12894/Grounded

Grounded
Date of Scene:	26 March 2021
Location:	Central Park, Manhattan
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Ace, Phobos, Quake, Aquaman, Wonder Woman

---

Ace has posed:
Ten minutes ago SHIELD satellites picked up an alien craft of unknown origin entering the Earth's atmosphere on an erratic trajctory. Preliminary data reports that it appears to be heavily damaged. Despite the unstable descent it's been determined that it will crash somewhere in New York City. What is unknown is if it will land somewhere open where no one will be hurt, slam into a building or buildings and cost thousands of lives, or if the thing will go "boom" and wipe out the entire city in some kind of an anti-matter explosion.

Citizens have started to take notice of the "meteorite" over the city. People stepping out of their vehicles and homes to point their smartphones at the sky.

Phobos has posed:
    The warning systems for SHIELD are robust and the intelligence operations exceedingly good at delineating the course of warnings needed to make their operatives ready and aware. As the alien craft breaches the upper atmosphere warnings are sent out to the primary world defense organizations. SWORD satellites twist in their orbit to track the vehicle's descent, and Alpha Flight gets a scramble order.
    Quickly the course is marked, the line of descent sharply predicted, and for those that SHIELD has worked with before they get warnings and alarms. For some it's a simple text message, for others it's a communicator in their gear. For Alexander Aaron... his phone trills with a sharp discordant tone that has him pulling it from his windbreaker's pocket.
    "Hnh," Is all he offers as he abruptly abandons his basket in the package store, smiling a slight apology to the clerk who now is going to have to put all the groceries back. But there's nothing to it. He breaks into a half-jog to the door and out onto the street, using the cellphone data display to track what is what and where it's falling.

Quake has posed:
Back in the Trisk Skye has two warnings: SHIELD (which was to be expected), and the Birds (which was not). Whatever it was, it was a big deal. To have the Birds reaching Birds was unusual.

Good thing she was on the board to answer the calling. Two at the price of one, so to speak. (She was a Bird you might remember.)

"On my way!" She booted it, taking a Quinjet.

Aquaman has posed:
The Justice League has its own set of warning systems, and its own ways of getting places quickly. An alert had gone out to the members, and Arthur Curry is one such. Central Park happens to be home to all kinds of bodies of water. The blonde king of Atlantis steps out of the one closest to the area he'd been alerted to. He carries with him the staff gifted him by Poseidon as he looks to the sky.

Though his method of arrival is rather.. unorthadox, Arthur is here. In his typical armor consisting of gold and green scales. Or, well, something that is shaped more or less like scales. His blonde hair is dry, despite having emerged from the water, and not a hair is out of place. He looks his usual, regal self.

Wonder Woman has posed:
There was the warning that came, from the Justice League, to advise of what was happening. It prompted other actions to be taken, which included a change of clothes from the 'business attire' of regular daily life at the Embassy to an outfit that was preferred for such situations. The outfit that she's known for, with the tiara at her brow, the tall boots, the bracers, and that armoured outfit. A Themysciran shield is grabbed from a display upon her office wall, and then Diana leaves the embassy.

Without much in the way of warning besides a few steps taken to be clear of the building, Diana flies up into the air to clear the height of the buildings in order to get a better look even as she's heading in the direction of it. Arthur is perhaps not the only one with an unorthodox arrival, and once to the park, Diana easily lands near to him. "It looks like we might play catch," she comments, quirking a smile and looking to him. Then she takes off again, slipping her shield to her back and heading relatively towards the craft.

Ace has posed:
The closer the ship approaches the city the more obvious that it's not a meteorite. People who were previously entranced by the astronomical spectacle now look frightened. Alien ships in the city's airspace is old hat at this point, but that doesn't make it any more enjoyable.

The ship roars just over the tallest buildings. It lists from side to side like a drunk piloting a wheelbarrel. But what happens next makes that look like smooth sailing by comparison. The thruster on the right nacelle grows brighter and briger. There is a flash, followed by a detonation as that thruster explodes shrapnel fires out in all directions. Now with only a single thruter on one side the ship starts to perform doughnuts in the sky. In its wake is a smoketrail of O's left in the sky like a garish sky writing.

Phobos has posed:
    There is a rush, a surge in the feeling of the world around him as Alexander can feel the surge of fear once that nacelle explodes. Like a wave washing across the city, over the civilians that are looking up, all the people indoors looking on their screens at the latest hint of madness to grace New York's skyline.
    It's a rush that on some level the young God of Fear can exult in, the rush of energy, of power, but it is a rush that sits not well with the Olympian. He frowns and lifts his voice, raising his hands as he gestures to those within sightline of him, even as he exerts that roiling surge of fear to weaken it, absorb it, turn it away from what feeds him and more toward what will aid the people in maintaining control
    Panic ebbs around him and they start to listen as he calls out, "Get clear, get into shelter! Underground if possible, move it!"
    And to his credit, a good portion of people do just that.

