15341/This is how the Flaxans have their pic-nic

This is how the Flaxans have their pic-nic
Date of Scene:	08 July 2023
Location:	Maine Coastal House
Synopsis:	Douglas, Caitlin, Mark and Nettie stop a Flaxan incursion!
Cast of Characters:	Mark Grayson, Douglas Ramsey, Nettie Crowe, Caitlin Fairchild

---

Mark Grayson has posed:
Gleason Cove State Park. Usually a haven and paradise on the coast of Maine for whale-watchers to come observe the gentle giants of the ocean as they rise and fall from the water, blowing out their breath in majestic plumes of mist. However, for the last several days, the park has been closed; supposedly the observation deck needed to be inspected and repaired. A few boats do come by the cove, careful not to interfere with the paths of the whales as they swim through the bay on the hunt for food.

Despite the park being closed, there is activity there. Activity that has gotten the attention of Cecil Steadman. The type of attention that usually does not bode well for the planet as a whole. And while Cecil is running his information up the command tree -- back at the park, there's a group of tourists that are setting up.

By tourists, we mean five and a half foot tall green aliens that are setting up devices and talking amongst themselves in an unfamiliar language. While several aliens are assemling some type of large, round device, other aliens are walking around with rather large, ominous looking rifles that would make any gun nut jealous, if they didn't look so darn alien.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Turns out that many things in the world have language, of a sort - and if you're someone like Doug, you can talk to them. At the present moment he was sitting out on a pier, with a sound sensor and a microphone dipped into the water. Using an app he created, he produces sounds akin to the vocalizations of humpback whales - and can hear their responses when they come back in through the mic.

It's actually very relaxing to have a conversation with them. They talk about krill a lot. Where there's good krill, where the Orcas are at so they can avoid them, etc. He takes a sip from a bottle of water - but promptly drops it when he feels a tremor shake the ground. "What the-"

He leaves the sensor and the mic for the time being, before he gets up and heads up the escarpment to investigate.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    I feel the Earth move under my feet --

    Nettie had been enjoying a bit of sight-seeing and preliminary investigation into something for her Justice League of the Dark variety -- she's not content (and far too meddlesome) to sit back in some office and let the pups and duckies do all the footwork, and had been taking a break for a second breakfast consisting of an eight inch lobster roll at the edge of the harbor to watch the whales herself.

    That's when the shaking of the terra not-so-firma beneath her feet caught her attention, and her eyes narrowed.

    With a softly breathed word she's astride her broom and already taking to the air to investigate, her form being clothed in featureless gray as she flies.

Mark Grayson has posed:
After getting permission from the powers that be, there's a beep in Mark's earpiece. "Suit up, kid, you're needed in Maine."

"Maine? But it's supposed to be my day..." Cecil cuts Mark off before he can even finish that statement. "We got seismic activity of a possible dimensional incursion. I need you to get up there pronoto and take a look and report."

"A whosit and what now?"

"Just get up there." Cecil sends the coordinates to Mark, who finishes suiting up and lifts into the sky. He was visiting Titans Tower at the time, so as he was leaving, he made sure to ask Caitlin, who was showing him around, to come with him. After all, a dimensional incursion could be very bad news. And besides himself, Caitlin is also mostly...."

INVINCIBLE

"We're getting near the coordinates that Mr. Steadman sent to me!" Mark calls over to Caitlin as they fly towards the park. "Not exactly sure what he's expecting us to find, but if he's sending me, I can't imagine it's any good."

At the park, the aliens are talking, it takes a few seconds for Douglas to start to put together words from the clicks and grunts that they make.

'We need to hurry, we need to prepare the portal for the invasion force.'

'How much time do we have?'

'The Science Division said ten minutes.'

The work continues, the shape of a large round device being formed, but not yet completed.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
The T-Jet had handled most of the trip to Maine by flying out over the water at supersonic speeds, then cutting back in over land and settling down on firm earth about a mile from the alien landing site. From there it took just a moment for Mark to ferry Caitlin over to a safe spot about a hundred yards from the incursion.

Caitlin releases her grip on Mark's wrist and skitter-steps two paces to a stop behind a concrete barrier. Her portable drone launches off her shoulder and buzzes through some cover to get as close as safely possible to the alien landing sight. "...Looks like these things are called Flaxans," she tells Mark. "The d-base says they're extradimensional life forms. No native abilities but the tech is pretty advanced."

