8849/H.I.V.E: Stage Two

H.I.V.E: Stage Two
Date of Scene:	18 August 2019
Location:	Mount Royal, Queensland Park
Synopsis:	The mysterious forces that have been targeting the Titans have a new trick - fighting fire with fire. Anti-Raven and Anti-Stardust may be a match for their opposite numbers, but they can't defeat Titanic Teamwork!
Cast of Characters:	Stardust, Kian t'Kaeh, Raven, 87

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Stardust has posed:
    There is the problem of Kían.
    There's no question the bird can be an asset to the team, but it's also clear that the 'how exactly' still requires some answers.  Stardust has attempted to give him training, but there's only so much the Danger Room can offer to a pacifist.  There have been swooping and rescuing drills aplenty, as well as a certain amount of dodging and evasion.  These little test the Akiár's quietly impressive energy manipulation powers, and that's something that has been tasking Stardust's brain for a while.  There have been suggestions galore, mostly along the lines, "But if you make their guns too hot to hold, you're not actually hurting them, 'cos they'll drop them.  That's the entire point!", and the understanding that non-sentient threats such as drones and robots are fair game.  How exactly this all fits in with being part of a team remains a somewhat troubling issue.  Thus the current plan is:
    "Okay, this is what we're gonna do, Birdy Buddy.  We're going on patrol.  You don't have to do anything.  Just come along and watch, learn and think.  If you can see a way to help out, do it.  If you're in any doubt, ask.  We'll see how it works out."
    The first time Stardust put this plan into action, how it worked out can best be summed up as 'badly'.  As soon as Kían and Stardust had crossed the water into Metropolis, they were ambushed by Doctor Light.  Stardust took off after him, and got a face full of blinding flare for her trouble as Doctor Light made his escape.  On this experience, Stardust has revised the plan in two ways.  Those are:

    1. Asking goes both ways.  Had Stardust informed Kían what Doctor Light could do, Kían could probably have blocked his power.
    2. Bring Kían along on a patrol with more than one other Titan, so he gets an idea of teamwork in action.  Hopefully.

    Thus it is that the Titans are on patrol, in the same area that Kían and Stardust had failed to patrol before.  The area of Metropolis just north of Baker Island and the Titan's tower home is student central, and patrols in this area are usually pretty quiet.  It's not a hotbed of serious crime, but there's plenty of minor crime to go around.  The students hereabouts are fairly accustomed to visiting Titans and there is a high risk of being asked for selfies.  This perhaps is why Stardust has arranged for this particular patrol to start on a roof top, away from prying eyes.  The building is an office block that's barely occupied, but has nice views over the Metropolis Institute of Technologies campus, and the park fronting the art museum.
    Stardust is first to arrive, or so she supposes.  There's always the possibility that Raven is hiding behind a smoke stack making herself coffee or something.  It certainly wouldn't surprise her if the Spooky One had brought a coffee machine specifically so she could step out from behind something drinking coffee.  She doesn't feel the need to search the roof to determine whether her suspicions are true.  Instead she just sits on the edge of the roof and awaits her team-mates arrival while drinking a can of soda and watching the students wandering around below.

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    Kían spirals down from above almost indifferently, picking up the odd thermal here and there, before finally touching down on the rooftop a meter or so to the left of Colette.  There's no more noise than the soft rustling of wings; he peers over the edge, leaning way out with the total lack of fear of someone born to fly.  "Are we looking for anything particular?" he asks suddenly.  "You don't expect to get attacked again, do you?"

Raven has posed:
    That Stardust is confident that she won't be surprised, Raven herself is not entirely sure.  There were notifications involved in this particular patrol, but it wasn't an alert.  Raven had considered it more of a training exercise.  The attitude Raven was bringing to the table was… casual.
    Therefore, while she doesn't walk out from behind a smokestack, she is simply… there, one moment—and she had not been there the previous.  Sure, it wasn't impossible to call her on her arrival, but Raven is almost certainly at latest the second to arrive.  She is holding a pot, and this cardboard travel cup.  Idly, she is pouring some coffee from the pot into the cup.  There is, quite literally, only enough for Raven.  After a moment, the pot is gone, returned to the tower.
    Without much hesitation, she begins sipping at the coffee, her hood up around her head protectively.  "The sun is out.  I am not supposed to be here."

