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ABERRANT: WEIRDER STUFF – CHAPTER VI “SO WHAT ARE WE DOING TONIGHT?”


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As they talked more and more drones poured through the small portal then two new portals flashed into existence,one on either side of the large black terminal disc. Al most immediately a single large creature began moving out of each. of a type only Devin had seen before when he first jaunted here what seems a life time before. The drones he thought that they used to take out the satellites.

<Hey! Is this thing on?> Laurie's thought filled Jaunt's head and it seemed a huge weight lifted off his chest he hadn't even been aware of.

<I'm here Laurie, are you okay?>

<Yeah I'm fine, These guys are really smart and intuitive. Capt. K'erk gave me the bomb so if you could grab me we can get this thing done and get back to the dance.>

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Lilly hit Devin in the arm to get his attention after they got the message from Laurie. Finally they might have a change to remove the Asheen's war fighting capability, or at least strike a real blow against them.

"Dude. Destiny is calling. Do you accept the charges?" she asked him with a grin.

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"Damn straight I do, I got porn downloading," He returned the grin with the implied thought that he wanted be home in time to watch em' all.  "Gimme a sec, need to scrounge up the juice."

Devin focused his thoughts and reached out to Laurie's mind.  Locking in on her did not prove difficult through their guild chat, and within a moment they group watched as quantum dust swirled and become Sean little sister.  She was wearing a skintight one peice suit that they all had seen before in the alternate reality but it looked better and was styled in Laurie's favorite colors. In her arms she wascarrying something that looked a lot like a football it was even brown, only where the laces would be on a foot ball there was some crazy looking led like screen with blinking doodles.  "I see your mission of collecting munitions of imminent death went well," He smiled at her.  "I'd hug ya, but your carrying a genocidal device, not that it doesn't look good on you... I'm just saying, y'know if people's hair is gonna start falling out I'd prefer it wasn't mine."

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Lilly's eyes went wide at the sight of the device as a smile spread across her face.

"A football!?" she said gleefully, "Seriously. A football? I mean, making the touchdown pass to win a game is one thing. But making a pass to save the word?? This is awesome!"

Lilly shifted to an announcer voice, 

"Pryor drops back to pass. She picks up the blitz! Man they are relentless. She throws a long bomb... litterally! It's Goooood! Touchdown! Humanity wins! Humanity wins!"

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Kemu Valley
China

 

"Okay. You don't have out abilities, so if you are going to be here, then I have to do what I can to protect you. I am going to give you a bodyguard and do something for you." Lilly said to Laurie as she walked over took and held out her hand.

"A bodyguard are two? That means one or two of you not being in the fight. I can't be responsible for that." Laurie responded.

"It's not like that. It's... you'll see what I mean. But before that, I am going to do something for you. Or.. at least I think I am." she said with a faint smile.

"Is this safe?" Laurie asked cautiously, giving Lilly an uncertain look.

"Yes?" Lilly chimed back.

"If this works, you are going to feel really good. I mean, really good. You'll probably feel invincible." she said as she lifted a hand and grasps the back of Laurie's head, not in a painful or humiliating way, but like she was speaking to somebody in specific in a huddle on the gridiron, holder her almost forehead to forehead.

< Don't worry. I'm not going to do what Abel did to Claire. But I think I can juice her up, like I do myself, so she has at least some chance if things go sideways. And it's only temporary. If it works even. > she though to the others, except for Laurie, trying to ease any fears they might have.

"Now listen to me. You might feel invincible, but won't be. I am dead serious. Okay?" she said with such a serious tone that the rest of the Irregulars had rarely ever heard from Lilly. 

"I am going to try and maybe give you a fighting chance in case things go sideways. I know you are here, and you probably want to help and do more, but honestly, the best thing you can do is not be a worry for the rest of us. I'm not trying to put you down or anything. I am seriously not. You just do not have our abilities. And you already did you part. Like, seriously. Getting us this bomb might be the greatest contribution any of us make today. Seriously. I absolutely mean that. If this works, it is because of your contribution, Laurie. So do not feel like you are not helping. You already did."

"Now hold on..."

Lilly closed her eyes and focused on that flow of energy through her, but instead of closing herself off from it, like she would usually do to dorm, she tried to open herself up to it, letting the energy course through her as she dug deep. She began to breathe faster and faster, as if she were pumping herself up in preparation for something and then finally let it go.

Energy surged through Lilly, strengthening, fortifying, accelerating every bit of tissue, muscle, bone and nerve. Lilly's muscles swelled and flexed for a moment in a visible wave that coursed through her body before returning to her already impressive physique. From Lilly, the energy continued on, and coursed through Laurie, causing her eyes to shoot open. The same wave washed over her, causing her muscles to swell and flex for a moment as the energy fortified and enhanced her body. She felt strong, and fast, and tough too!

"Is this what you feel like all the time?" Laurie asked wide-eyes as she looks down at her arm, made a fist and then relaxed it, "Because it feels damn it felt good!"

"Easy dude. You are barely superhuman right now. I and others are, like, orders of magnitude beyond where you are right now. This is not some sort of 'wink, wink' approval for you 'join the fight' either. I'm serious. You aren't bulletproof or anything, but maybe you can run or dodge or something, or maybe be badly wounded by an injury that would have killed you before. This is just to hopefully save your ass if the worst happens. Got it?" Lilly asked the younger Cassidy, who quickly nodded.

Lilly was half sure that Laurie was just reacting and not even paying much attention, but at least she felt better of her chances of survival.

  Reveal hidden contents

"Now time for to call in some bodyguards." Lilly said and the paused for a moment.

Biting the side of her bottom lip, she turned to Devin.

"Dude. I know it makes things harder for you to 'lock onto me' or whatever it is, but Laurie needs the protection way more than I do anyways. I mean, anything short of a nuke and I'm good. Don't worry. We got this, dude." she said to Devin with a grin, trying to ease his fears.

< Just look at the bright side. It's more asses to look at. > she joked in a link to Devin alone.

Lilly cleared her mind and looked into herself, suddenly become acutely aware of her body... every hair, fluid, fiber, bone, nerve, tissue, cell, even particle, for just a fraction of a second, and grabbed at it with quantum energy, and began 'pulling' identical copies of herself out of her body, to the left and right behind her with a visible distortion rippling in the air around them. In a moment they formed a Delta V of identical Lilly's, all in PAM suits and armed with the same .50 caliber minigun, with Lilly 'Prime' at the point of the spear. At the same time, seven more minds... all Lillys, could be felt in Guild Chat.

Three of Vanguard moved to stand around Laurie and, more subtly, Devin too, while the others began to spread out in a semi-circle toward the portal. One of the three bodyguard Vanguards held out her hand toward Laurie.

"I'll take the bomb and protect it. When the time is right, I will jump it, rush it, or pass it to one of the other Vanguards, or whoever we deem is gonna place it." she said as she held the minigun casually with one arm.

At the same time the other four Vanguard began heading toward the portal and spreading out, taking up position in a semi-circle around the portal.

< Okay. We will do what we can with the miniguns, and then it is hand to hand from there. > Lilly thought into Guild Chat.

< On three, unleash hell. > she added, mentally grinning.

< One. Two. Three! >

And then it started...

The first drones encountered were the wolves, as expected. They were operating in packs, but that was little help. Lilly could hear the fire from the other Vanguards as a pack of wolves spread out and charged her. Half the pack fell to in small bursts of fire, while the remaining one leapt at her. She caught one by the neck, crushing it's throat with casual effort. Her fingers tore into it's throat, unleashing a spray of alien blood as it gurgled and twitched in her grasp and finally went limp, something Lilly was still not entirely used to. She told herself it just a machine. An organic, manufactured machine with limited AI. Still, it did not sit well with her. 

