2524/Anyone can have a bad day

Anyone can have a bad day
Date of Scene:	19 September 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Stardust, Breath, Andromeda

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Stardust has posed:
Everyone can have a bad day sometimes. Even parademons. One in particular has spent the day being on the wrong end of sniper fire, almost being hit by one of the invader's own tanks, being punched through a wall by a super, and losing a leg while inadvisedly attempting to fight an eighteen-wheeler. The injured Parademon had made its way to a rooftop to rest up and prepare to rejoin its fellows, or maybe bleed to death.

However the sanctuary of the roof turned out to be little sanctuary; the ill-starred parademon found yet another interfering super-powered annoyance, in the form of Stardust. Hardly a big name in the field of super-heroes, she nonetheless proved a bit much for the lone, injured parademon. After a short battle atop the roof, being thrown into a water tank and losing its rifle, the parademon is now on the run.

Stardust flies slow and low between the buildings of a particularly low-rent part of the New Lots, scanning the darkened streets below. With power cuts and the general run-down state of the area, it's an easy place for any number of entities to hide out. Stardust herself is a bit more visible though her costume, pale white, shimmers like faint starlight. "Yoohoo!" she calls out into the silent street. "Demon guy? Where aaaaaare you?"

The only response is a trashcan being knocked over. Stardust swoops in to investigate, only for a bedraggled stray mongrel to sprint away from the trash it had been investigating, and out across the street beyond. Stardust follows it into the main street and stops, at a hover, sighing. "Demony-demon thing! I know you're around here somewhere..." she calls out again.

Breath has posed:
Breath peeks around a corner at the calling out for demons. What on earth? She leans on a wall and glances around to see where the demon is at, topping off her lung capacity with an inhale and making sure her pack is adjusted before pushing off to go investigate carefully, staying in clear sight to make sure she doesn't get mistaken for a demon. After a moment thought, she calmly notes, so that she doesn't cause too much startlement, "Breath here. Just one?" She peers around a bit more for any movement.

Stardust has posed:
Stardust fortunately, though unsurprisingly, does not mistake Breath for a parademon. The resemblance isn't close. What Breath mostly resembles, as far as Stardust can see, is another masked hero. Or possibly villain. Or possibly circus performer. They do all dress rather similarly. However she's not balancing on a high-wire or robbing a bank, so Stardust is going to go with hero.

"Uh... hello?" Stardust says, in a totally not even slightly awkward manner. "I don't suppose you happen to have seen a space demon limping past?" She pauses a moment, playing back what she just said in her head. "I'm not crazy. There are space demons. I was fighting one but it got away. I'm pretty sure it came this way."

Stardust blinks a couple of times, then drifts forwards and descends to the ground in front of Breath, offering her hand. "Hi. I'm Stardust. Huh. You look kind of familiar, have we met?"

Breath has posed:
Breath says, "Not lately. I saw a couple of carved up ones yesterday, but it wasn't around here. Do I need to be worried about more than just the one?" She walks your way quietly. "I think you've been in the news, but I don't remember where." She hmms, trying to remember if she's seen you someplace else.

She tilts her head at you a bit. "I'm pretty memorable, I would think." She looks around again and tilts her head at a slight noise at a doorway nearby, freezing in the process of lifting her hand. "I think I heard something back that way.."

Andromeda has posed:
    A figure appears in the sky over the scene, red and blue. It gets bigger until it resolves into a blond woman dressed in a red tunic, a blue pleated miniskirt (which actually turns out to to be a miniskort) and a long flowing blue cape. She appears to notice the two women and she drifts down.

    "Hello. Is everything alright here?"

Stardust has posed:
"In the news?" Stardust looks startled. "God, I hope not. Oh maybe that time with those weird aliens... uh. Yeah, just one. At least, I've only seen one." She looks around, just on the off-chance that there might be more standing nonchalantly about the street, but there are none immediately visible. "Yeah, just the one. You can recognize it by the missing leg. That wasn't me, it was like that when I found it."

Stardust does not know that Parademons generally never travel in groups of less than three. The injured one may have got separated, but its fellows must surely be close...

"Hi Supergir... oh, sorry..." is how Stardust greets Laurel's arrival. "You look kind of like someone else. Yeah, all good here. Just hunting one-legged space demons."

