4252/Titans and Guardians.

Titans and Guardians.
Date of Scene:	30 November 2020
Location:	Somewhere in Space
Synopsis:	The Guardians of the Galaxy meet the Titans, who seem to be really *angry* at pirates. Rocket seems to be really *angry* about everything.
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Terry O'Neil, Drax, Kara Danvers, Rocket, Caitlin Fairchild, Rachel Roth

---

Donna Troy has posed:
    (Continued from scene 4241)

    The Titan's battered shuttlecraft caroms off the Milano, spinning wildly for a few moments before Caitlin is able to wrestle it back under control. Vic remodulates the shield systems to try to stabilize the damaged hull, but the shuttlecraft has seen better days and may not see much future.

    Honestly the shuttlecraft shouldn't even /be/ here. It had come hurtling out of a wormhole, but it's clearly a vehicle designed for planetary landings and inter-system travel at best - there's no sign of any kind of warp engines on it. It's a puzzle what it's doing here.

    The airwaves crackle with a response to Rocket's loud objections and Donna jabs a finger on the coms to send out an all-frequencies local hail in response. "Well don't fly past the openings of wormholes without paying attention to where you're going!" the voice replies, sounding annoyed. "Don't you know anything about space traffic? Everyone knows you give way on wormhole interchanges!"

     The pursuing pirate ship has slowed down, probably more out of confusion than anything else, but they take this opportunity to fire a couple more pot-shots at the Milano - at range, so there's not a whole lot of danger. One sizzles harmlessly against the Milano's shields, while the other misses altogether, and streaks past the shuttle, barely missing.

    "Oh for Hera's sake," Donna mutters to herself, before jabbing her finger on the button. "Titans vessel to both ships. We don't know why you're fighting and we don't care. You will stand down and stop firing, or we will make you stand down."

    It's a very /small/ shuttlecraft to be threatening a pirate ship. The comms laser might cause some blistering of the pirate ship's paintwork if it came to blows, but it's unlikely the shuttle can do more than that.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vorpal is thanking all sorts of different deities (and a few demons) for the fact that they did not splatter against the Milano. The salvo of lasers, however, proves that they are not out of the fire just yet.

"Well, at least we know we're back in our home dimension. People are cussing /and/ firing at us. If they fire again... shall I see if I can try catching their salvo with my Rabbit Holes and... return the fire?" He grins. "The interplanetary version of 'Stop Hitting Yourself' if I may?"

Drax has posed:
"You know how to fly this thing?" Drax doubts openly as he finally straps in next to Rocket, though he has no business doing so.  "We are not dead, so that is good."  He looks back deeper in the Milano to the hatch to down below.  "I bet Quill talks about the ship's paint."

Drax is...well Drax.  Naturally, he's shirtless, but still wearing his pants.  He squinches down to try and pick up a sealed cup of something like gushers rolling around on the floor, unlatching a part of his belt to do so.

"I love these.  Why are people shooting and shouting at us?"

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara picks up her DEO phone from the desk in the Titan's Tower. A clear crystal in one hand, she sets it in to a small device and footage from another world appears before her. "Director. You're not going to believe what the Silver Banshee brought back." There's a pause, "Yes I'm reviewing it right now and I'll use the device tech gave me to copy it to a DEO computer. We must send this to SHIELD at once and I need to show the Titans and the Justice League."

Dressed in her usual blue, red, and gold combination, she is relaxing after a long long day of juggling work, crime fighting, and university. Sometimes she wonders if may be she's taken on too much at once. But that kind of is the El way in many respects. She remembers her mother and father being the same.

The conversation on the phone continues for a bit longer as she describes what she's seeing to the DEO director. The DEO has taken some hard hits recently, but just because the job is hard doesn't mean it shouldn't be done. "One moment director," Kara says and hugs the phone to her chest as she walks out of her room.

Peering around the Titan's Tower common area which is quiet at the moment, "Hey is anybody around?" It's a rhetorical question, the question she really meant to ask was 'does anyone want to come out and talk?'. Because she's not going to go in to peoples rooms uninvited.

Rocket has posed:
The Milano spins away from the small craft the Titans occupy, and whoever's piloting it brings it back around swiftly. Rocket snarls, and whether it's at the screen that displays the damage taken by the ship, or to the one who takes a spot nearby...who knows?

"Do I know how to fly this thing? Did you seriously just ask me that? I'm one of the best pilots you'll ever see." He taps quickly at the clear screen with one hand, cycling through various diagnostics and other readouts before expanding a particular view to show more of what's around them on their radar..which is coming up not so clear right now. "D'ast. Radar's busted. I can deal with that here, but it's gonna make some other things a little more problematic. You know how to handle that?" he asks, pointing to the laser weapon systems, "or do you just try to stab everything you fight?"

The unmarked pirate ship, of lesser quality than the Milano, but debatably in better shape than whatever the Titans are in, continues to pursue and fire at them, currently ignoring the newly-returned Titans. The Milano absorbs another blast, which drops the energy shields by a few percent, but Rocket dips beneath the next salvo. That's when the hailing from the Titans side comes through.

