Aberrant: Children of Quantum Fire - [Chapter 6.1] Rising Tide

[Quantum Fire]

With Shen returning from training his new students, Maia once more back and active in matters, and Alex at work in her mobile lab, the rise of the conflict going on in Congo had those of Shen's wards returning to discuss and decide what they were going to do in the rising conflict, as they had in the past, to see if they were all going to do something different, or if they would gather together and work toward a single goal here.

[Karren Gaunt]

Coraline had turned her room aboard the Primus into the living nerve center of what she had started refering to as her 'Young Justice' efforts. A corkboard bulletin board covered one wall, festooned in notes and pictures and print outs from Alex's datamining efforts. The other wall held a dry erase board, old-fashioned, but suitable enough for the metamorph's needs, varicolored diagrams and relationship webs splayed through and around one another in beautiful, organized confusion. A simple two-part tally in the bottom left hand corner, lives saved on the right, lives taken on the left, latter number higher than the former.

The results of four months of work from the shadows contrasted with the odd magazine cliping featuring herself in some piece of clothing she was promoting or momento of an interlude with Norman. It had been a busy, productive three months, a relatively blur of frenzied activity only her siblings, Butch and Maia had helped her get through sane.

Still... In the niggling moments between going to sleep late at night and waking up a handful of hours later, in her heart of hearts, the metamorph knew it wasn't enough. All the contacts, all the work getting in with the Aberrants deep as she was, all the good she was going to do helping novas become parents when it became time to renew her contract with Anna DeVries... Her friend and mentor Sakura had vanished from the midst of her own club, her own cadre of Terragen protectors, taken by Motherhunters. No fertile Nova was safe, and these cautious measures weren't going to accomplish anything in the long run, especially with the sudden disapperance of her ally Zephyr. They had lost their 'inside man' to Utopia and Aeon. Reform was an impossibility now, at least as it was.

She couldn't stand by and let the slow, shadow slaughter of her generation continue. They had the power to stop this, change the entire paradign without being seen. So they would. Now. The Terragen's action over the summer had showed how spineless Aeon was in the face of power, so now she was going to push them exactly where they weren't prepared to push back, forge a better tommorow.

Coraline Boehm rose from her bed with a driven nod and molded her eufiber into a long, shoulderless gown, white hair flowing unfettered to below her shoulder blades, sun-kissed features alert and ready to make her case to the toughest audience she'd ever have to face: her family. A sucked in breath to steady herself, a whisper of quantum to defy the chains of gravity, and she was off to find her siblings.

[SalmonMax]

It was always easy to tell when Alex moved from 'research' mode to 'build' mode. The past couple of weeks had heard machinery whining and grinding reverberating through the hull of the Primus. She had several long, narrow chains of equipment and gear spread out in an untidy-looking mess when anyone poked their head in the lab...and she worked all hours. The fact that she was bothering to machine it, meant she meant this stuff to be permanent, but that was about as much as could easily be gleaned for most of the process. It wasn't until later that it became clear she was building missiles. Or objects that looked too much like missiles. Missiles that would fit rather neatly in the two missile tubes that she'd retained from the design specs of the Typhoon submarine.

Missiles she had just finished loading into those tubes when Coraline found her there in the workshop/lab.

[Sailor OOC]

Kamiko was glad she had a few days off. So far she hasn't been called to help evacuate the workers and children of the Congo Branch of the Dragon's Den. No emergency either for Kamiko to answer for the GNS. She wasn't a member any more, but she still felt that if Star needed her in a pinch, she could be there.

She straightens out her new Uniform, her stand-out white Nippontai suit with red circular devices that were part of the comlink, floodlight, and computer systems. She takes the included helmet and puts it on.

She stands in the central foyer of the Bibliotheca Sacra. She had been getting it ready for any evacuations, but today she was on a different job.

"Omoikane... keep an eye on things, I'm meeting up with a new friend."

Understood, Miss Aino. Good luck.

Kamiko takes a moment to open a warp, it opens up over the water, the glistening, calm waters below. She adjusts her backpack and smiles.

She walks up to about a meter from the aperture and jumps through. Once clearing to the other side, she pulls a lanyard and a couple air bladders inflate out under her arms, making a ring-like life preserver around her chest as she lands in the water.

