The Unearthly Girl [IC]

[Ecalsneerg]

"" gasped Jeni, as the central control panel exploded in the capsule. Warning lights on a panel opposite the door were coming on en-masse, and system monitoring lights dimmed into nothing as the ship's vital systems began dying. "" she said to no one in particular as the dimensional stimulator turned into fine particulate dust, collapsing a pocket dimension in on itself and causing most of the doors to seal closed as the extradimensional rooms they opened onto dissolved.

The brown haired woman held herself up desperately, even as the gaping wound in her stomach poured maroon blood across her silver jumpsuit. The whole pod shuddered as it made another random jump, shattering across into a random dimension, a random timezone, a random galaxy. "" she said vaguely, resignedly laying down next to the remnants of the control panel, skin ashen and eyes barely held open.

---

The silver pod was pyramidal in shape, apart from a point on one of the three corners and the tip, both of which were melted hunks of metal streaming an odd grey-green fluid behind them. The entire ship span and whirled like a dancing madman, flattening a lamp post as it bounced down and dented a garbage truck even as its driver leapt hurriedly to safety.

For a brief second, the pod soared upwards as if it was to fly out of the atmosphere, before another tip of the pyramid exploded outwards, the metal molten and cracked. The smooth silver craft ploughed into the middle of the road, embedding itself in the concrete, a bizarre piece of alien metal with no doors or windows.

[Electra]

Not far from the West End, two figures were mere specks in the sky. Gina's frustration with the cabin fever of her teenage boarder had grown to a point where she'd abandoned the field and locked herself in her bedroom for the day, but a short time later, Miss Americana had stopped by to spring the young program from his captivity. A tour of Freedom City from the air was just what the doctor ordered. They'd covered the downtown and were soaring along over the river when Miss A caught sight of the soaring, plummeting pyramid. "What the hell?"

Turning in that direction, she increased her speed, arcing down out of the sky after it. "Whatever it is, it's in bad trouble. Stay close to me," she commanded unnecessarily. In flight mode, she had Sharl's projector, so he wasn't going very far.

[Avenger Assembled]

Sharl dived after her, his projection thinning out to cut away wind resistance. He could actually fly and hover on his own, if very slowly, but keeping up with Miss A was dependent on her carrying him around with her. He'd gone on missions with Miss Americana before, mostly in the background, but never for real superhero stuff like this before! "I...oh, wow!" he exclaimed, watching as the hurtling meteor fell. It didn't look like any alien spacecraft he'd seen in any of his holos. "It's going to hit the city..." he said worriedly. A crash into Tronik would have been disastrous given the density of buildings there, but things were probably much less dangerous in underbuilt and underpopulated Freedom City.

[Gizmo]

With the crash landing causing a commotion right in their proverbial backyard, it was no surprise when Jack of all Blades and his younger sibling Jill O'Cure arrived on the scene shortly, tumbling acrobatically down into the street from a nearby rooftop. Regarding the strange, smoldering object for a moment, Jack produced his lighter from his royal blue great coat, summoning a blade of flickering flame into his hand. "Crowd control, hermaita," he instructed, walking cautiously toward the pyramid.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Jill inquired with a flatly apprehensive tone as she gently encouraged nearby gawkers to back away with her shimmering force fields.

"Gonna cut into it, see what's what," her older brother responded, circling the hunk of metal and looking for a convenient place to make his incision.

The metamagi medic's eyes went wide behind her crimson bandanna mask. "What? That is the literal opposite of a good plan!" Looking up to see a familiarly patriotic figure descending, she breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank pink and fluffy goodness."

[Aoiroo]

Etain stretched quietly as she looked down at the book in her lap and the handout she was tapping her pencil against. She wasn't nearly as far as she'd like to be at the time, but it couldn't be helped since she had so much review material to go over as well as the homework for her language classes.

Looking up from her books to the bed, she frowned as she looked at the sleeping boy feeling a bit bad about her worries. Standing up from her place she moved towards the window, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. It looked like falling star, except it was far to close.

"

Opening the window she leaned out to look and could visibly see the object was moving closer and closer to the city.

Looking behind her she glanced frowned at the bed. She knew he wouldn't miss her, he couldn't, but it still made her stop for a few seconds and just stare. That was until she turned to see the object had indeed gotten close enough to fall within the city limits. She made her decision,

"I will be right back."

Hiding herself from sight so as not to upset the nurses she slipped on her mask and her costume appeared she sat on the windows edge and said quietly in the darkness,

"Custos, I require assistance."