Another she caught by a front leg and used it as a bludgeon to knock a third right out of the air, their bodies colliding with such force that the crushing of bone and chitin was audible. She left them in a heap and pressed on, fighting her way through more wolves as she, and the other Vanguards, began to draw from the other alien soldiers.

The valley was alight with tracer rounds and energy blasts, splintering trees into matchsticks and scorching rocks. It did not take long before the area began to look like a photograph of "No Man's Land" from WWI. The area was quickly nearly devoid of vegetation, small fires burning here and there sending up twisting shafts of smoke.

For their part, the Vanguards were drawing a lot of fire, though virtually all of it was harmlessly dissipating as it struck them., but rarely an energy blast would burn a small hole which the Vanguards would just shake off. The drones did not fare so well well though. The half-inch rounds tore through them as they were caught in the overlapping fields of fire from the Vanguards' miniguns. It mattered little though, for there seemed to be an endless flood of alien reinforcements pouring through the portals.

Soon the miniguns began to drop to the ground, their ammunition expended, though a few of the Vanguard held onto them for a few seconds, using the weapon as a crude club until they shattered, which did not take long, after which Lilly and the other 4 attacking Vanguards charged into the fray in earnest.

Lilly charged right at a group of several dozen soldier drones and leapt into the air, plasma bolts splattering against her, mostly harmlessly, as she reared her fist back, sending a surge of energy through it, causing it to glow bright blue and leave a trail through the sky. She landed in roughly the center of the formation, hitting the ground in a three point stance, and slammed her fist into the packs earth. A wave of devastation radiated from the point of impact of her fist, looking like an invisible bomb had gone off. The shockwave blew the soldier drones off their feet and away from her, topping them like a forest of dominoes, leaving the majority dead and the rest struggling to even move or breathe.

< Watch your si- > was all Lilly heard before she was blown off of her feet and sent hurling back through the air, her body searing with heat.

She landed roughly and kipped up to her feet, looking in the direction of the blasts origin. And there she saw it. The thing was huge, easily fifty feet tall, and covered in some sort of dark chitin. From it's 'head' two huge protrusions radiated to either side, tapering down to some sort of tub that attacked to it's 'hands', but instead of any sort of grasping implement, it had two flowing irises.

 

large.plasma_bug.jpg.d6eb77c4664a42bc3bb

< Fuck! That actually, almost HURT! > she exclaimed in Guild Chat.

< If that thing is hurting you, then we got to take it out before it turns it's attention on one of us. > Sean pointed out.

< I'm on it. > she thought back as the Irises opened and a huge, focused beam of plasma blasted Lilly, but this time she braced for it.

The blast of plasma? impacted her hard and pushed her back dozens of feet as her boots dug into the ground, ripping trenches in the soil as she winced, thankful for her newly fortified body boosted resistance.

"You bring a new meaning to the term 'fleshlight', you ugly, two-fisted bastard. Let's ro-" was all she got out before she was blasted again. 

"Lilly!" Devin called out in concern, because he had never seen anything do that to her.

Once again she braced for the impact, but this time she stood her ground. With tremendous effort she began to walk into the beam, putting her shoulder into it like she were trying to run through a tackle. She grimaced in pain with each step as the blast seared her body, occasionally burning holes in the suit and her flesh, which sealed up just as quickly.

< I'm good. > she reassured.

With step after step she slogged toward the huge creature, the resistance only growing more and more intense as she neared the thing.

"I've... Had... About... Enough... Of... Your... SHIT!" she snarled out through her teeth as she neared the alien.

The creature's body langue, if you can call it that, almost seemed to indicate surprise? Fear? Some combination of the two? as Lilly forced her way through the gout of plasma. The protrusions on the alien seemed to swell and then contract, like it was forcing more and more plasma at her in a vain effort to halt her progress.

Lilly was relentless though, like some lumbering juggernaut, pressing ever closer to the alien until she finally let out a yell of pain and effort as she grabbed each of the appendages  and shove them up with a single, colossal push, causing the beams to cut and burn right through the creature, severing it in nearly two equal halves.

Lilly stood there, panting hard as smoke rose from her, the air around her body visibly distorting with heat as burns in her flesh began to heal almost instant, followed a moment later by the PAM suit repair itself.

< They are NOT playing around. >

Everything went black as Lilly was crushed into the ground under something huge. It took her brain a moment to realize it was the gigantic foot of something that must have came through while she was dealing with the blast bug. The creature stood and triumphantly roared, challenging any others to oppose it, like it was in a kaiju film. Then suddenly it trembled and flew back, as if toppled by some unseen force, and landed with a thunderous *Thud*.

Lilly rose up in the giant footprint of the alien monster as another shadow loomed over her. Without even thinking Lilly crouched, the eqhanced muscles in her legs tightening, surging with energy as she made a fist. Then, in an instant, she unleashed all of that bound up energy and made a tremendous jump straight up, spinning slightly as she sent a surge of energy down her arm, through he muscles and into her fist. The motion looked reminiscent of the 'Dragon Punch' from Street Fighter, but on a massive scale.

She hit her mark too, it was not easy to miss after all. Her fish impacted the alien's jaw chitin, shattering it like peanut brittle and forming a hole for her. Where her quantum imbued fist led, she followed, finally bursting out of the gigantic alien's skull and landed on it, her legs spread wide to span the hole she just made as she rode the collapsing creature's skull down to the ground like a surfboard.

Heady with adrenaline and quantum, Lilly called out, 

"I'm Rick James, bitch!"

Her proclamation was met with a roar of challenge as the other titanic alien had gotten back to it's feet.

Lilly ran toward the titan, and the blast bug corpse that law between them, and grabbed half of the corpse as she passed. Again the creature roared as it's claws seemed to lengthen and quills rose from it's back. Lilly spun and hurled the half of the corpse at the thing's head, hitting it right in the mouth, stifling it's roar with it's mouth full of blast bug remains. 

Lilly turned up her speed, closing the distance in a instant and kicked the creature in the leg. The sounds of it's tree trunk sized bones being pulverised echoed through the valley. Lilly came skidding to a stop and looked back at the titan tumbling forward like a felled tree. It's jaw hit the ground, the impact causing it to slam into the blast bug remains, biting down hard on the pod. There was an explosion of stored plasma from the pod as it was ruptured, and then the titan's head was no more. 

"You keep setting them up, and we'll keep knocking them down!" she bellowed in defiance at the portal.

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Kia looked at her hands as Lilly went to talk to Sean's sister. She still remembered the ruins of Earth from the...whatever it had been. The face in the tree. The distant roars of strange monsters she'd never quite seen. Her hands looked so small. So delicate. So human.

Was that going to happen to her, someday? Would she change into something else and just...not turn back? Forget herself?

But these hands were an illusion. A mask. She was so much bigger than this. After coming back from those visions, or alternate worlds...she'd started to feel herself more and more as being somewhere else. Like...standing behind herself, or...no...more like swimming underwater with just a fingertip poking out over the surface.

She was just the fingertip. These hands, this...body she had. The tiniest piece of her. And yet, the most important piece.

I know who I am.

With a deep breath, Kia started down the hill towards the portal network. Towards the valley of monsters.

Dimly she was aware of Lilly speeding ahead of her, splitting into multiples like some kind of humanoid MIRV warhead...and striking with approximately the same destructive potential. The bigger portals were online now, unleashing gigantic monsters; some of which they hadn't seen before.

