Log:New Year's Eve at Chyoode's, Scene 3

New Year's Eve at Chyoode's 2020/01/22 Artemis Ascendant Chen Chyoode Evander Magda Unin Wade Wayne A'al 	 Dan E'el Y Malingromastavaksiumalaikaosingsonsillys Garby Zwixy

3

The scene: a crowded party at 11:30pm on New Year's Eve, attended by many students and a few heroes and aliens, the latter including two of the hosts (Chyoode and the sheep-girl Y) and Chyoode's twin brothers, A'al and E'el. (Apparently the third host, Dan, a magical studies student, is about somewhere, likely upstairs.)

Into this increasingly merry crowd teleported Garby and Zwixy, from their overhead flying saucer, claiming A'al and E'el - as it turned out, as their mates. The twins, underestimating their strength on Earth, damaged the house structurally in their attempt to flee, which was thwarted by the saucer's shield, extended to envelop the house. A fight ensued, during which the unpowered guests mostly escaped to the kitchen, upstairs, or outdoors, though the frightened Y's rapidly growing woollen coat has trapped a few in the kitchen doorway and prevented a few more escaping that way.

Recently in the fight, Evan blinded A'al and Garby (who are outside the front of the house). Korkoro found the saucer's shields difficult to drain. Ascendant ghosted into the saucer, but his smashing of the shield control only jammed the shield at its current settings. Wade has recovered from taking the mighty impact of E'el's wild attempt to attack Zwixy, and berated E'el for his dangerous actions when E'el tried to apologise. Artemis delivered a spear-hand to Zwixy, who decided that it was best for her and Garby to regroup in their ship. After teleporting them their she found herself facing Acendant, but missed in her attack on him. A'al, still blinded, is groping about for Garby. Chyoode is bodyguarding those of her guests who went upstairs.

Chen, from the side of the house, took aim at the saucer; unable to identify the field emitter, she chanced to luck with her haymaker. Unfortunately, the system that was at the centre of mass she aimed for proved to be the gravitic drive! The saucer, now with a large hole in its base, begins to fall - directly onto the house! 

Lizzy has been visiting Dan, who tutored her in Math back when she was a Freshman at CHHS. She's been aware of the party going on downstairs, and has attributed the noise to that - until people started screaming. "Maybe I should go see what's happening..." She looks down the ladder at the swarming people in the hallway. No way out there. Maybe the window? She checks, and sure enough, it opens out onto the roof. She climbs out and, once out of Dan's sight, becomes Union.

Union gets into costume - just in time to see Chen's fist smash into the saucer above her, and the saucer beginning to fall!

As the saucer begins to fall toward the house, its shields are driven into the ground, sending off brilliant, wild, sparks - and causing more screams from students who have been trying to find a way past the force field. This slows the saucer's fall, somewhat, but it's still heading inexorably towards the house....

Magda, underneath the saucer, realizes immediately when the flight sustems go out. It means she's going to have to try something she rarely has -- contact telekinesis. "Going to need a little help out here!!" she bellows, and braces to catch the thing when it reaches her.

Chen leaps to a spot closer to the saucer's center of mass. She forms all her upper limbs into a solid support bar, while driving her lower limbs through the street and deep into the ground to anchor herself as she grabs at the falling craft and attempts to hold it up.

Having been almost pounded through the roof by the falling saucer, Union realizes that the danger is not past. She runs back to the open window and calls in, "If anybody's in there, you should get out, NOW, before the roof gets smashed in." She then moves to where she can jump into the hole in the saucer.

Wade gets back to his feet and looks at E'el. "Take it back outside, before you hurt anyone in here."

E'el nods to Wade and hurries outside again. At the shout from Union, partygoers begin to push back downstairs - Chyoode tries to make sure they don't trample each other.

Aboard the ship, Zwixy cries out, <> A strange light shines down on the Ascendant - a status field. Zwixy hurries to the locker which the computer opens to grab more gear, while Garby is still blinking the spots from her eyes. And, outside the ship - Chen gets a shock.

