A large building that went up in one of the less favorable sections of town, after a number of condemned and dangerous buildings were purchased, this place is a beautifully built building with some classical elements of architecture as well as all of the modern conveniences.  The Cafe occupies all of the ground floor, and the remaining 14 stories are apartments.  Access to the apartments is limited to residents and their guests, and almost all of the employees of the cafe live in the apartments.  The food is specialty dishes, and Greek and Chinese cuisine, with some interesting combinations of the two.

The Cafe area is decorated in a mix of Classical Greek and Ancient Chinese Imperial styles, and offers not only several private dining rooms, but also outside dining in good weather.  Each door has a large guardian gargoyle on the building, and inside the entrances are all painted with more guardians, although these are dragons.

Ozzy was getting some food at the Apokryphos Cafe, which he tended to when he was in this part of town. He liked the idea of supporting his friend's business venture, even if she didn't necessarily need it, plus the food was good.

He was wearing a sleeveless grey tank top with Banksy's "Anarchist and Mother" printed on the front, showing off his tats like he liked to do. He'd paired it with some urban camo cargo pants, and his black work boots, as well as a pair of black 'cutter gloves' with red anarchy symbols on the backs of the hands. His sandy blond hair was a little longer than shoulder length, and was currently tied back into a short ponytail. He looked, for all intents and purposes, like an ordinary street tough, though those that knew him knew he was quite a nice guy, if a little rough around the edges.

At the moment, he was chowing down on a plate of General Tso's chicken.

  Megaira, or Meg to her friends, was the one working the kitchen today, and she recognized her old friend Ozzy.  She brought out a second (large) plate of a noodle and meat and vegetable dish with some sort of dark sauce on it.    It smelled good, with a Mediterranean scent and a definite flair of Meg's personal touch.  She slid it onto the table in front of Ozzy as she teased "Do I get a hello?  I've  been in the kitchen, but that didn't keep me from noticing you come in.  How's Clarissa?"

Ozzy grinned and said, "Heya, Meggers. Clarissa's working on some jewelry and stuff at home, and she's *super* in the zone, so I'm out and about solo style so I don't throw off her creative groove. And I am kinda hard to miss, aren't I?"

  Meg chuckled, and said "To me, yes.  But then, you have a far better idea than most of why.  Although you're not as obvious when you're wearing your humanform disguise.  Feels good to alternate them, yes?"  She handed him a little scrap of paper, adding playfully "You know you should make plans for the party you know Bill and Darren will have here in a couple months."  He knew what she was talking about, their old friends were still absolutely stuck on the adorable little girl they'd gotten.

Ozzy looked at the slip of paper, idly curious about it's contents. "Yeah. Clarissa and I are considering having our own little bundle of joy soon, assuming we even can anymore. That mutagen stuff played with our DNA like a kitten with a ball of yarn. Still, we'll see what happens, yeah? Hopefully I'm just being paranoid again."

  Meg smiled, and he saw a little list of items that Bill and Darren might find useful for Bella.  She said thoughtfully "Well, you know I'm pretty decent with the genetics things, if you wanted me to take a look at what you're working with.  The real question, Ozzy, would be if the mutagen was something that crosses the germ line or not.  If not, then there should be no difficulties.  If it does?  Well, then I'd need to look a little closer, and I'd need you both to be present for a thorough examination.  Unlike most folks, I don't need to poke and prod.  Just give the proverbial hairy eyeball while I look at things everyone else doesn't see."

Ozzy nodded and said, "That makes sense. Not enough time has passed for us to even be sure there *is* a problem, as well. But you know how I am. I like to be prepared for anything."

He then thinks for a moment and wonders aloud, "So is alternate timeline Bella coming? I imagine it has to be kinda weird for her right now."

  Meg admitted "I don't know.  She tends to spend a lot of time doing her thing with Aaron these days, down in South America.  She's . . . . not going to get close to Baby Bella.  There's a lot of chances for very bad things to happen if she does.  She doesn't want to kill herself, or the baby."   Her voice was solemn as she explained, adding "None of us know if her immunity to paradox includes the Baby, or if it covers being in the same time and place as a younger, other-dimensional self."

Ozzy nods, "That seems perfectly sensible. I'm glad that they're doing well, though I hate that they have to be so far away. Still, at least Bill and Darren have stopped trying to boss her around. I get that they're her parents genetically speaking, but to be honest, one teen trying to parent the other is the blind leading the blind, yeah?"

He then grins and says, "So, how are you? Anything happening with you, Meg?"

  Meg shrugged, and said "Not a whole lot going on.  I've been doing a lot of studying, as you know.  I've gotten my phd in quantum physics, and done a good bit of delving, also as you know, into genetics and reproductive medicine.  I've continued to study with Mom off and on, depending on how busy she is, and I've built the Apartments and Cafe here.  A lot of what I am doing, is figuring out a lot of things that I will be able to continue to pursue for a very long time.  I think I almost have a decent design for a self-sustaining biodome and ecosystem in a sealed environment, and the propulsion systems to give it an almost infinite engine-lifespan to keep it going."

Ozzy chuckled and gently teased, "What, you planning on leaving us mere mortals behind after a while? Fair enough, I guess. You planning on exploring the galaxy or something?"

He then tilted his head and asked, "What about Mr. Witness? Or did your usual bad luck with men crop up again?"

  Meg chuckled, and said softly "More the other way around.  I plan to see if I can send a viable seed population of humanity out into space so that if something DOES ever get past those of us with abilities, there will still be humans out there.  Living between the stars."   She looked down at the table, and said "When it comes to romance, well, I seem to have unfailingly poor luck.  So I'm just giving it time, and concentrating on other things.  Loneliness in my personal life is nothing really new, and I can look forward to a very long life.  I may as well get used to it."

He shakes his head and says, "Man, that sucks. But, yeah, you'll find someone eventually."

He then chuckles and says, "So, you're working on a colony ship? Interesting. Definitely good to know we have a plan B, though."

At that point, Ozzy's phone buzzed and lit up. He glanced at it for a moment before saying, "One sec, Michaela forwarded me something. Apparently something's going down at the university and it's all over social media."

He poked at the message and browsed through the linked pictures and said, "Man, that's weird. Hope somebody does something."

  Meg tilted her head, nodding as she said "I thought a plan B for humanity was a good idea.  It certainly won't happen for a bit though, I'd need to get together a screening process for applicants, and get the whole shebang built.  Being able to mine asteroids for the metals I need is a huge help though."

Ozzy grins and says, "Sounds like a lot of work. If you need any help, you know I'm good at planning for anything."

He then sent a quick reply to his sister, before asking, "So... How's the restaurant business treating you lately?"

  Meg nodded, and said "Pretty good, really.  I mean, given the design behind the business, it's a huge success.  The goal isn't per se to make a profit, it's to invest in people.  Giving kids and folks who have no real other alternatives but crime and such a legitimate and honest way to make a living and have homes that aren't complete slums.  I would love it if you'd set up a screening process for applicants to be accepted on the first human space-vessel that will not be scheduled to return to Earth for at least 400 years, if then."  Clearly, she figured he would have a good plan for finding good fits on a pretty much self contained environment.  She also added "I would also love some advice from your Grandfather in getting that all set up as a corporation so I can get it in the active phase."

Ozzy nodded and said, "I'll see if Grandpa feels up to it, though if he's not, I'm sure Michael can figure something out for you. After the mutation incident, he did some serious soul-searching, did some thinking, so he's... well, I hesitate to refer to him as "cool", but he's not a raging douchebag anymore. Grandpa's been taking it easy this year, sort of stepping back and letting Michael take the reins more. Which has been good for Grandpa, since his his health is starting to go."

  Meg nodded, and said "Whichever.  I know that both of them are good, and I trust your Grandpa to see the idea behind this.  It's a new, rather farfetched sounding plan, but you haven't seen the stuff I've gotten built yet.  Let  me know if you want to."  She brought out a bowl of ice cream for each of them, knowing Ozzy's metabolism could handle the sweet stuff just as well as hers could.

Ozzy dug into the ice cream with gusto, and said between bites, "Sure! I'd love to have a look. You usually have some pretty interesting ideas, and I'm sure either one would be more than willing to help make it a reality."

  Meg smiled, and said "Okay.  My lab is in orbit, which lets me do all the zero G experiments without extra effort.  When would you like to head up there?"

  It would just figure that of the few acquaintances Matt had in the cafe (and short list outside of it), they would be heading out into space now that Matt was back on Earth.

  Though that would have been much more embarrassing five minutes from now, rather than the first moments within Earth's atmosphere after several years depositing him lightly on his feet at the entrance.

  "I've returned with confirmation gift shops are basically the same everywhere.  But that's okay because I already have terrible taste in gifts." and fashion, given the Weston City Sailfish hoodie with it's cartoonish fish just as fresh and googly eyed as when he bought it.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:14, Fri 30 June 2017.

"My schedule is pretty open most of the time, so whenever works for you."

And then Matt came in. Ozzy grinned and said, "Hey! Haven't seen you in a long while! How's tricks?"

  Meg chuckled, and waved to Matt as she said "Now works, unless you want to do some brain picking first with Matt.  How are you, Matt?"

  "Oh, you know.  Boring space stuff.  Though Azrith isn't exiled anymore, and I picked up more Science™ than I probably would have off my cheap scholarship before I died.  So I'm back for round two of feeling out my place in things."

 He produces a couple tiny boxes "I've also got a scoop that refreezes ice cream equivalents, and a customizable fake flower for whoever wants cheap souvenirs.  I meant my opening statement."
This message was lightly edited by the player at 08:47, Sat 01 July 2017.

Ozzy thought for a moment and said, "The customizable flower sounds interesting. I can re-freeze ice cream with magic if need be, but I wouldn't mind seeing alien art or whatever."

He then grinned and says, "So Azrith can go back home again? That's good. He was the lion-y guy, right? Or was that someone else?"

  Meg smiled, and said "Halkor was the liony guy.  Azrith was the exiled prince, and Archeirae was the one who looked like a cat-lady but had the boneless ability like an octopus.  Which is really interesting, when you consider that it means she, and anyone else boneless, could squeeze themselves through ridiculously tiny spaces that way that others wouldn't expect.  That might be how she managed to escape where she'd been imprisoned.  Matt, would you like to see the stuff I've been working on for a Plan B for humanity?"

  Matt nods as he hands over the souvenir to Ozzy, "Meg has it right.  As for Plan B, as nice as it would be to not need one it sounds worth a look."  Meg has proooobably not gone mad with power while he was out.  So that just leaves hoping it's a good idea in the first place.

"Better to have one and never need it, right?", said Ozzy. If he was honest with himself, he was kind of proud of Meg for thinking about something like this.

"I kinda miss Archeirae. I liked having another painter around, and she had an interesting perspective on Art."

  Meg chuckled, and said "The basic idea is to build what amounts to an Ark.  Something we can put a viable genetic sampling of the human species on, and put it out there in space,
 so that if something happens here, and we don't manage to save the world, there will still be some humanity left.  I don't plan to be on it.  The last thing an Ark would need, is an ageless, unkillable person in charge.  I don't want to be in charge of the lives of all those people, I'm not wiser than they are just because I can plan on a centuries-spanning timescale.
 But I think it would be a good idea to put an Ark out there, and make sure it has a viable
 genetic population on it."  She indicated that they could follow her, if they were done eating, adding "Mom has shown me the knack of opening portals magically from point A to point B as long as they're in the same dimension.  Makes getting to the lab a lot safer if I bring guests."

  "I would imagine security being a lot easier to handle when you don't need to unlock your doors personally, yeah.  I'm more curious about the living conditions and speed involved with your Arc.  Usually the 'Arc ship' concept is to accommodate for the fact that by time it gets anywhere, the people who built it will have invented three new methods of faster than light travel and awkwardly skirt around their old sub light or near it ships."
This message was last edited by the player at 08:12, Sun 02 July 2017.

Ozzy nodded and said, "True. Then again, this *is* an apocalypse-prep ship, so I think we're assuming that if this ship is being used, then we're not planning on having people capable of building new tech. Unless you were planning on sending it out before any disaster happened, Megs?"

   That got a chuckle, and Meg admitted "The engines are capable of going FTL, I just have a couple kinks to work out on the inertial compensation.  I use myself as an experimental  tester, just because I can survive a lot more than most.  The biggest thing, is getting a group of psychologically stable individuals who will be able to tolerate what essentially makes for never going 'outside' again unless they're wearing a heavy duty spacesuit.  Unless they pick a planet to colonize, but that isn't the main idea for the Ark I'm building.
 Shouldn't take me too long to put the majority of it together either once I get the kinks flattened."  In answer to Ozzy, she nodded, and said "The idea is to get our 'fallback' up and running before an apocalypse happens.  I want to get it into commission BEFORE some BBEG destroys the majority of humanity.  That way, we can save the best of science today, as well as the best of modern medicine, and hopefully people continue to improve as time passes.  I've designed units to help with asteroid mining, and programmable fabrication units that can handle most basic ideas, but the more complicated stuff will take more programming.  But they can build state of the normal human art computers and medical equipment right now."

Ozzy shrugs and says, "I don't see why not. Hasn't the international space research community found, like, a TON of planets that could be either just straight-up lived on, or terraformed into livable conditions pretty easily? Plus, the Fermi Paradox has been resolved. We KNOW that there are aliens out there. Maybe we can get some of them to be willing to accept refugees, just in case?"

  "Well, just as long as there is still a good majority of talent left back home.  The way things seem to go, loading up all your 'best and brightest' in a single ship seems to make it that much more likely for it to blow up shortly after launch due to unforeseen circumstances beyond it's design."

  He turns towards Ozzy, and comments "Unfortunately despite a... mostly positive reputation up there, my diplomacy cred still had years pass before a single guy had their wrongful exile rescinded."

  Meg waved both of them toward the employee door, which let her open a portal to her lab without the general public watching it happen.  As they went, she said simply "I want to send the best of current technology, not necessarily the best and brightest minds.  To be blunt, the best and brightest minds are usually highly eccentric and do not play well with others in close quarters for the rest of their lives."

===============>> Lab

Had it really only been two weeks?  His stay in Weston had seemed longer than that, maybe because it had taken him so long to get himself situated.  It was actually an invigorating challenge.  Hacking into a system that was outside any network he was familiar with.  Thankfully the computer language was close enough.  He had spent his whole life looking for his family.  Two days in this world and he accomplished what hadn't lead anywhere back home.

His car was parked a short distance away, he had a customer to pick up here in a bit, figured it would be better to make contact and then go get the car instead of sitting out front with the car running.  He had been running errands and passengers around for the better part of the day, so a chance to just sit down and relax for a little bit was nice.

Approaching the café, he has to smile a bit at the street performer standing outside the front door.

"Well, I don't think I can handle this
A cloudy day in Metropolis
I think I'll talk to my analyst
I got it so bad for this little journalist
It drives me up the wall and through the roof
Lois and Clark in a telephone booth
I think I'm going out of my brain
I got it so bad for little Miss Lois Lane."

Kevin tosses a few dollars into the open guitar case as he heads into the building.  The singer bowing his head just a little in thanks as he continues with his song.  For a second, less than a second, Kevin's smile falters ever so slightly as he enters the café.  A fleeting memory brushed aside as his smile returns and he heads for the counter to place his order.

Apokryphos, something treasured; hidden.  Part of him just had to wonder what was treasured and hidden here.  Though at the same time, maybe someone really just liked the name.

  The first thing he noticed was that the aroma of the food was delicious.  The second thing was, all of the staff were neatly garbed in jeans and t-shirts that matched.  The patrons were a mix of people, young and old, families and single people.  It did appear to be a very popular cafe, and the aroma was a good explanation there, but the decor was different, mixing Greek and Chinese.  There were enough people to make it look pretty busy.

The aroma was exceptionally pleasant, and he just enjoys it for a bit as he takes in everything.  He had to order though, he'd look odd if he just stood around for an extended period of time.

"I'll take an order of Lo Mein with lamb."

He liked the sound of that fusion of Chinese and Greek, it was something he figured he'd give a try.  Still it was a little odd, but he doesn't comment on it.  The owner likely had a reason for the mix.  Family.  Personal reasons.  The smell, staff and number of people in the area showed that it was a successful combination.

"I'll take a large tea as well."

  The dish came in short order, and the flavors were an amazing mix of Greek and Chinese.  The waitress looked no more than sixteen at the oldest, and she was in her uniform, but something told him she liked her job here.  Taking a good look at all of the staff, they looked either very young, or their eyes were older than their bodies.  Something here was not the norm, but not in a bad way.  All the happy smiles of the staff were a clear indicator of that.  He heard someone speaking Greek in the back, a deep, masculine voice that was pleasant enough, and carried well.

Magic.  It was something that just screamed in the back of his mind.  Though he could just be over thinking the situation.  In either case, it wasn't the malicious feel.  It was just part of the warm, welcoming ambiance of the setting.  Most wouldn't know this was going through the gears of his mind of course.  He gladly accepts the order and finds a seat.

He is casual about it, but it is something to the trained eye he can't hide.  He sits where he has a clear field of vision of most if not all of the place.  Back to the wall, entrances and exits from the room clearly visible as well as a decent view of the street.  Not that it looks like he's focused on any one spot.

A few bites are taken and he prods his smart phone a few times to bring up the latest news, listening quietly to the newest updates.  Sports, weather, metahuman activity, current events.  The eyes are the most noted, but the male speaking in Greek is noted, too.  He is but he shouldn't be surprised.  It was fluent, conversational.

The taste of the meal isn't lost on him either and he eats steadily.  He wasn't on a time constraint, but he should eat quickly.

Ultimately his curiosity was tickled enough that he realized he would likely start looking into this place.  It would be placed on a far back burner to be certain, there wasn't anything nefarious about this place after all.

As the staff and his waitress make their rounds, he does make polite small talk with them as well.

  The wait staff, as he watched, all were what might typically fall into the 'too young' or 'hard lives so far' category.  The deep voice seemed to emanate from the employees only area, a little surprisingly, but the surprising part was when it switched from conversational Greek to fluent Mandarin, and a female voice answered in return, sounding slightly exasperated.  Moments later, a tiny woman, only five foot two, appeared out of the kitchen, wearing jeans and a silk shirt in jade green with hand embroidered Imperial dragons on it as she headed for the door, adding over her shoulder, her ebony hair done in a complicated pile that kept it up and neatly confined "Don't catch the kitchen on fire with anything too wild until I get back from the Chinese Market.  You knew the stock of that was low, and the regular suppliers do not carry that."