Kia began to...surface. Almost immediately her temperature skyrocketed as she drew mass from...wherever 'underwater' was. Water on her skin and in the environment around her flashed to steam. Bigger. Her form was at first almost amorphous, her skeleton floating inside an ever-expanding biomass. She wasn't trying to assume a shape yet, rather she was simply gathering what she'd need to do so quickly. The volume of steam doubled, tripled, obscuring a significant fraction of the slope down. Inside it could be glimpsed shadowy, half-seen flashes of something moving, something not remotely human in aspect.

Bigger.

She felt herself congealing around familiar genetic constants. Muscles, bones, ligaments, organs. Almost immediately they collapsed again. Bones were too weak to support the mass she was gathering. Organs were crushed under the weight. Ligaments ripped apart. She needed something stronger!

BIGGER.

There was no animal on Earth, in all its history, that had been what she was trying to be. In the sea, where buoyancy could sustain the weight, a creature like this could work, but on land? She couldn't do it! She didn't have a 'template' for exotic constructions or materials. The hulking mass lurched and slammed into a copse of trees,  rolling over them and crushing them. And Kia realized something just as shattering.

There was no animal on Earth that could support that kind of weight against gravity. No animal.

Abruptly she switched gears. Not bones. Wood. Cell walls, rigidly linked together. Cellulose. Yes, her body knew how to do that. It had simply never occurred to her. Animal tissues...titanic musculature, supported by bones AND wood, connected by tendons twined with tough vegetative tendrils.

B I G G E R

A fusion of plant and animal...an impossibility for natural evolution, but Kia could ignore such niceties. Each correcting the deficiencies of the other. The steam cleared, and something picked itself up off the ground where it had fallen.

B I G G E R

A shadow fell over the valley as the moon and stars were, in great measure, blotted out.

The earth shook as something about the thickness of a California redwood trunk slammed down. Then another. And another. Six, in all. They were segmented, covered in plates of bone, and yet clearly made of striated wood. Each one rose maybe forty feet into the air. At the top was something hard to make out in the gloom. Something vast. Over a hundred feet long, maybe half that size wide. Roughly oval in shape, but 'roughly' was the key word. There were irregularities in its surface...limbs, perhaps. The edges of more armored plates. Other, less identifiable things.

One of those tree-trunk legs lifted up, wooshed through the air, and slammed down again. The movement looked slow, but it covered so much ground that Kia had descended into the gate complex in just a couple of steps.

The effect was something akin to artillery strikes among the assembled ranks of the alien drones. As they struggled to deal with attacks, occasionally a giant thing would descend from above and wipe out a whole bunch at a time. It was essentially random, and wholly unavoidable.

But Kia wasn't really aiming at them.

'Titans' were emerging from the portals. Organic siege engines. The 'heavy armor' of the alien armada. Those, Kia aimed for.

Her body, in the harsh lights of the gate complex, was revealed to be a bizarre thing that looked a little like a crab, covered in vines and moss and wood, with huge spikes coming off of it in like a sea urchin or something similar. Clustered around the front end were arms that looked small on her, but were probably a good ten or fifteen feet long each. Dangling from the underbelly were vines or tentacles or...maybe there was no effective difference anymore. So, a jellyfish/sea urchin/crab/tree monster.

The first titan was the one Lilly had knocked over after it had tried to stomp on her. Kia returned the favor to it, driving one of her legs down onto its head, crushing it in an explosion of gore. Another titan tackled her from the other side, grabbing onto two of her legs and trying to brace between them to either force her to stumble, or snap them. But the tendrils dangling from Kia's underbelly grew outward and slathered around the beast...which immediately stiffened in agony. The alien drones were designed to be resistant to toxins, but Kia had tasted their biology before. As it stumbled back, writhing amidst the stinging vines enwrapping it, Kia swerved around and leaned down. The arms around her mouth reached out, grabbed the titan, and hauled it up.

The sound of her jaws closing on it was a shockingly loud CRUNCH as its armor was shattered.

<Ugh. Guys, remind me not to have a tongue next time we do this, okay?> Her mental voice sounded almost disturbingly normal coming from that brute.

Aliens turned their weapons onto her. The larger guns were able to blast out chunks where they hit, but there was so MUCH of her. The damage they did started sprouting and regrowing, as well. As the rank and file became more dangerous, Kia lowered herself a little...and revealed that those stinging tendrils could reach the ground. Scores of drones were snatched up and vanished into the sky. Most dropped back down again a few seconds later...dead from the venom, or the impact.

And all the while, the thudding bass of her footfalls, shuddering the earth, like the beat of the most metal concert ever conceived.

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ABOARD THE QWEE

"Jam everything, No signals of any kind and drop us to about  ten miles. That should give us range and keep us out of harm from anything the Asslicking Asheen can throw here." ordered Capt K'erk

Gort looked over at his captain. "Signals will be blocked but that deep into the atmosphere and we will be visible to the Earthlings."

"No matter we are here now they are going to find out about us... and we need them just as much as they need us." Was the captaiins ominous reply.

The great spherical ship dropped from orbit and came to a rest some ten miles above the Kemu valley where the Irregulars had begun their battle.

"Defensive fields going up and weapons are online for anti Air defense." stated Gort

A beam of translucent light shot down from the ship and spread into a shimmering dome covering the whole of the valley.

 

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Time seemed to distill around Vanguard as she spun about to handle another invading presence. Her pupils locked on the arrow shaft spiraling towards her but she didn't move. Swiftly it passed her head and she felt the cool whisk of the breeze it left, like a whispered kiss of a lover along her earlobe. It plunged into the throat of a drone, knocking it off it's 'feet' and carrying it some distance before it fell to the ground gurgling it's last.

Can we not piss off the Angry Portal of Doom, please?” Jaunt shouted, feeling a bit left out that Vanguard started the witty banter without him. People could say what they wanted about Jaunt, but he'd doing competitive team sports his whole life, under the jokes and terrible humor, a victory wasn't a victory unless all of them came home in one piece. “Kaythanks!”

<Thanks.> Vanguard's voice came to his mind.

<Yeah, yeah.> He blew it off. <Go break stuff.>

With the others at his side they followed Vanguard's charge. It made sense, she was the Vanguard, after all. Within moments he was surrounded by drones but they barely broke his stride. Stephen Amel had nothing on him when it came to fighting with a bow in his hand, but that's not to say he didn't steal a few moves. The first one engaged him with a deadly swipe with its weapon but Jaunt wasn't there. A moment before contact he simply vanished and in an instant the thunderous crack of his foot against flesh shattered bone and collapsed the creature's skull. He'd appeared behind the monster, already engaging in a kick that solidly landed. While still airborne he extended himself and pulled the string of the bow taught and let an arrow loose. It streaked from the rest.  The idler wheel and cam granted the shaft enough force to punch through a concrete wall. It finally came to rest after the forth drone skull was pierced. Before gravity claimed him the world slowed to a crawl as his eyes narrowed. He vanished once more.

He'd locked onto the perfect line of Asheen drones. He appeared, arrow already knocked, and let loose. Like before it whistled through air tearing through neck after neck, one of the only soft spots in their armor. Much like Vanguard just moments before, a shot rung out in the night sky and Jaunt felt the breeze as the slug whizzed past his head. With a gurgle and the crunching sound of the drone's brain liquefying in it's skull, the one sneaking up behind him was dropped by a shot from a high powered rifle at an impossible distance.

<Nice.> He smirked. “What? You honestly think I came alone?!"

