neck. "You people do make it easy to have a get-together," she informs the Kryptonians-- but there's a smile of warm affection there, and she greets them with a familial ease, inasmuch as the moment permits.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Karen seems to take these things quite seriously- so she arrived here in a matter of moments.

    Sure, there's already red flags and complaints being submitted to the League and the Avengers both for her conduct, but even on the best of days, she doesn't care. When Clark arrives, Power Girl is already staring down that window into the Phantom Zone with thoughtful intent. The person on the other side seems desperate- in need of rescue.

    Her arms fold. "There's worse than Zod in the Zone. We can't let any of those monsters through- But this doesn't look like one of them." The noise of a jet and the sound of music fills her ears as the others arrive. They're not spared a glance, the stern expression of the blonde remaining locked on the conundrum before them.

    "Can we afford a breach? Even for a moment?" she asks.

    She already knows the answer. She just needs to hear Kal say it.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura presses her lips in to a thin line of determination. With a grunt she slams the chair in to the barrier again and again. The crack begins to grow. A chunk of ... she realises she no idea what this barrier is made out of. Something that exists between different phases of space. A discovery for sure, something to be studied.

~"Focus Alura"~ she snaps at herself. It's easy to let your mind wander in this place. Intention is hard to keep clear. She swings the stool again. The crackle of a lightning drifts closer and she backs away slowly. The flash and twitch of the strange electrical anomaly can be seen glittering through the barrier on Earth's side of the encounter.

~"Move death-line.. Move.." she wills it with words. It's taking up the space she needs to attack the barrier. Her eyes glance at her bracer display again. Power levels are dropping, stability is weakening.

Her eyes flit to the barrier. Movement on the other side. Are there people there? She squeezes past the lightning and bangs on the thing, "ULIR KHAP!" (HEAR ME!) she yells at the top of her lungs. The vague outline of a stylistic S surrounded by a shield is formed against the barrier as she presses herself to it.

The lightning creature shifts its direction seemingly in response to Alura's yell. She moves back out of the way and her eyes widen - direct sensory stimulation and response. ~"YES!.. FOLLOW MY VOICE"~ she yells at it to lure it away from the barrier while she still has time. Slowly it shifts its vector but so do the others as they converge toward Alura from all directions and two more appear.

Donna Troy has posed:
    There's enough time on the flight to give Monet the low-down, but Donna does give her permission for something else: "Look, we don't really know what to expect, but we think something's coming through, and if it does there's a good chance it's a Kryptonian who has been imprisoned there. I don't need to tell you how potentially dangerous that could be. On the other hand that doesn't necessarily mean we're facing another Zod, there are more positive possibilities. Either way, unless Kara has been teaching you the language, feel free to tap into my linguistic centers. My Kryptonian isn't perfect, but I'm reasonably fluent."

    On arrival, Donna crunches her way across the snow and permafrost a little behind Caitlin, and ahead of Monet. She greets the Kryptonian contingent with a nod and a business-like "Kal, Conner, PG. Any idea what we've got here? Kara's detectors triggered back at the tower, but we haven't been able to contact her. Her T-Com is off again. She was hoping to locate her mother's biosignature, but without her around to read the output we're kind of in the dark here."

    She steps closer to the foggy rectangle of the dimensional barrier sizzling quietly in the Siberian snows, peering at it intently, and unhooks her lasso, the loops glowing a warm gold in the cold air. "This is Monet St.Croix," she says of the third person in their party, who the Kryptonians may or may not know. "She's uh... a friend of Kara's."

    Donna peers closer. "Guys?" she asks, her words frosting the air. "Is that... was that an El symbol, or am I imagining things?"

