16037/We Come For Pieces

We Come For Pieces
Date of Scene:	03 November 2023
Location:	Diana's Office - Atlantic Starport
Synopsis:	The Cow Friends arrive and deliver an ultimatum to the Heroes of Earth and the Agents of SHIELD> They also take Xiomara's recipe for tuna on toast from her memories.
Cast of Characters:	Diana Prince, Natasha Romanoff, Reed Richards, Jinx, Xiomara Rojas, Darcy Lewis, Richard Stadler
Tinyplot:	Grey Skies

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Diana Prince has posed:
The ocean-based Atlantic Starport's routine evening is abruptly disrupted as an unfamiliar presence pierces the airspace. For months, since the Starport began construction, the radar screens have occasionally picked up the fleeting signatures of these mysterious observers, but now, a massive, cylindrical craft has materialized unannounced. Its unmarked, grey hull gives away nothing of its origin, and it advances with a near-silent grace that contradicts conventional gravitational understanding.

As the eerie vessel looms over the starport, casting a large shadow, it becomes clear that this is no mere coincidence or fluke encounter. The atmosphere grows thick with tension, as onlookers and personnel alike gaze in awe at the object from beyond.

Inside her office on the eastern clover of the Starport, Wonder Woman turns away from her desk and two of her assistants that she was speaking with, to see the shadow of the mysterious ship floating off in the distance toward the southern clover of the starport facility. A look of concern crosses Diana's face, as she turns to move toward the exit of her personal office space.

On the southern clover, people begin to gather in to groups as they observe the craft, while in the Starport's control center, messages hailing the vessel are already being sent out on all known frequencies...

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
At SHIELD's Rotunda, Natasha Romanova is reviewing files. On the Brood, on skirmishes with the Shi'Ar and Deathbird of the last year.. But is primarily sorting through files to see if there's anything related to those unknown enemies that had raided the planet in a failed abduction. It's slow going, with nothing of any immediate use in the files she's reviewing. Going to push them aside as she hears the.. Activity in the southern nexus.

She gets up, and moves to head in that direction curiously, moving to head to listen while logging out of the station she was at. Now to see what's up.

Reed Richards has posed:
Reed Richards is a frequent present at the Spaceport, contributing to everything from the initial design to technologies incorporated throughout the greater facility. If anything, he's a little resentful of having to share so much of it with the input of others - he would've preferred to be entirely in charge, but politics made such an auteur's touch impossible. A shame. It would have been Fantastic.

As it is, the Port that they got is nonetheless remarkable by most standards. The arrival of the unexpected shift quickly causes Reed to make his way to a sensor array, linking up immediately with several of the other major hubs, including the one at which Diana is at.

"Trying to establish some sort of communication. I don't recognize the design, but I'll run it through the database to see if there are any design similarities that can give us a potential source. Some of the larger empires use a variety of ships cobbled together from their various conquered territories. A vile practice, as is most of the practice of Empire, but we must deal with the universe as it exists. For now."

Jinx has posed:
In the public rotunda Jinx is enjoying some of the food. Ever since she got back from Themyscira life has been gradually improving for her in ways she never quite understood until they started happening. Her Titans status gave her entry to this otherwise secure place.

The hot dog in question is removed from face as she sees the big alien ship. She rises up with the rest of the people and watches with a craned neck as it 'floats' over the space port. "Wow..." She has never actually seen an alien ship like this before. This is a new one for her.

She pulls out her T-comms just in case this is more than a casual interaction and taps the communicate button << "Hey.. Jinx here, Titans, anyone else seeing this giant space ship over the spaceport? is this something to be concerned about?" >>

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
As part of her attempt to help out the Justice League, Crush had been spending time at the spaceport as a sort of security guard. Really she was waiting for the chance to see another alien. Being one herself, and on earth, it got lonely trying to figure out things about herself and her people.

Pacing the length of the port, she instantly stopped and looked up as the sun was blotted out by something large over head. Having no comms, neither Titan nor Justice League, she moved into a run toward an area where there might be someone who has a clue. Before she even realizes it, she comes across Jinx and slides to a stop.

"What the ever living fu.." her words are cut off as she actually gets a view of the ship. "Okay, that's large."

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Darcy, indeed, works here!

Or at least, her duty rotation sometimes involves time at the Starport. It also invoves time on the Peak, which is an actual space station, so this isn't even the weirdest commute she has for work! But the Starport is definitely a unique place, especially for what it represents: Earth's first steps into true membership and participation in society beyond its own world. As a member of SWORD, she deals not only with security related to the coming-and-goings of these visitors, with monitoring near-Earth craft and conducting research, but also, on occasion, handling the face-to-face aspects of this. The Shi'ar treaty allows for basic technology exchange, for instance, which happens here at the Starport. A short while earlier, she'd been holding an informal meeting at the food court. It turns out aliens also like Starbucks.

