2573/Para-Para-Para-Para-Para-Chameleon...

Para-Para-Para-Para-Para-Chameleon...
Date of Scene:	25 September 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Parademons. Ravens. Mirrors. Aliens. What else could you ask for?
Cast of Characters:	Stardust, Greenjack, Supergirl, Kian t'Kaeh, 87

---

Stardust has posed:
Metropolis is not at its best at the moment. Where normally Downtown New Troy would be heaving with people, the streets are largely abandoned. Roving bands of Parademons patrol irregularly, and from time to time fights erupt around the city between them and various military or costumed forces.

There are always a few people who just refuse to let small things like a massive alien invasion get in the way of normal life. One of those people is Bart Jackson, a middle-aged man who has been busking on Constitution Square every day for the past couple of decades, and is here again today. He's seated on a folding chair, cap on the floor in front of him empty of coins, ukulele in hand. His only audience is a small dog, watching him with minimal curiosity.

In the near-silence, the not very talented ukulele playing carries across the empty streets, a strangely cheery dirge for a dying city. Under the twangy notes an accompaniment starts, at first a faint rhythmic throbbing, growing louder, until it starts to drown out the playing. Bart looks up to find the source of the noise, and sees through the clouds a sleek black ship descend rapidly, and land in the square. He dives for cover behind a low wall, fearing more parademons, but the beings who exit the ship are no parademons. Tall, slender, gray-skinned, dressed with an eye to aesthetics no parademon would care about, they approach slowly, weapons lowered.

Bart looks cautiously over the wall, and is greeted not with laser blasts but with a synthesised voice. <<Human. We seek the New Troy Museum of Antiquities. We are honest travellers. Please direct us>>

As introductions take place, a lone trio of Parademons watches from a rooftop lookout. An alert is sent and wheels set in motion. The alien visitors, having got their directions, make their way past the zoo to the museum, watching the skies cautiously, fingering long, baroquely decorated weapons. It looks like they're expecting company.

Greenjack has posed:
One of the things Tommy has had to do over the past few weeks, on top of the alien invasion (that is), is track rumors of a certain mirror.

Those who know of his Origin Story are aware that his extraoardinary transformation took place thanks to a magical mirror that just so happened to contain a portion of the soul belonging to the entity known as the Cheshire Cat.

It stands to reason that the other pieces of soul must be out there, somewhere. And magical mirrors seem to just be in the business of sucking souls left and right, so... when the museum of antiquities decided to put on a display of the artefacts of John Uskglass, known to some as the Raven King in the circles of magic, Vorpal became curious. After all, if he were a portion of his soul, where would he be?

One of the perks of being able to turn invisible is that you can travel in the open without being worried about being bothered. Or, at least, that's the theory anyways- because some beings have infra-red vision, others can sense magic, etcetera. But even if you aren't detected, there are things that can interrupt your daily stroll down to Plot Device Lane.

Like fricking flying ships in the air.

"What on earth...?" the cat mutters to himself, frowning as he sees the ship land. He ducks behind a lamp post, even if he doesn't *have* to because he is invisible, and watches as the obvious aliens communicate with the ukelele player, and then they begin to move.

"Curioser and... well. All that."

He pads quietly after the group, careful to keep his distance.

Supergirl has posed:
Flying low, Supergirl is running a patrol of Metropolis. The newly minted Justice Leaguer was supposed to be patrolling a "quiet sector". She's pouting, so she almost flies past the street and misses the aliens. She pumps the breaks and peels around the corner, her cloak whipping behind her as she approaches cautiously. She touches down a good one hundred feet away and walks over slowly, weary as she looks around.

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    Alien invasions are an entirely inadequate reason to remain cooped up. Kian reasons (that may not be quite the right word to use, of course) that the invading aliens aren't his people, and they're invading Earth, to which he has not yet built a strong connection.
    And really, the walls /were/ starting to close in. Not literally, of course. But he just had to get outside.
    The unnatural quiet means the sound of music from the street below carries a long way; Kian follows it down, and perches out of sight atop a nearby building, listening intently. Intently enough that he misses the approach of the alien craft until it actually touches down.
    He flattens, and tenses, peering nervously over the edge. Most of him wants to leave. The rest of him reminds himself that he's supposed to be learning how to protect people. And also, taking off now makes him a target.

Stardust has posed:
There's no doubt that Bart is a dedicated busker. Neither snow nor rain nor gloom of alien apocalypse shall stay his playing.

