7269/Shi'ar: Our House

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Shi'ar: Our House
Date of Scene: 08 August 2021
Location: Earth Orbit
Synopsis: The Justice League fights off the enemy fleet and back onto the Watchtower. While several members drive the cruiser T'Korr from Earth orbit, its sister-ships engage in a destructive battle with Carol Danvers and Maxima, one ending up completely destroyed as the later's own warship rejoins the fight. On the Watchtower, Diana (and Jumpa) fight off several members of the guard and ultimately captures Magique, the illusion-caster who had been giving them so much trouble. And Karen gets her payback against Xenith, leading her away from the moon and closer to the sun, tiring her opponent as she grows stronger herself, until she can deliver a final blow. One by one, the remaining Imperial Guard begin to surrender, only for Ambassador Shakari to deliver a final threat by hologram. Factionalism and fracture seems to split the Shi'ar, as a Galaxy away, another struggle nears its own conclusion.
Cast of Characters: Jean Grey, Diana Prince, Hyperion, Maxima, Carol Danvers, Karen Starr




Jean Grey has posed:
Last Issue...

After the arrival of the Shi'ar Imperium in the solar system, their spokesperson, the wicked-tongued Ambassador Shakari, had presented a simple message: the Shi'ar came with no hostile intention for Earth, only for a couple of its residents, the fugitive Princess Lilandra, and the human woman Jean Grey, host to the so-called Phal'kon, a destructive cosmic entity known to some as the Phoenix. While the Shi'ar presented evidence to the Phoenix's destructive powers, the Justice League insisted that they would not turn over an Earth citizen for likely execution without a more rigorous legal process. The Shi'ar proved unwilling to wait.

Beginning to move their powerful warships toward Earth, things quickly devolved into conflict, with several cosmic heroes fighting alongside Maxima's personal flagship to try and fend off their fleet, while the Shi'ar Imperial Guard -- their own team of diverse alien super-beings -- assaulted the Watchtower and the League directly, along with the aid of a few alien mercenaries they'd evidently picked up along the way.

As the battle raged, both sides suffered damage and losses. Both the Almeracian battleship and one of the Shi'ar cruisers suffered heavy damage, yet the Shi'ar were able to bring a single ship into close orbit, threatening the planet directly. Meanwhile, collateral damage to both the Watchtower and the moon itself was mounting as the League-Guard brawl continued. Choosing discretion over blind aggression, Superman called a strategic withdrawl, and with the aid of the Brotherhood of Mutants, evacuated the League to the mysterious Asteroid M -- all but Hyperion, who had been captured as he remained to defend the Watchtower's power core against Lobo.

Shortly after evacuating, Hal Jordan's ring gave a strange report: << White light discharge detected. >> Location? The counterpart to the cruiser T'Korr's geosynchronous orbit above the planet, somewhere in New York State. Immediately after, one of the ship's smaller escort corvettes opened a warp gate and vanished.

---

Now:

Accounting for injuries, the damage to Maxima's vessel, and the loss of Hyperion to the enemy, the League has been cautious in launching its counterattack, marshalling its strength and preparing. The plan is twofold, centered on distracting the Imperial Guard with an attack on the Watchtower while a full-scale assault is launched on their fleet, aiming to end their ability to easily threaten the planet itself. The T'Korr continues to offer the greatest threat, hovering close to Earth, while the remaining ships hold close to the Watchtower.

---

Hyperion himself continues to enjoy the hospitality of a cell aboard one of the ships in lunar proximity. After his initial encounter with the strange, unknown mutant in Shakari's thrall, and several days spent in a carefully maintained cell, his internal power reserves are essentially non-existant. In such a state, they've left him under reduced guard, his cell door blocked by a simple forcefield.

Diana Prince has posed:
The situation was dire, and the stakes were very high. The Shi'ar had made their choicxes though and it was up to the Justice League (and friends) to help stop the insanity that the aliens to this star system were looking to spread.

Once she recovered, Diana waited for the others to prepare their assaults and she headed toward her target... in the Invisible Jet.

AS such, those aboard the Watchtower likely monitoring the station's security systems now, will see her appear, just standing in the center of the landing bay. She's wearing a long blue robe that obscures most of her armored form beneath it, but she's ... just standing there.

Waiting for them?

Hyperion has posed:
    It is amazing. So many placed in a universe... so many universes in a multiverse... and yet prison cells are a constant. They are always bland, undecorated, and provide as little outside view as possible for those stuck within them. With the shielding they installed, the cosmic energy that is so omni-present and ambient throughout the universe is distinctly absent within the small cell.

    Having had his energy levels depleted for the first time in his entire life has made him feel... well weak. Or rather Human. But he understands patience. He has just a tiny amount of energy left. Energy that he has been focused on preserving. Enough for one use of power. One surge of strength, or atomic-vision blast. It won't be nearly powerful enough to really do much to any of the superhuman Guardsmen, but the normal guard... just maybe. If somehow he can figure out how to de-power the forcefield at his cell's entrance. For now however.. he waits.

Maxima has posed:
It was sometime after Superman and the others retreated by portal that Maxima actually showed up at Asteroid M, having dragged her opponent out into space and kept going at it until the Shi'ar forces threatened to overwhelm her. She may be powerful but her psionic reserves are not unlimited.

She has been fuming ever since and really it is a miracle she hasn't run off on her own to fight the Shi'ar again once her full strength returned, but despite her hot headedness she is also a trained tactician and can see the need to wait for the right moment even if she really doesn't like it. There were repairs to her ship to consider, too.

But now, now things are in motion again and knowing she faces honorless dogs from the outset, the Crown Princess of the Almeracian Empire has no intention of holding back at all.

Maxima rides with Diana in the invisible jet towards the Watchtower ready to stage the base assault. But Maxima also steps out of Asteroid M surrounded by a barrier of psychic force and veritably crackling with power as she flies through the void of space towards the ships. Meanwhile the Raacal remains cloaked for the time being as the automated repair systems continue to make progress on the various damaged areas.

Carol Danvers has posed:
Fracking Aliens Man.