When she surfaces on her landing she looks about waiting for her pickup. She opens her helmet knowing her computer won't be of much use.

"Well... hopefully you remember where my splash-down point was, Alex..." She thinks, before closing her eyes and leaning back as best she can. "Might be having a moment..."

She sighed, waiting to be picked up. She focused on keeping her head and waiting patiently.

Spent 1 Willpower

[Sunstar]

Marina had swum up to meet Kamiko, knowing that she was coming to the Primus today.

She arrived far from the Primus at the meet up point to keep her company.

When she surfaces, Marina is in a dark blue and white sailor lolita style dress with stripped stockings and a pair of shoes. Oddly enough the moment she surfaces, the outfit dries with no trace of it ever getting wet in the first place. Her hair was in curls and dark purple.

She waves to Kamiko as she swims towards her.

"Heya Kamiko! Came up to keep you company."

[Maia]

Maia moved through the sub quietly. Justin was back in the Congo, having elected to stay there should the situation arise where he'd be needed. They'd already bought a home in Kinshasa, so as to not impose on Einherjar's hospitality, and his transfer of citizenship had already gone through. She missed him, though she'd only been separated from him for a few days. Still after a year in constant company with him, it was difficult and she felt a little guilty, in that the separation felt good too.

She entered Alex's lab just after Cora, and smiled to her two younger sisters. "Cora, Alex. Good to see you."

She was dressed casually in a simple Te-shirt and jeans, her violet eyes radiant with the happy and generally carefree look she reserved only for her siblings, and the girls they'd rescued. "What's on the agenda for today?"

[Butch_Cole]

Butch had spent much of the past few months cloistered in his room, devouring knowledge by the book-full, learning all that he possibly could cram into his quantum enhanced brain. It was a mish-mosh of information really.

There was biology. Following his apotheosis, Butch felt his bioenergy reaching out in new ways. If he wanted to, Butch could quiet his mind, twitch his node, and reach out his energy to touch entire species. With a push here, a pull there, Butch could change an entire species. Make it fit to survive under any conditions imaginable. Mutate it and make it...different. From within, innerButch was whispering that he could probably change novas, too. Still, he wanted to know what he was doing before he even came anywhere close to changing the world to the degree that he potentially could...

Then there was intelligence training. Through his connection with Mindwave and the Aberrants, Butch had developed his mind to analyze the evidence that was being collected and organized through his sister Cora's Young Justice efforts. Between that and all the information that his brainiac sister Alex's robots or whatever-the-hell-they-were collected, the more heads they could put together that knew how to deal with all sorts of intelligence from actionable to tactical, from estimative to strategic. According to contacts among the Aberrants, Butch could probably hold his own with a good chunk of the analysts working for the CIA.

All told, Butch had been busy expanding his mind over the past few months and was proud of the progress he had made. He closed the binder containing several hundred scientific journal articles about evolutionary biology and genetics he had been poring over all night. After spending an hour doing his usual workout, Butch made his way towards Alex's lab for his usual morning check-in. Half the time, Alex didn't even acknowledge his presence since she was in her own little world. The other half of the time he got a grunt or a nod and maybe...maybe some technobabble. It didn't bother him though. He just liked watching his sister doing something she enjoyed.

Then there was Cora. She had dedicated herself to the mission set out with her Young Justice group. There was quiet joy perhaps in what she did. A silent art, a sculpting of ideas and intelligence into a work that seemed ready to be unveiled to the world. She had told Butch what these ideas involved, and he wondered what the rest of their siblings would say to her idea.

When he approached the door, Butch heard that Cora and Maia were already in the lab. Walking through the door and into the lab, Butch said, "Morning, ladies. Hope everyone had a good night. How'd those missile things turn out, Alex? Everything you hoped they'd be?"

[Karren Gaunt]

"Morning," Coraline offered, a warm whisp of a smile on her lips, same as she had offered to her second-eldest sister when she had entered not thirty seconds before. She brushed a lock of white hair behind one ear, a vision of graceful control and pleasing curves as always, keeping most of her awareness on the world around them, eyes seeing beyond the mundane into the quantum and subquantum domains. There was always so much more going on than people knew.