Savant shifted the sights on her rifle. <Fish. Barrel. All that. Avenger and Chimera are good, Sage could use ya.>

<On it.>

Sage was certainly holding his own, but unlike Savant and Jaunt, he didn't have eyes in the back of head. Sure, he'd tell you all day he did, but no, seriously... he didn't.  He was dispatching various forms of quantum created tech-death upon a group of Asheen that were moving to intercept his barrage of technological devastation upon their numbers.

When Jaunt appeared before their numbers he let an arrow loose. The big one leading the charge swallowed it like a prom date eager to keep up the status quo. “S'up.” Was the only greeting Jaunt offered as the horde behind it wailed out in fury.

'Once a game, it's on.' as the saying goes and like a bullet he charged into the horde, he jaunted past the front line, reappearing in a gap several rows past the vanguard (small 'V'). He surprised the poor fool he appeared in front of and didn't hesitate to uppercut the drone square in the chin. It was easy to forget that Jaunt was actually super strong, able to lift small cars with little difficulty, so the looks of shock from the surrounding drones when their compatriot flew up straight into the air, made it worth it. The drone didn't get very far before Jaunt reached out and snatched it by the ankle before it got too high. There was an audible 'smacking' sound against its limb as his grasp tightened and with a pivot he spun the drone around, slamming it into its brethren in a sweeping circle, smashing them with a ton of force. It was a bit cruel and unusual but screw these guys. They were trying to destroy his planet and looked like something that spawned from Lovecraft every morning after twenty minute push on the commode.

<So, Sage... you given thought to what we talked about earlier?> Jaunt asked through guild chat.

Sage dispatched several drones with some sort of grenade he'd conjured up. <You talked, I was ignoring you.>

Jaunt beat a particularly difficult drone to the ground then continued to wail on it with the drone he was still holding. <Tomato, potato, dude. C'mon, you mean to tell me you've never been a bit curious? I mean... Savant... that's easy: Brazilian all the way. I'm sticking with my earlier choices though. Avenger has the whole angry lesbian thing going for her, so I'm guessing she's totally got Don King locked between her thighs in the classic 'It's so angry!' scene from Waiting. Vanguard, I'm guessing landing strip, she seems the type, yknow, a little teasy without being too prudish. I'm still fuzzy, get it? See what I did there? On Chimera... but then again you're dating the illegitimate freak-beast of Swamp Thing and the Tarrasque, so... yeah, I'm not quite sure I want that in my spank bank bro... but if I had to venture a guess, I'd say stencils.  She trims that shit into all kinds of shapes, don't she?  Chia-Kia... with her happy face, or a dropping bomb, or a lightning bolt.  Maybe a nativity scene so you can think about how disappointed Baby Jesus is in you when you're down there flipping her switch...>

<You know they can hear this, right?>

<Dude, like they don't know I think about this stuff. You've been in my head... it's filthy.> He smirked, dodging a few blows and energy blasts, still grasping the drone by the ankle. It'd long since gone limp. “Huh, mom was right... I don't know how to take care of my toys.” He let go of the drone and was about to jaunt away when a blast at his feet tore into the earth and threw him back several yards. He was launched into the air but still managed to compose himself.  He flipped backward and disappeared, jaunting back to the earth diffusing the momentum of the impact and standing there to face whatever it was that blasted him.

He had a good game face, but that hurt. Gravel, stone and shards of earth had tore into him and he felt the blood trickle down his face. He wiped it away and narrowed his eyes as across the battle field a massive drone with some sort of alien (yet awesome) weapon was poppin' off shots like Kamu Valley was his block. He was a biggun' too, almost twice as tall as some of the others.

So one of you actually has some bass in his voice! That's what I'm talking about. Let's see what you got Bitch-tits.” It fired a blast at him, but he took off. He could have teleported, sure, but Jaunt wasn't built like the rest of them, he couldn't obliterate armies with the swing of his engorged quantum member... yet. He had a brain, and he had to use it, and his opposition wasn't much in the upstairs department. When all you have is a hammer... he thought as he closed the distance.

He was a natural gymnast, sure they were all athletes now that they were superhuman, but none of them were gymnasts. Free running, parkour, gymnastics... before his super powers Jaunt was on his way to becoming an Olympic-class gymnast. As the blasts tore into the earth he swayed to dodge them, flipping, sliding, and vaulting over or under any obstacle in his way, the whole time the plasma blasts tore into drones or the earth, thinning the herd the closer he got. He slid under the legs of of a drone as a blast ripped through its chest, the force of the impact actually kicked him back up to his feet and he smirked, not breaking stride until the mega-drone tossed the giant cannon aside and jumped from itss perch, landing with a thunderous impact onto the soil. It roared at him. It was a loud mash-up between a roars and high pitched shriek.

I'm curious... what's it feel like to be an afterthought?” The monster roared again and charged at him. The poor beast had no clue that he had close to eleven escape routes planned and was working on twelve and thirteen.  With his heightened perception constantly analyzing and assessing things on levels a normal mind couldn't fathom, Jaunt was ready.  He had time. He'd been wanting to push himself for a long while now, really open up his node and take it for a spin on a level the training rooms really weren't designed for in case something went wrong. Kamu Valley, he was sure was a pretty place once, but face it, there were not going to be an picnics around this place any time soon.  This shit show was the very definition of 'gone wrong'.  Might as well test the waters.

He felt the power in his node flare to life as Mega-Drone approached him, the smaller less powerful ones were swarming too, and he knew that soon he'd be overwhelmed. Good. The Goliath approached and stormed past him, slowing down as it swung its massive arm out to swipe at the mouthy teen as it passed but it found only air. Jaunt was gone.

He reappeared in time to slam Mega-Drone in the jaw with a enough force to crack cement, and was gone. His fist slammed into the mighty drone's knee, and he was gone. His knee powered under its chin, arching its head backward as his foot slammed into the back of its neck at an impossible angle. He rocketed several blows into its abdomen, its sides, its legs, its face... he was a blur, so much so that most blows were landing before Jaunt even found himself in a position to land them.

Son of a bitch...” Savant said softly as she looked through her scope, she watched as he pushed the limits of his node, teleporting at a speed so fast that he was literally co-locating himself. Two Jaunt's spiraled around the massive drone working in succinct concentrated patterns to keep the giant off balance. When it was finally staggered enough they moved in for the finale. The faster they ported and with blows aimed at the right angles, the monstrous alien began to rise off the ground, elevated by well placed impacts that didn't allow gravity to claim its prize, not yet anyway.

Higher and higher they rose, kicking and punching as the massive horde of drones swarmed about beneath them, leaping and clawing as they continued to gain altitude.

Several feet above them Vanguard's clones appeared. Not just the one assigned to him, but the two assigned to Laurie as well. He couldn't lock on to individual clones, he'd mentioned that, so instead he decided to take them all. They were straight, aimed at the ground and falling fast. Jaunt disappeared and appeared above them, and braced his feet upon their feet and like a cannon he launched each of the three to the ground with a heavy push of his legs, teleporting from one to the other. Two were launched into the hordes while the third was launched at the Mega-Drone. Like missiles they soared to the earth, and as the third slammed into the falling drone power rose in her fist and she rode it all the way to the firmament.