So far this whole situation hasn't really gotten better since the days before the Shi'ar conflict turned Hot in lingo of military actions everywhere.

Carol has other places to be, but jetting off with the Guardians to deal with the Mad Titan while there is an enemy fleet above the world she is sworn to protect is a big problem. Big. Problem.

She is pretty sure that Fury and Brand would be pretty peeved at her at the very least.

So she has been dealing with alien fallout. Paperwork. Logistics. Planning.

The plan is solid. Draw the Guard to the Watch Toweer with an attack. Then launch a full scale attack on the fleet. Easier said than done, but when has being a hero been easy.

Carol opt'd with Clark to deal with the fleet end of the scale with various backup. With him on point for the one closer to earth and her heading up the detatchment closer to the moon.

She does not have an invisible jet though and timing is everything. So she is holding back charged up, nearly binary ... ready to cross the distance between herself and the moon in a heartbeat by ripping open a warp for a short interplanetary skip and then punching something with ridiculous force.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Power Girl has been idly fuming ever since her fight was interrupted. She had just taken Xenith onto the surface of the moon- a place where she could sincerely cut loose somewhat without risk of anyone dying- as long as they didn't break the moon. Even then, she could have brought the fight further out, something she'd been adamant about the entire time. It's quite clear that she didn't fully agree with the retreat from the moment it happened. To say that she had to be restrained was an overstatement, but it might fit better than other adjectives.

    This has led to her presence on the invisible jet, grumping about /that/ too, as she can fly just fine through space and could've reached the tower at a speed that the tower couldn't detect, something she /assures/ the others would be just /fine/ and wouldn't cause /any/ problems.

    It's... Probably for the best that she was talked down from doing that, to be honest.

    As Diana leaves the Jet to intimidate the guards, Karen sits on her duff and takes a moment to let the ire pass. Maxima leaves, and Power Girl is still sitting there, reducing to a low simmer while tapping her foot. It takes time. She was never as /calm/ as her cousin. She'll never /be/ that calm. Eventually, though, all of her procrastinating to lighten her mood manages all it can, and another figure strides calmly out of the nothingness of where the Jet is.

    Power GIrl, in all her glory, cracks her knuckles in silence, her fists fully clenched and awaiting the onslaught that is to come. The Imperial Guard, faceless and nameless as they may be, are not what concerns her- but they'll do, for now. Catharsis is a beautiful thing.

Jean Grey has posed:
The Shi'ar are quite familiar with many parts of the unique coalition that makes up the Justice League and its own alien allies. They've been conducting continual heavy for Maxima's ship, for instance, well-aware of the fact that it can cloak and prepared for an ambush, turning it into some approximation of submarine warfare in space.

The Lansinarians, on the other hand, are a little more obscure....

And so the intruder scans and subsequent alarms are the first things that note Diana's presence in the tower hangar, even though she's landed a whole ship in there without them noticing. The bay isn't quite empty when she and her companions descend the boarding ramp, in fact there's even a Shi'ar shuttle sitting in there, as they've apparently made good use of the facilities. But most of the Shi'ar present are engineers. They look around with... well, more than a touch of concern.

Don't worry, they're sending the actual fighty people.

A moment later, several figures materialize in front of them. It's a whole slew of Guardsmen, familiar and not, quickly surrounding and outnumbering them. It looks like they're ALL there.

---

Out in space, things are mostly quiet, even with the alerts on the Watchtower. The ships have their own orders. And while they may include destroying the Watchtower with a heavy barrage of weaponsfire, that's kind of a 'last resort' thing. But things don't STAY quiet. One second they're running routine scans...

...and the next, Carol warps in from across the other side of the planet and out of view, already at attack speed. The ships have kept their shields powered as a matter of principle, but there's no time to adjust. And so when she hits, while she doesn't quite go THROUGH the vessel, her impact against its defensive screen causes a rather spectacular lightshow, a rippling of force an enrgy that spans well beyond the visual spectrum. Well, the human visible spectrum. At a technician's station on the bridge, the console explodes in sparks (why do they design them that way?), and others scramble to duty, redirecting power flows to compensate for the blown conduits and generators.

The field in front of Hyperion's cell flickers.

Back outside, the damaged sister ship is the first to fire on Carol, with several volleys of pulsed energy that seem a bit different from their usual laser barrages. And then, very quickly, a Guard unit starts coming into view, flying through space in a kind of V-formation toward Carol and Maxima. Again, it's a huge formation, looking like it contains close to the entire Guard.

Can they have the entire guard fighting in two places at once?!

Hyperion has posed:
    Energy weapons against Captain Marvel. If that isn't a bit like trying to beat Popeye by force feeding him spinach. Either way, Hyperion's patience seems to be being rewarded. His eyes catch sight of the flickering force field. His senses focus on the EM energy flowing into said field. Why use the power for an attack when knowledge -is- power? Knowing -when- to move is more important than having power at the time of said move.

    Either way, he's on his feet and approaching the field as he attempts to time the flickers. The energy flow... hoping to find a gap in it that will let him catch the guard outside off... well off guard.

    When the time is right.. he makes his move. The last dregs of energy in his cells is focused into hyper-speed movement to get past the barrier while it is flickering and weakened... to try to reach the guard so said guard's weapon could be appropriated...

Diana Prince has posed:
With Karen and Maxima flanking her on either sides now, Diana just continues to stare at the hangar of the besieged Justice League moonbase.

The guards come rushing in eventually, and start to setup a perimeter around the heroines, only to have Diana continue to stand there mostly motionlessly. Her eyes do move ehre and there as she looks those over who try to encircle them, and it isn't until one of them speaks up that something happens.

A blur leaps up out of the sky seemingly from no where, it lunges in to the air and lands directly in front of the Princess. A fully armored Themysciran Battleroo 'Kanga'. It hollars a warbling battlecry before it starts to charge at the enemies and instantly jumps up in the air to kick at the ones closest to it!

Diana jumps after the Kanga, landing upon its saddle as it comes back down to the deck plating. She drops her robe and reaches for the javelins attached to the Kanga's saddle sides!