No.  I will not operate like that here.

As he continues to watch, he sees those signs.  He hid them well, but he knew that look.  He carried that look for at least a year or two until his mentor taught him how to hide it.  As well as how to hide the fact he was observing people, for the most part.  He was no expert at it, but over the years he had become well practiced at hiding his attention to detail.

The voice changing naturally from one language to another was certainly impressive.  He does not stare, though his attention to the woman walking through the café and out the door is rather obvious.  The shirt and the dragon design catches his eye the most and he gives it a look to appreciate the detail that went into the shirt.  After a quick look he goes back to eating and his casual observation of the area.

Still, it can't be helped.  The taste, the care of the owners for their employees.  The atmosphere.  He could feel it, the mask was starting to falter.

Finishing he pays for his meal and leaves a generous tip.  He still had a little time before his customer should show up.  And he needed a little air.  He heads off to the side where he wouldn't be seen from most of the people inside.

Breathing exercises, a quiet mantra going through his mind.  Back at his apartment he would go through some katas but right now, he needed to focus.  Center himself.

Put the mask back on.

Kevin could hear a mild fanfare out front, and could see the front end of a limo from where he was standing. A moment later a well built man looking to be in his mid-to late fifties with grey hair and beard walked around the corner, a ciggarette in one hand and a lighter in the other. With his plain black suit he looked like a biker at a funeral.

The man takes up position next to the wall, eyeing Kevin as he lit his cigarette. "Ya seem awful angry bout somethin son, am I gonna have to worry about you?"

'Son', it was almost like a physical strike against him.  There is the faintest of winces, though his ready smile eases over his lips.  Warm, friendly and honest.  He does sidestep a little away from the man, just to put a little more distance between them due to the cigarette.

"Just having a bit of a bad day, nothing that I'm going to cause trouble over with others though."

Honest curiosity gets a bit of the best of him.

"Any idea who's limo that is?  Apokryphos seems like a pretty nice place but limo stopping out front?  Guess it's more popular than I thought."

Private security, maybe.  He didn't have anything that made it clear he was security.  Still he wasn't thinking it was any major celebrity, wasn't enough pomp and circumstance for that.  Someone local probably.  That or just some high school kids having a good time.  He didn't think high school kids would have someone that gave off the vibe this guy was as a driver though.

The man shot Kevin a curious look. "My son Don, aka Senator Donald Derring, aka the Hunter. Making me David, aka Mr. Hurt." The man smiled as he held out his hand for a shake. "Am I that unrecongizable? I know I'm not current, but they released the files on us ww2 parahumans YEARS ago, and theres been eight books and a movie on it since. One of which I co-wrote."

Kevin gives a little chuckle, but he casually accepts the offered hand with a pretty relaxed grip of his own.

"Good to meet you, sir.  And I wouldn't be too worried.  The last two weeks have been a bit of a blur for me.  Name's Greg.  Apparently.  Took me a few hours just to figure out where I was.  Woke up in an alley on the other side of the city.  Or maybe I just blinked.  Really not sure.  Dealing with a bit of amnesia and just been putting my life together.  Haven't had a whole lot of time to deal with current events outside of what makes for a good decent job without too much paperwork and previous work history."

He'd have to make a note of starting to put together a list of heroes and what not on this world.  Mentally he kicks himself for not doing it already, but he did need to put a lot onto just getting an identity, job and everything else here.  He hadn't even had a chance to go over the diagnostics for his suit or the Osprey.  Something he should probably start looking at, but Uber and Lyft had been keeping him busy lately too.

David gave the young man a once over. "Amnesia? I've seen a few of those cases before and, no offence, but you look different. Most amnesiacs, at least the weird ones that still remember how to walk and bathe themselves, are usually sort of...blank. They're aimless, lost, even the trained ones don't show the signs until they have to use those skills. But you're like a coiled snake, prepared to strike. You're alert and observant, you move like you calculate every individual movement, kind of atypical from what I've seen. Though weirder things have happened, and I definitely agree with your priorities at least. Though I have a friend that might be able to help with that. He's a para inventor, and he's transferred his conciousness to a computer more than once, long story, if anyone can figure out what's going on with your brain it's him."
This message was last updated by the player at 06:03, Wed 26 July 2017.

Kevin has to laugh at himself, it was a gamble that he should have known wouldn't have worked.

"I appreciate the offer.  I wouldn't want to waste his time though.  Maybe I should come up with a better cover.  Did your friend serve in the war with you?  I never joined the military, but my adoptive father served in the Air Force and... other members of that family did, too."

Getting close to acknowledging whoever the other members of the family were, was like poison on his lips that he almost had to physically spit off.

"Not sure I want my mind hooked up to any machines but, hearing stories would be nice.  If that'd be ok."

David took a long drag of his cigarette while the young man in front of him spoke, but as soon as "Greg" mentioned his family, he saw the old man's demeanor instantly change, turning hard and supicious, reminding the mysterious stranger of someone else he knew. In a movement almost too fast for Kevin to follow the man drew a knife from a wrist sheath with a flick of his wrist and pointed it at Kevin's heart.

"An amnesiac who knows who his family is? I was gonna overlook that there's someone watching us, coulda been you didn't even know they were there, but now you've got one minute to tell me exactly who you are. And if you think I'm bluffing I'd like to remind you, I'm a cranky old man, my grandchildren are inside, and I was experimented on by nazis, and that makes me someone not to be tested." The old man let out in a low growl, his intent clearly in his eyes, the voice and the presence the ww2 veteran merely cemented the similarity with Kevin's former mentor.

There was always the chance of someone watching.  That's why you generally didn't have discussions like this out in the open.  His voice drops to a quiet, calm whisper even if his actions do not mimic that calmness.  His arms are held up defensively but in that untrained reflexive manner.  His left hand at shoulder height, his right a little higher.  Conveniently shielding his mouth.  Both arms bent at the elbows.  He crouches down just a little, all the signs of someone trying to make themselves look less threatening.  Despite speaking his lips barely move, an attempt to throw off any lip reading software that their observer may have.

"You also missed the part where I said it was a bad cover story and attempted to deflect to get us somewhere private.  I was born here as Greg Jenkins.  Figured amnesia was better than the truth for just now, out in the open.  I've only been on this Earth for two weeks.  I grew up on an alternate one."

"Admitting you tried to deceive me doesn't gain you any trust. Hell admitting a cover is a cover while buying yourself time to come up with another is like espionage 10-" The man stopped when Kevin mentioned he was from an alternate dimension, he stared for a few seconds before bursting into raucous laughter. "An alternate dimension, things like this make me question not believing in a higher power, or at least cosmic irony. That explains why I couldn't tell where they were though, the Dragon's Mistress sicced one them on you to make sure you weren't some kind of cosmic threat."

"Tell your mistress next time she sees a dimensional traveler hanging around where my family regularly goes to let me know. She knows I'm protective, she knows why, and she knows 'most dangerous man alive' is not hyperbole. I could've gutted this kid." The old man said, clearly not talking to Kevin but the unseen watcher he described as a dragon.
This message was last updated by the player at 20:28, Thu 27 July 2017.

"Just adding to the carbon footprint.  That's about it."

As the source of the observer is revealed, the act of being scared is dropped, at least for now.  Maybe there was someone else out there.  But the primary source was more interested in where he was from apparently.  The easy smile and light in his eyes doesn't return though.  Instead, he almost seems to age in front of David.  That look of eyes being too old for him manages to show through for the briefest of moments as he lets that mask drop.

"I am sorry if I made you feel that your family was endangered.  I do know how important family is.  Look.  I wasn't lying about my Uber job, I came here because a customer told me to meet up with them.  Just got here early enough to grab a bite to eat.  So I can be on my way just as soon as they get here."

David shook his head. "No it's my fault. My life has been... difficult, to put it mildly, for a long time. I'm a bit paranoid from all that, and it doesn't help that the nazis messed with my mind when they turned me into a killing machine. Your no threat, or rather if you are that dragon will vaporize you before you can move." He looked up at the sky. "He should also tell his mistress to drop in and give this guy the 'welcome chat' and tell him the rules. Kid's got training and didn't try to fight back, think it's safe to move to that step."

It was for the benefit of him, not David or the dragon, that his mask slips back on.  He had a feeling he owed this 'mistress' an apology and an explanation, too.  As for the 'mask' you had to put on a good face if you wanted to make it in the service industry.

"If tonight works, ask her to give me a few hours.  Have some things to take care of.  And some research about this world to do it seems.  More than I thought I would.  Identities made into public knowledge."

He shakes his head a little at that.

"Masks were made for a reason."

And yes, he was talking to an invisible dragon as if it was the most natural thing to do.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:50, Fri 28 July 2017.

"I've been retired for decades, my son about 5 years. He doesn't need his mask anymore and we didn't need them in my day, because we didn't exist. First lesson, powers and stuff come and go in cycles here, last one before this one started in the 30's ended in the 70's. Back then the government kept powers and the creepy shit germany was up to away from the public, far as they were concerned, it was all fiction.

Back in ww2 there was a covert team of powered people from various allied nations to counter the nazi's occult science division. I was one of them. After the war the government formed the dpa in secret to deal with the same sort of problems. When new paras stopped showing up, and the old ones started disappearing, it was disbanded.

A good 40 years later, new ones started popping up. They adopted masks, codenames, and fancy costumes, and eventually the public found out about them, starting with the Legacy, which my son was a part of. Now we're past the 'transition phase' the legacy have disbanded, either dead or retired, and my son going into politics. Following so far?"

"Interesting.  One would think escalation would keep things chugging along.  Though I suppose other forces, and beings, could be at play as well to maintain a certain eb and flow of natural human development.  It's a widely accepted theory that Metahumans.  Parahumans could cause damage to society as a whole.  I did do some research when I arrived, just trying to figure out where I was.  The Para Parties that Professor Para has written about.  That's worse than any affect that was theorized.  It moved more towards stagnation and lethargy.  About that time I realized I wasn't going back anytime soon.  If ever.  So shelter and food needs took over."

  As Kevin and David spoke, a seemingly four foot long oriental dragon with seven toes on each clawed foot and scales in shades of a starry night sky.  The long mane around it's head was silvery, and the horns on it's head were glittering crystal.  It said "She assigned me to watch, and to destroy if he is a threat.  Thus far, he has not shown any signs of being a true threat, merely an innate interdimensional traveler.  She will be back after she finishes business with the Shadow Keeper, she got paged while at the Market."
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:14, Fri 28 July 2017.

David nodded grimly. "Yeah those are a rough business. It's a mixed bag of good and bad effects for the most part. Don't think it's any better or worse for society, just different. Though technology did progress real fast."


"The two of them have 'business'? Not a chat, or drinks, or whatever immortal unofficial adoptive siblings do for bonding? That anything worth worrying about?" David didn't even blink at the appearance of the dragon, as if this was just was completely within the realm of normal for him, which judging by what he had said about himself so far it probably was.

He had a feeling he knew who this Mistress might be.  It would seem he was right.  Listening to both the dragon and David he excuses himself quickly as he takes his cellphone out, dialing a number.

"Hey Jeremy, yeah it's Greg.  Listen, I have a customer I'm supposed to pick up in about twenty minutes but something just came up.  Yeah I'm alright, just need to take care of some things.  You'll be able to cover the ride?  Alright, thanks!  I appreciate it.  Take care."

Hanging up his phone, he steps back towards the two.

"I appreciate the judgement so far, especially since it keeps me alive.  Though if she'll be back and expecting me, we may as well find somewhere a bit more private than a back alley to talk and wait.  My car's secure so it can survive where I parked it for however long this will take.  Besides, between your two connections, maybe I'll be able to get in touch with someone that can make use of training better than a private cab driver.  Not that there's anything wrong with the occupation, just I was always taught to operate at your... full potential."

A frown crosses his lips, briefly, as he shakes his personal thoughts away.

  The Dragon nodded, and said "You may wait inside, in one of the private dining rooms if you wish, or elsewhere, but I will be able to inform you when the Mistress returns."  It's piece said, the Dragon began to fade from view like a ghost vanishing.

"Thank you."

There was just a lot going on, that he pretty much just had to laugh at.  He doesn't, though his smile for the first time in a long time is honest and not just a mask put on for the world at large.  A glance is given towards David and then he heads back into the diner.  Briefly talking to a few of the staff and being directed towards the private dining rooms.

There are different degrees of private, to a certain extent.  A quick glance is given over the offerings and he picks the one that seems the most secure.  The door could lock, or at least it stuck a bit more.  He'd have a few seconds warning if someone started to come in the room.

He removes his cellphone from his pocket and places his thumbs and index fingers on the back and sides.

"Alfred, cancel Omega Protocol.  Compile any data that you can about David and Donald Daring.  Except information about family.  Known associates and declassified information from service during World War II and the Legacy.  Pull up news paper articles pertaining to Parahuman activity in Weston City and the world at large.  I want to be brought up to speed as much as I can."

"Of course, Master Jordan."  The voice was that of an older gentleman with a British accent.

If David followed him into the room.

"I appreciate the history lesson, really I do.  But it's good to get information from multiple sources.  And would be nice to have that data easily accessible.  Alfred is an AI I developed to help me keep everything straight."

As he speaks, his hands shift slightly and the phone follows suit.  Opening up and with a slight bit of pressure splitting into a bit of a tripod with a small holographic projector at the center.  Multiple screens form in the air in front of Kevin as he sets the tripod on the table.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:43, Fri 04 Aug 2017.

David bid his goodbyes as Kevin headed into the private room and went to join his family.

"Certainly Master Kevin. One moment, compiling." Alfred replied.

" Weinstein, David, A.K.A. Mr Hurt. German citizen of Hebrew descent attending art school in Berlin in 1936. When Adolf Hitler began herding the german jews into Concentration Camps David was taken to a secret testing facility along with his twin brother Simon. The facility was attempting to perfect a technique for creating super-soldiers, and the twins were their first successes. David escaped, killing the senior scientists and destroying the facility. He was later found by a top secret group of allied parahumans (the local term for metahuman) known as the Secret Defenders. The team primarily fought against the efforts of the nazi Occult Science Division and David joined them as Mr. Hurt. Mr Hurt, along with Defenders Radiant Dragon, Brigand, Machinesmith, and Le Chat, was part of the team that eliminated Adolf Hitler and his senior OSD officers after they escaped the fall of Berlin.

After the war David emmigrated to the states where he became an agent for the Department of Paranormal Activities, where he met and married a secretary named Martha Howard. Martha died in childbirth causing David to lose his mind and go into isolation (no doubt aggravated by the experiments the nazis performed) The child was given to a wealthy couple named James and Darla Derring. They named the child Donald. Mr. Hurt later re-emerged in 2014 when his mind was healed by a telepath known as Seer. He then reunited with his son and grandchildren, now serving as head of security for Senator Derring and his family.

One moment sir, compiling data on Donald Derring

As Alfred compiles and he listens to the report on David, Kevin was doing his own bit of work.  Birth records and the missing person's case for him is brought up.  A case he recently, quietly, closed.  It wasn't difficult, it was a decades old cold case that no one was likely working.  The difficult part was bringing himself back from the dead, but that wasn't too difficult.  Still he didn't want to do anything big, large scale for an occupation to bring attention to him.

The other names in the Secret Defenders are noted, and as Alfred compiles he begins searching for those names himself.

"Donald Emmanuel Derring Sr. a.k.a The Hunter. Raised by wealthy socialites James and Darla Derring, young Donald grew up in relative luxury but was an angry, violent child. Sealed records state he was in his first physical altercation at the age of six, where he seriously injured three boys significantly older and larger than him. It appears he inherited the physical enhancements, natural combat aptitude, and berserker like rages of his father. However his abilities were subtle enough to go unquestioned, merely believed to be 'naturally talented'. It is also worth noted several of the altercations were supposedly started by either insults to his parents or in defense of child hood friend Eleanor Van Diemien.


After a particularly violent incident Donald was sent to military school, where the military discipline seemed to teach him to control and harness his temperament and talents. At one trip home he met his future wife, Ellen EngleHart. After he graduated Donald joined the army, highly impressing his instructors both in school and at boot camp. He was recruited into the Rangers and later into Black ops. Here is where he met future Weston Police Commisioner Richard Jordan. Both served in the same squad as Sergeant and Liutenant. Donald left the military at age 26, and soon married his high school sweetheart, Ellen.

Donald began working at his adoptive Father's company, later taking over when James Derring passed away two years later, and Darla six months after that. Two years after seizing control of the company appears to be when he began his career as a vigilante, a full year months before the first reported para sighting. When The Hunter was tracking down a group of kidnappers targeting wealthy women, Ellen was taken by the same group he was out tracking.

He managed to track down the group, but Ellen was killed in the scuffle. Afterwards Donald went into isolation until he was approached by a technopath using the codename Spider. The two formed a partnership, and later a relationship. She was found  by one of his enemies, and she was sent away under a false idenitity. Shortly afterwards is where he and the other costumed crimefighters known as the legacy met when they responded to the same incident. They later were publically revealed on live television, and saved the world from a powerful psychic known as Brain.

After defeating Brain Hunter continued his vigilante activities while distancing himself from the legacy,  later reconnecting with his childhood friend Eleanor who revealed that Ellen had known Donald was the Hunter, and agreed with it. Eleanor and Donald began a relationship and Spider returned with a baby girl and news that she was dying of cancer. Donald and Eleanor began to raise the girl and Donald retired from his vigilante activities and entered into politics after he was publically outed. Eleanor and Donald later had a son, Donald Jr.

Legacy-Founding Members.
Dragon Fist: Supposedly chosen by a mystical being known only as "The Teacher" as the champion of light. Initially Peregrine's second in command he later assumed command of the team he later took the leadership role after her death. Romantically linked with Peregrine and Mirage. Master Martial Artist, Mysical armor, gliding, energy fields surrounding hands and feet. Currently Active.

Peregrine(Friday Winters): A mix of mobiility, physical power, and psychic ability, Peregrine was the initial leader as well as the core of The Legacy. A private detective and former MP Peregrine was the cool head of the team balancing the dfferent personalities of the members. She died fighting a demon known as Ahriman.

Hotwire Ezekiel "Zeke" Urban: Able to both absorb technology and travel into electronic systems, former 'hacktivist' that ran into the others by chance, and later reformed. Now runs a training camp for parahumans. Retired.

Enigma Marcus Murray: Master Sorceror, grandson of Robert Murray aka Maester, former secret Defender and friend of Brain. The one to inform the team of Brain's existence, had been chasing him for killing his grandfather. Killed in the Final battle with Brain.