Again, Rocket laughs. "Hahaha, did you hear that? Watch this."

Pulling up the comms again, he broadcasts, "Yeah? You and what space squadron? I'm gonna cut you a little slack 'cause you seem new to all this, but you're talkin' to Rocket, pilot of the Milano and greatest pilot in at least seven systems. /You/ were in /our/ way, and you're lucky we didn't split your little ship in half. Now sit down, shut up, and watch a pro at work. Once we're done with these losers, maybe we'll talk."

Within moments, the Milano begins to strafe the pirate ship. "Time to make with the pew-pew, big guy. And I got no idea. Maybe I snuck off with something they had that I wanted. Maybe I didn't."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin is a pretty good pilot, but in truth her efforts to avoid breaking the Milano mostly come down to Rocket's reflexes. It's a good bet they'd have done substantial damage to both ships if they'd collided.

"Good bet they've got terawatt lasers or plasma cannons firing at over a million kelvin," Caitlin tells Terry. "No offense to your awesome portal powers but I think that'd be pushing even your space folding. If you spot an opening in their shield cycle, take us out of here. We need off this bird or we're gonna run out of oxygen if the lasers don't knock us out of the sky."

The redhead starts desperately trying to limp the shuttle along. "Vic, give me something!" she shouts at the cyborg. "Reprime the cascade drivers, let's at least get some distance here!"

The shuttle's engines flicker and falter; it's a lot less 'agile departure' and more 'hobbled shuttle limping away from a dogfight'. Caitlin bangs a fist on the console more out of frustration than with any good solutions in mind. Rocket at least seems neutral on the Titans; hopefully he can take care of the pirate ship before some bored gunner aboard decides to take a potshot at the limping and vulnerable craft.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Fifteen seconds ago, Raven felt four presences familiar to her re-enter the universe. In that time, there isn't a single shadow in the tower that isn't moving in some way. It's difficult to notice, of course, as they all converge on the sorceress' room, seeping liquidously through walls and the cracks around doors, filing in as if alive.

    However, all of these details might just be eerie. They're a little par for the course for the tower, because of its one permanent occupant, if we're being honest. Raven gets moody and the shadows in the tower form some sort of gothic waltz to whatever tune is bothering her at that particular moment.

    Nightmarishly, though, the maw of a great ebon bird emerges from the floor beneath Kara, and within the space of a heartbeat, has swallowed her entirely. No warning, no allowance for preparation, no knowledge if it is death impending or not. Just the aggression of a Raven, and Kara is gone.

    The existence that is Rachel Roth disappears from the tower.

    For some few seconds, the four on their shuttle craft see events around them slow to a standstill, as time itself ceases to flow in the proper sense of the word, stalling out like an engine in water. Controls cease to respond, and then become solid as steel to even the strongest of hands, trapped within an existence that doesn't seem to respond to Vorpal, Caitlin, Cyborg, and of course, Donna- all of whom are allowed to exist as normal within stopped time.

    Within that pocket of stretched second, at the core of the shuttle, bursts an ominous explosion of whirling blackness, an unceremonious arrival of two figures. One floating, imperious, what visible flesh is present a pallid porcelain white, even paler than normal, yet small flashes of red- surely, tricks of the eye- seem to work over her features.

    The other vomited from the darkness onto the floor, seemingly without a care.

    There are a precious few sub-seconds when she arrives before time begins to flow again as normal, the world seeming to race to catch up to where it ought to be as that force of the universe compresses to account for the stretching it had been under.

    "Donna." she regards, as if the other three aren't even there. "Why did you keep me waiting?" Oh, yes, as if she didn't threaten the end of the universe to get her way.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "The last ship to make the mistake of thinking the Titans needed a 'space squadron' was called War World," Donna replies to Rocket. "Maybe you've heard of it? I said STAND DOWN."

    No-one, apparently, is listening. The Pirate ship corkscrews forwards, attempting to dodge the incoming fire from the Milano, while returning fire itself. Luckily for the four Titans, they really have their attention on the Milano now and the shuttle has limped out of immediate danger of being caught in the crossfire.

    Donna takes a few deep breaths, then stands up, and draws her sword. "Right. Nobody is listening." Donna smiles a satisfied smile. "Good. Terry... how about instead we board some ships? You and Cait take that brightly colored thing, I'll take the one coming up behind, Vic you okay to keep things together here while we knock heads together? A couple of Rabbit Holes please, Terry."

    Donna really is itching for a fight. However before Terry has to time to react to her suggestions, the interior of the shuttle is flooded with darkness, time starts to act strangely, and four Titans become six.

    For the space of a few heartbeats Donna stares wide-eyed at Raven. Then - though the shuttlecraft is small and cramped, and the distances short, it is nevertheless an unreasonably small amount of time that Donna takes to cross the distance between them. One moment she is standing there staring, the next she has her arms wrapped around Raven, fighting with herself not to squeeze too hard. She is too lost in emotion to reply to the question with anything other than a name: "Rae."