Apparently the fight is on, no negotiations!

Maxima has posed:
In the Hangar: Maxima exits the invisible jet with Diana. Her eyes move to the engineers but she can already feel their fear and she does not waste her time on the weak. That is of course when the entire Imperial Guard seems to materialize out of nowhere.

"Some are real, not all." She says out loud for Diana and Karen's benefit. A broad smile crosses her face when she sees the Battleroo. "I like this creature! Where can I find one of my own?!"

But then her expression grows more serious again as she seems to sense something. "I trust you two can take care of them. There is another who needs to be taught a lesson about just who they are dealing with." And with that a field of psychic force surrounds her as she closes her eyes. Expanding her will and reaching out, Maxima's mind searches for the source of the psychic interference summoning tremendous power to try and punch through it. It's time to reach out and touch someone, with her Astral Fists.

In Space: Space Maxima watches Carol strike the shields and their power falter. Two can play at that game. Reaching out with her potent telekinetic powers she gathers up as many large solid pieces of ship debris from the last battle and flings them at incredible speeds towards the Shi'ar cruiser while she closes the distance behind her homemade asteroid shower.

Then 'the entire Guard' appears before and Maxima's first thought is to strafe with laserlike beams of optical force from her eyes. It's not so much a lethal attack as trying to see which ones are real while the psychic battle rages.

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol honestly is amped up and the explosion of energy from the hit the shield took is not draining, quite the opposite.

Also oh no. Not being fired on by energy volleys. Not the briar patch briar fox. Whatever shall Captain Marvel do.

Evidently what she will do is ignore the incomming Imperial Guard for the moment and blaze around the ship away from them at a pace that leaves cosmic energy trailing behind her, bounding impacts across the ship's shields punching it like a skipping stone with severe levels of cosmic powered speed and strength.

Astronomers are getting an amazing lightshow near the moon right now. Good television.

Sure the guard is bound to catch up eventually and turn it into a different kind of fight.. but man she wants to punch that ship badly.

She is relying on her Seventh Sense, aka cosmic spidey sense, to let her know when she has to dodge something from the Guard.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Karen stands her position impassively as the guards proper start teleporting in. Calmly, she turns her head to the engineers at the other ship, telling them in no uncertain terms: "You're going to want to run." Then, her attention focuses back on the forces as they surround the set of them. Power Girl has no intention of moving- which is going to be unfortunate for the first charge of the guard, really. Instead, she brings up an arm and nonchalantly accesses what can be accessed of the Watchtower's systems.

    Specifically, to start ensuring that the security footage of the hangar is making its way to the Shi'Ar ships. "She brought a fucking kangaroo..." Karen mutters to herself, "And I am going to make damn sure that these assholes get footage of their proud imperial guard getting stomped by a damned kangaroo..."

    That done, and the battle joined, Karen stares down the Imperial Guard and calmly points at Gladiator and Xenith. She then points at herself, and points outside. It's a wordless admission that no fight between them is going to go well- if both parties want the moonbase, and they fight here, /nobody/ gets the prize. It's a bit... Brazen, of course, for Power Girl to take the both of them on, and what she has planned isn't going to be fun for the first little while: But she clearly means it. Both of what ostensibly seems like the Shi'ar's physically strongest champions. Outside. It still leaves the others outnumbered: But if even half of these aren't illusions, taking Gladiator and Xenith out of the equation is one of the better bets.

    Even as she floats backwards towards the aperture onto the surface of the moon, Power Girl is more or less -hoping- she can handle the opening to this conflict- and perhaps, she's hoping her gambit will work. There is at least one viable way to even the odds. They just need to follow along a bit.

Jean Grey has posed:
Using that bit of stored reserve for a burst of speed, Hyperion times the flicker -- a gap of fractions of a second -- and bull rushes into the hall, hitting his guard, a simple Shi'ar trooper dead-on. Except in that moment, Hyperion isn't the extradimensional god-being he's gotten used to. And even a normal Shi'ar is several times stronger than a human.

So the two stumble back and hit the wall, with Hyperion getting his hands on the guard's rifle, but not so easily wrenching it out of his grip. They wrestle one way and another, with the guard jerking the rifle at one point to yank the barrel back toward himself and leverage the butt-end forward in a club-like blow to his attacker's side. What would normally be over in an instant becomes a brutal slug-match, raw and desperate.

--

On the hangar, a brawl unfolds. The engineers do run first!

No doubt a great deal will be analyzed in the aftermath of these battles. And while Praetor Gladiator may earn a spot in tactical archives of the League, in all likelyhood, if any one Guardsman will be credited for their successes... it will be the illusion-casting Guardswoman Magique.

Diana moves with speed and determination, leaping into the fray to do battle. Her first swipe -- against what turns out to be a false image of the visored, bodysuited Impulse -- goes through nothing, and leaving her a touch off balance, before two other figures reveal themselves to be real, leaping at her from either side. One, Fang, is furry and clawed. And attacks with said claws! The other, Hussar, has a whip, crackling with energy, who she may remember fighting Donna in the prior encounter. Fang gets a swipe in, although his claws are probably less dangerous than the other woman's energy weapon... yet as she raises it to deliver a crack, she's hit by the two-footed hopping kick of the mighty Jumpa, sent sliding back across the deck. Fang, however, is apparently HANGING on, harassing and clawing at Diana's back as she mounts her beast.

Karen, meanwhile, calls out the big boys, and leaves. In a way, this proves wiser than a direct assault, as the illusions could prove risky. A trio of figures follow her: they look like Gladiator and his cousin, along with the gravity-powered Neutron. But who's to say, with the illusions? All three converge on her, from different angles of attack.

---

Out in space, Carol and Maxima begin a simultaneous assault. Thie shields could handle the debris barrage under usual circumstances, and in fact, in large part they do. Each impact causes a 'splash' on the unseen field of energy, briefly making it visible, as the rocks and metal chunks disintegrate. But Carol's initial hit had damaged a single generator array, and as they use others to compensate, shifting coverage, inevitably there's a gap. And when the debris missile finds it, it sails through and lands an impact on the hull.