Mirage: Mysterious vigilante who specialized in rapists and sex traffickers, possesing teleportation and illusionary abilities. Deceased

Later Additions.

Lady Psyche (Cpt Katy Hanson Weston Pd. SPecial Crimes unit): First parahuman police officer and police liasion with the Legacy. Retired from Legacy when she took over the SCU from Commisioner Jordan.

Charles Carrington (Knight Errant) Security guard who discoverd mystical set of armor when he donned it during an attempted robbery. Deceased.

Nokomis Kensington (StormWalker) CSI with Weston PD. Superhuman strength, durability, and weather control. Became proffesor of Forensic studies at Weston U after losing powers in a battle with the life-force drainer known as Life-leech.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:02, Thu 10 Aug 2017.

This world was quite a lot to take in.  Vigilantes barely being tolerated, heroes all but expected to register.  He had to remember not to judge this world based on his own.  It was difficult.

"Run diagnostics on the suit and Osprey.  I want to make sure the trip here didn't damage any of their systems."

With the final orders given, he closes the phone.  He had questions, but they were perhaps better left for another time.  The faster this meeting went with this Dragon's Mistress, the better probably.  Slowly he mulls it over, and after a bit of thinking he figures the Commissioner was perhaps the better of the two choices he had.  If he spoke to either of them.  He was not just going to sit by on the sidelines, which meant he may find himself crossing paths with the police department with his own investigations.

Where to start, that was another situation to cover.  He would wait and see how this meeting went.  Maybe he could get some insights.

------------>>  From DPA offices

  Lin entered the private dining area, a physically unimpressive woman of five foot two, with ebony hair piled atop her head in an intricate style, held in place by combs of hand carved jade that looked museum quality antique.  She wore a casual silk blouse done in elaborate Dragon designs, some of them looking painted, some actually embroidered into the fabric, and said "I understand you had a few questions?"

He had to allow a bit of a bemused smile as he stands and watches her walk in.  Bemused and yet somehow keeping an air of respect about it.  It only lasted for a few seconds and was quickly replaced with an honest smile.

"I'm not used to being on this side of the table."

A hand is extended.

"Kevin Jordan.  At least that is the name my adoptive family gave me.  Apparently in this reality, my parents named me Greg Jenkins."

The amusement was at the situation he found himself in, not the physical stature of the woman he found himself talking to.  He's known for a very long time looks are deceiving and not to trust them.  To look beyond them at the situation.

  Lin nodded, shaking his hand, and said "I did sense your arrival.  I have my Dragons monitor all new arrivals to the dimension to assure that I get early warnings when hostiles show up.  If they 'vanish' or go off the Dragon's radar, then I know I may need to act.  You, however, did not attempt to vanish, but to integrate.  You dimension hopped as a baby, I'm attributing that to an innate parahuman knack for dimension hopping.  I am the Mistress of Dragons, and I work closely with the Shadow Keeper and some others to help keep the people of this dimension unmolested by hostiles from other dimensions.  What other questions plague you?"

"It never occurred to me that it was more myself than an outside force."

Maybe there was a bit of musing there, but it is shaken off.  There were other things to consider.  A lot of things to consider.

"I was wondering if you might have some insight as to what caused me to leave this reality.  That seems to have been answered though.  How many dimensions are you familiar with?  If anyone comes looking for me from that dimension... they may stick out a bit more than I have.  And depending who else crosses over, they will probably do everything they can to stick out.  There are a number that like to stand out."

  Lin nodded, and said "Depending on how they attempt to 'stick out'. will depend on how they are handled.  Sticking out by being a hero won't provoke a dangerous response,
 becoming a criminal will have the local parahuman heroes dealing with them.  Threatening this dimension, well, it will bring out the big guns and the bad shit that can happen to threats.
  And believe me, at my age, when I call it bad shit, you know it's nothing to sneeze at.
  I am most likely one of the oldest living people you will ever meet."

"People from Terra, in that case you're probably right."

A few quick seconds are used to mull things over.

"There is something I need help with.  I take it the dragon I saw has been following me for the few weeks that I have been here?  In that case, they may have seen me burying an object wrapped up in some sheets I found.  Out in the cave, by the cliffs.  It is an out of the way spot, but it is not perfect.  If you know of somewhere that would be more secure.  Not a government lab where they may poke and prod it.  Just somewhere that it can be more difficult to get to than a cave.

Also, does my temporary companion have a name?  If so, how long will they be with me after this meeting?  If a human isn't a complete bore to speak to, might be nice to know who else I'm addressing when I think I'm talking to myself."

  Lin chuckled, and said "The fellow I have had tailing you is Xing Chao.  He's fond of humans, which is one reason why he likes doing what he does.  If you would like him to follow you around for a while longer, he can.  Of course, if you want him to, he can appear to be a dragon tattoo, and literally be with you everywhere you go.  The Dragons are very handy fellows if you like having an unexpected ally anywhere you go.  With regards to the vehicle, there are a lot of underground tunnels and formations in this area, Weston could be said to be rotten with them.  The government knows about a good number of them, but there are still a few that they don't know about.  The real question is, do you just want a place to hide your vehicle, or do you want a place to set up a base and work from?"

"I do need a place to set up a base of operations."

A soft sigh is given at that, he didn't want to get involved with the registration situation and yet he didn't have the resources he had back home.  Didn't have a team.

"It's good to meet you, Xing Chao."  While his foreign language skills were rudimentary at best, he at least had a knack for pronouncing names.  "I'll let you decide which route you want to go.  As for how I would like to operate.  What would you suggest?  And, I wasn't speaking just about the vehicle.  I was brought here via, an object.  Or at least partly due to it, probably.  It is something that should be more secure than it is right now."

And as far away from me as I can get it.

  Lin nodded, and said "I can make a good suggestion, although you may be hesitant to approach the person it includes talking to, but I can assure you she's trustworthy.  Have Megaira Kattakara purchase a particular section of land near her home, and she can help you get a base set up.  I know she has both the means and the right mindset to help you.  She's my daughter."

  Xing Chao appeared, and inclined his head to Kevin, answering "I think you might need a companion for a while.  I will travel with you.  Megaira is a good ally to have, believe us."

A young lady wanders over to the cafe. She stares at the entrance for a bit, looks down, then looks at the door again before entering. She then looks for the sign that indicates whether to seat yourself or to wait to be seated.

The girl seems preoccupied with something. Maybe deep in thought. Maybe distracted by a recent event. Whatever the case, she doesn't appear to be paying too much attention. Despite this, she will do whatever the sign indicates.

  One of the staff seated her at the 'bar', where another staff member asked her "What can we get for you today, Miss?"

Antoinette pulls her eyes from the counter to the staff member's eyes, gets a small smile and says in a soft voice, "...today's special, please."

Her eyes start to wander slowly and steadily to look around at the cafe.

  The waitress smiled, and said "One daily special coming up.  Anything to drink with that?"

Antoinette pauses from looking around, looks back at the waitress, returns the smile and says softly, "Water, please."

This time, she kept her eyes on the waitress's eyes while keeping a smile.

  The staff member nodded, and she headed to the drink fountain where she dished up the ice and water, then brought it to Antoinette.  She said "It will be a couple minutes, the cooks make the food fresh when it is ordered, so you get the best quality without losing anything to things being warmed or reheated."

A fairly large man walked in the establishment. He had a bit of the thousand yard stare going on as he stood waiting for his seat.

  The waitress seating people came up, and asked him "Just yourself, or are you waiting for a party?  I can seat you . . ."

In reply to Lin (msg # 75):

An independent person, quietly buying a patch of land was his best bet short of going to the government.  He trusted the government but at the same time, there was a reason he wore a mask.

"Sounds good, allies are always welcome.  If you can get in contact with your daughter for me, I'd appreciate it.  I hope the suit won't cause a problem for you, Xing Chao.  I'll head to the cave and start getting things packed up and making a list of the equipment I'll need."

Antoinette is currently sitting alone at a table with a waitress standing next to her. She answers the waitress with a smile as her voice remains a consistent soft tone, "Thank you. What is your name?"

Antoinette waits for the waitress to answer before she slowly looks in John's direction, smiles and waves at him as though she knows the man from somewhere.

A man walked in, eyes alert, despite his desire to relax. He noticed an empty table near a window which looked out onto the courtyard, and catching the eye of one of the staff and receiving an assenting nod to seat himself, did so.

His bearing was military, despite the shaggy haircut, and the well-worn leather satchel he carried, when opened, produced a dog-eared copy of "Zen Flesh, Zen Bones,: which he began to read while waiting amiably for the waitstaff to come over.

"Just... me, yes that's right" John snapped out his lethargic state. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw someone wave at him. Did she know who he was?

A scruffy looking puppet that looks like a cat with wild eyes ( https://vignette1.wikia.nocook...st?cb=20070730101258 ) moseys into the Cafe.  It approaches the bar and looks up for a moment before concentrating and teleporting up to be "standing" on the bar's surface.  In truth, this is just Mittens using her teleportation powers to enter the scene while dealing with the police elsewhere.  More accurately, it's Mittens' right hand with a puppet on it.

"Clean Shirley Temple on the rocks, stirred, not shaken," the puppet requests before staring out the window, "I need a drink after what I saw today."

  John was shown to a seat at the bar, while Mittens got told gently "Sorry, nothing alcoholic, just coffee, teas, smoothies, and other things along those lines.  We could make you a double chocolate mocha with whipped cream and chocolate syrup, if you like?"

  Antoinette's waitress said "I'm Amy, but anyone here will be just as polite."

  Dane, after taking a window seat, found a young man waiting on him, who politely (kid looked no more than 14 at best) asked him "Can I take your order?"

  Kevin got a nod from Lin, who told him wryly "My daughter owns Apokryphos.  She'll be in sometime today, so it isn't hard to catch her."

  Xing Chao shook his head, and snaked over, around Kevin's arm, and then flattened onto his skin, then slid down and around his chest so that he wasn't obvious.

Antoinette answers Amy with, "OK."

She then turns her attention to the puppet. Then Dane. Then John. Antoinette looks back at the waitress. In her usual soft tone, she slowly says, "Is it OK if I try to get a seat with the three who just came in? Each one is alone. If they want company, I would like to offer it."

The puppet briefly glances at Antoinette as if responding to her suggestion then continues to stare out the window as if still traumatized by the day's events.

"Though normally Mittens would love the idea of such a tasty chocolate drink, the horror of the day she wants to forget was chocolate related.

"A 'Shirley Temple' is just jargon for a soda.  'On the Rocks' means with ice.  Thank you for treating me with respect."

The puppet dips down and noms something on the other side of the portal.  When it stands back up, it has a $5 bill in its mouth which it places on the bar.

Kevin gives a little smile at the feel of Xing Chao catching a ride on his body.  There was also something else, a guide, an ally.  He had them back home but never quite like this in many ways.

"I'll keep that in mind, I really should be going.  The equipment I have will be enough for my means now.  Need to make sure I'm at least semi up and running after all.

Thank you."

Dane smiled at the waiter. "I was told that leaving it to the discretion of the chef was my best move, so with that in mind, I'd like something with scallops, something on the spicy side, and no eggplant, but the rest is up to you. And a Coke Zero."

After being seated he looks at the menu. "I'll have coffee, dark roast" said John to the worker at the bar.

  The barista dealing with Mittens smiled, and said "That works.  Sodas we have in plenty.  Probably in more varieties than you would expect, I know it blew my mind when the soda menu was shown to me the first time.  Want something standard, local, or exotic?"

  John's dark roast was served up with steaming hot freshness, the cup made at a one-cup coffee machine behind the bar as he watched.  They'd settled him, as a single diner, at the bar as well, since there were a lot of families that liked to come and dine here.

  Dane got a nod, and she repeated "Spicy with scallops, no eggplant.  I'll let the chef know she can get creative with your meal other than that."

  Antoinette had also been seated at the bar, so the barista waved her toward the others, and said "You're welcome to talk to other patrons, we don't discourage polite and friendly interactions.  It's only people starting fights and violence that get ejected from the building."

  Lin chuckled, and said "Well, you know where to find Meg, so come see her when you are ready.  I am going to get back to the kitchen.  My 'day job' here, so to speak, is being part of the family business that my daughter started.  It lets me play with the food combinations, which is almost as much fun as making up new spells half the time."

(OOC Ah. Some reason, I was imagining tables rather than a bar. But bar works perfect for being able to socialize with multiple individuals that came alone.)

Antoinette gets up and goes to John, Dane and Mittens. She looks at them each, smiles, and says, "Hello." and sits.

She slowly looks over to Dane. "Nice book." she comments. She then turns her eyes towards Mittens. "I like the puppet."

Antoinette then turns to look at John. "I thought... you three might want a friend."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:40, Wed 30 Aug 2017.

The puppet first addresses the barista. "Mittens was once again torn over the question.  On the one hand, she usually loves the exotic.  On the other, stability in a mixed-up world is what she's yearning for after the... events.

"Ah who are we kidding, exotic, please!"

In answer to Antoinette, a cheerful voice emerges from below the puppet, "Why thank you!"

After which, the embarrassed puppet clears its throat and answers darkly, "I mean...  Why thank you."

It slowly turns its gaze to the aforementioned book then slowly gazes out the window again.  Suddenly, it double-takes at the book, and jaw-drops!

"I think I've been playing a bit too much 'day job' life.  Time to get focused on what really matters.  Besides, if I'm going to be moving, I have some new friends to say good bye to."

A warm smile is offered as he excuses himself.

Walking out into the main room, he takes notice of the new people that had arrived since he had.

And the puppet with the wild eyes.  The apparently animated puppet without anyone controlling it.  Still it didn't seem to be harming anyone.  Though that's how it usually started.

Flexing his hands a little, he starts heading for the door.

At one of the corner booths sat a family of five. The Father was wearing a suit, though his jacket lay on the seat beside him, and his tie was loose. He had short blonde hair and piercing blue eyes that seemed to take in his entire surroundings. Beside him sat a woman in a casual dress with long wavy red hair, and across from them sat two children, a boy of about five and a girl of about seven, and an older gentleman also in a suit, presumably the grandfather judging by the resemblance.

Anyone familiar with local politics or superheroes would instantly recognize the family, in fact anyone who turned on a television in the last 10 years would have trouble not recognizing them. The Father was Donald Derring, U.S. Senator and key figure in the parahuman rights movement, but his fame truly came from his time as "The Hunter" bow wielding vigilante and founding member of the Legacy. Which would make the older man David, aka "Mr. Hurt' ww2 era supersoldier and veteran of the Secret Defenders, a top secret squad of parahumans that fought the Nazis' Occult Science division.

The woman was Eleanor Derring, heir to the Van Diemien family fortune, and the children Diantha and Donald Jr. The children were both born with active parahuman genes and have already found themselves as a sort of symbol to the rise of parahumans.

Kevin notices the Derring family, though doesn't want to intrude on their family time out.  Still if he manages to make eye contact with David, a polite but slightly imperceptible nod is offered his way.

Dane nodded in response to Antoinette, but then smiled as he saw Senator Derring, and, folding his napkin and setting it down, he stood and walked over.

He paused, still smiling, and he said, "Senator! It's good to see you again! I don't want to intrude, but I just wanted to tell you again how much I appreciated your kind words in DC."

He nodded to the Senator's wife, "Ma'am," and his father, "Sir."

And then crouched down, and smiled at the kids. "Hey, kids. I got to meet your dad a few months ago, and I got to meet the President, too."

Then he leaned in and whispered, a twinkle in his eye, "Your dad was waaaaaaay cooler."

[From Home]

Serena walks in the cafe looking slightly rumpled but clean. Her face is drawn and she has dark circles under her eyes but she's steady on her feet as she waits to be seated.

"Well thank you, I'm new to this part of town. Got a new job or at least a chance for it" he said to Antoinette. John recognized "The Hunter" and nodded but did nothing more.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:31, Thu 07 Sept 2017.

In reply to Dane Sinclair (msg # 101):

Don looked up, smiling in recognition, as he heard Dane's voice. He stood up, offering his hand for a shake. "Sergeant Sinclair, it's good to see you again. How have you been adjusting to civilian life?"

  Diantha smiled at Dane, and waved at him, poking her brother as she did.  Little kids WILL be little kids, after all.

Antoinette didn't notice Don walk in. But she did notice Dane get up and walk away. As if it took her a second to notice, though, Antoinette slowly turns her head to look in Dane's direction. Anyone paying attention to her expression would see that for a little while, she doesn't really seem to notice Don or his family even though she is looking directly at Dane. But that moment passes and her curious expression, rather than turning to shock, simply turns to a smile and she waves at Don and his family, whether they look her way or not.

The girl then turns her attention back to John and Mittens' puppet. In her usual, soft tone, she says, "My name is Antoinette. What may I call you?"

In reply to Hunter (msg # 104):

Dane smiled. "Very well, sir. I took some time and did some hiking and traveling. It was nice to travel in some remote areas without having to watch out for the Taliban. Yosemite is still, from my experience, free from bad people."

Then he shrugged lightly. "I've decided to work with Director Sharpe. See if I can make a difference."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:51, Mon 11 Sept 2017.

In reply to Kevin Jordan (msg # 98):
The puppet's eyes follow the good looking guy headed for the door, but then a war hero strikes up a conversation with a senator, and the poor puppet looks shocked!  "I'm beginning to think I have a deeper superpower than I thought..." it whispers, "Or is this the workings of that 'fate' mumbo-jumbo they spoke of in Space Zen School."

Antoinette's addressing the thugish looking guy with the pleasant demeanor snaps the puppet back to the immediate matter at hand.  Introductions.

"There are some who call me... Mittens!"

The puppet spews fire out of its mouth!  Ok, not really real fire.  It's just a trick using a portal in front of the mouth to a Halloween decoration:

https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB...-Flame-LED-Light.jpg

With that Monty Python reference out of the way, the puppet takes note of the slightly rumpled person who just walked in.

The young woman standing there has haunted, almost lifeless eyes that wander the cafe constantly, never seeming to settle on any one person or place for long. Something- exhaustion perhaps, has leeched the colour from her cheeks and left her looking ghostly white. Her hands seem to shake very slightly now and again as she waits for a seat.

There was that slight uncoiling as the fire is shot from the puppets mouth, but it is reigned in and fairly well masked as realization settles in.  A breath and he centers himself again.

This world was strange, and was going to take a lot of getting used to.

A glance is given towards Serena as he excuses himself past her.  The smile on his face is warm enough though he doesn't maintain eye contact with her for long.

