Aberrant: Children of Quantum Fire - [Fiction] Enduring Connections (Fin)

[Karren Gaunt]

Location: Planet New Hope, somewhere east of New Hope City

Date: August 17th, 2027

Partisipants: Dan Hawkins, Sarah Hawkins

Sarah had needed this. Getting away from everything, nearly everyone, exploring a strange, new, *clean* world on foot with nothing but the sword on her back, a few extra changes of clothes, the golden power in her 'node', and, thankfully unneeded so far, a comunicator if she ever got in trouble. It had been a... relief, being able to drop the mask entirely, scream out the strange collosal unfairness of it all beneath these alien stars. Spend a day or two doing nothing at all. Push herself to her limits in a way she couldn't even back home till she collapsed, drained on the physical, mental, and 'quantum' levels.

The sizeshifter had done some of her best thinking after those runs. Dan. Sonja. Kamiko. The wonder children. Motherhunting. Elites. DeVries. GNS. The 'other' her. Home. The Z. Whether she could, would, or should go back. Earth. All of it tangled together yet somehow making perfect sense for all too few minutes at a time. Still, there was only so much she could unravel on her own, particularly in regards to a certain former Marine who she knew all too well and barely at all.

So she made a call back to New Hope City. Invited Dan and Sonja to a stretch of perfect, white sand beach. And was unselfconsiously relaxing on said beach while she was waiting at 656 feet from head to toe, sunning her back with her face in her arms, feeling the waves beat against her left side, enjoying the freedom to express her power without worrying about causing a stir.

[Dan Hawkins]

"Daddy What's that?" Sonja asked, a little in awe.

"That's Sarah at her full size, taking a rare chance to enjoy it." He was slightly in awe himself, she was so much larger than Sarah had ever been, than anyone he had seen. She was beautiful, and he was very glad for over a decade of excercises to control himself. He'd brought a tent and some basic supplies, as well as a large picnic basket.

"Aren't you glad I said to bring your swimsuit?"

Sonja smiled up to him. "She's gonna swamp us though."

"She won't stay that big Sonja." As it was Dan was only one percent of her height. He smiled as he called out. "Sarah! we're here, I brought lunch, and Sonja."

Sonja chuckled, and the two of them waited to see if she'd come down to a somewhat more managable size, as right now, there were few options for direct communications, and Dan was fairly sure hovering in front of her would be rude.

[Karren Gaunt]

There was a moment's pause and the looming blonde giantess rolled onto her side to take the sight of the two of them in, body leaving a deep pool of compressed sand. A smile huge even in proportion to her current scale crossed her lips and lit her eyes, a deep rumbling laugh escaping her. They looked so tiny. It had been so long since she was this large around other people, and almost never under so happy a set of circumstances. "Give me a second," she intoned happily, concentrating, "Don't want to knock you over reverting to normal."

Sarah lost size in halves over the course of a half minute, making sure to position herself after each reduction so that it was only a short walk, shrinking from 20 feet tall to 10 without stumbling even as she closed the distance, sky-blue bikini a pleasant match to her eyes. She looked... content. Together. More sure of herself even to the superhuman people reading skills of the ex-marine. She knelt and offered a hug to the girl, an inviatation eagerly accepted to the limits of her ability.

"I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long, Sonja. A promise is a promise," the sizeshifter warmly offered, gaze meeting Dan's over the child's shoulder, a few strands of rogue hair having escaped from her ponytail, "Did you and Dan have a good trip out here?"

[Dan Hawkins]

Sonja smiled and hugged Sarah happily. She wasn't her mother, but she was close, closer than anyone else. "Daddy and I made it fine, seeing the stars along the way was pretty."

Dan smiled. He brought her himself, testing his abilities. "You look great Sarah, really great."

Sonja smiled. 'Daddy's been waiting too, it wasn't just me." To his credit he didn't deny it, knowing better. It was true, he had wanted to see her again. Life had gotten crazy, and the world was getting more complicated. Here though, it was nowhere near as such.

"Are you feeling better now Sarah?" Sonja asked her innocently. "Daddy's been worried."

Dan chuckled. "I swear you're telepathic sometimes Sonja."

She shook her head. "No, I just know you daddy."