Carol's acrobatic barrage follows something of the same formula, although she faces a different problem. Ignoring both the incoming Guard (fake or otherwise) and the enemy fire to concentrate on the ship, her Seventh Sense starts blaring before she even gets too far. Because exactly the thing she's ignoring proves to be more dangerous than she'd thought.

Lasers are harmless, right? That is, of course, why they've been shooting whatever these strange pulses are. And as she's suddenly sent into a defensive pattern, one does hit and... it's a strange sensation. She aborbs it, but the result is purely the inverse of what it should be, like the energy pouring into her was negating whatever she'd already stored. In an instant, her internal star-like reaction starts to collapse.

Jean Grey has posed:
And... elsewhere, on another plane of existence, outside the physical norm. Maxima finds herself standing across from an unassuming blue-skinned, darker blue-haired alien woman. She smiles. "It's kind, that you've finally decided it was wortwhile to join me." Like Maxima, she summons up a kind of astral armanent around herself, a glowing suit of armor, somewhat similar to the holographic version Shakari used in their first battle, although more sleek, feminine, and obviously made of something stranger than simple hard light. She adopts a martial stance, and then meets Maxima's first CHARGING ASTRAL FIST with a delicate piroutte out of the way into a spinning kick in retaliation.

Diana Prince has posed:
The Illusions prove to be yet still a challenge they must face and when Diana swipes her javelin through one she finds it to be a persistent problem indeed! And then the clawed menace is upon her from behind, causing the Princess to step up on the Kanga saddle and abandon her mount again with a backflip! A high speed flip that is meant to launch the enemy off of her back and hopefully far enough away that she can gather herself again!

In a crouch, Diana jumps back up to see Jumpa landing a kick on a real target. Which gets a follow-up thrown javelin directed right at the person that the Kanga sent flying! And now with a freed-up hand, she reaches for her hip and uncoils her lasso to activate its divine power and swirl it around her form to lash it out at the one she had known to be casting the Illusions previously!

Hyperion has posed:
    It's not like Hyperion absorbs energy in the way that Captain Marvel does. But he does feed on the pure ambient cosmic radiation of the universe. Much of that overlaps a lot of other energy types. At least when they are stored as potential energy.

    Struggling with the weapon in the hands of the guard, Hyperion has an idea flash through his brain. He can -feel- a trickle of power starting to flow into his body. But not enough to really change the outcome of this particular struggle. So he releases the rifle with one hand, and yanks the power-cell off of the thing. This has the added benefit of depriving the weapon of power. The butt-stroke does hit him in the face... and for the first time in his life, his nose breaks. HE is blinded by pain for a few moments before he turns his hand and presses the power leads to the flesh of his neck.... discharging the power pack directly into his flesh.

    That flesh burns. Painfully so.... and the broken nose is already starting to heal via the psionic self-control. Sure, the direct discharge of power is not ambient energy to channel. But something like 10% of the potential of the power cell is enough to get him somewhat powered up. The rest is expended against his flesh in a painful ZAP.

    Hyperion's body is thrown across the corridor where he dents the bulkhead... -some- power restored at least.... and for a long moment, he just remains there, eyes shut as the guard pulls a new power pack out and reloads his weapon...

    And then Hyperion's eyes open. . . glowing a greenish yellow. Then a pulse of power blasts from those eyes and slams into the guard.

Maxima has posed:
In the Watchtower, the Maxima there continues to just stand in her in bubble of psychic force, eyes closed.

Elsewhere in Astral Space however, a whole other battle is taking place as two psychic warrior women duke it out. Maxima is a powerful combatant, but that's not what really makes her dangerous. She has been trained to fight, trained in using her powers to fight since she could walk. It is that training and discipline that have allowed her to keep standing when others would fall in Astral combat and to best even opponents that have arguably exceeded her in raw power.

Maxima smiles when the punch is evaded. "Good." She has the manic smile of an Almeracian enjoying a fight. "I was hoping for a workout." Her armored right and left arms flow up into a block taking the roundhouse and moving with its force even as she uses the momentum to drop into a spinning sweep kick aimed at taking out the other woman's footing.

In space, Maxima watches the shields flicker and openings appear. This is exactly what she was waiting for as rather than more telekinesis, she begins reaching through the gaps in the shields letting her mastery of metal take hold as she begins attempting to tear apart, liquify, and otherwise disassemble parts of the ship. It is the biggest target she has ever attempted this on but damned if she doesn't like a challenge.

Jean Grey has posed:
Fang gives a yelp as he's spin-cycled and thrown, landing and then shaking his head. He snarls, and starts running forward again. Diana has gotten the lasso out and lashes out toward the visible image of Magique... although it is perhaps not a surprise that the mistress of illusions has, in fact, created an illusion of herself as well, rather than standing at the fore of the battlefield. The golden coil passes through it, and the image fades into nothing.

By this point, Hussar (who does seem real!) has gotten to her feet and makes a charge, though the javelin thrown in her direction forces her in to a defensive slide not to get run through by it. And then by the time she's up again, she's facing down the kanga. She may be a wonky alien, but... "Er." Still, she brandishes her energy whip, cracking it in the beast's direction.

---

Inside the ship, the gambit pays off, and as the Shi'ar trooper prepares to fire, he's met with an unpleasant surprise as the eyeblast hits him. Stronger than a human or not, he flies back into a wall with a thud.

For the moment, Hyperion is alone, though the ship shudders with the attacks from outside, one suddenly much stronger than the others. As he no doubt makes his way from the detention area, he'll see Shi'ar crew members scrambling up and down the halls as warning lights flash along the corridoors. Somewhere, a schematic shows an entire one of the ship's 'wing'-like protrusions flashing red.

Odds are that's near where Maxima is outside?

---

In the Astral plane, the two women continue their fight. The sweep takes Oracle off her feet .... except that she continues to hover. In fact, the ground shatters entirely beneath them, as if standing was irrelevant. It is, after all, a place where the rules of physics aren't particularly relevant, only their own force of will. Flying like Maxima does normally, the woman charges at her, and then splits into three, as if mimicking or mocking her own techniques, attacking from multiple angles.