She narrows her eyes at the drone readout and detaches the display to show it to Mark. "And it looks like they're making some kind of dimensional breaching device. Is that normal for them?"

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Uh. Uh. Wow. Ok. Doug can already 'see' the signs of a dimensional incursion before he arrives, just by the way everything around him reacts to it. He speaks into a recording device. "Got a dimensional incursion up here, a big one-"

He clambers over some rocks, and ends up looking directly at the little green men and the device they're setting up. "Oh boy." He hurriedly clambers back over the rocks to the other side of them and sits with his back to a boulder. "Yup. We've got an incursion up here. Bunch of green men, heavily armed, some serious hardware. I haven't gotten a good look at it - I don't wanna get death rayed."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Nettie gives a soft 'hum' as she draws down behind another rock near Douglas, and de-cloaks, the featureless gray 'witch' outline replaced with the gray-haired, twenty-something woman with ripped jeans and a T-shirt promoting the Spetacularly Haunted Kennebunk Inn.

    "Little Green Men? In the land of Stephen King? Oh, poor wee ones." she gives a slight smile, and reaches to her ear. The comms that were handed out are pretty handy as she opens a channel:

    "So, little green men, anyone want to talk first, or shall we presume they're aggressive little buggers? Not my usual forte -- usually I'm knee-deep in dark dimensional beings or angry ghosts." she pipes up, digging a cigarette out of the silk pouch in her pocket. "But I'll be willing to give a listen to anyone with a bit more expertiese."

Mark Grayson has posed:
Flying in the T-Jet was a lot better than Mark trying to carry Caitlin the whole way, so he's grateful for the lift. As they settle down and she shows him the information on the Flaxans, Mark knits his brows behind the lenses of his flight goggles. "Wow, what is that? I didn't know you guys had an alien database. That's frigging cool." a moment of awe in his voice as he looks from the device towards the aliens. His hand raises to cross over and rub his opposite forearm. "Dad... I mean, Omni-Man, did a lot more of the first contact with aliens things, but I never really asked him about the aliens he has met." comes the sheepish admission. "And my only experience with alien first contact is from watching 'Below Decks', and they never make first contact, just second."

But with the others all discussing approaching them, Mark makes a decision as he gives a quick wave towards Nettie -- though he shows surprise when she speaks up. "There's ghosts here??"

After a moment, he makes a decision. "Well, all right. I guess someone needs to say hello?" Standing up from behind the rock that he and steps out into the open, where the aliens can see him. "Uh. H-Hey! Welcome to Earth. You lost?"

The aliens look up and over at Mark. They start to approach, their guns at their sides. Not aimed at him. They click and chatter.

Douglas hears it. 'Watch this. I'm going to shoot him at point blank.'

As they get closer to Mark, Invincible seems pleased! It's going well. No guns aimed at him. They're getting close and he's having thoughts that this is a (good thing - tm).

He holds out his hand in greeting to them. See. Friend!

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin emerges from cover when Mark does, a step behind him and moving quickly to a position on his left. It spreads the two heroes out and makes them more difficult to hit simultaneously. She comes up short for a half a beat when she spots a familiar face approaching from the other side.

"Nettie?" she balks, and then waves a hand at the woman. One eye sticks to Mark and his careful approach while she calculates the angles of approach everyone has to the landing sight. "We're on crosstalk channel 5," she calls over to Nettie, and keys her own communicator over to that common channel.

"M-- Invincible, don't get too close," she murmurs at Mark. "We don't exactly have proof of peaceful intent yet."

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Oh, boy. Doug doesn't know Invincible's capabilities, really - but he bets that alien's got some firepower that could seriously hurt him. He also knows that if he yells, the alien might just shoot the guy anyway.

He makes the impulsive decision, one which in another time, another universe, might get him pasted. And he really hopes that Invincible doesn't have some sort of power that telekinetically roots him to the ground in disobedience of the laws of physics, otherwise Doug is about to shatter his shoulder on the guy.

Because what he does is come up from behind the rock and make a flying tackle on Mark just before Mars Attacks here shoots him in the face. The only warning is a "LOOK OUT!"

Fortunately Doug's played a lot of soccer, so he knows how to make a diving tackle. He aims for Mark's waist.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Hullo Miss Fairchild." Nettie replies, making the switch a little clumsily on her earcom. "Nice to meet you in person, poppet -- is the himbo a friend of yours?" she inquires in a playful tone as she takes out her wand, and hops back up to be airborne.

