9413/Path of Glory: Titans vs Angels

Path of Glory: Titans vs Angels
Date of Scene:	02 January 2022
Location:	Space, Beyond Lunar Orbit
Synopsis:	A select number of Titans take the T-Jet to investigate the mysterious object dubbed JF09 and find more than they bargained for in their discoveries.
Cast of Characters:	Chas Chandler, Ben Reilly, Terry O'Neil, Donna Troy, Nadia Pym-van Dyne, Michael Demiurgos
Tinyplot:	Path of Glory

---

Chas Chandler has posed:
    The vastness of space is as close to infinite as most people get. But most people do not have a sub-hyperlight jet in their inventory of tricks. The Titans do. As it stands they are flying past the moon's orbit toward the celestial object named JF09, which with the ever growing number of outspoken people in New York the media has dubbed God's Star.

    he long range visual sensors of the T-Jet register the object just as the dossier dropped by Dr. Foster indicated: a large carbonaceous object that glows and shimemrs as it reflects the light of the sun in dazzling ways. It's travelling at a steady pace fifteen times the speed of sound; a breakneck pace when compared to the average rate for objects of its supposed ilk.

    The contrail of it spreads out behind it in a dazzling shower of white and gold light only adding to the luminous nature of the body. All in all, it's rather pretty if it wasn't so dangerous in size.

Ben Reilly has posed:
The Scarlet Spider, equipped in a dinky and homemade costume that has an expensive-looking Titans space suit over the top of it. He still wears his full-face red mask behind the glass faceplate of the helmet, occasionally shifting his head left and right as the ship moves through the cosmic reaches of space!

"Guys," he calls out, his voice synthesized by the microphone built into the helmet, "Guys, I'm sorry, but I forgot to scratch my nose before we left and it's driving me insane."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"You get used to it," Vorpal answers. He, too, is wearing a space suit over his usual hero gear, but he has made it look like Buzz Lightyear's armor through his powers of illusion.

Because if you're going to wear a spacesuit, it had better be Buzz Lightyear's, goddamnit.

"I spent the last space trek wanting to scratch my butt but too self-conscious to actually do it. But then I got swallowed into a black hole and totally forgot about it... so look on the bright side! You never know what will happen to distract you."

Reassuring.

Donna Troy has posed:
    It's a small mission. Just four members of the team are along for this ride, and the warnings from Donna when the mission started were serious. "We don't know what we're getting into here," she says. "This is just an investigation at this point. If it turns out to be just an asteroid, we're collecting precise data on its shape, density and so on. Enough to calculate what kind of impact will take sending it somewhere else, without risking bringing it down somewhere else. However, there is good reason to suspect that this is not just an asteroid. It may be some kind of space ship, and it may have some very, very powerful and dangerous individuals in it. Or it may have some very, very powerful and helpful individuals in it. We do not know. But we are going to keep our distance until we're sure, and we're not going to antagonize anyone."

    Launch had been pretty straightforward -- the T-Jet-slash-T-Ship take-offs are a pretty conventional thing by now, but after reaching a certain altitude, the voyaging Titans found themselves pushed back into their seats for the orbital burn, and once that burn was completed, Nadia and Donna soon had the ship moving on the correct vector, and engaged the pym drives to rapidly accelerate the ship to a significant fraction of the speed of light for the majority of the journey.

    And there the ship sits moving silently through warped space-time, with Donna in the pilot's seat, with Nadia in the co-pilot seat handling sensors and technical read-outs. Ben has been tasked with comms, scanning the asteroid for any outgoing signals, and watching a dozen external monitor screens. He's only had a couple of hours of training on it, but it's simple enough. Terry's main job is to rabbit hole them all back to Earth if there's a need to abandon ship, but he's also on the weapons console... with strict instructions not to use it unless absolutely necessary.

    "It's fine Spider," Donna says. "Take off your helmet and scratch your nose. The ship's pressurized, we're just keeping suits on in case of a hull breach." Which is something of a lie, as Donna is not in a suit... she just has a breather mask on.

