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.