He smiled and looked to Sarah. "I was a little worried. but I knew you'd keep your word."

Sonja smiled. "Flying out here was fun, you and him should try it sometime."

[Karren Gaunt]

Sarah chuckled again, giving Dan an ever-so-slightly bittersweet smile back before releasing the hug, "Yes, I'm feeling better. This time was good for me, Sonja. Sometimes even we adults need time to ourselves to figure out what we want."

She shifted from a kneel to comfortable half-sprawl, not *quite* subconciously displaying the bathing suit Dan had helped her order back when she first arrived here in this universe, "No. Make that especially adults. Complicated as the world is, we can't help but make it more complicated for ourselves. Sorry for worrying you, Dan. Pleasantly though, it seems that's there's a shortage of deep sea predators willing to risk taking on a giant amazon swiming at superhuman speed. New Hope is a marvel, and if someone ruined it while I'm still around, I'd be highly tempted to take... measures."

A twist of her lip showed she was kidding, mostly, about that last part before adding more lightly, "So what treats have you and Sonja packed for our lunch?"

[Dan Hawkins]

"Homemade burgers, shrimp tempura, and several other surprises, along with some sweet tea." He smiled setting the pack down and trying not to think how good she looked in the bathing suit.

"There are few things on our world that would willingly pick a fight with you I believe."

"I share your sentiments, part of why I've overseen much of the security procedures here." He'd specifficly not searched for her, letting her have her space, trusting in her to not alter things too much.

Sonja took her hand to lead her to the blanket so they could eat. "Come on Sarah, I helped cook so you have to try it all!" she was a happy child, happier than she'd been since sarah left.

[Karren Gaunt]

And Sarah was doing her best to not wilt that happiness, complying with Sonja's tugs and settling down on the blanket as the first of the picnic was unpacked. She supposed it said more about her than she cared to think about that superhuman charisma and power enough to kill anything that bled didn't seem like enough to deter attacks on her person. No. Think past it. She didn't need to check every opague pool or deep shadow for zeds in hiding, and it wasn't doing her any good to think that way. No. Focus on the good in the now, and if she got any time alone with Dan, then move onto the heavy stuff. God certainly knew there was enough of that, good and bad to go over.

She permited herself a further laugh, an interested glance own at the bubbling girl, "So what have you two been doing to fill the hours since I've been away on 'walkabout'? I want to get caught up on everything I've missed with you two. Everything."

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan smiled. "I've been working with GNS, handling various matters there, and training with Coraline. Her uncle sent her to me, to finish what they began and she left." He looked down. "Cora has some deeper issues I think that she needs to resolve, and sadly I just don't see it happening."

He sighed. "She's another like Kamiko and Sonja, a second generation, with the same level of power as Kamiko."

"It's difficult teaching a young adult with more power than you how to do anything at times, especially when they think they know better."

Sonja looked up at her. "I've been training too, and Kami and Star take me flying, and I got to go to a couple new planets even, and Then we got to go meet the others, Cora's brothers and sisters. They're really cool, and like me!"

Dan smiled. "I've been trying to get her around other novas closer to her own age...I don't want to derive her of her childhood."

[Karren Gaunt]

Sarah smiled down at the excited girl, genuine happiness for Sonja in her eyes as she put together a heaping plate of food for herself. One thing the wilderness of New Hope *was* short on was tasteful food, and Sarah had been subsiding on Quantum for the most part.

"Sounds tricky, Dan. But speaking from first hand experience, I'd suggest being there to catch her when she falls. Nothing helps you get your priorities straight like failing and having someone help you in your darkest hour," she offered, looking away into a past only she could see before sighing back into the here and now, "But if she's as good a kid as you teaching her would seem to indicate, you'll work something out between you."

Her voice expressed utter faith in Dan's ability to handle the girl and do his best by her, "What is it you're training Coraline and Sonja in though? I never quite got that."

The blonde sizeshifter brought a burger up to her mouth, and chewed, one eyebrow raised in interested expectation.

[Dan Hawkins]

"A very very different life path than what most novas walk." He didn't openly talk of it often, but Sarah was special. "I assume you know what Quantum backlash syndrome, or Taint, is. This lifestyle is something I spent two years learning, and have practiced the last fifteen. It allows me to channel taint effectively ridding myself of it at certain costs. It cannot remove aberrations, but the other harmful effects it can remove and stave off the madness that afflicts those who amass far too much taint."