Carol Danvers has posed:
Seventh sense is useful, the pulsing laser from the damaged ship gets her attention right as one of the beams hits her and has a very negative effect.

She isn't sure what they did, and while she doubts they were able to rig all of their ship's with whatever this technology is, it is definitely not good for the currfent situation.

On the comms <<Maxima, I need you to take out that pulsing laser battery on the damaged ship please>> and she blips using energy to warp around the ship she was attacking very quickly. Focusing on speed and dodging any additional pulsed volleys from the damaged ship.

She seems intent on hitting any nonpulsing fire with her body and putting the ship between her and the present weapon that proved more dangerous before it bleeds off all her power.

Looks like she will need to fight the guard and keep herself out of those pulse lasers at the same time. At least unless Maxima can deal with it.

Not ideal at all and a damper on best laid plans. Which never do seem to survive contact with the enemy.

Diana Prince has posed:
The Lasso of Hestia passes through the believed-to-be Illusionist! Diana snarls briefly in frustration before she looks back to the enemies still standing. She sees Jumpa being engaged by the woman with the swhip and then does a sudden backflip that ends with her standing on top of nothing....

The invisible Jet....

"Jumpa!" Diana shouts! She follows it up with another shout that is in Themysciran and instead of engaging the whip-master, the Kanga compacts is muscular legs and then leaps up to join the Princess on the see-through platform of the jet's hull.

Its then that Diana scans the enemies on the ground and she waits for them all to be just... right... where she wants them.

Her wrists come up and slam together, the Bracers of Submission suddenly glowing a brilliant golden orange, while a kinetic blast of energy blasts out from the Princess' position. She watches the results send many things in the hangar tumbling away, from inanimate objects to the actual villains before them...

This will, of course, not harm the illusions.

Now Diana knows precisely which ones are and are not Illusions, and with her lasso in hand she'll lunge off of the Jet with Jumpa following her, her first target being the most likely to be the caster. Or so she hopes!

Hyperion has posed:
    Okay. A momentary reprieve. Hyperion reaches his hands up to his face and grits his teeth as he re-sets his broken nose. Three seconds lost to blinding pain before it begins to heal.. and he stands up.

    Walking over to the guard's form, he crouches and picks up all of the power packs the guy has left. Two or three left. He stands up and looks left, then right. Then he looks up to the display and does his best to figure out the YOU ARE HERE mark. That way he might be able to reach the weakened part of the ship. He looks down at the power packs and then sighs before trying to recharge from all of them at once... painfully. More burns. Another stunned moment as he lies flat on the deck for a long moment.

    Then he stands up and searches for an airlock.... stumbling into it and shutting the hatch behind him before simply kicking the exterior door open while exhaling. It felt weird to need air for the moment. He's not fully recharged, but he is hoping that the energy of space will charge him up faster than he'll die from exposure.

    It's a gamble for sure. . .

Karen Starr has posed:
    Karen has a plan. This plan requires at least one dance partner, but frankly, she had not anticipated three. Still, this... This /shouldn't/ be too much of a problem, right? Besides, as Maxima said... Maybe not all of them are real.

    She's floating backwards at a leisurely pace, allowing the three to set up and take positions. It's not the smartest thing to do, but it exhudes confidence: As if Karen somehow knows that all three of them aren't a match. This of course is assisted by the fact that none of the three are especially psychic: Because that confidence isn't too much more than skin deep. Really, it never is.

    Regardless, it's time to assess the threat in earnest, and as they start to converge on her in space, she makes a swift twist, starting at the side and letting her eyes run red with the burning heat of a star. The others inside can hear that she's letting loose- as the heat vision rakes from one side of her to the other, running roughshod across the three that had followed her into space.

    They don't disperse, but their reactions aren't quite right: They don't seem to handle being struck by the beams properly, and that reveals the illusions to her.

    Regardless of that, it doesn't change anything- Power Girl positions herself to take an onslaught, and is ready to play a game of billiards- with herself as the cue ball, and the target position a bit in the sky of the moon- far enough from its surface not to be a danger, and more importantly... Directly in the light of the life-giving Sol itself.

Jean Grey has posed:
Both Diana and Jumpa engage in the undervalued power of HOPPING, leaping up onto the ship, and from there, Wonder Woman blasts the whole area below with force. It passes through a number of illusionary figures as they prepare to join their comrades in a false attack, drives back Fang and Hussar...

And causes a quiet grunt of pain from a seemingly empty section of the deck.

---

In space, Carol quickly uses one of the ships as cover from the other, and proves the fact that it's definitely not something all of their weapons can do as the nearer ship declines to fire at all. It does start shooting at Maxima quite a bit, considering she's tearing holes in one of its wings..

Their backup has finally arrived.

A dozen assorted members of the Guard fly straight at Maxima and then start to break into a wider formation, some no doubt to flush out Carol. Yet as the huge wing of them approaches...

There's suddenly a little flicker across the majority of their images. Of the full dozen, there's only three that don't flicker like that, even if the error corrects itself quickly. Still, it's three 'good' ones: Maxima will remember Neutron and Smasher, and a third less familiar female in a dark cloak. Three on two...

Until curiously, looking very small against the massive ship, a single figure tumbles out an airlock along that now-damaged vertical wing structure.

Either way, the whole formation continues to approach, breaking into halves to go for Carol and Maxima separately. Neutron and a bunch of fakes toward Carol, and the other two (and illusionary company at Maxima).

---

Finally, there's the lunar brawl. The 'three' heavies closing on Karen clearly plan to take advantage of the element of surprise offered by their illusionary existence. Gladiator is in the middle... but he's not real. And Xenith isn't even Xenith. Hidden as arguably the weakest member of the trio, no doubt she plans to take advantage of the whole situation with a bit of a sucker punch when the three converge.

Except the jig is up.

Even though Karen allows herself to be hit with her intention of drawing the fight further away, her planning means she takes it 'well,' a blow she can catch or take in the shoulder rather than straight across her nose again. Her turn?