Stardust has posed:
    "That was very much what you'd call a statistical anomaly, Birdy Buddy."  Stardust finishes her soda with a gulp, crumples the can and puts it down beside her.  "We rarely get attacked.  Most often we turn up, people surrender, everybody is happy.  Particularly the police, who get an easier day than they were expecting.  We're looking for anything we can help with.  Something coming through the T-Com, signs of trouble brewing, police sirens heading somewhere.  Sometimes there's giant robots or some guy who can fire knives out of his eyes or something who tries something, but usually not.  Hi Raven."
    It's not that Raven's appearance wasn't surprising, it's that it would be a surprise for Raven's appearance not to be surprising.  Or involve coffee.  Stardust unzips the backpack sitting beside her, and pulls out a pair of card coffee cups of her own, offering one to Kían.  There's a third in there with Vorpal's name on it for when the cat arrives.  Stardust is not entirely incapable of forwards planning.  "It's important to get out of your comfort zone sometimes, Rae.  Besides, we need to give Kían some experience in how teams operate.  You've been part of the team longer than anyone.  And you may hate me saying this, but you work as part of a team really well.  Um.  Synergy, you know."
    Stardust is looking down at the teeming mass of students enjoying the sunny early evening.  It's easy to tell there's something preying on her mind, so inevitably she shares.  "So, I was fielding this months' long list of complaints about our expenses from the foundation… whatever they're called, Citizens for a Better Tomato or something.  Some new suit there fussing about us not doing enough community outreach stuff, not paying enough attention to our image and the whole being good examples to the Youth of Today thing.  When Daro and I got in a fight with a bunch of Sentinels a few weeks back… bunch of phone footage got social media and apparently I 'failed to leverage the potential for good public relations' by not wearing an identifiable costume or stopping to let drunk frat boys hug me after I saved them from falling Sentinel.  Nega just said she regretted she couldn't have been there, which seems to me a way better attitude.  Can we make her like CEO or something?"

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    Kían looks at his cardboard cuppa like he expects a springy snake to leap out of it.  While he's been around coffee, he hasn't actually tried it himself yet.  He sniffs at it once and sets it down.  "I don't know what effect this will have on me, and I know it has effects one way or another on you.  One uncertainty at a time—I already don't know what I'm doing."

Raven has posed:
    Sip.  Stare.  These are the things that Raven excels at, at the moment.  She is silent while Kían and Colette interact, but despite this, she has to comment on at least the one thing: "My comfort zone exists for a reason," she notes, shooting Colette's attempt at getting her to broaden her horizons right down.  It's a little more direct than normal, and in fact, there is a slight bitterness to her tone.  What exactly that is about is left to the æther.
    There is another pensive sip.  Raven is listening, which is not at all out of character.  However, she has nothing to do with the logistics of their funding or support.  There is very little in those statements that concerns Raven—and that much shows.  However, she is not without her cutting words.  "Are fratboys not your people?"

Stardust has posed:
    "Have a taste, Kían.  If you don't know what you're doing anyway, it's probably not going to make things worse," Stardust says with a grin.  "Besides, it's Jamaican Blue Mountain.  Supposed to be the best coffee you can get that hasn't been through the digestive tract of a Sumatran palm civet."  Clearly Colette is sparing no expense in countering Raven's coffee-related shenanigans.
    Stardust turns to Raven and stares at her for a few moments over her coffee cup.  "No, Rae.  Frat boys are not my people.  I have reformed.  I have left my cheerleading days behind and reformed under your shining influence.  And if you hate being here so much, I'm sure I can…."
    Whatever she was about to say is left to accompany Raven's bitterness into the æther as Stardust's comment is interrupted by the roaring of a rather exotic hover-vehicle that swoops through the air and comes to a halt a dozen feet above the ground in the park in front of the art gallery.  Stardust's eyes follow it, and she sighs, then takes a deep gulp of her expensive coffee before looking down over the edge of the building to see what's going on.  "I think this might turn out to be one of those guys-firing-knives-out-of-their-eyes days, Kían."

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    Kían picks up the coffee again and is just about to have a sip when a hover vehicle breaks the calm.  He carefully sets the cup back down—Colette did say it was a special blend—mutters something in his language, then remarks, "I really hope you're speaking metaphorically.  I'm pretty sure no one on this world is my blood type, if I get injured."
    He watches closely, though he'd not sure what he should be looking for.  "How do you know it's going to be trouble?  They haven't done anything yet."

