4299/Close Encounters of the Guardian Kind

Close Encounters of the Guardian Kind
Date of Scene:	04 December 2020
Location:	Exterior - Titan's Tower
Synopsis:	Ship repairs begin on the Milano and the Space Cops show up. Also there was pizza.
Cast of Characters:	Nadia Pym-van Dyne, Gamora, Drax, Caitlin Fairchild, Siobhan Smythe, Donna Troy, Carol Danvers

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Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Life has been interesting around the Tower. Where things had become relatively quiet in the absence of the missing Titans, suddenly they things have become nigh frenetic with their return as if a slumbering tower had been kicked awake. The alien ship slamming into it before crashing nearby probably helped, too.

In the aftermath of all of the hugs and making sure everyone was truly okay and stuffed with pizza, Nadia has emerged from the tower, fluttering down from above on her bio-synthetic wasp wings. It was pretty much inevitable she would be drawn to the crashed alien spacecraft like a moth to a flame.

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora has, since the moment she stepped off of the ship after the disaster, had a look on her face asthough she'd just smelled something foul. She stands outside at the moment, arms folded over her chest, staring at the ship asthough she could scowl it back to a functional shape, her cape drifting lazily in the wind behind her.
    Her keen senses pick up the subtle buzz of Nadia's wings as she draws near, and Gamora pivots on one heel, pointing dramatically at Nadia as she says "Hold, bug child! State your intentions, quickly!"

Drax has posed:
Drax hasn't really been around the ship all that much.  He's slept in real human beds.  He's tasted human food.  Speaking of which, Drax comes out after Nadia, taking his time as he holds two slices of pizza in one hand, and one in the other.

Wholly ignoring Nadia for a moment of enthusiasm, "Gamora.  Have you eaten their food called pizza?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
An upshot to having super-human allies: repairs don't require months in drydock and lots of heavy equipment. A crane rig's been set up just for the sake of putting the Milano up on proverbial blocks but the equipment on site runs towards the precision and hand tools rather than the grossly oversized.

There's a groan of bending metal and the starboard aileron drive struts start to move. Caitlin moves on top of the Milano, grips the assembly, and twists her shoulders. It bends a few degrees more and stops where it's intended to be.

"Oh hey, Nadia," Caitlin calls. Gamoran's seemingly appointed herself Guardian of the Crash Site; once Cait understood Gamora's baseline was 'hostile suspicion', she got inured pretty quickly against the green-skinned womans responses to anyone coming up to the crash site.

Besides, Drax was there to keep things from getting out of hand. "She's with me, Gamora. What's up Nadia, did you need something?" she inquires.

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
Sitting on the edge of the roof, Siobhan stares down at the ship and watches Nadia fly off toward it. She looks at the people, ears twitching a little as she hears the exchange. She then slowly looks at the ground far below. She sucks in an angry breath and leaps off. She watches the ground approaching and at the last moment her eyes flicker blue. Her whole body changes for a moment and then she is kneeling on the ground. She stands up and let's out a sigh, looking toward the city briefly before walking over toward the Milano. She looks it over as she approaches, shaking her head as she approaches.

"Hey, Caitlin and Nadia... and also two Guardian folks." She has her hands in her jacket as she approaches, still looking at the ship, "It looks different than others I have seen."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia comes up short hovering in the air near Gamora, curiosity in her eyes. She's seen green people before, but not usually in such a compact size. "Hello! I am Nadia!" She chirps brightly with a big smile, radiating friendliness in Gamora's direction. Her eyes flicker up to Caitlin who gets an enthusiastic wave, before she replies to both of them, "I came to help fix the ship!"

She spins around for a moment when Drax emerges, "Isn't pizza the best?! Drax did you know it comes in different toppings?! There's a whole list it can be customized with!" She offers her own recently gained knowledge of the miracle that is pizza.

And then Siobhan is joining them too, "Oh, Siobhan! You're back! I heard you got trapped somewhere, I am so glad you made it back safely!" She beams. This girl seems to be literally made of positive energy, constantly in motion.

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora squints at Drax and replies, firmly, "I have not been indoors." She's really dug in her heels on this one. Must be cold.
    The sound of adjusting metal draws her suspicious eyes back to Caitlin, grimacing faintly at the display of strength - on her ship no less! The additional arrival of Siobhan makes her eyebrow twitch faintly and draws a huff of disdain. "We are surrounded enough as it is."
    She seems briefly perplexed by Nadia's sunny greeting. "What would Earthers know of foreign spacecraft repair?"