While not really a security first-responder herself (the Amazons, Wakandans and Atlanteans have plenty of resources for that), the appearance of a strange ship nonetheless calls her from her more routine work. After bussing her tray, she gets out her phone and starts interfacing and making calls. "Can you route me the data from- yeah, thanks. Get me the orbital ones too." She does the whole walk-and-talk (and lots of other stuff) multitasking as she routes back across the Starport. Maybe she's headed back to her office in the SHIELD area, but she has to cross through the central area first.

Richard Stadler has posed:
     Rick had to admit, SHIELD's capabilities at the Starport were... effective. Not exactly bad to have all those rooms and facilities avalible for operations on the doorstep of space... even if he wasn't exactly a fan of the Starport's main sponsors in itself. Perhaps it was the nationalist in him, but having three kingdoms with a preponderance of magic and technology building humanity's gateway to the stars, and not the good ol' US of A didn't sit well with him. Though it was certainly easier to argue the point in front of a newspaper in Manhattan, rather than at the actual wonder itself.

He'd had more than a few idly moments to think it through, certainly. He lifted the glasses he was wearing for a moment to rub at the bridge of his nose, before not quite tossing the tablet on the table. "I'm feeling like a bit of a fifth wheel here." He mentioned to Nat. "Don't get me wrong, love collating data, but you could get an spec 4 and be just as useful. There simply isn't enough information to gleen on biology without making some rather excessive assumptions on their ship capabilities-"

He stops, as there's activity in the southern starport, before standing. "I'm guessing that wasn't exactly expected." He says, adjusting the holster pressed to the small of his back for a moment, before standing up and following Natasha. He had, at this point, a track record at being shot at the first time he saw an alien species, and he was done taking chances.

Diana Prince has posed:
The alien vessel, its sleek grey hull reflecting the ambient lights of the starport, descends with an otherworldly grace toward one of the open landing platforms on the southern clover. As it nears the designated spot, there is no roar of engines or the usual rush of air associated with a conventional craft's landing.

Instead, it hovers gently, defying gravity, before gently touching down on the platform, the only sound being the soft humming resonance that seems to emanate from the vessel itself. It is a sight that defies the laws of Earthly physics, leaving onlookers awestruck and apprehensive, as they await the next move of the strange vessel, and its sudden arrival.

The sound of galloping horse hooves from the central gardens heralds the arrival of a detachment of armored, and horse mounted, Amazonian warriors. In their gleaming battle regalia, the warrior women create a defensive perimeter around the edges of the platform that the alien craft touched down upon.

Diana emerges from between a group of onlookers, wearing a dark blue cloak, the Princess moves with an elegant grace all of her own. Many close to her look to her with expressions of concern, and Diana momentarily shares in some exchanged looks of equal measure.

"Everyone keep your guard up." Diana's voice says over the open comms of those at the Starport proper.

Suddenly, the lamp posts across the starport begin to flicker, and blink out, spreading out from the alien vessel's arrival point, and though the sun is still up, its steadily lowering further down in to the western sky's horizon, leaving a deep orange sunset, that blends in to a blue field of darkening sky above.

A hiss comes from beneath the alien vessel, as its smooth surface breaks apart, and a gangplank begins to extend down toward the surface of the smooth granite landing platform... A bright white light pours out from the interior of the alien vehicle, casting a column of white illumination down toward the starport's onlookers.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
As the craft comes in for a landing, Natasha Romanova gets the impression it wasn't exactly cleared for it. As the landing ramp goes to unlatch itself and there's a bright light as if an old Stephen Spielberg movie was repeating itself.. Natasha goes to meld back over to the position she was in, almost vanishing as she quickly retreats. She moves to a higher level, jumping up quickly and going to land atop one of the support beams. This gives her a better vantage point of the position where the bright light is coming from.

It alsog ives her a lovely position to setup to take shots at it. She moves to take out a large rifle, moves to brace it and switches to scope, moving to survey the position as she speaks to the SHIELD comms, <<In overwatch position>> They don't know that this is necessarily hostile, so she's not telling the agents to go to cover.

They have technical specialists in the form of Doctor Richards and diplomats in the form of the Princess of the Amazons. The specialists from SHIELD, however, are likely to be far more useful sharing thier knwoledge in the event of this unkonwn craft coming down than getting ready defensively anyways.

Reed Richards has posed:
Reed Richards approaches as well, hovering in a Fantasticar just up in the air and behind the Amazons. He doesn't like a military contingent being the first contact, but he couldn't deny it was the most prudent option, especially with no known communications established.

"Princess," he calls down to Diana. "No sign of aggression yet. Their approach is unconventional, but that doesn't mean they're a threat," he says. He knows she probably knows as well, but he's a little pedantic by nature, ever the teacher, even to those who might surpass him in wisdom.

He looks at the great light and stretches his hand up and enlarges it, projecting his voice with the speakers of the Fantasticar. "Greetings. I am Dr. Reed Richards, an ambassador of Earth. What do you seek her, strangers?"

Jinx has posed:
"Crush!" Jinx says, rather pleased to see the tall tough ally of the Titans. "Why didn't you just reply on T-comms?" She waggles hers and looks somewhat confused. "Anyway. Good to see you. I guess this is first contact. Could go badly - I mean, almost every movie, tv show, computer game, and book says exactly that."

