5886/Krypton or Bust: Zod Returns

Krypton or Bust: Zod Returns
Date of Scene:	08 April 2021
Location:	Earth. All of Earth.
Synopsis:	Zod turns up in a Kryptonian warship of design and capability never before seen by those on Earth. It was a good thing the Kryptonians weren't there to kill and conquer. They searched Earth for specific Brainiac technology and didn't find it. Their ship took quite a beating, as did Non, before they made a tactical retreat before more flowers grew on their bridge or Kryptonite was introduced in to their ecosystem.
Cast of Characters:	Kara Danvers, 27, Carol Danvers, Thor, Donna Troy, Terry O'Neil, Kian, Reed Richards, Johnny Storm, Damian Wayne

---

Kara Danvers has posed:
    The Justice League Moon Base and The Peak (SWORD early detection space station), are still new additions to Earth's defences and have yet to encounter just how truly fast some objects can fly. The Kryptonian Warship, a crystalline structure, appears abruptly in Earth's Orbit. All manner of alarms go off across the globe.

    Militaries are scrambling, the Justice League - the Avengers - The Titans, they are all alerted. The ship is unlike anything Earth has ever see before, but some databases will no doubt detect the distinct Kryptonian flavor of the vessel.

    It's long spires stretch in cardinal directions and in the light of the yellow son, it is like a beautiful (but deadly) snow flake. The moment it hits atmosphere, crystalline drones begin to fall from it and tumble down through Earths orbit. Spreading out across the planet with a warm energy signature. Thousands of them.

    Resources are stretched thin for Kryptonians these days. The crew of this ship a mere five. Jax-Ur lifts his chin as he looks down on Earth with contempt, "They are deployed General. We shall have what we need soon, then we can leave this primitive place."

    Ursa raises an eyebrow and says, "Not as primitive as you might think Jax-Ur. We've seen their response before - soon our misguided 'friends' will come to demand our retreat. Kal-El, Kara Zor-El, and the doppelganger... they seem unwilling to listen to reason."

Chaucer (27) has posed:
Zod listens impassively to his advisors bickering. His patience is stretched thin as any other asset, but as a General, he can never let it show. He hovers in front of the holographic display of the planet, clad in the all-black combat armor of the Kryptonian Hegemony.

"Deploy the first wave of combat units. Launch sites and military infrastructure only. No civilian targets." His resonate baritone fills the command room and the ship's on-board VI starts relaying his orders instantly.

Drones fly into the lower atmosphere like so many shooting stars. Some are setting up some kind of web, pinging each other and flying in complex patterns as if searching for something. Others dive straight for military targets, flickering red plasma bolts to damage and harry defenses on base and prevent a rapid deployment of air combat assets.

"Keep perimeter scanners at maximum saturation," Zod bids Ursa. "We can expect an assault in short order once the humans get their wits about them. Ready our defenses."

Carol Danvers has posed:
Zod isn't wrong at all.

Short order may be the one estimation that they are underestimating really though.

Carol has been camping at The Peak while the Kryptonians are off world. It is a bit closer to Earth than the Moonbase/WatchTower and makes for faster response times. Also this is probably the third if she is counting incident during the road trip absence where aliens stopped by.

"I really don't understand why everyone assumes we don't have our shit together just because our resident aliens aren't around..." she says exasperated to the SWORD Agents on the observation deck. There is a shake of her head and she just starts a brisk jog to an airlock. Her very traditional Captain Marvel suit shimmering and going from a SWORD themed version of itself that she uses at The Peak, to the traditional better known color motiff by the time she is into the airlock and out into space.

Across a variety of comms, SWORD, Avengers, and Justice League really. <<Captain Marvel en-route towards the trespassing Snowflake. I doubt they are going to listen but I am going to politely ask them to get the hell out of our solar system before throwing them out. Would appreciate backup since the ship has a lot of Kryptonian characteristics.>>

With that she is a blaze of cosmic energy on intercept for the Snowflake.

Thor has posed:
Fast, shmast. Some Avengers scramble; others take a jaunt over a bridge.

A coruscating flare of prismatic light explodes from the aether in a column that touches the warship's forward-pointing crystalline spur. Whorls of delicate black burns trace an intricate filigree over the sunstone hull; the char immediately and harmlessly flakes away into the upper atmosphere, deflected by the ship's burn shield.

The Bifrost twinkles away, but there's a figure left behind, clad in metal and leather and a big billowing red cape that might look uncomfortably familiar to the Kryptonians at first glance. Thor lifts a hand in greeting, confident that on the ship's bridge, he has just popped up on some kind of display, standing there on the canted crystalline hull with one leg propped forward in a casual, partial lunge.

"Ho, there, visitors!" he says, grinning and affable as ever, if anyone can hear. He's technically working without 'an atmosphere.' What, like it's hard? "God of Thunder here. Might I suggest a little less with the" -- he gestures vaguely behind him -- "drones and the plasma and the ominous pointy crystals? Midgard is very friendly to visitors, but it helps to get off on the right foot." He holds out a hand without looking, and Mjolnir zips into his hand with the distinct, fricative hum of vibrating sky-metal. "No sense being aggressive, you know?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna had been half expecting it. So far word of the absence of the Kryptonians had not got out on Earth, but who knows if rumor had reached Zod's ears or not? He could be here specifically because the Kryptonians are away.

    Or it could be just dumb, stupid luck that he would try something when there were not only no Kryptonians around but Diana was in a coma too.

    Donna had been /three quarters/ expecting it.

    There has in fact already been some contingency planning at Titans Tower for this eventuality. A few things discussed, a few tactics tried out in training, for what to do if Zod and his merry band should make an appearance.

    There are some Titans on the ground to help deal with drones. The Tower has a particularly useful (though rarely used) offensive capability - the surface of the tower is coated with a massive electronically scanned radar array, capable of projecting a lot of highly-focused high-frequency energy for signal jamming and circuit frying. There are also a few Titans preparing to deal with the threat head-on. Or at least head-on-ish. <<Titans to all friendly forces, we are on the way. Any indication of what they are after yet?>>

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Finally suiting up, Vorpal rushes over to Donna's side. He's not in his regular outfit for this, but a thoroughly armored version of it. Nadia's EMP grenades hanging from a bandoleer for ease of reach, and a visor fitted over his eyes for protection and... well, video recording purposes. This is, after all, major news, and Lois will have his hide if he doesn't report on this afterwards.

Provided they survive.

"Well, I bet they're not after borrowing a cup of sugar, that's for sure. Vorpal reporting!" he says to Donna, giving her a salute, and then adjusting the bandoleer. "... stupid thing. I hope I don't drop one of these..."

Kian has posed:
    Kían is not at /all/ sure about this but... Earth is his world now.  He has decided.  And the Titans are his family.  And you do anything you can for your family.
    Yes, there has been contingency planning, and to his surprise -- no, shock -- he may be actually have a role to play.
    What the hell he's supposed to do against a Kryptonian... well, yes, Donna explained that, but it's still hard to fully wedge it into his brain.
    Of course, Kían doesn't have armor.  You can't fly in armor.  But he hangs close to Donna... and gives Terry a weird look.  "This iss a new look for you, /tavárik'h/," is all he says.

Reed Richards has posed:
The blue space craft zips out from the asteroid belt towards the guests at impossibie speeds, moving the universe around itself and dropping in behind Carol on her intercept course, The well known insignia is emblazoned on the side of the small ship, "Hmm, we have medical supplies but no sugar, Johhny? You didnt bring any did you?"