There's no visible effect on Chen other than a momentary flickering og electricity crawling over her skin. "Can someone do something about that craft. Like tear it into many smaller bits. I cannot hold it up for very loong."

E'el, again outside, sees the damage Chen has done to the saucer and decides to see if he can do likewise! He leaps up at the saucer! (It's remarkable what seems like a good idea when you're drunk. And Chen did ask for help!)

Despite his drunked state, even E'el can hit a target that big. But he fails to budge it, since its shield is embedded deeply enough in the ground to act as an anchor... He knocks a second hole in the ship - and stuns himself, even as the ship's anti-theft system shocks him too....

E'el is blasted back down to the ground (through a bit of the house) and into unconsciousness.

Alarms go off in the saucer, and urgently flashing green light can be seen showing from the holes Chen and E'el made!

Magda hisses. "Amateurs." Her magnetics reach out to start undoing the ship's ... everything.

Artemis hears Chen's warning and flies through the hole E'el made. She ends up within the wreckage and braces against the roof with both hands. The lights flash and she looks around as she begins to brace against the ship. Her eyes widen as she realizes what's happening. "Nay, it cannot be so. The ship's drives are overloading!" She shouts towards the bridge of the ship, "Ye may wish to abandon thy vessel NOW, for I cannot allow it to remain here!" She begins to press with all her might, trying to lift the ship up. "Ye have mere human seconds to depart before I go!"

The ship starts to lift up by ten meters as Artemis builds momentum and grants the owners of the vessel time to abandon ship. She calls out through the hole, "Mighty Chen, can thee protect the house should this ship explode before I can get it beyond the city?"

Chen releases her clinging on the ship and spreads herself thin and she morphs into a dome over the entire house and hardens her skin.

It becomes dark in the house and surrounds as Chen's dome cuts off the ambient light.

Wade furrows his brow and steps outside to assess the situation, leaving his android duplicate still inside - unmoving more hte time being.

Wade finds himself in darkness, under a dome of Chen!

Zwixy is no fool. She uses the emergency teleport to get herself and Garby - and most of the contents of their armoury - to safely!

Wade stops in his tracks. "What the hell is going on?"

Artemis yells at her Bloodbound. "Stay here to deal with the would-be mate claimers, Brother!" Nohrbor laughs, happy to let his sister deal with the ship and leave the glory of battle to him. He becomes immaterial as Artemis begins to heft, being left behind. Artemis' slow speed increase to get momentum is all she needed. She prays to Keter the Swift for his speed, and then suddenly she and the ship rocket up into the sky and over the bay as she aims to get it out of the city, and hopefully the atmosphere, if possible. She takes a deep breath in case she manages to get it out into space in time.

Even through Chen, the sonic boom can be heard. Not so the second boom, which only occurs in space. Sadly, Chen block the resultant fireworks from the sight of the other partygoers...

Chen condenses into Chen. "Anyone space capable? Artemis took the craft up into spave but I dson't know if she was able to get away before it exploded. Someone should go see if she needs help.

The embers of the explosion in space can still be see once Chen again reveals the sky.

Magda -- who was outside Chen-bubble -- is gone as well, following Artemis and the ship into orbit, keeping to a minimum safe distance and ready to ... what? Well, if there's wreckage, a corpse, or an unconscious Artemis, she can do sometimg about the latter two.

Wade sighs, "I didn't even see a spaceship." He calls it in to Starguard, though, figuring they can check it out. "What's the status of the ship?" He says it as he looks up at sees it exploding. "Oh...good."

A'al, who can see again now, says, "Our bikes over just over there if you want to go up to space to look!"

Chen turns to A'al. "Yes. Lets go."

A'al indicattes the street, in what had been just outside the saucers's shields.

Artemis looks below her through the hole to see she's made it in time as gravity ceases its hold on her cape and hair. They begin to float. At least the mortals are safe. Her head turns to the drive as the overloading core begins to build up and brighten until all she can see is light. And then nothing at all as she vanishes into the expanding blast that tears apart the ship. Most of the light show is missed at first. A few bits of small wreckage to get blown into the atmosphere and quickly disintegrate upon re-entry. But there is one larger glowing meteor that survives re-entry and streaks across the sky and over the city before impacting somewhere beyond the city limits with a distant boom.