With that he was out the door.  The visit to the Café had been very educational.  And he was feeling a bit overwhelmed in a way.  It had been a long time since he had been around so many new people.  Not to mention seeing abilities being used out in the open, identities made public even if they were in the past.  And then there was the registration.

Getting into his car, he pulls away from the area.  It was a lot to take in.

And he had work to get to.

>>>>>>>  Cliffs of Weston >>>>>

Even as Antoinette is waiting for John's response, she looks in the direction of the doorway to the cafe. Should Serena look in Antoinette's direction, she will see Antoinette's eyes locking with Serena's.

Serena's eyes continue their aimless wandering of the cafe until she catches someone looking at her and there her gaze stays, caught in the intensity of the other woman's eyes locked with hers.

The hand holding the strap of her purse tightens until the knuckles turn white and she returns the stare, mind going blank.

Antoinette makes a beckoning motion at Serena. She is saying something, but unless Serena's superpower is heightened hearing, Serena will likely just see Antoinette's mouth moving.

To John and Mittens, however, they hear Antoinette say, "There is room over here."

Serena's breath hitches for a moment as she is beckoned over and hears what Antoinette says and she, for just a second, looks like she's about to bolt before she begins slowly walking over.

"My name's John" nodding slightly. He noticed Serena but decided not to look at her after seeing her nervousness.

In reply to Kevin Jordan (msg # 109):

"The puppet identifying itself as Mittens is a little embarrassed that her display caused someone distress, so maybe it's for the best that only one person reacted to a puppet breathing fire in the room.  Would have expected a reaction from the kids at least.  Maybe they were distracted."

Said puppet "scooches" a little in order to make room for the newcomer.  In truth, the portal the puppet "standing" in simply moves to the side while the puppet makes a scooching motion.

"Mittens is loving the company of her new friends but is unsure how to strike up a conversation...  The horrifying sight she had seen that day was probably not a good starting point.  Oh right!  John had mentioned a chance at a new job."

The puppet addresses John without making direct eye contact, if such a thing is possible, "What sort of job, Sir John?"

The newcomer starts to say something but stops and clears her throat. "Serena."

Her voice is hoarse from lack of use or strong emotion - likely both given the look in her eyes.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:31, Mon 11 Sept 2017.

In reply to Dane Sinclair (msg # 106):

The Senator smiled. "That's good to hear, had a bit of trouble myself but my case isn't exactly typical. And last I checked there's still no criminal organizations in the national parks, though I suppose some are big enough they could fit a smuggling ring or two. I'm sure not needing to march with sixty pounds of gear on your back makes the trip much more pleasant as well." Don nodded at the mention of Ethan. "He's a good man, him and my Father served together in the Defenders. They still go out drinking about once a month."

Having not yet sipped from her glass of water, Antoinette offers it to Serena. "Nice to meet you, Serena." she says softly.

She looks at Mittens' puppet inquisitively at the mention of throwing fire out its mouth and stuff. "...I thought it was neat." she comments quietly.

With Mittens making room for Serena, Antoinette didn't need to scoot. But she has a small smile for Serena before looking at John in anticipation of his answer to Mittens.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:43, Mon 11 Sept 2017.

Serena takes the offered glass and drinks most of it in one swallow. "Thank you. It's good to meet you."

She resumes looking through the cafe, lapsing into silence unless someone talks to her.

Dane chuckled. "I'm not one for parties, but for THAT one I'd go. Sir." he finished, nodding respectfully at Senator Derring's father.

Then he straightened up, and nodded to everyone, in turn. "Senator. Ma'am. Sir. Kids. I've taken up enough of your time. Good to see you, Senator."

John looks over at "The Hunter" "If everything goes well I'll be like him, a hero. That is assuming I don't die in the process".

Antoinette doesn't bother looking. She already waved to The Hunter, knows who John is talking about and wants to keep her eyes on the people in front of her.

She continues in her soft tone and answers John, "All we can do is our best."

Then slowly turns to look at Serena. "What is it you do, Serena?"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:15, Sun 17 Sept 2017.

The blonde woman starts slightly, seemingly surprised at being spoken to or perhaps forgetting that there were people around her at all. She looks uncomfortable and stares at the hand in her lap. Her left hand, the one wearing a wedding ring.

"I...I don't do anything right now. I was in school but not...not right now." She replies, voice just loud enough to be heard.

In reply to Serena Wyndham (msg # 119):

"Mittens is impressed with Serena's chugging prowess and subconsciously feels challenged to attempt to one-up her.  (A feat she likely can only accomplish by cheating through the use of portals.)

"But the soft-spoken brunette's complimenting the fake fire-breathing tempers the eccentric cat's natural proclivity for one-upmanship, so she instead turns her attention Sir John - the dude who she's liking more and more every time he speaks.

"Me to!  I've aspired to becoming a hero since I was little!  What sort of hero were you aiming at?  There's so many possibilities!"

Serena looks like she wants to talk but isn't sure how to start a conversation. She's obviously had something very traumatic happen to her and anyone sitting next to her can smell alcohol metabolising.

"What about you? What do you do?" She finally blurts out in a rush.

Antoinette says softly, "I work at my parents' farm. And I work for The Think Tank. I like to help people."

With a small smile, Antoinette looks to Mittens and says softly, "If you want to challenge someone and win, challenge me." it is hard to tell if her matter-of-fact way of speaking makes it look like she was serious about that.

She looks back at Serena. "Why aren't you in school?"

Serena looks down at her hands which begin to tremble slightly. "I...lost my husband so I left school. I left everything."

Her voice cracks and she looks away, out the window into the parking lot.

In reply to Mittens (msg # 124):

"I plan on registering soon. It'll keep the government off my back at the very least".

One of the may advantages of alien tech is the ability to interface with terrestrial tech hands-free and voice command free.  So Mits secretly does two searches on her smartphone: One on an online obituary search engine for anyone in the area that recently died who is survived by a wife named Serena, and a second search for "How to comfort a perfect stranger."  While Mittens does have a heart, and it is breaking for Serena's loss, she doesn't have the first clue on how to help.  Maybe if Serena were 5 years old, a silly cat puppet might be of some comfort.

Meanwhile, figuring that the soft voice and non-muppet appearance of Antoinette to be far better for a hungover grieving widow, the puppet nods to John.  "Freelance, then? That's really interesting!  I've been taking a crash course in law at the local college in hopes of being accepted at the Interpol academy.  My parents insist that having a badge opens way more doors than my magical portals ever could.  What would be your specialty, then?  And please don't say, 'Rescuing cats out of trees.'"

Seemingly not worried about social rules concerning people one has just met, Antoinette gets up from her seat, takes a few steps over to Serena, and hugs her. She says nothing for the time being.

Serena freezes when Antoinette hugs her. She goes absolutely still for the length of a heartbeat and then her arms wrap around the young woman and Antoinette feels hot tears begin to soak her top.

Antoinette keeps an arm around Serena, slowly reaches up with her other hand and pets her. "Sorry for your loss..." she says softly, her eyes showing compassion and sorrow for Serena.

Serena holds onto Antoinette as if the young woman is the only thing keeping her anchored to the world around her. She cries great wrenching sobs so strong that no noise is heard from her, despite the grief wracking her body.

As the young woman holds her she feels something change inside her. The massive, gaping wound in her souls closes just a bit; healed by the compassion of strangers and she feels strength enter her that she has not felt in too long.

Her eyes are closed and turned towards the window but, were anyone to look in and see them they would note they were gold and flames licked up her forehead.

Antoinette knows that words are not enough and never will be. On that note, she sobs some herself, crying on behalf of this poor lady. She just continues to pet Serena. She does not seem to notice the flames. At least for now.

Serena cries a bit more before appearing to cry herself out. As her emotions release with the tears so too the fire fades from her eyes. She lifts her head up from the young girl and gives a weak smile, wiping her face with a napkin.

"I'm sorry. You don't know me at all and I just lost control. Thank you for the concern." She says, her Aussie accent thick as she wipes her eyes.

Antoinette's cheeks have obvious tears on them as Serena looks at her, a look of compassion still on the gal's face. "I do not know you. But I know you need love. I will be your friend." she says softly.

Serena makes a noise halfway between a sniff and a giggle. "Thank you but I'm afraid I'm not a very good friend. I've been a wreck since...since it happened. I only left the house today to get things from the store; otherwise I don't leave unless people drag me out. I don't make for good company."

A tear slides down her cheek again.

Antoinette says softly, "If doctors shied away from their patients because they were bad company, nobody would be healed. In that way, people must not shy away from those who need help just because they are bad company."

Her hand reaches to wipe the tear away.

Serena gave that little hiccup-giggle again as a few more tears slid down her cheeks.

"You're very kind, thank you. I'd...I'd like to have a friend."

Antoinette goes to sit back down, if now making sure to sit next to Serena. She offers Serena a card that has her address and phone number written on it. "May I have your address and phone number?"

Serena nods and rattles of her address and phone number as requested.

"It may take multiple attempts at ringing me before I answer and multiple knocks on the door. I tend to sleep. A lot. And...drink. A lot. Until I pass out."

Serena had no idea why she was telling Antoinette this but the woman had a presence about her that made Serena feel she could share this without condemnation.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:53, Mon 16 Oct 2017.

After interrupting Senator Derring's dinner with his family briefly, Dane went back to sit at his table just as his food arrived.

He thanked the wait staff who brought his food, and began to eat.

He ate slowly, taking small bites; he wanted to enjoy his food and not overeat. Maintaining his physical conditioning was of paramount importance.

Antoinette pauses for a bit and says softly, "OK."

She then asks Serena, "...do you have any pets?"

"Oh god no. I can't take care of myself so I certainly couldn't take care of a pet. Ian..." She turns away for a moment. "Ian and I had talked about getting a German Shepard. We were even thinking of going to the shelter to look for one the week..."

Her voice trails off.

In reply to Serena Wyndham (msg # 144):

Dane ate slowly and deliberately, yet kept a surreptitious eye on the emotionally-charged situation at the other table. Firefights in the desert did not bother him, but crying women? Not at gunpoint.

Antoinette softly asks, "Would you like a robot pet?"

"A...robot pet? What exactly is a a robot pet besides a robot that's a pet. Do they look and act like pets? Can they offer company when I feel lonely."

She asks, head facing down towards the table.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:00, Wed 18 Oct 2017.

In reply to Mittens (msg # 129):

"What do you mean by specialty?" John asked.

Antoinette answers Serena, "Yes."

Her eyes are still fixed on Serena, regardless of where Serena is looking.

She's silent for a moment before nodding once. "That...that would be nice.

She pulls out another napkin and wipes her eyes. "I've been so lonely since my Ian was taken from me."

Much can happen in the space between a question and answer.  A heart-melting scene and endearing conversation, Mittens getting served her drink, and said drink disappearing into a portal, for example.

"That was Mittens' imperfect way of asking you what your superpowers are without presuming that you have superpowers," the puppet answers, "I'm sure you've guessed that my thing is portals."

Ian.  Very likely the same Ian Wyndham that Mits just read about.  Armed with this knowledge, Mits finally feels like it's safe to enter the scene in full since Antoinette is tanking the majority of the tear barrage like a champ.  So she portals into the room as nonchalantly as she can manage.

"Very sorry for your loss, Mrs. Wyndham.  My condolences.  Say the word, and you will have the company of an eccentric for what it's worth."

Oops!  Forgot about the disembodied puppet still peeking out of a separate portal.  Oh well.  She's the middle of a conversation with John anyway, so no need to fix that.  Though it winds up making Mittens look like she's missing a hand.

Antoinette says softly to Serena, "I can get you a robot pet..." then slowly looks at Mittens with a curious expression.

Serena jumps as Mitten's appears, seemingly out of nowhere and again when she sees the rather...unique appearance the young woman has but her words are another kindness which cut her to the quick. Another stranger quick to offer her friendship. She begins to tear up again.

"Thank...thank you. I appreciate the kindness of your offer. And yes please, Antoinette, I would like one."

She takes another napkin so she can rub her eyes.

In reply to Mittens (msg # 151):

"I can transform into other materials and change my shape". John said plainly

Grateful that she wasn't accused of being so nosy as to dig up the poor lady's last name, Mittens gives an overly fancy bow to Serena.

"You're quite welcome.  If there is any way a teleporting hero can be of aid, do let me know."

She stands upright again and nods to John.  "Neato!  That's so very handy!  You ever toy around with it just for fun?  'cause I can think of a million fun things to do with a power like that.  Jump scares for Candid Camera for one."

Antoinette smiles at Mittens and John. Then turns to look back at Serena and says, "Serena. May I install a monitoring system in the robot pet that I am giving you?"

Serena seems to draw into herself some. She hasn’t withdrawn completely but there’s a bit of guard up that she had dropped when she began to cry.

“A monitoring system? What do you mean?”

Antoinette says, "I can install a life monitor in the robot that will keep track of your physical health. This would be so that, when you do not answer the door, I will know whether it is because you are asleep, unconscious, or in need of medical attention. I am not a doctor, but I can heal people."

Serena begins to cry again and nods, unable to speak. She's touched that this stranger would care enough to want to make sure she was safe and ashamed at how badly she had fallen apart. Sadly though, she knew she wouldn't be able to put herself together again until she found the killers and avenged Ian's death.

After that...she didn't know and didn't care right now.

The food was superb. On the surface, kalamata olives and feta cheese did not gracefully combine with shrimp and Szechuan sauce, but whoever the chef was, he, or she, really got it to work.

It was so good, in fact, that Dane found himself eating his entire portion, which was unusual. He generally practiced a staggering amount of portion control, but today, he was just not motivated to do that.

A sidewards glance told him the emotions were still running a little high over at the other table, so he ordered another glass of water, and continued to keep his head down.

Antoinette nods to Serena, pets her back, and slowly looks over at Mittens. "Please keep Serena company. I will be back soon."

She then turns to look in Dane's direction and walks over to him. Once she is at his table, she slowly makes her eyes look at his, as if making a mental effort to do so. "Hi. My name is Antoinette." She has a small, hopeful smile.

It isn't that Antoinette is such a social butterfly... it's that circumstances are making her look like one. She wanted to care for the hurting lady. And she wanted to be there for anyone who needed her. But she also wanted to meet Dane specifically, once she saw him. Assuming this is, in fact, Dane and not just a very similar looking man.

Mits is taken aback by Antoinette unloading Serena into her most unqualified hands all of a sudden.

"And people call me weird..."

Now think of something constructive to say.  Something helpful.  Something from your space Zen training.

"But...  By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower."

Serena looks confused by this young woman in front of her - obviously not human but seemingly very nice, The statement she made is something of a puzzle.

"Sorry, what?"

When Antoinette made it clear she was approaching Dane's table, he would have set his fork down and stood.

"Hi, Antoinette. I'm Dane. How do you do?"

Dane seemed curious as to why this woman would approach a stranger, but gave her a welcoming (yet reserved) smile, none the less.

Antoinette answers Dane softly, "I am OK. Thank you. I hope you are well also. I have a friend who wants to meet you, but is nervous about it. Since I saw you here, I hoped to find out if you would be able to schedule a day to meet my friend."

In reply to Antoinette Rebeca Haze (msg # 165):

Dane frowned, and gestured to the seat in front of him as he sat himself.

“Why is your friend nervous? She must be very shy if she can’t approach me herself.”

"Hmm?"

Progress!  Mittens managed to not make things worse!

"I was first commenting about Antoinette's strange behavior.  Pot 'n kettle, right?  But then I reminded myself a Zen lesson learned while gallivanting about in space.  Ya know it's Zen when it doesn't simply say something plainly.  'By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower,' means 'don't nitpick a nice thing.'  Or it could be interpreted as 'mindlessly destroying a flower is a waste.'  Second tell-tale sign of Zen is that it's vague most times.  'Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.'  Sounds poetic, but not very practical, and what kinda wise lesson is that supposed to be teaching?  That shoes are bad because they hurt the Earth's feelings that you're not being intimate?  But then who wants to be kissed with a foot anyway?"

Serena's look of confusion grew as she processed the very strange things the rather odd young woman was saying until one thing jumped out at her and she giggled, which turned into a small laugh which steadily grew until she was laughing so hard tears were running down her face but, unlike before, these were tears brought on by the humourous statement and the sheer insanity of the thought of being kissed by feet.

This was the first time she had laughed like this since the attack and Ian's death and it was as if a bottle had been uncorked. She didn't remember how to laugh like this and certainly had no idea how to stop. But it was release of a different sort and release was essential.

Antoinette looks at where Dane gestured, sees it is a seat and sits herself down. She pulls out a photograph and offers it to Dane. It is of a little boy no older than 10. "He isn't shy. But he is quiet and reserved."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:51, Mon 30 Oct 2017.

In reply to Antoinette Rebeca Haze (msg # 169):

Dane smiled, and relaxed slightly. “Ah. I see. Your brother?”

Then he looked at the photograph again. “Sure, I’m happy to meet him, although... I suspect it is more complicated than you bringing him here? Are they any special circumstances I need to know about?”

Antoinette says softly, "No relation. Just a friend and a good boy. Special circumstances: He is a hero without super powers. It won't be complicated to bring him here, if you prefer. I can call him on the phone if you are willing right now."

In reply to Antoinette Rebeca Haze (msg # 171):

Dane shrugged amiably. "Sure. I can hang here for a while. The food is excellent; I imagine the desserts rock, too."

Then he smiled. "'A hero without powers.' Nothing wrong with that. Most of my friends are like that. So yeah, bring him around."

Antoinette smiles and says softly, "You are a nice man, Dane."

She then pulls out her phone and dials a number. When the other end picks up, Antoinette says, "Hi. I'm at the Apokryphos Cafe. Can you come?" _{"Sure. I was headed that way."} "OK. I'll see you when you get here."

She then sets the phone on the table and swipes its screen until there is a view of the street the cafe is on. Then turns her eyes back up towards Dane. "Thank you. This will mean a lot to him... what dessert are you getting?"

In reply to Antoinette Rebeca Haze (msg # 173):

Dane scratched his cheek where a line of lighter skin against the darker, tanned skin betrayed one of the scars he gained in the service.

“Doesn’t much matter. Although, for the record I’m a fan of coconut, so if there’s something with coconut, it’ll be that.”

He looked at Antoinette. “So, tell me about your friend. What’s his name, what’s his story, and why does he want to meet me? I mean, I’m good on the battlefield, but a pretty awkward interview. Especially with Senator Derring over there. He’s the real deal, from a distinguished line of real deals.”

