Issue 1 Downtime

Though it was day, the sky darkened. A shooting star seemed to cross the sky.

...or was it? It changed directions, and then spiraled...

...and impacted into the quad with a tremendous thud, sending dirt and grass flying into the air.

Cal was one of the first responders, since teleporting worked faster than running on any occasion. He started scanning the impact site, the forcefield from his staff around him to screen out any residual heat from an impact like that.

A girl in tattered red lay in the center of the crater.

Kevin ran up to the scene.

"Okay, who made a wish?" he said just before he looked in.

"Mira!" he exclaimed, ready to rush in if no one stopped him.

ASHLIE had been doing one of her standard sensor sweeps of the quad until the readings spiked through the roof all of a sudden and then cut off when the small probe's sensors overloaded.

A little later it's main-unit made it's way across the quad to investigate though the probe is quickly forgotten when it notices the huge crater, curiously standing by and scanning Mira for life-signs.

The 'someone' who stopped him appeared in the form of more than a dozen airborn figures, each glinting in silver tech-armor, helmets covering distinct Shi'ar head-plumes as they opened fire on the few responders who were close enough to help Mira yet. "FOR THE AERIE!" the closest one shouted as they swarmed toward the ground.

An...arrow?...shot out of one of the windows on the quad, impacting one of the lead guards, in a non-armored bit.

Cal tackled Kevin away from the energy blasts, rolling as he landed onto his back and firing back up at the aliens. He shouted something back at them in another language, but judging from the reaction of any Shi'ar that heard it, it wasn't something polite.

A stray (or maybe aimed, who knows) bolt impacts ASHLIE's shoulder plating, prompting it to move it's arm to ensure motor-function integrity hasn't been compromised by the smoldering hole left in the plating. It shows no outwardly concern but somewhere a dedicated server is rapidly writing a fresh backup.

"You have got to be kidding me..." Captain Britain said as she flew in, dodging fire.

"Is that... oh my God, Mira?"

"X-Men, this is a priority one alert. We're under alien attack. All available X-Men to the grounds." This was all the alert Ryan took the time to put out before he snapped his comm back onto his belt, jumping off the roof toward the closest Shi'ar as they descended.

Kevin rolled back to his feet.

"Oh hell no. You bird-brains are not getting Mira!" he glared fiercely as his lightforce weapons and armor formed.

A firery form scorched through the sky, ready to meet anyone head-on!

ASHLIE just kind of stands there, unsure whether it should act or not while it tries to analyze the situation.

...and a second fiery form streaked in from the other side, as one pissed-off Accolyte joined the fight. "Heard about Shi'ar on Genosha. Always figured you assholes were overrated!" he snarled as he threw off blades of fire into the group of attackers.

Madrox rocketed out of an open window of the Secured Facilities building, blasting at the Shiar with his newly improved palm repulsors.

The Shi'ar scattered under the oncoming fire, but a couple fell from the sky out of control, the first with an arrow through its throat, the other trying to correct its flight after Cal's shots hit its armor. One veered off to engage Tommy, opening fire and showing that though wingless, Shi'ar were definately at home in the sky. Two more headed for Captain Britain and Daniel, while another found itself struggling in midair with Ryan, the added weight carrying it toward the ground. All the rest continued toward the crater, including the one that had been grounded with its flight gear damaged.

Tommy swerved, and tried through a bloody big fireball at the man. It was almost the equinox, so his powers were growing.

Roland notched a second arrow, letting it fly from a LOWER window as he hustled downstairs.

Since no one seemed to be paying attention to it ASHLIE began to climb down into the crater.

Val had the luck to be crossing the Quad, heading to the gym for a workout session, when all of this excitement broke out before her. It was also rather plain to see in this case who were the 'good guys' and who were the enemies.

"Æsir, lend me your strength," she said to herself as she rushed to the fight. Never mind that she wasn't actually in the X-Men quite yet; after all, this looked like an excellent opportunity to make a good first impression with them.

Crouching down, she placed a palm flat on the ground and channeled a shock wave through it towards the grounded Shiar.

Kev made his way back to the edge of the crater, ready to strike at whatever entered the range of his floating blades.

"Hasn't anyone told you? Britain is protected!" She shouted, lashing out with a punishing swing of the Star Scepter.

Ryan let out a pulse of energy as he aimed a punch at the Shi'ar's face, trying to wreak havoc with his armor's functions. Taking advantage of his lightblast's effects, he shifted, kicked off of the Shi'ar, and flipped in midair to fire off a directed beam at it.