"Sonja may never have need of it, Coraline either, but it's the duty of a master to teach, so that the knowledge isn't lost."

"I thought about teaching it to Kamiko, but she's not ready yet, nor willing to make the required time commitment. Mary allready knows, it, she was my first student." He spoke the last with a touch of pride.

"It's all about control and balance, accepting yourself as a human being, and maintaining your humanity in the face of such overwhelming power as quantum can provide us."

Sonja looked up at him and smiled. "You want me to be prepared."

"Second only to safe and Happy, Sonja. second only to those."

He smiled to Sarah and nodded. This was the sort of day he enjoyed most.

[Karren Gaunt]

A means to control the Black. That was different.

The ten-foot-tall woman went very still, very grave and attentive, as Dan explained his philosophy. She no idea if it would work on a Super. Or if a Super could live whatever kind of lifestyle his philosophy demanded baack on her world, but she had had to put down too many allies, too many friends who sucumbed to the Black, to 'taint', to not be saddened a little by this reminder of yet another advantage this Earth had over hers. Her own 'growth spurt' ten years ago had been one of the scariest things she had gone through, power rebeling against her as it pushed her from 'extraordinary' to 'unmistakeable'.

Sonja's touch on her arm shook her out of her almost flashback, prompting Sarah to smile apoligetically, "Sorry. That sounds... wonderful. A way to beat taint? A way children like Sonja don't even need to be safe? It's... This world is truly blessed, Dan. I hope you see that."

[Dan Hawkins]

"There is however another path, the opposite path Sarah."

The mempers of the Teragen, the real adherants to the path of teras, forsake their humanity totally, becoming more. They do manage to not fall victim to taint, but the costs they pay for this, for me are just too much."

He sighed. "Once you choose a path, maintaining friendships on the other side can become difficult, even for powerful novas. People I once considered friends, well it's been very strained since they joined the movement."

He looked down. "How's the burger?" He reached down to clean some mketchup from Sonja's mouth, from the remains of her first burger.

[Karren Gaunt]

Sarah was as grateful and happy about her powers as anyone who'd been through her situation could be, but even she couldn't help but be unsettled by the Teragen's ideas. Still, no point in ruining the mood. The situation sounded... complicated.

"It's delicious, not that I would expect anything else," she offered after finishing another bite of said hamburger, "Now, where is that shrimp?"

Sonja proudly produced the plate of food, and Sarah plucked one of the tidbits up, consuming it with great pleasure before putting the de-meated tail back down. She looked contemplative in the afternoon sunlight even as a second victim was selected, "I don't suppose GNS is in need of someone to be a pair of quick boots on the ground? I don't want to be a freeloader longer than I have to be, and working openly on Earth at the moment strikes me as unwise."

[Dan Hawkins]

"I'm sure that Star would take you on, even without encouragement from me. If it's what you want to do, I'll support you, you know that." He smiled. "The shrimp are an old favorite of mine. Most of the time copies go to ground first checking to make sure there's nothing harmful. We've yet to come across sentient aliens, in the way we'd deem something sentient."

He looked over at her, and nodded. "Still the frequent flier miles are amazing."

[Karren Gaunt]

Sarah rolls her eyes goodnarturedly at Dan's little joke, amused despite and on some levels because of the cheeseball nature of the comment. "Cute, Dan. But good news regardless so I can move away from one philosophical question to matters far more pleasant," she gladly volleyed back, "I can't abide idleness in myself. Feel too guilty taking time for myself when I can take time for others. Much as I usually know better and try to be better than that, let the good times be good times."

She focused attention back down on Sonja, smiling evilly, "So. Want to bury your Father in sand when we're done eating? I know no day at the beach was complete for me growing up without almost leaving someone for the seagulls."

[Dan Hawkins]

"Yeah!" came the emphatic response even as she leapt at her dad who decidedly allowed himself to be driven back onto the sands with a laugh. "Preemptive pouncing now is it?"

He looked to Sarah and smiled. "It had probably best be me, Sonja's too tiny, you could bury her with a handful, and we'd spend a week burying you deep enough to keep you from breaking loose."