    A spell in Olde English is cast, and a lilac-colored magical shield forms between Douglas, Invincible and the Little Green Men.

    "Aye lad smart move!" she calls to Ramsey, "That shield won't last but a minute, get yourselves cover!"

Mark Grayson has posed:
"That's right guys." Mark offers. "What was that universal greeeeeeeeeee!" he doesn't get to finish his thought as Douglas is suddenly waist-tackling him and sending him sprawling towards the ground as Nettie's shield springs to life. The jig, as they say, is up.

The Flaxans immediately whip up their rifles, opening fire, concentric circles of laser blasts slamming into the shield.

One of the other aliens twists, firing towards Nettie, while others go into alert, looking for other attackers.

"What the hell??" Mark manages as he looks up at Douglas, confused as all get out at the fact that he was just tackled by random guy. But at the lasers fire, he immediately shifts, putting himself between Douglas and the aliens, because he bets Doug is far more squishy than someone named Invincible. "Caitlin, I don't think they came in peace!" calls out Captain Obvious.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin scrambles six paces to the left and lands in a low three-point crouch. Head down, hips up, one palm in the dirt. Anyone who played football in high school would recognize a lineman's stance. And when Caitlin breaks into a sprint, she *goes*, with a startling amount of acceleration for how big she is.

She catches the lead shooter in her arms and uses him as a battering ram to bowl two others over. It looks, and is, fairly painful. She quick-steps to a halt and arrests her momentum by throwing the unconscious Flaxan at the group milling around the portal machine.

"Urghhh!" she shouts in pain. An energy bolt has found her obdurate flesh and dug a small crater into her skin. Caitlin dives for cover behind some large coastal rocks as more energy pulses wing her way. "Watch out guys, those really sting!" she calls back to her allies.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug is still lying on the ground. "They absolutely did not." He says. "If you can clear a path to their machine, I can probably turn it off."

He gets to his feet, and then finds a place to take cover. "Sorry about that." He says, "He was gonna shoot you in the face, and those lasers are packing a lot of cutting power. Actually now that I think about it these boulders would probably NOT be helpful if they actually shot at me-"

He gets up, and brushes himself off, before he says, "Open a path for me - I'm gonna go for it."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Bah neep grah nah weep nini-bong -- but you lot are *far* too young for that movie!" Nettie cackles, clearly having a blast herself as she wheels about on her broom in the sky, pulling a baseball cap out of her back pocket with the Portland Seadogs logo on it, and affixes it to her head as she turns upside-down, wand-still in hand as her too-blue-to-be-real eyes light up with glee, avoiding the blasts narrowly.

    "You lot have terrible aim!" chides the witch, and with another harshly whispered word, she slings dark, magical fireballs at the aliens, crackling with that same lilac energy.

    "Clear the way!"

Mark Grayson has posed:
When Caitlin slams into the lead Flaxan element, it catches all of the other Flaxans off-guard. A pair of them try to start firing at the green-clad hero, as one of the other Flaxans is starting to make a move towards the control panel.

"One clear way coming up!" Marc shoves his foot into the ground and then launches forward at near supersonic speed as he barrels crosswise of Caitlin through the Flaxans. He's fast, but he he's not able to dodge and he is hit by several laser blast, one that sends him careening into a tree with a loud grunt.

But the way is clear -- followed up by Nettie's fireballs that impact with the Flaxans, setting several on them of fire and their screams are intertwined with laser blasts and the rush of the quartet of heroes.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
A boulder the size of a motorcycle launches through the air at a shallow angle and bowls a line of destruction ahead of Doug's approach. Caitlin pops up from cover with a pair of basketball-sized rocks and throws them at the Flaxans with unerring accuracy and tremendous velocity. She takes down one on the perimeter trying to draw a bead on the heroes, and another one setting up a defense by the portal gun.

She's hot on the heels of those rocks, sprinting forward again and putting herself in a rearguard position to cover Doug's approach. She takes two energy blasts for her trouble and cries out in pain, once, but doesn't falter. She plants her feet between Doug and the rest of the Flaxans to act as a living shield and cover his attempt to cripple their machinery.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug doesn't waste time. He heads through the opening they've created to get to the machine, and then he quickly inspects its controls. He can read the characters on the keyboard easily enough, and it only takes him a moment to understand the display and navigate the system.