"Well, the children are fed and engrossed in their studies for at least a few hours, I don't have any Modeling shoots planned for today, and once Marina gets back here with Kamiko for her first visit to the Primus... It's long past time for me to unveil the next step I feel we need to take to save the lives of our generation even as Aeon makes an openly agressive move to snuff it out by destroying the one place we can could count on as a sanctuary against Mother Hunters. I know I won't be able to convince all of you. In fact, I suspect Alex will hate it on it's face, but it's something, in my opinion after three months of sinking myself into the problem, we have to do if we want to do enough good in time to prevent Uncle Shen's prophecy from coming true."

She looked from sibling to siblings as she said this, white-on-black eyes deadly serious and composed. There was no despair in her gaze, no haste, only long meditated upon resolve.

[SalmonMax]

Alexandra nodded at Maia in greeting. "Good to see you again. It's been awhile. As for the agenda...once I'm done here I'll be heading back to the Congo to check on a few things. Then I thought I might take a vacation for a couple of hours and see how that goes." She grinned.

"The 'missile things' are ready for launch...won't know for a couple of months if they worked right, but there's no reason I can see why they wouldn't. Then I do the usual dance...research, refine, redesign, and maybe visit the sites personally to see how they're doing. So I may be out a week or two sometime in December or January... So, you know, try to avoid having any world-threatening situations then."

"Speaking of which..." she glanced at Cora. "Prevent which prophecy from coming true?" Her tone sounded like she was asking a question she already thought she knew the answer to.

[Maia]

"Vacation for at least a day Alex, Justin and I would love to have you stay in our home. A couple hours isn't enough. You do need to relax more, and I aim to help you there. Even if I have to make you myself." It could have been a threat but wasn't, merely the desire of an elder sister to see a younger happy, and active beyond her corner of the world.

She looked to Cora and her smile faded. "I'm glad the girls and their mothers are okay. I'd wondered and worried about them while I was gone." She'd been back two months but had too little time for her liking to be around the girls.

"You're speaking of the one he told us I take it?"

She looked to Butch, and Embraced him, this being the first time she'd gotten to see him. "I'm glad to be back in the fold Butch, I've missed all of you."

[Sailor OOC]

In the Water, waiting for everyone...

"Oh, Marina! Nice to see you!" Kamiko says, swimming over.

reminder

Not in a raft, just got a life preserver on around the waist.

"So, I think that the Primus should be sending something my way soon... I heard Alex had a surprise he wanted to show me today. That and all the security stuff of having me at a pick-up location I think is a pretty smart move. And... I should test my rescue equipment once in a while. Someone might depend on it."

She takes her helmet off, then undoes the neck of her suit after pulling back the cowl. Taking her hair back out and letting it sit free. Then she re-closes the neck of her suit.

"Sorta feel like a Sentai member when I wear my Nippontai uniform... I like it actually. I feel like my actions mean something more than just exploring or just helping someone. I got a whole nation behind me. But nothing like Corra's team... I got a facet of Metahumanity looking to me for help there."

She finally notices Marina's outift. She gasps with glee. "Oh that outfit is cute! Where did you find it?"

[Karren Gaunt]

Alex got a sidelong 'don't be an ass' look from Cora for her obtuse comment. The nanomorph more than almost any of them except Butch knew exactly which of Shen's prophecies she was refering to. "Yes. The important one where he predicts his own death by the end of the year. The clock is ticking, and I refuse to believe that there's nothing we can do about it while making the world a better place," the metamorph's chorus commented, "If we have the courage to act, that is. And sooner rather than later. When did you say Kamiko was getting here, Alex?"

She crossed her arms over her chest, lips pressing together bloodlessly. She didn't need all of their support to do this. In fact she needed only one or two of them to execute her plan. But she at the very least needed the rest's indifference to not interfere.

[Sailor OOC]

In the ocean...

Kamiko starts getting a distinct feeling that Marina is there for more than a simple greeting. She lets the air out of her life preserver and folds the halves into their pouch while treading water...

"So... I wager you're my ride instead?"

She puts her helmet back on. "We can discuss fashion on the Primus I suppose."

"Just attune me first... at your speed underwater I'm sure to get hurt."

[Sunstar]

Marina nods.

"Yeah I'm hear to bring you aboard. But my Attunement's not strong enough to drag people with me. But I've got a quick solution"

Marina Pauses.

"Kamiko, what I am about to do we are never to bring up again."

spoiler

4q spent on Bodymorph and Shapechange to become...and giant bubble around Kamiko.