He smiled. It had been nearly three decades since someone had done this to him, though his Sarah had threatened to once or twice, when she tried she always found he wasn't there, having guessed the game.

he smiled as Sonja started piling sand on him already. "Let me get off the blanket first..." He got up and went and sat down on the sand itself, removing his shirt and laying back. "Have at it, but you better watch Sarah." He condifed easily loud enough for her to hear... "Sarah may try to bury you too."

Sonja looked at Sarah and smiled. "She won't do that...."

[Karren Gaunt]

Sarah nodded agreement with the girl's claim, having no intention of stealing the girl's person-burying thunder. Besides, adults burying one another in sand tended to escalate into realms that children didn't need to see. At least it had for her and her Dan.

"I think we'll definitely need a 'no super powers until it's time to go home' rule for this game, Mr. Hawkins. And I'm not playing until Sonja gives up and asks for help. I have burger to catch up on for a little bit, and children get first shot at parents. It's in the by-laws," countered the sizeshifter with good-natured cheek. brushing a strand of blonde hair out of her face, sunlight catching her smile.

[Dan Hawkins]

She looked radiant, just as Sarah always had, and Dan caught himself almost staring. "Right." Sonja was already busy burying Dan, and she looked to Sarah. "You can help if you want. Today's all about doing things together."

She missed the other way that could be meant, but Dan didn't. He chuckled, and nodded. "Let her eat, then she can come play Sonja.and After I dig myself out, it will be her turn, since we can't use powers."

[Karren Gaunt]

"If you two feel you're up to the challenge, certainly" agreed the blonde sizeshifter with a chuckle, constructing a second burger and eyeing Sonja's efforts mock seriously, "Dig down beneath the wet sand for your foundation, it'll hold up better and not crumble beneath the towers we'll build atop his chest once we have him covered. Use the dry stuff to make an outer coat."

She ruined her 'profesional sandcastle builder' vibe with an amused twinkle in her eye, good memories of her and Hope and her Dan doing the same on the shores of their own lakes and beaches welling up even as she took note of Dan's own improved 'radiance'. Heh. Eiether she was seeing things through rose-colored glasses or something new and not at all unpleasant was going on with him over these past few weeks.

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan laid there allowing his daughter to bury him though in truth he was digging out a pit with casual movements of his feet and and hands. Sonja had never done this before. He smiled up to Sarah. "I was thinking of using Kobe beef, but that seemed a little wasteful. I'll fix you some Kobe steaks when we get back to earth."

[Karren Gaunt]

That got another chuckle out of Sarah and a few minutes of her watching Sonja diligently pile sand onto her father, bit by bit making the marine into some kind of beach elemental. There was a look in her eyes as if she knew exactly what kind of trick he was pulling with his hands and feet, a tsk tsk in her expression at his trickery. There *was* a Beach Code code written down somewhere. Or if there wasn't, there should be. So the first thing the blonde sizeshifter did when she finished her fill of the picnic and rose to help Sonja out with a big smile on her face was pack down nice big lumps of sand on the pits.

"Not so fast, Mr. Hawkins," she intoned warmly, already bending to add to the pile, "You have advantages enoughs for when it comes to escaping this and burying me next."

[Dan Hawkins]

He smiled "I was only attemptint to get comfortable." He reclined even as they piled weight on him, culminating in a sand castle only six year olds can make. Still he was happy, Sarah was having a good time, and this was easily the happiest he'd seen Sonja. An hour later. Sonja looked at him "See if you can get out."

He smiled and it would have been childs play, but he struggled to play to her. "You sure, it will destroy the castle..."

"Go ahead. We'll make one on Sarah."

In an instant, his fosts emerged an then his feet, as he sat up, the sand sliding off of him. He shook his head, sending it flying, and he rose from the sand, it covering his back and stomach and legs. "Be right back." He headed for the water, emerging cleaned off and glistening with the salt water. For a fifty plust marine and soldier, he looked amazing, even with the scars from life as a soldier. He was a handsome man, moreso than she remembered. Clearly there'd been some changes. He came back ashore and smiled. "Who wants to be next?"