Drax has posed:
"I do not need more things on top.  This is perfection."  Though it is not as if Drax would turn down something other than pepperoni.  "Gamora.  It has meat and a delicious..."  He searches for the word, "cheese."

"I do not know, but I want one of them to get power to the meat machine."  The rotisserie no doubt.  He nods to Siobhan, a stranger to him.

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora frowns at Drax. "I will not tempted by the grease wheels of a galactic backwater."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"It's all just systems on systems, Gamora." Caitlin hops off the ship and lands with a heavy *thud* to walk towards the group. "Every ship needs a navigational system, propulsion, energy generation... once you start thinking of it in discrete bits and pieces it's really not so hard to work on it. Also, Rocket gave me a list of repairs that need doing. Some of 'em from /before/ he crashed the ship," she points out candidly.

She beams a welcoming smile at Siobhan when the Irish girl swoops in. The last 36 hours or so have been a nonstop of happy hellos and reunions for the various displaced Titans, and everyone's still getting caught up on the stories of the previus few months!

The pizza gets an inquisitive peer and Caitlin transfers the silent question to Drax. "Is there still pizza, or was that the last of it?" she asks hopefully.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "You have a machine that makes meat?" The voice comes from above, and is accompanied by Donna dropping out of the sky. First Nadia, then Donna. What is it with humans flying? Obviously there are things about his species that Quill has failed to fill his friends in the crew of the Milano about.

    Donna has barely been around since what might laughably be described as the landing of the Milano. She had stayed around for that initial round of hugging and pizzas, then disappeared somewhere with Raven for a while, reappeared briefly to check up on people, then flown off who knows where. She no longer looks quite as space-piratey as she had before, having put aside her rather odd cloak with the shifting glowy star patterns all over it, and is now dressed in jeans and a black leather coat, a distinctly more Earth-style get up. She doesn't even have her sword and shield with her, though she does have a coil of rope slung from her belt.

    "A machine that makes meat sounds like a good idea. We could have done with one during our time in the Seven Worlds. I mean there were some great steaks on Caminask, but half the time I had no idea what we were eating, and didn't want to. Hi everyone, how are repairs coming along?"

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
A look to Nadia and she grinds her teeth before her eyes flare blue briefly, "Yes, I was somewhere else." She then looks over at Caitlin. She swallow before saying, "If anyone can fix your ship, it is Caitlin and Nadia." Siobhan then looks to Drax, "Pepperoni is the best." She nods her head slowly before turning her gaze back to the ship, "So, this is part of how you got home, huh? You're just in time for life to suck."

Drax has posed:
"Nothing I am eating has grease wheels," Drax says with a purse of his lips.  "I have two kinds."  He shows her the cheese.  All that systems talk was ignored in favor of taking a big bight out of his pepperoni slice.

Munch, munch, swallow.  "There is more pizza.  Would you like one of these?" He holds up the two non-bitten slices to Caitlin.

"No." Drax, aghast, "A machine that makes meat? That would be boring.  We have a machine that cooks meat."  They...acquired it.  Drax looks up to watch Donna drop down.  "Quill!  They don't need jetpacks.  Why do you need a jetpack?...Something must be wrong with Quill."

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora grumbles softly, "The man should have told us he was operating with a disability if we're going to fight alongside him." Truthfully this is all very frustrating. Earth was nothing more than an obscure piece of galactic trivia, beneath notice. And yet here a bunch of them are, flying and displaying super strength. Gamora can't even do that! And she's Gamora!
    Gamora looks at the vaunted pizza once more and says "No *thank* you." very definitively before her stomach growls.
    Gamora makes a face.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia instinctively floats back half a step when Siobhan grinds her teeth and her eyes flare, "Well, I am glad you're okay!"

She turns her attention back towards Gamora, adding after Caitlin, "It's all just physics and chemistry, if you understand the underlying principles it is pretty easy to figure out most engineering challenges. I mean it's not like we are opening portals to another dimension, or altering the size ratios of entire cities."