    "Nadia, how's our course looking? I don't want to arrive too close. Ben, do you feel confident you could remote-operate a drone to get a closer look when we come out of warp?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
The Waspette is not wearing a spacesuit at, just the Waspette armor with its full environmental systems engaged. She's wound up in space enough times that this seemed like a good and necessary upgrade to make.

Seated in the co-pilot's chair, Nadia is keeping an eye on their course and sensors, while she also seems to have set up an extra feed through her Stark tablet giving her readouts on the Engineering and how the Pym Drives are fairing so they don't inadvertently disintegrate the ship.

"Course is on track for a parallel flyby keeping out distance, though we can easily swing around and hold a position in tandem with their own course once we get there."

Chas Chandler has posed:
    The elctromagnetic sensors don't indicate anything to mark the object as anything but what it appears but there is a strange anamolous radio frequency coming from the object. It's subaudible but steady and rhythmic.

    As the jet approaches its parrallel vector with JF09, it's even more apparent that were this thing to strike the Earth the devestation would be beyond catastrophic. It's not planet killer in size, but just shy of it all things considered and either land impact or sea impact would easily move the eastern seaboard of the North America to be much further inland that it currently is.

    The surface denisty is also quite strange. There are facets on this massive object much like one would expect on a cut gem and there are light readings from the *facets*. Not reflections, but as if the object itself is emitting a light of its own. Nothing in its chemical makeup would suggest that is possible but the sensors are not in error.

Ben Reilly has posed:
"Uh, no black holes, thanks. Donna - Hey, Donna? Yeah, I can't go into a black hole. I've got a shift on Friday. Also the washing instructions on my tights expressly say I can't subject them to the infinite crush of gravity."

Ben turns back to the communications array. Sure, he'd only received training that ammounted to 'this does that, that does this, don't get crumbs in it' but they forgot he was a genius. He can work it out, and he does. He locks in on JF09, scanning for any outgoing signals.

After a moment, he undoes the faceplate of his suit and scratches his nose through his mask.

"Ahhhh ... "

It's then that he notices the signal.

"Oh, hey, Nadia? The green thing is wibbling and the red thing is flashing. Sending it through to you."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vorpal is on this ship for one reason, and one reason only: Emergency Escape Route. This is why he is not handling any of the arrays. The weapons console is totally not being used unless he is told to use it-- and he has trained to use it quite well. He's clocked over fifteen hours on X-Wing Simulator (twenty percent at gog.com during the holidays!)

"Pfff. We didn't change our clothes for three months while we were in that black hole!" This is decidedly not true, "By the end of it we were conquering worlds merely through the threat of our BO alone."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna lets the T-Jet drift a while, just staring out through the main screen at the object ahead of them. "Okay. So it looks solid. And it has an albedo greater than one in places, so it's emitting light. It reminds me a little of a Kryptonian sunstone ship. I mean... they look more like spaceships. But they're made of crystals. Crystals can do a lot, apparently. Also, we can't really be certain what the material is without taking a sample. Which is not something I'm prepared to try doing at this point. And if we don't know what the material is, we can't be certain of much. If it's ultra-dense, it might still be hollow."

    Donna chews her lower lip for a moment, then runs her fingers along the controls. "Okay, stay strapped in everyone. I'm going to do a little maneuvering. We're going to keep our distance, but we need to see this from every side to build up an accurate three-dimensional model and know what shape it actually is."

    After a few moments the engines fire up on a gentle burn, as the T-Ship starts a wide, lazy arc around the intruder, scanning it from every angle. "Nadia, while we're doing this... see if you can find any recognizable data encoding in that signal. Also, can you determine if it's significantly directional, and if so where exactly it's pointing? And prepare a short sample of the signal for rebroadcast back at it, but hold off the rebroadcast for now."

    Her fingers dance across the controls again as she maintains the new orbital course. "Ben, when we've finished this sweep, I want to send a drone in for a close approach. Not too close, but within a few kilometers. Not until we've got the full shape mapped though."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Once the signal arrives from Ben, Nadia begins doing as Donna suggested. "Why don't we ever get /normal/ signals?" She asks aloud as she peers at the odd set of radio waves on her screen, while attempting to decode whatever meaning they might carry. "Never, hi we're new around here would you like some cake?" She begins running the signal through pattern analysis and known ciphers. "Maybe I can Enhance it into the audible range..."

