(2014-06-13) Heroes Twinkling in the Night Sky
Heroes Twinkling in the Night Sky
Summary: Wonder Woman arrives aboard the new Watchtower station to relieve Power Woman, who has been on monitor duty. The two start a discussion, interrupted by the arrival of Iron Man, and then Moon Maiden. Discussions center around investigations of the attack on Supergirl.
Date: 2014-06-13
Related: Justice League Meeting; Mall Crawl Brawl
NPCs: NA
Scene Runner: NA
Social/Plot: Plot
Players:
power-woman..wonder-woman..moon-maiden..iron-man..

As she nears the end of another shift on monitor duty aboard the Watchtower, Power Woman puts away her Starrgaze glasses and her Starrtel watch, and locks up her personal StarkPad, putting everything away in her small backpack. She wouldn't want to have her school work out where anyone could see it, since there will soon be someone here to relieve her.

"JARVIS?" Kara inquires.

"Yes, Ms. Zor-L? How may I be of assistance?" the digital entity of the station's AI replies in that proper British accent, an affectation from Tony's programming that no one has complained about. It's just too darned classy.

"Who is on the roster for the next monitor duty shift?" Kara inquires. After all, with everyone's busy lives, the duty shifts often change hands several times before they actually come to pass.

"According to my records, Ms. Zor-L, it would seem Madame Ambassador the Princess Diana of Themyscira is next on duty." JARVIS replies.

Kara chuckles. "You do realize you don't have to get so convoluted with her name and titles, don't you?" the Kryptonian inquires.

"Of course. But isn't that what you expect from a proper British butler, to worry so about titles?" JARVIS answers.

"OK, OK. Touche. You win. But I'm sure she'll ask you to just call her Diana, so please practice it." Kara answers.

"Of course, Kara."

While Diana has no real working knowledge of how these new Zeta-beams work, she rembers something that Iron Man told her about 'advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic.' So, when she ends her Ambassadorial duties for the day, the Amazon Princess changes form formal business attire into her Wonder Woman costume, and steps onto the Zeta-beam pad with no fear. An instant later, Diana finds herself on the Watchtower, in orbit around Earth. She gazes out over the blue orb in front of her, always amazed at the serenity of her home from so far a distance away. And then she makes her way to the monitor area, smiling at Power Woman as she arrives. "Hello, Kara. How have you been doing? I hope I am not late for my duty."

Kara looks up as Diana comes walking into the monitor womb. The Kryptonian blonde is sitting at one of the stations out on the gantry in the heart of the huge spherical space, with literally hundreds of virtual, floating holographic 'screens' on display in every direction along the walls, displaying various video feeds and information from the planet below and the sensors aboard the station. "Hi, Diana. You're not late. I think you're several minutes early, as a matter of fact. How was your day? Stressful, I imagine, with those men's rights activists making themselves so unwelcome around the Embassy."

Diana sighs at the mention of the protesters. "They have their right to speak their opinions. I just wish they wouldn't state it so loudly." The Princess shrugs and waves the protestors off. "They are just words, and as long as they take no violence towards ayone, then I have no issue with them. The best policy is ignoring them, I feel. Soon, without any provocation towards them, they will leave as the media furor dies down. They will not goad me into engaging them on their level." Diana smiles proudly at Kara. "Also, the more good the League does, the more people will come to trust us and ignore such distractions."

Kara shrugs a bit. It's not quite the way she'd handle it, but she trusts Diana's wisdom and skill with people, and can certainly agree to step back and see how things progress.

Speaking of …

"Diana, do you have a few minutes to talk about something? I have a problem. I don't yet know how serious it is. But it feels really serious to me. And I need some advice. And since it may end up impacting the team, I think maybe you would be ideal." Kara doesn't sound thrilled about the prospect of this topic, whatever it may be. But she does sound earnest and heartfelt. She has to try something. What she's doing surely isn't working, after all.

Diana smiles gently and puts a hand on Kara's shoulder, nodding as she takes a seat next to the blonde. "Kara, you are a sister to me. You can speak to me of anything and I will always make time for you." The smile tenses a bit, but still remains positive as she asks, "Is this about the situation with your cousin? Have there been any developments in tracking down her attackers?"

Kara frowns, and shrugs her shoulders. "Honestly, I don't know. But it is related to my cousin. And … it's potentially very bad." Clearly, Kara is worried about this. But she turns her chair around and faces Diana, welcoming the other woman's support.

"Before I start in on the problem, though … there's something I think I'm going to have to tell you." Kara offers, frowning. "I haven't told anyone on the team this. Other than Moon Maiden. Laurel has known since a long time before there ever was a Justice League." Kara begins, obviously working her way up to something. It must be a big one.