"Know how to ride a space bike?" A'al asks, as he leads Chen to them.

Chen hyperventilates. Storing enough oxygen for six hours in space.

Union jumps down from the roof, and starts helping people out of the house, and checking to see if anyone's injured.

Chen says, "No. That's why I'm going to rogre pillion and you're going to drive."

E'el is still unconscious on the ground outside the house. Inside, some of the guests have suffered minor injuries.

"OK. Hope on!" A'al gets on the bike, which looks remarkably similar to a normal hoverbike, and, once Chen is aboard, heads skywards, a force field providing a safe environment.

Union says, "Mr. Lockwood, there's someone injured over here!"

Magda returns to the party, seeking out her guest. "I think this party's a bust." Indira laughs, brushing herself off.

The space bike roars toward the approximate centre of the remains of the explosion.

Chen taps A'al urgently on the shoulder, "There. Follow that meteor."

A'al spins the bike about and descends rapidly again, heading somewhere north and west of Colonial Bay.

Chyoode is trying to calm her guests. More drink will help, doubtless. She extracts Y from the doorway to the kitchen, encourages the partygoers to refill their glasses, then looks for things to shore up the walls with.

The bike reaches an impressive crater, with something at its centre...

Chen jumps off the space nike and runs to the crater. "Artemis? Alive?" Any answer will do. Except maybe a drawn out 'Brains...'

Wade turns off his shield and he heads inside to check on the people inside, to see if anyone was seriously hurt.

"SG, This is Chen. Artemis is down. At my location. Medial assistance needed. "

Surprisingly few people inside were hurt - mostly from trampling each other in panic. E'el's wild attack also caused some minor injuries, but nothing worse, thanks to Y's softness.

SG responds that they're despatching medical assistance.

Dan has a quick look at his experiment in the attic and breathes a sigh of relief. . o O ( If that had been damaged we could have been in real trouble! )

The scorched armor and shield is still recognizable and smoldering still. Artemis is embedding on her back in the crater, most of her skin blackened from the reactor overload, save for some of her face that was shielded when she looked away from the light. She is very much...not alive.

A'al winces at the sight.

Chen sighs, "She's dead." she mentions casually to A'al. "And that armor is going to need a serious clean and polish."

A'al swears something his translator sensors. "I'm sorry... I can't say how much... this is all our fault..."

Chen looks at A'al and nods. "Yes. As my grandfather says, be careful who you.. uh.. interact with."

A'al exclaims. "We didn't think they'd follow us here! They must be crazy! It was just, like, one date..."

The SG medical vehicle is quick to the scene. For all the good that does.

Chen says, "Cultural imperatives. I have to behave differently in China than here. Local customs may bot seem to make sense but they can be vewry strongly enforced. Pot and kettle some might say, but you should always try to know what the consequences will be before acting."

Chen turns to the SG medics, "Load her up. Take her back to SG Med Div. Have a couple of asprins ready. She'll likely have a dreadful headache when you wakes up."

A'al nods, quietly. The has completely killed his normal exuberance. Then Chen's words soak in. He turns to her, confused. "Wakes up?"

The medics, however, seem not so suprised. They follow instructions.

[SG] Chen here. Wade, Artemis is dead. Can you tell her brother she's being taken to the SG Medical Division?"

Chen nods to A'al. "Yes. She's like me. Death is just an interlude."

Wade replies over the comms, "On it." He then goes ahead and tells Ascendant the news.

A'al check Chen's face to make sure she's being serious, then looks massively relieved. "Thank Norj for that!"

And once everyone has managed to recharge their drinks, actual fireworks mark the beginning of the new year.

E'el, awake (and drinking again) by this point, makes the observation, "Well, at least we blew something up! It's not a proper feast of renewal if you don't blow something up!"

At about fifteen past the hour, Magda and her guest depart, leaving a couple of hundred dollars behind.