Antoinette looks down at the photo of Maverick and says, "His name is Maverick. His hobbies include astrology, astronomy, geology, poetry, singing, spying and keeping detailed notes on people."

She locks eyes with Dane again. Up until now, her tone was spaced out, but for just this phrase, she mustered up all her focus and said clearly (if still softly), "You are the real deal too, Dane."

Then goes back her usual partly spaced demeanor, "Maverick also wants to meet Senator Derring. But you are alone and Senator Derring is having time with his family... I like coconut too."

Confusion.  Yes.  This is the reaction Mittens is accustomed to.  Gut-splitting raucous laughter is a new one coming from someone in morning.  But then, childish comedy at a funeral when she was younger is why her parents never took her to another again, so she hasn't had much experience with such things.  Yay for normally socially unacceptable behavior being a good thing for once!  Unless this is that laugh that signals the origin of a super villain.  That would be bad.

Mits grins proudly and stands heroically.  "Glad to see I'm not alone in understanding the silliness of that statement."

Serena laughs even harder as Mittens stands up and takes on the most ridiculous pose possible, to the point she's no longer making noise but holding her stomach as tears of unbridled joy are running freely down her face. She couldn't make herself stop laughing even if she wanted to at this point.

Dane listened, and then answered, "I'm happy to meet Maverick."

When Antoinette spoke about Dane being the real deal, he sat back slightly in his seat, and said, "I don't think we've met before, have we? You seem to know more about me than I do about you, aside from the fact that you like coconut."

Antoinette says slowly and softly, "The reason I know some about you is because I read about you getting the Congressional Medal of Honor and I have seen how you treat Senator Derring. I am sorry if I missed that you wanted to know about me: My hobbies include inventing, playing piano, sculpting, thinking, walking and working at my parents' farm."

A boy can be seen on the smartphone screen, walking towards the cafe. "That is Maverick."

An oxygen mask drops from the ceiling, and Mits offers it to Serena.  "Remember, parents: put on your own mask before your kids.  But if you're not a parent-child relationship, it's perfectly OK to give an oxygen mask to someone else first."

The cat puppet at the bar takes notice of multiple mentions of her buddy, Maverick.

"Oh yay!  Just what the doctor ordered."

In reply to Antoinette Rebeca Haze (msg # 179):

Dane brow furrowed slightly. He thought to himself, "Kindofa weird cadence to her speech. This feels like a strange encounter, but it doesn't seem hostile, so we'll roll with it for now."

He nodded. "Go ahead and bring him over then."

Serena is reduced to holding her stomach, shaking her head and crying, she’s laughing so hard. She feels, for now at least, months of anger, grief; and hatred ease in her chest as she watches Mittens.

“Oh god, stop...” She manages to gasp in between bouts of laughter.

When Maverick enters the cafe and, at first, is distracted by the laughing lady who seems to be hanging out with Mittens. So Maverick gets a little smile and waves at Mittens.

He then looks around to see Antoinette and notices Dane with her. His eyes slightly widen in surprise, but he tries to clam himself and heads over to where Antoinette and Dane are seated.

Antoinette smiles at Maverick and says, "Hi, Maverick. This is Dane. Dane, this is Maverick."

Maverick takes a deep breathe, but does a good job hiding it. Then offers his hand to Dane. "...hello, Dane. Honored."

The boy stands about 4'6", has dark brown hair, green eyes, and is wearing a dark blue jacket with black pants and a red shirt that has a T-rex on it.

In spite of having bounced around the universe for a couple years, Mittens can honestly say she's never seen a person laugh this hard.  She's getting honestly concerned Serena is in danger of passing out, but she's also worried that anything she says can and will be silly and likely to cause the poor lady to suffocate.  But how to stop someone from laughing without resorting to "let's switch to an unpleasant topic all of a sudden."

Lightbulb!  Mits pulls up a video on her phone and shows it to Serena.

( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWhPkPzqm4g )

"Dunno if you're a dog person or a cat person, but me personally, I like to look at both."

Serena keeps laughing for a moment after Mittens turns the phone in her direction, wiping her eyes before turning into a pile of goo at the video. "Oh my god, that is so bloody cute. I love animals in general but puppies and kittens are my weakness." She rubs her eyes again which have started tearing up again.

"That was adorable, thank you." She says, her accent very pronounced with her strong emotional state.

In reply to Maverick Sargas (msg # 183):

Dane stood up, and shook Maverick's hand. He was smiling, and his voice was jovial. "Hey there, little man! It's good to meet you. Have a seat."

After they sat, he said, "So! You hungry? Thirsty? What can I get for you?"

The light in the boy's face shows how happy Dane is making him already.

Once seated, Maverick says, "Gosh, really? Thanks! When Ms. Haze here told me where she was, I started thinking about food. Cheeseburger and milk would be perfect."

Antoinette smiles at Maverick and then looks at Dane. As always, Antoinette speaks in her soft tone, "Thank you, Dane. I will let you two talk while I check on Serena."

If Dane offers a handshake or parting comment, she stays for that before going to check on Serena.

Mav watches her and his eyes switch from Ant to Serena to Mittens before quickly returning his attention back to Dane. "Sorry if I'm intruding or anything..."

Mits smiles knowingly at Serena and nods.  "Me too!  I also have a weakness for Maverick over there.  So if you'll forgive me the quick interruption..."

She leans through a portal window to give Mav a sneak attack glomp and cheek rub.  "Hiya buddy!  Not ignoring ya.  Just got my hands full with making a new friend."

So that means that Mittens is now in three pieces.  A hand (wearing a puppet) at the bar, a disembodied torso hugging Mav, and a pair of legs standing next to Serena.  But said fracturing only lasts a moment before she returns to being in just two pieces so she can resume chatting with Serena.

"Mav's a long time friend of mine since before my misadventures in outer space.  So what's this I hear about a robot pet?  Are they housebroken?  Do they speak Australian?"

( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZIvfC7QEQU
...But sometimes just because they know Austrailian doesn't mean they won't just whinney then laugh at you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pX4lLYeUmY )
This message was last edited by the player at 07:03, Fri 10 Nov 2017.

In reply to Maverick Sargas (msg # 187):

Dane chuckled. "Well, this is an Asian-Greek restaurant, so I'm not sure they have cheeseburgers on the menu, but I can ask. Milk sounds easier."

He called the waitress over, and was a tad surprised when she told him that they could, after all, manage a serviceable cheeseburger.

Dane shrugged. "I guess you never know 'til you ask."

Then, turning his attention back to Maverick, "So, how do you know Antoinette? And why did you want to meet me?""

Serena's eyes widen and her jaw drops as she sees Mittens split herself and notices for the first time that before she split into three she had been, has in fact been this whole time, in more than one piece.

"Wait...how...you...did...there's pieces of you and there were just legs whilst the top half...how...robot pets what?"

It appears that Serena might be temporarily broken (in a different sense than the already broken she is).

Maverick smiles upon seeing the burger is an option... Then giggles and shrugs a shoulder at Mittens rubbing cheeks with him. "Mitts... it's cool..." then she vanishes.

To Dane's question, Mav seems eager to answer, but again calms himself and tries to sound as professional as possible when he says, "I like to learn about people; their merits, their flaws and their habits. I used to just look into the people in my immediate neighborhood, but then I figured it would be a good idea to look into people of interest; whether they are famous or simply a suspect in a criminal investigation. But it also means I look into people with amazing abilities and check on whether they are good or evil. I want to be friends with heroes and keep them all informed whenever evil is about. Top that with wanting to be a hero myself and I have all the reason I need to hang out with heroes like you.... to answer how I met Antoinette, well I don't know what she told you about herself, but she's some kind of super-genius inventor. I watch the science community for people who can loan me equipment for my own heroing and maybe even teach me how to fix such equipment."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:42, Sun 12 Nov 2017.

Having excused herself, Antoinette heads back to Serena and says softly, "Sorry. I had something important to do. Thank you, Mittens. You did wonderful."

She gives Mittens a smile. Then looks at Serena. "Your new pet will be here soon."

In walks a robot dog. It has the same proportions, mannerisms and appearance of a beagle and it walks over to Antoinette, wagging its tail. "Here she is. Her name is Maggie."

Huh.  Why was Mittens assuming Serena would be jaded about meeting a person with super-powers?  Maybe it's 'cause everyone else in the restaurant taking her antics in stride?  Maybe.

Mits rubs behind her head bashfully like they do in anime.  "I'm a para-human.  The kitty-cat look isn't a costume.  But my super power isn't really cat themed.  Go figure.  I can open portals... windows from here to wherever.  Feeling homesick for Australia?  Viola!"

Mits opens a portal to a breathtaking view of Mount Lindesay: https://ih1.redbubble.net/imag...,1000x1000,075,f.jpg

The fresh mountain breeze can be felt blowing through the portal.

"Or maybe you'd like to visit the wall of China?  Bam."

The portal changes destination to a point somewhere hundreds of feet above The Wall of China to get a wide view of it.

"Or perhaps- Ohai, Antoinette!  Thanks for the complime..."

Mits closes the portal then gets all fawning over the robo dog.

"Ohmygosh!  Maggiee!  So kyooot!  Aaaw!"

In reply to Maverick Sargas (msg # 191):

Dane looked curiously at the young man sitting across from him. He asked, "Do you have any particular skills for keeping track of bad guys? You seem... young... to be getting involved in such things. I was under the impression you don't have any powers to protect you?""

Serena just stares at the young girl and her display of power, blinking as she tries to keep up. "Well...you don't see that every day. Certainly not in Armidale, New South Wales. That's a real ripper."

Then she sees Maggie and covers her mouth. "She here, already? Oh my god!" She slides out of the booth and gets down on the ground. "Hi Maggie, I'm Serena."

Maverick says, "I am very sneaky... but you are correct. I do not have any powers, but I make the best of what I have. Contacts, information, and stealth. I have also been taking some self defense classes. You don't happen to have super powers, do you?"

Maggie wags her tail and says in a half-growly female robot voice, "Arf! Hello, Serena! Pleased to meet you!" and then looks from Serena to Mittens.

Antoinette says, "Her name is Mittens." as if to answer Maggie's un-asked question.

Maggie says, "Arf! Hello, Mittens! Pleased to meet you!" then turns to look at Serena again and offers her front-right paw up to Serena.

Dane nodded. "Registered and everything. I was in Afghanistan, and we were pinned down in a Taliban ambush, and it was not going to go well. Meaning, we were all going to get killed. They had numbers, position, and firepower. And then? Something happened. I thought I had gotten really strong, but apparently it was something else. At any rate, I started lobbing huge rocks at the enemy encampments, and closed with them and turned the tide."

Serena laughs and happily takes the extended paw. "Hi, Maggie. It's wonderful to meet you. I'm glad you'll be..." She pauses for a moment. "I'm glad you'll be coming home with me."

Her voice becomes a little hoarse at the end.

Maverick may not have super powers.  But what he does have are a very particular set of skills.  Skills that make him a nightmare for people like that.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZOywn1qArI

Mits is getting all fan-girl over masculinity central, wishing she could be a part of that conversation.  Probably for the best she isn't.

With a quick flip of the smartphone, Mits summons a voice modifier app then answers Maggie in a modulated voice, "Meow!  Hello, Maggie! Pleased to meet you!
This message was last edited by the player at 02:15, Thu 16 Nov 2017.

Maverick smiles. "Woah... I'm sure while it was welcome timing, you didn't really think about how cool it was until later. So what is it exactly? Geokenesis? Super Strength?"

If Mav only knew what Mittens was thinking about, he would be so happy. XD But then, he already is happy what with meeting Dane.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:58, Sun 19 Nov 2017.

Maggie licks Serena with a not-wet robo tongue. "Arf! That is correct! I will go home with you." Antoinette is smiling and watching.

When Mittens says her robot bit, Maggie stops wagging and is frozen for two seconds before wagging again and says, "Arf! Mittens is funny!"

Antoinette says, "Three friends already, Serena. Mittens, Maggie and I. I am happy to have met you."

“So am I, Antoinette. So am I. Thank you.” Serena says with a slight hitch in her voice. She looks like she may cry again but no tears come this time.

In reply to Maverick Sargas (msg # 201):

Dane shrugged. "Doesn't much matter. I leave those distinctions to the folks who care about that sort of thing. Which is not me. I need to understand what I can do, and any limitations on that."

Then he smiled a little, and said, "But yeah, that was an opportune time to develop powers. My entire company would be dead without that happening."

Mits flails about with a huuge smile, overwhelmed by the scene.  "Ohmygosh!  Soo cuute!"  (( https://zippy.gfycat.com/FearlessAthleticHarrier.gif ))

Having forgotten that she's got a puppet on her other hand, Mits' puppet gets flung about as well.  (( https://thumbs.gfycat.com/Dimw...edCirriped-small.gif ))

She clears her throat and tries to calm down.  "Ahem.  Meow.  Maggie, Serena, and Antoinette are adorable.  Mittens is happy to have met you!"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:45, Fri 24 Nov 2017.

Maverick nods to Dane. He decides to put the super power topic aside for now. "Yeah. I'm glad you and your guys survived." he says with a smile.

His smile gives way to a look of curiosity. "How did you come to join the military?"

Maggie says, "Ahem. Arf. Thank you, Mittens." then looks back at Serena, wagging enough to make its hips sway before pouncing her! "Arf! Do you want to play?"

Antoinette looks in Mav's direction, then to Mittens'. "I made friends with Maverick twenty days ago. He told me about you, Mittens. He said you are fun. That is why I knew you would make Serena happy."

Serena is about to tell Maggie that she doesn't want to play right at this moment when her new pet pounces on her which was completely unexpected. She gets knocked down and begins to laugh again as the robot dog begins pouncing and barking at her which makes her start to laugh even harder.

She doesn't think about it but a part of her, buried deep in her subconscious, knows she has laughed more in the past 15 minutes than she has in the past several months, since Ian died and she was released from hospital.

In reply to Maverick Sargas (msg # 206):

Dane shrugged. "Wanted to serve my country, like everyone else. Turns out, I had a talent for this type of work. A little stronger, a little faster, steadier hands, I guess. I was always a good shot."

He chuffed a laugh. "The powers that be saw something in me, and nudged me towards special forces."

Maverick says with a smile, "Well, thanks for your service."

Maverick ponders. "Special services? Cool... What all is involved in that? Errr... sorry if I'm asking too many questions. If you have any for me, please ask."

In reply to Maverick Sargas (msg # 210):

Dane replied, "United States Special Forces, not 'special services.' We're trained to be better than General Infantry soldiers. We're the army's elite fighters, like the Navy Seals or Marine Force Recon."

Mits smiles to see Maggie tackle Serena.  But in spite of the distractingly adorable sight of those two playing, Mits can't help but wonder how on Earth the space cadet that is Antoinette befriended the shadow that is Maverick.  First silly thought: Well of course space cadets are familiar with darkness!  Second silly thought: Maverick was star-gazing and Antoinette floated by in her space suit, waving hello.  Third silly thought: ask.

"So how'd you meet?  Mav's not very..."

Not outgoing!?  That's hardly true.  No problems striking up conversation with Commando Hardpec Manmuscle over here without the slightest hint of being intimidated.  With thoughts of space on the brain, Mits is beginning to worry that the testosterone levels will soon be reaching critical mass of Shark-Bear-space-explosion-high-five!  ( https://i.imgur.com/JcxXO.jpg )  ...not that she'd mind too much if such epicness was the last thing she saw in this life.

"He's a ninja.  Pretty rare to know he's around."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:46, Sun 26 Nov 2017.

Mav puts his hand to his head bashfully. "Oh! Heh... I meant Special Forces.. I guess it's because I just said thanks for your service and it got mixed up in my head... but yeah, what all is involved in that kind of training?"

Antoinette looks at Mittens. "Maverick found me when looking for people who are in the science community. He introduced himself. Then he asked me to be his friend."

If only Antoinette knew Mittens' thoughts.
For that matter, if only Mittens knew Antoinette's thoughts.
But then, Mittens often voices her thoughts...

....it won't take long for those two to become best buddies.

In reply to Maverick Sargas (msg # 213):

After a word from his Father, Donnie got up from his family's table and headed towards Maverick and Dane. "Hi Maverick, are you coming to training this week?" Donnie greeted Maverick enthusiastically, he really looked up to the older kid who got to train with him and his sister. After a moment he added, almost sheepishly. "And do you think you could stay and play videogames after?"

Donnie looked over at Dane. "Oh, and Granpa said to tell you to be at our house on friday at eight, Sergeant Sinclair."

Maverick smiles over at Donnie and offers him a fist-pound in greeting. "Sure thing, Donnie. I am able today if you are training today. If not, I could still come over for video games."

He glances over to Dane to see how the man will react, both to Donnie's approach and the request to show up next morning.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:06, Tue 05 Dec 2017.

Serena seems oblivious to the other conversations around her, playing with and petting her new friend and feeling, for the first time, a slight easing in the tightness in her chest and the self-imposed solitude that she has lived in since The Event.

Mits smiles to see Serena enjoying her new friend so much.

To Antoinette's explanation, she ohs.  "Science community..."

Thoughts of an advanced race of sentients being overrun by machines of their own creation, the only remaining scraps of their history and culture encapsulated in V.R. recordings embedded in holo-interfaces race through her mind.  Yeah.  That was a wild couple of days on planet Horizon.

"So Mav's going full-on Batman, then.  Cool!"

Mittens' cat puppet peeks up from beside Maverick.  "Did I hear 'video games?'  Would a frazzled cat be welcome?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:53, Wed 06 Dec 2017.

Dane nodded. "8:00 PM, roger that."

He hesitated a moment. "Go ask your grandpa about the dress code for the evening. I don't often get invited to nice homes."

"Grandpa says to wear whatever you don't mind being seen in, he's gonna take you on his 'old guys night out' with Uncle Ethan and Uncle Malcolm." Donnie told Dane matter-of-factly.

 Donnie smiled at Maverick returning the fist bump. "I don't think we're training today. I think Granpa's going with Daddy today after lunch, but I can ask if you can come over."

Donnie Jumped slightly as the puppet appeared, peering past it at the portal. After a moment or two Donnie's little hand shot through the portal and grabbed at the arm holding the puppet with a remarkably strong grip for a five year old. "There's a trick here, this is like what Di does. It's not a real magic puppet." The five year old declared to the rest of the group as he held onto Mittens' arm.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:17, Fri 08 Dec 2017.