She thumbs the way of the horse hooves where the vessel has docked. She has a new hoodie and new jeans because running around in that costume gifted to her on Themyscira would raise too many eyebrows. It is being worn underneath though.

She approaches through the gathering crowd to see Diana striding forward and the mounted guard. "Hmm. Is this a first for the Starport? I think it might be." She looks up at Xio, "If we're unlucky you'll have plenty of things to punch probably." Speaking of luck, she feels within herself to see if they are feeling unlucky right now. No - fairly balanced. It's been a chill day until this happened.

"If shit goes down we'll have to try and stick together. Do you know how to fly? I never asked before. If not, I'm sure I can fling you about appropriately." She considers a moment, "Do you know how to do that star trek live long and prosper thing? we might need that too..." A wry smile, she's joking about that.

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Crush watches the rather beautiful vessel floating toward the landing pad, her head tilting slightly before she looks back to Jinx to say, "I don't have onna those, never had one given to me."

The flickering lights sends a spark up her spine even as Diana's announcement rings in her ears... be on your guard. Crush was always on her guard, always expecting an attack from direction or another. Her childhood had been like that, so the Czarnian was trained by trauma to be the way she was.

Following Jinx through the crowd, more like following Jinx and watching the crowd dodge her coming at them, she pauses to look at Diana before once again turning her eyes to Jinx, "That'd be cool, but I'm hoping it don't go that way." Cracking her neck she looks back toward the ship while still speaking to Jinx. "I ain't able to fly, don't know if it's something I'll be able to do, but I got long jumping abilities, so I'm good."

As she finishes speaking, she smirks then holds up her hand in the Vulcan greeting... yep, she's seen the show.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
On foot, Darcy gets passed by several squads of the speedy horse ladies. "No kangaroos this time?" she wonders aloud, mostly just talking to herself. "Wonder what kind of threats rate different mounts..." She has a mind prone to tangents like these!

Still, she catches up as best she can, while still on the line with SWORD command. Unfortunately, the Peak's orbit has it out of position, but they task a nearby satellite as a backup. Of course, all of that stuff is waaaay far away, compared to them being right next to the thing, but there's certain kinds of data that each piece of equipment is better designed for. The Starpoint radar and other kinds of receivers are likewise scanning it on every frequency they know how to monitor, although this itself causes Darcy some consternation as the initial readings come back on her phone. "Huh. Doesn't register at all on half of these..."

Eventually she catches up, possibly still looking down at her phone that she nearly bumps into the security contingent.

"Oh, Dr. Stadler. Would you look at this? Wild, huh. Almost out of a movie." That said, she is not one to throw herself head-first into any of the risky business, though, not when they have Diana and Dr. Richards as more high-profile (and more durable...) greeters. Heck, even her fellow SHIELD personnel are a lot more gung-ho on that side of things.

Richard Stadler has posed:
     The fact that the woman with rank was handling this with a sniper rifle from a place with a clear field of fire didn't exactly bode well for the situation they were in, and Stadler briefly considered coming in with his own weapon drawn... but decides against it, especially when he sees the guard contingent. It was exceedingly unlikely that however accurate he was, his pistol would do anything more than make this situation worse.

On the bright side, while he still was a fifth wheel on this one, the dearth of information they had on biology was about to be answered; At least they'd be able to see locomotion. There had to be some camera's about...

Oh, thank God, someone competent. Sure, he'd heard of Doctor Richards; who hadn't? The man was a genius. But he'd actually worked/ with Darcy.

"Doctor Lewis; certainly glad to have you here. I was worried it was just going to be Amazon's meeting pomp and circumstance with grandiose statements. I really shouldn't complain, though. They aren't exactly strafing us here, and I'd call that a win."

Diana Prince has posed:
For those who have been keeping up with Atlantic Starport lore as it developed on-site, they'd know that there have been a number of hostile engagements here in the facility's short time. A Shi'ar incident had lead to the X-Men battling with a rogue Shi'ar ship as it aggressively fled the landing platforms, and broke for high orbit. A massive battle had occurred here involving Asgardians helping to create the teleportation arrival zone for the Starport, along with a few other incidents. Needless to say the security here was already experienced, and perhaps a bit on-edge.

Wonder Woman's gaze was cast upward toward Richards above. She nodded once toward him as he began to speak out to welcome their newly arrived, if unannounced, guests.

Richards' words go unresponded-to...

The large groups of onlookers linger at various points on the starport, some observing from a balcony level protected by a stone railing, others gathering up on the pathways leading south on to the landing clover, all eyes upon the large cylindrical vessel, and its exposed gangplank, pouring white light down upon the granite platform.

Wonder Woman casts a look over toward her guard Captain, who returns the look down to the Princess from her horse mount. She grips the reigns of her horse's saddle, but does not engage in any escalation of her soldiers position, not yet...

From inside that column of white light, a shadow begins to deepen, and grow in size, as something begins to move. Something begins to emerge. The shadow darkens on the gangplank of the alien vessel, as the movement draws itself out of the vessel's interior.