~Shades of night are creeping~
~Willow trees are weeping~
~Old folks and babies are sleeping~
~Silver stars are gleaming...~

As if on cue, in her faintly gleaming silver-white costume, Stardust drops out of the sky in front of Bart. Without stopping his playing, he looks up at her, then nods hopefully in the direction of his hat. She glances down at the empty hat, then at him, with an arched eyebrow. Her body-hugging costume does not come with pockets, a fact she demonstrates by the international language of the patting-where-pockets-would-be followed by apologetic shrug mime. "Sorry. Um... who were those guys?" she asks, pointing in the direction of the aesthetic alien visitors. Bart frowns, and shakes his head.
~All alone I'm scheming, scheming~
~To get you out of here, my dear.~

With a roll of her eyes and an exasperated grumble, Stardust takes off again, in pursuit of the visitors.

A little to the north, a group of Parademons fly high in the air on mechanical glider wings. While most Parademons are capable of little more than charging into battle, there are some more capable of thought, even leadership. The leader of this band is one of those, and for now he restrains his band from action. As he watches the visitors through an impressively high-tech looking set of binoculars, his band impatiently try to follow orders and not start shooting just yet.

  For a parademon, not shooting things is a big ask. They are having some difficulty following the order to hold back, which is a confusing order for a parademon. Too confusing for one, who under orders not to attack the visitors quite yet, shoots one of his fellows instead out of sheer boredom. The leader chops a hand through the air, demanding silence. The unfortunate victim tumbles through the air and crashes into the ground hard, a couple of dozen feet from Supergirl.

From his rooftop roost, sharp-eyed Kian can easily make out the visitors slowing to a halt as they reach a building. The sign above the door reads "New Troy Museum of Antiquities". A large banner in front tells of a special exhibition on loan from the British Museum, 'Uskglass: Artifacts of Two Kingdoms'. One of the visitors holds up a device to this banner, and after a moment he nods to the others, and they push their way in. Even Kian's eyes aren't sharp enough to spot their invisible tail-with-a-tail, though.

Supergirl has posed:
Looking at the aliens, Kara is quickly distracted by parademons. "Oh gross!" She gasps and her hands curls into fists. "You fellas wouldn't /also/ be looking to cause trouble would you?" She wonders. With out waiting for an answer she swings on the closest parademon as she draws in a deep breath and leans over to blow an icy breath at the little creeps.

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    Kian moves to a perch on the edge, watching more closely. Unfortunately, the aliens are... well, alien to him. His own worlds are insular; they are aware of other sentiences in the galaxy, but have not made contact with any. So he has no idea who these three at the museum.
    Movement in the sky now catches his attention -- as well as movement of one thing from the sky to the ground, which elicits a gasp and a wince. He looks back upward and between the time it takes to notice they have wings, and the moment he realizes they're not *proper* wings but mechanical, it's too late: he's taken to the air himself.
    Reflexes and instincts suck sometimes.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
The Cheshire cat's ear twitches when he hears the gun go off, and then what is clearly Supergirl's voice. Having ears like his can be an advantage at times. He quickly turns around and watches the .... Maid of Might? The Teen of Steel? He needs to get with her and ask her what her official headline-worthy apellative is next time they're not in the middle of something. It muddles up his internal narration when he's all uncertain like that. He carefully weighs his options.

To him, it is obvious that the Parademons started the distraction when they saw Supergirl nearby, and so they caught her attention in order to distract from the shenanigans of THIS other team, clearly. They were going into the museum for a very specific purpose while the parademons were trying to draw anyone who might interfere out.

He grins to himself in a smug, self-satisfied way. He had figured the distraction out, and he was going to make it go awry!

And so, he pads into the museum after them, trusting his team-mate to be able to handle the parademons for now while he went in to foil the more covert heist.

It never occurs to him, for a moment, to think that it was just the shanigans of a dumb and bored parademon, and that this was no elaborate heist at all. Which often goes to show you that those who think they're all that and a more besides can easily end up getting hoisted on their own petard.

Stardust has posed:
Supergirl launches herself at the cluster of Parademons watching from above, and that's a language they understand. Her punch takes out one before the rest have any time to react, and immediately three of them bear down on her, forgetting their guns and reaching for axes. Parademons love close-quarters combat.

The Parademon leader, with that rare blessing of intelligence, quickly barks orders at his soldiers to fan out and surround Supergirl. The three head-strong ones pay the price of ignoring orders; one is frozen solid and plunges to the ground, where it shatters. The other two escape the worst, but their glider-wings become iced up and they struggle to control their flight. Losing altitude rapidly, they descend towards Kian but neither has spotted him yet as they attempt to turn back to engage Supergirl. His avian instincts and reflexes should have him at a very distinct advantage here.

  The remaining half dozen or so Parademons quickly take positions around Supergirl, well spaced out, and start firing their blaster rifles at her in a dangerous web of fire. Only the leader holds back, instead barking into a communicator.