Following Breath's tilted head, Stardust cranes forwards to peer into the shadows of the doorway. "I don't see..." she begins, just as a shadow detaches itself from the doorway and rockets skywards. "Get it!" she yells, as she takes off and gives chase.

In the doorway just vacated, a tiny blue light flashes away to itself, barely visible.

Breath has posed:
Breath blinks as Stardust vanishes into the sky. She considers taking chase too, but.. naah, her wings are not ready for prime time. She wanders over to check on the doorway instead, since that demon might have been doing something that needs to be dealt with.. She creeps over and peeks in, barely sparing a glance into the sky.

Andromeda has posed:
    Laurel jets into the air to intercept the parademon. She doesn't capture it, she's just trying to herd it back to Stardust. She wants people to feel useful, after all. "Back. Go back." she says, waving her arms. If she has to, she'll add in a short burst of heat vision as encouragement.

Stardust has posed:
As Breath approaches the doorway, shadows coalesce into a mechanical shape; cylindrical, a foot tall. The blue flashing glow comes from the top of the cylinder, where on closer examination some kind of display is visible. Lit up in that faint blue light, Breath can see an alien symbol. With each blink of the light, the symbol changes. It's almost as if it's... counting down?

Laurel quickly overtakes the flying parademon, and is able to position herself in front of it. The demon doesn't seem to have any intention of stopping, until a blast of Laurel's heat-ray vision burns a chunk of its armor off its shoulder. The demon does not take Laurel's advice to go back, but instead stops in mid-air and raises its blaster, peppering powerful shots in Laurel's direction.

Parademons are not clever. Stopping in mid-air to deal with one threat when another is pursuing you is poor tactics. This particular poor tactic results in the Parademon's aim after the first few snap shots being put off rather badly by a punch that sends it reeling helplessly through the air, straight towards Laurel. Winding her fist up for another punch, Stardust gleefully calls out "Knock it back to me!"

Breath has posed:
Breath's eyes widen. "Bomb thingy!" She takes a couple steps back, looking the device over, and looks up to see what you two are what the frick are you playing tennis or something? "Girls? Need a hand down here?" She looks the.. thing.. over again. Uuugh, it's probably got all sorts of crazy things to make it go off too...

Andromeda has posed:
    Laurel probably could have seen the thing that suspiciously _could_ be a bomb, but she didn't think to look. Besides, this is more fun than sniffing around for hiding places of alien explosives.

    As the Parademon is sent flying towards her, Laurel flies towards it and *pushes* it hard with an outstretched hand. It should then quickly be heading back in Colette's direction if it wants to or not.

    She frowns a bit as Lyssa warns about that bomb Laurel didn't look for. "What? Oh, no." and she zips over there.

Stardust has posed:
Laurel shoves the Parademon hard in the chest, and sends it reeling and spinning back down towards Stardust, who combines a sudden forwards acceleration with a well-wound punch to send the demon flying into the wall of a run-down building. The demon makes a fair mess colliding with the wall, and falls to the ground in a tangle of limbs, brick and bits of rusted fire escape, where it stops moving.

Stardust drops to the ground to investigate the demon, giving it a poke with her foot to check it's no longer moving. "Huh," she says quietly.

The bomb, if that's what it is, certainly looks quite high-tech, and could indeed have all kinds of crazy things to make it go off. As Laurel speeds over to join Breath, her sharp eyes can perceive that the flashing of that blue light appears to be getting slightly faster with each blink.

"What's that?" Stardust asks curiously as she walks over to join the other two. "Uh, something that I should mention. That guy had two legs, which means...bomb. Bomb? That's my guess. Either of you good at defusing bombs?"

Breath has posed:
Breath shakes her head. "Not me, I'm a jock that reads medical blogs. I got nothing. We can all fly, but it might go off if we move it, same with me.." she mimes puffing on her hand like a birthday cake, "..blowing it away... I don't know what you girls can do. So like, ideas?"

Andromeda has posed:
    "No, not me." Laurel admits. "I can throw it into orbit if we need me to, though." she waves a hand. "Go ahead and give it a try. We have a few seconds, at least."