Then another thing starts blinking at her in her peripheral vision, "Oh this is neat! It's emitting light with no apparent means to do so! At least it's a pretty glowy strange meteor."

Chas Chandler has posed:
    As the jet makes its approach more light becomes apparent from the various facets of the surface. It's an oblong spheroid, longer than it is wide with a strange substance on the leading edge that is hyper relfective, aiding in its visual magnitude in the sky.

    The signal is repetitive and seems to be a long string of what -might- be words. It has all the hallmarks of a language but none of it is recognizable by the data of the jet's records. It is projecting the signal in all directions around it, almost as if the signal is a announcement of some sort.

    There is suddenly a shift as the lights being emitted from the object shift in color. Where they were gold and white before, more become apparent as violets and reds appear in the mix but their pulse is no less frantic than the dancing array of before. It could be a strange reaction to the jet's presence or something else. It's too soon to tell.

Ben Reilly has posed:
"Hey, don't feel too bad, Nadia," Ben offers from his seat, activating the drone per Donna's instructions and setting out a flight pattern for it, "At least you get signals. They fly over my head most of the time."

While the drone downloads the filght pattern, Ben slips his phone from his pocket and taps in a message with his thumb. He takes a few photos - one of the comet through the window, one of Terry not paying attention, another of Terry pulling a goofy face for the camera, and then he goes back to his actual job on the console.

"That's a pretty rock," he muses quietly to himself, snapping a photo of it because yes.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
After posing for the camera and opening a small Rabbit Hole for Ben to get a signal, Terry goes back to monitoring. He frowns at the display, making little sounds at the back of his throat.

"It's starting to look like a mood ring. You know, the kind that you slip on and then it adds colors, supposedly telling you what mood you're in- even though it always ends up as the same color?"

He glances at the stone. "According to the chart, right now that stone is feeling horny."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "You know," Donna says slowly. "I wouldn't be totally surprised if Terry was right. Not about the horny thing, but it may be psychically active. Try to think nice thoughts, everyone. Positive thoughts. We come in peace and all that."

    Her fingers fly across the controls and she brings the T-Ship to a greater distance from the Intruder and brings it to a halt in space. She pulls up a 3-D rendering of the shape of the intruder on the main screen, letting it rotate there. "I don't think it's natural," is all she's really willing to commit herself to at the moment.

    "Okay. Ben, release the probe. Bring it in to half the distance from the object we were at, no closer for now. And try to make it look unthreatening. Never have it flying directly towards the object, okay? Bring it closer on a curve. Nadia, see if you can isolate the message, eliminate the repeats so we've got a start and end point at least, and hopefully that's a complete message. Then try what you suggested, give us some audio. Shift frequencies to something approximating human speech. And..." she turns in her seat to look at the other three Titans in their posts around the cockpit of the ship. "At this point I think we need to broadcast a message to it. In English, 'cos that's what we've got. Something very simple like 'Are you willing to talk'. What do you guys think?

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia's fingers dance across one set of controls, even as she has run a cable from her suit into the console allowing it to translate voice commands for another set. It is the equivalent of saying 'Enhance' a whole bunch of times like they do on TV. But repeats in the signal are isolated out and a non-repeating segment isolated as she attempts to adjust the frequency to something audible and continue putting it through known ciphers and dictionaries.

"Terry, open me a Rabbit Hole above GIRL HQ." She calls over to her fellow Titan when she ship's databanks come up empty. It's time to start checking some others including a few she doesn't officially have access to. "It's probably a safe bet it's alien, let's see what Val's family knows about this."

Chas Chandler has posed:
    As the jet moves a bit away the lights return to normal tones of gold and white pulses. The visual diagram of the object does make it look more like a cut stone with a mirror coating on its leading face. Unnatural indeed.