Drax has posed:
"I am excellent at many ways of destruction," but Drax certainly does not answer Rocket's question.  He seems to brush off all the technical stuff.  The big guy maneuvers to...look at the laser weapons system.  "How do I not blow up the ship?  Our ship." he calls to Rocket, a little over the Titan's transmission.

Drax doesn't wait to get the full answer back.  He's a warrior.  He does nothing in half measure.  So he starts winging it, and it's pretty clear he's never done it before.  Not just because it takes him a moment or two to calibrate his reflexes to the machine, but also because of the pure jubilation in his eyes.  This Kylosian was built for the big guns.

Drax keeps the cup of squishy fake fruit snacks between his legs and stops firing for a second to grab a single one and pop it into his mouth.

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara can't help but think that all the shadows disappearing off to Raven's room, yet again, was somehow her fault for asking if anyone was here. She is easily the most private person in the Titans from her perspective. Magic is weird and she tries to avoid it as much as possible.

After all, without warning not even Supergirl can outrun shadows. One moment she is in the titans tower, then next she tumbles out on to the floor and lets out a gasps of surprise, "Raven!." A cell phone pressed to her chest. It makes a click sound as it loses connection to the cell towers. She tucks it behind her belt and then looks around the space, ... ship. Then her eyes widen as she sees her fellow Titans.

"Donna!, Caitlin!, Cyborg!, Vorp!," she says, barely able to contain her delight and excitement as she dash over to the nearest Titan in front of her now, Caitlin and gives her a hug without even asking for permission. "You're alive!" She has to wipe a tear off her cheek quickly and then looks back to Raven and gives her a nod and a smile of approval. "Raven," she says a second time, this time in a manner of thanks rather than exclamation.

Her eyes go to the view screen and she peers out at the other two ships. "What is happening? Where are we? How can we help?," she rattles off. Space. If only she had had time to grab her space mask. It makes things so much easier re: oxygen. But she can hold her breath. It'll be fine.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"One Rabbit Hole coming up for the Amazonian Pri--AAAAAAAAAH!"

The end of this sentence is cut off with a quick shriek he will henceforth pretend it never happened. EVER. "Raven! You almost gave me a heart attack!" he puts a hand up to his chest, and then there's a Kara, hugging people, and wanting to be helpful.

"... but by the Queen's hangover I am glad to see both of you. We've got a ship we crashed into," he points to the Milano, "And a ship that's firing. We're going to try to board the one ship, and Donna wanted to punch the other. Maybe you'd like to join in in the punching, Kara?" the Cheshire cat grin, purple magic ready to open the Rabbit Holes.

A pause, and a glance at Kara and Rae "... is everybody okay back home? Kate, Karolina, everybody? Gar?"

He has been waiting three months to ask that question. He will open the Rabbit Hole into the Milano first, and then the second one into outer space to get Donna and Kara out into proper punching position, if that is the plan.

Rocket has posed:
"No, you big.." Rocket starts to say, before he cuts himself off. "It can't damage us. There are safeguards built in for that stuff. Look. You ever see Arcadia? The big game world?" Because of course it's called that. "Just pretend you're shooting at one of the ships there, except this one is real and could potentially blow us up if you can't aim for shit. Got it?"

Then he rolls his eyes, looking exasperated for a moment. "This lady, I swear. She's worse than Gamora." All of this has already been relayed to the Titans' vessel, due to Rocket forgetting to turn down the comms to talk to Drax. "Listen up, whoever you are on your busted-ass space canoe. In case you didn't hear me the first time, I'm Rocket and ain't nobody tells me what to do. I do what I want, when I want. Now sit back and watch while we deal with this, then maybe we'll see what you want. Until then, MUTED!" He slaps the part of the console dealing with that, along with a gleeful little laugh, before turning his beady eyes on Drax as the Milano arcs by the Titans again, exchanging fire with the pirate ship.

"Is that my fruit cup?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Hugs and well-welcomes all abound and Caitlin squeezes Kara hard enough to make even Kryptonian ribs creak. "Oh my gosh! You're here! You're both here! Perfect timing!"

"No time for stories, sorry. What Terry said-- the situation's urgent. Kara and Donna, you two get the pursuing ship. Disable or destroy it. The red... orange ship-- me, Vic, Terry, we'll get aboard and either make friends or take it over. Let's just ditch the the shuttle, it's near derelict anyway."

Handsqueezes are all exchanged and then Caitlin heads through Terry's portal door. She stops two paces inside the Milano's crew deck, looking around, then raises her voice to be heard. "Err... sorry to invite ourselves onto your ship. We're from the, uh, canoe. ... oh! 'Permission to board?'" Caitlin shouts up the stairs. It's more polite than anything, as the other Titans are already moving up through the portal behind her.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Donna's arms seek the warm embrace of, perhaps, the one person she's wanted to cling to the most in quite a long time. If we're being honest, Donna is the one person Raven would allow to do such a thing. However, things are not the way they should be right now. Raven has been accumulating power throughout all of this time, and a side effect of that is that she does not truly occupy a physical form on any plane of existence. That includes this one, which is her second favorite.