Raven has posed:
    Unenthusiastically, Raven makes her way towards the edge of the building.  Another sip at her coffee precipitates Raven speaking about the situation.  "Because who else pilots an exotic flying whatever to an art gallery that isn't preceded by paparazzi?  We know that someone is up to something because today is a day that ends in the letter y."  There is, though, another pause.  "Your first inclination may be to rush in.  Let Colette go first."  Is it because they'll shoot Colette, or because she can take it?  The world, may never know.  "She'll distract them long enough for you to start getting people out.  Innocents first.  Baddies second."

Stardust has posed:
    "Just stay behind me if there are sharp things," Stardust mutters to Kían as she leans over the edge, watching intently as a crowd gathers—at a reasonable distance—around the hovering vehicle.  She's confirming Raven's summation, though in her case it's a fair bet that she intends option two.  "Yet, Birdy buddy.  Your word.  It's going to be trouble, because it smells like trouble.  It's always trouble.  The only surprise is it happened so fast.  Vorp hasn't even arrived yet, normally we get an hour."  This of course contradicts what she had said to Kían earlier.  It may be a telepathic race such as the Akiár have little use for hyperbole, but Kían has been around Stardust and Vorpal enough to be quite accustomed to the human practice.
    Finally the rear door of the vehicle folds open and two figures drift out, floating above the crowd.  There's something oddly familiar about them.  Both are women.  One is blonde, with shoulder length hair.  She's wearing a domino mask and full-body uniform in shades of black and purple.  The other has dark hair, and is dressed all in white—combat boots, leggings, and a hooded top.
    "Look, Peregrine!" the blonde says in a loud, cheery voice.  "We've got an audience, maybe they can give us some advice."
    "Ask them then, Darkstar.  Time is pressing," the dark-haired woman responds, monotone.
    Blonde cups her hands to her mouth to shout.  "Hey guys!  We're gonna rob the gallery, but we're not sure which painting to take.  Any of you guys got a suggestion?"  She drifts down towards the crowd, grinning wide.  Dark follows her down, arms outstretched, surrounded by an aura of pallid light.
    The odd familiarity becomes clear—the pair look rather similar to Stardust and Raven, if the pair of them swapped color schemes for the day.  It's like an off-brand knock off.
    "What the absolute f…" Stardust starts as she drops off the roof, plummets groundwards and swoops towards the pair just before she hits.

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    Kían sighs heavily.  "I really hate assuming the worst of people.  And I'm not used to having to assume.  I'm used to knowing on sight," he says grumpily, and begins analyzing, in his own amateurish way, the situation.
    "I think," he says slowly, "I can put a curtain of light between the intruders and the students?" he asks Raven.  "Would that help?"

Raven has posed:
    "It is not assuming if you're right.  We call that good intuition," Raven says, thinking the worst of basically everyone.  However, now she's fielding questions regarding tactics.  She is not exactly a tactician, and most of what she knows about working with others has come from experience, rather than theory.  After all, when you've been on a team with every iteration of Robin, it isn't difficult to adjust to their idiosyncrasies.
    "This is very wrong," she regards, looking over the palette-swapped versions of herself and Colette.  Her eyes narrow, at that point.  "Colette, wait—"  Then, the blonde is flying off.  Raven doesn't like this—this doesn't seem like a random attack.
    It seems personal.  Raven herself doesn't move from her perch.  Instead, she idly waits for the angle of Colette's approach to cover her descent from the roof.  Raven begins to sink, at that point, into the ground.  From where her feet were, emerges this great black bird of shadow—which as soon as Colette has flown over the crowd, this Raven begins to fly, as if painted onto the side of the building, down towards the ground.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
    A Rabbit Hole tears through the fabric of reality. "I'm so sorry I'm late—I got a call from my mom and I couldn't—"  Vorpal comes through the aforementioned rabbit hole, hopping on one leg as he is pulling up his boot on the other.  He stops mid-hop, however, as Colette flies off and Raven sinks into the ground, leaving him with a perplexed expression.
    "…I just walked into something, didn't I?" he asks, hastening to tie the laces on his modified boot.