A ... clump ... of something, emerges, and passes in to the natural light coming from the west in the absence of the starport's lamp lights that were deactivated by an unknown aspect of these visitors.

The 'clump' begins to descend the ramp, moving with an undulating motion, and as it moves further out in to the dying sunlight of the late day, it becomes more clear that what the clump is is a series of closely-linked bodies. Six of them... no, eight of them. They're short. They're as grey as their ship's dark hued hull. Each one has a giant bulbous head, with almond-shaped black eyes. They peer out past one another, as they move in unison down toward the foot of their ship's ramp. Each one looks out toward the starport's onlookers, their obsidian colored eyes as dark as a starless night.

The 'lead' at the front of the pack of creatures averts its gaze up toward Richards, and simply stares at him.

It proceeds like this for several moments, as the creatures in their close-knit clump just stare at the Earthlings (and Xio.)

Until finally, inside everyone's mind who is not resistent to telepathy, a voice sounds off, a whispery voice. "Return our people. Return our belongings.."

The voice is toneless, and is whispered in to the minds of all present, as though it was carried on the calm ocean winds itself.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova goes to speak to her comms, irritated as the mental voice comes to her <<Primarily psychic communication. Did the rest of you get that?>> Or was it some sort of vocal broadcast of another nature? Natasha goes to put in a small set of earplugs designed to block out subliminal sounds just to be on the safe side, even as she moves to slide down an eyemask that was designed to block out hypnotic patterns. Live life paranoid enough, and one leaves nothing to chance.

Her weapon is pointed down over in a covering position, but the safety is still on. This is still primarily a diplomatic event, not a hostile one. She goes to speak quietly <<Is there anything matching within the SHIELD database or files?>> They had some access to Shi'Ar archives, so maybe it was in there? But given how vast Shi'Ar information databases were quite probably only a small fraction had actually been sorted through and translated so far.

And Natasha goes to watch down at the.. Clump, or wahtever exactly it is. Is it carbon? Silicon? Or something a bit more exotic in origin?

Reed Richards has posed:
Reed Richards mostly runs diagnostics to try to gather as much data as possible from sensors on the nature of these creatures. Composition, electrical activity, temperature, radiation, molecular analysis, full spectrum scans across the board, in every conceivable field. They came here, after all, to the hub of that very research, and so they should expect to be scanned by it. You don't want to be scanned, land your spaceship at Yankee Stadium.

"Anyone on site who knows what precisely they're speaking of, please speak up? I'm not aware of this particular contact, but I'm aware that we are a diverse set of fields and interests. If you have knowledge, to use a common euphemism, don't leave us hanging."

Jinx has posed:
Jinx's eyes light up as the little grey aliens reveal themselves. "Holy shit..." Her voice squeaks in excitement, "It's the anal probers. The cow abductors. They're actually bloody real!" Whether or not those accusations are actually true it does then raise the question of area 51...

Especially when that psychic demand comes through. A reasonable one if Area 51 is real after all. "Ohh yes. YES. This is so British Museum. Except not just Britain this time." She picks up her T-comm and queries << "Please tell me area 51 UFO and alien autopsies were actually real and these lil' greys have a real complaint on their hands. " >> Because Jinx loves nothing more than to stick it to the man.

She nudges Xio in the side with her elbow knowing full well that might hurt her far more than nudge Xio. "Check it," she motions to the aliens. "Every X-File, Every Unsolved Mysteries, Every Who Made the Pyramids... people are going to lose their shit over this."

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Even Crush knew about the anal probers, they were in many of the articles she read in her search for other aliens. "Holy shit," she blurts out before she can stop herself. "Area 51 friends."

When the voices speak in her head however, her entire body twitches and the thick black chain around her waist suddenly slither up and around her chest to form an X of protection. She has to take a slow deep breath to keep from letting the unwelcome sensation cause her temper to rip through her. To her thinking, it was a violation to have someone just talking in her head.

"Don't know about British museums or none of that shit," she mutters. "But the rest, yeah, I'm bettin these little grey bastards are the cause."

Darcy Lewis has posed:
"For now," Darcy quips back at Richard. Mostly, though, while the others act... she watches. If there's going to be an intergalactic war, it's not gonna be because she started it! The scene is a fascinating one, and hard to look away... although her awe is only slightly toned back by the fact that, indeed, this is hardly her first rodeo on the whole alien life front. For the most part, she keeps her eye on her phone, which is serving as a display for what little info she's getting relayed back. "Lots of jamming, but what I am getting is consistent with the basic spectography and other readings from the Nebraska vessel..." Beep boop. She has buttons to push.

That is all there really is for her to do until, finally, the creatures emerge and approach, in their whole little clump. And until they _communicate_. This, again, is not the first time Darcy has had an alien blast it's thoughts into her head. At least so far, this is BETTER. The last time made her head feel like it was going to crack like an egg shell.