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would nod over at Donna as they would fly, "Appreciated. I can at least keep us coordinated." She's very thoughtful. "And if they're not used to telepathic assault, I can at least slow them." A Kryptonian mind, even alien, is one that still is lcose enough to human to be vulnerablea t some level to telepathic disorientation. She just has to slow them and render them not as combat effective.. Presuming it is a threat.
    As they go to land she moves to stay behind Donna while reviewing circumstances in her mind. She would float off the ground by a few centimeters, enough to not have to deal with the uneven surface. She quickly goes to summarize, "I have some telepathica bilities. With your permission I can arrange a group mental link so we can coordinate." She doesn't add 'telepathically attack'. That's just a distraction at this point from things when they could be facing off against a major threat. She stays several meters behind Donna and Caitlin. Her thoughts moreso along the lines that if they all get attacked, it puts them in a wide enough formation they all can't be hit by the same assault.

Clark Kent has posed:
    "I honestly don't know. I suppose there are enough of us here to contain anything that might come through."

    Staring intently at the opening to the Zone, Kal-El doesn't even look around as the others arrive and take up positions around the glassy rift. Which means that when the symbol that matches the one he wears on his chest appears, he's staring right at it. 'It's not possible' is what the rational side of his brain says. Normally, this is the side of his brain that directs all his actions - after all, it's bad to be ruled by emotion and reflex when you can hurt people and random buildings by not thinking your actions through.

    This time though, it's the other side that directs his next move.

    He balls his hand into a fist and slams it forward, actually putting his strength behind it. There's a loud 'krak' sound and cracks spiderweb across the surface. A second later the second hit adds even more.

    Apparently he's decided that they need this rift open.

Conner Kent has posed:
And that is a javelin, so the Justice League? Nope, Titans. Sans Bart or Cassie, it seem. Conner frowns a bit, then lands closer to them than the grownups. "Hello, folks. Seems someone is trying to breach from the Phantom Zone using furniture, it would be funny except, well... Phantom Zone."

Zod was an ass, but Kal gave him Kandor, so maybe not as bad as he looked. One can only hope, in Conner's opinion he looked like a space nazi. "Anyway. It is probably bad. But Jon was in the Zone for a while, too. So..." Superman is punching to the barrier? "Yeah, I guess we hope for a Jon and not a Zod."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Keep me clear of it, please," Caitlin asides to Monet. Caitlin grimaces but only manages a shrug of apology. She's got baggage about telepathy.

She's digging away in her pack a few beats later to pull out some tools and equipment. An unprecedented opportunity to study a rift in reality, leading not just to a parallel dimension but to an entierly different state of existence! It'd be a lie if Caitlin said her heart wasn't pounding-- especially after Kal hauls back and throws his best right hook into the barrier.

"Kal!" she squawks in protest. "Hey, just... like, give me a minute or two to study this?" she begs of him. "We know just a little bit more than nothing about Nullspace, and that's mostly a rounding error." Her hands pat the air, begging restraint. "Let's... not blow a hole in reality until we're sure it's not going to flood the northern hemisphere with ionizing radiation. I'm pretty sure you two would be fine," she tells the two Kryptonians, and gestures at the other three standing with her. "But a big enough radiation surge could cook us dead."

The redhead works fast as she can without dangerously rushing things. Hopefully she can get the data she needs before Kal's patience wears out again.

Karen Starr has posed:
    "We've met." Karen remarks, over her shoulder- not looking away from the pane. When Clark moves forward, so does Karen. His hits shatter that barrier- the manifestations of portals between dimensions sometimes conveniently having a physical manifestation that you can punch. Sometimes, this breaks reality. We don't talk about those times.

    "Right frequency, Kal." she notes, balling up her fist.

    There's a soft blur that her fist takes, as she starts vibrating the molecules to a specific frequency. A pause, then, to both let Caitlin do what she's going to do- but with a very, very strict time limit- as she looks to Kal.

    "Ready?" she asks, drawing her arm back, and expecting him to match the resonance, before the both of them are to strike again. This time, simultaneously. Cait had better be working quickly- because that's not going to take long at all.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura does a dive roll as the lightnings converge where she yelled to them from. She watches with both fascination and horror as they slowly collide and combine in to one super big lightning bolt. Arcs of electricity leap off it touching panels and the chair.