    As a result, Donna's arms slip through Raven as if she were not there, as if she were intangible. "I do not currently exist, Donna." she explains, unhelpfully. Raven's attention turns impassively towards a direction that, if the hull of the shuttle were not opaque, would be the direction in which the pirate ship is flying.

    "It is dangerous, and it vexes me."

    The ship firing upon the Milano and the shuttle has come in for another pass, but soon finds itself crippled, in a way, with extreme prejudice. Its main guns are targeted first. One, on one side, begins to lose molecular integrity, collapsing into base molecules as the metal and technology of it suddenly decide to stop being coordinated physical entities, shearing off from the ship and exposing its gunner's seat. The person inside is protected by a containment field, stopping them from being purged into space, but that just means that the Milano, whose eyes are on the ship, get to watch as the person sitting there begins clawing actively at their eyes, driven intensely mad almost instantly. That insanity is quelled as the gunner pulls a sidearm, and puts a single round to use.

    On the other side, space itself seems to warp as if a three dimensional fabric, forming a hungry, scraping maw that similarly removes the other gun in one abominable gulp. It is then suddenly a little difficult to remember that the ship had multiple main guns, as if that fact had become something less immutable: As if the gun never existed at all. Within the ship, unseen, the gunner- now entirely unsure why they're in a gunner's seat for a gun they 'know' never existed on the ship, is caught in a bubble of accelerated time, in moments aging excruciatingly, dying, and then partially rotting. She didn't -have- to do that. His gun never was, anymore, but he fired on them.

    Those rounds could have destroyed the shuttle, and whether or not Donna was in any real danger doesn't matter. Raven imagines that the danger was real, and the parts of her in control right now respond not just in kind, but with overwhelming hatred.

    "It is safe to attack their ship." is all she remarks.

    It'll be fine.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna takes a step back from Raven's intangible form and watches the not-quite-there Titan a little warily, blinking. She's aware of what's going on with the pirate ship, but her attention is mostly on Raven.

    "Rae?" she says quietly. "It's good to see you. I can't tell you how good. But uh... leave this to us now, okay? Things are not that drastic right now." She smiles gently at Raven, then turns to Kara and gives the young Titan a broad smile and a squeeze on her arm. "Kara, it's great to see you too. I can't..." she shakes her head. "Look, we've gotta deal with this situation before it gets more out of hand, the greetings can wait a few minutes. Can you take out their maneuvering thrusters and smaller guns while I uh... deal with the bridge? Leave their FTL drives whole they, I want them to be able to run away."

    With that Donna leaps through the briefly opened Rabbit Hole into space, and flies forwards at speed, coming down to land on the plexi-glass bubble encasing the pirate ship's bridge. She stands there for a moment to look back at the Milano, sword drawn and pointing towards Rocket and Drax in the cockpit there in warning, then she turns back and stares down through the window at the terrified pirates inside. While she leaves Kara to wreak havoc on the engines and any small gun mountings she can find, Donna stabs her sword down into the plexiglass, not sufficiently deep to pierce it and depressurize the hull, but deep enough to gouge a significant hole and give the strong impression that she /could/ go further.

    Donna stares down at the pirates staring back up at her, and grins. Then she drags the sword around in an arc, slowly carving the words 'GO NOW' into the plexiglass dome.

Drax has posed:
Drax pauses for a moment to look down at the cup.  "No.  It was rolling around.  I do not think these are fruit.  The dark blue of the little squishy filled treats blends into the shadow of Drax's hand as he pops some more in his mouth and gets back to shooting.

"I do not play games at killing people.  I crush them."  Pew pew pew pew pew pew.  At least Drax has shown some care in /not/ getting the Titan's ship caught in any crossfire as paths diverge.

Drax looks back as people come through a portal in the ship.  "Space Canoe People!  Mantis!  There are Space Canoe People and they all look like Quill!" he shouts enthusiastically over his shoulder.  As far as Mantis knows, Space Canoe People could be coming to eat them.  Drax does not help.  "Do not worry!  I will break them in two before they can eat you!"  Then he says back to the newcomers, "I have to kill this ship first," as if implicitly telling/asking? them to wait.

Drax sees Raven's attack first and he squints slightly with a deep intensity.  Then Donna is flying-leaping through space.  "Okay they are not puny!  Stay back!"  He doesn't seem to care that he's telegraphed that there are other people on the ship.  Drax being The Destroyer, planning is not a necessary skill.