Johnny Storm has posed:
Johnny Storm is listening to his old JLA communicator while piloting Reed's new space jet, built out of stern fatherly love and therefore bristling with all sorts of fun buttons Johnny really wishes he'd gotten to test out before launch. Not that he's nervous, he's just flying into a probable hot zone and, listening to his old JLA coms, two people who're about as diplomatic as he is are the ones meeting Zod's crew. So there's gonna be a fight.

"So, Reed." Johnny toasts a marshmallow with his finger, trying as hard as he can to be nonchallant. "What's the over under on GI Jane managing to get Superman's spacefash cousins to back off? Because I could be blowing up those robots making a weird plasma web over the planet right now. Spacfash is a new term, bee tee dubs, after we found out that Flash Gordon was right, so it's like Hugo Boss with extra combat pouches and neck rings, it's really terrible."

Johnny pops the marshmallow in his mouth, looking at Reed for a long minute. "You've got something up your sleeve, right? I can take, like, maybe one of them. Dunno about three."

He raises an eyebrow at Reed's request. "What are you even talking about." Johnny hands Reed three packets, "Of course I brought sugar."

Kara Danvers has posed:
    Non stares out at the planet below, "This is the place?" He seems unimpressed so far, but then he's not exactly a military master mind like Zod. Faora Hu-Ul lets out a small hmph of disappointment. Jax-Ur says, "I must say I too am a little surprised you have over prepared so much for this place. Do you really expect the lost children of Krypton to be that much of a problem?"

    Ursa doesn't answer as she activates the defensive, but lets be honest, offensive, energy shield. The beautiful snowflake emits twelve blue points of powerful light that begin to orbit the ship faster and faster like electrons orbiting an atoms nucleus.

    Jax-Ur says, "Preliminary readings indicate Brainiac technology at military bases but the strongest concentration is in that ocean there," he says pointing toward the Atlantic.

    Ursa looks up at the incoming Carol Danvers, a blue space ship by her side, and the sudden appearance of Thor, "We have ...an Asgardian on our forward spire. No sign of the -El" She frowns, "We don't have time for this." With a swipe of her hand over a holographic computer console a large build up of energy swells from within the ships sun-powered core and a repulsion burst expands out from the ship.

    Of the Kryptonians on board, only two of them wear the black uniform. Zod's is from an era long past, Ursa from the military guild. Similar in design. Jax-Ur wears the white of the science guild, though he was long disgraced from it. Non and Faora have dressed in their own unique house designs. Non remarks, "Was he just talking to us.. in space?"

Chaucer (27) has posed:
"That... looks like King Thor," Zod says, and frowns heavily. "But he has both hands. And no grey hair."

The reparatee from the Asgardian is met with baffled looks from the Kryptonians. Ursa looks at Zod, tilts her head minutely with a question; Zod shrugs back. "Standard response, bid him withdraw or be destroyed," Zod tells Ursa. "He is not the priority today."

<<Detecting Kree unit moving to intercept course. Energy index in the 99th Percentile.>> The VI's announcement is terse and to the point, lacking emotion.

"Earth has gathered allies," Zod muses. He still exudes calm. "Recalibrate the deflection array to match and negate known energetic modulations. Arm the thermobaric nullifiers and target peak energy sources on approach, priority order of energy, then proximity."

It is a testament to Kryptonian engineering that the crystalline battleship can function perfectly adequately with just five personnel manning it. The vessel starts to re-shape itself into the necessary configuration to arms the weapons Zod calls for, his military mind effortlessly recalling the specifics of the weaponry needed to confront one of Krypton's oldest foes.

It doesn't take long. A spire juts out and energy coalesces inside of it. Radial spikes spin freely around it as if mounted to a wheel and contain and redirect the energy. The first blast rips through space with a pinpoint shot at Captain Marvel. Reality itself wavers and momentarily collapses as the Kryptonian weapons casually shatter spacetime to negate the awesome power wielded by the Avenger.

Moments later it re-arms and hurls the same destructive force at Thor, with equal power and crisp efficiency.

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol squints ahead of her, patches in the Titans and the Fanstastic Four comms. <<They are not in a talking mood it looks like. Ship is reconfiguring for war.. not that their drone assault didn't indicate it. I don't think I am going to get a chance to politely tell them to leave our solar system.>>

<<Ah Frak!!>> she notes with actually a bit of alarm as the blast rips through space at her and she puts on a lot of speed and banks left. It doesn't hit her but whatever they just lobbed her way actually made Captain Marvel dodge instead of just taking it head on and absorbing it. The wake she leaves is actually growing brighter as she leans into speed more than she ever usually does.

Thank goodness for her Seventh Sense right now as well, it will probably let her duck and weave. Still for the moment she is having to play a bit of defense not offense while she recalculates a plan of action.

That doesn't stop her from noting over comms in Kryptonian towards the Snowflake <<You are violating Terran jurisdiction. Call off your attack if you wish for a peaceful outcome and state your business or immediately vacate this solar system. Those are your only options.>>

Thor has posed:
Thor's legs buckle as he skids backward under the withering assault of the repulsion beam, one armored forearm rising over his face to ward off the worst of the attack while he lets the mystic, physics-defying weight of Mjolnir keep him in contact with the ship's surface.

"See, this is exactly what I'm talking about," the Asgardian says through gritted teeth, doing his best to lace disapproval into his booming voice even as he's nearly being blasted to the moon. "This little rangefinding laser could be mistaken for some kind of offensive weaponry by a particularly fragile Midgarder. Here, let me shut it down for you."

With a sweep of Mjolnir, Thor gathers a storm -- not above the ship, but below, boiling and flickering in the upper atmosphere like an angry genie trying to escape a glass bottle. Bolts of blue-purple lightning crackle out into space, dozens upon dozens of forks coverging with machine-gun rapidity on the emitter hardpoint that is targeting him. The overall effect is like a constant, vicious assault of heat and electricity.

He's not necessarily confident the blasts will be sufficient to take the weapon down, but he's sure as Hel going to take the brunt of the hit and buy the others time to get closer. His focus shifts, though, as the larger spire weapon comes into view, and he braces, holding up Mjolnir like a shield against its first blast, which... instead screams off into space toward Carol. He turns to watch it blaze overhead angrily. "I'm right here! You missed me!" he bellows, smashing a fist twice against his breastplate, more than a little bit miffed that he wasn't the priority target.

But if these stupid Kryptonians in their stupid Rock Candy Mountain of a spaceship want to underestimate the Prince of Asgard, they do so at their own risk. With a wrist-flick, Mjolnir whirls into a whirring spin, and then Thor lets it pull him off of the hull and into the sky faster than a thunderbolt. He shoots forward in the wake of the unstoppable brick of mystically-infused metal, headed straight for the base of the spire, ready to see just what happens when Uru smashes into sunstone head-on.

Donna Troy has posed:
    This is about the time the Titans don't arrive on the scene. Or rather they do, but for now the T-Jet is remaining at a safe distance, and its standard stealth capabilities are being rather significantly enhanced thanks to the powers of Kian and Terry. Donna does however appear to join the assembling forces of Earth -- thanks to a quick rabbit hole, apparently from nowhere, her lasso glowing in her hands just on the principle that when you're dealing with Kryptonians it seems like a good idea to remind them that magic is a thing.