The Shi'ar commander managed to gracefully swoop under the swing, looping under Captain Britain to fire at her point-blank. "Praetor! Mission is compromised! The X-Men are protecting it as expected!"

"Acknowledged. Assistance is coming."

The Shi'ar Ryan had been struggling with threw its weight about to right itself in midair, now falling in earnest with its armor's systems scrambled. It landed in a birdlike crouch, but immediately launched itself at Ryan as Ryan landed.

The aerial Shi'ar came into range of Kevin's swords first, activating their forcefields as the lead two began fending them off for the others to pass. In the midst of that fight, though, a lone sky commando broke off and streaked impossibly fast at Kevin.

Madrox had a clear shot at the Shi'ar, but would find that yes, their armor could take a blast or two from a repulsor. Another Shi'ar veered off to engage him, returning fire as it took an evasive approach.

The eighth Shi'ar sky commando looked dazed as it emerged from Tommy's inferno, its armor smoking but holding, its exposed bits obviously protected some from an energy field, but still obviously burned. Its closest aerial companion was making an overhead arc, lashing out at Daniel with talons emerging from one of his armored gauntlets, the small chunk of armor that had been sliced away by a hotknife obviously not containing anything that was vital to its armor's function.

The grounded Shi'ar produced an energy blade just as it was thrown from its feet by Valdis's shockwave. It bounced hard off a tree before landing clumsily, though not as clumsily as a human would have. With a shout in its native tongue, it attacked in an approach that consisted of long, low leaps, trying to cover the distance without touching the ground more than necessary.

The two Shi'ar that slipped through the rest of this opened fire on Cal and Ashlie, trying to take out these final two defenders to get at their quarry.

Thanks to his heightened reflexes, Kevin spotted the commando just in time to flip over his new attacker. At the same time he dematerialized a flying blade and materialize a new on in his hand to strike at the commando's flight gear.

Roland came charging out of the building, with...an old fashioned sword and shield.

He couldn't be serious, could he?

Tommy followed up with a long CONE of fire, ala the original human torch, trying to engulf one of the Shi'ar.

He knew his mutant history.

A fist of made of red light came out of the sky, rocketing towards one of the two Shi'ar heading towards Calvin and Ashlie.

"Touch the cyborg pretty boy and I will fuck you sideways," Taliyah growls, eyes blazing.

Valdis rolled to the side and assumed a battle stance once she stood again, fists clenched. She punched at the space in front of her, and this time a shock wave burst through the air towards the Shi'ar.

Captain Britain tumbled back from the blast, and circled around. While doing so she tried to extend her force field in a circular disc directly in the flight path of the Shi'ar that was attacking her, hoping for a bird-meets-window effect.

Brett showed up -- actually, several of him -- each already in uniform, each wielding brass knuckles on the right hand. "I heard the call just before I was heading into the Danger Room, wh-...oh, bugger," said the one in the middle as they approached the scene of the fight.

Madrox, too, took evasive action. The glow of the active weapons in his palms changed from blue to yellow, and he fired a hot golden beam at the Shi'ar.

A blue van with the university securty department logo scrreched to a halt on the grass, and a Brass-covered man jumped out with an assault rifle, using the van for cover as he began firing at the aerial attackers.

"Come at me, assholes!" he yelled as the bullets flew.

"And that goes double for her," Cal growled as he spun, swinging his staff to send an onrushing Shi'ar tumbling.

Ryan leapt at the Shi'ar in turn, trying to catch him to knock him into a bad fall to give him the upper hand in the confrontation.

Daniel fell away a few feet, nursing the bleeding wound on his back from the talons, but returning fire with two hotknives as he did, trying to drive the Shi'ar back.

Janice could feel the 'thump' as the Shi'ar impacted her shield, falling toward the ground in a daze. Daniel's fell back with cauterized holes punched through its midsection, while the one that had the misfortune of attacking Tommy crashed into it in its smoking and cracking armor. One of Bobby's bullets hit the flight pack of his target... as it tore through his body, sending it plummeting to the ground as well.

Cal, Kevin and Taliyah seemed to be making short work of their opponents, especially as Valis's shockwave threw her opponent into the one Taliyah had punched across the quad. Madrox and Ryan's opponents were seeming similarly overwhelmed...

Before the fight could progress further, thought, the quad was rocked by more impacts as energy blasts impacted around them, throwing the ground fighters from their feet as nine new figures materialized on the quad.

"X-Men!" the purple-skinned alien thundered, standing in front of its eight underlings. "We have no desire to do battle with you. Give us our quarry and we will leave you in peace!"

Taliyah pushes her way back onto her feet, her nose bleeding a little.

"Who's the purple asshole?"