With the pirate ship now weakened considerably, Drax unbuckles and stands up with the cup in his hand, dwarfing it.  "I will deal with this," he says to Rocket with the start of a laugh.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Caitlin might look like Quill (if you were myopic and were willing to ignore several feet of difference and several other attributes), buit the upright Cheshire cat who waltzes into the Milano as the last one through the Rabbit hole most certainly does not. "How about nobody gets broken in half? Or any multiple thereof? We merely come in peace and not to shoot to kill. All we want is to go home where people don't shoot at you from spaceships."

Pause. "Mostly." And then he stops to stare at Rocket, assuming by voice and process of elimination who exactly swore at them.

"My god, Catilin, look. We got cussed at by a trash panda! Are you sure we're still not in the crazy dimension?"

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara truly appreciates that hug from Caitlin. Her smile growing evidently more in the process. Kara next gives Terry a hug. She's gotten better at the right amount of hug pressure! see! "Gar is good. He's going to be over the moon to see you again," she says with another extra small little squeeze. Then she steps back and nods her head, "I'm ready. And as always, it's good to hear you have a solid plan Troia." She squeezes her arm back and nods her head, "On it."

And with that, she turns and takes the airlock out of the shuttle and in to the cool of space. The virtual particles begin to ping and pop in her ears, excited by all the weapons fire.

She looks toward the pirates and flies in front of them, then gives them a playful little wave / half salute. Her eyes begin to glow brightly and with a swish, she burns off the barrels of the smaller guns.

The only thing she regrets about this plan is not being able to say 'Ahoy pirates! I'm Supergirl'. The thrusters are her next target. She disappears from their visuals but not their sensors as her hands wrap around the thruster outlets and squeezes. It takes her some time to locate them all.. they are now a ballistic FTL vehicle. Which ever way the Titans point them is the way they're going to go.

It is at this point that she realises she has something more important to do -- protect the pirates from the Milano's guns. She puts herself in the way of Drax's fire and takes it. Her face contorts and she curls up from the pain, exhaling more oxygen than she intended to. That Milano cannon fire hurt far more than she had anticipated. With a small *thunk* she bumps in to the pirate ship. This'd be a lot easier if she weren't burning away her energy reserves. A yellow sun would be real nice about now. There's a small thumbs up given to Donna to let her know she's okay.. well, okay enough.

Rocket has posed:
"Because I'm pretty sure I was gonna have that later," the fuzzy little pilot laments, a momentary frown setting in. Chalk one up for 'Rocket will remember that.'

About that time, an unexpected voice develops somewhere within the Milano, close enough to be heard as the cockpit flashes to alert them to the fact they've been boarded by unfamiliar signatures. "What in the..?" he starts to ask, only for things to get a lot more interesting with the pirate ship itself.

First and foremost, it's everything Raven does, up to and including the rapid end of the pirate gunner, a yellow, decidedly alien creature with four eyes - literally - and tentacles in place of hands that had wrapped around the gun mechanism.

"Drax, stop firing, now." Suddenly, Rocket's attitude has taken a shift toward something a little less brash, a little more awed, and definitely more..well, just wait. A video feed from the Milano's perspective shows Donna dealing with a portion of the pirate ship in her own way, then there's the one suddenly outside any of the ships, taking a blast from their own ship and more or less absorbing it, and..he blinks rapidly.

Just before Caitlin and Vorpal turn up near the cockpit, which is already on the small side, he opens up the comms once more. "So we might be willing to listen now," he sends across, the Milano shifted into a more stationary position rather than zipping here, there, and everywhere. As he starts to unbuckle the belt harness keeping him in his pilot's seat, his ears flatten and a corner of his muzzle inches upward. "First of all, how did you get on my ship? And what did you just call me? Are you some freaky flerken failed experiment or what?" In a hand appears a pistol, which is kept visible. "Whoever you are, start talkin' and do it fast. My trigger finger's gettin' twitchy and Drax here might not be in a waiting mood."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin's very quick to demonstrate a lack of malicious intent. The redhead can't bluff for beans, but it's hard to find many people better able to express sincere honesty than her.

"Short-range teleporter," Caitlin clarifies, quickly. It's an adquate enough explanation. "We didn't have time to ask permission, I'm sorry. I'm Caitlin, this is Terry. We've still got one friend on the shuttle; our other friends are Donna and Kara and Rachel, they're out there dealing with the, um. Other ship. We're just trying to get home to Earth. Er... Terra," she clarifies.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven stares at Donna for a few moments. There is a part of her, impetuous and angry, that wants to use every bit of collected power from these past few months to take a sort of terrible vengeance upon the pirate ship- but beyond the practicality concerns, there is the truth that Raven knows, however deep down that currently may be, that doing so would just be another step down the wrong road.

    It takes an amount of self control that she has- but is not comfortable with having to exert- to listen to Donna. To restrain herself. Raven is almost, -almost-, too far gone... But almost is just enough.

    "Do not ram this one into itself or its parent ship." she cautions. It's not at all particularly amusing- and Raven has lost, somewhat, the part of her that can tell proper jokes.