[Karren Gaunt]

"Me," responded Sarah without hesitation, a slightly-wicked grin on her face that had no little to do with Dan's presentation coming in from the surf glistening wet, "Although if Sonja wants to, I'd be prepared to let her cheat a little by using her sizeshifting to help her efforts. And nothing like a little quantum exercise to make that pie your brought taste better when we're done."

She chuckled to herself, memories of her own early fumbles with her powers in mind and curious to see how the girl handled herself, how one of these shining wonder children looked in action before 'apothesis' and the world turned them into godlings. Besides, there was nothing she enjoyed so much as being able to stretch out and if the other her was like her and Sonja like the other her... It could bring her some happiness, something all children deserved.

[Dan Hawkins]

Sonja immediately shifted size, she was a little taller than her father now, and Dan chuckled "So like your mother, she never could resist stretching out. Thank God for Eufiber." Sonja waited for Sarah to lay down before going to work. Dan sat and watched for awhile, then began helping as it was clear Sonja was having some difficulty. He smiled. "It's harder to do than me, even factoring in She's still taller than you."

Sonja pouted, and went back into it. Dan was actually hesitating here and there, as his hand would brush some bare part of Sarah, and stop a moment, then continue smiling abit at Sarah. There were some things he wanted to talk to Sarah about, but until he could take Sonja back home, it would definitely have to wait until he'd brought Sonja back home to Primus. It had already been arranged ahead of time.

He and Sonja finished and she returned to her normal size and smiled. Dan had a background in engineering, so he knew Sarah's strength would allow her to get out of it easy, but the castle he'd helped his daughter make was impressive.

[Karren Gaunt]

There was a chuckle and Sarah's head disapeared into the epic sand fortification built atop her, the structure imploding atop a support structure half it's former size. And then the blonde sizeshifter resumed her full height as she pushed herself up and through the crumbling structure, covered head to toe in sand. "Good work," she volunteered with another chuckle, shaking her head to start getting the grit out of her hair, laughing even more as she failed, sitting in the ruins of Sonja's masterwork, "God, it's been too long since I've done that..."

The bittersweet regret in her eyes lasted only a heartbeat, "Start slicing up the pecan while I clean off, okay? Don't want to miss a minute of this day with you, too."

And with that she rose to her feet and strode into the waves, putting a little extra sway into her hips to not so innocently repay him for his teasing little touches while burying her, vanishing bit by bit until the depth abruptly increased and took her from imediate view with a little backwards wave from one hand as she sank into the cleansing currents.

[Dan Hawkins]

Daniel chuckled, "And like Godzilla, the beautiful blonde has done as would, and returned to the sea, to return agian when needs arise."

Sonja looked up at him and chuckled. "That was terrible daddy."

"I know, I just couldn't help myself."

He sat back down and began slicing the pie, as well as fixing glasses of iced tea to go with them. Sonja was already starting to show signs of being tired. He smiled. He was partly ashamed of sending her home but he wanted, needed to have some time with Sarah without her. They had things to discuss.

he called out to the sea. "COme and get it!"

[Karren Gaunt]

What followed was closer to a whale breaching than a swimmer emerging from the water, the looming sizeshifter pushing out of the waves and up the beach, cleaned of sand and glistening with afternoon sunlight and scattering waterdroplets. She didn't miss a beat, thuding down next to the blanket and selecting one of the pie slices.

A forkfull of food, a moment's chewing consideration, and Sarah pronounced judgement, "It's good. Did you help with this, Sonja?"

The girl nodded her head happily, "I did!"

A laugh and another swallowed bite of pie, "I knew there was another reason I was so eager to see you two again once I got my head sorted out. Better cook than I was at your age. I was just working on microwave oatmeal about then myself."

[Dan Hawkins]

"Daddy inisisted I could cook for myself in some way." Dan smiled. "I couldn't let you be a total tomboy Sonja." SO things went until finally Sonja was falling asleep in her Father's arms. Dan smiled, and excused himself. He reappeared in a few minutes, having brought her back to earth, and dropping her off on the Primus. The power to do so wasn't miniscule but worth it. he returned as the sun was beginning to set, and smiled. "She's fast asleep on the Primus. Now, you and I are all alone."

He took a seat on the blanket, and laid back on his hands.

"So now if there's other things we want to talk about, we can, without having to be concerned for a six year old listening in."

