Log:Lizard Dawn, Scene 1

Lizard Dawn 2017/05/05 	 Mechanica Physique Night Marshal|Detective Carpenter Ss'lisk Pleiades Lady Winters Solomon Wolf

1

There's a large crowd outside of the Court House and the Jail, despite the rainy weather. The police have a section of the stairs cordoned off, making sure that no one can get too close to the door. The media are just on the far side of the barrier, and behind them, the crowd are carrying signs, like 'Lizard Go Home!'

There's a large crowd outside of the Court House and the Jail, despite the rainy weather. The police have a section of the stairs cordoned off, making sure that no one can get too close to the door. The media are just on the far side of the barrier, and behind them, the crowd are carrying signs, like 'Lizard Go Home!' 'Deport the Dino!' 'Humans First!'

There are a few signs which are more...tangential, too. 'Legalize It!', and 'Cangelosi Is Corrupt!'

Detective Carpenter steps out of the jail and just observes the crowd for a moment. Behind him, a couple of uniformed officers lead Ss'lisk outside, along with the lizard's lawyer - a public defender. She leads the way when the media converge on them.

Janine is just someone in the, people-watchng mostly and wondering what all the fuss is about. And occasionally "accidentally" brushing up against someone to analyse their bodily structures, in the hope of getting her shapeshifting powers developing again.

Mechanica stands next to Solomon in the press crowd, mingling near the Humans First crowd. Mechanica has one of her holographic simulations concealing her, overlaying her body with the look of a young woman with the press. Pencil skirt, heals, blouse, and a blazer. Her glossy black hair is tied back in a ponytail, and she's wearing black-rimmed glasses. She's holding a smartphone and a press badge for a local Spanish channel.

She glances at the protest signs of deportation, rolls her eyes, and looks to Solomon. "I may need some space if they get out of control," she hints at him.

Pleiades is on hand because, while Ss'lisk is outside of her jurisdiction, they do fall under Starguard's purview. And technically she's kind of a dimensional space cop, so it's not too much of a leap. At the least her powers are flexible enough to deal with most situations that might arise.

Rainy weather is just fine for Nicky. She has an large brimmed hat stuffed in a pocket just in case the sun breaks through the cloud cover but is currently bare headed, ignoring the rain as it soaks her hair and wettens her pale skin. She's stood amid the crowd, enjoying the lack of reaction as she is largely a forgotten personage these days.

Solomon is carrying a small camera system on his shoulder. He's dressed in decent khaki pants, a button up shirt and has a press pass hanging around his neck.

He leans over tot he disguised Mechanica as she speaks.

"Space? You got it, Boss. I'll make sure you have all the space you need if this gets out of hand." He says with a certain nod, though he watches the proceedings with great interest. Being a felon meta himelf, there is something oddly personal about all this.

A reporter from CBN gets in a question for the meta being released from jail, "Now that you've served your time, what are you going to do?"

With Solomon's free hand, he holds an umbrella over MEchanica's head.

Ss'lisk says, "I am not ssssure. Perhapsss I sssshall write a book, like so many before me?"

A second of the crowd starts to chant, "Liz-ard Go Home!" It's only about half the crowd, though.

Pleiades keeps a eye on the crowd, looking for potential troublemakers.

Janine is sometimes embarrassed to be a human. Then reminds herself she isn't one, really.

Lady Winters works her way into the section of the crowd that is chanting, also watching for potential troublemakers.

The reporter asks a follow-up question, "Ss'lisk, I'm sure you hear the crowds here. To be fair, you DID try to turn the population of the city into reptile people. If you could speak to everyone here, what would you say?"

Ss'lisk smiles, showing a fair number of teeth, "I would sssay that your world is a fassscinating one. And while I don't expect to be accepted after sssserving my time, I do hope that I can...eventually live alonssside humanssss."

"He just wants to write a book? Que lastima," Mechanica sighs to herself. She looks to Solomon and nods towards the crowd. "Follow me." She walks over to the protestor nearest to Ss'lisk with her microphone at the ready to interview a protestor. "This is Gabriella Sanchez with el Ocho. Tell our audience a little something about your group," she asks a random protestor before pointing her microphone at him. She keeps her ears on Ss'lisk's responses and smiles while her eyes remain locked on the protestor.

Lady Winters briefly engages conversationally with the loudest of the chanters as she moves through the crowd, pointing out that giving a reformed villain a chance is the way to help them stay reformed.

The protester is wearing a 'Humans First!' t-shirt. He says into the microphone, "We are here to protest this interdimensional being staying here in our fair country. No...our world. We want him to go back to whereever he came from."

