Log:Psychic Crystals, Scene 1

Psychic Crystals 2020/08/14 	 Ascendant Artemis Fauna Magda Spirit Starlight Emissary of the Allstone

1

Somehow, the early warning systems didn't see it coming. The asteroid came out of nowhere, catching every space agency, Starguard included, completely by surprise. A Guild ship in Earth orbit - the Rex ambassador's craft - managed to shoot it, but while this splintered it to many fragments those fragments continued to descend - the main body towards Newtown, upon which dusk is settling. Emergency services and any heroes immediately available have been requested for damage control - or prevention! The sky is alight with the streaks of the meteors.

Meteors? Natural disasters? The sky, eclisped! This may not seem like a job for Artemis, but this is what she thrives upon. She flies to meet the coming dusk and skyfall.

It's rare that the power within Fauna, the one she rarely even thinks about tapping into, might best be used to help in a crisis! The overall panic followed by the attempts to organize help and general chaos clue Fauna in to look skyward, taking a few seconds to process what is happening, and coming to rapidly realize what she must do. Thus, the sheer magnitude of MegaFauna is soon visible to everyone, and once settled in a stance that won't bring harm to anyone that might be driving or walking underfoot, it turns its attention skyward, ready to intercept the falling spacerocks with any body part necessary.

Magda ascends out of her house moments after the shattering of the asteroid, rocketing up towards the descending fragments with her magnetic sense already analyzing the thing to make sure she can have full effect on it.

The Bloodlit Ascendant answers the call & prayers of the mortals unnerved by such a site. Truly, one would have to be hewn from the Living Stone of the Ascendant Valley or born in the Shining City to not take pause at such a sight.

He wasn't far- relatively speaking, so soon enough he can be seen flying low over the homes of Newtown before he circles to orient himself towards the falling debris so he might help deflect it towards less populated spaces.

Starlight isn't the first to arrive because she had to hand over a patient to a relief doctor. After which she creates a little sonic boom crossing the city to Newtown.

Spirit flies over from Starguard, heading into the Newtown area to try to deal with some of the falling debris. He might not be able to catch it, but he might deflect of it or slow it down.

Starlight flies over to hover at Spirit's eye level when he arrives, "I know I remarked last time we met that it seemed Gamma wasn't calling me unless the sky was falling but I didn'tr mean it literally. What have we got out there?" She points upward.

Citizens are responding with a confused mix of largely unhelpful behaviours. While some are running indoors for cover, others are recording the lightshow on their PDA or are stopped in their cars in the middle of the road rubbernecking to go a view of it. A number are running in screaming terror from Fauna, too.

Spirit looks up, "Falling sky, it looks like. Last I heard, it was a meteor. A Guild ship in orbit managed to blow it up, but it's broken into pieces. So, at least humanity doesn't meet its end today. So, that's something."

Spirit says, "Stop what you can. Rescue who you can. Try to keep damage to a minimum."

Starlight nods, "We need to stop the heaviest rocks if we can. I recall a briefing from my MSAR time. Is there a main body are are they all fragments?"

Starlight shoots off upwards to intercept the largest falling rocks, calling out as she goes, "Don't deflect them into the sea. That will make things worse."

"Foolish Mortals!" The Ascendant Nohrbor Nanuran Surryx says with a thunderous & authoritarian tone in his voice. "Leave this place until the danger has passed! Trust that we, the Guardians of the Urth shall protect all you hold sacred!"

Ascendant flies to join the bright visages of Starlight & Spirit, listening to Starlight as she departs.

"Commander." He says with a nod before flying up and trying to find the largest object he might dare try to effect with his mind.

If she can Starlight will intercept high enough she can deflect the meteoriites into the relatively empty farmlands outside the city if they are too heavy to simply stop.

Dozens of miles above the surface Starlight flies to the largest rock she can see and putting her feet against the side pushes with all the might her strength and wings can give her, deflecting it away from the city and toward the (hopefully) empty fields around the city.

The meteorite is fast, and tears through the telikinetic grab....

Spirit flies upward to meet some of the falling debris...and raises both hands to form a series of light shields. They're angled in such a way as to try to redirect the rocks towaard the farmland toward the north.

