5093/FLASHBACK: Darkseid's New York

FLASHBACK: Darkseid's New York
Date of Scene:	03 August 2018
Location:	New York City
Synopsis:	During the battle of New York with Darkseid's Parademons, Thor meets Jessie and Elizabeth in a brief moment of quiet.
Cast of Characters:	Thor, Jessie Hawklin, Elizabeth Greene

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Thor has posed:
    The sky is dark with clouds of smoke, explosions bursting into life only to meet their end moments later having done their damage. Embers fall to the earth, spattering upon the hoods and windshields of the massed and snarled traffic of those who had tried to escape from the city when the alien army fell upon them. Screaming throngs of civilians rush in groups along the sidewalks and through the streets, their eyes cast upwards to the war being waged above them and then looking for some answer or some path of escape to see them clear yet finding none.
    Upon the walls of the skyscrapers and slashing across the sky, glow-eyed parademons roar and cackle as they fly. Some of them seem tasked with the battle at hand, leaping forth and firing ruby energy at the Earth's defenders while others seem more intent on creating havoc and terror for the populace who flee. Large black armored beings seem to hover in the air at points, directing the flights of the winged creatures with great clawed gestures. And whenever those civilians lift their eyes upwards usually there is no respite. Almost none at all.
    Save for the few times when they look up and they'll see a flash of an image. A red and gold blur as an armored sentinel flies through the air. A roaring green creature that leaves mangled pieces of parademons behind wherever he lands. And then there is the Captain who had inspired the police to move and to take groups of people out along the sidewalks and away from the main battlefield. Hope was scarce that day. But it was not gone.

Jessie Hawklin has posed:
Jessie had only cast a single glance into the air, frozen for exactly 2 seconds as dread flickered across her face, then she reacted to a single thought. This is /not/ a good place to be right now. The sky forgotten, she's looking around at the various directions she can try to escape in. Big box truck? No good, though she might be able to slide out from under on the other side and cross the sidewalk? It's only another couple of seconds before she picks a direction and starts walking quickly towards a building on the other side of the road that has a couple levels of basement and is connected to a tunnel or three.

Elizabeth Greene has posed:
    There are defenders of other types as well. On the ground, as the invasion had continued, more people were called in. The National Guard. Other law enforcement agencies. Reinforcements were sent to help their brothers and sisters in blue who were being overwhelmed by the alien invasion. This time it was worse than the last.
    Five years ago, there had been another invasion but the soon to be Avengers had responded and fought back the threat in less than a day. This time? This was hours into the invasion and it seemed to be spreading further and further in the city instead of being fought back, even with more heroes to help combat the threat.
    Amongst those is the SWAT team from Bludhaven Police Department. Beth is there in her full combat gear including body armor and assault rifle. She has her helmet on but the faceplate is flipped up for now, out of her way as she tries to help get people to safety.
    As she spots the woman walking quickly across the road, she's already running to put herself between the lady and the monsters blasting red beams high in the sky above. "Hurry!" she calls to the woman as she comes up beside her, eyes to the sky above instead of the woman herself. "You have to get under cover!"

Thor has posed:
    Like a wending river, lines of people are rushing and weaving between the parked cars and the overturned vehicles. Cacophonous shrieks and weapons fire are heard from above, joined with the sounds of alarms and sirens, not even to consider the shouts and wailing of the people below. It is chaos all along the road where Jessie finds herself, even as different places offer some hint or semblance of safety.
    But that is when a uniformed and armored figure appears before her, urging her to get to cover. Beth and Jessie are there together even as a parademon /swoops/ low and past them, triggering the instinct to duck in almost all of those whom it rushes past.
    "Greene, move yer ass!" Sgt. Sweeney lifts his voice as he shoulders his rifle, gesturing with a gloved hand down the sidewalk. "We gotta get to thirty-sixth, and I ain't hoofin' it alone!" The other SWAT officer rests a hand on her shoulder for an instant though he turns his gaze upon Jessie. "You alright, ma'am?" He asks, perhaps trying to clear his partner from possible entanglements...
    But then the shriek is heard again, only this time much closer as a parademon alights upon the overturned side of a public transit bus, its wings flaring and flapping as it fixes its glowing eyes upon them below. Yet it is never wise to focus entirely on one parademon, for these monsters... hunt in packs.
    The first hint of warning given is likely when Beth suddenly feels Sweeney /shoving/ her out of the way as the second creature of Darkseid slashes across the distance and impales the man in the SWAT uniform on the end of an angry spiked trident, pinning him against the wall as the creature seems to cackle and caw.