"Oh!" Nadia perks up as if suddenly remembering, "Cait did you find the probe?! Gar and I had a really interesting conversation after I was able to communicate with him when he was a swarm of wasps and we figured out some of the intersectionality of Kian's electromagnetic spectrum telepathy and Psion particles to broadcast an imprint of Gar's mind!" She seems rather proud of this project and Drax's rejection of the glory that is variable pizza toppings is lost amid the enthusiasm.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Oh gosh, thanks, I'll just take the one. I'm starving." It's probably the most common phrase in Caitlin's vocabulary-- 'I'm starving'. She's leaned up a little in the months the Titans have been gone, though with the soiled mechanic's coveralls she's wearing it's not easy to pick out. There's just no comparison to Earth food after all.

She accepts a slide from Drax and starts eating happily. "Mm. Golly, I missed pizzas," she mutters.

"Repairs are coming along OK. I'm working on fixing the problems with the ship's hull since we've got panels off already," Caitlin tells Donna. "Needs reinforcement and the support structure's got some bad bends and dents in it. Then we'll start in on propulsion and subsystems."

She's eating with more abandon than Drax even, and demolishes the pizza slice in a few bites before wiping her fingers on a grease rag stickign out of one pocket.

Eyes flicker from Donna to Siobhan and she quirks her head inqusitively at the slender woman. "Wait, what's wrong now? We only just got back."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "We have many machines that cook meat, Drax," Donna says with a smile. "Making meat, not so much. There are also many alternatives to Pizza," she adds to Gamora. "The cuisine of Earth is very diverse, and we can get much of that variety delivered here if you prefer your food less cheesy and circular. Oh, and not every human can fly. It's quite rare actually."

    She peers into a large hole in the side of the Milano where hull plating has been removed for structural repairs, and something tree-like extends out from the gap to greet her with "I am Groot"

    "Yeah," She replies with a grin. "There was a rumor going around."

    "We did find it, Nadia." Donna flashes the tiny Titan a broad grin. "That was a smart piece of work. I have no idea how we'd have found a way out of Hyperspace without it. I think Vic has it now. We brought it back with us, though the circuits may have got blown up a little. He rigged it up to something we brought back from the Seven Worlds and used it to disable a ship attacking the Milano that was powered by some kind of psychic energy accumulators. So it was more useful than you even intended!"

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
There is a quick glance at Gamora before looking to Drax and then asks, "Is this Quill from here? Not all of us are human." She states simply enough, an unspoken implication is there. She then looks to the ship again. She then looks to Nadia briefly before looking down. She wants to apologize but something is stopping her. Then she looks to Caitlin, "I went somewhere else. Somewhere with a lot of... dark people." She rubs her shoulder, "I'm not human." She states simply enough. She sucks in a sharp breath before looking to Gamora and Drax, "So, where are you two from?"

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora just... frowns. Maybe that's just how her alien face looks. Don't judge. She regards Donna for a long moment, and then looks away towards the middle distance. "... The records are behind the times." She muses. Whose records, she doesn't say.
    In fact, she looks vaguely uncomfortable at Siobhan's question, turning her head away and saying: "Nowhere of concern." evasively.

Carol Danvers has posed:
For the very alert this is a very fast approaching streak of light from the horizon. Looks like it may actually be from orbit.

It must not have been deemed a dire emergency though because time has passed without official inquiry. Or maybe the people that were just waiting for Carol to get done doing something elsewhere.

Regardless Space Cop.... I mean Captain Marvel is incoming moving pretty fast in her usual blaze of glory.

If there are any sensor suites still working down on that ship, well it would probably detect Kree scanners, doing the whole scanner thing.

Titan's tower has Captain Marvel in the system at this point probably.

Drax has posed:
"I am from Kylosia."  Drax has always been an open book, even to some people's displeasure.  The muscle-bound guy is standing around with a slice of cheese pizza in one hand and a diminishing slice of pepperoni in the other...in pants and no shirt of course.  The strange being doesn't seem to be bothered by the cold at all.

"Something incoming," but Drax really doesn't want to stop giving his pizza his attention, so he just waits and sees!  And maybe he looks over to Gamora with that questioning, expectant look in his eyes.

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
A look is given to Gamora and then she glances over to Drax, not knowing of Kylosia, she was about to ask him more when he mentions something incoming. She sucks in a sharp breath and regardless of who is really coming, Siobhan sees only one thing. She shudders and her eyes flare, her whole body follows.