Then the soft chime sounds from JARVIS, alerting those in monitor duty that the zeta beam platforms have been activated again. Kara stops whatever she was about to say and turns her chair around, tapping along on a holographic keyboard as she brings up a screen showing the zeta beam chamber, and coordinates for the origin of the beam that just arrived. "Ah. It seems our golden boy has arrived."

Just like that, it seems Kara has switched gears. Even though Tony just arrived several stories away in the Watchtower, she seems prepared to completely abandon the conversation she was about to start. Instead, she keys in the on-station comms. "Hi, Tony. Diana and I are in the monitor womb. Come on up."

Diana looks concerned for her friend as she sees Kara struggling with how to expalin something. "Kara, you need have no fear. Whatever you say, I will keep in confidence and tell no-one. If Laurel knows, that does not mean that you must tell all of us; only who you feel comfortable with. But there is obviously something weighing heavily on you. And even the mighty Power Woman sometimes needs help carrying weight; especially when the weight is a mental one, rather than physical." Diana smiles and lets out a light laugh, trying to break the tension.

When the chime announces the arrival of Tony Stark, Diana arches an eyebrow and smiles a bit. "Was there a meeting scheduled for tonight that I was not aware of?" She waits until Kara uses the intercom, and then continues her conversation. "If this concerns the League, then perhaps you should tell Tony as well? Of course, if you would rather not, I will support that choice and keep your secrets that you tell me."

"Well..don't even give a guy a chance to announce himself through annoying entrance music and pyro…"

Nevermind the bag and boxes he's carrying. That'll just make things awkward if he thinks about—-dammit, too late.

Well then. Hope this doesn't get him booted from the Justice League. They never DID cover fraternization between members..

He makes his way to the control room, whistling something that MIGHT be "Everything Is Awesome" from the Lego movie, but it might not, only because he was annoyed that Batman was in it but he was not. Egos are bruised, dammit. The struggle is REAL.

"Hey, uh, ladies.." he sys looking around as he enters, "I uh, I feel bad. I didn't bring enough for everyone." he says, holding up the bag and boxes which combine to form a delicious smell. "I had Wolfy make up a to go order for Diana, since I knew she was up here stuck on monitor duty..thought she could use a little dinner.." he says, and walks over. He sets down on a nearby table, "I brought you a chicken pasta bolognese, salad, and a slab of that really good cheesecake from Louie's that you went nuts over. Oh, and a bottle of iced tea." he says, a bit sheepishly. He then walks over and gives the Princess a kiss on the cheek because damn, you let the cat out of the bag by bringing dinner up from Spago, so you might as well go the full nine yards, right?

JARVIS alerts everyone to an incoming transmission.

"Moon Maiden to Watchtower. I'm about to test the relay station we established at lagrange point two and the zeta tube we installed in my Lunar Villa. If I vanish, someone track down my molecules from space and reconstruct me, okay?"

There's a whining and a chime and the Watchtower's zeta tubes flare to life briefly. Moon Maiden steps into the z-tube chamber. "Well, that will save me some commuting time to get to Earth from home."

Kara shakes her head. "No, no meeting." she offers to Diana, smiling. "And … no. I don't think this is something I wish to tell Tony." Which is not said for Tony's ears or benefit, but in response to Diana before he arrives. That Tony Stark is a real swell guy. Just maybe not the person Kara is ready to share that particular very personal secret with, just now.

"Don't feel bad, Tony. I've already eaten. You and Diana should settle in and enjoy your meal together. I'm happy that things are working out well for both of you." Kara offers. OK, maybe Power Woman is a teensy bit disappointed she doesn't have that kind of luck in her own life just now. But that's life, and she can live with it. Her cousin is dating. Laurel is dating. Tony and Diana are dating. Marvel Girl and Green Lantern. It's everywhere. Ain't life grand?

"Hey there, Laurel. Don't worry. We'll be right there after you." Kara responds to Moon Maiden's communication. And then her friend appears o the monitor of the zeta tubes below. "Welcome aboard. C'mon up, if you'd like. Or did you want to re-route down to the surface? We're up in the monitor womb, if you're interested."

She's unfazed by giant monsters. She stares down powerful diplomats on a daily basis. She suffers the slings and arrows of the conservative media and what they call her. And yet, despite all this, when TOny shows up with a care package of food, Diana blushes. "Thank you, Tony," she says with a smile. "That was…very thoughtful of you." And sweet, she wants to say, but that wouldn't do in front of her teammates. "I'm sure that I will enjoy this greatly; I have heard many good reviews of this 'Spago's'." She looks up at Kara and nods. "Of course, maybe when I get back from my duty tonight, you can stop by the Embassy and tell me more about that proposal," she says to the blonde. She doesn't like fabricating things to her friends, especially Tony right now. But Kara said she wanted to keep what she wanted to say a secret, so Diana will honor her sister's wish. And then Laurel appears in the Monitor room, causing more blushing from Diana as she starts to feel like a little girl getting caught swiping pieces of baklavah from the kitchen.