Stardust has posed:
    Colette's voice comes over Kian's T-Com.  <<Birdy, stay close to Rae, follow her lead.  Watch the white one.  If these really are Anti-Titans there may be light-based magic aimed at Rae.  Don't let it get through.>>
    The crowd is already starting to scatter as 'Peregrine' and 'Darkstar' drift towards the ground.  "Where are y'all going?" Darkstar calls out with a worrying laugh.  "We haven't finished with you yet!"  The crowd begins to split as it scatters—Colette is flying three foot above the ground towards the pair, and the crowd parts around her.  "What the hell are you two supposed to be?" she calls out as she swoops to a halt in the air a dozen feet in front of them.  "No don't tell me, let me guess.  You're called the Giants.  Gotta avoid the IP infringement law suit, right?  Do the pair of you have 'made in China' stamped on your asses?  I mean, zero points for originality."
    "Oh look," Peregrine sneers.  "A Titan.  What a surprise.  You're up, Darkstar."
    "Well, not that much of a surprise," Darkstar replies.  "He does seem to be pretty reliable."  She gives Peregrine a wink and adds, "I see shadow.  Yours is coming too.  Be careful."
    Darkstar swoops towards Stardust, coming to a halt in the air just in front of her, and studies her with canted head.  "One question," she asks Stardust.  "How come your costume is always so clean?  White seems like such a terrible idea for someone who gets in fights as much as we do, it really shows the blood."
    "I tend to avoid bleeding," Stardust replies.  "One question from me.  Who does your hair?  So I know to avoid going there."
    Darkstar lunges forwards suddenly, crashing bodily into Stardust.  The pair tumble to the ground, trading blows.

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    Well, he didn't get told not to do it… and on the plus side, he knows all he's doing is light, so even if he zaps someone, it'll be harmless.  So Kían goes high, above all the trouble.  It's easy to sort out who's who—eyes of a hawk and all that.
    Concentrating a moment, a shimmering curtain of sky-blue light appears between—he hopes—all the bystanders and the belligerents.  And he's rather hoping the students and other non-supers do the sensible thing and use the diversion to run like hell.  He would.
    Well, fly like hell, but it's the same principle.
    And from his vantage point far above, he looks for anyone who's where they shouldn't be, that really needs to be somewhere else.

Raven has posed:
    Raven had not told him not to do it, so she wasn't going to present it as any sort of issue.  He is taking the initiative.  That's good.  Seeing as she's been noticed—and, indeed, hearing it from Darkstar… Raven doesn't necessarily mean to be stealthy anymore.  The two-dimensional bird-shape on the street bursts from the asphalt, taking three-dimensional manifestation and surging up and over the wall of light that Kían had just formed.
    It accelerates rapidly, its 'wings' tucking themselves in behind it as the bird itself forms into a vaguely birdlike battering ram, which asserts itself and Raven's role on the battlefield by flying with staggering speed and mass directly at the Reverse Raven.  It is enough force to crush a car, and it is directed at the center of her erstwhile opponent.
    Left behind in its wake is the floating form of Raven.  Coffee in one hand, the other in its respective pocket, and her nonplussed attitude rather clear.  "Can we just not do this?  I have things to do.  People to meet.  It would be best if you surrendered immediately."
    It's true.  Raven does have a thing on her schedule for the evening.  Not everything she says is pure condescension.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
    "Okay.  Stardust has found a friend, who looks rather like…."  Vorpal frowns.  He does a double take.  "Raven, how come you two get off the shelf cheap knockoffs to fight and I don't?  I'm feeling slighted here."
    The Cheshire cat makes a quick note.  Colette tanks, as tanks do, while Raven draws aggro and Kían does crowd control.  That makes him….
    Well, he can't really heal.  The best use of his talents right now is to deploy a decoy and watch, invisible, for the moment any of his compatriots might need help from the element of surprise.
    He casts a decoy on himself and becomes invisible, leaving Fake Vorpal behind, glancing haplessly at the encounter near Rachel.
    The invisible Vorpal, the real deal, gives the conflict a wide berth and watches from the distance for an opportunity to use his Rabbit Hole to turn the tide and revert an attack back to the attacker.