Alura circles around slowly before the big CRACK echos from the barrier. Her eyes turn to it and the super-lightning creature does too. CRACK again as whoever is on the other side applies incredible force. Alura does her calculations quickly - the way the lightning is moving. More of them appear, dotted all about the facility now, all moving toward her exit.

~"Come on..."~ she says and takes in a big deep breath. Rising up she rubs her hands, shuts her eyes a moment to steady her breathing. This is her one shot.

Alura dodges and weaves and dances past the cuts of electricity in the air as they all waft toward the barrier. As the barrier cracks open and a bright light shines in from Earth, so too does a shadow 'shine' in from the phantom zone across the two Kryptonians.

Tumbling out in to the cold cold snow and the cold cold air, the color rapidly returns to Alura's cheeks. She twists around as the lightning crackles and approaches and she touches the holographic display hovering over her bracer.

With a small pop in the air, the breach collapses away. Alura slumps on to the ground and stares up at the bright blue sky above. Such a strange color for a sky. In a decided Kryptonian accent she asks, "ta-nahn ukep ,rth, " (Is this Earth?) Her vision slow to adjust to the figures towering over her, contrasted shadows to the bright of the sky above.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna steps back to let Superman and Powergirl do the punching. Not that she doesn't love punching things herself, but that's more about combat than simply punching for the sake of punching, and besides they're punching Kryptonian business and seem to know what they're doing.

    And it's super-effective! Donna unslings her shield as the cracks appear in the dimensional anomaly, gesturing 'get back' to Monet, and readying her lasso in her other hand, just in case the two Kryptonians are about to let something into the world that really would be better placed staying in the Phantom Zone. It could be another Zod. It could be something far worse.

    Instead it's a woman. In an accent that's a lot less decidedly Kryptonian than Alura's and a lot more decidedly Themysciran, which will no doubt be unexpected to the poor dimensional traveller, she replies with some surprise "/Zhi. Nahn rrip ,alura,?/" (Yes. Are you Alura?)

    The shield and lasso remain at the ready though, just in case.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Caitlin doesn't get a nod from Monet - the redhead is scrambling to do the calculations, and needs no distractions. M just goes to hover in a flanking position behind Donna, ready in case whatever coming through is possibly hostile to be backup. The fact that Superman and Power Girl are both going to punch over at it rather than contain it, and doing so readily means that whatever it is likely isn't a threat.
    As the figure comes through, there's a shift of Monet's position over as the girl goes to pull the language from Donna's mind, sending an appreciative telepathic sensation along it as she goes over to stay in place. She would watch back and forth, making sure to stay out of direct and immediate line of sight.
    Kryptonian? And.. Alura?

Karen Starr has posed:
    The figure that falls through the gate, closing it after herself is... Well, exactly who Karen thought it was. There's a moment- a fraction of a second- as Karen inspects Alura's cellular structure. Focusing in on her genetic code. Verifying that she's real, and not some Phantom Zone metamorph that ate Alura and is now trying to pass itself off.

    All of that caution leads her to respond to Donna in English: "Yes. That's Alura. Kara's mother." There's no spite in her tone, but there is a clinical coldness to it- a forced, intense detachment. It's been a long time since Alura was her mother, and this isn't /her/ Alura.

    She takes a step back, and brings up an arm, to usher Clark forward. "Do your best. It'll go better from someone wearing the symbol."

Clark Kent has posed:
    Kal steps forward and offers his hand to pull Alura to her feet. In Kryptonian he replies, "Yes, this is Earth. I am Kal-El, and you are among friends." He gestures to take in the whole little group around them. Continuing in the same language he starts to ask, "How did you end up in the Phan-" then stops and holds up one hand "A moment, come to think of it."

    He looks around, switching to English to say "We should probably find a better place to hold an extended conversation than the middle of the Siberian tundra."

    Looking back to Alura he switches languages again to say "We should probably get to a more comfortable place than this. You've come out in one of the more inhospitable area of the planet."