    <<Kryptonian vessel,>> Donna broadcasts, because she figures it's better than yelling at a spaceship in a vacuum <<This is Troia of Themyscira.>> Let them look that planet up in their space atlas. <<Cease hostile actions immediately or counter-measures will be taken. If you have business with this planet, try communicating it in a civlized fashion and we will consider your requests. Otherwise...kao-awuhkh rraop kuhs zhgehv voiehd/*>>

    No sign of the members of the house of El who would normally be expected to protect this world yet, but someone's talking to them in Kryptonian. The Titan's aforementioned contingency planning involves a lot of putting doubt in Kryptonian minds. There are other parts of it too, but you don't start off with the nuclear (or at least green and radioactive) option.

     *(translation)"Begone from this world!"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I call it Invasion Chic," Vorpal quips to Kian as he finishes adjusting the bandoleer, making sure it is firmly secured. After providing Donna with a Rabbit Hole for her purposes, the Cheshire Cat returns to focusing on maintaning invisibility. The combined action of his powers with Kian's, and the Jet's capabilities, should keep them from being detected by sensors and senses. At least fr now.

"Amazon Prime Delivery a success. Standing by for next phase," he announces, because that's what you do when you are working as a team. Glancing over his shoulder, he adds "Now we remain sneaky-sneaky..." fro now.

Kian has posed:
    Kían grins at Terry, and otherwise pays attention to the goings-on.  He looks nervously at Donna, but says nothing and otherwise just concentrates on reducing, even hiding, the electromagnetic output and reflections off the T-Jet.
    For the record, the T-Jet is still too /qokh/ small, but he didn't get to engineer it, but that doesn't mean he has to like it in there.
    In any case, electromagnetism is easy, and for the moment Kían is focused on making sure their position is as completely hidden as possible.

Reed Richards has posed:
Reed Richards tilts his head "Zod's recalibrating the deflection array and arming the thermobaric nullifiers. Perfect! Dodge tight, John, I'm going for a walk. Also, we installed the new heads upmulti vector AI, you can pilot 10 right?"

     There are additional energy signatures from the meteor belt, all from that same location and a hodge podge armada of ships starts makiing its way towards the fray, John recognizes these as ships the FF has used for different missions over the years. They are automatically closing on the drones unless redirected.

Damian Wayne has posed:
     Robin had immediately put his resources to work trying to figure out any sort of response he can make.

  "Priority response. Batwing delivery 881-0." Damian had a number of weapons to use in these situations. And the concept of anti-Kryptonian weapons were something nobody on the Bat-team took lightly. "Authorization Robin Five." His gauntlet computer ran his vocal pattern, and checked it twice via the clocktower computer and the main batcomputer. It was a system of checks and balances no one wanted to have to use. Because it means the world could end if they don't use them correctly.

  Meanwhile, in Gotham City, the Batcave had transferred a small lead container onto the Batwing, and the computer had GPS coordinates to Robin, setting the package to drop as close as possible to the Boy Wonder.

  Robin had approached the others on the T-Jet. <<Package en route. Drop me on the closest roof for the handoff.>> His tone was grave, even the usual flippant attitude of Vorpal doesn't get a response from him.

Kara Danvers has posed:
    Faora begins to laugh, "Are they trying to.. negotiate with a Kree weapon?" Non laughs too because it does seem funny.

    Ursa snaps at them, "Pay attention." She motions on the holographic display to the incoming small Fantastic Four fleet, then she motions to the planets upper atmosphere swirling electrical energy and then it lancing out at their weapon. "Faora, go out there and defend the weapon," she instructs.

    Faora stares outside at Thor and cracks her knuckles, "With pleasure." She exits through an airlock and floats out in to space, rising up before the weapon and her eyes begin to glow an intense red. She floats between the lightning and the weapon and starts to shoot back at the combined force. She is no Kal-El, but she is keeping the weapon cool enough that it can fire once more.

    The exterior of the crystal begins to reconfigure itself when Thor leaps toward it. The kinetic force is immense, with numerous crystals cracking several meters across - significant damage, but then the crystals adjust again like the ocean washing over a beach.. the broken crystals float free of the ship, rejected for their failure replaced with a fresh layer beneath. In the dark of space they almost look black now that they have been destroyed.

    Ursa listens to the impassioned pleas for diplomacy and says, "Krypton has been too long absent from the minds of our adversaries." She has bought in to Zod's rhetoric about the Krypton Hegemony and the greatness that once was.

    Jax-Ur says, "General. I need more time, the scan is incomplete." The probes infiltrate the storage areas of several military bases around the world. The crystalline structures reconfiguring against the weapons the humans are deploying at them as plasma bolts are fired back selectively.. efficiently. A net of drones drops in to the Atlantic ocean and swirls downward toward the crash site of Brainiac's ship.

Johnny Storm has posed:
"Holy cats, those two." Johnny grouses in a very Ben-esque tone. Nobody tell him. He has to focus on keeping Reed's newest ship stable while Thor rips a storm into space, which IS something that happens in the real world isn't that wild, Johnny leaning hard to the right to keep the rescue ship stable. Fortunately the shields on this thing means the intense pressure from the Kryptonian warship and Thor's hurricane don't do all that much more than rattle the controls.

"What's the call, Reed?" Johnny asks, trying to get the ship a little closer without getting atmosized. Is there a cloak? Johnny goes for a cloak function if it exists, though usually their coaking device is 'Sue'. "I can get us close in. Do we want to try and board? I'm sure you can figure out Steven Universe's Christmas Star given enough time, but I dunno how much we have..."

Chaucer (27) has posed:
"You shall have your time," Zod bids Jax-Ur. "The House of El is not here."

There is a pregnant, shocked pause from the bridge. "Their emissary comes instead of them. Kara Zor-L is brash and aggressive, and Kal-El sees himself as a diplomat. Both would be at the forefront of the vanguard-- *if* they were here."

Zod activates external hailing frequencies with a wave of his hand. "This is General Zod, protector of the Kryptonian Hegemony. Earth is in possession of stolen Kryptonian technology. Stand down and we will depart when our task is complete. Resist, and face the wrath of Zod."

The transmission cuts out and Zod changes the console to a tactical view. Fingers cut through the air to cue the VI and the ship starts reconfiguring itself once again.

Externally the snowflake shudders and re-shapes itself. The deflector wavelengths shift violently and at new modulations to repel anyone closing ranks with the vessel. That radial cannon continues to mark that nullification beam at Carol, tracking her fast and accurately and keeping her on her toes in full defensive flight.

New crystal arrays separate from the ship and float towards Thor. They form a loose perimeter around the Asgardian and then reality twists and warps and Thor is abruptly relocated most of a kilometer away from the battleship as space and time is pinched and reassembled around him.

"I want an update," Zod demands of his crew, tone growing frosty. "The cost of neutralizing these allies of Kal-El will be significant. How close are we to retrieving the assets?"

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol will take the bit of breathing room that Thor has brought by unloading some Lightning and Thunder as well as seeing how smacking Mjolnir on Sunstone will work. She is trying to stay very, very aware she does not want to be hit by the main gun on that ship though.

So using the brief moments of distraction as the Kryptonians react to the Asgardian, she spirals erratically in towards the Kryptonian Sunstone ship and aims a lance of Photonic Energy at the main spire weapon.

It is rare that she has to fight defensive, and this is most certainly one of those moments.

Then the tracking of their weapon systems and that radial cannon makes her back away once more. "Frakking ... stupid.. Kryptonian..." thankfully no one is really on the comms that is liable to faint. Superman isn't here to be offended at least.