    Nadia's work on the signal goes through enough filters and hits on something from the database of the Fantastic Four. But the results are not as expected. The sound that replays from the speakers comes out as a low roar of many voices in a language that reverberates in every cell of the body. At the same time, there are *visual* anomalies that appear int he air of the cabin. Strange geometic symbols and figures of spirals in shimmering gold accompany the roar. It seems that any semblance of English translation isn't entirely feasible. But one thing resonants from the sound of it. It's exultant: joyful beyond measure.

    The drone moves in and starts doing a closer analysis. Apparently it's notice is above whatever source is giving the light show as it does not illicit a change in the colors. More data is collected giving a reading of some metalic elements that are unknown in atmoic structure and a heat signature from within the object as well. It's not only producing light, it's producing heat.

    As the camera of the drone pans over the object something comes into view, a figure in one of the facets. It appears human in shape, gender is impossible to determine stradling the line between masculine and feminine. It's hair appears to be blue-black in color and it's eyes a vivid green. It wears armor of a silver substance and seems to be flying using a pair of white feathery wings fixed to its back (not unlike one of the Titans). The figure carries a spear and doesn't seem to notice it's being watched as it's gaze is directed forward, ever focused on it's existing path. Around it fly several objects that appear to be a trio of concentric rings dotted with what look like eyes of a similar color as the humanoid figure's with a single green eye in the center of the rings.

Ben Reilly has posed:
"Well, look at that," Ben murmurs to himself as the feed from the drone shows the angel (he presumes) poised in place, "So, is that someone to talk to? I can't imagine we'd be doing this if reasoning with these guys was an option, right?"

He leans in closer, peering at the figure on the screen before adding almost as an aside to himself: "That said, I don't have much experience fighting angels in space."

Beat.

" ... I am so cool ... "

Terry O'Neil has posed:
The Cheshire cat opens his eyes at the lightshow. "Okay, who decided to have a Dazzler concert in the middle of an asteroid?" because of course.

But then, there's something that happens to the Cheshire Cat as that light show unfolds, and that presence appears.

He chuckles.

"... positive thoughts... you say. Positive thoughts. I'm full of positive thoughts..."

He closes his eyes and grins. And then he starts humming a little.

And then, he starts humming a lot.

There is a brief haze of magic over him, and he lifts his hands upwards, suddenly bursting into song.

~Oh, I love to laugh
Hahahaaa
Loud and long and clear
Heheheheee!~

And he is no longer strapped to his seat, but floating upwards, gently in a haze of magic, until he is sitting upside-down, on the ceiling.

~I love to laugh
Ahahah!
It's getting worse every year
And the more I laugh,
Ahahaha!
the more I fill with glee
And the more the glee
Uhuhuhuuuuh!
The more I'm a merrier me!~

Donna Troy has posed:
"Hopefully you won't get any experience fighting angels in space," Donna says over her shoulder to Ben. "Please everyone remember that this is a research mission. We're not here to fight anyone. Vorpal, get down fr... oh. Yeah. Probably we shouldn't have brought Terry after all, maybe I didn't think this through."

    Donna sighs slightly, and turns forwards again. "Okay. I'm going to guess that this message being broadcast is the Angelic language, Enochian. Which probably means it's half language, and half magic. We need to get the recordings to some magical experts to look at, but nobody will be able to interpret it fully, I believe. Nadia, send a copy back to the tower for storage, but let's not transmit that anywhere else just yet. And Ben, can you try to get the cat down from the ceiling please? He's tripping balls on angel magic. And... as none of you objected, I will try a short message."

    Donna's fingers flicker across the ships controls in a rapid motion again, and though she doesn't mention anything to anyone, Nadia will notice that Donna has spun up the energy flow to the Pym Drive again, readying the ship for a sudden jump. When that's done, she aims the communication array at the facet displaying the image of an angel, and opens the channel for a brief broadcast. <<My name is Donna Troy. We come because we are concerned you appear to be on a collision course with the Earth. We are here in peace. Will you communicate with us?>>

    She turns to Nadia, wincing slightly. "Nadia, it's possible... because I... technically I'm immortal. The gifts of the goddesses. There is a possibility they will only be willing to communicate with a mortal, and I may not count. If we don't get a response, you try next, okay?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia looks back to Donna with a wide-eyed expression of pure joy as strange golden shapes begin manifesting in the air around her as she listens to the decoded signal. "Donna, you /have/ to hear this! I've never heard anything like it, it just makes me feel so HAPPY!"