Stardust has posed:
    Kían's efforts are significantly aided by the fact that the two anti-Titans are far more interested in their counterparts than the milling crowd.  Most do indeed run for, and beyond, the cover of the shimmering curtain of light.  The effect also elicits a momentary worried glance from Peregrine, before she turns her attention fully on the shadow-form of Raven.  Close to where Stardust and Darkstar are locked in close combat, a few foolhardy students ignore the chance to flee, instead taking the opportunity to film the fight on their phones.
    At close quarters, neither Darkstar nor Stardust seem to be able to do much to each other.  Punches are traded and largely ignored.  Darkstar closes in tighter to grapple, and is soon forcing Stardust back.  Stardust plants a foot, but it only digs a furrow in the ground.
    Suddenly Stardust changes tactics, and does a front-flip over Darkstar's head that makes the laws of physics run home crying, and aims a kick at the back of Darkstar's knee.  Darkstar's knee buckles and she drops forwards with a gasp of pain, but she swings her body with impressive speed to land a punch full in Stardust's stomach, sending her flying into a tree with a loud >CRACK< of things breaking.  Hopefully wooden things.
    Darkstar turns to Peregrine with a big smile.  "Peri!  She ain't even that strong, this is gonna be EASY!"  Peregrine however has other concerns.
    Peregrine floats, watching Raven's great shadow-bird with an expression that looks more bored than anything else.  She raises her arms and a great light floods out from her body, forming up into a shape of light, with great feathered wings.  Light and shadow collide half way between the two sorceresses, the shockwave sufficient to set trees shaking and windows rattling.  The two forms, shadow and light, press against each other—but seem perfectly matched.
    Peregrine inspects her nails.  "Probably best you cancel your plans, Raven.  I'll give you a few moments to let your friends know you're not coming.  Oh wait, that's right.  You don't have any friends."

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    Kían makes a grumpy noise in the back of his throat.  Of course some of them are going to stand around and take pictures or whatever.  Terrans are weird.
    The birdman wheels about and dives sharply towards the one nearest the mess.  There's no call of warning or anything; instead, Kían's flight describes a perfect parabolic arc, at the minimum of which is Crazy Terran With A Smartphone And A Death Wish.  He has his wits together enough to keep his mind behind his own eyes; all he says, a little tightly, is, "This is not a safe place to be," and deposits them somewhere safe.
    Hopefully the other Crazy Terrans have noticed.

Raven has posed:
    Raven hates being filmed, but she's not about to argue with it right now.  If they want to get hurt, she'll let them.  They're on the outskirts anyway.  Raven's Soul-Self, however, is no mere sorcery.  It is altogether so much more.  Wrestling it is… an incomprehensible task, and there is a moment of appraisal.  What she is combating is a rather convincing fake—Raven is only sure that the woman impersonating her doesn't wield the same thing that she does… what it is, as yet, she is unsure.  If she knew more—perhaps, if she had time to learn more—it would not even get the chance to be giving her so much trouble.
    In the end, Raven's nonchalant attitude matches her counterpart.  She takes the last sip of her coffee, and tosses it off to the side.  She'll deal with the littering problem later.  Raven keeps her soul-self manifested.  It's kind of an experiment—she can retract it at any time, but she wonders just how much they know about her powers.  Hell, she has no way of gauging how much they know about the team overall, let alone their powers.
    "I'm meeting somebody, so I'd rather not keep them waiting," she offers, moving through the air and circling around the writhing mass of shadow and light to get an angle on the reverse version of herself.  "But after seeing you work, I am quite certain I will not be late."  As she reaches her destination, Raven draws one arm back and her hand is encased then in a sphere of anti-light, a blackness that outlines all within it in white, as if in negative, surrounded by a corona of warped light, as if an eclipsed star was being held in her very palm.
    With a swing of her arm, Raven sends that sphere forward, helically spinning in the air.  It is aimed, apparently, at her counterpart—but it almost seems as if the aim is somewhat off.  It is a bolt of shadow, but it is intended to actively bind.  It will hurt to impact, but when it does, it will burst into tendrils of pure night, that grip and squeeze around limbs and joints.  The real trick is that it does this even if it hits the road, sprouting these phantasmal limbs and grasping.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
    Vorpal glares.  Invisibly, of course.  It sounded like Colette got hit hard, and then Peregrine decides to get snippy with Rae.  He decides it's time to show Peregrine who is it that lacks friends.  It's only a moment to think of the illusion….
    At first it is just a speck of red, gold and blue in the sky.  A few seconds later, though, it has expanded to a silhouette, and then it is a person.
    Supergirl crosses her arms as she comes into view, her head tilted back a little.  "Care to try that stunt again?  You wanted someone stronger, didn't you?" she says to Darkstar, smirking.
    Vorpal watches carefully, peeking in mind where Peregrine is.  If the taunt works, Vorpal is going to open a Rabbit Hole right in Darkstar's path if she charges, with an opening destination being Peregrine's back.