Which is about when she breaks off dealing with the ship entirely twirling with a burst of cosmic energy from orbit and into the atmosphere. Thankfully though not at all near anything too fragile as she descends like a comet towards the Atlantic. <<Keep them distracted. I am going to make this .. very expensive for them if nothing else.>>

Thor has posed:
Thor breaks into a grin as he sees Faora swim out into freefall to protect the spire. Asgardians, as one of the earlier renowned warrior cultures to terrorize space, saw their ferocity cemented in the legends of younger conquering cultures even as their interest in expansion waned. But apparently, these thrice-damned Kryptonians didn't pay attention in mythology class or something, because they clearly have no idea who they are dealing with.

He caroms off the shattered spire even as it reforms itself, kicking off from shards of dead sunstone and spinning Mjolnir again, first as a gyroscopic brake, then to leap forward again with a burst of immediate momentum. Faora might notice the lightning storm she's body-blocking thin out somewhat; if she's especially attentive, she'll notice much of it angling past both her and the spire. She'll have to be very perceptive indeed to realize that it's being gathered into Mjolnir, which is currently on a breakneck course to connect with the back of her skull with a burst of lightning and a deep metallic WHUNG that would be earsplitting if anyone but her could hear it.

Thor is laughing uproariously and preparing another blow from the hammer when he's defensively teleported out nearer the moon; his swing connects with nothing and he ends up spinning like a top. He grits his teeth in annoyance and starts whirling Mjolnir overhead to counter that momentum. "Heimdall?" he says, lifting the hammer over his head again.

In another burst of rainbow light, Thor reappears on the warship immediately behind the largest of the teleportation stones. "Two can play at that game!" he yells as Mjolnir descends to crash violently into and through the sunstone obelisk. The moment it hits, he flings out an arm to send more lightning out, blasting through the defensive teleporter array in a web of vicious electrical arcs that will also make it trickier for Faora to reach him and retaliate.

This should certainly count as a distraction for Carol, as well as whatever gambits the other heroes present have in mind.

Donna Troy has posed:
    There's no question that when Carol calls for a distraction, Thor's got the physical side covered. There are other types of distraction, though. Donna switches to the Titan's secure channel. <<Kian, Vorp... think you two could conspire to provide those guys with a lot of targets with nice big radar returns. Maybe a few Milano class ships?>> She wonders if , with a bit of practice, Kian could figure out how to simulate the signature of Krytonite to fake Kryptonite missiles. That would certainly be distracting, but there's no time for that now.

    There is also /psychological/ distraction. Incoming data from the Titans' tracking of the Kryptonian probes reveals them approaching a very familiar location in the Atlantic ocean. <<Stolen Kryptonian technology?>> Donna replies over comms. <<Looks to me like you're after Brainiac's ship. I wonder why you didn't try taking what you wanted from him directly. Did you need /us/ to destroy his ship first? Maybe you should think about what that implies, hmm?>>

    She isn't finished. <<Well, /ahmphar ,zod,/* you think that we left the wreck alone? Didn't salvage the useful things already? The equipment required for restoring bottled cities to normal size, for example? Perhaps you could have tried just asking us. You're looking in the wrong place. And failing to see the big picture. So much /gazrhyg/**, so little /:jahghah/** -- no wonder it hasn't even occured to you to ask where house El has gone when you are drifting so far away from /shokh/**,>>

*Translation: General Zod

**Translation: Industry, Restraint and Truth, three of the core Kryptonian 'virtues'.

Kian has posed:
    Lots of targets?  Well, he can try, but Kían is much more likely to be successful with general radar confusion -- as well as obscuring the T-Jet's location.  Even if they look for the empty spot, there are too many of those, as well as too many possible radar hits in too many sizes that move in completely ridiculous ways.
    Kían *did* study fractals a little in one of his math classes, how did you guess?
    Speaking of chaotic formulæ, there is Vorpal.  Where there is a void, there is a **void**.  Where there is a large radar hit, there is a **large** radar hit.  Hell, where there is a *small* radar hit, there's a large radar hit.  The sensors on Zod's ship should be lit up like they're being confronted by Star Fleet backed up by the Minbari, with the Starship Heart of Gold, the NSEA Protector, and a couple Monoliths from 2001 as well.
    Go for the gold, right?

Reed Richards has posed:
    In the eye of Hurricane there is quiet.

     Reed is already in his space suit and at the airlock by the time John asks him the question. He looks every day of his 59 years, and he wonders not for the first time how many of those here today were even born when they started this fight. He remembers the young cocky kid, that's been replaced by this capable man in the pilot seat and he smiles, "The second blue button but it's nowhere near what Sue is. Stay in the fight John, If I'm seeing things right there's still players on the board we need to account for. The graviton emitter is rated for a small moon, that should be enough to push them around and maybe even take them off their game, Also if you get them in the open, don't forget the RSE, it's always in a low coronal orbit."

    Reed grabs the hull of the ship and slingshots himself out the door, first flattening, thinning grabbing for purchase on the alien Sunship. HIs suit working with his powers seeking access to the ships systems, the holographic heads up display surrounding him as he pulls himself down staying flat.

    The Armada moves to intercept the drones, though they can do little more than the harass the other ships. Slowing them blocking their way even trading shoves.

Damian Wayne has posed:
     A rabbit hole opens up close to the roof of a nearby building, allowing Damian to jump through and land with little fanfare. The objective was still stealth at this point, after all.

  Robin looked out to the Kryptonian vessel, and scowled. There wasn't anything he could do right now to help until the package arrived, and it was not fun to stand by while this all goes down.

  <<Troia, ETA two minutes. We need an ingress into the ship from there.>>

Johnny Storm has posed:
Johnny continues to fly!

Of course Reed's plan is to stretch really long and jump on board, Johnny thinks, as he activates one of the ship's few 'offensive' defenses, a 'Gravitronic Beam' that serves as...well Reed explained it to him as a tractor beam that worked, eventually. He's using it to 'balance' the shuttle against the pressures of Thor, Carol, and the Kryptnians starting to get serious about war in space, so Reed has a stable platform to work on. It's not the most glamorous job in the fight, but if there's one thing Johnny Storm believes in, it's Reed Richards. He'll give up a little showboating to get the job done.

Hey, character development, Johnny thinks as he stares death in the face, even eyed, far out. "Yo Reed don't get yourself killed out there. Sue won't let me hear the end of it if I lose her another husband."

Kara Danvers has posed:
    Faora's face twists in to anger as she turns at super speed to see Thor coming to her. The teleportation gives her even more time. As the rainbow connection brings Thor back and destroys one of the components of the teleporter she sneers at him. It's a good thing she can't speak in space. Her fists come forward as she starts to fly toward him, only to pull up short when energy bursts about him.

    Faora holds out her hand and a nano-thin weapon constructs itself. Like a whip, but so thin the space around it crackles with energy as phantom particles appear and disappear. She looks at Thor with utter malice and cracks the nano-whip toward the god of thunder.

    Ursa watches as Carol changes tactics and Jax-Ur calls out, "She's headed to our drones in the ocean." Ursa motions to Non, "Stop the Kree and protect the drones." Non nods his head and charges out of the airlock, a big muscular hulk of a man, diving down toward Earth to penetrate the atmosphere and chase after Carol Danvers to protect their drones.

    Jax-Ur says, "Just a _little_ bit more time and we will have our answer. The components we need are not in their military bases. I am recalling those drones. Only the ocean holds promise."