Meanwhile, inside the small museum, Vorpal finds the visitors acting in distinctly un-parademonesque fashion. They are, very clearly, admiring the exhibits. Though he can't understand their alien tongue, it's apparent that they are pointing out particularly choice items to each other admiringly. Parademons do not characteristically display an appreciation of fine medieval metalwork, but these aliens seem to.

One of the visitors, presumably the leader, is doing his best to keep the rest of the team focused, and after a few moments, he calls loudly to them to bring their attention to a glass case towards the back of the exhibit, in which a brass hand-mirror is displayed. The visitors cluster around it reverently, admiring it for a few moments. Then the leader smashes the glass, triggering a loud alarm, and takes the mirror.

Something about that mirror calls out to Vorpal...

Outside there is a sudden let-off in the dense network fire incoming on Supergirl as Stardust barrels into one of the Parademons, smashing it into another. Both fall from the air on crumpled wings. "Hey Supergirl!" she calls out. "Mind if I join in, or did you reserve these ones for yourself?"

Supergirl has posed:
Looking about, Kara wraps her cape around her and shoots up to deflect the worst of the blasts. She hisses at the ones she does catch and looks to Stardust. "You know...soloing them all might not be good for my uniform, would you like to hop in?" She asks and looks to a few of the parademons, running her laser eyes across a few wings. She looks to the ones falling and back to Stardust. "I'll drop and knock the ones ground-side up to you? How's that?" She asks before doing just that, dropping and lacing her fingers together to more or mess bat a demon back up to the other heroine.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Vorpal can't see himself but he knows that for a moment his fur does a very good imitation of a porcupine, standing briefly on end when he senses SOMETHING in that mirror.

He takes several steps towards the mirror until the case is smashed open-

No! He has to stop it!

Resorting to his powers of illusion, he performs a cheap but effective trick whereby a darkness seems to descend upon the exhibition hall, even though it is well-lit. A howling wind echoes through the halls.

And standing a few feet away from the mirror, ethereal and floating in the air, is the figure of John Uskglass, the Raven King as he is depicted in the literature for the exhibit, austere and imposing in all of his sixteenth century glory with a thin finger pointed in ire towards the leader.

"Who dares desecreate me?" he asks, in a voice that rings as hollow as the tomb, and as echoey as a sixteen year old who has just gotten Magic Music Maker Pro as a birthday present and has decided to record 'My Immortal' with the reverb turned up to eleven because it makes it even *deeper* okay?

The cheshire cat tiptoes, hoping the distraction will work so he can *yoink* that mirror before the Thievy McAlienThiefFace does.

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    "/Ai, c'Rhys'yw/," Kian mutters, surprising himself by closing with the two trying to attack Supergirl from below. He wonders if it would be more polite to alert them to his presence before engaging with them.
    Obviously, Kian needs to work on his heroing instincts.
    Fortunately, common sense takes over, and he aims bursts of energy at the bases of their glider sets. No way could he aim at the wings themselves, even mechanical ones. That would be wronbg on too many levels.
    Let's see if the training he's been doing is working...

Stardust has posed:
Between Supergirl and Stardust, the parademons find out what it likes to be a ball in a tennis match. Between heat-ray vision and high-impact punching, the demons simply don't last very long. Both heroes take a glancing blast or two, but nothing they can't cope with.

  Below, Kian closes rapidly on the two struggling Parademons, and unleashes twin beams of energy. The first is a direct hit, and one demon plummets groundwards, trailing smoke. The second, perhaps because of Kian's attempt to be so precise at at avoiding the wings themselves, is a miss. The parademon wrangles its glider wings around, struggling to meet Kian face on as he approaches, firing wildly in the avian alien's direction.

Soon there are only two Parademons left, the one heading towards Kian, and the leader of the group. That one had been keeping out of the combat for the moment, talking into a communicator. That done, he screams a battle cry, and hurls himself kamikaze-style at Supergirl, attempting to wrestle her.

Inside the museum, the illusion Vorpal creates does not create quite the impression he might have hoped. A hubbub of alien voices is raised at the appearance of the illusory Raven King, but they obviously don't believe what they are seeing. Those baroque, lance-like rifles are raised and pointed around the hall, as the visitors search out a target. With his grip on the mirror too firm for Vorpal to attempt yoinking, the leader makes his way towards the entrance, the other visitors closing around him rapidly as a body guard.

Outside, the sound of ukulele music is drowned out by a loud rumbling, and the source of the noise is rapidly apparent. Two large Apokoliptian tanks come into view, still distant but approaching rapidly. Those who've seen them in action will know the firepower of these weapons is a far greater threat than parademon hand-blasters. Following the tanks, the sky darkens with a swarm of Parademons. Someone is taking what is going on here very seriously.