Quake has posed:
Skye flew the Quinjet herself. After all, she'd learned.. but most of all, May wasn't there. May was very particular about who she would allow to fly (read: no one) when she was around. On her way, Skye sent a quick memo to the Birds, saying she was on it. Other than that, quickly she was off.

Skye had a general idea of where she was heading, but the ship, for it had been identified as such, was carrying on as though it had the pilot, and was out of control. Finally she had a better picture of where it was going down, and quickly found a place to land to figure out what to do

She suspected her Quake like powers were once again going to be invaluable in slowly the descent down.

Aquaman has posed:
Aquaman looks to Diana briefly as she arrives, then his eyes go to the sky. "You might be right," he says. And he follows Wonder Woman into the air, flying easily beside her. As that nacelle starts to grow brighter and brighter, Aquaman flies toward the ship faster, lifting that trident as he does so. With the lifting of the trident comes the lifting of the water from all the nearby sources in the park, ending up in quite a goodly amount of water.

The water spirals up to him, and then past him. It doesn't try to catch the ship, not at this moment. But as it encircles the shrapnel firing out, Arthur drops the temperature of the water, turning it to ice to catch and stop the shrapnel. But only for half a breath, for ice is relatively hard to hold in the air and it starts to fall. Even as it's falling, he brings the temperature up, melting the ice. In order to keep the shrapnel contained within the water, it spins like a whirlpool.

Concentrating still, with that trident still raised in the air, Arthur hovers where he is. Slowly, slowly, the water starts to sink toward land.

Wonder Woman has posed:
It's almost always one of the big three. Aliens, wizards, or giant robots. Keeping an eye on the craft, Diana frowns as one of the thrusters explodes and it starts doing doughnuts. That's not a good sign. And that will also mean that it will likely be harder to catch. She continues her approach, aiming for the nose of the craft. She glances towards Arthur, near to her, and gives a nod to him as he uses water to catch up the shrapnel.

For whomever is within (if they're still alive), and for those who are down on the ground, she doesn't want it to crash. She reaches the nose of the craft, and, after spacing her hands out a about shoulder width, she places her hands upon it and pushes against the force of it, to attempt to slow it down.

Ace has posed:
The people around Phobos calm down, as though they were hit by a light dose of a good sedative. They calmly walk back into the buildings they came out of. Doors are locked and shades are drawn.

Skye gets a good view from her landing site of the pair of Justice Leaguers who are trying to guide the ship down. Aquaman contains the shrapnel handily within the ice and water. Diana meanwhile gets hold of the ship. Though it's not too much force to handle for someone of her weight class, it is squirrlley and awkward to control.

Those close to the alien ship can see a word writtten in the Latin alphabet, a decidedly Earth-based society. That word is Galaga. A term which might not mean much to an Amazonian and an Atlantian.

As Diana wrestles with the ship she gets a sudden electrical shock! It's not damaging for someone with her durability, but it is surprisin. Soon though arcs of electricity crawls over the hull of the ship and surges through Diana's body.

Phobos has posed:
    Alexander rushes down the street in the direction his data display indicates, his footsteps quick and his movement picking up faster than some of the vehicles still driving on the streets. A quick dash of movement, still trying to mute the feelings of dread and terror and urging people to get back.
    Only for one guy to be standing there in the middle of the street with his cellphone held up, grinning wildly as he watches the mayhem.
    "Hey man, get into cover." Alexander says as he skids to a halt and checks his phone, frowning that it's still taking him a bit to get there.
    "Screw you buddy, this'll get me like a million likes, that's cash money." Even as the streamer hops up onto the hood of someone's car to get a better angle.
    Which makes Alex's features twist into a scowl, // I said. GET TO COVER! //
    And as the young blond Olympian rounds on that streamer, his pale eyes _flash_ with a brilliant silvery fire that for the rest of the world seems like just a bit of a lightshow. But for the streamer it's suddenly as if the SHIELD Agent's face twisted open and melted as a myriad of tentacles slashed the air and lashed out at him, the very personification of dread manifesting before him.
    Which was all the incentive the man needed.
    Alex broke into a run once again.

Quake has posed:
From her spot Skye quickly moves to the crash site. "Well fuck." The arcs of electricity are a pain in the ass. Well all over the body. Literally. "What do you need me to do?"

Aquaman has posed:
Aquaman concentrates, for the moment, on bringing the water back to the earth. As it reaches the ground, it stops spinning, and the shrapnel settles to the bottom. The water then lifts back into the air and goes back to whence it came, the streams and ponds closest to the area.

Only then does Arthur look back to the sky and the ship and Diana. Just in time to see the electricity crawling over the hull of the ship and.. Wonder Woman herself. Ow? That has to smart! His brow furrows as he studies the situation. He glances to his trident, and then to the ship and his team member. "What the hell," he says, the comment, question?, seeming mostly rhetorical.

The trident is thrust out again, toward the ship, as he flies toward it. He hasn't ever tried to call lightning /from/ something. This will work, or it won't. Arthur isn't entirely certain!