Marina's bodyshifts into it's watery form, then surround Kamiko as it expands into a bubble around her.

"One Wonder Twins joke Kamiko and so help me god..."

[Sailor OOC]

"Actually, I have a thought of what you're about to do, Marina..."

"You are going to use yourself as a safety bubble to carry me, and transit to the Primus using Supercavitating speed. Almost like a science fiction Warp Drive."

If her helmet was off, she'd adjust her glasses. "There is nothing to be ashamed of, Marina. In fact I find this a terriffic level of using your talents!"

She moves into a reclined position within Marina. "But if it makes you feel better... I won't say anything unless lives are at stake. Is that a fine compromise?"

"Outside of that... Make it so!" Kamiko says with a smile.

[SalmonMax]

"You have, I trust, resolved the Oracle's Paradox then?" Alex inquired archly. "I'm curious to hear how you did it. Kamiko and Marina should be back any moment now, as it happens. I'm monitoring their location right now."

She waved the moment of tension off. "Anyway, I've no objection to your quest to save Shen in and of itself. I'd like him to live too. I just trust his judgement enough to believe in his motives for appearing to select that future as the best of the branches ahead of him. I wish you'd talk to him about it, Cora."

[Maia]

Maia wished Pip was around for a myriad of reasons, but right now, the network would be nice to have. That she'd left while Maia was gone was something she regretted, and hoped to rectify one day. "No one wants Shen to die Cora, none of us at any rate, and I know we want to make sure it doesn't happen."

She sighed. In training they spoke of how difficult Cora made it to see any future with her involvement, and in the end the best way to see it was to be there. "Once we all go sit in the conference room I think we can start. I don't think this is something Alex wants us to get into here in her lab."

[Sunstar]

"Thanks Kamiko. Alright...hold on. Gonna make this a little more solid just to be safe."

spoiler

4q to spend on Density control, 2q spent to use hypermovement

Marina, Kamiko in tow, suddenly jolts downward at 500 kph towards the Primus. Even more so, the watery form of Marina is solid enough to sit or stand on.

"Going a little slower than warp speed, Kamiko. Safety first after all."

[Sailor OOC]

Kamiko laughs. "Hey, We don't want to boil the oceans doing relativistic speeds."

She sits back, the solid but watery form of her friend providing a cushion from inertial changes, although Kamiko's already adapted to sudden G-Force changes.

Once they arrive, Marina parks her bubble-form near the converted Russian submarine at a side escape hatch that Marina knew had a airlock for entries and exits, and releases Kamiko. Kamiko swims over with some skill over to the airlock door and opens it, motioning for Marina to come in. The clear faceplate of Kamiko's helmet told the story, she was happy to have taken a ride like that.

Once inside, Kamiko closes the outer hatch and begins the process of draining the airlock and equalizing the pressure. Marina returns to her human form. The draining process was slow, but acceptable. Kamiko actually opens her helmet and swims with the dropping water level until her feet touch the floor.

"Wow... that was great, Marina! I've not had fun like that in... well since I white-watered the Congo! Or went to New Hope with Star... Hell, or even saw the Titanic with my folks first hand..."

She looks down for a moment when her feet touch the bulkhead floor. She sighs. "So much I did with my first parents..."

Once the room is drained, the pressure equalizes rather quickly. Kamiko has to clear her ears a couple times as she re-adapts. "Damn... that was... unexpected." She says with a giggle as a green light turns on. She opens the internal bulkhead door and she is aboard. "Hello! Permission to come aboard?!" Kamiko shouts. "Marina is with me!" She turns around seeing Marina is back in her cure little sailor outfit, dry as a bone. "Well... nice trick. Once everyone greets me I'll have to get changed. I mean my Nippontai uniform is all cool and stuff but... this isn't Nippontai business."

She walks out and looks around. For a Typhoon class ship, this submarine was even more decadent than a submariner deserved.

[SalmonMax]

As the siblings talked in the lab, the submarine shook slightly from the overpressure of Marina's bow shock overtakin it. An audible poom could be heard, ringing the pressure hull like a bell.

"...and that would be them now," Alex said.

Meanwhile, in the small 'room' just inside the sub from the airlock, lined with doorways for suits and survival gear, a hologram of Alexandra appeared facing Marina and Kamiko.