From the ground, she looks up at Reed, "Hello- yeah, uh, we definitely do have a bunch of their stuff. Recovered from an incident recently. And well, probably even more going back through the decades. The new stuff is at the Triskelion. I'm sure SHIELD would authorize it's return..."

Realizing she's talking, but not explicitly trying to think back, she closes her eyes and concentrates. << You hear that OK? We do have some of your things, that arrived here - we don't know intentionally or by accident. I'm sure we can make arrangements to give them back, but most of it isn't here. >>

Richard Stadler has posed:
     Okay, that's it. He was a goddamn biologist; how hard was it to get a 90 day supply of gambutrol? He grimaced and forcibly reminded himself not to get aggressive here, keeping his hands at his sides, as he watched those clumps slowly slide themselves out from that large gangplank. He's involved in the cultural zeitgeist enough to recognize them on general principle... and from that little... meet and greet with the techs. Something that had to be said, of course, so he adjusted the inobtrusive comms gear he was wearing.

<<I still don't like someone putting voices in my head, no matter how gentle. You'd think people like this would understand that. But I think I know what they're after. There was a briefing a few weeks ago; a shoot down of one of those alien craft buzzing about. Collected some weapons, the ship itself, and some bodies that look just like what we're seeing here. Telepathy is not a surprise, given the biology we have currently. We need to watch this , though. These people have been infiltrating our airspace for some time, and just got unlucky enough to get shot down.>>

To his side, he looks over to Darcy. "Any information on the defenses avalible here? Besides the standard garrison. I can't imagine they came without a QRF on standby."

Diana Prince has posed:
All eyes across the starport are on the gathering of alien bodies, huddled together like they're leaching warmth from one another. The eight grey-skinned faces stare out at the Human observers, as they start walking once more. Their small legs carry their clump of strange biomass toward the edge of their landing platform where they pause once more, overlooking the granite ramp and stairs that lead down to the central pathway. They linger there now, on the precipice of their platform, watching the Humans that watch them in return.

"Our people." One whisper comes from the right.

"You harmed them..." Another whisper comes from the left.

"You took our belongings." A third whisper comes from straight ahead.

A pause.

"We will take it all back." A ghostly whisper comes from behind, everyone.

All eight of the alien creatures blink their large black eyes in unison, with one of them looking up toward Richards in his floating car, another staring at the Amazons, and another's eyes going toward Xiomara with her strange reaction to entering their mind.

Darcy and Richard get the even stare of the others, with the 'Lead' creature raising its small and stubby left hand. It points a finger upward, and levels it at the SHIELD agents.

"Aggressive beings. You return our belongings. Return our people, and surrender your technology you used to harm us."

What technology? The jets that shot down the ship in Nebraska? Do they want those jet fighters?

Wonder Woman glances back up at Richards, then speaks up toward him. "I think we need to learn everything SHIELD has learned about all of this." She says toward him.

Xiomara will begin to feel a strange sensation as she sees the creatuer looking directly at her. It is searching her mind, trying to find something about her. Flashes of her own memories being skimmed? They're looking in to her past.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
And that has the rifle scope going up and over to point at the head of the lead being, even as Natasha Romanova goes to click the safety off. The visitors had threatened them at the starport. Strike one. And enough for her to readily get to a position for a shot. And she would speak over along the comm lines to Richard and Darcy. <<If they'd professed a willingness to negotiate on the matter and make reparations, perhaps>> They had attacked Earth.
    But, by showing up to threaten she took it as fair game to be ready to neutralize them. She speaks calmly along the comm network <<Overwatch and ready to target>> She doesn't move, being as still as if trying to meld over with the metal. Not actively engaging until she was given an instruction to. And even then.. There were quite a few ahead of the line of herw hen it take to taking a potshot.

Reed Richards has posed:
Reed Richards nods back to Diana, "I concur. It's clear the protocols of information sharing need a bit of revising. One thing I would like to make clear to our visitors is that Earth does not have a unified governing body. Holding all of a planet accountable for the actions of one organization or nation is wholly unfair. If justice needs be wrought, civilized beings should be able to seek justice without resorting to violence. An accounting can be made fairly with need for threat."

Yes, he could have simply thought as much, but he wants to speak for the benefit of others present as well. At the very least, his stalwart stewardship might hearten a few souls shadowed by the threat these aliens may represent. This was meant to e a place of peace, dammit.

Jinx has posed:
"This is one of those will they won't they go on a murderous rampage attacking the planet due to a simple misunderstanding in planetary culture situations isn't it..." Jinx remarks rather blase. Part of this is seeing how Diana and the SHIELD agents handle this contact with, lets face it, some times hostile alien species.

Of course all those stories and anecdotes could all be lies. Who is she to judge - people have made up all kinds of wild falsehoods about her over the years. The directionality of the telepathy is rather fascinating.

For a sorceress like herself telepathy isn't some natural talent - it's done with magic; or undone with magic. But there have been a few times where a team mate has used it to help coordinate things. It had pretty hostile undertones in the Five though given how mind control obsessed HIVE is.