He smiled. "You look amazing Sarah, simply amazing. This time away's done you some real good I think."

[Karren Gaunt]

"Thanks. I feel like it. You don't live through what I have, lost who I've lost over the years, without collecting your share of ghosts, and lovely as your home, your Earth, is, it was all too much to handle, good as I've gotten at faking my handling things no one should have to handle," Sarah began softly, voice a confession as she shifted closer to the marine, blue eyes measuring Dan's expression as she exhaled words whisper smooth, "But, simple and clean as New Hope is, as empty of humanity as it is... None of it scares me anymore. At least, not enough to keep from moving on with my life."

The blonde sizeshifter leaned in to the marine and rested one hand on his leg, setting sun catching her fair hair and features, "I am not your wife. You are not my husband. And your Sonja is not my Hope. But... I'd like to get to know you better, Daniel Hawkins, and see where that takes us. If you want to see with me."

She smiled then, fragile and honest and ever so slightly hopeful, a delicate happiness born of resolve bolstered up by a perfect day on a world as close to perfect as she dare hope for.

[Dan Hawkins]

He looked at her and silent took her hand and brought it up and kissed her knuckles softly, before allowing it to go back where it was. "Sarah, Right now, nothing would make me happier." He moved beside her, and nodded. "A new beginning for both of us, together."

He smiled, and half stood so that he could look into her eyes. "I already quite like what I see." he seemed to hesitate, she'd made the first move, and this could be the shortest relationship ever, but sometimes you just had to go for it. He leaned in and kissed her gently, and at that moment he didn't care about anything else in all the worlds...

[Karren Gaunt]

Sarah welcomed the kiss, drank it in, and gave the emotion fueling it right back. She leaned into the kiss and shifted her hands to Dan's shoulders, breaking the kiss long enough to whisper 'move with me' to him. She shrank downwards, lips plastered to his and inhaling his scent as she did so, pulling him down against her as she imploded.

The blonde sizeshifter ended up molded against the marine, looking up at him after breaking the liplock with a chuckle, "Just a little something my Dan and I practised. He was happy to get the break from our more... exotic cuddling techniques."

Sizmorph Shrink for fun and profit

[Dan Hawkins]

He smiled. "I have a feeling we're going to find alot of things that we both already know. I hope though that won't make it any less pleasant for you, because It won't for me." he kissed her nose as his hands moved down her sides. "And it will make the new surprises even better."

"Though I have smoething special I worked on just for you. I'll show it to you later." His touch sent a mild shock through her, stimulating just the right pleasure centers up her back and he nodded, even as he massaged the tension from her muscles, his lips working down her chin to her exposed neck. "I've though about you alot, since you began this separation. Ican't tell you how happy I am right now..."

[Karren Gaunt]

Sarah purred at the direct stimulation of her muscles, clearly familar with the action. "Ooooh... That feels nice. I remember THAT trick. No wonder both my Dan and you had ample love complications when someone like me isn't around to keep you focused. Something to keep in mind if Sonja learns that trick by the time she starts becoming interested in young men."

She smiled a little wickedly at that potentially grey-hair inducing image and leaned up into a soul-sparking lip lock, pushing him back onto the blanket before asking softly, "Mary not work out? I was under the impression you and she had... something going on."

[Dan Hawkins]

MAry decided to train. I thought there was something there myself. Then she just up and vanished without a word. None of the contacts I have for her work anymore. She's totally off the grid, and unreachable. She'll resurface one day."

he looked Sad. "Sonja cried alot those first few days, losing Mary, who she'd only just gotten used to again, and Kami going off by herself all the time, and her nippontai duties. It's no wonder she has been going a bit crazy, when I mentioned you wanted to see us, well Sonja played until she couldn't anymore."

He smiled as he idly caressed her stomach. The fact that only a thin bathing suit on each of them separated them didn't escape his notice, and he idly kissed down the side of her neck. "Mary's never been someone who was really stable, it's why she never mastered the teachings. In the end, I want someone who is stable, both for me, and for my daughters."

Dan was a man who shouldered alot of responsibility, and did so without complaint. There was no lie in his words, or in how he felt. "Does it bother you that there could have been something there?"

[Karren Gaunt]

A long pregnant pause, the blonde sizeshifter soaking up the positive attention and hands tracing circles up and down his body.

