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."

  The hostiles were not faring so well, the white fire of Serena's angelic form finally taking some of their cybernetics offline and giving her and her partner the opening needed to finish them off.

  In the ships, there were about twenty more hostiles outside, preparing to open the door and shoot them all.  However, dismantling the ship around them was making other problems, like with the way the computer systems were set up, their looting meant they were opening up a ton of hull breaches and the system to deal with them was now offline.  So the enemy would very shortly have other issues, like explosive decompression, to worry about, unless Matt was going to keep them alive to let them shoot at his friends.

  "You can bring it back in pieces and I should be able to put it back together fine guys.  The question will be if we WANT to put it back together."

 Alien invaders dying in the vast emptiness of space doesn't count!  Matt's own dismantling was of the careful variety. Thank you, willful hypocrisy helping Matt avoid going mad with power.

  He comments to Mittens, "I'm STILL back on Earth as it is, so don't worry about me if you need to close the portal on me."

  MEANWHILE, on Earth.  A reminder that absurd perceptions into the physical and metaphysical is no replacement for Omniscience.  "Oh, huh."  And with that, the alien Jammer quit it's dayjob.  "Sorry, forgot my phone working doesn't mean everyone else gets bars."

  Then a surviving alien kicks him in the head hard enough to leave it at a 90 degree angle. "Hey. stop that."

In reply to Megaira Kattakara (msg # 314):

No civilians hurt? That was good news, even with his knowledge of just how capable Meg was. The android ex-teacher nodded twice, then his eyes went unfocused as he shifted to internal system views and addressed a mindmail missive to the henchclown officer at police dispatch.

Meg reports that there are no civilians hurt, but considerable property damage. Unknown persons arrived through a portal, source also unknown. She is deploying local Para assistance to deal with an electromagnetic jamming device being used.

She advises that a scientific team be sent to examine the hostiles, so I surmise that they are more than just Paras with a chip on their shoulders. I haven't seen any of them yet myself.

Sending the mindmail, his gaze returned to normal, focusing on Meg once more. "They came through a portal? Is it like this one, which I believe Miss Adventure created psionically, or of an unknown origin?" he asked.

Serena brought both of her alien weapons down on the one that just kicked the...man? Creature? Thing? she had been fighting next to, shearing it into roughly five pieces.

"Less talking, more killing once you get your head to a less painful position," she hissed in a voice like fire.

"Mits is sooo happy to have Matt around!" the catgirl narrates aloud, "And the fact that he's often mistaken as her sidekick rather than vastly more powerful is still quite amusing.  So she combines a compliment with a tease:  You're the best sidekick ever, Matt!"

(( http://img.memecdn.com/chuck-n...idekick_o_804241.jpg ))

Not wanting the aliens to get slaughtered in a most unpleasant way... Take your pick: vacuum of space or Dane.  Either one is an unpleasant slaughter...  Mits asides to the new speedster, "You fast enough to disarm that many aliens before they know what hit 'em, Mr. Duke?"

The assumption is that the answer is yes considering the earlier boasts.  Not that their guns would even work with Matt around, but that doesn't translate to "time to surrender" quite as clearly as being disarmed in Miss Adventure's experience.  She secretly opens up a portal behind the baddies for Duke, hoping that'll keep the scene from going R rated faster than you can say, "Punched through the hull."

The pulse from Meg is certainly detected, though it causes him to wonder just how off his sensors were and how much work was needed to make them functional once again.

A soft disturbance of static and a quick reboot of his systems causes him a pause.

Sir, it would seem we are back online.  I am beginning to detect activity across the city and communication with the Osprey is running at previous efficiency.

Facing away to the side, "Understood.  Keep me posted, if you can."

"My apologies.  It would seem that whatever was causing the disturbance has stopped.  I would suggest contacting this Miss Adventure to see if she can remove that portal.  While they could have had joint attacks with this as a distraction it is more likely that the device located here is transmitting through the portal and disrupting the system that way.  The thought of having a primary force here with a small force designed to disrupt a system in a different area seems to have more subtlety than what they are showing in this direct attack.  Whatever they wanted was likely here, potentially a direct attack on the Café in order to test the strength of the parahumans here.  Still, I will go look for this device.  Alien tech or not, it still fits the definition of a mechanical or electrical system.  There are some truths that are universal."

With that, he starts to take his exit, waiting briefly for responses before leaving the café to survey the area.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:19, Sat 09 June 2018.

Dane observed, a note of urgency (but not a whiff of panic) in his voice. "They're coming through. Take what you can and let me go to work before they breach and force the issue."

He rubbed his fingers together, and the energy coming off of him was palpable, and intensifying. He placed a hand against the door keeping the alien soldiers out to strengthen it, the energy axe in the other hand. He hefted the axe, and smiled grimly. "I'm keeping this. Very handy. Oh... if you see any other weapons like this? Grab 'em."