It puts her on edge and the tips of her fingers begin to glow a faint pink. Wisps curl through the air like an etherial smoke. "That's a bit of a tall order - handing over the weapons that took them out. What are we going to do, roll back the clock on human technological evolution. You can't put that genie back in the bottle without zeroing the whole damn planet," she says offside to Xio.

"You know the UN should really have diplomats stationed here for this kind of thing." But the paranoia in her strikes deep. She motions her hands in a twirl and lifts them up high stating, "Reveal..."

Like a heist movie where hairspray reveals the hidden lasers, so too does the tendrils of mental connection reveal like a field of varying strengths. Everyone here is touched in some way otherwise they wouldn't hear the aliens words. The intensity is dialled up on the heroic faces the aliens recognise - and dialled up a level again upon Xio.

"What the?!" Jinx says and waves a hand in front of Xio's face. "Do you feel okay Crush?"

Darcy Lewis has posed:
"Well, between Atlantis, Themyscira and Wakanda as the major trustees, this is probably the most high-tech structure on Earth... and suitably armed," Darcy informs Richard. "Shielded, both for weapons and against transportation. Defensive turrets. You name it. Kind of a coinflip on whether that should be reassuring or not, though. Because it means if they can ignore that stuff, uh, then we're pretty much screwed." She's not wrong!

The fact that one of them is now pointing at her doesn't exactly make her feel great, either. Darcy swallows. She's now making efforts to both think and speak aloud to get the same message across. "I am a representative of the organization that has your missing people and equipment, but I'm not in charge. I can communicate with my superiors and I'm sure they can make arrangements for their return... do you want them transported somewhere physically, for retrieval?" The tough thing here is that she doesn't know how any of this works, for them.

"Aggresion wasn't our intent," she goes on. "Your vessel entered our airspace, which was interpreted as hostile. Do you have that concept? Sovereign territory that you claim and protect?"

Aside, toward Reed: "That's what UNOOSA is supposed to do, but yeah, it's not as if everyone is on board a hundred percent. It's been a sticking point in negotiating with most species we've encountered. The Shi'ar initially refused to recognize any legal sovereignty at all."

Which comes back to a further thing she has to tell the aliens, and this one is less good news: "Giving up our weapons, I'm not sure I can promise that. Most people on Earth believe they have a right to self-defense." She changes the subject slightly. "Why did you come here in the first place? Is your goal exploratory? Diplomatic? We're really pretty friendly, but it would help to know what you want from us."

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
The longer the grey aliens searcheed in her head, the more red Crush's eyes grow and caused the anger to rise second by second. In the end they are glowing a bright seething red which makes her look more like her father then she ever wanted.

The sensation the aliens caused was too much and she screams out loud enough to shake the glass, "GET OUT OF MY HEAD YOU GREY FUCKERS OR I'LL RIP YOU APART WITH MY BARE HANDS!"

Grabbing her head as her entire body begins to shake with rage, she fights to keep from starting an intergalactic war. She'd worked so hard to control the Czarnian temper, to ensure she was nothing like her father and yet here she was, trapped in a moment of fury as these creatures stole pieces of her past.

Obelus unravels from around Xiomara's body, growing longer as she does until she is a black snake rising up like a cobra in front of the Czarnian. The living metal can't speak in a way most would understand, instead it is a sensation and images that dance through the mind. She has one purpose, and only one, to protect Xiomara from harm and right now the harm comes from the little grey aliens on the platform.

Those closest to the living chain could feel a sensation akin to electric static as she moves to wrap her entire length back around Crush. If Xiomara couldn't keep control of herself, Obelus would help and in doing so, block out the aliens ability to touch the Czarnian's mind.

Richard Stadler has posed:
     "I like to hear that we have options. I assume they would have expected this. Though. I don't know if what we're seeing is an honest misunderstanding, or just plain arrogance." He notes. "We're near the Atlantic coast. I'm sure if things get dicey, we have a hell of a QRF available."

That was quiet. Richard stands by as Darcy speaks, and tries to hid a grimace over to her. That message sounded a bit too conciliatory for his taste. More like catering instead of setting up a hard line. If they didn't have a concept of sovereignty, introducing one might a bit more force than they were expecting.

Still, he switches over to comms again. <<A little soft, but gets what we're looking for out in the open. If we're going to get aggressive about this, I'm hoping we've managed to call in some Quinjets. Otherwise I'm hoping there's some heavy hitters->>

Speak of the Czarian.

Stadler's head whips toward the sound of a scream, processing a number of emotions at once; Shock, of course. He wasn't expecting her to be here, after all, but an immense amount of concern for what this was going to mean.

And frankly, very little of it was on the aliens themselves.

"I think it would be very wise to do as she says." He'll note out loud to the aliens in front of them. "It may be a foreign concept to you, but you simply do not get to go where you please without permission, and at this point, I think we're very close to enforcing that again."

He kept his tone as close to neutral as he could. He didn't move, as much as he wanted to. Sometimes you had to put a line in the sand and make it clear it would not be crossed.