"Welcome aboard the Primus," it explained with a smile and something between a curtsy and a bow. "Head aft for the galley and lab. Being the nautical enthusiast you are, you may be familiar with standard Typhoon deckplans. If so, the galley's in the same place; it's just a bit bigger and much more modern than Ye Olde Soviet Russia would have included. The lab and workshop has replaced about half the ICBM tubes and missile magazine. Extra living space and the minisub bay replaced the rest. Optimizations in design and advanced materials allowed me to save waste space and expand the dimensions of internal corridors, so the whole thing feels a bit roomier than the already-pretty-roomy deckplans normally would. Engine design was modified to make them quieter and enhance response. Old fission reactors replaced with smaller, higher-output, and infinitely safer molten salt reactors. I reduced the torpedo tube count, but what's left is armed with supercavitating torpedoes that fly nearly as fast as Marina does, and are smart enough to do Bill Gates' taxes. Hull incorporates amorphous microcrystals designed to break up reflected active sonar to muddy the return and reduce targeting solution accuracy. It also helps reduce thermal noise. Engines baffled and dampened...the whole thing runs as quiet as a sub a fifth its size and power."

The hologram grinned and wagged a cautionary finger.

"Just don't let me catch you singing the Russian national anthem."

[Sailor OOC]

"What... no Magneto-Hydrodynamic drives?" Kamiko says with a smirk as she looks about. "Would produce a far quieter noise in the water."

She looks at the survival suits and gets a little weak in the knees. But she knows to keep herself. She takes her helmet off and starts making her way to the mess hall. She figures everyone sooner or later would head there but first she heads to the bathroom to change. Putting her gear into her backpack that was designed to be water-phobic, and had already shed the water still on it, and pulling out what is her uniform on the Hikari Maru A.

She also takes the time to reload the cartridge that inflates the LPU built into the suit she was wearing. It takes all of a minute before she steps back out, wearing her uniform and looking nautical... if the ship was a spacecraft. She has her computer tablet with her, and her backpack on, since she's not had her quarters assigned yet.

here is the outfit

[SalmonMax]

The Alex-gram compacts to a floating head and paces her through the corridor.

"An MHD drive would have required fusion power, and its performance would have been atrocious. Plus, the volume footprint was much higher. In the end, the tradeoffs weren't worth the gains. Recessed fans, shock absorbers, and the amorphous hull clean up the noise signature enough to obscure the 'make and model,' and without target ID it's unlikely we'll be engaged in international waters unless there's a state of global war...in which case I'll probably move to Jupiter."

"Most of us are in the lab right now. There's a small conference room just outside the main lab that Butch is wanting to herd us into. Head over there when you're ready."

[Butch_Cole]

Butch returned Maia's embrace. He held her by the shoulders, at arm's length, and looked her up and down.

"We missed you, too, sis," Butch said. "You're looking great. I hope all's well with Justin."

He listened to the back-and-forth between Alex and Cora while leaning up against a wall with his arms crossed. Cora's tension was obvious to even the casual observer, but he hoped she would calm down when it came time for her to spill the beans on her plan. This particular bean spilling would most likely make quite a mess and the last thing they needed was more of a reason to yell at each other.

Maia's suggestion to move out of the lab was a good one, but Butch didn't really like the conference room much anymore after his failed meeting months ago. Still, there wasn't really any other place for a good ol' fashioned meeting.

"Ok, folks," Butch said. "Let's get movin' on out of here and into somewhere more fit for a meeting."

He put his hand on Cora's shoulder and gently led her out of the lab, whispering to her once they were outside.

"Take it easy, Cora," he said. "Alex is just being Alex. Let's stay frosty until we're all settled. Then we can get all prickly and yell at each other like the nice family unit we are."

[Sailor OOC]

"Right... also I have the diagram for a Fusion reactor you can improve upon. I also wish to extend an invitation to visit the Bibliotheca Sacra."

She adjusts her uniform, changing her path to the confrence room. "I personally will be using that in case I have to evacuate the children and staff from the Congo branch of the Dragon's Den to a safe location without worrying about currying favor with another nation. I've been setting up the non-perishible supplies needed to feed them. Knowing disaster relief suppliers allows me to get what I require when needed."

She sees everyone head to the confrence room and sees Coraline. "Cora!" She runs over and hugs her. "Nice to see you again!"