Alura In-Ze has posed:
The strangely accented words filter in to Alura's ears. Kryptonian, but weird with that accent. Her vision starts to clear and her eyes fall upon the one speaking an alien language to her. Karen. She looks so familiar yet sort of different. The confusion flashes across her face.

She had no real expectations of what Earth would be like. Fluffy cold white stuff and blue skies wasn't exactly the first image that came to mind. She knew they weren't space fairing which was a point in Jor-El's favor when he came up with the plan.

Her daughter should be here, probably grown up by now. Karen is not her daughter though - but she bares such a striking family resemblance. Then she looks upon Clark wearing the crest of their family, as is Alura, though hers is faded now thanks to the phantom zone.

He too looks sort of familiar. Not quite Jor-El but sort of Jor-El. It's a lot to take in but simply feeling things again, being out of the nullspace, is enough for her to feel a deep seated relief inside.

Taking Kal-El's hand to stand up. She finds her footing and starts to ask, "Who are you pe..." but stops when she processes the name. Her nephew, the little boy of her brother in law Jor-El. She looks him up and down in disbelief. "Kal-El..." Finally she replies to Donna, "Yes, I am Alura In-Ze. How did you know my name?"

The cold is starting to set in to her now and she feels the shiver run through her body. It feels good to be real once more. There was a permanent cold inside her bones in the phantom zone but it wasn't real - not like this. If this is really Kal-El and Donna knew her name, "Do you know my daughter? Your cousin, Kal-El. Her name is Kara Zor-El."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Kara Zor-El is alive and well," she replies, sticking to Kryptonian. "Your daughter is a close friend. She will be disappointed not to have been here for your arrival, but you will see her soon."

    Switching to English, she gives Superman a short answer: "Kara said that she was sent there by the people on Argo city, before they ran out of energy. She's been trying to find a way in to recover her ever since you guys returned from your trip to Krypton. But she's out now..."

    Her eyes have remained fixed on Alura even while answering Superman. "And looks cold. You're right, it would be better to get her somewhere warmer. She won't have had the benefit of a yellow sun in the Phantom Zone, and... that's going to be quite a surprise for her."

    She offers Alura a warm smile, as if to try to make up for the lack of environmental warmth, and switches back to Kryptonian. "We should get you somewhere warm, and explain things to you. Would you like to enter our ship? It's warmer there. There's a lot to tell you."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
M had a feeling. She had a feeling. But her own discussions with Kara had been ever so small on her life. But she knows at least that much. So as Alura goes to speak her full name, and goes to say of her daughter.. Monet's eyes instinctively close and she bows her head some. IT goes back to normal a moment later ass he moves to speak a moment, attempting to search through Donna's mind to get out the proper phrases in Kryptonian, "Are you cold?" She offers gently, before going to take off the cloak she had been wearing while she was touring the armory - something that she considered high fashion. Appropriate to the cold, but not the arctic. It's still tentatively offered over. Necessary or not; the intent is there.

As Donna speaks of going somewhere warmer, Monet goes to nod her agreement. Even as the cloak is tentatively offered - which might not be required at all. And there is much.. Much to tell.

And not something for her to intrude upon.

Clark Kent has posed:
    Kal nods, "The ship is probably a good start. We need somewhere that she can get used to Earth without any unfortunate incidents." Looking to Cait he asks "Did you get any new data? I'm afraid I acted a bit on impulse after seeing her symbol."

    Turning back to Alura he says in Kryptonian "The ship would be a good place to start, let's get you out of the cold. There is a lot to tell you about your new home, some of it almost unbelievable until you experience it yourself."

    At least she'll get the benefit of others who know what the sun will do to her. Clark wasn't so lucky, which ended up in a lot of trial and error. They never did find all the pieces of that tractor.

    "Why don't we all step into the ship, then we can head wherever we decide together."

Karen Starr has posed:
    There's a clap on Clark's shoulder, a couple of quick pats to give him confidence.

    "Start slow and easy. Take her to the Fortress. Make sure she's okay, get her dressed. That place will be more like Krypton than anywhere else." she notes, taking a few steps away. "It won't be a lot, but it'll be easier to ease her into it."