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana's super enhanced hearing allows her to pick up on that curious sound heard from behind cover. She lands on the deck again and points at the clawed attacker. "Jumpa!" Diana says the Kanga's name who instantly looks toward the enemy. The Princess adds another shouted Themysciran word. 'Attack!' and the Battleroo hollars wildly again, and with his golden and leather armor he rushes toward the clawed combatant!

Meanwhile, the Princess lunges at her high speed toward the woman with the whip and attempts to wrap her own lasso around the woman's form, moving at blurring and blazing force, the Princess of the Amazons attempts to throw the Whipmaster toward that section of the hangar that the strange 'noise' came from, before she, herself leaps in that direction to face 'both' targets that may yet be there. Her free hand going up behind her back now to draw out her gleaming sword....

Hyperion has posed:
    The silence of space is all encompassing. It is amazing how one can stare blankly into space while waiting to see if death comes before salvation. Hyperion's vision starts to go gray as his lungs burn. He's never felt this before....

    But then he spots Carol and Maxima flitting about, and his vision adjusts to see energy wavelengths far more clearly. Just as his lungs cease to be needed really. Power went to sustenance first... and then it begins flowing into his limbs.... the clearly ample cosmic energy of this universe... so much more plentiful than his home universe.

    His eyes flicker towards the weapons that she seems to be evading. Energy weapons that Captain Marvel is trying -not- to be hit by. He inclines his head and then Atomic-Powered Eye beams lance from him towards the weapon mount.... full power setting.

Maxima has posed:
Of course it was never about physics in the psychic plane, as the pair continue to battle away in the space of minds. Maxima watches the ground fall away and smirks. "Oh you want a change of scenery?" While her opponent Oracle is summoning a pair of doubles and charges right for her, Maxima reaches out her mind to the environment itself, fighting to take control as the space suddenly begins to look like the depths of the deathly jungles of the Almeracian throneworld. "Watch your step!" She takes a step back from the oncoming trio as thick creeping jungle vines rise up to hinder their approach.

In space, Maxima is rather busy at the moment as she channels every ounce of psychic strength into doing terrible horrible things to the super structure of the cruiser in front of her. It might not be as taxing if she weren't fighting a war on two fronts, but she is. When the ship begins turning all of its batteries on her and the new members of the Guard begin closing even the Almeracian Warrior Princess knows she will soon be overwhelmed and with one final herculean surge of power attemtps to tear that wing free of the ship before breaking off to take evasive action through the laser light show and confront the three new arrivals.

"You're very brave!" She shouts at Neutron. "How long did the psychic surgery take to put you back together?" Her eyes then fall on Smasher, the one that got away. "Time for Round 2."

It might seem like Maxima missed Carol's request at first as she continues trying to damage the ship until the last possible moment before taking evasive action. It might seem that way until a still damaged but functional Almeracian warship, the Raacal, decloaks on an attack vector with the damaged vessel and unleashes a full broadside of all its weaponry. The Shi'ar aren't the only ones with reinforcements it seems.

Karen Starr has posed:
    There is an ace up the blonde's sleeve- and the revelation that there is only Xenith present allows for everything to go smoother than Power Girl anticipated. Much of this is a sort of extended feint- as Power Girl seems to be 'too slow' to stop Xenith's incoming blow, but instead takes it at an odd angle, sending her further into the sky. In truth, Xenith hit her off-center, a shot she takes in the shoulder that sends her hurtling not /too/ far, but perhaps a little farther than she /should./

    It /seems/ then like she's being overwhelmed, like the hit was more than she could handle, more than Xenith expected her to be able to handle, even. To this end, Power Girl keeps her distance- firing off more heat vision in short, controlled bursts, all while edging further backwards. On the one hand, it seems like a smart play- but that smart play is meant to hide the longer game of getting them further off of the moon, a game of geometry afoot that is difficult to notice.

    Everyone forgets amidst the Windows and bravado and the fact that her solution is usually to just punch things that Kara Zor-L isn't some simpleton: She was going to be a member of the Kryptonian Science League, one of the brightest minds of her generation and similarly set to be one of the most clever in Krypton's history.

    Xenith has the military training that Karen lacks- but all of that training is now being put to work in playing a game of actual, literal, 4D Chess that Xenith doesn't even know- Karen hopes- that she's even playing.

    One or two more hits is all that it takes, and while Karen isn't hamming it up, she's taking them in specific ways...

Carol Danvers has posed:
Honestly until Carol gets the all clear on the comms she is going to be using the other ship as her shield. Which isn't to say that she doesn't take some pot shots, pounding that ship's shield while she waits for the guard to figure out their course of action.

The mass breaking off towards her get a squint, and the flicker is not missed in all but one of them either. "Clever girl." she mutters working in an obligatory pop culture reference.

Still the one that didn't flicker is a problem.

Unless she is mistaken it is Nuetron. Which means firing photon blasts into him will only make him stronger, since he is much like her in that regard. "Fracking Guard..." still he isn't fast if memory and intel serves.

She slams fast forward and to the right twisting not around but right through one of the guardsman she is fairly sure isn't there. Trying to position herself behind Nuetron in a blink. Which is when she kicks out hard to try to slam him into the ship and let him deal with the forceshield ... he is sort of his own gravity well after all.

Jean Grey has posed:
Fang ends up fighting a giant kangaroo... somewhat evenly. Last time he got teleported into space. Truly, will he ever have his day in the sun?

The other battle is a touch more interesting. Like with Donna, it's rope vs. rope, lasso vs. whip. Both try to entangle each other, and with this, there's some feinting, some probing for a good shot to tag the other without being exposed. Diana does prove faster, however, and Hussar has to bring her free arm up so that the lasso catches it, rather than something more essential. She lashes out at the same time with her own whip, snagging it around Diana's arm. Its energy effect, yet unseen, proves somewhat similar to a younger Amazon's -- or to her evil twin's -- painful and destructive. Except, rather than getting around Diana's arm, it catches her around the bracer, and even if some of the enregy cascades off, that later of insulation makes the difference.