Pleiades smiles to herself as Ss'lisk mentions wanting to live alongside humans, thinking of her many sisters that had been villains before becoming her family.

Wolf stays apart from the crowd. Otherwise, he can't see. (The backs of people's knees are not all that fascinating, hour after hour.) He twitches his whiskers thoughtfully, wondering how he can get close enough to find out if this reptile person might have any ideas w.r.t. the care and feeding of baby dragons. Or know of someone who might. . . On the plus side, if there's anyone likely -not- to be a latent Species-ist, it's the person at whom the crowds would chant "Lizard go home!" But then Wolf hears the bit about "turn everyone into lizards" and his shaggy eyebrows shoot up.

Janine makes her way slowly through the crowd toward Ss'lisk. Thus talk of transforming humans imto reptiles sounds interesting.

Ss'lisk mutters, which is barely picked up by the microphone in front of him, "...despite your weird squishy bodies."

Mechanica nods slowly as if she's totally listening. "And who will be funding the interdimensional transport to deport this being?" she asks as she points the microphone back at the Humans Firster.

There's some shouting from the protestors after Ss'lisk's comment is heard by a couple of them. The one speaking to Mechanica says, "The government, of course! Starguard is here to protect us from all threats, alient and interdeemensional. They should have hte means to send him back!"

Pleiades keeps an eye on the back of the crowd of protesters. That's usually where trouble starts.

Solomon pans the crowd as Mechanica asks the Human Firster her question. He's looking out from trouble with the crowds- he wants to give this reformed villain the chance to prove himself. The same way Mechanica gave him a second chance.

Here stand the grand buildings of the city constructed during the rapid 19th-Century expansion, on low land reclaimed from long-lost Harrisburg Creek. Main Street is broader here that to the south, though still paved with cobbles, and surrounded on all sides by grandiose edifices (though at any time at least one seems to be under renovation): the heart of this district. Around this are narrower residential streets with a flavor much like that of Old Town, all with faux-gaslamp street lighting.

Pleiades doesn't spot anything really bad at the back of the crowd, but she notices what appears to be someone up on top of City Hall. It isn't quite clear what they're doing. Wolf and Janine, on the other hand, see a small red dot appear on Ss'lisk's head.

Janine shouts, "Get down," even as she changes to her Physique form and leaps in the way of a possible shot. She trust that no one much will have been watching her in the bustle, and so make the connection between her IDs.

Pleiades hearing the warning, raises her gauntlet. "Panzerfaust! Armor Barrier!" Shimmering panes of blue energy, each with a slowly rotating white runic triangle on its surface appears between Ss'lisk and the sniper."

Ss'lisk ducks his head and looks around, wondering where that sniper is. The reporter in front of him looks confused, but only just heard the shout herself, and hasn't had time to react.

Physique realises that her plan to jump in the way is probably unneeded now. It was never a great plan, given she's not as tough as she once could be. So she looks about, in her now-taller body, for the sniper - the sooner she sees him, the sooner she can close.

Physique leaps over the heads of the crowd towards the sniper, covering half the distance in a single bound.

Mechanica hms. "A shooter? That's something. I'm going to check it out," Mechanica informs her loyal Henchman, not really thinking how the dense meta will be able to follower her into danger. Her hologram appears to duck near Solomon before it fades out of view during the commotion. Mechanica, however, has already activated her full cloaking technology before leaping over the crowd and towards the building, thanks to her bodysuit's enhancements. She lands not on the ground, but on the side of the building, clinging to it before she leaps up to the next ledge a few stories up, and another, rapidly bouncing from grip to handhold, finally leaping over the edge and landing by the shooter.

Lady Winters takes her cue from those who have already reacted and stares toward the shooter. Quick thoughts pass through her mind. He's too far away for reliable control. Even if she shouted me, or she, might not hear her command. So she starins to burn his or her soul severely enough to render them momentarily incapable of action.

The gunman grabs his head and while he was starting to get up to leave, he drops to one knee in pain.

Here stand the grand buildings of the city constructed during the rapid 19th-Century expansion, on low land reclaimed from long-lost Harrisburg Creek. Main Street is broader here that to the south, though still paved with cobbles, and surrounded on all sides by grandiose edifices (though at any time at least one seems to be under renovation): the heart of this district. Around this are narrower residential streets with a flavor much like that of Old Town, all with faux-gaslamp street lighting.

Pleiades holds her position, seeing other heroes leaping into battle.

Physique leaps the remaining distance to the sniper. There's no chance for finesse when she arrives; the best she can do it to try to plough right through him.