    She looks to Alura, then. "Yes, we've seen her. Kara's here. You'll be proud, but she's busy right now. Didn't know it was you, else I'm sure she'd have made the time. She'll be on her way soon enough, I'm sure of it." Then, she starts rising into the air. "Kal, I'll keep Metropolis pinned down. Take all the time you need to get her acclimated, make sure she gets some sun."

    With that- and rudely, without waiting for a reply, Karen is rocketing off towards Metropolis. Exactly why she's in a rush to leave is anyone's guess, but of all of them, Clark will definitely know why.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin pulls a face at Kal with no malice behind it. "Well I won't be getting my astrophysics PhD anytime soon, if that's what you're asking. But then again I'm playing dangerous games with dark matter lately, so-- who knows? Maybe I'll get one posthumously." She gives Kal's forearm a quick and reassuring squeeze to show there's earnestly no issue on her end.

She did get some useful information; Cait packs up the mobile scanning equipment, and switches from physical sciences to medical science. It's just that easy, Action Figure Caitlin comes with a stethoscope and medical tools!

She steps up near Alura and smiles, an earnest and disarming expression that fully shows Caitlin's warm personality and lack of malicious intent. "<<I am Caitlin Fairchild,>>" she informs Alura, and rests a palm on her breastbone in a universal expression of 'me'. "<<I am a friend of Kara's. And medical doctor. Permit you me, examine you? Hurt will not. Then food, after then.>>" The grammar's a bit dodgy but the words are there, fumbling though they may be. There are a lot of people all trying to help Alura at once, and Caitlin's best contribution is to hang back so the Kryptonian woman isn't having to contend with a ginger giant towering over her to boot.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura looks at the very familiar article of clothing - a cloak. The height of fashion on Krypton. She nods her head and takes it from Monet, "Thank you." She looks it over not seeing any house symbols or guild symbols. A blank cloak. Weird. But she throws it over her shoulders.

A nod is given and her eyes settle on the ship. But then Karen rises up in to the air. There's no anti-gravity boots, no jetpack, no external force field making that happen. Alura's mouth drops open as Karen disappears in the blink of an eye.

"H.. how?" she says with wide eyes. Jor-El didn't say anything about people flying around on Earth, or ships that look like they might be able to go in to space. Can Earth have changed that much in 35 years? Possibly - perhaps Jor-El made a mistake choosing Earth after all.

Regardless, she moves with the group to the spaceship. Her eyes keep flicking over to Clark. It's hard to believe that the little baby she held in her arms was suddenly a full grown adult. And wearing such ceremonial like clothing bearing their house crest proudly. Her lips twitch up in to a small proud smile. If the brothers Jor and Zor could see this they'd be over the moon.

Caitlin's broken Kryptonian tells her more than she expected to know about this world. The influence that Kal and Kara have had on this place already. Little does she know about all the other Kryptonians too - yet. But her expression softens. Donna, she looks at, close friend of Kara. Monet, unidentified, Caitlin, friend of Kara, Kal-El right here. And a woman who can -fly of her own volition-.

Alura responds to Caitlin even as she keeps glancing up at the sky wondering how Karen flew away, "In the ship where it will be warmer?" This is not the kind of welcome she expected. She expected none. She did not think people would detect her arrival and be waiting for her. But this is family, and friends of family. "Thank you. I'm relieve to hear my daughter is well. This cannot be my home - I must make my way back to the stars to my husband. Our people are on a perilous journey across the stars in a placed called Argo City."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna arches an eyebrow at the rapidly vanishing figure of Power Girl. That was an odd reaction, for sure. Donna has no idea why Power Girl is acting the way she is, but then that's not entirely unusual. Donna has Power Girl down as the /weird/ cousin of the family.

    In the ship, Donna's quick to close the doors to keep the place warm, and start preparing a hot drink for anyone who wants one to help warm them after the time on the frozen tundra. Amazons aren't that much more bothered by extremes of temperature than Kryptonians, but that really only applies to Kryptonians who have been subjected to solar radiation for a while, and Monet may be feeling the cold a bit after giving up her cloak, too.