"No," she answer eventually, a sad smile on her lips, "Sonja derserves a mother, and if my Hope had lived and my Dan had died as long ago as your Sarah... I'd have been looking myself hard as is to imagine. As long as you're not seeing another woman behind my back or seeing me behind another woman's, as honest and true to the causes in your life as the man I fell in love with... I'll be glad to share the pleasures and duties of knowing you, Mr. Daniel Hawkins, so help me God."

[Dan Hawkins]

"The same goes for you." He kissed her softly. "I think Sonja knew this would happen, the first time she saw you."

He smiled. "I will have to see if she's like my Mentor, or if even at such a young age she's already got a full batch of woman's intuition."

"That can wait though, as we have more important matters I believe, unless you'd rather wait." It was clear from their pose and his suggestive tone what he had in mind. He was willing to take it that far, and that was a rarity for him. He looked into her eyes for that final assent..."There's no one else I'd rather be with right now, no place other than right here, with you."

[Karren Gaunt]

A chuckle and a nod, the blonde sizeshifter straddling Dan's waist and tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, eyes half-lidded. "Oh, Mr. Hawkins. You have no idea how much I've gotten used to hearing your voice say that. So... How about we start to get knowing one another again before I follow you home tonight? I haven't had a hot shower in weeks."

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan smiled, and what followed pushed the limits of getting to know someone to the edge of pornographic, but they both backed away, resolving to save that for another day, or night, something to truly look forward to.

A week and a half later it was official. There'd been no word from Mary, and Sonja was ecstatic that Sarah was staying around, and seeing her father. for Sarah the home she was in now was more massive than any she' d lived in, in terms of space for normal people, over two dozen rooms, gardens the works. Dan had welcomed her wholly into his home, officially his now after a short meeting with Long, who'd come home briefly before vanishing again.

As it stood it was as much her home as his.

[The Mariner]

Mary had been away... getting something in her head straight. The life of a Elite was not conducive for being a practitioner of Qi Meng. She had not just strayed, she was completely off the trail. And she had to do some soul searching. How was Dan able to reconcile these two sides? Her emotions she was finally getting a tail on. Seeing Kamiko's struggles had inspired her. After all, when she finally managed to get Kamiko down to a one beachball a day habit... she felt quite accomplished.

But she had been away.

The Arrowhead of Minnesota in the boundary waters, Mary put herself on a survival challenge. No powers, fully Dormed. She challenged herself to survive. She would need to know this if she got sucked into the Congalese conflict. It was here she started to return to the path. Started to see where she stumbled.

Now she would have to return to her Sensei... her beloved... her equal. If she is to become stronger... she would have to face the music. She didn't bear the scars yet of Dan...

When she walked up to the estate, she still remembered full well, the only way around the security pad was through the key. But, she would announce herself. She pressed the doorbell once, but then knocked 4 times. A signal Dan would know form old history.

"Dan! Sonja! It's Mary! I'm home!"

[Karren Gaunt]

Sarah had been in the kitchen continuing to half-reaquaint herself with and half-learn the technology of a world not in a slow death spiral of extinction. So many of the more specialized items had broken down from lack of spare parts, even in the Enclaves lucky enough to have the power to spare stripped them to fix other machines... Still, she had too much to be happy about to be melancholy. This place, this world, was starting to feel like a home, not a dream, the reality of it all digested one idea, one wonder at at time.

Wonders like Dan and his daughter Sonja.

Sarah had never been so happy in any role other than that of mother save perhaps as a teacher, and with Sonja in need of learning how to move, fight, be, while enlarged, she had been able to combine both a little, as much as Dan was teaching the girl himself.

It was in this happy funk and half way through a recipe of red velvet cupcakes that Mary's knock sounded, causing the currently 5'2 sizeshifter to look up at a security moniter hidden discretely in one corner. What she saw made her frown ever so briefly as she put down an electric mixer. Well. Okay. She hadn't actually wanted the other woman dead, interesting as this could make things. A few unhurried footsteps and Mary found herself facing Sarah Hawkins in an apron, tanktop, and jeans with an opened door between them, Mary outside, Sarah inside.

"Afternoon, Mary," she ventured to the Elite, a smile gracing her face, "Long time no word."