    Ursa frowns as Reed makes his way to the battle star, "A human has touched down on our ship." Her eyes widen as suddenly it seems like there is a massive fleet bearing down upon them, "General!" Her hands move with a swish through the air and the blue energy swirling around the ship converge and shoot off into the ghostly fleet. The blue beams slicing though ...nothing. Though some of the blue beams do aim directly at Johnny's ship. The Titan's T-Jet is spared as it is still hidden from the Kryptonian sensors.

    Reed's attempts to hack in to the Kryptonian systems are met with a mixed success. Kryptonian language in multiple dimensions is presented to him.. but not only is it in the alien language, but the terminologies and ideologies are completely foreign too - as any one can attest who has attempted to talk science with Kara.

Chaucer (27) has posed:
Zod operates the tactical console adroitly. Volumes of information are bombarding him-- locations of ships, vessels, approaching enemies, power readouts. The ship shuddens violently at the impacts from Thor's hammer. The mighty Prince of Asgard is doing great damage to the vessel with the seemingly limitless power he wields, and the computer is forced to divert more resources towards repairing his impacts. The new plating arranges itself into experimental lattices and another bolt of lightning is deflected with a glancing blow. The VI is learning.

The primary ship weapons are caught up trying to prevent Carol from bringing her full power to bear. Photonic energy is not particularly dangerous to a ship that is essentially one large optical reactor... but the sheer power of her blasts is enough to give even the Kryptonians pause.

Crystalline constructs start peeling away from the hull, spider-like things that would look delicate save for their jagged edges and the shocking speed with which they traverse the hull. The defensive units swarm towards Reed like white blood cells attacking an intruder.

Zod snarls at the readout as it starts feeding back inintelligible data from the many sensor ghosts being projected at the vessel. He manually plots in a firing solutions and the battleship starts hurling dozens of crystalline projectiles at the various ships and drones swarming around the vessel. Each crystal is travelling at near-relatavistic speed and when it explodes, it creates massive gravimetric shears that could rip an asteroid in half. The new data helps the ship distinguish the ghosts from the wreckage of actual vessels.

And then there is Donna's voice, echoing from the comms net. Her taunting words and mockery trigger a vein bulging in the side of General Zod's neck and he whirls towards the front of the bridge, his back to the conning station.

The crystal rearranges itself in new fractal patterns and when it goes abruptly clear, Donna has all of a microsecond to see Zod standing in the center of the array with his eyes flashing red at her. Two beams of raw cosmic energy tear through space on maximum burn, Kryptonian technology amplifying Zod's incalculable rage.

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol listens to her comms as her support teams tell her she has a bogey on her tail. <<Oh I'm aware. I was sort of hoping to lure one of them out of that ship and away from that main weapon of theres.>> and true to form, this was all part of the plan.

Still the good Captain has a head start and plans to use it to her advantage to muck up the Kryptonians plans with their drones in the Atlantic at least a bit before it turns into a fight out there in the oceam. She puts on a bit of extra speed leaving a trail of fire through the atmosphere and when she makes contact with the fleet of drones it is.... explosive.

The nice part about fighting out here in the Atlantic will be the ability to cut loose too.

So she mucks around a bit until the big guy gets within range and then she twirls in the air with frightening precision and lets him have it with a photon blast.

Honestly she is playing agile dodger and blaster, trying to lure the Kryptonian into eye blasting her.

Kryptonian baiting.

Thor has posed:
Thor hasn't got the mental focus to be peppering little bits of foreign language and philosophy into his boastful banter; with the typical Asgardian brute force approach, Allspeak renders everything he has to say perfectly understandable to his audience, and he doesn't worry about it beyond that. Still, as he puts Mjolnir between his face and Faora's snaking nano-whip, he'll contribute what he can, even if he doesn't entirely understand the tactic Donna is employing.

"You're wasting your time talking to these louts, Titan," he scoffs. "I've had more interesting conversations with my horse." He can do better. Grani happens to be an excellent conversationalist! "I mean, look at this chunk of unfinished stone they consider a starship! If they're supposed to represent Kryptonian culture, it's the kind of culture a doctor grows from a stool sample."

Straightforward, scatological taunts might not exactly be what the Amazon was going for, but tanks gonna tank.

And speaking of which, only moments later, Reed is touching down on the hull of the ship. Thor might not be able to figure out exactly what the scientist is working on, but he knows well enough that Mr. Fantastic will need time to work if he's to accomplish whatever his goal might be.

With Faora's whip snared around Mjolnir's unbreakable metal, Thor spins the hammer once more, seeking to shorten her tether to it and give her less slack to work with, then simply flings the hammer away. The Kryptonian can relinquish her weapon, try to disentangle it from the hammer, or try to get really worthy really fast, but she'll be on a flat trajectory toward the sun until she completes one of those tasks.

In the meantime, the Asgardian's boots hit the crystalline hull again, with a thump that reverberates through it, putting himself among the crystal spiders trying to swarm Reed and giving them something more immediate to be concerned with.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Understood, Robin," Donna answers through the T-Com. "Fantastic Four appear to be attempting something on the surface of the Kryptonian ship. They may need back-up, I suggest as soon as your package arrives Vorp Rabbit Holes you up there. I think I'll head over that way too."

    "Kian, Vorp, good work with the distraction -- keep it up, you're drawing a lot of their fire. But keep on your toes... Kian, if any of them come out of that ship, be ready to hit them with the frequency shifting trick as soon as you get a word from me. Vorp, get ready for some strategic rabbit-holing, I have a feeling we're going to see a reaction any moment now...."

    Prophetic words, but then she /has/ been doing her best to get Zod to react, and sure enough, barely has she spoken when those twin beams of amplified Kryptonian heat-ray vision blast towards her. Bracers made from a shard of Aegis rise up to meet them, but through the amplification of the ship this is a lot more heat-ray vision than Donna was anticipating. Beams strike bracers and Donna is blasted backwards faster than she can accelerate against the energy, and to onlookers she becomes a halo of glowing red light accelerating rapidly away from the Kryptonian vessel. So much for her joining Reed.

    The power of the enhanced beam threatens to overwhelm even the magical protection of Amazon bracers, and Donna grits her teeth and cries out in agony as the Amazonian metal on her wrists begins to glow -- but she does not have to hold it for too long.

    Cats do not react as fast as eye-beams or Amazons, but they're fairly fast, and before beam can overwhelm bracer, a Rabbit Hole appears in the path of the beam.

    The other end of the Rabbit Hole? Why it's aimed to return to sender, of course. Straight at the clear section of crystal, and straight back at Zod. Will it get amplified again on its way through the crystal? We can only hope!

Kian has posed:
    Kían nods once, not wishing to break his concentration on keeping their opponents confused.  He wouldn't want to improvise and wreck everything.
    That said, he does try to add the FF craft to the cover he's providing. Two objects are a small enough number to keep track of, and provide radar obscuration for.
    On board the T-Jet, it's hard to say what exactly he's doing other than gazing out a window and glowing that sky blue he glows when he's agitated, or exerting his /rhy'thar/.  This is all very abstract, almost like a computer game, and in a weird way that rather helps.

Damian Wayne has posed:
     The Batwing roars overhead, not stopping while delivering the care package. The black container lands on the roof with a heavy thud. A bat-symbol and a handprint outline on the display.

  Damian removes his glove, placing it on the display and allowing it to scan his palm print. As soon as the package opens, the lead container is displayed. Robin swiftly places the pouch on his utility belt, clipping into a swapped spot, the gold compartment with normal batarangs replacing it.