    "Let's just make sure you're safe and healthy first, Alura," Donna says. "Kara is often busy these days, and not always in a lab. She travels around a lot. I have already sent her a message, so hopefully you'll see her very soon."

    She switches to English for the next part. "Kal, she doesn't know about Argo City. Last thing she knows, there was some kind of a revolution and she got thrown into the Phantom Zone. It might be better coming from you than from me. But I'll tell her if you want. Also, Power Girl's suggestion of where to take her is a good one. Do you want to fly the ship there? Alternatively -- or perhaps after she has got over her initial shock -- I can offer an alternative. Themyscira has a lot of sunshine, and I can make sure she's well looked after there."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The cloak is accepted. That makes M feel useful. She would close her eyes, listening over. The sudden -BWOOMSH- and launching of Power Girl gets an irritated look that smooths over quickly to her features, them returning to their passive state very quickly. She would look sympathetically over at Alura, not reading the woman's mind to give her privacy.

Body language of someone from another planet experiencing this one for the first time after an extended period of isolation and speaking a language that M was tracking via telepathic interpretation did not lend itself to exact translation. But some things were universal. At least enough for M to get a broad idea.

Her face flattens just a little more as she looks over at Alura with sympathy, remaining quiet over as the mutant girl looks over to Donna for any set of instructions here. Knowing full well that anything she might say would likely only serve to confuse the issue further.

How did one react when they lost their world not once, but twice?
    She joins the others over in the ship and as Donna and Caitlin talk about a medical checkup, Monet goes to consider while then sending a telepathic message to Donna <<I do not believe she necessarily is aware of the changes to her physiology by solar radiation exposure.>> She stays quiet on Argo City.

Clark Kent has posed:
    <<"Well, let's get to a better place, then we can talk and figure out your next step. There's a lot to tell you.>> Glancing up the way Power Girl went, he adds <<Especially that.>>

    He gently urges her towards the ship, saying to Caitlin "Let's get her out of the cold, then you can give her a quick look over to make sure nothing bad happened to her in the crossing. Otherwise you'll be treating frostbite."

    Once they are all in and settled, he moves to the front where Donna is and replies in English "Themyscira is actually an excellent choice. She will be surrounded by people she can't hurt too badly as the sun starts to affect her. She'd be mostly alone in the Fortress except for myself and probably Kara. Is it ok for me to be on the island though? I have a lot to explain to her."

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura can tell they're talking about what she said. Using the word Argo.. may be they know something. But. That's a problem for another time. She takes a seat completely ignoring the seat belts. The idea that they'd exist or be needed is quite alien for her. For now, she is content to trust in these people.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "It won't be a problem Kal," Donna confirms. Caitlin at least knows that Donna is not being /entirely/ accurate. It just won't be an insurmountable problem. If Donna turns up with a man unannounced, she'll have some questions to answer, and there's not much doubt that Hippolyta will glare at her a bit. However it has already been agreed that Kal is on the acceptable visitors list. He has after all been cleared by Donna, Caitlin and Diana already.

    "Kara has been a few times for training. Kryptonians are not unknown on Themyscira. And it's about the most /relaxing/ place on the planet, which is probably what she needs right now."

    Donna returns to the others bearing cups of steaming tea. "Yes, she won't know," Donna confirms to Monet, answering her in spoken English, confident that Alura's not going to know what they're talking about. "It'll be an interesting experience for her finding out, I'm sure."

Clark Kent has posed:
    Kal sits down beside Alura as Donna heads to the cockpit and takes off, turning the ship towards Themyscira. He explains <<We're heading to a place where you can stay for a little while so you can rest after your ordeal, and so that we can reunite you with Kara. Everything else will be secondary to that.>>

    He settles back in the seat as the Javelin surges forward, privately trying to think of a good way to phrase "Everyone you knew is gone." It waits until Kara is there, without question. Then she'll at least have her daughter with her.