Diana Prince has posed:
AS the alien creatures continue to stand on the precipice of their landing platform, their eyes filled with skepticism and concern, their whispers become more pronounced. They address the gathered Humans with a mixture of disbelief and wariness, as if their experience with humanity has led them to doubt the concept of peaceful coexistence.

"You claim to be peaceful," one of the aliens whispers with a tone of incredulity, "but your history is marred with violence and aggression."

Another alien, perhaps echoing the sentiments of its fellow beings, adds, "You destroyed our vessel without provocation, without understanding. You took our people and our possessions. How can we trust you? One of the voices questions, its whispery sound carrying across everyone's minds.

The Amazons keep ready on their mounts, the armored women staring at the aliens with a measure of readiness clear should they need to react to any escalation. Diana glances again up toward Reed, before she looks back to the alien creatures. The grey skinned creatures seem intently interested in the SHIELD representitives, everything that Darcy says and does, followed by Staddler's presence as well. But it is Xiomara, and Jinx who suddenly draw all of their attention. The 'clump' of grey aliens skitter their short legs to the west as they reach a further edge of their landing platform, closer now to where Jinx and Xiomara are located, but still a long gap of distance between them. All their black eyes are on these two now, and the 'Lead' alien points that long fat finger toward the two.

"Aggression." One whisper says. "More aggression. Without provocation." Whether or not THAT is true is up to interpretation.

All of the black eyes stare at Jinx and Xio, the group clearly intrigued by the two of them, but suddenly they move again, back toward the exit ramp of their landing platform, lingering at its apex.

"You will return our belongings. You will leave them on this very platform, including the weapons that you used to harm our people. You have five of your biological diurnal cycles before we return for what we demand..." The whispers all speak in a synchronized unity, toneless and rippling from different directions within one's mind.

"Non-compliance will result in consequences... We only wished to observe your aggressive tendancies from afar, but... You have drawn us in now. Comply. Or we will react as necessary."

A quiet chill settles across the onlookers of the starport as everyone's mind simultaneously hears these chilled threats ffrom the aliens, as the 'clump' of grey-skinned creatures seem to be slowly backward up together toward their ship's gangplank.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
This is why Natasha goes with a default of 'presume hostile'. <<Visitors have confirmed hostile intent. At the discretion of the Princess, SHIELD personnel are to deputize themselves to the Amazon ranks>> Scope of the rifle is locked over onto the cranium of the alien, and Natasha rests in place over with readiness to blast it.

<<Agent Lewis, Consultant Stadler, be ready to disengage and get to cover. If need be, give cover to Agent Lewis, Consultant Stadler>> Stadler was the one with combat experience and training. So she trusted him to keep Darcy safe.

Natasha meanwhile goes to cycle her weapon along, eyeing the craft. Reviewing the points in her memory where SHIELD's analysis of the alienc raft that they had disabled had for weak points along the structure to target. If need be ready to drop down to slink towards it to place explosives. But.. Posturing aside, the situation had not yet fallen to conflict.

So there was still the chance that this belligerence can be talked down.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx isn't so sure that these aliens poking about in Xio's mind is the -best- idea considering the way she's responding. "I'd say that's a no then.." She can feel her control of the magic starting to tilt out of balance. All this invasive mind stuff is bringing back a lot of bad memories and emotions.

"Roight. Enough of this bollocks." The pink magical energy leaps up her arm as she thrusts it out. Rippling waves of magic press back against the mind intrusions on Xio. "I gotcha big girl," she remarks before she's hit next with their intrusive attentions.

Her other arm ripples with magical energy next as she pushes it out too to defend herself next. She catches sight of the very concerned and shocked looks from the crowd that has shuffled as far back from the duo as possible.

"I don't think you understand what aggression really is. If you did, you'd be a lot more afraid right about now shortstops." Jinx scowls at them and their pointy fingers. This isn't helping her inner calm one little bit. "We're all tryin' to be real friendly like with you cow fuckers."

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Having the aliens out of her head, no longer digging through her past, bringing up flashes of things she had long ago forced into little boxes, Crush sucks in a hard breath. She's trying really hard not to just go off, to not jump across the platform onto the glob of aliens and start tearing them apart.

With Obelus wrapped around her all she could really do was twitch and cast her eyes toward Jinx. There is still a bright red glow to them, but there is also controlled thought flashing through them. The woman was right, those things had no idea what aggression was. They'd seem weapons destroy their people, but had they ever seen a Czarnian rip one apart? No? Then they should probably reconsider what aggression really was.

"Thanks," she manages to breath out, perhaps some venom in the tone but only because she was still fighting her own blood and racial issues. "Love the pink..." she then hisses and starts to laugh.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
"... you know, that's fair." Darcy may be playing diplomat here, but it isn't exactly her main area of training, none of the political double-speak or vague half-truths. She's been very up-front with the aliens, about having their stuff, and now, well, she can't exactly bring herself to defend the history of humanity either.

"But we're learning," she continues on. "I am pretty sure you folks have been observing us for longer than we've even been capable of interacting. So you probably know a lot about our development. Maybe you know what this place represents: it's a place for different beings to come and meet and understand each other. If you'd come here first, we might have had a better first contact, and maybe no one would have been hurt." That causes her to sigh, imagining the better scenario.