Artemis recognizes Megafauna from their escapades in the Dwarven Kingdom. "Hail, mighty battle beast! Here to lend aid again with your considerable might, I see," she smiles jovially. She peers up at the sky. "How fare you at a game of catching? Well, I hope," she comments, thens starts flying up to meet the meteors. She arches up tightly, drawing her sword. With a flick of her wrist, it separates into a bladed whip. And then with another flick and several loud cracking sounds, she attempts to deflect an obliterate the larger of the meteorites before her.

Spirit manages to redirect approximately six of the meteor fragments, sending them away from the densely populated sections of town.

With a flurry of quick, well aimed strikes, Artemis' bladewhip stretches to fill the air before her, redirecting eight of the meteor fragments to empty fields within view.

Magda recognizes that these are not your typical meteor fragments, but she still has little option. Expanding her power, she uses it like a sieve, straining out the smallest and lightest pieces while mudging the others to cluster closer together.

Orbital speed is fast, and while the things are slowing down, they aren't slow enough to be stopped ... yet. Magda -- Korkoro -- resets herself for another straining.

For the MegaFauna, even the smallest fragments are viable targets! Those that slip through the massive dragnet provided by Magda are subject to the great destroyer-beast's efforts, as the first to get in reach are presented with massive obstacle in the form of massive limbs moving about working to intercept and take the brunt of the impact. The gigantic jaws even get some work!

Several chunks impact into MegaFauna's limbs, causing some visible discomfort but not daunting her in the slightest. Her massive hand-shaped extremities clasp around the largest of pieces while the others slam into and break the skin before it repairs itself instantly.

Spirit opens up a channel to the Guild ship above, << This is Spirit, from Starguard Gamma. What are we dealing with here? These meteors seem...abnormal. >>

Starlight scans the high atmosphere above Newtown and only sees one large rock heading down. Flying beneath it she struggles to being it to a halt, and if she does to take it to the ground. There's something stange about this. Skywatch should have seen this meteor coming days if not weeks ago.

Starlight is pushed down a couple of miles before she brings the rock to a halt. Just means less distance to the ground.

"By the Dark Grace of Haelgthomet!" NNS exclaims as his telekinetic grasp is shattered.

"I shall not be bested by refuse- celestial or otherwise!"

He takes a deep breath before willing himself back on course to meet the object bodily before it can pass him. As he flies he begins leaving a trail of streamers behind him as a sort of telekinetic armor is formed around him.

Ascendant concentrates that armor in his hands and upper body, reinforcing himself for the task at hand. Once there he turns and tries to put his shoulder into it to slow & hopefully dvert its fall.

Spirit transmits on the SGG band, << The Guild ship doesnt' have much detail. They detected the threat at the last second and took action. >> He continues trying to deflect debris and slow it as much as he can, targeting the larger bits near him.

Nohrbor Nanuran Surryx presses into the falling object and it cracks and groans around him but he manages to keep at it and keep it from breaking around him too.

"Huzzah!" He shouts from within the pocket the conflicting forces have created giving his booming voice a tinny quality.

He turns in time to see the ground rush up at him to which he presses & wills himself away from it.

It isn't quite enough from the ground and he taking a bit of a battering for their trouble but they only needed to survive long enough to stop another. And another for as long as they might fall from the sky.

He groans as he shrurks the mighty object off of him.

 Starlight says, "Spirit, Starlight here. Even if Starguard missed it, Skywatch should have seen this coming days ago. Something is not right. I'm bringing one of the larger pieces down for examination."

Spirit deflects another few chunks of rock. << The ship barely picked it up, too. Something's definitely off here. >>

Artemis sees the meteorites rapidly descending. She begins to dive along with them, trying to strike the ones closes to occupied ground to try and cause the least amount of injury or damage. There's a flash of energy and metal as her bladewhip flies towards her targets.

Spirit thinks about it a bit more. << I think the ship above...likely knows more than they're revealing. Based on my interactions with the Rex. The reply was 'We cannot say'. And they believe strongly in honesty. That means they likely know, but literally are not allowed to say what they know. >>

Slowed but not caught -- Magda reaches out again to capture the small pieces.

Artemis manages to obliterate or knock away six more meteorites to avoid striking the mortals and their homes below.