Supergirl has posed:
Wrinkling her nose, Supergirl is distracted by the tanks long enough to be tackled. She falls back and hits the ground with a wince. "Oh no you don't!" She coughs and throws the parademon leader off, starting to scramble to her feet. "Any time, girlfriend, those tanks are coming for us I think." She gasps and hurtles in at the demon leader with a cry.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
His ruse hadn't worked! That's... miffing. This calls for drastic measures! He considers reaching out to the exhibits with his Chaos wave... but then he realizes he would be destroying priceless antiques! That's hardly the work of a hero. He moves fast towards the entrance to try to stop them, when he catches view of the parademons and the tanks. Just as he feared, they're sending in the cavalry to help them get away with the item. These were clearly not parademons but some sort of more intelligent alien species. Probably mercenaries?

He had to stop them from getting away with that mirror, no matter the price.

And then Vorpal is standing by the entrance, arms crossed. Another Vorpal is standing across the hall, behind them, and two more on either side of the hall. The REAL Vorpal is standing invisible by the side of the door, because he's not bullet (or laser proof).

"How about you turn back and put that mirror in its place so I *don't* have to hand you your butt in a doggie bag?" all four Vorpals say at once. "Turn around and get back out and I won't have to go Off With Your Heads. That's a reference. From Earth. Because I know you don't get it."

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    "/Ai, *c'Rhys'yw*/," Kian repeats, engaging in rapid evasive action. He is small, and fast, and agile... and scared spitless, even though he could probably absorb an energy attack without injury. He returns fire, not being quite so picky about making a precise hit on a precise spot, and climbs rapidly to get behind the... thing.
    The rumbling on the ground briefly gets his attention, and the approaching cloud in the air.
    Well, this escalated quickly.

Stardust has posed:
Ornate lance-rifles are pointed at all the Vorpals - including the invisible one. Uh oh. Someone started peering into the infra-red, maybe? The synthetic voice speaks up. <<Stand aside, earthling. We have no argument with you, but this artifact must be removed from your world and taken to safety. It is too potent to allow the Apokoliptians to take it.>>

  Kian's diving and darting keeps him safe from the wild blasts of the attacking parademon, though a couple of feathers are singed. His first return of fire is a poor miss, the second closer but not quite there, and the third a dead shot to the parademon's chest. It takes a few moments for the near-panicky Kian to realize he has just won his fight, but he's now well aware the battle is just starting.

Supergirl throws the Parademon leader off, and as he clambers back to his feet, Stardust lands behind him and kicks the back of his knee hard enough to shatter it, and send him flying forwards into Supergirl's grasp. He's strong, but nothing like her levels. The Kryptonian makes short work of him.

Stardust stands next to Supergirl as the tanks, and the large swarm of Parademons approach. She looks up at Kian, then turns to the other woman with a worried expression. "Maybe discretion is the better part of valor here, guys?" she suggests. "We're just a little bit outnumbered."

Strangely nonchalant, the ukulelist, Bart, has wandered into the scene. He walks to the doorway of the museum, close to the Vorpal illusion. "There are a lot of demons heading this way," he comments. "Not the best time to be arguing about mirrors."

Supergirl has posed:
"I'm all for an up, up, and away." Supergirl nods to Stardust. She looks to Kian. "Think he could use a hand?" She asks and flies up, hands propping on her hips. "Hey Parademons!" She beckons them with a finger and looks at the ukulele guy wandering into the museum. "Ummm, divide and conquer? We should get out of here before they umm, fire at the place with the old, expensive stuff?"

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Vorpal growls as a weapon is pointed at him. "I am no Earthling. I'm a Wonderling."

He pauses. "Or... whatever. Besides, if it's too powerful to let them have it, why should *you* have it? I don't know you from Adam-"

He blinks and stares at Bart. His invisibility drops allowing everyone to see the real Vorpal. "Point taken." But then he looks back at the alien, "But *you* aren't taking that mirror off this world. I know where you parked your ride," he says as a manner of warning, and runs out the door to see... well. The hell that is coming at them.

Supergirl has been joined by Colette, so he opens his communicator: "Looks like this party's gotten pretty heated. I see you've also met my friend Harvey Birdman, too," he says, because that's what he calls Kian.

Not to Kian's face, mind you.

"I call dibs on the tanks!"

He may appear suicidal, but he might have a plan. Maybe. It all depends on whether the tanks think he is a worthy threat to fire upon, which is why he plays dirty: he casts the illusion of Vorpal going in one direction, and then.... DUN DUN DUUUUN: Wonder Woman appears, landing from somewhere high in the sky. Of course, it isn't Wonder Woman: It's Vorpal, but he has learned not to underestimate tech-savy enemies by sending an illusion by itself. This illusion is overlaid over the cheshire cat so infra-red will read an actual incoming enemy. And Wonder Woman *is* the kind of heavy that merits being fired upon.

