2265/Starrvation Plan

Starrvation Plan
Date of Scene:	31 August 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Phoenix, Batman, Green Lantern (Jordan), Crusader

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Phoenix has posed:
While the Justice League maintains a terrestrial base, Jean Grey has no idea of how regularly its members are actually there, nor of their typical response time to civilian callers. This is not so much because she doubts their altruism as it is because she knows the challenges of figuring out how to allocate limited resources to potentially endless problems; careful screening must be a necessity to maintain efficient heroing.

Thus, it's Phoenix who floats into Metropolis' Hall of Justice at midday, hair aflutter on invisible waves of force and mind extending in all directions to carry a message to any others on the premises:

{{My name is Phoenix. If anyone receiving this is a member of the Justice League, I need to speak with you, right now; if not, I need you to bring me a member of the Justice League. Sentient existence as we know it is at stake, so, y'know; no delays.}}

Batman has posed:
It's true that Batman spends very little time at the Hall of Justice, doing his duty to the League as active missions require, and not infrequently manning the hyper-sensitive monitor room aboard their orbiting headquarters.

It is however also true that all sorts of advanced sensors and security suites are surreptitiously installed throughout the Hall, and that Jean is-- let's just say a person of interest even before the powerful emission of psionic energy.

Thus, all but in tandem with the psychic call, an electronic beacon goes up to on-call Justice League members, and the Dark Knight is en route to the Hall of Justice at somewhat beyond the speed of sound. Not long after, he's politely but tersely invited the Phoenix into their most august meeting room, and taken a prominent seat to hear this threat.

Green Lantern (Jordan) has posed:
    Hal Jordan, Green Lantern floats into the Hall of Justice with a neutral look on his face. It was rare to get a call to this base, let alone by someone he has never met before and psychically. Crossing his arms across his chest, the ring on his ring finger glows slighly, casting his aura in a green light.

    As Hal enters the Hall, he scans the people present, first towards Batman, then Phoenix. Hal regards her thoughtfully for just a moment.

    Hal then slowly floats towards his chair at the table. Arriving at his spot, Hal nods to everyone present. "Interesting summons." Hal says, emotionlessly.

Crusader has posed:
Crusader has been visiting the Halls a bit more frequeantly - mostly to get requainted with the place as he is an ally. But than he hears that psychic summon and gives pause. Well that was not the most common thing to happen, but it none the less sounded like it warrented serious attention judging by the voice.

As such, Crusader makes his way to the the meeting room the others are in to find out more about what is happening. He looks first to Batman and than Hal and finally to Phoenix, he gives a simple cordial bow saying "Greeting gentlemen, mam" before he takes a seat, ready to hear what all this was about.

Phoenix has posed:
The telekinetic display drops as soon as she's taken into the meeting room, its point having been made. Green eyes scan the heroes taking their spots around the table she faces, meeting each of theirs in turn as best as cowls and Oan auras allow.

"Right, well," Phoenix begins before slowly breathing in. Rather than finish that thought, she pushes an entirely different one into the three men's minds: images of a vast swarm of Starros in space. Some are a wash of strange colors and cross-sections of the creatures, thanks to her only having seen them through Superman's miraculous eyes, but others are plain, making it easy to pick out a number of state-sized parasites, as well as one large enough to fill an entire ocean floor at the heart of it all.

Accompanying the images is a tremor of fear.

"We live in an interesting world," she continues after a couple of seconds. "So, this is from a couple of weeks ago, en route to our solar system. I wasn't physically present for this, but some guy in a Superman space suit - maybe Superman? Does Superman have a space suit? - and a guy named Kal were. They tried enacting a plan to make this swarm of alien parasites change trajectories, and I tried to engage the big one psychically; we both failed. Additionally, there were a number of smaller members of this collective on Earth, in Pennsylvania, but as far as I know, they've been contained; Aquaman might know more, he was there, too."

As the images shift to rural Pennsylvanians shambling out of farms with stars in their faces, her mind begins to trawl the surface of the League members', seeking hints of recognition-- of reports filed by their teammates or themselves, of information gleaned about the aliens-- anything at all. At one point, her gaze winds up resting on Batman for a few lingering moments before falling to the table.

"I'm here because I've encountered these things three times, now, and I don't want there to be a fifth-- or a sixth, or a seventh, or..." She shakes her head briskly before sweeping her eyes around the room again. "Whatever they are, they want to dominate us-- to make us and our world their new home. I don't know what-- what arrangements, what plans you guys already have for confronting this, but whatever they are: I'd like to be a part of them.

Batman has posed:
A nod of recognition, somber welcome is all the Bat offers his fellow Justice League members and reservists today. Unlike most of the League, he's keenly aware of who Jean Grey is-- and what an emergency means to metahumans of a ertain power level. The Dark Knight's primary initial focus: he listens.