This time, the 'net' works, the slowed fragments slowed further, further, stopped. Descending, Magda starts to draw them together, headed towards the form of Spirit.

There is a slight shift of MegaFauna's footing as she feels something clawing at her mind. Not enough to change the location of her stance but a twitch nonetheless. Her arms sweep about to take more of the swarming microspacerocks into herself rather than letting them fall past her!

The remaining meteorites strike the ground, but no humans or animals appear to be hurt. One car is smashes up badly. a few roofs have more ventilation than before, and an annoying number of house alarms, car alarms and howling dogs and children are unpleasant to hear.

Spirit scans around to see if he can see any injuries, but then he goes to look at some of the meteor bits that are being carried by folks. "What are we dealing with?"

MegaFauna begins picking pieces of the fallen debris out of herself, taking care to not further break them down. There's a very loud rumble emitting from her as she starts to carefully make her way around to go space rock hunting.

The heroes aren't the only people to be curious in the rocks. Lots of people are looking at the, poking them or tentatively picking them up (not in bare hands!)

Starlight lands with the large rock balanced above her. Then darts out from under and lets it drop the last couple of inches.

With a snap, Artemis' bladewhip draws short and reconfigures to a solid sword again. "I hear not the wails of the wounded," she comments to her Bloodbound Brother and smiles. "The hoomans are safe to continue their mortal lives in peace."

Spirit nods. "We may have an issue. I suspect this was intentional. By someone. Not sure who. I don't think all of you are on the Starguard channel, but it sounded like the Guild ship knows what's up with this. They were very careful about the wording when they sent a report to me. They weren't allowed to say what htey knew."

Starlight tells the others nearby, "I'll go collect what other pieces I can." and flies off to do so.

Plodding along, the MegaFauna continues the hunt-and-gather of spacerock pieces, taking care as though worried for their intactness.

Ascendant lands next to Artemis. "Sister. You were a sight to behold- these Mortals should consider themselves lucky to not only breath once more, but also- to hvae seen you strive for their survival. A true blessing. You walk in Hod's Shining Light- it must be hard for them to keep their eyes on you for long." He says extending an arm out for her to grasp in greetings.

He merely turns on his heel and begins lifting what objects he can with his telekinesis and begins piling them nearby to assist Starlight.

Meanwhile, a couple of kids down the block are playing with their own meteorite. "Let me see!" says the boy, grabbing at the crystal. "No, let go, it's mine!" says the girl, and shoves the boy away. About 12 feet away.

The rather stunned small boy starts wailing for his mother, while staring blankly at his bloody hands and knees.

"You say this be an attack of sorts, Lord Com--Commander," Artemis addresses Spirit. She's trying to remember the ranks. Really. "Then we shall go to them and demand the answers!"

Artemis looks to her Bloodbound as he lands and smiles, grasping his arm in return to greet him. "And the pair of us be blinding, then. Let us help the Starguardians address this cowardly attack."

Spirit shakes his head, "I don't know for sure. But I'd like to know what the Guild knows."

After a few long moments studying the thousands of fragments in her possession, Korkoro says, "Commander, ask them about living crystal. These are nonmetallic, but they definitely meet the baseline for 'living'."

MegaFauna attempts to gather Magda's collection.

Spirit glances over toward the conflict between the two kids. "We might need to gather up all of the rocks, if just owning one gives someone powers."

Starlight drops the fragments she has gathered with the others and flies over to the boy, "Hi, son. I'm a doctor. Let's have a look at those injuries." She starts healing as she calls on SG comms, "Anyone else see what just happened. A young girl just pushed this boy back a good ten or twelve feet."

"Aye Sister- and so we shall light the way." NNS says with all the pride befitting an immortal godling.

Relinquishing her hand he turns boldly to the Commander. "As ever- Commander of the Starguardians, you have my Sister's blade & shield and with it my spear unyielding." He says before noting the super strong little girl.

"By the Messengers- that one has SPIRIT. Look how she hurls the other Youngling! Haha!" He proclaims as if that were an ordinary occurrence.

Hearing of living crystals piques his interests back to the task at hand- afterall, he claims to be hewn from living stone.