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    Kian stares down at Vorpal. "Ai. I thin' decision is made for us," he says a little hoarsely. Trusting that Vorpal knows what he's doing -- even though he really should know better than that -- he turns his attention back to the airborne part of the approaching problem. "Also may be too late to ret-reat." He looks over hopefully to the heroines. "Am open to ideas," he says as the glow around his hands brightens.

Stardust has posed:
<<You don't need to know me from Adam,>> the leader of the visitors tells Vorpal, <<You only need to know me from Darkseid. That's reason enough not to stand in our way.>>

"Still arguing about the mirror?" Bart says. "I don't see either of you are its rightful owner..." He takes cover in the doorway of the building, watching the oncoming horde.

  "Well," Stardust says into the communicator as Vorpal calls dibs on the tanks. "I was kind of thinking we should all call dibs on getting the hell out of here, but..." her eyes go to Supergirl and her beckoning finger, and sighs. She rises up into the air, smacking her fist into her hand. "Okay then. Fight it is. When we're all dead, don't say I didn't warn you guys. Maybe we could make it a fighting retreat?"

The alien visitors run out of the museum after Vorpal, dropping to their knees behind cover in a professional and well-regimented fashion. They raise their baroquely ornamented lance-rifles to their shoulders, and start firing into the oncoming swarm of Parademons. Brilliant ruby-red beams splash out from the nozzles cutting swathes of ruin through the parademon army. Vorpal may suddenly feel like he got away lightly with threatening these aliens.

The Parademon hordes rush heedlessly on, closing more rapidly than the tanks. They're not well ordered though, and the environment rapidly becomes what is known in military circles as 'target rich'. Stardust flies straight at a small advanced cluster, corkscrewing past wild blaster beams to engage close in.

The tanks take Vorpal's bait. Both turrets swing to target him, and lights along the length of the extended barrels light up, starting at the base, and extending out towards the muzzle. A sharp-thinking cat might judge that the point at which the light reaches the end of the barrel would be a good time to not be in direct line of fire.

Supergirl has posed:
Seems some fancy flying is in order. Supergirl flies in to support Vorpal. "Consider it good exercise." She calls back to Stardust, all bravado. She rolls as she drops under a strong shot and it clips her shoulders sending the maid of might into a building. Pushing out of the rubble, she shakes off and takes a deep breath. She looks about the invading hoard. WWKD-What Would Kal Do? She pushes off again and starts to fly around the airborne demons quickly, trying to corral them in for the other fighters.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
And Wonder Woman, of course, crosses her bracelets as the light reaches the end of the barrel. Because that's what she does, of course- everybody knows nothing can destroy those bracelets.

It's too bad he doesn't HAVE a pair of those. "If this doesn't work," he says into the comm, "Tell Gar I love him, and that he can watch the rest of those Game of Thrones episodes without me."

Priorities, right?

He waits for half a second, and then he opens a massive Rabbit Hole, as wide as he can create them- which is about ten feet wide, so nothing to sneeze at- to receive those beams.

Because the other Rabbit Hole he's creating is facing towards that horde of Parademons, and will describe a sweeping arc the moment some of that Death Ray juice starts flowing. This will definitely guarantee that the Parademons will focus on him, and give his team and allies time to escape. He can escape in a manner that is easier than most, since he can do things to the fabric of reality.

This is, of course, provided this works and he's got the timing down right. If he hasn't, then there won't be much of him left to actually worry. If it works, though, he will shout into the comm: "Cover fire, coming up!"

He will be careful of aiming that thing nowhere near Kara, because friendly fire has been known to ruin friendships. Just like Settlers of Catarn.

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    "/Kiara q'Rhys khat'h/," Kian mutters in his own language -- sounded like a prayer -- and flits rapidly upwards to get above the approaching aerial horde. He's come to think of them as an intrusion on *his* space already.
    Vorpal knows that Kian doesn't like his powers, that he even fears them. And he doesn't like really letting loose with them. But he's learning to use them nevertheless.
    Now it's time to let loose. This time it's electricity, like lightning, which should (he hopes) arc from Parademon to Parademon and clear some space.
    He keeps moving, but not as quickly as he's really capable, focusing more on the attack.

Stardust has posed:
There are two thunderous reports as both tanks open fire, each launching a volley of powerful shots straight at Vorpal-as-Wonder-Woman. The incoming fire is fast... so fast... but the portal opens in time! Blasts rip through the sky, the deflected cannon fire tearing through the parademon ranks. But the tank commanders are no fools. When they see what's happening, the two tanks swivel their turrets, aiming to either side of the Cheshire cat. Too far to cover both with a rabbit hole. Too close to survive the fire...