Well, that and Diana being easily tens if not hundreds of times stronger. So while they both 'have' each other, when Diana sweeps her toward that noise, she has no choice but to go. She flies across the room and collides with... air.

Air that shimers and becomes visible as Magique is knocked to the ground, the two landing in a pile. Elsewhere, all the duplicates vanish entirely, ending even whatever visual distraction they might offer.

---

In space, Hyperion is finally free of not only his cell, but the ship's hull, with its layers of insulation against all the various harmful radiation that space is full of. And with the shield above that wing still out of commission, he's exposed to the glory of the cosmos in full. It might take him time to really feel himself again, but one good eye blast? He can do that.

And the previously-damaged Shi'ar cruiser, the one under repair, is... well, previously damaged. While they've managed to bring enough power online to get that modified weapon firing, they don't have a lot spare for anything else. No shields. The gun emplacement is gone in an instant.

And not far away, the whole section of the ship that he just left breaks loose. This, indeed, probably takes close to all of Maxima's ability, even that small portion of the ship larger than whole buildings on Earth. Pulled free, it trails debris (and Shi'ar) into space. At least most of the troopers can tap their helmets to seal themselves off.

Most.

The Raacal is 'late' only in the sense that Hyperion makes that unexpected appearance, but it devastates the previously wounded vessel all the same, tearing through its unshielded bulk with devastating effect. The other ship is still semi-functional, even with one wing ripped off, but continues firing, first at Maxima, and then increasingly into her ship as it fills the space between them, offering her a measure of cover.

Carol duels Neutron, swinging around him and hitting him hard, which does send him flying toward the ship. It... also sends Carol flying toward the ship /after/ him as once she's close, his personal gravity basically holds them inseparably together. Up close, he punches her, even as the two careen toward the damaged cruiser.

---

Maxima is fighting a battle on many fronts. In the psychic realm, she trades a few blows for a change of venue, which seems to take her opponent off guard. The vines are not merely plants, but psychically alive, as much a part of the combat and of Maxima's psyche as anything else, quickly swallowing up the doubles and dragging them into the darkness of the unseen jungle, leaving only the original. She slogs forward, gripped by foliage but still moving, a hand raised-

-as outside, Smasher does the same with his own fist-

-as Oracle's hand stops inches from Maxima's face, her body totally paralyzed in the vines.

Similarly, the 'real' Maxima reacts to the super-strong (but not super-fast) blow with ease...

And then vanishes into utter darkness. Two foes, on two planes, she managed. The third, it seems, was one too many.

Jean Grey has posed:
And all the while, Karen leads Xenith on her chase. The woman, for whatever military training, lacks the discipline of her cousin. Kallark, the Praetor, Gladiator, whatever you would call him, is a match for any foe in his Galaxy or this one, as a stand-off above Earth proves, trading blows with Superman while the Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and others batter the T'Korr.

But Xenith is all spite and rage. She gives Karen every blow she allows, throwing punch after punch, laughing, and then becoming visibly annoyed. "Is this all you have? I remember better! Still sore from last time, maybe?!"

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana had used Hussar's own whip around her bracer covered arm to further leverage the other in the throw that sent her through themagical cloaked Magique. Once the magical user is revealed though, Diana stalks toward her and lunges at her, using her lasso to try and 'hog tie' the wizard up, finishing by even putting part of the magical lasso of Hestia inside the woman's mouth to keep her from talking, or casting, verbal incantations. Just in case.

If accomplished the Princess will then stalk to the woman she'd thrown at tremendous speeds and used as a toiol to expose the sorceress. She lowers her sword down to Hussar's nose. "Surrender to me." She says down to the whip-master with a stern look going down the reflective surface of her Athena-blessed sword.

Hyperion has posed:
    And sure, that eye beam depletes a bit of the absorbed energy for Hyperion. But not enough that he needs air once more. He propels himself forward and then pulls away from the ship to get directly in the path of some of the stellar wind. There he merely basks for a moment. Unless directly engaged, he will take a little time to power up so that he can be effective in aiding his teammates.

    Sure, his eyes track the battle... peering at the energies being exchanged. Tracking the distinctive paths left by those such as Power Girl, or more visibly... Captain Marvel. I mean come on, it's like she is a comet streaking through space to his energy senses. Beautiful and dangerous at the same time.

    Then he turns his head and looks for someplace that he can make a difference. Mind whirring as he tries to figure out where he can do the most good with a decent level of charged up cells.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Each hit is like thunder, but quick twists of her body prevent the /brunt/ of the damage. Still, bruises are running up under her skin, as Xenith is powerful enough to cause her no small amount of pain. Of course, it hasn't dawned yet that Power Girl is allowing these hits to happen, each one repositioning the fight further and further out.

    The atmosphere of the moon disappears around them as Xenith utters that challenge, and the two spiral off into the true nothingness of space, where the vacuum removes the threat of collateral damage.

    Once that threat is removed, the gloves are off, metaphorically. Reeling from the last blow- genuinely- Power Girl hurtles into space just enough that the rays of the sun illuminate her form fully, bathing her in the golden light of it, for a few moments. She takes a half-baked defensive posture, still scooting back in the air, still looking as if she's on the ropes- but this is something of a trick.

    One of the only reasons that Kara Zor-L, and Kara Zor-El for that matter, can even keep pace with Kal is revealed here, though it's not obvious. She metabolizes yellow sunlight faster than her cousin. She always has: It's why those years' worth of distance between Kal's landing and her own created only so much of a gulf between them: And one of the primary reasons that Power Girl is every bit as strong as any version of her cousin.

    Every bit as tough, too.

    The next time Xenith collides with her, the story of their combat is altogether different. Gone is the reeling, the hurtling through space: She's right where she wants to be.

    She's not done letting Xenith hit her, of course- but this time, it impacts her body and to /Xenith/ it's similar to what happens when a human punches a steel wall.

    Karen doesn't move.

    Instead, she draws back, and sends a haymaker at Xenith with ever so little holding it back- a strike with such force that had she been so reckless to throw it while still on the moon at all, let alone within the base itself, would have cracked its surface from the /shockwave,/ let alone what might have happened had she hit the moon itself.