She's already moving to put it over the general sound system, and why wouldn't she? Everyone should feel this good! "It's definitely Enochian, I found a Cipher in Val's family's database." Wheeee she's kind of giddy.

"Oh right, send it to the Tower, Sure Donna." Angelic Ode to Turbo Joy averted for the moment as spacey happy Nadia busies herself sending backups to the Tower and GIRL HQ. "Yeah, I can do that. I love talking to new people!"

Chas Chandler has posed:
    The figure in the facet leaves the view of the camera, apparently the angel was just right at that moment not it is nothing but more golden light in the object. There is a shift in the lights and they strobe violently for a moment before english words come through the roar of Enochian.

    "Donna Troy... we have heard much about you from the voice of The Prophet. We are certainly on a collision course with your planet. We are, after all, the Vanguard of the invasion" the voice is resonant and deep and commands attention. But it is not terrifying in the way a large villainous being may be. "What is it you wish to know?" it asks.

Ben Reilly has posed:
"Is it talking?" Ben asks as Enochian fills the cockpit, recognizing it as a language maybe but not understanding it. He turns around slightly, leaning an arm over the back of his chair so he can look towards Donna and Nadia.

"Maybe try challenging it to a game of chess? If it loses, its asteroid isn't allowed to hit our planet."

A long pause.

"Does anyone here play chess?"

He sighs. This is all very important and dangerous, of course, but ... it's the Parker (and Reilly) way to joke through the fear.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Unattended on the ceiling, the Cheshire cat grows silent as the voice speaks. This does not mean he is cowed, however. "Invasion force. No, that's not cool at all. They can't just invade."

He glances at the monitor, upside down, gauging the size of the asteroid. "That's pretty big. But you know..."

He cants his head, "I bet that with effort, I could fit it through the hole. I'd need to get a boost to get it past the size limitation, and it'd probably tap me out, but if push comes to shove, I could just shove it right through and into somewhere dark and remote."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "It's not Death," Donna replies to Ben. "It's Death you're meant to challenge to a game of chess. You know... there's an ancient story... so old it found its ways into the legends of many cultures. The idea of a great army coming down to invade somewhere, and the defenders of that nation aren't ready, so a single champion challenges the army to single combat. If the attackers are honorable, they must accept. The champion fights one soldier after another until the defending army has had time to get ready. Maybe I should challenge them to single combat." Donna gives a wry smile. "But I don't think that's the way here. As I said to them, we are here in peace, not war."

    Maybe they don't need the broadcast to hear what's said on the ship, but if so? They're welcome to hear it. Donna flicks a switch on the console to mute the Enochian from the speakers. "Nadia, we need to concentrate. Terry, I've never seen you open a hole bigger than about ten feet, and this is a lot bigger than ten feet. Plus I suspect that they can be wherever they want to be, and have merely /chosen/ to approach in this fashion."

    Donna flicks on the switch to broadcast again. <<If you collide with the planet, many people will die. Thousands. Millions. Through no action nor inaction of their own. Without any chance to prove themselves worthy of your wrath, or worthy of your love. Plucked from life at random, as if by some terrible natural catastrophe. That is not an invasion, it is simply a tragedy of vast suffering. There can be no worthy /intent/ to such random suffering. It would just be a wound on the soul of the universe. One you could avoid.>>

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia returns to basically normal when Donna cuts the feed to the decrypted Enochian message, though Joy is pretty close to her default setting anyway, at least outwardly. "That, that's really something. It's like they're trying to broadcast pure joy, but how can they do that while talking about an /invasion/."