Supergirl picks herself up from the rubble and flies at speed, attempting to contain the army of Parademons... but there are so many it's an impossible task even for the teen of steel. The parademons don't wish to be herded, and are heedless of their lives, hurling themselves at her. She's mobbed, a half dozen demons all trying to grapple her at once. Her strength is too much for them, but one of the Parademon leaders, heedless of his soldiers, fires his sonic rifle into the tangle of limbs. The Parademons don't survive the blast. Supergirl does, but she's dazed, shocked, and blasted back. Another couple of hits like that and even she might not survive...

Stardust finds herself trying to fight five of the parademons at once. Though they are not as strong as she is, nor does she have the strength of a Kryptonian. The struggle is close, and vicious. A powerful right hook crushes the jaw of one Parademon, but then two more are hanging on to her arm. She tries to strangle one with her left hand, but needs to use it to fend off a third. The fourth glides in behind her, an energy axe upraised to strike...

Kian knows that now is the time to stop holding back, and crackling bolts arc from his hands, fusing circuits in glider units, and sending parademons crashing earthwards. He cuts a swathe through their lines, an angel of vengeance, until a unit of heavy combat demons single him out. Lighting crackles harmlessly off their shielded body armor, and they approach him with hungry, tooth-filled grins.

Stardust has posed:
Meanwhile, in the shadows at the back of the exhibition hall, a small canvas is mounted on the wall, an early 17th century oil-panting of the Raven king. In the light from the fire-fight outside, shadows twist and coalesce, and a figure becomes visible, slender with long, dark hair, standing in front of the portrait in contemplation. He turns away from the portrait with a grunt of annoyance, and strides towards the entrance, a long black greatcoat swirling about his feet as he walks. He rests a hand on Bart's shoulder, nodding to the ukulelist, before stepping out into the scene of combat. His face betrays no emotion as he observes the battle. Heedless of incoming energy bolts, he steps up next to the leader of the visitors. His voice, rich but coarse, cuts through the chaos of battle. "You may not take it, Ashen-kun. 'Tis not for you either, Tommy Hunter. And certainly not for he that accompanies you."

<<How do you know my name, Earthling?>> the leader of the visitors asks the new-comer, his attention split between the puzzle of this man and the battle he's trying to fight. <<Who are you?>>

"I believe thee could could name me, stranger," the dark man replies to the alien, while taking the mirror from his unresisting fingers. "Though you'll not know my name."

A new noise rises up from all around. At first a faint chorus of bird calls, it builds and builds until it is louder than the blasts from the sonic rifles, louder than the battle cries of the parademons, louder than the rumbling of tanks. From all around the city, thousands, tends of thousands, of small dark shapes rise up and take wing. Dark clouds of ravens hurl themselves at the parademons, pecking and tearing.

A swarm of ravens surrounds the demons wrestling Stardust, and moments later departs, the superheroine blinking in surprise as she finds herself foes dead and tumbling to earth.

Supergirl is amazed to see the sonic riflemen mobbed by a pack of crows, both parademons pecked to death before they can release another shot.

Vorpal looks down the barrel of a cannon, and expects to see his own death there... but instead he sees crows and blackbirds hurl themselves directly into the barrel, jamming it and making the tanks explode.

  Delighting in his presence, a small army of ravens swarms around Kian, diving again and again at the elite unit, tearing into them heedlessly, shorting out their armor circuitry and leaving them vulnerable. The ravens follow their fellow avian with raucous caws of joy, a temporary army for him to lead.

Where did all the birds come from? How strange. Was there some dark figure involved a moment ago? The thought of him slips from everyone's minds, but maybe they will remember him in a dream.

Doesn't matter though, the tide is turning rapidly. Birds, aliens, and superheroes combined, are beginning to win this convincingly!

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Upon hearing that voice, Tommy freezes in his tracks and forgets to even summon the rabbit hole.

'I sit upon a black throne in the shadows but they shall not see me,
The rain shall make me a door for me and i shall pass through it,
The stones shall make a throne for me and I shall sit upon it.
'


The Raven King is the kind of figure you read about, when delving into books that talk about things people who aren't well-prepared shouldn't read. The Black King who ruled a land of magic and then vanished without a trace. He's a legend among those who know of some things- and everybody says he's not real, or doesn't exist anymore.

And you certainly do *not* want to attract his attentionn. And if you do, you had better not displease him.

"Oh *#$@$ me..." the cat says. And the tanks explode because they are full of ravens. And crows are everywhere...

And then the memory is gone. He blinks a couple of times. What was he going on about? He wasn't certain, except that his plan seems to have gone horribly, HORRIBLY wrong.

"... I don't know exactly what happened," the Cheshire cat says, speaking into the comm, "But I seem to have opened a portal to... somewhere with a lot of ravens. Or Alfred Hitchcock's subconscious..." he looks around for SOMEONE to fight so as not to feel useless, but... "Yyyyeah..."