Not terribly far away on the edge of a grander church the eyes of a stone being lit and it began to move. It's large wings stretched out it swooped off the roof and made it's way to the hospital which held the person who beconned him.

When he came in sight, Changeling had readied herself as the figure descended before dropping onto his back and concealing the both of them from sight. It was about that time where she heard a crashing in the distance.

"Quickly, we must go see."

The gargoyle nodded and took off towards the site of the crash.

When they got to the scene they were still concealed and there was already some heroes there. Changeling politely asked her friend to stay back and hidden as she approached what appeared the two magic users, one of which was welding a sword. She dropped her own concealment and asked quietly,

"What is it that has happened?"

[Electra]

Miss Americana saw Jack and Jill already on the scene as she circled in for a landing, which wasn't surprising. Jack's turf was the West End, after all, and it looked like the thing had come down smack in the middle of the neighborhood. She didn't recognize the girl who was with them, but figured she was probably another curious hero of some type. Freedom City certainly had enough of them!

She circled the downed craft once, then landed next to Jack. "Let's not cut into it just yet," she cautioned the swordsman, putting one perfectly manicured hand lightly on his arm. "There might be security on it, or it might be unstable enough to explode. We should try and get some data on it first, then see about opening it up."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Uh, hi, I'm Sharl," said the black-clad teenager made entirely of magnetism and pretty lights. In his black leather jacket and opaque mirrorshades, he vaguely resembled a refugee from a cyberpunk movie, particularly since he glowed ever-so-slightly as he approached the smoldering pyramid. "You must be Jack of all Blades and Jill O'Cure." He waved to the superheroes, feeling quite impressed. "I recognize you from TV. Here, Miss A, I'll take a look." And with that, and with some trepedation, he stuck his head right through the wall of the strange spacecraft: careful not to go in so far he risked losing connection to his projector or otherwise disrupting his projection.

[Ecalsneerg]

Sharl saw through the wall a sleek interior, plated with smooth silver metal and tasteful control panels. At least, he saw the remnants of this, with rapidly decaying metal and smoke rapidly becoming the predominant design feature. There was a round central console, about waist high, in the centre, with a woman appearing in her thirties holding herself up on it, maroon blood pouring from a huge wound in her stomach.

With heavy eyes, she looked at the head poking into the wall of her craft, and forced herself to her feet, and began speaking in an alien language, unlike anything Sharl understood. "" She pointed at a big green button beside where Sharl's head was, hefting hwerself up and away from the console as she did so.

For a second, her arm held upright and pointed at the button, her posture dignified and composed. Then she collapsed to the floor, her knees buckling underneath her like wet tissue paper.

[Gizmo]

Jack rested his fiery weapon on his shoulder at Miss Americana's cautionary suggestion, giving it artificial mass while preventing it from burning his greatcoat. "Fair enough, Firecracker," he allowed breezily. "Blind me with science." Glancing at the end of the glowing youth sticking out of the pyramid he gave the patriotic paragon an amused look. "Got a sidekick, too, huh?"

"Junior partner!" Jill corrected him from further back from the unidentified object. The teenager made a startled gesture as a girl in an outfit with the colour scheme of a monarch butterfly appeared. "Where'd you come from?"

[Avenger Assembled]

When Sharl pulled his head back, the electronic teenager looked deeply discomfited. Watching superhero stuff on the television was cool, but actual suffering was all too gritty and real even through the interface of his holographic senses. "Uh, human blood is red, right?" At the look that got him, he added, "There's a woman in there who doesn't speak English and she looks really badly hurt. I think she showed me where the door is, or the translator, or something. Since going through didn't fry my signal, I'm going to go in and push it." And so the teenager did, disappearing inside the alien spacecraft and pushing the big green button.

[Ecalsneerg]

Instantly, the side of the ship melted away, fluidly sliding apart to make a square doorway in the featureless surface. The woman on the floor began crawling forwards slowly, fingers digging into the plain black floor in an attempt to drag her forwards. "Kai..." Her arms gave out and she flopped onto the floor, immediately trying to force her way back up again. Sparks were flying from the central console by this point. "Kairos... "

The girl began gasping for air, breaths coming quick and rasping.

[Electra]

"Looks that way, for now," Miss A said dryly in response to Jack's comment. "I downloaded him off the internet." She tensed when Sharl reported his findings, but didn't stop him from pressing the indicated button. If there was someone alive in there who needed help, they all had an obligation.