    Her attention is on the Rabbit Hole then, and the ship beyond. When the others leap into action, Raven departs the shuttle, disappearing from it and appearing wholesale behind Terry and Caitlin in the Milano.

    "They will not be long." she states, her voice ethereal and echoing in a way that the Milano's internal architecture does not allow. "Please open a path for them to board the ship, and stop shooting the blonde."

    She is, at least, being quite polite- There is no threat to her tone. She is asking, and nothing more.

Donna Troy has posed:
    The pirates don't wait too long. Donna is still working on the 'W' of 'NOW' when they start to run frantically around the bridge to engage evasive maneuvers.

    Which, thanks to Kara's work while Donna had kept the pirates distracted, do not engage.

    Kara and Donna feel the hull of the pirate ship start to vibrate, as in a panic they begin to spin up the FTL drive for a rapid jump to anywhere but here. If crazed Raccoons and gun-happy Kylosians weren't bad enough, the arrival of people who fly around in space and tear holes in their ship with their bare hands (or swords) tips the balance.

    Donna kicks away from the cockpit and flies to Kara's side. She mouths "Are you okay?" to the her team-mate and turns, bracers raised, ready to intercept any further blasts from the Milano - but the firing has stopped. Judging by the expression on her face she obviously considers this a wise move on the Guardian's part.

    Amazon offers an arm to Kryptonian for a little additional support if she needs it on the brief flight from departing pirate ship to Milano, and is soon staring in through the Milano's cockpit window, looking distinctly annoyed. She raps three times on the screen, but at least she uses the pommel of her sword rather than the tip - this time she's asking for entry rather than cutting holes. Her eyes go to Terry's - obviously she's expecting a Rabbit Hole rather than an airlock. As she waits she opens the clamshell of her T-Com and unhooks the bone-conduction mike, clipping it over her ear, and hails the shuttle. "Vic? You getting this stable there? Need any help?" There's a brief pause, then in a distinctly less business-like voice she adds "R-Rae? Are you okay there?"

Drax has posed:
Drax points a meaty finger at Terry when he pops into the ship.  "You are not a Quill."  He folds his arms over his chest.  He stopped firing when he noticed he was hitting someone in space instead of the ship.  Because it wasn't blowing up.  But the timing was such that it /seemed/ like he was following orders from Rocket.

"What is a trash panda?" Drax asks seriously, his chin lifted ever so slightly as he surveys the intruders.  "Would any of you like some of these squishy things?  They are delicious."  He holds up the cup, his brow raising congenially.  Of course Drax will try to get Rocket some more later, but of course he doesn't say this.  "Will that lady be okay?"  The cup even gets extended to Raven.  No fear.  Something is wrong with this ornately patterned being.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I am not entirely sure what a Quill is, but I'm a Cheshire Cat. And as for the Freaky Flerkins, I happen to own all three of their albums and two of their bootleg ones, including the one where they all took acid before going onstage and mistook members of the audience for their instruments."

So the guy built like a brick shithouse seemed friendly and hospitable, while the fuzzy little creature had a temper and a mouth. A study in contrasts. "Sorry, sorry- that's probably an insult where you come from. I meant Raccoon. We got cussed at by a Raccoon. One moment, I see our friends want to come in."

The Rabbit hole to bring them in is quick, so as not to... you know, airlock anyone. When he is done, he smiles again, "And that's Troia, Princess of the Amazons, and Kara Zor-El, the Supergirl."

He looks over his shoulder at Rae and says, quietly, "The cup is a nice gesture..." and then back to Drax. "Our friend is currently non-corporeal for... tax reasons. But I'll be happy to make the sacrifice and take the yummy treat in her stead."

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara nods her head deliberately to Donna in response to her question, then places a hand upon her shoulder too with the arm and flies over to the Milano. She waves to Rocket as Donna 'knocks' politely with the pommel of her sword. She is excited to find out just what kind of weapon that was that she got in the way of. It had a real kick to it.

The trip through the hole is most welcome and she takes in a breath once she's able to. She gives a small wave hearing herself being introduced by Terry. Then, then it's time for the hug, so she turns and wraps her arms around Troia. Vic's turn will come soon.

With that done, she looks to Drax and Rocket and says, "Hi there. It's a pleasure to meet you all. So sorry to board your ship like this. We've been looking for our friends," she motions to the no longer missing titans, "for a while now to bring them home. We'd really appreciate your help. Also, thanks for stopping the shooting," she says and finger guns playfully to Drax. "That thing has a real whomf right in the gut, if you know what I mean."

Aliens! A racoon and a whatever-Drax is. This is exciting. She's surrounded by Humans constantly. Amazonians and Atlantians are a nice change of pace.. but this is exciting. Back home on Krypton it was _only_ Kryptonians. Xenophobia was so normal it wasn't even discussed. But being an El, she has a fascination for all things different.

Rocket has posed:
Rocket's nose wrinkles, the whiskers twitching. "I thought I smelled humie. Why couldn't you have been Kree, or even Skrull? One humie on this ship is already more than enough," he says, distastefully. But where /is/ that humie right now? Not here.