She bites her lower lip, reminded of some of 'Mothers manipulation techniques. Convince someone its for love, manipulate positive emotions and they'll do almost anything. She glances up in Terry's direction at what he says. "It's just energy right? At its core? I might be able to make it bigger, though I'd need to go outside to do it..." And she definitely does not seem certain that it would work, but last ditch options are last ditch options.

"I play Chess." She also adds after a moment, answering Ben's question even though Donna has already clarified that's for Death.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    There is a sense of amusement in the voice that responds to Donna's words. "You do not see past what your eyes show you... if you require that much clarity, allow me to enlighten you."

    The lights on the object flare and shift vividly for a moment and then the object -changes.- Where once there was a large glowing celestial body there now spans a multitude of winged creatures. Their number is vast and spreads beyond the size of asteroid. Not only are they large in number, but they are large in variety. Any and every iteration of angelic being through art is represented.

    "Do you see? What you perceive as a singular object is only that because your eyes cannot truly grasp our coming. You have 5 days before Epiphany. We arrive then. The Archivist knows this and has had ample time to prepare. Alert him and the Prophet among your people... we come."

    The mass ov angelic beings flares and again it is a object labeled JF09 hurtling through space.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Ben, you play chess with Death, and only on one night in Bangkok. With Angels, you have to... wrestle with them, I guess, which is so homoerotic that you shouldn't even get me started. But I wonder how they get the singlets on with the feathers and the wings... maybe they have special singlets that look ridiculous because they have the whole back cut out and it looks like the dumbest reverse bikini on earth?"

Focus, O'Neil. "Donna, first of all, I can totally handle more than ten feet if I really try- I just need a helping hand and an extra source of chaos magic like Nadia says, I am pretty sure... And second," Vorpal says, sounding very much like his is some sort of trip nobody else is part of at this moment, "I don't think talking'll do much. Remember... these guys' boss sent bears to tear apart boys who were making fun of some prophet's bald head. Jahe--Johwe---Jeho---Jay-lo... that guy isn't exactly known for /proportionate response/, you know?"

he lays down on the ceiling, rubbing his eyes, "Wooo... man, that's some good shit. Can we, like, bottle them up? I could use some of this next time Miss Starr has us crunch. I'm gonna be seeing fairies for /weeks/..."

He opens an eye. "We need to catch them in a Ch'thoolo--theolololo...theological trap. Like maybe try to get them to... twerk on the head of a pin and count themselves. Man, I wish I could think straight and help--"

He cackles, suddenly, "But, I can't do /anything/ straight! It's why I'm not Catholic anymore!"

Focus failed.

"... maybe... find out if their hate boner IS against free peach... freedom of spe-- wait, free will... if that's really their beef- if angels don't have free will, and if no free will is s'pposed to make everything better, then why did Lucifer fall being an angel only to become the devil with the blue dress on? Where's the beef? Where's the beef? Ma'am this is a Wendy's, WHERE *IS* the beef?... is it that every time someone eats a square burger, an angel loses his wings to cholesterol? Whoooooo I'm so baked... I could be a fruitcake."

A second. "OH MY GOD I *AM* A FRUITCAKE!"

He closes his eyes again. And this time there isn't a follow-up. Just slow, regular breathing.

Ben Reilly has posed:
"Shine on, Terry, you crazy diamond," Ben calls towards the ceiling, before looking back towards Nadia and Donna and giving them his very best Spider-shrug. It's then that the light shines in through the window, and the asteroid outside takes on its different form. He squints against the light, peering at the host of angelic creatures hurtling through space towards Earth.

"I mean, there was at least a little hope we could go Armageddon on a flying rock - but this?"

He whistles loudly, turning towards Donna and Nadia.

"Something tells me they're not feeling very reasonable. They don't care at all about our free peach."

He points upwards at Terry without looking.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "I always preferred /Petteia/ to Chess," Donna whispers to Nadia, grinning slightly. "Though my mother always tells me I play too aggressively. And I'm kind of hoping we can resolve this without aggression." She gives Nadia's arm a squeeze. "Fact finding mission, okay? What actions we take next... are another question."