Stardust has posed:
"Throwing it into orbit sounds like a good plan," Stardust offers. "So long as it doesn't explode when picked up. But on the other hand, it's probably going to explode if it's not picked up either, so what have we got to lose?" She looks speculatively at the other two. "How do you two feel about things exploding at you? I'm pretty good with things like that, though I've never actually tried a full-sized bomb. Still, I'm willing to give it a go if you two are allergic to explosions. I can't throw it into orbit, but I can fly it out of the way, if nobody has a better option. "

Breath has posed:
Breath thinks a second, then looks up. "This building is junk. This isn't a bomb, there's nothing here to blow up! Portal thingy maybe? I'm just a squishy girl, sorry." She backs out of the way and takes cover anyways, since she's short on ideas about it in its current position. "Whatever it is, do it now.."

Andromeda has posed:
    "Remember when you called me 'Supergirl'? I sort-of am." Laurel tells Colette. She nods to Breath, then. "Well, stand back... er, drift back. Sprock, whatever." and she gives the other girls a moment or three to put some distance between themselves and the device. Then she drifts near the 'bomb' and grabs the bomb, moving as fast as she can to toss the thing as hard as she can. She's a Daxamite, so she's as strong as a Kryptonian would be. Goodbye, metal thing?

Stardust has posed:
Goodbye, metal thing. It does not, fortunately, have any crazy things to make it go off other than a timer.

Laurel hurls it skywards and it streaks through the air, growing smaller until it vanishes from sight. Stardust keeps watching. "Good throw," she comments. "Portal... in the building, you think?" she asks Breath, her head craned up to the night sky. "That makes sense, maybe we should investig... oh! Yeah that demon had two legs. So it wasn't the one I was chasing, that one must be still..."

Ka-BOOM!

  The bomb explodes, well below orbital height still, but far enough up that the explosion is nothing more than sound and light, like a firework. "Pretty," Stardust says as she watches it, just before she's hit by blaster fire.

  The one-legged parademon has popped its head around a corner and started firing, its attack joined by a third parademon, gliding in from above. Stardust reels away from the blaster fire, oddly rigid. Further bolts blast bits of brick out of the doorway, as the two demons attempt to shoot Laurel and Breath.

Breath has posed:
Breath spins and looks over at the blaster fire. ..hey, the demon is flying down the street, with *wings* too, and she is off to the side, so there's a building on the other side.. She purses her lips and blows with a jet engine roar at the one gliding in, launching it at the wall of the building across the street forcefully with a sudden tornado force gale! She hops back to get a bit more out of the way.

Andromeda has posed:
    "Yes. I guess it w..." Laurel began, watching the bomb arc away but then there are blaster bolts zipping past them. "What? Not again!" She throws herself in front of Breath, intercepting any fire that would have hit her. "Ow!" she may be invulnerable, but she knows pretty well that these alien weapons still cause her pain.

    She returns fire, her eyes flashing with heat vision. She's trying to disable their weapons, not melt their faces.

Stardust has posed:
For a moment, the flying demon's glider wings stand up to the gale of Breath's exhalation, but only for a moment. As the winds pick up to a dragon-roar intensity, the wings crumple backwards and fail. The demon clutches its arms to itself in panic as the vortex takes hold of it and hurls it into the wall down the street with crushing force.

The one-legged parademon uses its spare arm to help it crawl crab-like out of cover as it fires rapidly, more covering fire than intended to hit. Nevertheless, one stray bolt glances off Lauren's shoulder painful, but not disabling. Twin beams crackle from Lauren's eyes, the air shimmering with heat haze as the ray lances out and melts the demon's blaster.

Stardust falls to the floor, oddly still in that same rigid position. However no sooner has she hit the ground than she's straight up again, apparently no worse for wear. She sprints forwards, following after Lauren's heat vision attack, fist upraised.

The final parademon drops its super-heated blaster with a yell of pain. It looks over its shoulder at the crumpled form of its wingman, and then looks at Loren and the rapidly approaching Stardust with what might just be a glimmering of fear. The expression passes so fast that you could believe you imagined it. Quickly an expression of determination replaces it, and the parademon's eyes light up, glowing blue, growing brighter and brighter.

Breath has posed:
Breath uhs. "That.." She winces a bit since there's just no time, then squints to see if she has a clear shot, coughing one ball of rapid wind at the demon if so to see if she can at least get it off balance for whatever it's about to do.. then she dives behind the corner, dreading the worst.