"God..." Miss A murmured, looking at the wreckage of the craft and its occupant. "Jill, I think we need you here!" Using her own flight to skirt the wounded woman and the damage, she lifted herself into the craft to try and save the craft itself. An explosion would make the entire situation worse, and if they could at least save the computer, it could provide data about who this stranger was and why she'd come.

[Aoiroo]

She examined the curious people who have gathered, the very pretty one was accompanied by a young boy who for one reason was not completely solid since he moved through the ship with great ease.

She turned from the young boy to the girl of the pair in similiar outfits that addressed her,

"I came from..."

She paused when she heard movement from the ship and of the blonde woman. She pulled up her skirt and aproached approached the stranger who appeared female. She was definitely not okay, that much was clear. It took but a few seconds as Changeling came closer she held a hand out and, at least to the stranger, closed the wounds and deafened the pain to try. It would do no real good, but it would at least even out her breathing for the moment as she moved closer,

"Do not move, we will help you."

[Gizmo]

"Funny," Jack drawled as Miss Americana's remark just before the side of the pyramid melted away. "Dios!" the fencer exclaimed, sprinting forward as he let his energy rapier evaporate into the air. "Hermanita! Move!" Ignoring the smoldering equipment, the slid down onto one knee, scanning the injured woman's face while addressing the unfamiliar teenager. "Less glamour, more getting out of the way, Skirts," he demanded brusquely, not mincing words as his metamagi senses recognized the illusion.

"Moving, moving!" Jill called back, reflexively propelling herself forward with a bioelectric construct, quickly slipping into suddely crowded, angular vessel and kneeling down, a brilliant glow like sunlight pouring through a forest canopy lighting up about her hand as she placed it on the wounded being's stomach, pouring healing energies into her as oddly dark blood stained her fingers and crimson gloves. "Not working...!" she realized with distress, gritting her teeth as she redoubled her efforts.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Ow! What the-" Sharl slapped at his arm as a spark hit it, as surprised as anyone when it left a visible scorch mark on his leather jacket. He gave Miss A her space after that, watching worriedly as Jill O'Cure tended to the mortally injured alien. _She has to be an alien,_ he thought, _all those medical shows can't be wrong! Ah man, and look at this ship..._ Despite himself, he wondered where she'd come from and what it all meant. "Do you think her name is Kairos?" he muttered to no one in particular, watching the treatment. He'd never really seen someone this hurt before.

[Aoiroo]

Changeling took a step back to let the two by, mostly the healer. She felt a little less helpful to the swordsman, but left her discomfort to muttering in her own language quietly as she kept her powers focused on the woman. She had to sheild her eyes when the girl in red started to exert her power, but grimanced lightly. There was probably very little hope for this visiter whatever her purpose was or had been. Turning towards the boy who seemed to have been pushed to the sidelines as well she let out a breath.

"I am sorry to say it might not matter much longer."

[Ecalsneerg]

"God..." Miss A murmured, looking at the wreckage of the craft and its occupant. "Jill, I think we need you here!" Using her own flight to skirt the wounded woman and the damage, she lifted herself into the craft to try and save the craft itself. An explosion would make the entire situation worse, and if they could at least save the computer, it could provide data about who this stranger was and why she'd come.

While the systems looked nothing like any Earth computer that Miss A knew of, the principle seemed understandable enough. Self-contained modular systems were linked within the metal casing within a pliant gel carrying a current between the differing elements. While not immediately obvious which modules had which function, only three of them weren't cracked and spilling filaments out into the gel, two cylinders and a huge, blocky cube.

---

The woman's eyes suddenly began to flicker, the irises and pupils fading into whiteness than fading back in again, green tinges appearing sporadically throughout both eyes. "" Even amid her injuries and crash, the woman seemed more preoccupied trying to work out the language. Nonetheless, she pointed out the door as if to request being moved.

[Gizmo]

Jack gave Jill a quick look and with a nod the younger sibling diverted a fraction of her powers to form a glimmering stretcher that gently lifted the alien woman off the ship's floor, moving with them as they stepped outside. The swordsman for his part took the injured being's hand lightly, forcing a grin while looking into her oddly flickering eyes. "Well, hey, good. That's no name for a pretty lady, huh? Gotta call you something, though, right?" he asked, trying to keep her alert while his sister worked. Looking up from the still bleeding wound, Jill shook her head bleakly. Clearing his throat thickly, Jack continued nevertheless. "I'm guessing Sarah. You strike me as a Sarah, maybe a Jane." He looked up briefly from Miss Americana to the two youths, hoping someone else had a plan.