Wonder Woman has posed:
The word written on the alien ship might not mean anything to her, but Diana does understand it. Not that she's thinking about it very much at the moment. Right now she's a bit more focused on trying to slow the ship down further. And trying to get it to stop with the doughnuts that it's doing. If it's at all possible, she'd like to be able to just peacefully set it down in the park, if it will fit, once the people are cleared out of the way.

And then it would seem that there's some form of electric current to contend with. It is a bit... shocking. Unexpected, surprising, painful to a point and causing a bit of a twitch, but not enough to make her let go of the craft or release it. There's a glint that shows for a moment in her blue eyes, and her lips purse together somewhat out of determination. She keeps her hands on it. She is both stubborn and rather tolerant to pain, and she's unwilling to let a thing like pain make her stop.

Ace has posed:
The electricity crackles around Diana, and even arcs out to strike at Aquaman. The intensity of it grows, even as the trajectory of the ship is evened out. Diana is on a course to land it mostly safely in Central Park.

From where Sky and Phobos are standing they can see the ship as it comes in. On top of the ship, only there for a brief fraction of a second every ten seconds or so, is a humanoid shape standin on top of the ship. When it extends its hand, the yellow electricity crackling around Diana intensifies.

Phobos has posed:
    On the comms for SHIELD, Alexander's voice comes across with only a hint of crackle despite the rage of electricity nearby. "I'm on site, looks like the leaguers have the main body of the ship." And Aunty Diana getting frizzy hair. He does wince, however, in sympathy.
    But then a trail of smoke and twisting fire slashes across the sky, heading over the street and leaving a trail of small bits of debris spinning away from the larger mass of the errant nacelle.
    Again on the comms, "Anyone on hand, we're going to have impact, twenty seconds. Eighteen..." There's a certain reserved tone in the young man's voice, even as he frowns and can feel the surge of fear welling up around him.

Quake has posed:
Skye gets a man on the ship intermittently, but as she gets it, Alex alerts her to a bigger danger. Diana will have to wait. First of all, the nacelle.

Finding is easy. Now for the hard part. She quickly modulates her frequency to that of the nacelle and *slowly* lowers it down into the pond. *glug*

After that she'll find how to help Diana! If she needs if, of course.

Aquaman has posed:
Well. That didn't work. Oops. Also, ouch! Good thing he has really good endurance or this would really suck. He stops trying to pull the electricity to the trident, though. As it didn't work, no point in keeping trying that. Well. It worked, just not how he wanted it to! "Sorry Di, can't help with that!"

Instead, he flies forward a bit to help the woman slow and get the ship under more control. Into the fire? Er... lightning? Still ouch, but he endures it.

Wonder Woman has posed:
While electricity isn't a terrible thing for her to be zapped by, it is something that gets a touch annoying with repetition. Continuing to be zapped and cracked with electricity is a bit of a different thing. It might go a bit beyond annoying. "Thank you for trying, Arthur," she says, her gaze turning briefly to Arthur. There is a bit of inspiration that is taken then from the name that she had seen on the ship. Latin. It was in Latin. It's a very small chance, but she'll take it. "Ego non auxilium vobis ad fragosus, interficiam potentia, si potes," she says, on the off chance that she might be heard by the pilot of the craft.

With the trajectory of the ship evened out, she takes a moment to glance down towards the park, just to check if there are any people there. The electricity does cause her muscles to twitch some, and it is painful, but she's ignoring the pain in favour of at least attempting to accomplish her goal of getting the ship safely to the ground.

Ace has posed:
A garbled voice comes through the speakers in response to Diana. "Klaatu Barada... necktie. Little busy," the voice answers. The letters are Latin letters, otherwise known as the English alphabet. The voice that comes through doesn't seem to be very latin.

The ship finally touches down. Though it's not as hard as it otherwise could have been, it's difficult to put something that size down gently. Meanwhile the electricity doesn't go away, but it moves away from where Diana is standing and coalesces on the top in the rough shape of a human. It paces back and forth across the top of the hull, taking in its surroundings. It turns it's gaze to Aquaman. It forms a trident of pure electricity, as though he were mockin the Atleantan King.

At the same time the burning nacelle touches down not too far from the ship with Skye's guidance.

Phobos has posed:
    On the comm freqs, Alexander's voice is heard again, "Nice. Nice work, Agent Johnson." He pushes off and moves to where Diana has set down with the ship and its electrically inclined occupant. He has to run a good distance of the way, leaping over a park bench and then around an abandoned hot dog cart, but eventually he makes it there.
    "Hey," His gaze shifts over to Diana and he says quickly, "I'm Agent Aaron, of SHIELD, are you injured?" The way he speaks and the calm level gaze speaks not of recognition for whatever reason.

Quake has posed:
"Thanks.. I think." Skye says back to Alex on the comms. "What else are we looking at? There's a man (?) on the ship whose casting lighting on.. I think it is Diana?"

She thinks of how to stop the lighting. So far she *thinks* she can cover him in a circular dome keeping him intact, and the lighting in his body. "Ok. I'm going to do this think, but if it doesn't work I may be knocked out." Even with this working she won't be able to do much of anything else.

She tries it.