Jessie Hawklin has posed:
Jessie's eyes briefly meet Beth's the urge to give in to the panic is obvious, hence what seems to be a slow pace. "Ok" she answers quickly as she grabs the strap of her bag and settles it cross-body on her other shoulder. She obediently picks up the pace and starts jogging, dodging around a chevy and eyes the pavement under the box truck, trying to decide if a quick retreat underneath might be enough. The Sgt seeming to appear out of nowhere gets her attention and she gives him a brief, curt nod only to jump back instinctively when he gets skewered. Blink. Nope. Not going to panic. Nope nope. But definitely moving a lot faster now. "Go!" she yells at Beth as she nears the doors into the building, her voice cracking through an octave and a half. She wants to get down into a teeny tiny corner of a long tunnel and hide. Those things are a lot bigger than she is. "I'll be fine!" she adds with the bravado of the insane... or the foolishly hopeful.

Elizabeth Greene has posed:
    Staggering, Beth turns just in time to not stop what is coming. It all goes slow motion as she tries to bring up her weapon, tries to stop the weapon that is piercing her friend. "SARGE!"
    The advice from Jessie is right. She should keep moving, get some distance. Instead, she brings the muzzle of her weapon to bear and opens fire on the beast.
    It doesn't seem to do much. They don't have armor piercing rounds left at this point. Instead, she leaps /toward/ the beast. The exact opposite of what the young woman is urging her to do. She brings down the rifle butt as hard as she can on the juncture of head and neck, trying to bring the beast down to her level.

Thor has posed:
    Three stories up above Jessie, a bank of windows shatters as a flight of parademons fly through, their wings flaring as they land and take up a place upon that bus the first one had landed upon. Their trident weapons sizzling with crimson energy as they start to fire around them. Several land to try and cut off the escape of some of those people who had rushed away from the initial appearance of the monsters. The cackling and cawing grows louder as the monsters seem to cultivate that fear and panic that they draw forth.
    Then Beth's rifle barks that short staccato burst of fire, kicking up divots in the armored carapace of the creature. It's enough to steal the monster's attention from its prey even as Sweeney's eyes widen with what can only be agony. But he can't help but smile a little when the girl from Bludhaven brings that rifle butt down heavily upon the creature's back and causes it to hit the ground /hard/ with a thud.
    The Parademon scrabbles quickly, growling as it turns away from her stricken sergeant, motivated by the cackling disdain coming from its peers at having been struck down by this lowly earthling. It rounds to face her, its talons coming up and starting to glow red even while the other parademons snap their weapons forwards into the ready position.
    And that's when the hammer blurs across the distance from above with a low /whom/ of sound followed by the crash of impact as one moment that Parademon is menacing her... and the next its chest is being crushed under the seemingly enormous weight of the blunt weapon. It's this time that the minions of Darkseid don't have the chance to react in time. For suddenly a tall blonde figure in silver and black armor with a red cape /lands/ heavily upon that overturned bus, bursts and explosions of electricity lashing the air around him and those creatures as well as he slams a fist into one, grabbing hold of it and throwing it into another even as that hammer suddenly /whooms/ back to his hand.

Jessie Hawklin has posed:
Sliding to a stop on shoes so worn, the tread is almost all gone, Jessie yells "What, are you nuts?!?!??" to Beth "They don't shrink!" She knows she should go back to help but what good could she do? She takes a hesitant step, then another, then ducks at the weird noise. Cackles and caws apparently don't cause as much of 'duck' as a sound she doesn't recognize at all.
    It takes a few seconds to realize more help has arrived. Jessie finds herself forgetting about the nasties and watching the electricity dance around until she jumps back again as she suddenly remembers hanging around out here is going to get herself killed. She doesn't trust anyone out here, except maybe the woman who tried to shrink one of those monsters. Barely a glance at Thor. He can take care of himself. She yells at Beth one last time "Go!" her eyes darting to the black and silver armor, then to Beth's armor, and that doorway.