There's a lot to take in, from Donna outside, to Donna and Kara appearing via whatever form of teleportation Vorpal seems to be responsible for, and the way his eyes are darting all over the place, he must be taking as much in as he can. There's even someone who looks to be..ghostlike? Information overload, but don't think he isn't getting as much of it in that head of his that he can.

The pistol finds a spot at his hip, clipped to an attachment point on his jumpsuit. Yes, he's even got clothes on. "So, you mean to tell me a bunch of you were lost in space somewhere, and you just /happened/ to show back up /right/ as we were leading those dipshits on a chase, all because--"

The reason for the trouble with the pirates ends up unshared right this minute, for he sends quite the glare at Vorpal. "/What/ did you just call me? I ain't a fuckin' raccoon! I'm Rocket!" And he's a little fuzzy bundle of anger, evidently, hands made into small fists. "So you take that back! You're already on my ship, without asking, and you call me names?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Language!" Caitlin says, wincing at the profanity. "Golly, let's just... everyone simmer," she suggests. When the food's offered, Caitlin looks down at the cup and then accepts it with both hands. When in Rome~-- also, it's been a few hours since she ate, and stress tends to create hunger. She inhales the yogurt in a few bites and sets it aside.

"Listen, we're in real trouble," she tells Rocket. "I've got stellar coordinates for Earth. If you can get us back home, we'll fix the damage to your ship, and..." she hedges. "Maybe we've got some gear or trade goods we can set you up with in compensation. Fuel, too. Let's just pick up our last friend, he's still on the shuttle, and we can figure out what to do from there," she suggests. Caitlin looks at Terry and prompts him with a nod to open the door for Victor to join the party aboard the now quite-crowded Milano.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven tilts her head, craning it somewhat in the direction of Donna. There is no action of her to communicate through the commlink, but when she speaks, the Titans can hear it in their communicators, all the same.

    "I am fine, Donna. Things are... Leveling out. It accepted the violence, and is calm. I am losing what I have accumulated, and we do not have much time before it is gone." she offers, before her attention returns to the others in the Milano.

    "I have temporarily transcended the need to eat or drink. Your offer is appreciated."

    Before she can continue, however, someone's blood boils and Raven cannot ignore it. Rocket's shadow momentarily shifts just a litle, small slivers of it chipping off momentarily and fluttering on the ground before it is subsumed by Raven's own. In the immediate, the anger he's feeling will ebb, shaved off and consumed by Raven's empathy.

    "It is a term of endearment. Where we're from, things that resemble you are widely beloved. You would be too, on Earth. It may be worthwhile to go there as asked."

    The things below the surface Raven catches- but lets go. She is not going to pluck at those strings as yet, in what is approaching private.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna returns Kara's hug with interest. Kara has been learning how to do human-safe hugs for a while now, but that kind of thing doesn't really apply to the Amazon. Donna has been missing her friends terribly, and Kara in particular had been one she had worried about. The last time she saw Kara, the Kryptonian had taken a few knocks and was heading off to take more in battle with other Kryptonians. Kara gets the kind of hug from Donna she normally reserves for Caitlin or her sister.

    Hugging done, Donna steps over to stand next to Raven. There may not be the opportunity to hug Raven quite yet, but for now Donna will satisfy herself with just being close. It may take a little longer for that urge to fade than it will take Raven to shed the accumulation of power she had been gathering to herself. Possibly Raven will start to find it mildly annoying before the urge has fully faded. She may even look back on the days of Donna's exile from the universe with faint longing after a while.

    Donna turns her eyes on the crew of this strange ship, and while her expression is not overtly hostile, nor is it quite as friendly as her crewmates seem to be trying to be. There is a part of Donna that is hoping they'll attack. She hasn't had her fill of fighting yet. "Calm down, small angry bear," she says to Rocket - a more direct urging than Raven's empathic wave, and perhaps less diplomatic. Donna has had quite enough of diplomacy the last few months. "We are not here to take your ship from you. We rode an unanchored wormhole here in an interplanetary shuttle, we were not exactly in control of where we were going. In fact we're not really sure where we are right now. We are the Titans, from the planet Earth. Who are you? And why were you fighting with that other ship?"

    Her eyes go to Drax, the giant standing there rather calmly munching on space snacks as if nothing had just happened. Somehow this seems harder to process than the furious raccoon. She eyes him up and down a couple of times, then shrugs. "Nice ink," she tells him finally.

Drax has posed:
Drax has seen a lot over the last 9 months, but it isn't like he was some intergalactic jet setter before /Someone/ decided to go and stick his self-righteous snothole on Kylolosia.  The sudden fingergunning from an alien who just took lasers to the body causes a sliiightly, ever so slightly alarmed look in Drax as if Kara might shoot lasers out of her fingers.  After a beat or two he just starts to laugh.  "Yes.  It does whomf!"  He looks over to Rocket to proclaim, "She is very funny."