In reply to Donald Derring Jr. (msg # 220):

Dane thought about this for a brief second before a huge grin broke out on his face, and he said, “Tell your grandfather I said, ‘Oh, it’s on!’”

Maverick looks at Donnie. "It's my friend Mittens. She's just pretending. She is a grown-up who likes to play as much as kids do. Especially since she recently returned from her adventures in outer space... and yes, please do ask if it's OK for me to come over today."

He leaves it to Mittens to say whether or not Donnie should let go of her.

Antoinette doesn't say anything and just smiles at Mittens and Serena.

Maggie says, "Arf! I am a robot. So I do not need food. But I am a dog, so I like food. So Antoinette made a way for me to eat. Would you like to feed me?"

Serena giggled in delight again. "I would love to feed you. What do you fancy eating, Maggie?" She said, looking at Antoinette with tears of joy in her eyes.

Mittens may not be an old guy, but she'd absolutely love to be a part of fun times with some of her heroes!  Especially a member of the Secret Defenders.  Oh well.  Without an invitation, she'll have to 'accidentally' run into them at some point.

As for little Sceptical McStrong's kung-fu grip action, the puppet reacts by looking downward sadly.  "You don't like me?"

Meanwhile Mits is grinning plenty at the adorableness of Serena puppy time.  She offers the lady a doggie treat with a wink.

The little boy narrowed his eyes at the puppet. "I probably like the person whose arm I'm holding, since you're Maverick's friend. But a puppet doesn't get liked or disliked, except maybe by how good it's made."

Serena takes the treat with a smile and holds it out to Maggie. "I hope you like it." She says, still crying a few happy tears.

Maverick says, "I disagree... puppets can be liked for who they are portrayed to be. I like Kermit the Frog. Gandalf isn't a puppet, but I like him even though he isn't real. And Luke Skywalker. And Mickey Mouse. It is OK to like characters who are not real. And it is OK to pretend even when you know something isn't real. Mittens likes to pretend."

He reaches over to pet the puppet. "Though I think what Donnie is trying to say is he would like to meet the girl behind the puppet."

Maggie nomfs the treat happily, tail wagging with vigor! "Arf! Delicious! Thank you!" The dog then licks Serena with its plastic tongue. No wetness. No slobber. "Arf! What fun thing do you like doing, Serena?"

....thank GOD for the dog's advanced programming causing it to carefully word that sentence by inserting the word 'fun' in there. Last thing Serena needs is to meditate on all the not-so-fun things she has been doing.

Seeing as how Mittens is using her mouth to produce the sounds coming from the puppet, Antoinette hears Mittens say "you don't like me?" (Checked with the player and they confirmed this is true) and looks in the direction of Mittens with concern. "I like you." she goes to give Mittens a hug.

"You're welcome dear heart. I'm glad you enjoyed it. What do I do for fun? Really nothing to be honest. I've haven't had cause to be happy in some time. This is the most social I've been since...since things happened."

"I stay in my home all day and drink and sleep." She hangs her head as memories come to her.

"Mittens likes you too!" Mits lets slip in reply to Derring Jr.

She grins at Serena mischievously and offers, "I'll tell ya whatcha like to do for fun.  ZOOP!"

Mits portals in a fancy dog toy.  (( https://youtu.be/cWiIN5ziZBs?t=1m39s ))  Anybody's guess why she owns so much dog related stuff, but this looks brand new.

"You like to play high-tech fetch!"

Meanwhile, since Maverick defended the cat puppet, she doesn't say anything in her defense and stares at the boy's hand.  "You sure have a strong grip..."

Serena laughs as she sees the toy and susses out what it does. "I'm sure we'll have great fun with that but I doubt the management would fancy us playing here in the Cafe."

  From behind the counter, a rather unimposing, very young looking (surely no older than her teens??) woman with midnight hair and midnight sapphire eyes said lightly "Actually, as long as I don't have a big mess to go repairing behind you, you're pretty much allowed to do anything that doesn't upset the other customers.  That's one reason this establishment actually allows real animals other than registered service animals.  By the way, I'm Meg."  She couldn't have been far out of high school, just by looks, but she sounded confident and relaxed.  Those who had been around knew her, but to someone just meeting her, she looked very unimposing.  Honestly, she looked like another one of the teenagers who seemed to comprise almost all the staff here at Apokryphos.

"Hi Meg, I'm Serena and this is Maggie and since you said it's fine, we're going to play with the new toy Mittens brought in for us."

With that Serena begins to play fetch with Maggie, sitting on the ground and looking, for the moment, like a young woman without a care in the world.

  Meg smiled, and watched for a moment before she asked Mittens lightly "Let me know if you start hearing UFO tales before anyone wants to go chasing them, okay?"

Through the Cafe window, a swirling orange vortex appeared about four feet in the air above the street, and then it slowly grew until it was about eight feet tall and eight feet wide, and was a solid, glowing sheet that seemed to ripple in the wind.  It hovered there, unbroken, for about thirty seconds, then ten figures in armor, albeit humanoid configuration, came rushing through the shimmering vortex.  They fell into a formation, and one of them shot the nearest car with some sort of beam weapon, and it exploded.

"Bloody hell!" Serena exclaimed before hitting the floor of the cafe. The weapon firing and the subsequent explosion immediately triggered her PTSD and she was back in that house when the men were torturing her and Ian for days before shooting them both and leaving them for dead.

She covered her ears and sought cover, all thoughts of toys and new pets and friends forgotten. All she wanted was to be at home and passed out on the couch.

Maverick's reaction is similar to Serena's in that he dives for cover and out of reflex, attempts to tackle Donnie to cover while he's at it. But once he figures out the Cafe isn't what was shot at (yet), he says to Donnie, "Get to your family, Donnie." and starts making his way to the back door unless stopped.

Maggie yips and follows Serena, whimpering and snuggling to her.

Antoinette looks in the direction of the disturbance curiously. While she calculates approximately how strong the tornado's winds must be (based on how much the winds affect their surroundings) as well as guessing what kind of weaponry these people are wielding, she walks towards the front door.

"Antoinette, what are you doing, get down!" Serena says, desperation in her voice. She just made a friend and she's not willing to see her get hurt.

She starts reaching for the fire that burns within her, intent on helping the young woman. She is seconds and a thought away from changing.

As the explosion rang out from the streets outside the cafe, the Senator shot to his feet, his muscles tensed, he looked ready to spring into action against these invaders. And then his wife touched his arm, the two shared a look and Don nodded visibly relaxing. He turned to his daughter.  "Get your brother!"

Diantha nodded and in a puff of purple smoke, disappeared and then reappeared in front of her brother. "C'mon Donny, we gotta get out of here."

Donny nodded, taking his sister's hand and waving at Maverick with the other. "Bye Mav! I'll call you later!" The children disappeared in another puff of smoke and reappeared next to their parents.

Nora took each child's hand in her's and led the way towards the back door, with the men who used to be The Hunter and Mr. Hurt, the world's greatest marksman and the world's most dangerous man, taking the rear.

  Meg looked up when the car exploded, her spot behind the counter giving her a good view of the fellows out the window.  She said dryly "Looks like the pajama parties are starting again.  This will make life interesting."  She reached under the cash register, and blue lights flipped on everywhere in the Cafe.  The employees immediately began telling all the customers "The rear exit is where you need to go, please ignore anything personal if you can't carry it.  This is an emergency evacuation of the Cafe."

Dane stood, and turned to head toward the front door, pausing to say, "We head toward trouble, not away from it."

OOC: On a cruise ship. Responses will be slow, but Dane will be heading out the door, grabbing a car to use as a shield, and beating the aliens to death with it.

Serena looked at Maggie and gave her a hug. She took a deep breath and stilled the tremors in her voice, in her mind. "Go out the back and wait for me. Don't let them see you."

She stood up and squared her shoulders and the fire in her soul began to smolder in her eyes as she walked to the front door. She looked at Dane and nodded, the fire in her eyes building and beginning to lick up her forehead without burning her flesh or hair.

No time to lose!  Mits creates a portal door near the rear exit!

"That leads to the police.  Someone go fetch them, please."

Then she leaps into action, two lightsabers ignited!

(( OOC: Possibly my favorite pic in the entire world: https://timothius.deviantart.c...ars-framed-659857665   Thank you, Maverick! ))

And now to tell you all the stuff going on in Mittens' mind!

msg #236
How is it these badguys are showing up right on cue?!  The must have mastered the art of dramatic timing!  Not to be underestimated!

msg #237
Poor Serena!  Just when things were getting fun!

msg #238
Good ole Mav!  Looking after his friend's safety!

msg #239
Is this girl for real?!  She isn't even scared!  She'd make for a way better Zen space samurai than me...

msg #240
Man this is heartbreaking.  Here's hoping Antoinette doesn't just up and die on poor Serena.

msg #241
Darn it!  I wanted to see Mr. Hurt in action!  But can't deny getting the kids to safety takes priority.  Sure hope he comes back!

msg #242
Well there's more than meets the eye with this girl!  Yeesh.  She sounds so jaded...

msg #243
OMG Dane's so cool!  Just like in that military recruitment commercial!

msg #244
...well hell.  Not so serene anymore is she?  O.O  AWESOME!

msg #245
Wait.  Is it legal to comment on myself?  Sure!  Why not?  Deadpool does it all the time.

Serena planned on waiting until the Cafe cleared out and people were safe. As soon as she changed she knew all eyes would be on her and she didn't want those weapons fired when there were sill people around who couldn't defend themselves.

Mittens made the decision for her when she leapt into action. She would just have to make sure any innocents were out of harm's way by drawing their fire to herself whilst she attacked.

She fell deep into herself, deep into that fire which had gone from a smolder to an inferno...

...and she changed.

She grew in height as massive golden wings made of fire sprang from her back. Her hair went from platinum blonde to gold and silver, crowned with fire, the same flame that grew even more intense around and from her eyes. Golden plate armour that gave off licks of flame formed around her and a massive weapon - a golden sword of fire appeared in her hands.

She was a terrifying figure of fury and vengeance and as her wings spread she roared and that fury, that fire cracked through the air. She leapt through one of the cafe windows and into the back of the armoured trespassers, attempting to pick one up with her prodigious strength whilst her sword swung a deadly arc towards another.



This message was last edited by the player at 02:18, Mon 08 Jan 2018.

There were ten figures in total, dressed in crimson armor made from sort of ceramic plating that seemed like a fusion of feudal samurai and futuristic space armor. Eight of them were dressed and armed identically, with some kind of strange laser rifle in each of their hands and what looked like a sword hilt on their hips.

Of the final two, one was a hulking figure with his arms and legs unarmored and his helmet shaped like the face of a bear. Where his skin was exposed it looked more like rock than actual skin, as if the man had been carved from granite. There was a large cylinder with a strange looking tip on his back

The other was smaller and leaner in stature, with more elaborate armor than the footsoliders decorated in a cat theme. He carried no weapons, but his bracer's had some strange looking devices built in.

As Mittens leaped into the fray, the footsoldiers all turned and immediately opened fire on her, beams of red energy cutting a fiery path towards the heroine. When Serena began to change the bright light caught the soldiers attention, who let out a shout. The cat armored figure shouted in some incomprehensible language, and three soldiers broke off from the rest, two of them taking up next to the third who drew a grenade and tossed it towards the door to the cafe!
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:33, Mon 08 Jan 2018.

Maggie obeyed her master and runs off to the back door, but occasionally looks over her shoulder at Serena as if hesitant to leave Serena behind. "Arf! Be careful, Serena!"

Antoinette says softly, "Sola." and glows a bit as she goes to exit the cafe via the front door and waves at the ten figures. As the glowing subsides, she is now in her super suit ( https://timothius.deviantart.c...light-pink-724427662 ). She puts a hand next to her mouth to call out to them. The first time she really has raised her voice, but then, there is a noisy tornado nearby. "Hello! Please stop destroying things! What is it you need?!"

While it isn't really visible at the moment, and nobody will really notice until she is attacked, Antoinette's force field is up.

Then Serena transform and charge happens alongside Mittens charging! She seems a little stunned and stares at Dane, Serena and Mittens for a moment before holding her hands forward then sees a grenade coming her way and blasts it with her concussive energy beam to send it to a harmless location (namely up). "That isn't nice! Don't do that!"
This message was last edited by the player at 02:36, Mon 08 Jan 2018.

On the other side of the portal, Rodger Eskin (currently in his default human form) was caught by surprise while talking with a pair of uniformed officers. The teacher-turned-android-wizard peered at the opening, blinking, for a few heartbeats before recognizing the location.

What on Earth...?
This message was last edited by the player at 03:42, Mon 08 Jan 2018.

  Meg's eyes glowed with an emerald sheen as she slid a grav-shield over the apartments above the Cafe, keeping anything from hurting civilians as she also made certain there weren't any anomalous magnetic signatures in the back like the one in the front created by the vortex that had appeared out front.  She checked to see if any more customers were still in the Cafe as she said to Mittens and Serena and Antoinette "I'm your backup as you got it.  Send me the injured."

Once outside, Dane could feel the anger swelling in him. He knew nothing of portals, nor aliens; he saw merely creatures attacking without provocation, and American lives at risk, and he acted. Speeding up, he touched a palm against a small car, and hurled it at the commander, through as many foot soldiers as he could, and then flew up into the air. He intended to fly up in a short arc, and land, like Gozer the Gozerian, behind the Commander and the main thug, cutting off their line of retreat.

They had declared war, and like any enemy, especially one on American soil... an INVADER... they deserved no mercy and would receive none. He intended to slaughter them, as ruthlessly and efficiently as possible. It would be quick, and likely messy.

No quarter.

He spared a quick thought for the Archangel, who not five minutes before had been an unstable soul, shattered into borderline madness by an unspeakable tragedy. "All women alternate between angels and crazy people. She just does it literally. *Dane chuffed a mental laugh*"

  ... This message will likely reach you too late, but it will hopefully make it before their main fleet. Good luck my friends, and I'm sorry for leaving you with the threat I failed to stop.

  Matt had given his absurdly functional phone number to Halkor and the rest for a reason, to avoid this very scenario of 'Hey due to timelag/alternate dimensions/etc, we'll be dead by the time you get this message'.  They knew a girl with portals and a guy with a hypocritical relationship with physics, it would have been a short trip compared to intergalactic off the shelf coms lag.

  But no, that wasn't how things had turned out if the seemingly too little too late message was any indication. This little melodrama at least, was guilt free on Matt's part.  Not so much on his self restraint both physical and metaphysical, given how many more are likely to get hurt because he didn't want to go full edgelord.  Though not by much, with how frequent doomed timelines seem to be for others who can't keep their cool.

  'Besides... Matt thought to himself as his faceless body arrived at the scene, full of people old and new ready to make their displeasure known.  'There will always be others ready to kill the bad guys.', letting a trace of his influence ensure the recently hurled car doesn't cause any UNWANTED collateral damage. (Citizens are usually less mad, when they get their car back with less dents than it started with).

  "Please repeat that, so I can translate several versions of 'Cut it out, you assholes' back to you" He comments to the armored jerks, as he physically and metaphysically examines the unwanted portal with a prodding head tail and his Awareness.  Best to get a better idea of the origins before shutting it, after all.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:52, Tue 09 Jan 2018.

Seraph moved as she flew towards the three figures, one of which had the audacity to throw a grenade into the cafe. She grabbed one by the throat with strength sufficient to overturn a car and swung her flaming sword at a second, snarling with that cracking voice of fire.

It's absolutely everything Miss Adventure can do to simply survive that initial barrage, but it sure looks epic!



Not as epic as friggin' Spartacus: Gods of the Serena over here! Mits is thinking, after saying a quick thank-you prayer for still being alive, Or G.I. Joe quarter given!

Ah well.  Such is the fate of being the comic relief to the real super heroes.  Plus, with the extremely important voicemail she just got, Mits figures discretion is the better part of valor and...

"LEROY JENKINS!"

Mits combines her telekinetic leap with her portal powers to send herself hurtling right into the vortex behind the baddies!  No worries, Matt.  She can return to Earth if you close the vortex behind her.  Probably.

Is this really a good idea?  Mits wonders to herself after the fact, There's probably even more danger on the other side of this thing.  But if I can find out where these guys are from...

She's ready to take a quick 360 with her alien Google Glass ocular implant thingy and jump right back out.  With any luck, she'll survive this insane plan and be able to report to people smart enough to figure out the enemy's origin with what she records.  But if nothing else, Mits at least manages to leave behind a final goodbye to her new friend: a concert quality loudspeaker playing appropriate music for an angel's battle with the forces of evil!  (( https://youtu.be/dJ-QLl5qjLg?t=24s  Doesn't get much more apropos than Archangel by Two Steps From Hell!  Said loudspeaker is invulnerable assuming Matt was willing to make it so. ))

Meanwhile!  An R2D2 toy rolls up to the Senator and holo-projects Halkor's face who then relays an important message: "Matthew, Mittens, I hope you are doing well and I wish my message was sent in better circumstances. We have encountered a new threat, no one knows where they came from but their technology is incredibly advanced and their millitary is powerful.   They conquered Arkalia first to use as a staging ground, Azrith brought his tribe's fleet to help but..."

Halkor trailed off, his eyes looking sad as he stared off to the side. "Most of his people are gone now, and mine as well as many others are enslaved. Azrith and I managed to escape and find Archeirae as well as a few new friends and gather what allies we could. But it hasn't been going well, and what's worse is we've found they have plans to expand to the edges of the galaxy, to earth.

We have one last plan, a desperate gambit, but if we succeed we should manage to cut the head off the snake. If not, then they will head towards your home. This message will likely reach you too late, but it will hopefully make it before their main fleet. Good luck my friends, and I'm sorry for leaving you with the threat I failed to stop."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:02, Tue 09 Jan 2018.

As the car went flying towards them, the armored soldiers dived out of the way, save two who took a direct hit and were pinned under the large vehicle. As Dane leapt over behind the commander and his lieutenant, the commander leapt backwards, performing an impressive flip and landing neatly away from the fray. The large stone skinned warrior stepped forward, drawing the haft from his back while the head lit up revealing a massive lazer axe that he swung down towards Dane!

The concussive blast sent the grenade flying harmlessly upward where it exploded above everyone's head. The soldier's that had avoided the car rolled to their feet sending more beams of energy at Antoinette.

As Serena grabbed the soldier by the throat, his fellows backed up, barely avoiding the flaming sword. The soldier in her grasp dropped his rifle, drew the hilt at his belt and activated it a beam of energy rising out which he thrust towards Serena's ribs.