As Phoenix speaks, Batman makes few deft keypresses and the League files on these lifeforms, along with images and dossiers filed by these other encounters flicker to life, projected in high resolution by the table's holographs, and unique to each station in terms of scrolling and perusing the proffered data. The Caped Crusader takes a moment to do just that, reviewing what they know, what's led to this point in silent contemplation.

"Lantern?" Those stoic, unreadable cowled lenses shift from Jean Grey to Hal. It's easy to conclude from the delegation that the Bat has no contingency in mind; it's easy to be wrong. He defers to the Green Lantern simply because such specialization in these crises is important to utilizing their priceless time.

Green Lantern (Jordan) has posed:
    Landing silently, Hal takes a moment to pull his chair out, and then sits down. "Crusader. Batman." His eyes, enshrouded as they were by his mask, finds Jean Grey. "Welcome to our humble abode." Hal smiles, warmly and with a tad more invitation than he displayed when he first arrived. "Please."

    Jean then proceeds to go into a lengthy discussion. Hal listens with rapt attention, not trying to interrupt or ask questions. As he was on Mission Monitor Duty yesterday, he knows some of the information she offers, but not all of this. This was something else.

    "I appreciate you coming here and chatting with us. This is...incredible." His eyes find Crusader. Then Batman. "I think we can bring her aboard. She has..." His eyes glance back at Jean, and then back at Batman, "...skills." Hal smiles.
As Batman speaks, Hal says, "Yes, Batman?" Hal pauses for effect, and then nods. "Well, we certainly don't want to take a little of column B. The Guardians would probably want a scorched "Earth" policy if this spread to the population - so we need to prevent it from spreading. A JL state of emergency may be in order."

Crusader has posed:
Crusader eyes the pictures "Starro is definintly not something to mess with" he says. Indeed as Jean might pick out, Crusader has actually fought Starro before, along side The Flash, Batman and another hero known as Dragonfly. "The Big one had enough psychic power to make itself invisible to nearly everyone within several miles, and it can produce the small drones from its body." he says reiterating infomation, and he had no need to mention how strong an entity that large is. "We ended up sending that particular starro into the sun if One recalls correctly" he states. He wasn't a league member of the time, so he didn't actually file any official reports or anything of the likes.

"But yes, it is best Starro is dealed with before it reaches earth again, else we will end up fighting innocent people as well." he eyes Hal "Guardians are a bit aggressive there are they not?" he shrugs "Still, prevention is better than nothing. One would concure with you"

He looks to Jean and looks her up and down in quick evaluation "One would be glad to fight alongside you" he tells Jean specifically

Phoenix has posed:
Phoenix helps herself to one of the stations, but pauses after minimal amounts of scrolling to squint up at Crusader. "Starro? That's-- "

Her eyes flit from the armored giant to the scintillating space cop to the living urban legend before returning to the monitor as her lips purse a little.

"-- well, someone had to have come up with that one, anyway," she murmurs before settling into scrolling and listening. And frowning deeply as the Guardians' methodology is suggested.

"It isn't coming to that," she lowly assures before bringing the volume up to add, "They absorb energy, too, anything non-kinetic-- did any of you guys try hitting them with energy? They project it from their tentacles..." The telepath actually skims the files in search of references to these capabilities as she rattles them off, and - if the dossiers aren't write-protected - will take the liberty of adding appropriate notes if there are none present. "... and I'm pretty sure they have an upper-limit, but I don't know what it might be." She pauses for a beat, then, as her eyes widen.

"Shit, I hope they have an upper-limit," she says while looking up at Crusader briefly. As her eyes return to the display, she says, "How big was your 'big' one? The one in Pennsylvania was about the size of a barn." Scroll-scroll-scroll. Another look up, this time at Hal.

"What the hell is a Guardian, by the way, since they're apparently also in the mix of things we've got to worry about?"

Batman has posed:
"Damn right it isn't coming to that." the Dark Knight intones, intently."The most important thing is that defensive perimeter." The Batman agrees, readily, with the Green Lantern's initial analysis.

"We can cluster what defensive satellites we have in predictive angles around the likely ingress of the horde, but any ideal solution involves dealing with the bulk of them before they get anywhere near high orbit." In other words: A job that's right up their alley, given no shortage of capable comrades who call this Hall a home.

"I think we're going to need you." Batman punctuates his thoughts, eyeing Jean evenly-- in this situation, that's all that needs to be said regarding his feelings on the offered assistance. "I'll do everything I can to shore up defenses, and put up an alert throughout the League-- do we know how long?" Until They arrive.

Green Lantern (Jordan) has posed:
    Hal Jordan nods as everyone chimes in. "I agree. It isn't coming to that." Hal shakes his head. "The Guardians are a bit...rigid. And old. I wouldn't allow it to happen, no worries." Hal smiles and adds, "Thanks for the play by play on their limits," Hal says to Jean. "A Guardian of the Universe. Millions of years old, and are the creators of the Green Lantern Corps. It is a really long story...maybe we could talk about it over coffee sometime? When we aren't trying to save the planet. Again." Hal shakes his head.