  <<Rabbit hole, now.>> Damian steps through the portal next to Reed, holding up the bat-sword that Donna had made for him. "Doctor Richards." He comments as he takes an assessment of the situation, sheathing the sword for now. "This will probably call their attention. But it is a good play." He takes out a small grenade, and good old fashioned strip of duct tape, and the contents of that lead container, a solid glowing green Kryptonite batarang. Some handy tape work later, Robin's hand holding the grenade and its lever still attached.

  He grabs at his sword with his right hand, at the ready to defend.

Reed Richards has posed:
Reed Richards marvels at the complexity of the Kryptonian computers and bring the information back. Reed may not understand the computer system but he does understand crystal growth, and as he watches the pattern of the growth he has a singularly wicked idea. Reed Richards pulls a baseball bat from his uniform pocket, it enlarges in his hand and you can see the fancy scifi gizmos attached to what appears to be a regular bat. And Reed smiles the bellow can be heard across all Channels, "IT'S CLOBBERING TIME." He swing the bat with all his might, in the hands of someone like the Thing that would result in in the force of a small moon dropping against the ship, in Reed's hands it is considerably less but hopefully enough to crack the outer layer of the hull. He digs into the wound and pulls out several shards, reaching for the kryptonite batarang he infects the cut with tiny fragments of the green crystalline material, then he integrates them into the growth pattern. He hands the whole thing back to Damian. "Let's go."

Johnny Storm has posed:
"Cool, spiders." Johnny says, as giant crystal spiders attack Reed and the latest Robin? Hooboy. Bruce is going to go spare...

"I'll buy you a little breathing room, brother-in-law!" Johnny shouts, and goes into the Johnny exit, a literal torpedo tube for launching the Human Torch at enemies of the Fantastic Four. There's a mighty SCHLUMP as HERBIE takes over piloting.

Johnny is naked and alone in space for a second and then like some kind of cosmic fire bird, ignites! The Human Torch crackles in the upper atmosphere, flying a low, lazy circle around the shuttle and hurling fat, thick fireballs at any crystaline spiders who might get any funny ideas about Mr. Fantastic or Robin. "Hah hah hah!" Johnny laughs, by the same rationale that he can burn in space. Cosmic Rays don't care.

"Hey Thor!" Johnny cackles, doing a figure eight, "How's it feel being the second prettiest blonde in space now? You can be number three, Carol, it's cool." Johnny winks, while on fire, and climbs up the side of the Sunstone, sending absolutely brutal waves of fire against the ship itself; fire primed to melt long holes in all but the most resistant metal. Johnny has no idea if this'll work, and is mostly looking to piss off Zod's crew.

Kara Danvers has posed:
    Faora is flung with nanowhip and mighty Thor's hammer toward the sun. She struggles to unbind it for a few even as she feels the warmth and glory of the sun fill her being. For a moment, just a moment, she lets it bathe through her like nothing has ever felt so in her life. It is a wonderous feeling and she wonders if this is why Kal-El and family stay here.

    Her eyes fix upon Thor and she pushes away from the Hammer and flies back toward him with heat vision glowing brighter than it has ever before from her eyes, blasting at the prince of Asgard.

    Non is not.. a thinker. The best thought he'd had in recent years was to ally himself with Zod. He burns through the atmosphere and falls straight in to Carol's trap as he misses her on first charge with fists and kicks around with burning bright eyes that slice through the air toward her even as he chases after her. The bruiser is not built for cat and mouse games... however, he is at least giving the drones in the ocean more time.

    Jax-Ur steps back from the science console with horror and scowls, "The human was telling the truth. What we need is not on this planet." He frowns and activates the drone recall. An intense burst of Kryptonian flows through Reed's hacked feed and he can pick up subspace communications to the drones down on Earth. There is a burst of Kryptonian back and the drones shoot up out of the ocean and leave the military bases, attempting to find their way back to Zod's ship.

    Ursa paces a moment. "She knows something Zod. They're mocking us. Forcing us to waste our resources," she says and her eyes look toward the image of Reed outside their ship. "Kal-El must have taken what we want, make her talk."

    The crystalline spiders come up against Thor and Johnny at the same time giving Reed and Damian the time to..

    ..Reed's inspiration to inject the kryptonite in to the crystal structure after damaging it reveals the data feed reacting wildly in unpredictable glitchy like ways. The crystals near where the infection is introduced turn black as night and odd radiation spikes emit from the area of the deadened crystals. That surface of the ship looks random, not at all uniform like the rest of the ship.

    The whole crystallite ship strobes like a disco as Ursa stares in confusion as her holographic console twists and warps strangely. "Brainaic?! there's corrupted code interacting with the confluence," she fears the worst. "It's trying to spread," she says and rips open the side of the console and pulls out a glowing crystal tool and starts severing connections from that area of the ship.

Chaucer (27) has posed:
The raw cosmic energy Vorpal turns back against the Kryptonian battleship makes it shudder violently. Zod's eyebeams could have punched a hole through a moon; the crystals are better equipped than most to handle that precise kind of energy but the feedback is so unexpected and violent that it sends cracks spiralling through the vessel.

"Jettison that portion of the superstructure!" Zod bellows at Ursa. "Now!"

He returns to the tactical console, staring at it in anger and weighing out his options. The General gets control of his rage and starts marshalling the ship's dwindling resources. "Recover all drones. Deploy defensive measures."

The ship shudders and folds again like a giant fractal; it rearranges itself into a sturdier defensive form and the contaminated crystals are ejected towards the distant sun at a high rate of speed.

"We demand the return of our technology!" Zod booms over the local comm net. "Surrender it to us and we will spare you total destruction." The ship shifts again and becomes something like an inverted cone, with some kind of aiming array cradled inside the cone turning to face Earth itself. A dire, low charging can be sensed building in the core of the unit. "We are prepared to refrain from destroying this pitiful planet if you yield. If not, we will gladly search through the charred embers of this world!"

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol almost cackles but somehow manages self restraint as Non starts to blast her with heat vision, she actually ducks, weaves, and makes sure he is hitting her. She is though absolutely making sure it looks like she is taking a beating. Drinking it all up like a Krypotonian Capri-Sun.

She also didn't miss Donna's very good point about the futility of the ocean search too.

Right to the point where she has enough delicious energy to go near binary, her whole form starting to glow and erupt with corona-like bursts of cosmic energy. "Ah.. there we go." which is also the point she stops baiting the Kryptonian and spins around and drives for him instead with incredible speed.

She picks her angle though to drive him up back into orbit. Orbital booster of choice is one hand around his thick neck for grip scruffing him and then a nice application of her fist into his face.

Stage 1, 2, and 3 booster engines really as she keeps on hitting him and bursts of photonic energy explode like angry blinding flashes with each impact. Maybe he will panic and keep on eye beaming her to try to get her to stop.

"Welcome to earth.... let me show you back out." she notes with dry sass over the comms counting on her suit to translate it to Kryptonian.

She really was looking forward to this part of the lure the Kryptonian out of the ship and teach him to fear earth portion of today's activities.

Perfect. In this ship configuration that spire and energy nullification canon isn't deployed, or at least she assumes. So she continues that direction beating Non in the face harder than he has ever likely been hit and going straight for the cone end of the ship as it charges up with earth destroying energy like she intends to slam right into it.

Thor has posed:
As he battles Kryppy Rockdust and the Spiders from Zod, Thor would dearly love to recall Mjolnir, but so long as it remains Faora's one-way ticket to Away, he's going to have to do this the old-fashioned way. As one jagged walker clicks across the hull toward him, he lowers himself, grabs it as low as he can, and flings it over his shoulder toward Jupiter's orbital path. This cuts his hands up pretty badly, but skin heals, and Asgardian skin heals faster.