As Mittens flipped over their heads two of the unoccupied soldiers fired at Mittens as she flew overhead and into the portal.

On the otherside Mittens found herself standing on a large platform in a strange looking high-tech room. There was one armored soldier bent over some sort of console, when he spotted Mittens he shouted and pressed a large button as he reached for his side-arm.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:50, Tue 09 Jan 2018.

As the car went flying towards them, the armored soldiers dived out of the way, save two who took a direct hit and were pinned under the large vehicle. As Dane leapt over behind the commander and his lieutenant, the commander leapt backwards, performing an impressive flip and landing neatly away from the fray. The large stone skinned warrior stepped forward, drawing the haft from his back while the head lit up revealing a massive lazer axe that he swung down towards Dane!

The concussive blast sent the grenade flying harmlessly upward where it exploded above everyone's head. The soldier's that had avoided the car rolled to their feet sending more beams of energy at Antoinette.

As Serena grabbed the soldier by the throat, his fellows backed up, guns at the ready. The soldier in her grasp dropped his rifle, drew the hilt at his belt and activated it a beam of energy rising out which he thrust towards Serena's ribs.

As Mittens flipped over their heads two of the unoccupied soldiers fired at Mittens as she flew overhead and into the portal.

On the otherside Mittens found herself standing on a large platform in a strange looking high-tech room. There was one armored soldier bent over some sort of console, when he spotted Mittens he shouted and pressed a large button as he reached for his side-arm.

Dane, with his enhanced speed, stepped into the arc of the axe so that that haft would strike him and not the head, and turned slightly to face the incoming weapon from the direction it was coming. He brought his arm up, allowing the haft to strike him, and the continued his rotation, dropping his arm to effectively pin the axe, intending on tearing it from the grasp of the large stone man.

If successful, and Dane is able to wrest the axe from the alien, he will continue his motion, rotating around and attempting to slice the alien in half.

  Matt practices a more direct option than Mittens for being in two places at once, though he's amused this is the shortest his head tail has been when traversing stellar distances.  That still leaves him perfectly able to use his awareness to pinpoint the location in space and time the platform chamber is.

  Said head tail comments to mittens on the space jerks side of the portal, "Hey Mittens, speakers are set.  That's convenient invulnerability.  That guy's gun? Won't work anymore, that's inconvenient invulnerability."  Why doesn't Matt do this to everything, all the time?  Because that would be boring writing.

  Meanwhile, by the Cafe, humanoid limbs included edition of Matt is going to attempt some good old fashioned 'it's technically nonlethal' carnage.  As he advances on the cat themed commander less intent on defeating them so much as temporarily disarming them.

  Literally.  He wants to cut off his fancy bracer arm. It's okay, Matt will grow the arm back after complete with any potential cybernetics or biotech vital to their survival once he removes his influence, which is the sort of disclaimer you need in the superhero buisiness.

  The simplistic, Earth forged Elvis Presley commemorative knife probably does not look very threatening to the alien.  But anyone who actually knows Matt (a depressingly short list still, work on that Matt), knows it might as well be an adamantium katana where he is concerned.

  Why use this, rather than his absurd physiology directly? He's hoping for a nice 'your primitive earth weapons will have no effect on me!' opening.

  "I am actually sorry for this, mostly."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:31, Wed 10 Jan 2018.

Lifelight (Antoinette) watches the lasers bouncing off her force field as if slightly hypnotized by them. Lucky for Antoinette it was lasers; she would not do so well against the melee types like the one Dane is tackling. Then Ant watches Mittens charge into the portal. Remembering Megaira asked for injured people, and seeing two tank-like heroes up front, Antoinette realizes she will be more needed with Mittens.

The aliens have not responded to her initial greetings and offers, but then, they also have not been speaking English. So Antoinette can only assume these aliens do not understand.

Antoinette calls out, "I'm going with Mittens through the portal!"

It isn't that she didn't notice Matt Matthews or the fact his head-tail stretched and followed Mittens into the portal. It is simply that she doesn't know anything about Matt Matthews yet. Though her HUD visor is quickly filling her in even as she flies over the enemies and through the portal to follow Mittens.

If she makes it to the other side: Lifelight immediately expands her force field to encompass Mittens and Matt's headtail. She comments softly, "Hi. I don't think they know English. I want to interface with their computers." a small, innocent smile crosses her face after saying that.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:21, Wed 10 Jan 2018.

Maverick is sticking with the Derring family at the moment and says, "Unless you say otherwise, Mr. Derring, I'm going to observe the fight and learn what I can about the invaders."

Even as he says this, he seems ready to dart off in the direction of the nearest tall-building's fire escape.

His specialty is information gathering. Against armored, laser-weapon aliens, Mav doubts he could do much in combat.

Seraph snarls, the sound hissing like fire and lets the sword vanish, her hand lashing out the catch the wrist of the alien trying to stab her with some sort of energy weapon. If she gets the wrist she applies all of her rather considerable strength towards crushing and snapping both wrist and neck before tossing the thing into a group of its fellow.

Well now we know how effective the alien weapons are against aliens, 'cause Mits totally deflected both those shots back at"OW!"

Wait.  Why was she unable to deflect one of the two bolts back when she was able to block eight attackers before?  And why is she saying "Ow" when whith someone who can make her invulnerable to the one shot that grazed her side?  There's a perfectly reasonable explanation!  1) Mittens was so shocked by the sound of always-speaks-softly Antoinette raising her voice that the hand puppet holding the one of the two lightsabers jaw-dropped.  2) Saying "Ow" when hit even when Matt makes it needless had become second nature because otherwise badguys would shoot bystanders if they think she's invulnerable.

Good thing a dropped weapon is no big deal for the master of portals with a side of telekinesis.

"Ohmygosh I survived!  Thanks, you two!  Me 'n Matt'll hold off the reinforcements while you hack the alien tech panel thingy."

Taking Matt's word for it that the badguy reaching for his weapon is going to be disappointed, Miss Adventure then does the sensible thing for preventing a wave of reinforcements: slice up any access panel near any doors.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:09, Sat 13 Jan 2018.

  Dane found himself in a bit of a tug of war with the alien he was dealing with, they didn't want to let him have their axe.

  Serena found that the one she was battling was not as easily crushed as a human, with the armor far harder than anything terrestrially designed.  She could probably bend it, but it wasn't going to be easy, and with the object of her attentions trying to crack her in the face with some sort of laser-edged axe, she couldn't just focus on that.

 On the other side of the portal, the one who was reaching for his sidearm grabbed it, and pointed it toward Mittens and Antoinette, but appeared surprised when it did not function.  There were no obvious consoles for the door controls, nothing to show that it could be locked from this side.  And the button the fellow had bapped had turned an angry illuminated orange.  Which meant that he had probably called for backup.

With a snarl Serena lets go of the being's neck and wraps both hands around the wrist, twisting and putting her hip into it so that the creature's body goes one direction and the wrist in another, quite anatomically opposite of the direction a wrist is supposed to go. Instead of snapping its neck she's trying to snap an arm or wrist so it lets go of the weapon it's trying to hit her with.

  A decrease in people he knows getting shot is always a good time, so progress is still being made!  Now he hopes their alien wi-fi is easy for the new girl to access.  "I suppose most portals are not up to your saftey standards, so I can understand the surprise Mittens." Says the verbose appendage.

  While his awareness alone can ping his location in the grand spacetime scheme of things, he has been hanging out with Mittens too much.  So opts for a more traditional visual as well... So far as 'extend upwards 50 miles and mock physical matter along the way' is traditional.   "Five dollars says this facility or ship is at least fifty one miles bigger thataway."

Meanwhile, on Earth where a full body is availible

  "Please get back here so I can stab you with my primitive earth weapons" Very convincing, Matt. Nobody will suspect Elvis Knife's augmented limb severing qualifications that way.

Seeing there doesn't seem to be a way to lock things from the inside with a normal means, Antoinette goes for simple plan B. With a legitimate look of concern for the alien, Antoinette softly says to the alien, "Sorry." and holds a hand forward to shoot her paralyzing energy beam at him while she flies for the console.

Antoinette trusts Matt and Mittens to be able to deal with the alien whether he is paralyzed by her energy beam or not. Either way, she knows she is the most use to everyone by trying to figure out the console. Which is what she will get right to doing unless somehow interrupted by the alien.

By now, Maverick has made his way to a safe spot where he can hide, watch and still be able to run from the chaos if need be. Basically, in an alley a couple buildings up the road. He pulls out his binoculars and calmly begins examining the aliens, looking for how their armor is designed, if any of them look like they are going to reach for a communicator, or alternate weapon.. just watching for anything outside of just "aliens are fighting superheroes" so that, if needed, Mav can give the heroes a heads-up.

Unfortunately, he had only JUST met Dane and doesn't even know Serena yet. Thankfully, Matt is both here AND on the other side of the portal, so noticing the slight lull in activity between Matt and the alien he wanted to give a first-hand Elvis experience to, Maverick decides to text Matt.

"They don't have door locks?!" Mittens exclaims in confusion.

Speaking of confusion, unless the confused alien with the non-functional weapon has immunity to reality-bending powers, he will find himself forcibly portal'd through the vortex and into the melee on Earth without a weapon to defend himself with...  On the other side, it'll likely look like one of those old west scenes where moments after the protagonist walks into a bar, a badguy comes hurling out of a window.

"Not the reason I was expecting to die after jumping into an alien vortex after warnings of planet-conquering aliens, but I digress..."

Miss Adventure will do her best to cover the door from the approach of the expected reinforcements.  Why no door locks?  Is their culture such that unauthorized access is no big deal?  Or are their people so trustworthy that locks are not needed?  Maybe the locks are integrated inside the wall and are activated by psychic command.  Do those with a psychic deficiency ever protest limited access to their society's infrastructure?  Are there anti-war protestors?  Do they have long hair and tie-dye shirts?

 The beam hit the being behind the console, but not before it had tapped in something on a pad that had about 20 buttons on it.  Nothing remotely resembling English lettering either.  Then Mittens portaled the poor thing through the other portal, and onto Earth and the middle of the battle.  One of the others that was there shot at the 'flying object' and shot the alien in question.

  The one Serena was working with did, indeed flip in the intended manner, and the sick crunch of breaking bone was pretty loud, even as the armor she had hold of deformed under the pressure.

  Dane managed to wrench the axe from the alien's hands, and his riposte swing did, indeed, slice it in half, making for a gory mess of strangely colored blood and gobbets all over the street.

  The one Matt was talking to did not seem interested in being nice and letting him stab it, rather, it shot something at him.

The fiery Angel wastes no time, removing the invader's blade and driving it into the thing's temple before whipping around and swinging it at the neck of the next-closest invader, hoping to separate head from shoulder.

  It's almost like most sentient beings want to AVOID having their forearm cut off so you can steal their expensive looking bracer.  Maybe if Matt told them he'd grow it back right after?... Nah.  He's glad Maverick is keeping an eye on things, as for all his capability Matt still has not fully kicked that old human habit of getting distracted at times.

  MEANWHILE, IN ALIEN TOWN.

  Matt muses how living in space for years still leaves translating space languages harder than understanding ancient Chinese, but he's sure that will get sorted by someone once it actually matters. Much like the language barrier never mattering in Star Wars until Ewoks show up.

  Now, where were we?... Ah yes.  Matt puts a rain check on tunneling his physics defying tail through the facility, and focuses on his inhuman awareness and instincts to pin down where in the big wild world of space time the 'you are here' sticker is.

  If anything this would be one of the easiest times he has done this, thanks to the extra reference points of Mittens's portals as one of those irksome slights on the fabric of reality he's just learned to put up with.

Lifelight begins examining the console. She would like to have more time to study it, but more time is not what she has. So she takes a look to see if she can open it up and perhaps access its code by wiring it to her own portable computer. If she knows how it is wired and/or how it "thinks", perhaps she can reverse-engineer a hardware way hack the alien computer.

Watching the fight, Mav moves his head forward a little upon seeing Serena break an alien wrist and Dane slice an alien in half. "Cool..." he thinks to himself. Mav is not one to talk out loud unless he's talking to someone, after all. A good habit he formed back when he was four years old.

He spots an alien suddenly portal in and get shot by one of the other aliens. Is there a civil war involved in this too? Or was that just a beautiful display of karma? He isn't sure. But considering Mittens went into the portal the aliens made, he's thinking it was either karma or typical villain mentality of "you left your post! The penalty is death even though I'm in the middle of battle!"

Either way, he hasn't seen a need to warn these epic heroes of anything yet. But he is recording the fight.

 The commander with the bracer was still dodging away from Matt's approach.  He  seemed far more aware of Matt than most would be.  His minions seemed game to try and keep Matt away from him too.
  In the portalplace, Matt's head-tail discovered that 'fifty miles thataway' led the tip of his tail to the crystal clear, frigid vacuum of outer space.  If he 'looked' down, he could see that in a (rather distant) spot was the planet he lovingly called home, Earth.  They looked to be in a Mars level orbit, on a smallish ship with two slightly larger ships flanking.  Apparently these guys were aliens, ones Matt didn't already know.

  As Antoinette examined the console, she could see there were access panels at the ends, but not something close to the keyboard, and the language itself looked pretty complicated, with larger keypads in other spots.  The characters themselves were definitely nothing remotely like terrestrial linguistics.

  Back on the ground, Serena sliced the second one, but shots fired from the others knocked her back, spanging off her armor and drawing her attention to the fact that they didn't appear too thrilled with her removing them from effectiveness.

She roared again, fire flaring from her body and heat vortexes rising from her wings and eyes. She reached down and grabbed a second blade and suddenly moved flying to them in a flash and spinning so her wings sliced first, followed by the alien weapons.

The Seraph was angry and all there would hear her wrath and behold as she unleashed it upon the invaders.

Mits gets a bright idea and puts it into action at the speed of thought.  Maybe there's a prisoner on board this ship.  She's sooo going to rescue said prisoner!  By pulling a typical Loony Toon gag of popping around each and every room of the ship in rapid succession.  If this were a Loony Tune cartoon, the chances of stumbling upon an alien in the shower who screams in embarrassment then hides behind the shower curtain would be around 110%

Fortunately, this is not a Loony Tune cartoon, so Miss Adventure has a good chance of being spared such unpleasantness.  A search of the ship may even turn up something else useful as well.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:01, Sun 11 Mar 2018.

Duke was minding is own business in the coffeehouse, sipping on hot chocolate when the invaders came. He eyed the commotion but was assessing the situation at the same time. He noticed a portal open. Mittens and some others went through it. Duke finished his cup of hot chocolate then left the money to pay for it.

Time seemed to freeze as Duke got up. The battle was in one giant still frame around him. He changed into his suit in which he had underneath his regular clothes-A Silverish Black metallic plated arms and legs, Black torso up to neck (but with his dark brown skin exposed). Red Helmet with green metallic ears.

"To the bottom of this! Duke thought to himself as he walked through the portal ahead of Mittens.

Duke arrived on the other side, emerging in the alien town. He then caught up to Antoinette at a console. He did his best to not walk near Serena. She seemed like in a groove with wrecking the enemy.

"Need any help, miss?" he asked her after time resumed. In actuality, Duke was just moving that fast!
This message was last edited by the player at 23:11, Wed 14 Mar 2018.

Lifelight doesn't seem startled by Duke at first. She slowly looks over at him, her eyes not quite meeting with Duke's, but rather locked onto his nose. Lifelight then answers softly. "Yes. I would like to get access to the inside of this console."

Duke nodded at her and then studied the console. He looked specifically for a port of some kind. His extended his right hand and his glove changed the base color of the console.

"If this console has any type of port I can jack into. It takes a little bit for me to hack into a system through hardwire but if I can sense what type of connections it uses, all the better!" Duke explained.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:06, Sun 18 Mar 2018.

  While not quite what he was hoping to accomplish, Matt is at least content in the fact a significant portion of the Earthside invaders are too busy playing keep away to accomplish anything nefarious. Which probably will not end well for them once Serena and Dane run out of bodies.  "So, as one of the few people to treat me with even the least shred of cautions.  Do you think my habits of inaction under observation some kind of Schrodinger gimmick, or simple stage fright?"

  Meanwhile, IN SPAAAAAAACE.  Which will never get old.

  Matt is so glad this latest of late entries has thrown their hat into the ring.  Is it still super speed when you are the last to act? "We can probably trust anyone who likes hot chocolate, Mittens. Maybe. Hi, I'm Matt." Matt is not ignoring Antoinette, he's just sort of blanked on what, if any, specialty nicknames she prefers. The problematic life of a very inconsistent perfect recall.  He tries to make up for it by respecting secret identities.

  Any who still need starships despite portal technology are probably going to be inconvenienced without their use. So with nobody Matt actually cares about watching (unless they hijack the ship's camera network in the next second), he simply opts to upscale cop movie tactics.

  Carving off the engines of several starships with a flick of your being is the same as shooting out the tires of a drug dealer, right?  Though there would be notably less explosions given Matt's influence is involved...Wait, that still leaves an army of aliens with portals to Earth and accomplishes surprisingly little for the scope involved... Eh, at least it would annoy them.

  "Well, our current location is Mars orbit.  Three ships for now, but no doubt more where that came from." Brought to you in stereo(?) at both locations.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:31, Mon 19 Mar 2018.

Dane hefted his new prize, a Laser-Axe, and grinned, thinking to himself, "Fuck, yeah. I'll definitely keep this."

He looked around for any other invaders on this side of the portal, and once ALL of them were accounted for, he took up a position on the Earth side of the portal, blocking any more invaders from coming through, until he could reassess the situation.

Peripherally he noted the odd white scorpion/bug/humanoid creature; while it seemed to be on their side, he could really make sense of it, feeling his sanity bending ever so slightly. He thought, "It has a scorpion tail, coming out of its head."

  Serena and Dane were having much better luck now with the hand to hand combat, working on demolishing the alien hostiles slowly but steadily.  The officers were not cooperating with Matt's efforts to get close,  but one of them revealed that the 'bracer' was actually a laser-whip, and he laid a stripe of 'hey, that isn't nice' along Matt's arm.

  Elsewhere, in the ships where Antoinette, Absalom, Mittens and Matt were, they were indeed unhappy when Matt disconnected their propulsion systems.  Absalom could not see a 'jack' to interface with, but he could see some sort of clips by which an access panel was held tight along the floor edge.  None of the apparently written language looked at all familiar to him, nor did any sort of pattern leap out to help translate it into something someone did speak.