The impact was nothing short of nuclear. Hordes of drones were devastated as the two clones hit the earth and unleashed a massive shockwave, thundering the earth and throwing scores of drones off balance. With over two hundred yards of drones off balance and some even up in the air, they had no defense against the third Vanguard slamming down to the earth riding her soon to be liquefied target. Kinetic energy released over the entire area obliterating drones by turning their organs to paste and their bones to a fine ground powder. Scorched Earth was the best title Jaunt could have come up with as he reappeared by the three Vanguards among two hundred square yards of death and mayhem. “Like I said, bitch. Nothing but an afterthought, and my guns don't miss.” His head throbbed, he was gonna feel that later. His duplicate had long since faded, only being a product of the speed of his teleportations the moment he slowed to launch the Vanguards to the earth it had ceased to be. “Whew. Thanks ladies. Shame you gotta go away eventually,” He was breathing heavily and almost out of breath. Normally he wasn't tired, but pushing his node like that made him feel like he just ran a marathon without any of his enhancements. “Cuz, like... triplets... totally on my bucket list.” He looked around and managed a chuckle in between breaths. “Holy shit... we wrecked the place... hehe.”

"Hell yeah!"  Jaunt shouted, his fist to the heavens as the T'Tauri descended and bathed the valley in light.  He had no idea what it was doing, but they weren't alone, and that was all that mattered.  Sure, they were good, but the were kids, and only six kids at that.  They should be at a dance right now, not... not caked in their own dried blood in pain and swiftly losing hope.  They couldn't do this all night, and they all knew it.  Sure it looked cool and they were mopping the floor with them so far... but the Asheen were infinite, the Irregulars weren't. "Shut these ugly bastards down..."

Spoiler

2373 words, and that's all yer getting!  :P

 

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Abel was outwardly far less active than the other irregulars.  Oh he was doing enough to not stand out so much, he was intentionally however staying in the background. His conversation with Jaunt nonwithstanding, he wasn't really as into the battle as everyone else was, with good reason.   He had his own mission, his own way of fighting.   He put nearly all he had into identifying which of the Aliens on the ground here was the primary field commander, once he had the field officer, he  sent a call for the commander of the expedition himself to come, to witness the destruction of the world's last champions.   With the amount of mental traffic, there had to be a real commander, not someone simply following orders.   He got his wish soon enough, as another  alien stepped through the portal, now with two additional field commander types in tow.    Abel allowed precious seconds to study the brainwaves, his thought processes, and how he was waging this battle he knew now was the time to act.   


 Extending his own consciousness, he seamlessly interrupted and took over the data load in an instant, severing the commander's link with the troops while maintaining the illusion that they were still communicating.   Effectively he put the alien and the army on autopilot. In the next instant, his mental fingers lightly brushed the connections in his prey's mind which would have allowed him to call for aid, to recognize what was going on, and removed that thought and the ability to form it from his mind.  This became a fight he couldn't, wouldn't lose, so he just kept sending more of his troops to fight the world's champions, he'd wear them down with brute numbers, even if they were proving far more durable than any other race.


And there were so many other races.    Abel soaked up the knowledge of these other species like a sponge, the histories of the wars as this commander knew them, races destroyed or enslaved, he took it all.  He turned his attentions to the military, pulling in all the knowledge of the various troops at the commander's disposal, their technology, and what he knew of the ones he called his masters.   He learned they were already assembling their fleet, and would begin making their way here, and that this entire expedition was unauthorized.  


<"I will teach you why this was absolutely the worst idea you've had.">  Abel spoke the words aloud, and in their minds.   The alien recoiled with shock, but his body didn't register it at all.   


<"What is this?  How are you in my mind, how does my body not obey me?">


<"Your body has a new master now, for however long you last.">   

<"Insolent whelp, I will annihilate you and your entire world!">


The next sound was the alien's scream of mental anguish, as Abel drew his mental fingers across the parts of his mind that felt pain.   <"You've tried that already, and you've failed.  We will defeat you here and now, before your grand plan to impress your masters can succeed.">


Blind with rage, the Alien railed against Abel within his mind, and Abel fended him off.  <"How can you do this?"?  >


<"My people adapt quickly when placed under great stress, and you have done just that.   All that happens now, and in the future lays at your feet, a burden upon your shoulders."> 


Meanwhile the troops were starting to thin out some, and with the only command given to be regroup and continue, they did as they were told ignorant that now they were playing into the hands of their foes, dancing the tune that one of them was calling.  Abel continued his mental probe painfully ripping information from the alien, Anything, everything that could be of use, he took.   It didn't take all that long for the Alien commander to start to break under the constant assault of invasive mental probes and a hellish touch that burned away a little of his mind each time it brushed him.   A desperate plan was hatched.


<"I could be so much more of use to you alive than dead." >


Abel paused for a moment.  <"I suppose that you could."   >


<"Stop this now and we can talk peace,  let diplomacy have its day.  We can fight the overlords when they come together, we can win.">  the desperation was evident, he didn't want to feel whatever Abel was lashing him with again.


<"You who command this army, who sought to burn my world, and kill us all, now you speak of peace, You'd submit to us, to live?">

 

<"Yes, together we can win, and then we could part ways amicably.">


Abel shook his head, and for the first time the Alien got a look at its tormentor, the young male who seemed so non-threatening compared to the others.  The one who in the past served as a defender of others.    <"The time for that, at least when it comes to you, has passed." >


<"Then why even go forward at all with such talk?">


<"I wished to see how far you would go to save your own neck, how low you'd bow if it meant you might live.  You've gone far enough.">


<"You miserable wretch.   You'll suffer a thousand deaths more horrible than you can imagine for this, You know nothing of what's coming for you.">  The vitriol was surprising how much damage Abel had already done to his psyche.


<"Perhaps this is so, but you won't be around to see that potential future.  You were their lapdog, and now you're the same puppet as your troops.">  Abel said within his own mind, talking to his defeated foe.   <"I didn't do this for some grand reason such as saving the world, this is revenge.  You stole our innocence, our futures.  For that, for my friends, I will take all you have, your life, and your future." > With that, Abel hit him full force with all his mental might, not tearing a simple strip from him, but destroying huge parts of his personality.  The screams of pain, hate, fear, and desolation continued longer than he expected as  he hit him again, and again, leaving nothing but an empty mental husk, a puppet he could control perfectly, from what had once been A powerful ambitious enemy.  The Will which had bent star systems, the mind that plot the genocide of countless planets, was gone.


He left a set of commands all of which would telegraph the perfect moment for them to plant the bomb and destroy all the incoming threats at once, while still maintaining the charade that he was as he had been before.   


When he was done, he withdrew almost fully within himself, maintaining scant contact to ensure all went according to plan.  Quietly he let the others know what they should look for, what the attack plans were going to be, and when the perfect moment to strike the final blow would be.  

This is how he was meant to fight.   Not out front, not with frightful physical might, ostentatious and spectacular powers, but within the final sanctum of another, With utter ruthlessness, without remorse, without pity.   Abel when he stripped away his emotions, was cold, like the unforgiving depths of space  Which is just perfect, since you know what they say about how revenge is best served.
 

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"V-2, bomb," Sean commanded with cool urgency as she noticed the quantum fluctuation growing around Laurie's left-hand Vanguard-Protector.

She'd seen Jaunt flitting about enough - both before and now on the battlefield - to recognize when a port was eminent. She had no doubt that Vanguard could survive whatever Jaunt was pulling her into, but she was less sure of the T'tauri device.

"Incoming!"

Splattering a howler into goo with a casual back-fist, Tuesday responded to Sean's request almost before she had finished the second word, knowing she wouldn't have made it without good reason.  She tossed Sean the bomb in a flawless lateral pass, the bomb barely leaving her fingers before she was pulled to play the part of a living kinetic missile.