    "Batman has the right of it I think. We're in agreement then." Hal nods, with a final decision. As Batman does the final briefing with Jean, Hal sits back and considers the space borne defenses. "Maybe we need to get Alpha Flight, the Guardians of the Galaxy, even the Legion if they will help. All the spaceborne defenses anyway."

Crusader has posed:
Crusader grunts "They are also called Star Conquorers" he says to jean "Starro is just a nickname really. Not sure where it is from exactly" he shakes his head "Anyways, The Big one, was large enough that it core body covered an area of at least 50 miles if not more" he informs Jean "It was big enough to completly cover the town of Babalyon while it was floating" he informs her "While we fought this particular one, it did not imploy any energy attacks. Might have been a mutation from the norm though" he infers "And one can feasibly assume, the bigger they are, the greater their respective upper limit"

He looks to Hall "Getting the other involved will likely be of big help." he says in agreement. And than he looks over to Batman...and that was a reasonble question. How long DID they have. Crusader looks through the systems to see if they have outer-galaxy scanning tech to call upon, and if so, will brign up the appropiate map of the galaxy.

Phoenix has posed:
"A day," Phoenix softly says to the Bat. "Maybe less. You guys' monitoring equipment looks way more sophisicated than anything I've got access to, though." Her eyes drift towards Hal, whose memories of a recent stint in the monitor room inform that assessment.

"I would've come sooner - wanted to - but-- well. Like I said: we live in an interesting world, and my piece of it refuses to take a breath. Put out whatever feelers you can; we don't have a ton of time to build a perimeter, but that's definitely gonna be vital." Since she doesn't know how to work the system beyond basics like 'scrolling' and 'typing', she simply peruses the dossier when she returns her eyes to the display, adding, "We're gonna want to touch base with anyone who can operate in space unassisted, ASAP, because they're - probably - gonna have to be our second layer, beyond the outer perimeter." Her eyes flick up towards the three Leaguers as uncertainty slips into her assessment. "Anyone who can shift between helping to shore up the outer perimeter and falling back to get anything that slips by it, pretty much. I can't, exactly, but if you can give me a ship and someone who knows how to fly it, I can at least put myself in the mix."

Her hands run up over her face and hair as she lifts her head from the display with a slow, bracing sigh. "I can at least tell you," she says with a glance towards Crusader, "that the big ones are pretty psychically potent-- on top of just being aggressively alien. So, yeah, I'm sure everything else scales up, too." As her hands reach the back of her head and lace together, she brings her gaze to Hal long enough to offer a brisk, "Maybe," and a small, short-lived smile. "If we're both sentient beings after today, we'll see."

Batman has posed:
"Then we better get to work." As Jean says-- this world doesn't let one take a breath. Especially not in this job. The Batman is far too nonchalant about it, with what's at stake. Giving it the proper attention, to be sure... but unflinchingly calm. It's that time of the work week, again. The Bat rises smoothly from his seat, plucking a memory unit from his station and slipping it instinctively into a slot built into his utility belt.

"I can get you up there in the middle of it." The Dark Knight observes for Phoenix's benefit. The way he says it, he doesn't think it's much of a favor to her. Necessity is what it is what it is.

"I'll be in touch." From there, it's to a shaft accessing the roof built just for such egress, and a deployed skyhook that carries Batman up, up, and away-- into the cockpit of the waiting Batwing.

Green Lantern (Jordan) has posed:
    Hal laughs and nods at Jean's comment. "I plan to be! If everything works out, and with me on your side, it probably will!" Hal laughs, and says, "A good sense of humour will get us through this just as much as heroes and soldiers will. We'll win."

    "Well then, Bats is right. I am going to go and start discussing this with others who can help. Space based assets. I'll also start shoring up the the atmospheric defenses. Perhaps I can call in some Green Lantern help." Hal stands up. "This is going to be a battle, but thanks to you, Phoenix, and your allies who have fought this already and those that will join us..." he looks poignantly at Crusader, and offers him a supportive nod, "...we should be able to win." Hal watches as Bats disappears, and shakes his head. "I guess meeting is adjourned."

Crusader has posed:
Crusader stands "One also has a spaceship, if it is needed" he offers, though it was really more for anyone that may need it as Batman seems to have Jean covered. He cants his head "Though one is confused on why you would not be a sentient being after today, One assure you, no one is going to die" he offers a small smile back. He not humorous, but he is not stoic either

"Regardless, if you do not mind Green, One will join you in setting up the defenses" though the look in his eye says he was gleaming for a fight. He watches as Bat zips away "Something tells me he already starting to formulate a plan" but he nods "But aye, thank you for letting us know about this Phoenix"