  Mittens found that there were no prisoners on this ship.  There was no brig.  There were, however, at least fifty *more* of the hostile aliens, and now they *knew* someone who was definitely NOT one of them was aboard.  Something like a klaxon went off, and what looked like white flashing lights began to strobe throughout the ship.

"I think I found something." He kneeled down after coming to the access port outline by clips. He started pulling on them. If regular strength didn't pry it open, he gave his pull more power, trying to rip the panel off.

Lifelight goes over to help Duke with prying. She doesn't have super strength, but she is stronger than most girls her age and height.

Now with video of every room and member of the ship recorded, Mits returns in full to the others.  Thanks to leaving a portal window open, she was able to be a part of the dialogue that went on while she was popping about.

"I think I triggered their car alarm.  And here I thought Chuckles had hit the alarm already earlier."

She offers a bright smile to the newcomer.  "Hi there, Mr. Helpful!  I'm Mittens!  AKA Miss Adventure.  Teleporter.  Nice to meetcha."

She looks to Matt.  "Mars huh?  So it's very likely the vortex portal thingy only works within star-system distances.  In any case, unless present company is comfortable with slaughtering 50-some aliens who may or may not be fighting us against their will, looks like we've got little time.  I'd like to try some industrial disassembly so the techies can reverse-engineer from the pieces.  Would you be a pal and cut this portal room up into about 1 cubic yard pieces for me, please?  So much less messy that way."

Without Matt's help, she'd likely be employing the services of a strip-mining saw.  ( http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix...44_1422440421095.jpg )  Likey would get an earful from the tech guys on the mess she made of the portal device.

Hmm.  How long can these aliens survive in space outside their ship?  Sciency as an experiment would be, Mittens isn't going to try and find out.  Heard far too many horror stories about conquerors forcing people into their military through various nefarious ways.  The chance of killing an innocent is too high.

  "Ouch. You are in so much trouble." Probably. Maybe. It's still harder for Matt to not pull his punches on sentients trying to kill him, than it is to break all their stuff.

  Despite everything he just did ten seconds ago, Matt is still a little jealous of the laser whip.  Laser are cool, which Dane is smart enough to know. Even if Matt is a bit too distracted to pick up on Dane's dismay at his nature.  It just figures that after years of Matt being self conscious with nobody caring, people start to freak out as soon as he's comfortable with himself.

  Back on the subject of breaking stuff, Mittens in space requesting more ship dismantling.  "I suppose I'm one of the few around qualified for hacking up a portal network willy nilly while still avoiding unintended damage to space time, yeah."

  That said, his more lengthy bit anatomy arranges itself into a strange imitation of a giant tennis racquet for the act of sabotage and theft, if with plenty of leeway to not bother Antoinette and Duke "Sports pun."

OOC: Dane's reaction amuses me on several meta levels, given Matt's long time (lack of) reputation, alongside being backwards land edition Eldritch Horror who (usually) fixes reality... But yeah, his looks are a much harder sell.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:58, Sat 24 Mar 2018.

Dane didn't understand rents in space, nor people turning into by all appearances Angels, complete with flaming sword and a mandate for destruction, nor whatever Matt was... but enemies of the planet? A weapon in his hand? That he understood.

Once the enemy combatants who had come through the portal were terminated, he squared his shoulders, and stepped through the breach into the tech room and heard,  "Well, our current location is Mars orbit.  Three ships for now, but no doubt more where that came from."

Dane thought to himself, with a feeling of wonder, "Mars? I stepped through a doorway to Mars? Holy shit!"

Then, "Three ships? Well, let's figure out how to take them out. Destroy them all, only way to be sure."

Out loud, he said, to anyone in the room, "Can anyone get me on that large ship? They things need to be utterly destroyed, or they'll come back."

  The panel came off with a metallic screech, and the interior revealed something that looked like a cube farm of varying sizes of black cubes with threads of dark green light through them, but nothing like terrestrial circuitry.  No wires, no cables, just a ratsnest jungle of  cubes.  This was definitely not going to be easy to even attempt to reverse engineer, and knowing even what did what was going to be difficult.  Everything inside was black.  Even the panel's 'interior' side was lined in itty bitty cubes of varying sizes, and they were all dark.

  The two officer aliens were the only ones left, and they both had those wicked laser-whips, and neither one of them was going to go down without a fight.  The one Matt was dealing with gave him another stripe with his whip, and the other had set up so they were back to back, a fierce pair.

Antoinette idly wonders what would happen if Matt were to take this computer through the portal it, presumably, controlled. However, without prior knowledge to the way this technology worked, she did not want to risk it.

Antoinette stared at the inner-workings, nonetheless, with that cute smile from earlier. "Can you jack in?" she asks Duke softly without taking her eyes off the inner workings of the alien computer.

Serena continued using her dual weapons to cut down the soldiers as well as spinning to take advantage of the ultra hard and sharp feathers at the ends of her wings if she discovers they're able to penetrate the armour of the invaders. She's a whirlwind of fiery death now but if her wings can get through their armour she turns into a veritable cyclone, tearing her way towards the officers to give aid to the...rather odd looking figure currently engaged with them.

  Ah, it appears the enemy has mastered the use of SPACE LEGOS.  No wonder they are making such progress.

  Matt's appendage says to Dane "Well their crew free engine components are currently drifting through space. Also I am a huge baby who is so bad at killing people it can have metaphysical repercussions... Good thing I'm capable of hypocrisy though, which ship do you want to get on first-wait, can you breath in space? If you can't, I'll get that sorted for you."

  Meanwhile, in SPA-.... Earth.

  "Thank you, vengeful Angel and/or or Angel themed person."  Matt totally dodged the laser whips that time!... Though his Weston City Sailfish cap is now minus 3/4 of a brim for the moment.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:11, Sun 15 Apr 2018.

In reply to Mittens (msg # 285):

"I'm Duke Absalom. But just Duke will do." Duke chuckled at Mittens mentioning her "powers". "So we have a teleporter check. Cool story, sis. I saw you form that portal in slow motion. Didn't know how long it was gonna take you... Then again, I'mma a fast lane type of guy. Hint Hint: I put that Barry Allen to shame."

In reply to Antoinette Rebeca Haze (msg # 289):

He looked down into the section and stuck his right hand into it toward the dark green light. His hand started softly glowing the same color a few seconds later. The longer he held his hand out, the more radiant the glow. "I can try but I don't know how far I'll get. I've never seen this type of tech before. I only hope my systems can decipher something."

Mits gets to work teleporting the now sliced-and-diced teleporter device bits to whatever passes for Area 51 these days.  Along with a huge sticky note on one of them saying, "Courtesy: Miss Adventure.  Call for details." along with her voicemail number.  She's saving the console her allies are working on for last, of course.  The effect is to wind up looking like a huge game of Blockout in reverse.

"TYVM, Matt!"

To Dane, Miss Adventure reports as professionally as she can force herself to be, "Judging from some intel I got earlier, these few ships are just expendable scouts.  Their purpose was to judge how tough Earth will be to conquer.  Then comes the real fleet.  It's already too late to faint that we're not all that tough, so yeah...  Here ya go."

Two Dane sized portal doors open for him.  They lead to the other two ships.

To Duke, Mits grins impishly.  "Ooh!  A fellow Marvel fan!  Well well, Duke 'Faster-Than-Flash,' it is most certainly a pleasure to meet you!  In case you're not already acquainted, this is Dane, Antoinette, and the talking tentacle thing is part of my good buddy Matt."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:38, Thu 19 Apr 2018.

In reply to Mittens (msg # 293):

"To quote his Marvel counterpart, 'I didn't see that coming'." Duke grinned at Mitten's incorrect placement of what universe the Flash belonged.

He looked around to the others Mittens mentioned, seeing them preoccupied with the 'aliens' as he and Antoinette were. He also kept on the watch for any aliens that tried to ambush them while he tried to hack into the electronics of the panel.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 19:15, Thu 19 Apr 2018.

Dane prepared to walk through the portal to the left. "I don't think I can breathe in space; help would be appreciated."

Then, to Mittens, "I trust I can get back once I tear the ships in half?"

The fiery Angel continued her inexorable march to the officers, cleaving soldiers in twain with their own weapons or the deadly edge of her feathers. The fact that she was radiating heat certainly helped as even armour grew uncomfortably hot when she was near.

She would not stop until every single one of their enemies was dead and, preferably, in more than one piece.

   Serena and Matt had it down to the two officers, and Weston's finest had been busy, clearing out civilians who were in the street and generally trying to reduce the chances of civilian casualties.  The radio jamming had made it quite difficult to coordinate all of this, so that explained the radio silence about the incident, apparently the portal had disrupted local radio, or perhaps one of the aliens had brought a jammer.  Either way, not being able to use their radios had badly hampered the police.

Dane, not hearing a response from Mittens or Matt, shrugged and stepped through the portal.

Once on the other side, he set about his work. Tearing up systems, slaughtering enemies, and leaving death and destruction in his wake.

>>>>  Cliffs of Weston >>>>

As the Osprey arrives on scene, he does his best to stay out of visible sight with it.  There was enough panic on the street, something showing up cloaked may cause attention to be pulled towards him.  There is a substantial sound of static the begins on the phone.  Enough to cause him to wince and turn down the volume on his headset.

"Meg, going to have to call you back.  Think my cell is about to die."

He hangs up and looks over a few things, noticing a few more of his instruments beginning to act oddly.

"Remote flight was showing green and not errors are lighting up like Christmas, Alfred.  Alfred?"

The feed on his HUD shifts and distorts before finally settling down.

Sir.  Sir?  It...  would...  s e e m I  ha ve.

The feed crashes once more before completely shutting off and slowly starting back again.

Ah.  Better.  Sir I believe the silence I experienced was of an external source.  I will still run diagnostics on myself later of course, but we are experiencing a substantial disturbance to Radio Frequencies.  I have been able to compensate though I would not trust remote piloting during this.  Hovering may not even be an option, you will need to find a suitable landing location.

A quick circle and he's able to put the craft down.

Exiting the craft he makes for Apokryphos quickly, doing his best not to disturb anyone as he moves with the cloak of his suit engaged.  Thankfully this was a bit more functional due to the smaller area it had to conceal.  Moving towards the woman he figures to be Meg, he gives a soft sigh.  He needed to talk to her but, this was a bit more than he was expecting as a first meeting.

"When you have a moment, I would like to talk with you.  Out of view of the windows.  We spoke recently on the phone."

A quick look and he locates an area where he could be out of sight but she could at least keep an eye on things going on.  A few soft raps are given on the wall to indicate where he is.  If no one else is in the building, he'll let the cloak of his suit drop.

The Angel pressed forward her attack on one of the officers, brutally and without mercy. She enjoyed the irony of ending its life with weapons of its own make and grinned which seemed more a baring of teeth filled with cruel humour.

She was moving faster than ever before now, the two weapons and her wings all being brought to bear in her fight with the alien.

Lifelight looks over at Dane. The man she had just introduced to Maverick not too long ago was now in the ship and tearing it apart. Having formulated what she wants to say, she lifts her voice, "If we can take some of the computer back, I can spend time studying their technology after the fight!"

She looks back to Duke and gives him a soft smile with an equally soft voice, "I have seen nothing like this either. So I will keep watch for now."

She trots over to the portal and peaks through to check on how the fight is going on the other side. If it looks like any heroes or bystanders are injured, her plan is to go heal them. Otherwise, Lifelight watches over the people on this side of the portal.

Dane did not hear a Mittens reply because she replied with a thumbs-up-wink-smile emote.  https://media.giphy.com/media/ErZ8hv5eO92JW/giphy.gif

The alien vortex to Earth is proooobably not working now since Matt diced up the workings so nicely for Mits to portal away for the techie types to analyze.  But never fear!  A replacement portal to the action was opened for the convenience of all present.

"Mittens can take all of the computer back for study!"

She'll do just that unless asked not to.

  Absalom could tell that the system was very complex, and several epochs ahead of current terrestrial technology.  It was not anything he'd bumped noses with before, and with the current dissassembly of the ship occurring, it looked like the whole computer network was now not currently functioning as designed.  If he had to guess, all the computer systems aboard might have been integrated into a network that simulated a type of neural net but on a computerized basis.

  Lifelight could hear the sound of approaching hostile persons from the hallway on the other side of the door, as could Mittens if they listened, but there were also some sort of alarms going on.  Of course, that was about the time the power going to the internal lights there went, leaving them in the dark with strobing bluish lights and an alien language being shouted outside.

---

  On the ground, Serena was discovering the two officer types were a lot harder to deal with than the regular guys were, fighting back to back in a clear defensive pairing, and working together like they were almost psychic.

  Megaira was unmistakeable, since he had met Lin.  Megaira had midnight sapphire eyes instead of green, but she was so similar to her mother it was enough to make most do a double take when they saw her.  She unerringly located him before he spoke, and said "Pleased to meet you, apologies for the chaos.  There's a lot of folks currently hiding in their rooms right now, the tenants in the apartments upstairs are terrified, and not without reason, given the hostiles that showed up.  I have them on gravitic scans right now, which is letting me watch for casualties, but there isn't a really private spot that I want to sneak off to with my tenants in danger.  Most of my tenants are runaways, people who have nowhere else to go, and who were refused housing or work in other places because they aren't the typical teenager.
 If Mom mentioned you getting a job, which I am inferring she did from your phone call, I am guessing you may need either lodging or employment, and I have both available.  I also, just as a note, am a member of the New Age Defenders, not that most of us are easily located anymore.  My codename was Erinyes."  Greek for Fury.  If his suit had any sort of energy sensors, it would tell him that she was literally radiating energy right now that was in the magnetic spectra, sort of like a giant MRI machine.

With the chaos of the emergency communication and dispatch system being down, Rodger had waited for another member of his clown brigade to arrive before departing through the mysterious portal, stepping through into the Café's rear exit area to check on what the Heck was going on.

To someone not in the know, he was, of course, just a middle-aged man with glasses and red hair/beard liberally grizzled with gray. His normal, default human form not any of his more arcanely-powered states.

Looking left and right, Rodger took in what he could, trying to judge what was important to relay.

For a bit, to anyone watching Meg was just speaking to air.  Though despite his attempt at gruffness he was actually quite accommodating in a situation such as this.  His head shifts to the side as Rodger enters the view, at the same time he shuts off his cloaking device.  The suit was obviously professionally made, carefully crafted for a mix of protection and movement though of an apparently light weight material as well.  It almost looked like fabric but there were shapes and the way it sat on his body shows otherwise.  The cowl is full so while she can't see the smile, there is one to his voice.  Briefly, before getting to business.

"Daystar.  We can talk about the phone call later.  Right now, I came to you because of your activity with the New Age Defenders.  At first I was going to help with the situation out there, but despite their inexperience the two out there seem to be holding their own and giving our unwelcome guests more than they bargained for.  There is a signal jamming electronic transmissions in the broad RF range.  Not only is it likely affecting the police from communicating with their base, it is also causing a problem with at least one emergency call center here in the city.  I have a program that keeps tabs on both for me.  No one knows me here and understandably by the looks of me, they may not believe or listen to me in the panic.  I could use an introduction to the police."

Another glance is given to Rodger and despite the affects to his voice, there was obviously a touch of legitimate concern.

"Are you alright, Sir?"

There is the slightest of auras around her that his suit picks up.  It wasn't designed to look for every energy signature known or theoretically possible but that much radiating out still shows something.  He tucks that away as either her abilities with the gravitic scan or errors in his own suit.

"No. I am not," Rodger's reply to the unfamiliar person was unusually curt for him. "I gather that you are aware that the 911 emergency system is down, and from your mention of the N.A.D. am I to presume that we have a serious Para situation? Or am I jumping to the wrong conclusion, sir?"

He gaze was focused almost entirely on Kevin as he spoke.

OOC: I'm not sure what unusual senses you and your tech have, Kevin, so I'm not sure how much of Rodger's android abnormalities are showing up or how you would perceive them.

Dane nodded to Lifelight, and said, "Be quick. While you salvage, I'll figure out where to push and pull."

Seeing the room go dark with only alarm lights to light things, Lifelight glows, lighting the room up. "OK" she answers Dane. "Also, there are aliens on the other side of that door."

Having confirmed people are currently well enough, Lifelight proceeds to loot what alien tech she can, taking it through the portal to the other side - to Earth.

For these aliens to be so far advanced and yet not be familiar to Matt or Mittens after their years-long space adventures, either these aliens are from a galaxy far removed from the Milky Way, or they are from an another dimension/plane. Given how advanced the tech is, Lifelight wouldn't be too surprised if the aliens were from another dimension.

But that is for another time. Right now, she focuses on getting what she can out of there while she can, before it is time for everyone to fully retreat back to Earth.

Absalom took notice of what he inferred about the computer systems from his "Cyber Sniff^TM". Then the lights went out. Absalom chuckled to himself, believing that when the aliens sensed someone hacking the system, they shut it all down. He pulled his hand out of the port and it stopped glowing. His eye adjusted to the darkness but you could see them glowing white in the dark.

"I'll help too!" Absalom offered when Dane and Lifelight spoke about looting the ship for tech and taking it back home.

Seraph decided to go for feints and unpredictability in her attacks since the officers were fighting so well in coordination. She would start an attack on one before changing to a defensive posture and attacking the other. She also took advantage of her wings and took off to attack from the air.

In one particularly spectacular moment she took to the sky and fired a concentrated beam of white-hot flames at them.

Dane positioned himself at the door, preparing to hold it, if necessary, or, once all of the salvageable alien tech has been removed, to breach the door and complete his mission. He held back the rising anger as best as he could, but he was aware there was a limit to his control.

"How many?" he asked Lifelight.

The light that Lifelight is emitting to cause the room to be lit is oddly not blinding to look at, if still clear that she has become a walking lightbulb.

She answers Dane, "Fifty."

  Meg tilted one eyebrow, and said "EM jamming I can definitely deal with, as well as providing introductions.  Give me a second for a scan . . . and there it is.  I see it over that way, just about where the portal appeared that these hostiles came from."  When she 'scanned', his sensors detected a wave of powerful magnetic energy sweep over him faster than even the most modern MRI machine he'd seen.  Her eyes had also lit up with golden energy in the centers, and she indicated with one hand.  To Rodger, she said "I think our newer paras have the hostiles in hand, so far no civilian casualties but plenty of property damage to most things outside.  The Apartments and Cafe are fine.   Let the WPD know they'll need to send the scientific types take a look at the hostiles.  Daystar, if you would be so kind as to neutralize the transmitter, I think that would do everyone on the legal side a world of good."