Sean caught the bomb as if she had been playing football with Lilly all her life. She whirled like a ballet dancer, deftly avoiding an energy blast, her foot lashing out to shatter the pelvis analog on a drone-soldier and shooting another through the head at point-blank range with her gauss rifle.

The tall, shapely woman glided forward, slapping the T'tauri bomb against Laurie's back. Or rather, against the back of the vibrant yellow, red-helmeted power armour Laurie's skin-suit had become.

<Hold onto this, sis,> Sean projected towards her sister even as shifted smoothly, sighting through the scope on her rifle and downed a pair of flying drones that looked like multi-pronged organic spears that were threatening Sage and Avenger.

Sean was considerably more resilient than human and her PAM suit provided remarkable protection, but the T'tauri Battlesuit was even tougher and was better suited for carrying the bomb without compromising either her or her sister's efficiency. I really need to get my hands on one of those...

<Yeah, got it, uh... Savant,> Laurie replied, feeling slightly odd using her sister's code-name. Nanites comprising the T'tauri Battlesuit shifted, incorporating and protecting the bomb. Tapping a minuscule fraction of the energy contained in the bomb, Laurie grinned fiercely as she saw the readings on her green-tinted visor/HUD spike. <Hells yeah!>

Laurie began firing anew with the arm-cannon of her power armor, which looked like something Samus Aran from Metroid would wear to kick ass . Balls of actinic blue-white light fell in a scattered arc in front of her, exploding in coruscating energy, leaving craters and charred or vaporized Asheen battle drones behind.

She'd been sort of miffed by Lilly saying she'd already done her part in procuring the bomb, but her retort had died on her tongue when she had juiced her. That was a bloody heady feeling and Laurie had wondered how the Irregulars could act all... regular - relatively, especially in Devin's case - if they felt like this, or something even more intense, all the time.

But the bomb had only been a part, and not even the biggest or most important thing Laurie had done, at least in her mind. She'd gotten the T'tauri to get involved instead of being observers, and they had geared her up in a T'tauri Battlesuit. More importantly, they'd unlocked its functions and given her a crash course in how to use it. As long as it had energy and material, the Battlesuit essentially had the power and capabilities of starfighter... minus FTL.

This was her planet too. She'd hadn't been joking with Devin. She wasn't stupid and wouldn't throw her life away, but she'd put herself at risk as much as Sean or Devin or the othersif she could make a difference.

And with the Battlesuit, she could.

Flanking each other, the Cassidy sisters kept the T'tauri bomb safe, they moved at a steady pace towards the Gate. Glancing to the side, Laurie saw the cool, fiercely focused smile on her sister's face, the one Sean had always gotten when she had been her brother when he had been in the zone in a video game.

<That's our side, guys,> Laurie said over guildchat, needlessly, relayed via Savant and Jaunt, as the T'tauri ship descended and covered the entire valley with a translucent dome. <It'll keep them from escaping and will contain the blast. Uh, the T'tauri also said, when the bomb goes off, we should be far away. Like, way away.>

Sean might not have Power Armor like Laurie or be capable of raising Force Fields and Energy Fields like Sage and Avenger. She might not have been as incredibly durable as Vanguard and Chimera or skip through space like Jaunt.

What Sean was, was aware. She could see, hear, smell, feel practically everything going on in the valley, with an acuity and intensity was almost staggering. She was almost experiencing the entire battle in a manner others would consider abstract, a series of flowing equations and formulas that she was able to adjust with the right input.

It wasn't that Sean was inhumanly fast - though she was - it was simply when the Asheen sought to attack her, she wasn't there. A subtle shift or a slide to the side just enough to make the blow or blast miss, a casual saunter that moved her just out of reach. It was like fighting an elusive shadow, like engaging with yielding mist.

An aware, deadly mist. John Wick was a pale shadow of her. Where others were superhuman siege weapons and artillery, she was an assassin. And she didn't miss, ever, every variable accounted for to make every shot a bullseye, as naturally as if it was inevitable.

She could sense the equations of their existence and all she had to do was solve for x so the result was zero. Savant couldn't strike with the force of a nuke, but she didn't need to. It took surprisingly little force on the carotid artery to kill man. All she needed to know is where to strike.

With her superhuman senses and a genius with mechanics, Sean did know where to strike. Though they were organic - for the most part - the Asheen war machines were just that, machines, and she knew machines. Headshots were sufficient for the common and more man-sized drones, her fist, foot, or glassy metallic blade for when they got close.

She may have looked like a supermodel and had a supercomputer for a brain, but like Jaunt, it was easy to forget or overlook that Savant was super-strong too. If not to Spider-man or Vanguard levels, let alone Hulk or Superman, she was still at least as strong as say, Spider-woman. Her matte-black machete severed limbs and bisected thoraxes with graceful ease.

For the more titanic war-drones, Savant had to be more canny. Instead of pulverizing their heads or liquefying their spines, she ruptured their internal power sources - sometimes resulting in a catastrophic shutdown causing an explosion taking out other drones nearby by. Or she disabled sensory organs and severed critical nerve or connective tissue clusters, hobbling and disabling their ability to attack or resist. Each one maimed was one that wasn't attacking her team-mates or getting in their way.

With her encompassing awareness and a specifically designed coilgun rifle, the entire valley was practically in her reach and Savant watched the backs of all the Irregulars. Sometimes it was just a heads up in Guildchat and a suggestion on what to strike for,  other times it was the passage of a hypervelocity bullet, followed by a touch of wind and a high-pitched whine.

Though outnumbered hundreds-to-one - Savant could provide the exact ratio, if necessary - the Irregulars were pressing the attack and it was the Asheen invasion force who were being pushed back. The coordination of the alien army was faltering due to multiple factors.

The actions of Vanguard, Chimera, Jaunt, and Avenger were demolishing huge swathes of drones, while Savant and Sage were targeting commanders and subcommanders. The former through noting patterns in the surrounding drones, the latter through direct psychic action.

The Irregulars all beginning to reform towards the portal, Savant noticed something new. Under the carapaces, armored plates, and limbs of the larger war-machines emerging from the portals, she could sense small, discrete units of mass, much smaller drones being smuggled out.

The Asheen Titans of War were immediately targeted by the Vanguard and Chimera, but there smaller drones went largely unnoticed... but not by Savant. The drones looked roughly the size and shape of a human eyeball, propelled by four equidistant, nearly invisible wings that fluttered so rapidly that normal human vision wasn't capable of seeing them. Their lines seemed subtly off from the other Asheen organic machines, leading Savant to hypothesize they were prototypes or new, non-field tested models.

These were not recon drones, she surmised, as dozens swirled out into a growing formation centered around the enormous form of Chimera. There was something odd about the energetic spectra around them, all the free flowing quantrinos emitted by the Irregulars, the portals, and the internal power sources of the Asheen war machines twisting in a disconcerting fashion when they passed before the frontal lense of the eye drones, as though imparting anti-spin or a negative charge.

Though inured to pain, the monstrosity that was Kia felt like what were pinpricks of sunlight on the back of her neck, if she had had a neck. Except it wasn't the soothing balm of a sunny summer morning. They felt vaguely... nauseating.

Not good, Savant thought. Since conventional weapons - well conventionalish, since they were talking lasers and masers, plasma guns and particle beam cannons - didn't seem to be overly effective, it seemed the Asheen were attempting something else. It must have been new because they seemed to be acting slowly, but if successful, they could be devastating.

<Chimera, alley oop!> Savant sent to Cthulhu's nightmare as she dashed forward in long, loping strides, commanding her PAM suit to toss out a loop of synthetic fiber, slinging her rifle on her back and drawing her pair of pistols. She'd need their firing rate rather than the extra range and power of the rifle.