Supergirl has posed:
Hit by a sonic weapon, Supergirl crumples, she hits the ground with a bounce and rolls to a stop. Crows are the least of her concern as she gets to her feet and shakes it off. All too soon parademons are on her again and she starts fighting again. "What is with the crows?" She calls out and tries not to hit the birds, they don't appear to be their enemies. "Is this you Vorpal? What did you do?!" She calls out.

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    Kian of course can't see this as anything but the favor of his Lady Goddess. "/Kya/!" It's half-word, half hawk's keening -- although what he feels isn't joy, but actual confidence. Somehow, he thinks the ravens and crows knwo what they're doing; they seem to, anyway. So he redoubles his efforts at clearing his... sorry, *the* skies of these intruders.

Stardust has posed:
The Raven King is fictional. A king of two Kingdoms, one next door to Hell, the other in Northern England? That's obviously just a metaphor, as anyone who's visited Yorkshire would know. Never existed, a figure from story-books. It would be foolish to believe for a moment that he was anything other than a minor Norman nobleman who legend has made far more of than he ever was.

  Even a man who shares his soul with a being from Lewis Carroll should know not to put their faith into fictional creations. However, thinking about him seems to have done wonders for Vorpal's chaos magic. That would explain the birds, right? The chaos cat has no time to think about it though, as the chaos of battle swarms his way. Though the parademon ranks are thinning rapidly, they simply don't know when they are beaten, and keep hurling themselves forwards. Before long he's no longer having to look hard to find enemies to fight.

  As the number of enemies drops rapidly, the alien visitors stop firing so indiscriminately and pick their targets. Their strange weapons take a terrible toll on the parademons.

Freed of her own opponents, Stardust hurtles into the pack of parademons facing Supergirl. "Don't question it!" she calls out as she grabs a demon's wings and tears them off. "He does random crazy things. This is random crazy things. But it's working!" Soon Stardust and Supergirl are fighting back to back, surrounded by parademons who are themselves surrounded by ravens. The distracted parademons are easy prey for the maid of might, who sends them flying like skittles. Stardust isn't doing too bad a job either, keeping her side of the fight under control, even if she isn't able to deal out the amount of damage the Kryptonian can.

Above, Kian leads his personal army of crows. Randomness of chaos magic or blessings of the goddess, does it matter when it works so well? As if they recognize in him some kind of super-crow, they follow his lead, tearing into the aerial forces and leaving them nowhere to go. As he picks out foe after foe, the crows crowd them, pecking and tearing, ripping out circuitry in armor, tearing flesh. Each time Kian voices his war cry, the flock answers with a thousand voices calling out KYA!

Vorpal ducks under a swinging sword, and kicks the attacker's legs from beneath him. Stardust grabs the demon from behind and hurls him to Supergirl, who kicks him into the air, where Kian and his avian army finish him off.

And then there were none.

The sudden silence is almost shocking. The battle, somehow, is over. The leader of the aliens looks around, and gets to his feet, followed by his men. They shuffle their feet awkwardly. Suddenly the birds take to the wing and disperse as quickly as they arrived, and it's all over.

"Well," says Stardust, pausing as she tries to figure out what to say. "That happened."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
When all is said and done, like the ABBA song says, Vorpal is completely bewildered. He stares at the retreating flock of birds and frowns, shaking his head. "I literally have no idea where all of that came from. Wait..." he turns around and looks for the aliens. "Where is the mirror? Who has the mirror? Did the parademons get it?"

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    The little birdman seems a little surprised to see them go, but he does not stop them nor follow them. He does a neat little pirouette in the air, and spirals down lazily to the ground. Once there, Kian bows to the east, wings spread wide, speaking in his own language... then turns and flies into Vorpal, scooping him up off the ground, laughing. "/Cheh'p tai/?" he asks, setting him back down. "Ai, sor-ry. Did you see? The birds!" He's positively exultant. "They were... what mir-ror?"

Supergirl has posed:
Panting, Kara looks around. "Holy moly, birds, that's terrifying." She shakes her head. Looking around she plucks the stray feather from her uniform. "Is everything ok? You all feeling good?" She makes a face. "I'm super good, great. Just good." She nods and looks about. "What mirror?"

Stardust has posed:
"I think we can safely say that the parademons got it Vorp," Colette says. "If by 'it' you mean a good beatdown. Was there a mirror? After you with it," she adds, running her hand through tangled hair. "Fighting isn't good for..." she lapses into silence as Vorpal is scooped up by Kian. She watches bird-man scoop and drop cat-man and turns to Supergirl. "A bird just caught a cat. Now I've seen everything," she says with a grin. "Yeah, I'm okay. Apart from about a million bruises and feeling like I could sleep for a week. After eating five meals. Gotta say, you make this superheroing thing look easy. I wish I could do that thing with my eyes."