Tony Stark smiles, "Well, I just hope you liked it..I would've brought more but I was thought it was just Diana up here tonight. I didn't bring any for myself, actually I didn't think about because I wasn't hungry at the time." he does take a seat, "I do have some answers, by the way, about the mall attack." he says, giving Diana's shoulder a squeeze as he sits down, looking over to Power Woman.

"Answers are a very good thing." Laurel says as she steps into the monitor womb. "We need them." She makes her way through the room. A gentle squeeze of Diana's shoulder. A kiss on Tony's cheek and, finally, a hug for Laurel's best friend. "I had to rejigger the calculations on the relay by the way. Nothing major but there were some gravitational effects we didn't take into account. With zeta beams traveling such a far distance we want to be precise." The Moon Maiden leans against one of the consoles, careful not to butt dial Earth by accident.

Kara stands to welcome Laurel with an embrace, smiling. "Well, sorry we got the calculations wrong. I'm glad you spotted it." she offers her friend, and then gestures her towards a seat as she too sits back down. "Like I siad, Tony, it's OK. I already ate. And we have a whole galley here, so no one is going to starve." OK, they don't have Wolfgang from Spago's down there. But it's not bad. But all fun and friendliness aside, when Tony says he has information about the mall attack, Power Woman is all intense and business. "Whatever information you have, we need. This is really serious stuff, Tony. What have you found out?"

Diana briefly stands to hug Laurel in greeting. And if she's dismayed that Laurel greets TOny with a cheek kiss, she doesn't show it. The food is pushed aside in her mind as Tony speaks about having new information. She sits back next to him, one eye on the monitor and the rest of her attention focued on Tony. "Indeed? have you found the perpetrator of the attack? Or perhaps the motive?"

Tony Stark smiles to Laurel and then to Diana but then looks to Kara and nods, "I know. Steve and I have been handling the investigation. He's doing the more gumshoe end of things, I did a purely technical analysis. First off, the skycycles. AIM. Specifcally AIM made copies of Russian skycycles that are knock offs of SHIELD issue. To use a better analogy, they're the Pro Wings of the skycycle world. If Nike has Jordans, then K-Mart has Pro Wings. The rifles themselves? Special Forces issues - I can't lock down nationality, which might get us closer to where we can find out who the client is, but not likely. The thing that was the most interesting, was that there were easily fifteen of these guys wandering the mall for at least an hour before the attack, using a flashlight sized device and shining them on any blonde teenager remotely fitting the description of who they were looking for before they found her. So she might help us if she remembers something weird like that happening. They painted the target before hand, which is a typical sniper tactic. My best guess? We start shaking down AIM and going from there. Chances are, you are going to at least find out who to stark asking."

Laurel listens to Tony's analysis of the technology and the situation. "No. They didn't paint the target." She says as understanding dawns on her. "They were looking for Supergirl. Using their red solar energy weapon on any blonde, teenage girl who looked like her." She beams at Karen. "They don't know her secret identity! They just know she's blonde, a teenage girl and has shown up several times somewhere near that mall." She lets out a sigh of relief. "Good job, Tony. This is still a problem but its much less of one now."

Kara listens intently while Tony goes through the evidence and the questions still outstanding in their investigation of the attack on Supergirl. Despite her obviously keen interest and her rampant attention, she does not speak up or interrupt, insisting on listening to everything he has to say and digesting it fully before she tries to respond or ask further questions.

"So," Power Woman begins, "We still have no leads on the creator of the weapon, or on the metahuman multiplier who used it. And we have some reason to believe that their attack was planned, but only in a more general sense: they hoped to find her there, and when the use of their weapon generated the response they were hoping for, they then hoped to capitalize on that with her murder." Kara frowns, but nods. "It's true. This means they do not have a means of tracking or locating or otherwise identifying a Kryptonian, which is better than the alternative. And it means they do not know her secret identity. But it still proves they were out there hunting for her in civilian attire, doing nothing to threaten them or some operation they were running, expressly to test their weapon and murder her." Better than what they feared most, but still not a good thing at all.

"I very much appreciate everything that you have done so far. It seems clear that they have gone out of their way to make it impossible to trace the technology to anyone in particular. And their choice of operative shows other clear indications of a desire to do everything possible to obscure who they are or why they did this." Which, naturally, makes Kara want to find them all the more. "I just wish we had something more to go on, some way to track them down." Without it, Power Woman's just going to go mad with worry. But that's life.

Diana listens as well. Like the Zeta-beams, Diana doesn't really understand about red solar radiation or sky-cycles, but she nods and follows as best she can. "That is good news," she says in agreement with the assessment of Laurel and Kara. "Although it is still disturbing to think that these people have technology that could affect Kara or her cousin. If this AIM is the origin point for much of the technology these assassins used, perhaps we can get some answers from them, directly? If we attack one of their bases, we could uncover more information we could use; as well as taking several of their members into custody and denying some advanced technology to criminals."