Savant's comment came with the understanding of what she wanted and one of Chimera's vintacles caught the loop of fiber and flicked. Savant was a tall woman, voluptuous and sleekly toned. Chimera currently outmassed her thousands of times over with a commensurate strength.

Like a diving peregrine falcon, only going up instead of down, Savant was launched into the air with enough g-force to knock out a jetfighter pilot. Arms down by her sides, in her dark bodysuit, she looked like splinter of night, save for sunset-hued hair ruffling under the light of the moon and stars and T'tauri force-field.

Then Savant began spinning, her pistols firing in a continuous rhythm, a melody played by deadly hypersonic hornets. Working on the principles of magnetic fields, her pistols didn't release muzzle flashes, only high-pitched whistles of death, spraying bullets around Chimera, each one finding one of the eyeball drones. They spattered into puffs of gooey ichor under the impact and hydrostatic shock.

The apogee of her muscle-imparted flight and the apex of the T'tauri force field overlapped and Savant deftly twisted to curtail her spin and used her legs to absorb the impact with the field. The field tingled and for a moment, Savant was still high above the battleground, taking it all in with a sweep of her turquoise eyes...

... then she fell.

Flaps of fabric grew from her sides of her PAM suit, connecting her wrists and ankles, synthetic patagia and suddenly Savant's bodysuit was  a wing suit that she manoeuvred with preternatural grace an agility. She circled above the valley several times, eating elevation and decelerating, slicing at passing airborne drones with her machete to land in at a sprint to once more flank her sister, a pistol appearing in her other hand as though by magic.

<Stay on look out for drones that look like winged eyeballs,> Savant warned in a crisp, professional mental tone and sending the Irregulars a mental image as her heart pounded with satisfied excitement. <I'm not a 100% certain, but I believe they are meant to disrupt our ability to manipulate quantum energy. Can't tell you how effective they may be, but it would be better not to find out. I'll warn you if I notice any pointing your way I can't reach.>

She nodded as Sage relayed his part, her blade dispatching a pair of howlers that tried to jump on Laurie's back. <Almost time, guys.>

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BULWARK AFB

MONTANA

GUARDIAN SHIELD OPERATIONS CENTER

AT THE BEGINNING OF THE BATTLE

 

The activity was rampant Airmen were scurrying to and fro, technicians manned consoles and least a dozen different phone conversations were going on all at once. On the big wall screen the section of China under assault was visible but all that could be seen was flashes of light and fire as alien weapons and QEH Irregulars faced off in a battle the likes of which had never been seen.

Then the screen went blank.

“We lost the feed”

Col Pryor spun to face the airman responsible for that screen, but before he could bark a command another station called out.

“Some sort of jamming interference coming across the full spectrum..”

“Sir signal from the ISS...”

 

ABOARD THE ISS IN ORBIT

Cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov sucked a mouthful of hot sweet tea from the drinking bulb as he turned the pages of the checklist attached to his right leg. He was floating in the main command center of the station conducting a routine maintenance review when something outside the large port.

A shadow had crossed the window in a place where there should have been no shadows for several hours yet. caught his attention. He floated over to the port and looked out at a sight he had only ever dreamed of.

“Peggy, you need to come see this.” He called to the American Astronaut in the module with him.

Peggy Whitson had been running her own set of checks part of the duty of an ISS crew person. She looked up at Sergey a few meters away staring out the large portal as he frantically waved at her to join him. She kicked off and float that way and in a moment was above him looking out the portal at the sight.

“Get a camera, I'll call mission control!”

 

ABOVE THE EARTH

The massive black and silver sphere rippled into view as it's cloaking field collapsed almost a kilometer in diameter the Qwee began moving toward the earth it's presser fields moving the earth satellites away from it's path. Thee ISS had a perfect view as the massive space ship descended into the earths atmosphere and shot toward China.

 

KEMU VALLEY
CHINA

The battle raged The Irregulars fought like no earthlings in recorded history had ever fought before,so few against so many and with such power, but still the Asheen armies came.

 

At first only a few portals vomited troops but as the battle progressed and hundreds of the drone died more portals opened. Thousands of Asheen drones and troopers poured through all to be slaughtered by the arrows and guns of the Vanguards, by the searing flames and crackling lightning of Avenger, The laser light of Archangel, and the sheer force that was Chimera. Savant kept a steady stream of fire from her sniper rifle while Laurie in he T'Tauri battle armor and Jaunt whisked around the battle field taking a further toll, and Sage used his mind to silently and irrevocably seal the doom of the Asheen race,

Hundreds of Drones died, Thousands. More portals opened, a dozen, two dozen strange aliens began to arrive slaves of the Asheen thrown into the meat grinder. The valley filled with death. Quantum energy saturated the air the Irregulars buzzed with the energy it seemed the more they expended the more charged and powerful they felt.

A hundred Portals filled the valley over a million drones and aliens assaulted the earth and were held in check by seven incredible beings.

<Now Jaunt! You have to come with me> came Laurie's thought both Savant and Jaunt heard her <The Qwee says their sensors are showing that the Asheen network is fully committed now, every possible portal is open across the galaxy and we need to pass through the portal and detonate the bomb now! Only you can get us away in time Devin. Once we go through the portal Sean, you and everyone else has to get outside the shield. I Know where the bomb has to be placed and the sequence to detonate it. Tell Lilly we need her vanguards to keep us and the bomb safe but once the the button is pushed it detonates there's no timer.

Jaunt you have to get us out by teleport at the instant I set the bomb off. And we need to go now!>

 

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Jaunt relayed everything Laurie had said through his link with her to the others.  He bypassed the drones and nightmare monsters appearing before the giant portal they'd need to get through.  Sharing a link with Laurie and the Vanguards, he summoned them to him.  Like quantum mist they materialized before him, Laurie holding their doomsday device.  "Okay, you ladies know the plan, this is it."

It was utter chaos out there.  From where they stood they could see it all, a million on seven in what was without a doubt he biggest guild raid in or what ever would be recorded history.  Explosions, blood, screaming... there were no words to describe actual war, but it was something akin to Hell.  Were these not vile monsters out of some nightmare, Jaunt may have had to stop and vomit.  The destruction was on an epic scale and through it all, the Irregulars kept fighting like there was no tomorrow, because if they lost, there would be no tomorrow.

Drones and assorted baddies noticed the infiltration of the portal's perimeter and turned to rush them, to stop them from infiltrating the iris.  Lightning and storm spat from the skies raining death and devastation upon the first wave.  Avenger soared down to land in front of them, lightning spiraled down her arm like electrical barbwire meeting in her palms where her hands were ablaze with quantum fire.  Dust and pebbles circled around her in an odd orbit as one pebble flew off and tore through the skull of a drone.  There was a brief pause in the enemies courage and she looked back at them.  "Quit looking at my ass and do what we came here to do Jaunt." 

There was no link needed between them, she knew what she was saying.  Sure, they never really got along, but they respected each other nonetheless.  Two jerk being jerk the best way they knew how: at one anothers expense.  If worse came to worse, she'd said her good bye in the best way she knew how.  Jaunt took Laurie by the hand and made for the portal.  "No bull shit Laurie, we do this, and we get out and you listen to me for once.  We have to do this together.  And quit saying now all the damn time, you sound we're married."

"Hah," Laurie rebuttled, "That'll be the day.  Trust me, you don't even make my top one million list of men to marry."