The gunman is sent sprawling on the roof, unconscious.

Pleiades maintains her barrier, curving to around Ss'lisk, in case there are more snipers.

The crowds down below have started to react, after the heroes did. Some of them start taking photos of hte heroes and Ss'lisk. At least one gets a nice shot of Pleiades protecting the lizard man.

Mechanica drops her cloaking matrix, popping into view hexagon by hexagon as the grid powers down. "Well, that is a way of handling it," she comments to Physique as she looks at the pitiful human. "I wonder what his personal reasons were for..."

Physique heals up the sniper. "I dunno, but I don't think he should be expressing them with a gun...."

Detective Carpenter has drawn his gun and is working with the uniformed officers to help cover Ss'lisk. The media are savvy enough to duck and take cover.

"Welcome to America," Mechanica says with dry amusement. The Latina heroine approaches the man and crouches by him, examining his patch as she moves his rifle away from him. "ACE. Claro que si..."

Pleiades looks over at Ss'lisk. "Are you ok, Ser?"

Ss'lisk nods to Pleiades, "Yesss...thank you, missss." He straightens up and looks around again. "Hmm. Perhapsss I ssshouldn't try living in the ssssity."

Physique has a look at the gun, while she's up there, to see if it seems to be of an ordinary type or something rather higher tech.

Physique says, "Looks like this isn't a professional job or anything!"

Ss'lisk looks at Pleiades curiously. "You are the one with that Dimensional police force, yes?"

"Fanboys," Mechanica snidely remarks as she runs a clawed finger over his ACE patch. "Pues, la policia can handle this one," she ads as she stands up, considering this man a poor potential recruit. He couldn't even put up a fight!

Pleiades nods, "That's right, Ser."

Ss'lisk nods, "Do you know if there is a way I could actually return to my dimension?"

Pleiades thinks. "Um, maybe? The next time one of our patrol cruisers is in system, they might be able to do a deep dimensional scan to locate your specific space-dimensional plane, and take you there? My CO, Commander Siata, could probably give your more information."

Ss'lisk nods slowly, taking that in. "I would appresssiate that, missss. How can I contact this SSsssiata?"

The gunman starts to wake up on the roof. He winces, but remains down, catching his breath.

Pleiades smiles. "We have a Interests Office in Starguard HQ. She's usually there during that day, but you might want to make an appointment to be sure she's there when you visit."

Pleiades(#1326POeCcmF?k)

Pleiades is about 170cm tall, with an athletic build, a heart-shaped face, big expressive green eyes, and neck length somewhat unkempt black hair. She wears a long strip of white cloth tied around her head knotted in a bow at the back.

She wears a long sleeved white half-jacket with blue piping, and with blue and gold bars on the cuffs, over a midriff baring tight black crop top with white piping zipped up the front with a large hoop zipper tab at the top.

Around her waist she wears an open front white knee-length skirt with white piping, with gray steel armor plates over her hips, over plain light blue shorts. She wears black knee braces with gray steel armor plates on the front.

On her left hand she wears a fingerless black glove with steel reinforcement over the knuckles. On her right hand, she wears Panzerfaust, a heavy gray steel technomagic gauntlet with a pair of heavy counter-rotating bands around the wrist portion. On her feet, she wears Blitzraeder, a pair of technomagic heavy steel reinforced inline skates

Ss'lisk nods, "I ssshall do so after I am ssssettled."

Physique crouches down by the gunman. "How are you feeling? A little less murderous?"

The gunman growls a bit, "You're just going to let that THING walk around? It tried to turn us into lizards!"

Physique says, "And you tried to turn him into a lump of dead meat. That's worse, don't you think?"

Physique thinks. o O (If only I could still turn into a lizard....)

The gunman shakes his head, "It's less than he deserves."

Physique says, "Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending his actions. But killing people is bad, too."

The gunman nods. "It's a war. There are casualties in a war. Us vs. Them."

Wolf will offer the best help he knows for getting him back home, since he's kept the Connection open (i.e. paying the END):

A dot of light: bright red with hate,

As one whose aim was "Humans First!"

Where scents abound, exploding now,

from ev'ry living thing

A thousand shouts scream to my nose:

"Look Here!" "I live!" "It's Spring!"

But if Thy heart is set and to

Thy Homeworld Thou wouldst go,

Physique says, "So, you're saying it's ok if they kill you?"

The gunman nods. "If it furthers the cause."

Physique says, "But not if they turn you into a lizard. Strange, but ok."

The gunman shouts, "He didn't just try to turn ME into a lizard! My entire FAMILY!"

It's pretty clear logic isn't going to work with him.