"We are obviously very different from you, and I'm sure you understand that differences can breed uncertainty. People have an easier time being open and trusting when they also feel safe and secure." She can hear Nat of course, and as far as hiding behind tougher people goes, it's one skill she's actually pretty good at! But for the time being, stands to finish their little chat.

"We need to understand each other better. For instance, you're... threatening, maybe even hurting that young woman," she explains, gesturing toward Xiomara, "Because you treat telepathic contact as normal. We don't. To us it's invasive."

In the end, they don't seem easily convinced. But it's as much as Darcy can do. "Sure. Here in five days. I'm sure we can arrange for your people to be returned, at the very least." That one she's confident of, even lacking the authority, because she knows enough to imagine how her bosses will handle it. Returning bodies is... decency, and the kind of thing even hostile governments will sometimes grant each other. The rest... well, guess we'll see!

Richard Stadler has posed:
     Stadler gave a simple click of acknowledgement on the comms to the order. He didn't know what his popgun would do that the Amazon's wouldn't be able to, but at least it might protect one of the smarter doctor's in the room. Though it was hard not to scowl at what she was saying to them. He had to admit that it was noble, and proper, to negotiate from a position of peace, but their own history showed peace could be dangerously close to appeasement. Give them what they want, and what's to say they wouldn't continue to fly over the world, examining and judging. Sovereignty in this case couldn't be based on respect, but leverage. And that should be made clear.

"I believe, as my colleague has stated, there is some disconnect here, on what is to be considered aggression. I think, however, it is important for you to understand the human term, 'arrogance'. There have been at least two forces from the stars that, like yourselves, came to us, and declared an ultimatum to dictate what we hand over. I think you will find that, like our visitors from those incidents, the conclusion of this one shall be exceedingly unfavorable to you."

His hand remains off his weapon, however. He wasn't going to be the one that shot first, in this scenario. But he does move to a position slightly in front and to the side of Nat. <<Think they're disengaging. Leaves us some wiggle room, but I don't think I'll be flying home tonight, will I?>>

A quick look to the side. Crush was... still surrounded by that chain of hers, but looking... better. At least that she wasn't going to charge forward that second and toss the spaceship into the sea.

Diana Prince has posed:
All of the onlookers at the starport's landing platform bare witness to the clump of eight aliens beginning to separate from one another. One by one they walk backwards up the ramp, each one moving in the exact same pattern that the previous went with their black eyes still out upon the people watching them. One by one they vanished back up in to the belly of the cylindrical spacecraft, until there was just one left standing at the base of their boarding ramp.

It stares out at the onlookers. It had been the 'Lead' of the pack. Now it is the loner that remains. Its eyes blink large eyelids that fully close over the deep blackness of its deathly dark orbs.

One voice whispers now in to the mind of everyone observing.

"We have much to learn of your people. It is why we are here. It is why we have been here. Your aggressive behaviors toward one another are being studied, and you will continue to be a source of great information." It's whispering mind-link pauses before speaking one more time.

"Return what is our belongings. You are unworthy to possess them."

It begins to back up then, leaving the Starport denizesns to stand there, many of whom are in total confusion as to what they just witnessed, including many of the Amazon wariors.

Wonder Woman draws in a light breath, her head slightly shaking from side to side as she glances over to the crowd that had gathered up.

The gangplank of the alien vessel retracts back up in to itself, as the vehicle begins to near-silently rise back in to the sky.

On key points across the port, the defenses are keyed-up, ready to react if needs be, all of which are aimed in the direction of the strange visitor's vessel.

It lifts fifty feet in to the sky, its shadow not nearly as dark with the sun setting in the west. One moment the alien cylinder is there, hovering above the starport, and the next, it suddenly vanishes, leaving just a breeze to blow across the landing platforms, and over the people who'd gathered to watch this unusual event.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx lowers one hand, then the other. She frowns as the last of them boards their dull gray ship and fly their dull gray asses away. "Assholes," - There. She said it. Everyone was thinking it. Communication issues not withstanding. "Now I feel bad for everyone who said they got abducted by little grey men and no one believed them."

Jinx looks back to Crush and smiles at her laugh. "Yeah. It's pink. I dunno why. It goes white when I'm doing really big stuff. And hey - you can just ask the Titans for a T-comm. They hand 'em out like they're candy."

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
The laughter had continued, for some reason the pink energy flowing from Jinx was hysterical to the previous enraged Czarnian. As the rage subsides, her eyes return to their normal color, and slowly Obelus unwraps from around her to return to being a chain belt at her waist.

Her hands finally free, she wipes the tears of laughter from her eyes as she looks back to Jinx. "I got no clue why that's funny, but it is... I think isn't the irony of it," she comments with just a few chuckles. They say laughter heals all, apparently it also cures pissed of Czarnians. "I'll remember to ask the next time I'm at the Tower, but hey... thanks for that. The fuckers were raiding my memories like they were flash cards."