Andromeda has posed:
    "Look out!" Laurel sees the parademon's eyes glowing, but perhaps COlette doesn't? So there she goes - blurring out and reappearing next to the Parademon. She presses the Apokalyptian soldier against a wall and presses herself against him. Maybe if he weren't an inhuman monster it might even like it a little. She expects the thing to explode and she's going to take the brunt, not Stardust.

Stardust has posed:
Breath's quick-thinking blast of air doesn't have close to the power of the previous sustained blast, but it's enough to roll the crouching parademon across the ground a few times, out of the reach of Stardust's swinging fist. Laurel's acceleration catches up with it and she's easily able to pin it - off balance and one-legged, the demon can hardly resist.

Bright light floods around the corner Breath had crouched behind, followed by a crack-boom that slaps sharply against the surrounding brick, and an aftertone of shattering glass.

For Stardust and Lauren, the instant of the explosion is a chaos to their senses, and neither is quite aware of what took place before Breath has to time to peer back around and see for herself. Lauren and Colette lie on the ground, Lauren a little further from the point of the blast, having received more of the explosion. Neither are immediately entirely clear about how they got there, but their senses re-engage with reality they both become aware that it hurt getting there. Neither appears to have taken any major injury, but both are feeling the bruises.

They are both also covered in stuff they probably don't want to look at too closely. "Ouch," Stardust comments. "Also, yuck."

Breath has posed:
Breath uhs.. "Are you okay over there?" She ventures out, giving a quick check to make sure that nothing is still crawling around, then rushes over and kneels next to whoever is closest to give a quick triage. Probably Colette, because geometry. "Can you hear me? That was way loud. Does everything work okay?" She grabs a wipe out of her backpack and offers it. "Also? Ew."

Andromeda has posed:
    "I think this is what pain feels like." Laurel mutters. Her costume is a torn mess, but she frayed edges are already starting to knit together. She lays there for a bit, then sits up. "Ow." She looks around. "Everyone alright?"

Stardust has posed:
"Ew," Stardust agrees with Breath as she takes the wipe gratefully, and starts wiping at her face. "Yeah, I can hear. Mostly. Is there an alarm going off, or is that just my ears?" She clambers to her feet, wincing slightly, and offers a hand to Lauren to help her up. "You're the one who got most of the blast, how are YOU?" she asks. "You look a bit worse for wear. Maybe you should have kept the bomb and thrown the demon," she says as she finishes wiping her face and dabs ineffectively at her clothes. "Would be less sticky, anyhow."

Stardust stops dabbing and snaps her fingers. "Duh, right. I forgot." A faint glow passes up her body, moving from feet to the the top of her head, remaking her costume as it goes. Demon goop is gone, tears are repaired, and even the design is different. That must save laundry bills.

"What kind of space demon blows itself up?" Stardust complains. "I thought only robots had self-destruct mechanisms." There's a pause. "Oh, apparently space demons often have self-destruct mechanisms. The more you know. Would have been nice to have known that in advance, hmm? Kind of think that would have been worth knowing. Next time."

Andromeda has posed:
    Laurel is helped up. "I'm alright. Hurts a little. I'll be fine, though. Thanks." Still, she pokes her sternum experimentally. "Seems to be all there. Oh, good." she laughs at the idea of throwing the 'demon. "That was my fault, really. I was trying to be nice and blast their weapons instead of just solving the problem." and she frowns a bit. "I guess I should stop messing around so much in fights."

Breath has posed:
Breath nods, "Yeah, I don't think any of the ones my friends dealt with did that. That's a nice ability. The, uh, clothes one, not the blowing up thing. That kind of sucked. I don't remember seeing that many explosions on the news! Uh.. Did you say what to call you and I missed it in all the crazy? I'm the Breath."

Stardust has posed:
"Messing around in fights so much is kind of part of the business," Colette suggests to Laurel. She stretches her arms out, then takes turns in stretching out each leg, like warming down after excercise. "We're the good guys, right? We don't just kill things and arrest the pieces. You look in one piece. Ouch. I need a shower."

"I'm Stardust," she offers in introduction. "Hi there The Breath. Is that like The Batman? Hi Not-Supergirl-but-similar. Apparently they normally fight in groups and so they avoid blowing themselves up, but many of them have the option when they are alone and cornered. The clothes trick is handy. But not as handy as it ought to be. I can get a new costume any time I like, but for some reason I can only go back to the exact same civilian clothes I was wearing. I suspect shenanigans." For someone who was just exploded, she seems pretty chatty.