Stardust has posed:
    Crazy Terrans are crazier than Kían imagined; his attempts at a rescue are greeted not with gratitude but complaints.  "Let me go!  I'm filming, this is gonna get me like a million hits!"  The other crazy Terrans have indeed noticed, and a couple switch to filming Kían's rescue attempt.  The rest take the hint to back up a little, but not so far that they can't get a really good view of the action.
    It's certainly true that the fake Raven is not wielding the same kind of thing Raven is.  Quite apart from the different appearance, it doesn't taste demonic.  Raven would know.  If anything it feels quite the opposite.  Maybe if Raven's half-demon, Peregrine the anti-Raven is half….
    Oh-oh.
    Peregrine circles the combined mass of Raven's soul-self and her own shape-of-light in the opposite direction to Raven, keeping the distance equal.  "You still think you're going to win this?" she asks with a sneer.  "How cute."  Her hand comes up to meet the shadow bolt, projecting a sparkling shield of radiance that meets it head-on.  Tendrils of shadow wrap around the edges of the light shield, seeking to grapple Peregrine beyond—but the shield starts to expand, opening up like the petals of some infinitely intricate flower, a mandala of brilliance, each tendril finding a matching petal that confounds it's probing grasp.
    Darkstar hears the challenge issued by the fake Supergirl—and glances back towards the hover-vehicle.  Shadows move in the doorway, and the barrel of a gun snakes out and up to target Supergirl.  It holds for a second or two and then retreats back into the shadows.  Darkstar narrows her eyes and starts looking around.  Her eyes settle on Vorpal—the decoy Vorpal.  She advances cautiously.
    Peregrine's shield, and the shape-of-light, falter.  "Who says she doesn't have friends?" Stardust growls, her hand gripping the back of Peregrine's neck.  During the confusion she'd made her way out of the wrecked tree and changed targets.  Peregrine hunches her shoulders and radiates a blinding blast of white energy from her body and calls out "DARK!", a hint of panic in her voice.  Stardust is blasted clear, but quickly recovers and loops through the air to swoop on Peregrine again.
    Peregrine drops to one knee, all her attention on countering Raven's shadow magic.  In the momentary distraction, she's lost ground.  The shadow-self presses forwards and the shape-of-light falters.  She reinforces the shape-of-light and the mandala's ever-changing pattern slows, tendrils of shadow beginning to find a way past.
    Stardust yells "KÍAN!  Mess with the light!" into her T-Com as she reaches for Peregrine—but a blur of black and violet plows into her before she can lay her hands on the sorceress again.  Darkstar has returned in time, and the pair crash into the ground in a bundle of flailing limbs.

Kian t'Kaeh has posed:
    That is actually something Kían studied back home—how to destructively and constructively interfere with light.  Light is fairly easy, actually—electromagnetic radiation is common, doesn't require scary amounts of energy, and generally doesn't explode.  All things Kían can live with.
    So he can concentrate, he touches down in a nearby tree, and concentrates on negating the light coming from their opponents.
    And as much as possible, not being seen.

Raven has posed:
    Raven's ploy isn't entirely successful, but it is a persistent thing that she's cast.  She has to maintain it, but there isn't much else that's needed.  Exerting more effort at this stage—when she's unsure of the threat—isn't wise.  However, Colette to some semblance of a rescue puts her opponent on the back foot.  This allows her to redirect her efforts, redoubling her focus on the light-beast that was holding back her soul-self.
    It isn't, however, until Kían provides assistance that Raven sees a proper opening.  The light forming Peregrine's defenses offers this minor unfavorable shimmer, and Raven puts forward maximum effort.  There is a loud, almost-scream of effort, Raven's face contorting in genuine strain.  Her eyes are engulfed in the void of nothingness that composes the spell she'd cast to bind Peregrine, their white coronas framing the inside of each eyelid.
    It is that moment that the tendrils of darkness viciously squeeze, and doubly so it does this with enough force to bind someone of considerable strength, the spell itself for metahumans.  At the same time, the bird begins to eat.  The shadow of Raven's soul-self begins to infect and consume the light-construct of Peregrine, Raven herself half-praying that it isn't the same thing as she has, as this process would be… intensely damaging, both physically and psychologically.  Before long, both the shield and the construct will be gone—one cracked and crushed, the other consumed, leaving Raven the victor.