The flare of her eyes races over her form. Her face becomes a skull, her hair the only thing left among shadow of the rest of her head. Her body is covered in black save for arms and legs taken on a skeletal form. She raises from the ground, hands clenching and eyes glaring, "She's coming." is whispered and yet it is like it is said into every ear.

Gamora has posed:
    Drax's warning draws Gamora's eyes back to the ship, concern flitting across her face. "Are you all expecting-" mid-sentence, Gamora sees Siobhan's transformation, and barks out some alien curse in alarm as she draws a long knife from behind her back and springs backwards to put some distance between her and Siobhan to buy a second to assess eactly what the *hell.*

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia nods her head at Caitlin's description of the repairs, "I can start on the things inside and leave the hull to you, I can do a lot of things but bending alien metal with my bare hands isn't one of them." She winks.

She then beams a smile at Donna, "I'm glad it was helpful! It was some really interesting research creating it, it could have all kinds of potential fascinating applications including maybe short range telepathic T-Comms and things like that."

Her train of thought is disrupted by the sudden approaching streak and Siobhan's reaction to it, looking between them. She squints at the streak, "I'm not sure, but judging by the color pattern I think it's Carol, you don't like Carol?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Woah woah woah," Caitlin says quickly, and interposes herself between Siobhan and the Guardians. She's built on the same scale as Drax so it makes for quite a physical wall between the Guardians and the Banshee. "She's okay, it's fine. She's ... a shapeshifter. Can't help it sometimes," she explains.

Truth is that Caitlin has very little idea of what exactly is going on with Siobhan, but she's quick to rally to her defense.

"And that's my friend, Carol," she says, pointing skyward. Emphasis is placed on 'friend'. "She's just coming here to say hello and meet you, I'm sure. Everyone just..." Hands pat at the air soothingly. "Take it down a notch, huh? Take a deep breath."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Titans Tower does indeed have Captain Marvel in the system at this point. Quite apart from the fact that she's the person who brought Kian here in the first place, the Tower has some pretty spectacular long-range sensing capabilities and by now has some pretty solid identification data of pretty much anyone with a habit of flying over a significant chunk of the eastern United States. The T-Coms quickly indicate that this is indeed Carol incoming.

    "Local cops," Donna says with something of a mischievous grin. "Nothing to be worried about, we know this one. I'm sure she's just coming to check up on the new arrivals. Guys, leave this to us okay? We're the locals, we know how this stuff works. Just smile and don't mention stolen eyeballs."

    Okay, so they're cybernetic eyes, not /actual/ eyeballs, but it sounds better that way.

    "Siobhan?" Donna says with a little concern. "Uh look, we've been away a while so we don't know what's been going on yet and there's some catching up to do. I'd like to hear what has been troubling you and see what we can do to help, but now's probably not the best time, okay?"

Carol Danvers has posed:
The glowing figure ... despite the speed it is coasting down on... slows remarkably quickly. Hovering there is a figure with a shimmer of cosmic energy that looks over the gathered Titans and guests. Then she looks down at the Milano and back up again.

She is definitely wearing what looks like a heavily modified Kree Starforce uniform, but not flying Kree colors at all or the usual configuration.

"Huh, Ravagar M-Ship... haven't seen one of those in the neighborhood..." she looks thoughtful down at the 'Guests' and glides the rest of the way down to land. "So." a glance at the very angry deathy looking Siobhan. "So you all survived it looks like?"

Tt is a question because well Vic or Vorpal could have died for all she knows.

"And you brought aliens back with you?"

Drax has posed:
The slice of pizza slowly drifts into Drax's open mouth as he watches Siobhan transform.  Munch, munch.  "Awesome."

To Caitlin, Drax shrugs and finally finishes his first slice.  He's savoring it okay?!  But when the word cop comes up, he looks over to Gamora.  He starts in on the cheese slice without changing hands or taking his gaze from his shipmate.  Until Carol lands.  "Hello."