Andromeda has posed:
    "My name's Laurel, sometimes when my friends bother to use codenames I use 'Andromeda'. But I'm not worried about it. It's not like I have a family here to protect or anything." she says, her introduction. "Well, you both did just fine. Real fine."

Breath has posed:
Breath says, "Yeah, pretty much like 'The Batman'. You don't need the 'The' bit. Costume stuff is still lots more than I get, I mean, I probably have to wash all this stuff in the sink what with the laundromats closed." She straightens her hair slightly at the moment of awkwardness. "Are you around here much? I don't exactly know a lot of people who can do, you know. Stuff. I just end up doing lots of guard duty type things."

Stardust has posed:
"Nice to meet you Laurel," Stardust says with a grin. "If you're not into codenames, you can call me Colette. I doubt anyone can track my family from that anyway." She finishes stretching, straightens up and looks around at the wreckage. "What a mess. Yeah, honestly, The? That's your first name while we're being informal, right, 'The'?" She flashes a grin to Breath, showing she's teasing. "Honestly, I don't know if I'd do this if I had to supply my own costumes. You'd kind of have to be independantly wealthy, right?"

"Around here specifically?" Colette asks. "I don't even know where I am, to be honest. I was following that space demon. But around the city? Sure. My beat, I guess. You seem to meet people who can do stuff when you do stuff yourself. I hang around with the Titans mostly."

Andromeda has posed:
    "I can hear my friend Brainy now. 'No! Don't shower yet! I need a sample of that ichor.'" Laurel says with a laugh. "Yes, costumes can be a pain, but mine repairs itself. It's from Daxam but Brainy kicked its repairing to another level."

    At the mention of the Titans she looks at Colette. "How are they? I went by there the day before the invasion to talk to some of them and warn them... I met the little Batman and the Atlantean. He said there was some problem contacting some of them, so I hope they're all alright."

Breath has posed:
Breath blinks and listens for the moment, since after all, she knows nothing about Titans business. Heck, at this point, the Mystery Men would be a step up for her as far as name dropping.

Stardust has posed:
"Little Batman!" Colette repeats with a broad grin. "I like that. Normally we call him shortstuff. He has the cutest bat." She gives her head a small shake, trying to get herself back on track. "Oh there's always a certain amount of trouble contacting everyone. They seem to wander off and do their own thing a certain amount. No doubt part of it is having a couple of people who can open portals. Too easy for people to slip across country for the morning. I'm sure everyone's okay."

Colette frowns slightly, and tilts her head, as if listening to something in the distance. She keeps talking as she does so, but it's obvious she's a little distracted. "Breath, you should visit the Titans some time. Nice guys, and if you don't know people, well, that would help. Soooo, Laurel, you're a Daxamite?"

Andromeda has posed:
    "I think he becomes Batman someday. I couldn't remember what else there was to remember about him... Earth history wasn't a great subject for me. He wasn't the Robin with the... yeah... or the angry one or the smart one. So, I think he was the Batman one." Laurel explains.

    "Yes. I'm a Daxamite." she says, suddenly a little wary. "Why? You don't have something against Daxamites, do you?"

Breath has posed:
Breath nods and gives a thumbs up and smiles quietly, just sort of listening to the back and forth since nothing has come up to comment on right now really. "Is everything okay?"

Stardust has posed:
"As far as I'm concerened everything's okay," Colette replies. "Nothing against Daxamites. I've never met one before. Hadn't heard of them before today." She flashes a cheery grin. "Actually I think it's pretty cool getting to meet aliens. Especially aliens who aren't trying to kidnap people or conquer the world." The grin turns to Breath. "She's a space alien," she remarks, pointing with her head at Laurel. "Cool huh? Or are you one too? It's hard to tell sometimes. You look human, but then so do Daxamites, apparently."

Andromeda has posed:
    Laurel smiles at Breath as Colette says she's an alien. "It's true. Take me to your leader." she says, laughing. "But seriously, when I'm from..." and she did say 'when', not 'where'. "... sometimes people don't like Daxamites, because away from the red sun of our home we get powers like this, like Kryptonians. At least there aren't many... if any... of them left in a thousand years. That's what some people think, anyway. But there are like a billion of us on Daxam."