Tony Stark nods quietly, "Well, Cap and I will go after AIM and start shaking their tree. It's possible there's something in their records about their skycycle sales. They don't have serial numbers, but there has to be some kind of way to track who they went to. I'm sure we can go from there."

Laurel pushes off of the console. "I'm afraid I've got a dinner date with my parents. I had to skip the last one because of a crashing airplane. This time, no such excuses." She lays a hand on Karen's shoulder. "One of my biggest enemies is an immortal Roman general who likes complex, mind boggling plots. Trust me when I say this - it takes time to unravel this sort of thing. If you let it eat at you, you'll go nuts. We'll figure this all out. I promise. Good work, Tony. Have fun with monitor duty, Diana." With that, Laurel's off to zeta herself down to Earth and dinner with the mom and pop.

"Pretty sure I might already be nuts, Laurel. But take care. My love to your folks. Don't miss out on family time for me obsessing." Power Woman sees Moon Maiden off, and then looks at the two other League members. "Alright. That will do, for now. Thank you, Tony, for your help and information. Obviously, if you have time to do more about this, please do so. Anything you learn could be invaluable. But for now, I'll leave you two to visit together. You don't need a third wheel pacing uselessly."

Kara stands up, and gathers her little backpack worth of gear. "JARVIS, thanks for the company earlier. You have a nice evening, too."

"Of course, Ms. Zor-L. Enjoy your evening. I have prepped Zeta Tube Alpha for translation to Metropolis." the British-voiced computer informs.

Kara heads for the door, pausing there to look back. "Diana, you and I can try to finish our earlier conversation another time. Enjoy tonight. We all need times like these. Don't squander it." And with that, she steps through the door, flies down the central tube, and Zeta-beams home.

Tony Stark nods as Kara starts to leave, "Don't worry. I'm making this priority one. I don't take kindly to people messing with my people. So our people are going to go have a talk with their people. There will probably be some contracts up for construction jobs when I'm done."

Diana waves at her freinds as they leave. "Yes, please stop by later, Kara. And have a good night, both of you." She smiles and keeps waving until both kara and Laurel have zeta-beamed out. And when the hum of the machinery has died down, she sighs and turns to Tony. And she lets out a giggle. "You know, I think they suspect something now. If the dinner didn't confirm it, the kiss did." She leans up to finally return the kiss, planting it on Tony's cheek. "And I am completely fine with that." Smiling happily, she takes a deep breath and looks at the monitor breifly before returning her focus to Tony. "So, how was your day, today?"

Watchtower Station — High Earth Orbit — Solar System

Orbiting over a hundred thousand miles above the Earth lies the glittering jewel of the Justice League: the Watchtower Station. This huge space station is far beyond anything yet achieved by the space agencies or civilian efforts. Over half a mile high, comprising over two dozen levels and millions of square feet of space, the Watchtower does have bays on its two lowest levels for the docking or landing of spacecraft.

The tower is joined together by an open-air tube at its heart wide enough to allow two or three people to fly past one another without risk of collision. For those unable to propel themselves, a simple request to the JARVIS supercomputer system that maintains the facility will generate a repulsor-tech energy field that will carry the individual up and down to the level they require like an express elevator. Every room on every level can generate its own gravity field, thanks to unusual runed deck tiles of metal-impregnated ceramic with alchemical powers. All rooms and levels have similar panels in their ceilings which can generate light in various shades and strengths as required, from utter darkness to brilliant true sunlight.

The station generates its own oxygen, with a tremendous onboard botanical garden taking up several levels at the mid-stretch of the tower's height, and water reclamation systems are tied directly into onboard aquaculture production. Every room in the base has wall panels that become reconfigurable touch- and gesture-controlled accesses to the JARVIS computer system, and have voice-activated access as well. The entire surface of the base acts as solar collectors, constantly supplying a renewable energy source, charging power cells sufficient to run the station for nearly a month on full power before running dry.

Further details and specific areas can be found in the +views.

*Obvious Exits:
* [EO] - High Earth Orbit — Solar Syst
* [ZT] - Zeta Tube — Watchtower Statio

Monitor Womb:
The level at the midline of the tower, just above the botanical garden level, includes the monitor room. This room is actually a sphere with a gantry leading out to its heart from the entry. On the gantry are four stations, and enough room for at least that many more individuals to stand. The walls of the sphere enable holographic displays to present potentially hundreds of different streams of data, from radio and television signals to sensor feeds, analysis, computer records searches, and more. This room often has only one occupant: whomever is on monitor duty at the time, handling whatever emergencies the JARVIS system manages to identify and flag for response.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License