    She turns to stare at Vorpal for a few moments, before turning her attention back to the controls of the T-Ship. "Let's not bottle it," she suggests. "And if I end up wrestling an angel because of this, I assure you it will not be homoerotic. Or... any other type of erotic. Gaia give me strength. Spider, if Terry starts to open any holes, please distract him with a piece of string or something."

    Donna's hand hovers over the drive controls this time, as her other hand flicks the broadcast control on again. <<Strange. You open my eyes, but I still see a collision, Angel. Maybe it's a matter of a different kind of seeing. Armies as well as ideologies tend to collide.>> She switches tack very quickly. <<The Prophet... did you mean Caitlin? You must think highly of her. I do too. She is my oldest friend. The first friend I made, really. We both know how pure her heart is. She got me to read the Bible, you know. I recall a passage in that where Abraham speaks to the Lord and points out that it would not be the Lord's way to slaughter the righteous along with the wicked. 'Shall not the judge of all the Earth do right?' he asks. The Lord agrees to spare the city he planned to destroy if there were just ten righteous people there. So please tell me this... is it true you go to judge the Earth, and that you have already found at least one righteous soul there? If the rest of the world is found unworthy, will not Caitlin suffer?>>

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia just kind of stares up at Terry and then stares out the windows at the angels and then looks back at Donna. "Uh, aren't those the magic sky people Cait believes in? Man, the Soviets just keep getting wrong and wronger, like every religion keeps turning out to be true! And yet, if they're true doesn't that remove faith and without faith is it really a belief or just an acceptance of the way things are? Like this suddenly seems like not believing in gravity, which people can of course, but they're wrong. That's just Science..." And she's babbling now, the image outside is kind of crazy after all.

And then Donna is quoting that book, Nadia has never read the Bible but one of the other GIRL members did show her Evangelion once, much to the horror of every responsible adult that knows her. "Donna, I think it's time to go. We're not equipped to deal with this. We don't even have a giant lance of longenough. I think we need to talk to Cait..." She's a bit lost, religion is not her forte, and this is one of those rare moments when the Unstoppable Waspette is feeling out of her league, at least for now. Retreat, regroup, figure out a plan, these are the impulses the Red Room hardcoded into her.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    More of that amused note comes into the voice that responds. "Your kind is well versed in the words of men. That Book, influential as it may be, is not the actual truth. The Prophet understands. The Archivist understands. Speak with them both if you must, our Purpose is set and cannot be avoided. See to your preparations and defend your people as you see fit. Or do not, and ensure our victory with your inaction."

    The roar and twinkling of lights over the diamonds stops and it continues forward on its inexorable course towards the Earth guided by Divine Purpose and sheer force of Will. It may be that Nadia's advice may be the only source of action available at this point. That, and to try and talk to The Prophet and the Archivist. Both are avenues that may need pursuing.

Ben Reilly has posed:
"Nadia's right," Ben answers, fist clenching and unclenching within the spacesuit gloves he wears, "And if these guys show up in New York, I am starting to feel less and less bad about giving them a genuine hometown welcome."

He glances back over his shoulder finally, looking between the Titans.

"This has bad news written all over it."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna nods her head to Nadia. "It's okay... we're not here to deal with it. I told you, this is a fact finding mission, that's all. We have learned a lot about what this object actually is. We've got this broadcast, and there are people who might be able to make sense of it. I didn't hold out much hope that a few words would turn them aside -- we're not the first to have spoken to them, after all. But speaking to a being is the way to get a measure of that being. It told us more in how it spoke to us and what it refused to answer than it told us in words."

    Donna checks the drive controls, then turns to Ben. "Get Terry back down and strapped in please, Spider. And however you may feel about giving them a hometown welcome, please remember that fighting may be the right answer, but it's never the /good/ answer. Get ready for warp."

    Donna activates the broadcast again. <<Victory without compassion is no victory at all,>> she sends. <<If it is Michael I was talking to... be warned, I am informed there is a Hell Lord who intends your death planning for your arrival. That's all I know though. See you on Earth.>>

    Donna hits the warp, sending the T-Ship hurtling back to Earth.