Spirit does go to contact the Guild ship again, << Some more details. Apparently it's some kind of...living crystal? Do you have any details you're willing to share with us about this? >>

The girl, meanwhile. seems to be looking for more rocks, unconcerned about the boy's fate.

Spirit is pretty sure they've muted comms while they discuss the matter....

The boy stops crying pretty well immediately at the miraculous healing.

"Then let us take the matter to them!" NNS proclaims, thrusting his hand into the sky and summoning his spiritbrand/spear into existence.

Spirit shakes his head to Nohrbor, "No. Let's avoid a diplomatic incident if possible, thanks. I appreciate the enthusiasm, but let's save it for just...gathering this stuff up."

Starlight belatedly has a realisation as her concern other the boy's injuries fades now she sees they are healing. <<That damn rock was affecting my mind. Making collect the fragments togther. Let's stop doing it, ok."

"As you wish, Commander," Artemis recalls the title this time. She goes to lend aid in collecting the larger and heavier looking meteorite crystals as Spirit requested.

MegaFauna seems interested in the larger chunks as well once they get into her field of view, and she goes for them, contesting with Artemis.

"Aye." NNS says reaching out with his mind to resume the task of gathering the rocks together- but first, he calls a small, marble sized fragment to his own hand so he might inspect it for himself.

Starlight flies to Spirit, grabs ther lapels of his uniform and shakes him, "Snap out of it, Dorian. We're getting played. Those crystals are messing with our minds."

Spirit says to Starlight, "Is NOT collecting htem a better option? Anyone who comes across it might be affected. And tehy might be given powers."

Starlight says, "But putting them together is a really bad idea."

The Rex ship gets in touch. "Do not approach the meteorites. They could be dangerous. Isolate the area."

An indignant chuff sound emits from MegaFauna, and her rock collecting continues undaunted.

Spirit sends back, << They landed in a populated area. You should already know that. We don't have a choice. Please advise. We know they appear to affect people's minds. >>

The response comes back. "Quarantine all affected persons and close of the area. We will consult with EarthGov."

The channel goes dead.

With the stone in hand, NNS is certain he can sense a 'mind' within the stones.

"Commander- these are no mere stones." NNS says, using his TK to pull another smaller peice to the COmmander. "See for yourself- a mind from beyond the stars perhaps, but a mind within nonetheless."

NNS clutches the stone he has in his hand for a long moment before his eye is drawn to it. He stares at it only looking away to resume his gathering.

Artemis has already begun collecting the larger pieces she can find.

Starlight gives up on 'freeing' Spirit for now. Grabbing the large crystal fragment she landed she starts flying away intneding to drop it off on the far side of the moon someplace away from any lunar settlements.

Enormous hand-shaped extremity darkens the sky above Artemis and the large rocks she is gathering. MegaFauna seems to also want those.

Artemis looks up at the ginormous hand poised above her, curious. "You need not shade me as I work, friend Fauna. Your star's rays bother me not," she says jovially.

The shade soon becomes an effort to grasp, as MegaFauna's mighty hand closes around the rock and anything that happens to be holding on to the rock. MegaFauna wants all of the rocks!

Starlight hesitates. Then screams in anguish and rage and takes off to disperse the fragment she has back into space. Forget a safe gentle landing on the moon. It's getting hurled out into space as hard and fast as she can manage.

Starlight gets the fragment into space - but can't bring herself, when it comes to it, to throw the thing away....

Spirit goes to pick up a piece of the rock with his energy...using tendrils of light to pick it up. But he doesn't use his hands.

MegaFauna seems to be more interested now in gathering that which others are gathering, prioritizing the hoard!

The rock seems fairly inert in the tentacles.

Magda regards the various collectors, then eyes the fragments rotating around her as if she were the center of an orrery of asteroids. Her gaze shifts to the others, and then she considers. "Commander," she tells him, then -- "yes, that's it -- I think they have to work through close proximity. Contact. If you can get them away from those who have them and send them to me, I'll keep them seperate."

There's another incident of humans, this time adults, squabbling over a rock. This ome is rather settled when one of the guys suddenly catches fire.

Artemis is relieved of her rocks and smiles. "Thank you for your assistance, Friend Fauna." She is as of yet unaffected by the rocks.