[Electra]

Miss A worked quickly, first sequestering the good sectors from the bad, then working as best she could to route functions away from the most damaged areas of the craft. Even with her prodigious skill and knowledge, it was tricky work on a very limited timetable. "Get away from the ship," she suggested to the others without looking up. "This system isn't stable, and I don't know if I'm going to be able to save it. Jack, you want to clear out the civilians?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Sharl deferred to the people who knew what they were doing, recognizing that Jill had first aid training he did not have. "I don't know anything about taking care of sick people," he said, "even aliens." He wanted to help Miss A, but he didn't know enough about these computers to interface with them even as well as he could Gina's computers at home. "This thing might explode!" he yelled to the growing crowd of civilians. "You should all get back! Miss A, do you need help?" he called inside. She knew more about his capabilities than he did, or so it seemed sometimes.

[Aoiroo]

Changeling took the appropriate amount of steps back as they moved the stranger on a newly made stretcher. She kept pace so the woman would stay within the radius of her powers. Walking aside them she looked at the woman who has started talking in broken English,

"What is Kaivos? Is it a person or place? Do you know where you are now?"

[Ecalsneerg]

"Well, hey, good. That's no name for a pretty lady, huh? Gotta call you something, though, right?" he asked, trying to keep her alert while his sister worked. Looking up from the still bleeding wound, Jill shook her head bleakly. Clearing his throat thickly, Jack continued nevertheless. "I'm guessing Sarah. You strike me as a Sarah, maybe a Jane."

"Name?" By now, the woman's eyes seemed to have taken on a permanent green ting around the edges. He seems nice for a primitive being... I better try to keep talking... "I'm Jeni." Her accent was starting to sound slightly less BBC English, and slightly more Jack. She smiled up at him, revealing the fact that the green seemed to be spreading along the veins in her teeth, even as it rapidly became apparent on her face. The greenness was beginning to glow softly from within her. "Pretty?"

"What is Kaivos? Is it a person or place? Do you know where you are now?"

"It's a place, Kairos. Where am I now?"

As Miss A worked, from somewhere in the bowel of the ship, a low-pitched hum began sounding, along with a high-pitched wail of an alarm. The few functioning control lights in the system began flickering into light, casting a pale mauve colour. Hearing this, Jeni pushed herself up on the stretcher, and pointed at the ship, talking quickly in an even more rasping breath as the stress began getting to her again, and as she continued bleeding. "Out of the way! Moving, moving! Ship going to explode!" Then she saw her hand, realising it was beginning to glow slightly, not just across the veins, but all over the skin.

[Electra]

"I'm fine, you get back!" Miss A commanded Sharl. She turned away from her work just long enough to toss his projector to him, freeing him of his tether to her. "If anything happens, you know where to go." She worked frantically until the alarm sounded, cursing under her breath when it became obvious that the cause was lost. Such a useless waste! Jumping up from the control panel, she moved to uncouple the salvageable cores and the blocky drive before the whole thing blew to kingdom come.

[Aoiroo]

Changeling quickened her pace as she got the clear message that it was no longer safe here. Turning behind her she called out,

"Custos!"

The gargoyle extended his wings and flew from his spot to her side. Though it wasn't intended people seemed a bit more scared of the sudden movement of what they believed to be a statue than that of the strange ship and started to move away,

"Will it be a big explosion, or small?"

She used her hands to illiterate the meanings of the words big and small. It looked foolish, but she wanted to make sure for certian if they were safe or further evacuation was needed.

[Gizmo]

"Heh, yeah. Pretty," Jack confirmed with a lopsided grin that didn't reach his eyes. "Though I'm thinking you probably could have pulled off 'Kairos', too." At the warning, the swashbuckler winced and looked grimly to his sister.

Hesitating for a brief moment, Jill stopped trying to heal Jeni and let the stretcher construct fade smoothly away, setting the alien woman down on the ground gently. Standing, the teenager took a few deep breaths to recover some of her strength, waiting until everyone was clear, then thrust her hands outward. With an audible crackle of bioelectricty and magic, a translucent blue dome appeared around the pyramid shaped craft. Straining, she layered the force field as best she could, preparing for the inevitable recoil of the explosion. "This is gonna hurt..."

Still kneeling next to the injured woman, Jack looked out to the crowd and roared, "Keep moving back, people! Things are about to get bright and loud!"