Another crustacean construct is already clambering toward him, and he boots it, sending it flying but leaving himself coasting back toward Reed by the equal and opposite reaction. "Work quickly, Doctor Fantastic, Bat Child!" he says, giving another mechanical arachnid a carapace-ful of electric destruction with a touch. "The rock these cowards hide in is inhospitable indeed." He prepares to fend off another aggressive walker to guard the others as they collaborate on their crystal sabotage, but at that moment Johnny Storm blazes to their defense.

(Not 'Johnny Blaze storms' -- that is an entirely different person who is frequently on fire. Easy mistake to make.)

"I welcome the competition, Torch," he answers, beaming. "I think you will find it one of your more difficult battles." But the time for friendly banter is short -- Faora frees herself and rushes back to the assault. He staggers back under the brutal beams of her blazing heat vision, and is slammed down to the hull of the warship.

Her attack is unrivalled in its destructive power, but the ship is getting it just as bad as he is unless she lets up to peel him off the hull and try from a different angle. He doesn't mean to give her that chance: one gauntleted hand rises in defiance of the blistering column of destruction, reaching up to call Mjolnir back to him, hopefully winging Faora along the way.

Donna Troy has posed:
    It takes a little while for Donna to return to the scene of the action. She had a little recovering to do, and she had a little flying to do, but as the Kryptonians fight to react to the damage caused by the varied attacks, she's back on the scene. Her bracers still glow faintly, but not as bright as the golden lasso glowing in her hands. Her eyes glint with anger, but she's survived the attack.

    <<Yes, Kryptonian,>> she broadcasts. <<We have /kryptahnynj/* -- and so far we have not used it on you, just part of your ship. This could have gone far worst for you, but we of Earth understand and value the /girod/** of restraint that you seem to have forgotten. Earth has other ways to defend itself, too. You think, empowered by our yellow sun, that you are invulnerable here. Think again.>>

    She quickly changes frequency to the T-Com private channel. "Let there be red sunlight. And chaos. Hit the bridge -- behind where they shed that transparent section. NOW, VORP AND KIAN!"

*Translation: Kryptonite

**Translation: Virtue, specifically the 11 virtues that underpin Kryptonian culture.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Chaos? For me? Oh, Troia, you shouldn't have!" Vorpal replies to Donna's command. So far he has been toying with space, finding a common place where Here and There could meet in ways that would fascinate Escher and probably give Hank McCoy a cardiac arrest (and subsequently drive him into a potential lecture about the dangers of treating an aspect of reality like an etch-a-sketch.) He's been a sort of cosmic courier, delivering Robins and glowing green payloads from A to B, and stamping Kryptonian Care Bare Stares with 'Back To Sender.'

Now it was time to do a little gifting of his own.

He reaches into his bandoleer and grabs one of the grenades there. Not one of Nadia's EMPs, though, one that looks very different from the rest. "Hold my beer, Kian. I'll be right back."

The Rabbit Hole to the bridge opens immediately, but it's one that is small- and the cat's hand is fast. Even though there is confusion and anger, he can't tell whether or not they might notice him all the same, so he reaches over and /slaps/ his hands against the nearest console, and immediately emits a bright purple burst of concentrated chaos energy, while at the same time dropping the grenade.

Several things happen at once- a veritable jungle seems to bloom out of the consoles, with exotic vines, flowers spewing multicolor pollen thatt become flying larvae that within seconds mature into foul-smelling flying fish swarms, and an expanding mass of blue-green vegetation that seeks to claim the bridge as its own, spewing dendritic appendages at blinding speed for as long as the magic pulse lasts.

And that's when the grenade explodes. It's not fire. It's not smoke. It's not an EMP. But, to add insult, to chaos-

It's glitter. A super-charged explosion of glitter.

The Rabbit Hole closes and Vorpal crosses his arms, as the last he sees of the bridge is an explosion of ephemeral Wonderland vegetable life and an orgy of glitter.

Kian has posed:
    Kían takes a deep breath and concentrates.
    His training has been scientific, which suited his /rhy'thar/.  So Donna's plan for red sunlight is actually something he has played at before, in an astronomy class at the university on his homeworld.  The scale is just a little bigger.
    Okay, a lot bigger.
    Still, it's just electromagnetic radiation, the easiest of the nuclear forces to work with.  And he practiced this as part of Donna's contingency planning.
    The intruders' bridge is suffused in red sunlight, bright as a summer's noon under a red star, and Kían himself glows Cherenkov blue with the concentration and effort.
    He tries to cover as large an area as he can without sinking below noonday intensity -- the fact is, Kían doesn't know his actual limits.  He's always been afraid to find out.  He may not learn them today, but he might find their broader than he thought....

Donna Troy has posed:
    As the Kryptonian vessel floods with the simulated light of a red sun -- not to mention plants and glitter-- Donna's voice reappears on the broadcast. <</KEHPUSI RRUP TIV RAOGHRYS CHAO IGHAI W DUAZODH KRYP VOT ,RAO, I DIVI IAHR KHEHTH, FAZHURIUM-O/?*>>

    << We do not wish to fight you. We count your fellow Kryptonians as friends. You seek to protect the last survivors of your race, we understand. It makes you desperate. Don't let it make you foolish, too. Come in peace instead of violence and we would share with you what we know. That the reason House El is not here right now is because they believe you are wrong and that Kandor is /not/ the last of your race. Why are you here, when you should be out there, as they are, looking for /ahrgo zrnygrnans/?**>>

    <<Power down your weapons. Stand down your assault, and agree to cease all hostilities with Earth and we will tell you what we know about Argo city. Kandor we cannot help you with. We /do not have/ the Brainiac technology. If we still had it, it would have been used to restore Kandor already, for the sake of our friends. The technology we recovered was destroyed, and the remains are now on Oa. Go to Oa and ask them for it if you will, but you will not find it on Earth. Talk in peace, rather than fighting, and you will learn why House El believes Argo City survived too.>>

*Translation: Would you have the strength and courage (or purity?) to face us under the esteemed (or sacred?) red light of rao (or Rao?)**, people of conflict***?

**Rao is the name of Krypton's red sun but also of their god.

***Literally -- but unknown to Donna, in common Kryptonian parlance it also has a meaning not unakin to the English phrase 'drama queen'.

Reed Richards has posed:
Reed Richards smiles as John enters the fray just when they need him most and leaves HERBIE in charge of the Singularity. "Herbie! Activate audio interface, and there is a discordant series of whistles which emanate from Reed's mask and the interlaced trinary pattern that only a few other mouths could match. The ship arcs and whirls and matches their velocity easily, and with a hum, the gravitronic beam comes on having two effects, it scatters the spiders, and slows the shard, the intricate whistling moving the shard into a solar orbit.

     Reed turns back to the fight, and waits to see how Donna's plot plays out.

Johnny Storm has posed:
"Oh fine Reed!" Johnny shouts, "Just get shot into the sun while I'm showing off! Man."

Johnny rockets after the crystal, using weird fire and flying tricks to try and slow it down, and to drain some of the eerie green radiation from it. Yeah, Johnny's control over heat is so exact he can manipulate certain types of radiation, or at least to suck the dangerous heat from a radiactive item!

It's true, look it up.