Elizabeth Greene has posed:
    For a moment, Beth is actually angry for the rescue. The beast was hers. He needed to die at her hand for Sweeney. Glancing to her fallen Sergeant, she hears the words from the woman. She's nuts. SHe's lost her mind staying here.
    She glances to Thor who seems to have things well in hand. Slinging her weapon back out of her way, she leans down to check on Sweeney. No pulse. Gone. Lost in this war.
    She wants to hurt something, break something. No man left behind. Even a dead one. She grabs his arms and, despite her being so much smaller than him, begins to drag him toward that door. "Go! I'll be right behind you!" she yells to Jessie as she drags the sergeant along with her toward the doorway and the safer basement within.

Thor has posed:
    The armored forms of the parademons crash and clatter as they're knocked around with the whirling movements of that heavy short-handled hammer. The Avenger they recognize as Thor spins Mjolnir in a blurringly short arc that smashes aside several of the creatures as they charge him and then he crushes the helmet of another with a clean downwards blow that suddenly leaves them in a curious state of quiet, an eye in the hurricane.
    And suddenly he's turned away, the hammer at his side as he moves towards Elizabeth and Jessie and the other people there who have come forth from their hiding places now that there is some semblance of a hint of calm. "Who wields authority amongst you?" His blue eyes flick from one person to the other even as he moves forwards to push open the door that leads inside and begins to usher people in with a sweep of his hand.
    "You?" He motions with a nod, "This way!" He turns and shouts to get the other civilians moving towards him. "Follow the comely lass with the unfortunate helmet." He turns to Jessie and sees her, his eyes narrowing. "Are you injured?"

Jessie Hawklin has posed:
Yikes. Just yikes. Who wields authority? First thought is to point at the armored woman pulling her partner. But then, it seems he's become the authority all of a sudden. And Jessie is really trying hard not to give in to the knee jerk reaction to being bossed around. She actually wanted to head down into the basement. Changing her mind is not a good thing. Calm here, but she can still hear distant noise of the raging battle. Or not so distant. Still a good idea to get down and find a tunnel. Spying a flat cart a worker had apparently abandoned, she shoved the boxes off it and pushes it to the armored cop. "Here, put him on this."
    Her head jerks around and she looks up at Thor. Several expressions cross her face in the span of a couple of seconds. Surprise at being spoken to directly, confusion, anger, dislike if not hate, confusion, and frustration at her own knee jerk reaction. She settles on the dislike as her own eyes narrow and zap right back at him. "No-" her eyes unfocus for exactly one second as she does an internal check. "No, I'm fine."

Elizabeth Greene has posed:
    Several officers rush forward to help Beth, just as Jessie offers that cart. They pick up Sweeney and place him atop it, quickly wheeling him toward the open doorway and disappearing inside. Beth looks at the suddenly quiet street then to the hero who made it happen so quickly. As people rush through the door, she follows suit until the words sink in.
    "Unfortunate helmet? It works just fine, thank you very much! And considering I think you're wearing the drapes from my living room, I don't think you should be giving fashion advice," she snarks before she can stop herself. So much for saying thank you properly. She glances over to Jessie, surprised at her reaction but not really blaming her. Nothing is okay for them right now but at least she isn't injured.
    "Sorry. It's a pleasure to meet you," she says to Thor, trying to cool things a bit with her words. "Wish it wasn't under these circumstances." She glances to Jessie. "C'mon, let's get you inside and we'll head down to the tunnels, see if we can get some distance from this area."

Thor has posed:
    For a moment Thor's eyes narrow as he looks upon Jessie even as behind him in the sky above the great city the mayhem continues. Something about the woman, but difficult to put a finger on. No matter, for now. There are other more pressing matters that demand his attention.
    Rounding away, it's just in time for Elizabeth Greene to mark herself in the Asgardian's memory as he quirks an eyebrow then shakes his head as he waves them further inside. "Take shelter, we will try and keep them contained from here to the great park of greenery in the center of your city. Here to the river should be clear. Off with you!" There is definitely something authoritarian in his voice as he steps back from them.
    But after the last words he speaks they only have a brief moment before he's stepping away and that hammer at his side is unslung, swirling around in a blur of motion and then suddenly /pulling/ him up and off the ground as he leaps into the sky.

Jessie Hawklin has posed:
Distance. A very good ides. She nods curtly and mutters a semi-grudging "Thanks" before turning and heading to the door, not even realizing he's already beyond her hearing. Her eyes soften as she spots the Sarge's body being pushed along on the cart and she picks up the pace again.