[Karren Gaunt]

Butch got a grateful nod from Cora for his intervention, much as the fact he was whispering in a crowd full of people who could hear the beat of a flies heart over the hum of it's wings brought an ironic smile to her lips.

Kamiko's glomp was accepted with as much good grace as the metamorph could muster. Her personal space was something she was starting to value more and more with the way baselines and unshielded novas so eagerly wanted to violate it. It wasn't their fault per say, but it was annoying. "Kamiko. Dan tells me Nipponatai is treating you well, and it appears he's right," she offered after stepping back out of the hug, chorus of voices steady, "Welcome to the Primus. You're in for an interesting next half-hour or so if I know my siblings well as I think I do."

And with that, Coraline flitted to the head of the table, feet a handful of inches off the ground, brushing an errant lock of hair out of her face and waiting for her siblings and friend to sit down before making her speech. Make or break time.

[Sailor OOC]

Kamiko adjusted her glasses, they looked very modern, the fact she had Nippontai incorporate a OLED screen in her prescription lenses was a coup. Of course she was sure to screen herself and through an independent agent have her tech screened for any tracer technology. Like hell she was going to let anyone know where the Primus or the Bibliotheca Sacra.

She adjusted her uniform, and felt some regret from noticing Cora was put off slightly by the show of affection.

"I... Apologize for the sudden burst of affection. I should have asked first."

Kamiko takes her seat at the opposite end of the table from Cora. To her, Cora was the only other person now she would take command from outside of the convoluted but welcoming chain of command in Nippontai. She was a Captain herself... of a Starship no less, but being positioned closer to a middle position of command on Cora's team, one where she was used to... was like a warm sweater.

"Well, Cora... whatever it is, I'm behind you." She says, adjusting the brass glasses that has become her trademark in many public appearances.

[Sunstar]

Marina on the other hand, ended up glomping Butch.

"Hiya, Butch! How are thing going today with you?"

She let's go and faces Cora.

"Heya Cora! As you can see I brought down Kamiko safe and sound."

She sat down with that.

[Sailor OOC]

"Yep she did. Proves to me I should offer her ocean rescue training. It would serve her well."

She smiles. Feeling like this was as much of a family as Dan is, or her first Mother and Father was. Doryoku and Long on the other hand... they just didn't seem like parents, more like friends helping watch her and teach her. But the people assembled here... feel like the brothers and sisters she's never had.

She nods to Butch. "And Hello, you must be Butch. I never was formally introduced. I'm Captain Kamiko Hideyoshi of the Hikari Maru A, I'm also known as Heiwa of Nippontai. Proud to meet your acquaintance." She says with a polite nod.

[Maia]

Maia, the tallest of the girls, chuckled softly at the new addition to the Family in a way. She was a friend of Cora's and knowing Cora, she knew Kamiko was okay. Dan, Cora's Sifu, was another of Shen's Protege's someone he'd mentioned a few times in training, Another Master aside from Jason she could turn to, if she needed.

She took a seat as well waiting for Alex, and with any luck, Shen and Serenity would come. "Cora, is this a "kids only" meeting, or are we going to wait For Uncle Shen, and aunt Serenity?"

As she waited for an answer, she looked to Kamiko and nodded. "nice to meet you Kamiko, I'm Maia, one of Cora's big sisters." She nodded to Marina and chuckled. All the sisterhood was roughly the same age and height, save Maia, who was the tallest, and now the eldest.

[Sailor OOC]

Kamiko nodded with a smile. "The pleasure is mine, Maia. Any relation of Cora is a friend of mine."

She smiled and nodded. Realizing she's just run into a whole Sisterhood. A Sorority of Novas... With just one boy.

"I've as of yet not seen one man or boy here outside of him..." Gesturing to Butch "...this some sort of sorority?" Kamiko says with a joking grin.

[Sunstar]

"More like our family. There were more, but some of us went their separate paths"

She sighed thinking about her siblings that left the family.

"Anyways, don't just stand there Kamiko. Sit down. Our home is your home."

She said smiling towards Kamiko

[SalmonMax]

Alex took her seat and sat there, glancing from person to person. Someone who knew her would surmise, accurately, that most of her real attention was buried deep in the ship's computers, and in her own clockwork thoughts, updated with periodic summaries of outside events by the fraction of herself left behind to monitor the room.