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora watches with mounting concern as Carol makes her entrance, slowly returning to a neutral position and sliding her dagger back into its sheathe as she watches her warily. The oddly dressed green alien woman folds her arms and takes a short breath, trying to respond to Carol's question before anyone else can. "We committed to an act of rescue for these people's compatriots." She says very quickly, aware of how the type of ship might look, and hoping to divert any suspicion of them as quickly as possible. Maybe even turn it into gratitude! She just has to carefully avoid lying. She's... a little bit bad at it. "As a result our ship sustained damage. We will not be here long."
    Indeed, she's a bit anxious to leave. She isn't crazy about how powerful the average person on this planet seems to be, going against most everything she knows about the planet. Which is admittedly very little.

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
The Silver Banshee twitches and glares at Carol with a baleful look. Not even caring about Gamora as her focus is upon Carol. She stops breathing altogether. She hardly needed to but it was a habit. She looks to Nadia, Caitlin and then Donna in that order before finally she seems to settle.

She remains The Banshee.

"I... " She then looks down before she looks at Donna and then she simply vanishes. Wherever she went, is rather unclear.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia zips straight up when Siobhan goes full death banshee mode and Gamora pulls a knife. Part of it is she was startled, part of it is a better tactical vantage point to observe and react from.

Captain Marvel gets an emphatic wave when she arrives, "Hi Carol! They're back! They all made it back!" Nadia is in better spirits than Carol has seen her in a few months. "The people they got a ride with seem nice, too. Though one of them claims to not like pizza." A bizarre mystery for the ages as far as Nadia is concerned.

When Siobhan just up and vanishes, however, concern bleeds into her expression.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin blinks in shock. Siobhan teleporting is... new. Maybe she's just invisible? She exchanges a befuddled and wordless look with Donna that contains several unspoken questions.

More urgently though is the Space Cop coming down on top of a bunch of robbers who recently evaded the Space Church, having stolen Space Stuff. Caitlin doesn't have Terry's talent for verbal legerdemain but after three months of watching his verbal judo she's picked up a thing or two.

"Carol, this is Gamora and Drax. The ship's the Milano; they picked us up when we were adrift in space and brought us home," she explains. "I figured the least we could do is put them up on our island and help rebuild their ship. We owe them." Subtle emphasis drives home the simultaneous points that the Guardians are the guests /and/ the Titans are indebted to them.

"Guys, this is Carol Danvers, she's a friend of the Titans," Caitlin explains. "She makes sure that aliens aren't invading or that we aren't getting attacked by brain slugs. Which only happened that one time," she adds, hastily. "And we switched to a different shampoo since then so I don't think it'll be an issue."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Hello Captain," Donna says with a smile. "Yes, we all got back safely. These kind people helped us on the last leg of the journey, letting us hitch a ride in their ship. They are staying here while we - as Caitlin says - aid them with repairs. They have not been to Earth before and are a touch wary, but please don't worry. As you know we're rather used to aliens here. Besides, not all of them are aliens. One is a human - if you listen carefully you may hear him snoring. How he manages to sleep through the repairs is a mystery to me. I suspect it's a defense mechanism to save him from actually having to do any work."

    Donna gives Gamora a nod as if to say "It's okay, don't worry," though this may not be particularly reassuring to the nervous Zen-Whoberian, stuck as she is on a planet full of strange people who fly, lift heavy weights, and seem to live entirely on strange circular concoctions of cheese and bread.

    Donna acknowledges Siobhan's disappearance with a frown and Caitlin's look with a don't-ask-me shrug. She quickly taps out a message on her T-Com to send to the vanishing banshee: 'Let me know what's up, Sio. I'd like to help.'

    "Anywaaaay," Donna adds. "Yes, everything is in order here, Carol. No brain slugs. Nothing to worry about."

Carol Danvers has posed:
"Hello Nadia." a smile over to her and then she is looking back mostly towards Drax and Gamora. "Well Gamora and Drax. We absolutely appreciate you helping them come home actually."

She looks the ship over again. "Are you all Ravagers?" before glancing back to Gamora and Drax. "With a human crewman?" okay that sounds like a very interesting story. "I'm not going to shake you all down or impound your ship. I'll also make sure the local authorities know it is well in hand. In exchange for your .. help you gave our wayward Titans. We should still talk at some point though."

Drax has posed:
"I am no Ravager.  I am Kylosian," but Drax doesn't seem to take offense.  He just stands up a little straighter when he takes his next bite of pizza.  "It is good to meet you Carol."  He doesn't seem too inclined to stop anyone for speaking for him.  But mostly, he's letting Gamora do the talking.  "At some point?  About what?"