  The leader of the visitors seems to remember the mirror about the same time as Vorpal does, and turns to face the museum. It hasn't come out of the battle too well. All the windows are broken, the building itself bearing the marks of fire. Inside, glass cases are broken and artefacts scattered.

  Bart comes out from behind the wall, covered in dust but unharmed. He holds out the mangled and shattered remains of a small bronze hand mirror. For some reason it just doesn't seem like a very interesting object. "I tried to save it," he says, then shrugs his shoulders. "Oh well." He drops what's left of the mirror on the floor and stretches. "Well, I'm going to get back to my pitch before some bastard takes it. Never trust a busker." He shoulders his ukulele and marches back to the square.

<<I fear we should have come to this exhibition before this planet was attacked,>> the alien leader says. He turns and bows to the assembled heroes. <<This is not our fight, but we wish you well. We will return to our ship now.>>

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Getting scooped up by a bird is certainly a novelty, and Vorpal lets Kian get away with it becuse- well, it's Kian. He chuckles "Yeah, I couldn't NOT see them, they were all over everything..."

He then looks mournfully at the smashed mirror, and sighs. "There was magic in there. But there's... nothing anymore. It's an empty shell." Well, if there was any consolation to be had it was the surety that there was no part of the Cheshire soul in there. Because if there had been, it would have gone into someone the moment the mirror shattered. The whole point of his search is to make sure that doesn't happen to the *wrong* person.... like, say, the Joker. Because that would be absolutely terrifying.

"Sorry about the, you know. The birds and the feathers," he says to Kara and Stardust, "Because apparently that's a thing I do now. I don't know HOW, but... yeah."

"Well..." he looks over to his team-mates and Kian, and puts an arm around the bird-man's shoulders. "I think this will be yet another place to volunteer at for rebuilding when the invasion is over. In the meantime... wanna go grab a pizza somewhere that's still open?" he then looks at the aliens and pauses for a second.

He can't fault them, it sounded like they were trying to get the mirror away from the parademons. So, ten points for good intentions? "Oh, what the hell. You guys can come, too. Ever had a deep-dish pizza? You can't leave earth without trying it."

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    The adrenaline is starting to finally run down. Kian nods once to Vorpal. "/Takh/... nnh. In Eng-liss, I know. Yes. Pit-sa." He looks off in the direction the birds vanished. "I hoped I could keep them aroun'," he says, with a hint of disappointment, and leans into the cat-man. "But I do not thin' I have a p'lace to house them. Not so many."
    He peers inquisitively at the aliens, and affirms Vorpal's assertion. "Yes, is good. I am al-so not of this p'lanet. He is cor-rec'. Do not leave without t'rying."

Supergirl has posed:
"Easy? Oh. Yeah. Totally." Kara bats a hand and winces. Her smiles turns from smug to wry. "I could use a little r and r for sure." She admits to Stardust. "And the heat vision is great until a boy's kissing you and then your face gets all hot-oh man, that gets so awkward." she looks at Vorpal and his offer of pizza. "Sure, I get like, a whole pizza though."

Stardust has posed:
"I haven't really considered that," Stardust admits to Supergirl. "The dynamics of super-powered..." her eyes defocus for a moment as she considers things that would probably have to be censored if mentioned.

The strains of Bart's ukulele ring out across the empty streets. Stardust starts dancing around the wreckage of one of the tanks, hands held up, hips swaying to the music.

~I used to ruuuule the world~
~Seas would rise when I gave the word~
~Now in the morning I sleep alone~
~Sweep the streets I used to own.~

"I ain't sweeping these streets," she says, stopping her singing. "Too much work." Stardust has a much better voice than Bart. Probably a better dancer too, though to be fair we haven't seen Bart dance. The aliens watch her with bemusement, but she soon stops singing as she spots one of the parademon's guns and picks it up to examine it.

  The aliens exchange glances when invited for pizza. <<We must decline with thanks,>> the leader replies. <<Time is pressing. We must not be here when... When certain events transpire. I cannot say more, but hope remains. Do not lose hope.>>

The aliens trudge off to their ship, and Stardust watches them go, letting the gun drop. "Cheery crowd," she comments. "Seriously though, you think there's anyone who'd open up to sell pizza? In this? If so Vorp, that's who's going to beat you in the finals of 'America's Got Insanity'. You got the teleportation thing though, right? Let's try Milan."

Stardust offers her hand to Kian, a typical Human gesture he may or may not be familiar with. "Hi! I'm Stardust. Nice to meet you. Any friend of Vorpal's is..." she stops herself, blinking. "Is probably doomed," she concludes with a grin. "Come on then guys, let's find pizza."