Stardust has posed:
    In his tree-top perch, Kían's efforts quickly teach him something new about light—magical light is just wrong.  It doesn't behave the way he's used to.  The energy levels are all over the place and don't match the frequencies the way he expects.  Light is light; it shouldn't behave like this.  It should be easy.  It shouldn't be such damn hard work.  It shouldn't feel like his rhy'thar wants to hide under a rock.
    But it's working.  Peregrine's light magic starts to fray at the edges.  Wisps of luminance shed from the shape-of-light like leaves blown from a fall tree.
    The battle between Stardust and Darkstar is ferocious.  It's apparent that Darkstar is significantly stronger, but Stardust is significantly trickier.  Darkstar swings crushing punch after punch, but Stardust's alien, flight-based martial arts training allows her to dodge in ways people more bound by the laws of gravity—either by physics or accustomed behavior—cannot.  It's almost dizzying to watch.  Stardust seems to have an extra axis of movement to dodge around.  There's only so long you can dodge though.
    Eventually Darkstar makes contact with enough force to knock Stardust into the ground, and leaps on her.  She grabs Stardust around the throat with one hand and raises her other into a fist to smash it down on Stardust's face again and again.  Stardust clutches at the wrist of the hand holding her throat as Darkstar yells angrily, "Why are you still fighting?  I'm obviously much stronger than you!  Come on Stardust, DIE ALREADY!"
    As Peregrine's shape-of-light frays at Kían's attentions, Raven's soul-self swells and towers over it, pressing on it, dimming its light.  Peregrine gasps in pain, and staggers back.  The shape-of-light shudders and suddenly the great wings shimmer like mirage and are gone.  As the tendrils of darkness enfold Peregrine, she cries out in fear.br>    Stardust's head turns—not away from the punches, but towards them.  "Yeah, you are stronger," she says to Darkstar.  "Not strong enough though."  Her hands tighten on Darkstar's wrists, and she grins up at her opposite number.
    Darkstar seems a little taken aback at the lack of damage her punches seem to be doing, but she's nothing if not determined.  "I can keep this up all… what… what are you… Ahhh… FUCK!"  Darkstar springs back from Stardust, yanking her hand away from Stardust's grip and rubbing at it rapidly.  "You fucking BURNED me!  How did you… that's not on your power list!"  She takes a few steps back…
    …and behind her, a hole opens in reality.  Vorpal leaps through the rabbit hole onto Darkstar's back, claws raking at her face.  She screams in pain and clutches her hands to her eyes.  Taken entirely by surprise by Vorpal's attack from nowhere, she falls forwards onto her knees.  Stardust flips over and pivots on one hand, and as Vorpal rides Darkstar down to meet it, Stardust's boot rises up to meet Darkstar's chin.  She crashes to the ground, stunned, as Vorpal rolls clear.
    In the hover vehicle, the shadowy figure that had earlier targeted the Supergirl decoy watches on.  A red light glows like a single eye flaring in the darkness.  The figure raises his hand, signalling to someone inside, and the vehicle starts to rise into the air.  Beneath Darkstar, the ground tears open, two hands reach through and drag her in, and the tear seals.  A second later the same happens in the air behind Peregrine.  Both are gone.
    With a deep growl, the hover vehicle blasts high into the sky and is gone.  For a few blessed moments there is silence.  Then a sudden hubbub of incredulous whispers as the civilians who'd stayed to watch and film break the silence, trying to figure out what they'd just seen.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
    "Everybody okay?" Vorpal asks, as he gets up.  The supervillains getting beamed out takes a little of the thunder out of their victory, but it was okay.  He got to claw someone in the face.
    The fact that they deserved it was an extra bonus.  "Looks like a good job all around… you okay, Dust?"  He doesn't ask Kían because, of course, the bird-man was smart enough to stay away from direct harm, and Raven pretty much just ate that other poser alive.
    "We should probably head back… I have the sinking feeling that those two semi-duplicates may not be the only ones out there…."