Damian Wayne has posed:
     Damian is certainly glad that Reed Richards is...Reed Richards. "Holy s*^t! Free the beast!" He comments as the Good Doctor gives the ship a wallop, before borrowing his dead-man's grenade. "My pleasure." He says, before heading into the ship, holding both his sword, and the grenade, pulling the pin off the ordinance, and keeping a firm hold on it.

  "THIS PLANET IS PROTECTED ZOD! Come and take me if you want it!" He practically screams, holding the football of a dead man's switch to himself, glowing green against his gold and red tunic.

  One of the crystal spiders starts to clamber towards him, to which Robin jumps forward, he flips forward and brings his sword clashing onto the crystal spider with all the force he can muster to the sword. He stares at the crystal construct as it cracks, scowling into its now deactivated corpse.

Kara Danvers has posed:
Non is not ready for this. When Carol suddenly bursts with light like a supa nova and charges at him he suddenly wishes he had grown up to be part of the fighters guild. Because he takes a pummelling from her, drifting up through the atmosphere and back in to space. Desperate to get away from her he flies back to the ship just before it closes up tightly.

    Faora is delighted to see Thor scorching under her assault and catches sight of Mjolnir flying back to him. She's figured out his game now - so she grabs the handle of the weapon to take it for herself. Despite her super strength, it doesn't even shudder and drags her along back to Thor.

    Faora crashes in to the ship next to Thor and almost pushes herself back up after the momentary breath ejecting shock, when the crystals grow over her and pull her back inside the ship. She gasps for breath as the ship reconfigures and backs away from Earth. "I had him!!," she insists angrily.

    The wild chaos magic has Jax-Ur stare in wonder. He motions over his controls to take samples even as the crystalline structures rearrange themselves to repair the damage and eject the plant life and glitter from the ship. Then the 'sun' goes red. But... nothing happens. Ursa stares in confusion, "They're messing with us. Weird tricks of light and illusions? This it the thanks we get for the mercy we have shown!" Non, though, looks more concerned than the others when Rao is mentioned. One of the five believe in the Kryptonian religion of Rao at least.

    "General," Ursa says, "Earth doesn't have what we need.. we're wasting our time here." She pauses and listens, "Argo City? I grew up there."

Chaucer (27) has posed:
Zod spots Non mouthing some religious prayer and backhands the subordinate hard enough to crack the speed of sound. Non crashes to the ground near-unconscious.

"It's a trick of light and a child prattling ancient words she can barely pronounce," Zod grates. The old General, like many jaded old soldiers, either believes Rao does not exist-- or if He does, the He does not care.

"We have what we need. Brainiac did not take Argo City," he surmises. "We will marshall our forces and return to Earth another time. For now, Argo City is our goal. We will take back from the Oans that which they have stolen from us," Zod grates. He brings the ship around and plots a course out of the solar system. With a reckless disregard for the safe protocols of space travel, the ship launches into hyperspace. A nimbus of force and flame crashes through space in its wake and sets brilliant aurora borealis in the skies over most of Earth's facing hemisphere, as well as triggering minor earthquakes over most of the near landmasses.

Carol Danvers has posed:
On comms to SWORD/SHIELD <<The Kryptonians have left the sector.>> as she brushes some frozen Kryptonian blood flakes off her glove watching them glitter as they catch the distant sunlight.

That was very satisfying.

More local on the heros various comms <<That was smart Troia. I mean... I should probably let the Lanterns know they are going to be expecting a visit from Zod really soon but still. Good job Titans... though I am only half sure what all you did there to their ship. Thank you as Well for the assist Fantastic Fam.>> a glance towards Johnny and Reed.

<<Also as always Thor, good to fight with you.>>

She tilts her head listening to other comms. <<Pretty minimal damage, mostly concentrated on various military installations as they went looking for Brainiac's tech. No long term consequences other than my budget is probably going to go keep going up.>> still tight to the heros comms, not letting that one slip over SWORD frequency.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna's getting used to tumbling through space, and the backwash of the rapidly accelerating Kryptonian ship sends her doing it again, but she's soon enough able to right herself - and at least this time she didn't get caught in a wormhole collapsing, which is a definite plus.

    <<Check in,>> Donna calls out on the T-Com. <<Everyone safe and accounted for?>> Yeah, she checks on her team-mates first. Sorry everyone else, it's this whole responsibility thing.

    Then over to everyone else, as she stares at the retreating ship. <<Well... those guys are kind of dumb for a super-advanced race. I could have told them more details but they didn't ask. So, great work everyone. Any injuries? Thor, Captain M, Fantastic Four guys, everyone good? We have a ship close by if anyone wants a ride back to the surface. Kian, Vorp, you can unshield it now. >>

    <<Thor you make fighting with a hammer look so much fun, gotta say. And Carol you looked like you were enjoying yourself too. I never got to punch anyone and now my wrists hurt. Oh well. I think we have some Neosporin on the T-Jet. >>

    Donna rubs her forearms through the now cooled bracers, and heads back towards the T-Jet. "Of COURSE they would turn up this week instead of next week," she mutters into the darkness of space. "I knew it."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"You know," Vorpal mutters into the comm,<< "These Kryptonians have the personality of a dial tone. I guess we were lucky and got the ones who got watered regularly and didn't grow under a douchebag sun?">>

As the ship begins exiting maneuvers, the Cheshire cat frowns. "Wait, isn't Robin still-"

Right. Donna calls for a check-up, and he gets to it.

He opens the Rabbit Hole Over There and zooms it towards Robin's location as fast as possible- which is pretty fast. Robin would see the hole approaching at breakneck speed, only to stop on a dime a few feet away from him, Vorpal and Kian on the other side.

"Better jump through, they're about to gast it out of here and I hear traveling coach with them is plain awful."

Kian has posed:
    Given the word from Donna, Kían drops everything -- and slumps back onto a stool, exhaling.  He radios back "I am well enough," to Donna, and "/Qién'p/," to Carol; her translator will render it as 'thank you'.
    He looks at Terry and shakes his head.  "I am startin' to think, /tavárik'h/, I come from the only planet that does not want to invade this one."  He might have accidentally left his radio open when he said that.
    And it might not have been accidental.

Damian Wayne has posed:
     Damian ran through, sheathing his sword, and taking the tape off of the batarang, enough to where Robin could yeet the grenade high in the sky before he jumped through, landing in the T-jet with a thud.

  One kaboom high in the sky later, and Robin had started to fold the batarang back and into the lead compartment. "Nice of you all to remember me." He said pointedly, and yet to everyone. The teen brushes himself off and frowns, his brow furrowing.

  "I need to get this back to Gotham ASAP, Kryptonite is exceedingly rare." Robin also gets on the comms. <<Mister Fantastic, I will be in contact soon about that ejected crystal. Batman will want to know if it has grown Kryptonite.>>

Reed Richards has posed:
Reed Richards smiles and nods to Johnny. <<I think we've got this from here. Carol, we'll send all our findings to Sword under the usual terms and conditions. Absolutely, Robin, I'm rather interested myself.>> He nods and there is a note of worry on his face at the possibility of that much Kryptonite. Reed gets everyone off the radioactive shard of sunstone and recalls the "armada" from Earth or what's left of it anyway. The next few hours are an effort of towing the infected shard back towards the Star Base. Johnny heads back and in the end it is Reed & Herbie alone getting the work done. The ship is secured behind multiple radiation shields, the suit data is downloaded into the the computer and Reed's begins to study it. Three days have passed when Sue finally shows up with a sandwich and a slightly worried expression.