[Butch_Cole]

Butch returned the nod to Kamiko and smiled.

"Well, good to formally meet you, too," he said. "We were acquainted on Mars, but I guess this is as formal a meeting as any."

The young nova was clearly all about formality, introducing herself with full rank and whatnot. Plus the uniform. Butch was in more casual attire, wearing a plain black t-shirt and torn blue jeans with biker boots. There was a healthy amount of stubble on his face since he hadn't shaved yet.

Sitting down at the table to Cora's left, Butch chuckled considering how he was the only male there. His brothers had all but disappeared. God only knew where Warren had warped off to. Or when he had warped off to. Perhaps he was surfing solar tides or diving into the cores of distant stars. Perhaps he was off staring at his navel. And Darrik? Darrik seemed to only be around very rarely these days having essentially joined the Teragen. Truly a shame considering what they did to Pip, leading to her fragile state of mind and eventual...what, exodus?...exile?...Butch was unsure what to call it.

"Well," Butch said, getting comfortable in his chair. "I'm not the only male around, but sometimes it's pretty close. There's a rugrat around here somewhere with a Y chromosome. And then there's our Uncle, but he pops in and out a whole lot these days. When he's been around, Uncle Shen's been...distant lately."

He shrugged.

"Part and parcel of being a precog, I guess."

Butch finished speaking and waited for Cora to get things started.

[Maia]

Maia sighed. Darrik's betrayal was just that, and it annoyed her. Of all of them, even considering her actions, she knew his to be the most reckless and inconsiderate, especially given what had happened to Pip. "We had other brothers, but they're doing their own things now, and there's little we can do to account for them or their actions." Darrik;s dark sun incident made her cringe, a display of power that cost innocent lives, all to prove he could do it.

[Sailor OOC]

Kamiko blushed. She realized she was probably being too formal... but this was a meeting she's wandered into that Cora was having... if this was of importance, particularly to the team, this must be a serious emergency... perhaps some information on that Trog queen came up... perhaps Proteus is making a move... perhaps one of their own was in danger... this could be a grave situation and she's willing to do what she can to help!

But it was a little stuffy on the ship... Or it was simply Kamiko being tense. She opened the jacket of her uniform, and pulled the seal-zipper down on the turtle-neck like bodysuit underneath.

She leans back after sitting down, and waits for Cora to speak, adjusting her glasses and still just happy to be there.

[Karren Gaunt]

"Thank you, Kamiko, but feel free to speak you mind. What I'm about to propose is big enough that I expect plenty of debate, albeit debate that hopefully ends up with most of you seeing things my way so we can stop nibbling at the edge of the problem and strike at it's heart," Coraline began, lifting further off the ground and clapping her hands together.

"Three months ago, we started tackling one of the most complicated problems in the world: nova fertility. How to protect pregnant novas from fearful baselines. How contain the damage heavily tainted novas and their children inevitably do. How to play catch up with the century old puppet masters of Aeon in the domain of intelligence gathering. How to act on that intelligence without overturning the board and setting the world aflame. And we've done good work. I couldn't have dreamed of doing even a tenth of what we've done without your help and the help of our other allies. But... Aeon itself has lit the spark of that flame down in the Congo, and after seeing their nonreactions all summer to the actions of the Teragen, seeing my friend stolen from the midst of her own protecters... I think it's time to take it to the next level and alter the flow of history in a way only this family can, undetectable and relentless as moon pushing and pulling the tides."

She nodded once, more to herself than anyone else, chorus picking up again, "It's time to devalue the currency. Turn hunting fertile novas from dangerous and profitable to dangerous and pointless. Give fertility back to every living Nova anonymously and then go back to the day by day and life by life methodolgy that has made Young Justice as successful as it is. But we're going to have to give one big push to alter the pattern of motion enough to make a difference in time for it to matter."

"The how is actually pretty simple to do without burning anyone out. Butch to provide the medium by which we make the change. Butch, Maia, or Darrik, I think, to copy the medium over to myself and Maia. And Maia and I using Uncle Shen's teachings to protect our nodes when we *push*, together using a knack I was shown, to effect the change all at once. A quiet miracle. A new N-Day. A rising tide to lift all hopes just enough to get back to work knowing there will be no more Sakuras," the metamorph concluded with a smile. There. It was out in the open. Time to fly or die.