"Okay." He says, as he studies it, "Okay. Okay, let's see... drawing on an *extradimensional* power source to open a portal? That sounds risky. These guys like living dangerously." He executes a command. "Abort, Retry, Fail? This time, we'll choose 'Fail'!" He executes a command line. "Let's... see what happens-"

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Lasers, fireballs, boulders and Doug doesn't have to waste time getting to the machine.

    Nettie swings into place, hovering over Doug, upside-down as she keeps her wand at the ready, slinging another couple fireballs so that the Flaxans get the picture that they're not welcome to this sub-party.

    "Clever lad!" she gives a feral, toothy grin to Douglas, her wand held at the ready as if it too were a gun, the tip poiting around them in warning!

Mark Grayson has posed:
The Flaxans are bowled and bashed over. Just as the head Flaxan was about to get to the machine, one of Caitlin's boulders slams into it and sends it flying back, allowing Doug to access the machine itself. His quick study pays off and he presses down on 'Fail'! The machinery whirls and shuts down; all around the site, the watch-like devices that all the Flaxans are wearing start to beep angrilly at them.

'Time's up!'

'But the machine!'

'Forget the machine!'

Suddenly, bursting forth from the trees, Mark is holding a good size fir that he is preparing to drop on the circle and smash some Flaxans in the process.

As the tree comes crashes down, the others may start to notice. The Flaxans' vibrant green skin starts to fade to a sickly shade of green-grey and grey as they start to wither. The head Flaxan grabs a device off of his belt and opens a portal. 'Retreat!' he screeches as he starts to run for his suddenly shortening life.

And no, it doesn't seem to be caused by magic?

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug watches the machine shut down. "Huh. So that was what it was supposed to do. Rewriting the basic physical laws of the universe." His eyebrows creep upward. "...Neat trick. I have a lot of questions, but I'm just going to call this experience 'Terroir' and assume that I'm not gonna get any answers." He turns away from the console, and then he looks around at the others. "I don't feel like being interviewed by the government about how I turned this off. So uh... which of you would like to claim the credit for it?"

He spider-man points between Invincible, Caitlin and Nettie. "I'm good for lobster rolls if you do!"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Let 'em go!" Caitlin calls to the others. They have clearly created a rout and the Flaxans are in full retreat. She doesn't let up her wary posture, though, ensuring none of the fleeing aliens decides to take a potshot at Doug. If those blasters can chisel into her obdurate skin, there's no telling what harm they could do to someone possessed of lesser disability.

"Mark!" she calls, and waves at the flier. "Give us a quick perimeter sweep, make sure none of them are hiding in the bushes. And Nettie--" she gestures at that notable-- "can you cover Doug, and I'll dismantle this thingy?" she requests, and gestures a thumb at the machine behind her. Once she's sure Doug is covered, Caitlin turns and starts taking the portal device apart by ripping it into pieces with her bare fingers.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Nope, not caused by magic. Emergency dimensional tech portals. Nettie's seen some stuff, and she can feel it in her old bones that it's sans-magic. Magic tingles, you know?

    "Good idea." Nettie replies to Caitlin with a grin in her voice, as she's upside-down covering Douglas already, floating over him while clinging to her broomstick.

    "Ooh. Wouldn't mind a lobster roll. Had to abandon mine on the pier after watchin' some of the whales. Wouldn't you just love to know what they're thinkin'?" she questions with a shrug, braid hanging down before she offers a gloved hand down to Doug.

    "Nettie Crowe, witch, how do you do?"

Mark Grayson has posed:
The remaining Flaxans are able to flee, the portal closing behind them. There's a few that weren't so lucky, the corpses of those that remained are rapidly aging and decaying to dust. The portal winks out of existence, the proof of the alien incursion now only remaining in the machinery that Caitlin is demolishing.

Mark is giving a report to Cecil. "I'm sorry, it looks like what they had self-destructed?" he suggests, questioningly as he nods to Caitlin's order and lifts into the sky to do a sweep of the perimeter as requested. "I'm game for a lobster roll if Caitlin is!" he calls out.

He then adds as there are introductions. "I'm Invincible." No really.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug accepts and offers handshakes. "I'm Easily Injured." He says, in response to Invincible's greeting.

"Whales? ...Mostly Krill. And swimming. They're pleasant to talk to but a little bit boring."

"Sure. Let me just go get my stuff from the pier. There's a great place that serves them in the town just up the road that way..." He points.