Breath has posed:
Breath blinks, "I'm just a girl from out west. Human as far as I know. Totally ordinary, other than the thing about having to be super careful around birthday cakes. And I didn't even notice that until a year or two ago. I'm kind of small potatoes out here, what with all the people who can throw tanks around, and I don't know who I would ask for advice on anything."

Stardust has posed:
"A year or two is longer than I've been at it," Colette tells breath with a grin. "So you probably don't want to ask me for advice on anything. I've only had powers for a few months. One thing I have learned is, you don't have to be able to throw tanks around to help. Leave that to Laurel here, there are other things the rest of us can be doing. Or... or... find out what color of sun it takes for humans to get powers and go there." She gives Breath a wink before turning to Laurel. "When?" She repeats curiously. For once she doesn't bother elaborating; repeating the word is enough to make it clear what she's asking Laurel to elaborate on.

Andromeda has posed:
"Oh. I'm from the future." Laurel says cheerfully, not seeming to be worried about 'changing the timestream' or anything silly like that. "The Thirty-First century, actually. So, all of this is pretty odd to me. I look around and I expect to see a certain thing in an area and it's not there." She nods to Breath. "Back in my future my team has lots of people that have powers that don't seem that amazing... one of my friends can blow himself up like a human beach ball and bounce around. One of them splits into three versions of herself. There's a guy whose power is just being able to eat _anything_. But we're all a team and everyone's useful. So, don't be down on yourself."

Breath has posed:
Breath says, "I guess. I don't feel all that unique though. I mean, basically I can blow at things like Super-insert-list-here, but I don't make anything cold and that's basically all I do. So having someone with an S on their chest show up is kind of 'Uh', you know? That and I think I blew out a seam on a wing."

Stardust has posed:
"You probably changed the course of history by arriving here," Colette tells Laurel in a matter-of-fact way. "You should carry a photo of your team mates around and keep an eye on it. If it starts fading, you know you trod on a butterfly. "

Colette waves away Breath's complaint with a small laugh. "I bet Batman says the same thing. Oh great, Superman is here. I'll just go sit in my Batmobile then. Don't let that worry you. You're obviously pretty capable, and there's more crime to stop than there are Supermen. Laurel's right, there's a place for everyone. As for unique... well the closest I have to unique is the clothes thing. Otherwise it's pretty much just template, dialed down a bit. I'm basically a side-kick, only my mentor died decades before I was born. So what." She shrugs her shoulders, then flashes Breath an encouraging grin. "If you feel it, do it. Don't worry about what you're not, just be what you are."

Andromeda has posed:
    "One of our best leaders is a lady whose power is seeing things in her dreams. But she's also pretty smart and is a really geeat martial artist. If she can lead a team with two Daxamites on it, anyone can do a great job as a hero. Colette's right. It's your heart that makes you a hero, not how much you can lift or how many lasers come out of your eyes."

Breath has posed:
Breath nods. "If you ever want to get hold of me, tell whoever is at the desk at the LGBT center on Seldon street down the street that way to pass on a message. I check them there."

Stardust has posed:
Colette gives Breath a thumbs up. "Gotcha. And if you need a hand with something, you can leave a message for me at the Titan's Tower, too. How about you, Laurel? Got a place we can leave a message?" She drifts up a few inches off the ground. "Well, I suppose there's a lot to do around town, tonight..." she looks around at the dark streets, and the extensive damage the short battle had produced. "Talking of teams and all that, the three of us seemed pretty good together. I'm gonna go find trouble, you two got anything better to do, or want to come along? We could make a night of it..."

Breath has posed:
Breath says, "Sure, if this wing holds up. I'm still working the kinks out, and they get torn up really easy with how I have to make them. I totally need to find some techie type that can make them out of something stronger." She pops out a tube from her cowl and blows into it, inflating a pair of white stubby wings from her backpack with handgrips at the ends, into which she fits her extended arms. One of them hisses ever so slightly."

Andromeda has posed:
    I'll go along, sure." Laurel agrees. "If you need to contact me? Hmm. Well, you could shine the Laurel signal or just shout real loud. I'll keep an ear out." She drifts up as well. "Ready for trouble."