Spirit furrows his brow, "The Guild wants us to quarantine the whole area. Let's...try picking the rocks up, but dont' touch them."

Magda nods in agreement, looking around to see if any of the assembled heroes are affected -- or, more hopefully, not especially affected.

Spirit goes about starting to gather up the pieces, but only using his powers to hold onto them.

MegaFauna seems satisfied with the present gathering of large chunks from inside buildings and cars. And jealously holding any that she has gathered in a MegaPouch with enormous Velcro access.

NNS need not touch anything! The Doj'on representative of the Godflora keeps his mind set to task and so the stones continue their steady plodding into a pile nearby. He doesn't seem too concerned with size- from pebble to fist & ball sized chucks on to larger ones, the size of refridgerators and small cars. All are piled together as is his will.

In general, it seems only people who have touched the rocks have been affected. Well, by the mind control. Not so much by the telekinesis, pyrokinesis, etc.

Nohrbor feels the pile he's making make a feeble attempt to go over and touch it.

Magda drifts downwards to near Ascendant. "May I?" she asks, nodding down at the pieces being piled up below. Once she's been given permission, she dips down and anything under 50kg or so gets added to her orbit. "Break up the bigger ones," she calls out.

Artemis offers to help by looking for the tiny pieces by hand.

Ascendant realizes he's been holding a stone in his hand and looks surprised for a moment.

He hears it call to him.

"These stones speak attempt to speak." He announces. "I am not sure I have the gifts granted to truly hear what it is saying."

He stops his gathering, hoisting his legs into a cross-legged position while remaining aloft.

He closes his eyes and attempts to drown out the rest of the world so he might hear the stones better.

He opens his third-eye, as he has since he were a youth hoping to feel, see & be more than he is in this moment. Hoping to connect with the stones.

Unfortunately for him, he's only minorly 'telepathic' as his attention has been set elsewhere in this new form.

Spirit responds back to command, giving hte details about hte Guild ship attacking the rock. And then the symptoms of handling hte rocks. And then...the evasiveness of the Rex. He doesn't leave out any details.

The rock makes a connection to Ascendant's mind. |Softcreature of this motherrock, one comes to speak!|

The Ascendant murmurs back to the rock. "Then speak- for I have the means to listen. What are you and why have you come to threaten this world?"

The rock says, |One does not threaten, one offers fusion. Crackless fusion. Not the fusion of the manymotherrockfused.|

"I do not understand. 'Crackless Fusion'? What is this?" NNS murmurs. "The Mortals of this world believe you threaten. They are full of fear- so it may behoove you to speak into this Godflora's immortal ear quickly lest they rain more fire for the skies." NNS advises cooly. If the mortals are full of fear, then he is distinctively fearless. "I don't know what manymotherrockfused means."

MegaFauna reaches to procure the pile being moved away, gingerly stepping to avoid causing harm to anyone. The big hand chases that which Magda takes!

Starlight has a brief moment when she is free to act. Only brief but long enough. She accelerates to a high fraction of the speed of light and releases the crystal fragment to sail away into the void.

"I have walked this world for a handfull of moons and never once have I heard this. This world is sovereign and..." His murmuring intensifies becoming more than that- quite close to one of his standard declarations. "under the protection of Artemis Constantine of the Ashildr & Nohrbor Nanuran Surryx of the Doj'on- Chosen of the Starforge Council & first to treat amongst our generation."

Chi roils off of NNS as he gets hype.

"There will be no merging with the Urth today or any other while the Godflora walk upon it."

Frustrated by the getting-awayness of her rocks, MegaFauna lets a roar, shaking the foundations of the city block. She wants the rocks to come back to her, but it's hard to discern the difference between frightening and pleading at that volume.

Nohror's interlocutor begins to try again to explain what it means, but having bits of itself absconded with makes its thinking fuzzier.

Korkoro disperses the pile into its components, spread out across many meters of space around her, larger pieces interspersed with smaller ones -- and zooms away and (especially) up.

NNS struggles as things become cloudy.

"SPeak louder, you are getting farther away..." NNS says, sounding as if he might be worried he's frightened the stone's spirit away.

MegaFauna begins to more frantically collect the rocks, being less careful, but still careful. She's causing some property damage.