    If she connects, the hit will be so titanic that both ships will register it and perhaps even send off an alarm... What's worse, is that she seems to be /warming up./

Carol Danvers has posed:
Gravity.

Fairly inevitable depending on the strength of the gravitational pull.

Of course all sorts of things overcome gravity with enough opposite reaction and all that.

Things like Carol's fist as she and Neutron slam into the damaged Shi'ar cruiser.

She can't use photon blasts on him but fists and kicks are still effective enough to keep them slamming into each other and into the cruiser.

The failing shields and cascading explosions start to provide replenishment for her own batteries (and well probably his too).

The real loser in this brawl that the Ship, Carol, and Neutron can't escape is the the ship... that poor poor Shi'ar cruiser.

Maxima has posed:
And then there is darkness. Not just darkness but Darkness. Even as Maxima tries to generate some light which should be a simple feat for her, there is only the void the nigh tangible void pressing in on her from all sides.

'Am I dead?' That is her first thought, perhaps this is death, if it is it wasn't a bad death. She fought on the battlefield until the bitter end inflicting tremendous damage upon the enemy. A fitting death for a Warrior of Almerac. But something tells her she is not dead.

Perhaps it is the fact that her telekinetic senses can feel strange contours around her, while she has no sight in the traditional sense within this lightless realm, her telekinetic sense of touch provides her with a different sort of vision similar to echo location.

She's tired though, crippling that ship while fighting a psychic duel and then a physical one has tapped much of her psychic reserves. It's questionable how much longer she could have continued even if she hadn't been cast into wherever this is.

With a diffuse tactile psychic sense as her guide, Maxima begins trying to make her way through this strange space, yet while some of the shapes seem similar to those common across humanoid planets others seem to exist in defiance of accepted geometry, nightmarish designs beyond all reason. Maxima is used to the horrors of the battlefield, she is accustomed to the changing scenery of psychic battles, but this world within absolute darkness is something else.

'Well, if I'm not dead how do I escape whatever this is?'

Jean Grey has posed:
Diana soon has the hangar secure; with Magique thoroughly bound and Hussar held at sword-point, even Fang decides it is better not to continue his ongoing brawl with the large Kangaroo. And by now, on their own communicators, the Shi'ar have to know what is happening elsewhere, with their fleet, hear the reports of the ships burning in space.

Well, all but one.

The battle there is its own story, although its conclusion seems two-fold: that Superman and his allies have managed to drive back the T'Korr, forcing it out of perilous proximity to Earth... and that the ship, unlike its counterparts, is still in one piece. Scans from anyone in the position to take them mark its shields under 50, but this seems a vast improvement over the pair of ships burning over the moon. Is it still a threat? No doubt, the rest of the league is in pursuit.

---

The battle above the moon continues to break down into chaos, one ship utterly in ruin, now truly beginning to fall apart as secondary explosions mark the failure of various internal systems, the rupturing of power conduits tied to once horrific weapons. Perhaps some of the debris might 'fall' back to the moon, captured by its gravity, or simply string out along an intermediary path.

On the second ship, its condition may have seemed better, but having two heavyweights brawl upon its surface is not really improving things. Neutron can take hits, and does, but Carol is faster, delivering more of them. And for each, the ship beneath them suffers. At some point, lifting his hand as if to deliver another blow, the gray-skinned alien seems to realize it, realize that the scenario from the first battle in the Watchtower has now reversed itself. And so, instead of raising that one fist, he raises both hands, and holds them open.

It may not be the climatic ending some would seek, with every foe broken and bloodied, but one by one, this is how it ends: with the surrender of Hussar to Diana, Neutron to Carol, and Smasher, who looks around in space after Maxima is 'vanished' and realizes he has no one immediately to fight, and yet, beneath him, his friends and comrades are dying.

Hyperion may finally spot them, and close in in hopes of freeing Maxima from wherever she has been taken, but the pair of guardsmen do not look too eager for another round. "I can... bring her back," she protests, holding up her hands in a similar gesture as to her comrade earlier. Moments later, an invisible door, black-against-black, opens in space, to disgorge Maxima back into this reality. How she's fared the trip is another matter.

Neither fights on after that, another surrender, among many, which is how things end.

---

Well, MOSTLY it ends in surrenders.

Karen has a score to settle with Xenith, and she intends to make good on the grudge between them, luring her foe out closer and closer toward the sun, marshalling her own reserves while her counterpart fights without restraint. Blow after blow after blow after blow...

Until that last one that hits but barely seems to register. With all the superspeed and superthought, it would be wrong to say she doesn't know what hits her: she has plenty of time to ponder it, to think back upon the sequence of events that led her to the moment. It just doesn't do a whole lot of good, that thinking.

The blow lands, and while the Strontian takes it in the fashion of another titanic being, it's clear she feels this one. There's a satisfying 'crack' to echo one in their first fight as something breaks, her head snaps to one side, and the woman is sent flying, sailing through the empty void of space. She doesn't get to surrender, and will have to be picked up later.

Jean Grey has posed:
When the T'Korr arrives, it is not Ambassador Shakari that appears on the transmission. It is some captain none of them know, a soldier simple soldier. "This is Captain K'rk, I am transmitting to declare our surrender, and ask all Guard forces to-"

There's a sound off camera, and maybe a flash of light.

"-we will immediately withdraw from your-"

And then another flash. This time, it hits the man on-screen, who slumps sideways. A few moments later and Shakari finally appears.

Except, from his flickering, quasi-real presence, this time it is obvious that he is holographic, projecting from somewhere the signal has become degraded. "You haven't won," he sneers. "We already have her. And by now, all this?" He gestures around. "All of this is too late. When the Majestor returns with the power he has claimed, all of this?" And a holographic hand gestures. "It will be for nothing. You will all perish, you will all burn. And the Kree. And all the rest!"

The hologram flickers out shortly after, and several figures move into sight on the bridge -- eventually including Gladiator himself. The T'Korr does not continue the fight in that moment, but the message remains.