"We are the Guardians of the Galaxy.  They need our help and are offering to help us."  To Drax, the math is simple.  He's not looking for a big score.  He sounds certain, resolute.  "We should help them."  He turns to look to find the cup gone, contents devoured, so he walks to try and scoot by Cheshire Cat to get to the fridge unit.

Oh his way back, Drax's intense stare falls in on Rocket.  He is holding a small bowl of strange berries.  One that looks like it is made of tiny white jelly balls and what look like glowing blue seeds.  And raisins.  He eats some, slowly.  At Donna's compliment, he gives her a look mixed with sincerity and suspicion, "Thank you," because all though he does not know what she means, he does register that it is a compliment.  He eases up a little to lean and nod to Raven.  "You do not eat."  Yes.  The rest doesn't matter.

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara raises her eyebrows a touch and plants her hands to her hips, "Troia. Words matter. He said his name is Rocket." She motions to the weapon he was brandishing but stowed, "And he has certainly calmed down." She suspects perhaps Troia is spoiling for a fight but she's not going to needle her friend, not after having mourned her for months.

"Troia is an Amazon and I'm Kryptonian. We're not all humans in the Titans, but they are definitely our friends. I'm starting to think we're all going to be friends," she adds with the usual unearned optimism of Kara Zor-El. "I love your ship, it's got nice .. shapes," she adds.. great, more alien technology she doesn't have time to get her head around. As if Human technology wasn't weird enough.

She assumes it must be Rocket's ship. He was flying it after all. Speaking of ships, she cannot wait to interrogate the quatro about their extended away mission. "Captain Rocket. That's a pretty cool name."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"What Rae said. On earth, people love Racoons. There's merch of them everywhere, like... T-shirts, plushies, cartoons..." as Vorpal counts the items off on one hand, a T-shirt bearing a cartoon Raccoon floats in the air, as well as a rather adorable plushy that some who may have spent time in other countries might recognize as a certain ill-tempered cartoon from a Japanese children's show... and a floating television screen showing a cartoon. These things vanish in a rain of glitter as he speaks, "So it wasn't meant as an offense anymore than calling me a Flerkin when you first saw me was," he says with an ingratiating smile. Of course, if Rocket /did/ mean it...

"The Guardians of the Galaxy. meet the Titans. Pleasure to meetcha. Sounds like there's a mutual help opportunity here. So you can tell us why those guys were after your tail, you can give us a ride back and we watch your backs and maybe take care of the problem on the way there... mutually assured satisfaction."

He wags his thumbs, encompassing Kara, Donna, Caitlin and Raven, "These four are the heavy hitters. I'm just the moral support. And of course our friend back in the shuttle is the tech genius..."

Rocket has posed:
Rocket begins to look at Donna with a mixture of confusion and annoyance following the 'bear' comment. Small, angry, yes. Bear, he doesn't seem to know. Under normal circumstances, he would probably be snapping back at her both literally and figuratively, if not for Raven.

As for Raven, he now considers her with more confusion than anything else, but the rage inside does begin to settle, to fade. He seems uncomfortable all of a sudden, looking around himself like he's feeling perhaps a trap about to be sprung. It leads to him scrambling away from the front of the cockpit, using all of his hands and feet to hop from a pipe to a ledge and further along, until he's on the other side of them with his arms crossing.

"For starters, blondie, you can't be Kryptonian. They've been extinct for..forever. And I don't know anything about Amazon, except for Quill talking about them delivering stuff where you all come from and she don't look the type." He jerks a thumb toward Donna.

Caitlin, he raises a fuzzy brow at her chiding of his language, but he finds himself looking up toward her about the same as if she was Drax. Maybe even more, in fact. "Yeah, sure. We'll be happy to get you home, except for the tiny fact that when you just appeared right in front of us and I managed not to splatter all of you into nothing, our nav systems took some damage. So, you help us fix that and maybe we can follow those coordinates of yours. Maybe we can leave Quill behind with you too, heh heh heh. I bet he'd be happier around all of you."

Now, he's left to look between Vorpal and Raven's current state, the latter causing him to quickly lick at a hand and wipe the back of his head a few times, so the fur sticks down better. He certainly acts like a raccoon might. "What's all this about? I ain't met anyone who liked me all that much 'cept Groot." Whatever Vorpal is showing him - he interjects, "Where'd you learn how to make holograms?" - just leaves him more confused, including grabbing at a bit of that glitter because he can't help himself.

As an aside, Rocket notes, "I voted for 'The Ass-Kickingest Ass-Kickers Around.' And that ain't really any of your business, but if we're gonna trade..they were pirates. They stole something I wanted, so I stole it back. That's how it works. Any of you interested in some fake eyeballs? We got a crate full of 'em down in the cargo hold. I can show you."

Drax just gets stared at. "Fine, fine, fine. We can help them. The sooner we do, the sooner we can be done with all this."