[Sailor OOC]

Kamiko stood up in shock. "What... what you propose... is..."

She considered her next words carefully.

"When I joined your team, Cora... it was for the purpose of bringing peace to the Family of Metahumanity. The Children of Galatea and the Children of Earth. Now we... the Children of Quantum Fire are left with the thing that our fore-bearers were unable or unwilling to handle. Aeon... Aeon and it's bitter, poisoned fruit."

"We have solutions... to change the playing field... but we must prove that those born of Novas are stable... safe... Like those of us here."

"We are going to create in this plan something that will if successful... destroy their primary objective."

"In the process, we must focus on the second prong of our efforts... The treatment of taint. And we need two ways. One is the discipline that my father, Dan Hawkins knows, and the other is the technology developed to treat Taint. Taint is the dread disease of our kind."

"But finally we must stand for something beyond just evening the playing field. We must become the example of what Aeon lost long ago. We must prepare for the day when there is no Project Utopia or Aeon. When the criminals of Proteus pay for what they have done!"

She straightens her uniform, almost looking like she's standing at attention. But it can be read, she's dead serious. "I will do whatever I can to make this a reality, Cora! Metahumanity deserves our every effort! What do you need me to do? What do you need me to do to make our dream a reality?"

[SalmonMax]

"Restoring fertility is fine and well," Alex says, "But this isn't a good time. The world situation is unstable. Tilting the balance that radically would tip baseline factions that are currently more or less neutral into the fray against us. You'd wind up doing much more harm than good."

[Sailor OOC]

"There is that risk, Alex. But to be honest the pieces on both sides of the chess board are in a point of stasis. We have to make Aeon pay for what they have done. Proteus first. We need to lay bare the Aeon plot. All the way. In the process we undo the damage completely and utterly."

She closes her jacket after zipping up her undersuit. "I honestly think that subterfuge has allowed us to reach this point. The time may be now. We won't know for certain unless we actually try."

She adjusts her uniform and crosses her arms. "And I am planning about a potential escape plan as well."

"The Hikari Maru A is capable of using my warps. I am in control and command of it. If we need to escape for good, I am willing to lead that exodus. I have a copy of the candidate planets first found for the GNS for the maiden voyage of that organization. That and I am capable of employing GNS assets since the GNS has partnered with JAXA and Nippontai, and to hear of more habitable worlds."

"If we must, we should take our allies and run. But I am not willing to consider this unless we are lost."

"As far as I am concerned... the time for action is arriving and delay will only cost us victory. We need to go all out. Do we have the necessary assets to pull this off?"

Kamiko sighs. "My duties with Nippontai, although important are small. It seems that they were not ready to have a 15 year old Nova front-and-center on the main team or on main missions after all. I'm on a auxiliary role. My hands are tied in dealing with Japanese affairs, but I am sure depending on what I am asked to do I wouldn't have trouble in assisting wherever needed."

[Butch_Cole]

Butch listened to Cora's plan and thought her idea of "devaluing the currency" of fertile novas was a good one. He would support her in this endeavor.

Then of course Alex went and did her usual I'm-so-smart-now-i'm-gonna-crap-on-your-parade deal. Completely emotionless. Robotic. Pure Alex.

Butch leaned forward, elbows on the conference table. He said, "Well, Cora, you've got my support."

He turned to face Alex. "Let's be honest. When is it gonna be a good time? Come on. Seriously. After the Congo war? After the war after that? After the war after that war after the Congo war? The world situation is unstable? Fuck that. When the hell is it not unstable?!"

Butch shook his head, frowning. "Since novas came along, can you honestly say it's been stable for even a nanosecond? Shit's boiling right under the surface if it ain't already out in the open and it's been bubbling away all foul and fecal since N-Day. No. Before N-Day. Aeon gave novas a right royal shafting right from the jump off. We can do something about that. I think we have a moral imperative to do something about that. Now. And then in nine months, the world has to deal with the fact that novas can have kids, too. Better it be out in the open so that everyone, every goddamn person on the planet, nova or otherwise, has to take a stand one way or another. Either they accept that novas can have kids like every other person or they don't. No more sweeping the dirt under the rug with all the rest of the skeletons and corpses and garbage."

He sat back and crossed his arms over his chest, saying, "Let justice be done though the heavens fall."