The group stepped through the portal as Avenger held the line at the portal.  <They're through.>  She told everyone when the connection with Jaunt faded as he traveled light years away to the Asheen loci.  <Vanguard, help me hold the line.  Lets make this count.>

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<Roger, Sis, stay safe and Jaunt, you better bring her home,> Savant sent back as she took down a flying drone about to blind-side Archangel. Despite the cool, professional demeanor she affected, Sean tingled from the waves of Quantum energy washing over her and the concern she felt for Laurie that she forced not to affect her judgement. Laurie might be wearing a T'tauri Mobile Suit, but she was still her little sister, wasn't Quantum Enhanced herself and now her life was in Jaunt's hands.

<They're through.> Avenger acknowledged

<Break and withdraw,> Savant replied immediately, plotting out evacuation routes for the remaining Irregulars and sending them the mental images of the paths they should take and when. She had studied the topography of the area for the original recon mission mission and directed them to go south-by-south-west, where the land dropped after a slight rise. <Don't stop to engage. The T'tauri force field will not impede us.>

Her previous encounter with the Force Field and an update from Laurie had confirmed that. Rifle in hand, Savant swung around and loping towards the force field with fluid grace as she slipped around dead and destroyed drones, dust and acrid smoke choking the air. Archangel teleported to the edge of the force field - unable to teleport outside of its confines - slicing a path clear with lethal photons for the rest of them.

Sage flew after him while Avenger swooped around and low to scoop up Savant from behind, her arms wrapping around tight below her breasts. Avenger's aura of plasma didn't touch Savant as she turned up the speed. Savant kept on her awareness the Asheen force, in case there was something in their movements that suggested the knew what their plans were or could do something about them.

Vanguard moved on an angle to intercept the swiftly lumbering Chimera, who collapsed into a form much easier for Vanguard to handle. The expulsion of so much mass caused a spike in heat, then with Chimera in her arms Vanguard cleared the intervening Asheen drones in a single bound and turned on the afterburners to dart away like a bolt of lightning, Chimera's durable mutability able to handle the sudden rise in g-force.

With Savant in Avenger's arms and Chimera in Vanguards, the female Irregulars cleared the horizon in moments as Archangel and Sage covered the distance as translocated photons.

Then the fire and fury of the real light show began.

 

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KEMU VALLEY

The Drones were held by the commands of their overseer who was in the thrall of Sage thy did not pursue.

Across the Galaxy Laurie, Jaunt and the Vanguards materialized in some sort of colossal amphitheater, huge it's dimensions unknowable in the short time they had. The had expected to be under fire the instant they arrived but there was nothing on the hum of the portals. The space before them was full of small silver discs each the size of a Frisbee, behind them a disc a hundred times the size of the one on earth in china it was black like the one in china but filled with small discs each receiving the flow from the other portals. 

Laurie spun and looked she pointed and int he distance a green star appeared."That's where we need to be"

Before she had finished her sentence Jaunt had taken them all there.

"Why aren't we being attacked?"

"Does it matter? Jaunt are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

Jaunt summoned every bit of power he had he could feel home feel Earth and it was so so far away.

Laurie set the sequence and pushed the button and sent her thought at the same time. <Go!>

The universe turned white.

For almost five hundred years the T'Tauri had been at war with the Asheen and their Overlords. Only the Overlord proscription of not allowing the Asheen to possess a star fleet had allowed them to survive for as long as they had. It was a terrible war a dirty war and the T'tauri and their allies has had a great deal of time working on weapons hping beyond hope to one day find a way to deliver it to their enemies. That day had come.

 

The bomb was not composed of antimatter at least not as humans understood antimatter, at its very basic it was made the very stuff of creation, the same particles which created and powered the irregulars these particles where in a state of volitile flux and resembled plasma. This plasma, less than a millionth of a gram, was suspended between two micro singularities caught between two competing gravity fields working on the same principle of the space drive which moved the Qwee. When Laurie fired the bomb the fields holding the two singularities collapsed and they crashed together.

This alone would have destroyed the planet upon which they stood. But that wasn't where the destruction stopped. The Quantum Plasma was crushed and the particles split and multiplied and like all Qutrino's sought the path of least resistance and carried with them the energy of a universe being born and torn asunder.

The energy slashed through the open portals traveling back along the open pathways to each quantum tunnels source of origin. On each world where the Tunnel originated a wave of gravity and nuclear fire rolled out with a force hundreds if not thousands of time greater than the largest nuclear weapon ever conceived by man. Many of those worlds had multiple tunnels. In those cases the destructive force was multiplied.

Moons, Asteroids, Space Stations all simple vanished in the fire. Rocky planets the size of earth or larger had their surface scoured atmospheres blown away the crust cracked and continents shifted. Smaller planets simple came apart and expanded into new asteroid fields. Great Gas giants had their atmospheres ignite if the gasses where combustible if not the destruction was lessened but still no life could possible survive.

The civilization of the Asheen was destroyed. Hundreds of worlds ended

Luckily the wave of destruction only traveled along one path but even so the collapse of the great routing portal on earth released energy in excess of one hundred megatons obliterating everything in the Valley burn the earth to the bedrock leaving no evidence on the ground. The blast was contained and the energy funneled upwards by the T'Tauri shield to disperse in space.

 

BUNNIES DINER

9:47 PM

Bunee was tired the night had been slow due to the blizzard and the winter dance he had sent Marge home at the top of the hour and closed up he was just finishing up in the kitchen when a noise made him come into the dining area. He looked on at Devin and the Cassidy girl and all the Lilly's filling his restaurant. He saw how they were dressed and counted 7 of the school quarterbacks some carrying what looked like those guns you see on helicopters on the tv others with bows. The Cassidy girl had what looked like a ray gun in a holster. Bunee looked at Devin.

“We're closed. If your hungry, Help yourself. Lock up when your done. I'm going home. Nasty night out there.”

Bunee left through the back door and Jaunt watched as he drove away into the storm "Alright food in a minute but first..." He reached out through his link to the rest of the Irregulars and with abust of quantum energy brought them to Bunnies  safe and sound.

"What you guys want we have an open kitchen?"

 

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Once the suddenness of not being in china passed Abel sighed.   There's no going back from this, what we did,  They will  take notice now,  They will not come piecemeal.   Our Real War begins now.   Given how they had just saved the planet, he knew he should be happy, but everything he'd learned, the information he had ripped from the commander's mind, all of it left him with the burden of knowing how much more they'd have to do.

He wondered if everyone else grasped the immensity of what they'd just done.  Hundreds of worlds, an interstellar civilization ancient before humanity left the trees, snuffed out in a single moment of complete destruction.  He took a seat and seemed to stare at a point on the bar in front of him.   "I know what Obi-wan felt now."

 

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Bunee headed out the back, and Devin smirked as he left.  Sure he was an irritable bastard, but he was a good guy and there was a small sense of satisfaction knowing that he'd given that crotchety jerk one more day to carry on being him.  There was a certain euphoria involved in knowing you'd just saved the world, literally.  How many people could actually say that?  The way he just gave a once over and dipped out like nothing was wrong with the picture made Devin's inner self shake his head and think: only in Shelly.

"Devin," Laurie looked around, still a little dumbfounded that Devin managed to make a port that far.  "...we- we did it!  We made it!"

"Yeah,"  He replied, a little shocked himself, not in what they just did but in how far he'd traveled.  His eyes were somewhere that wasn't Bunnies, glossed and looking of somewhere to catch up with his thoughts.  The moment was still very real for him.  "Yeah, we did."

Her smile lit up the room, and in the terrible lighting of Bunnies her hair was the warm color of glowing embers warming his thoughts back into the present as his eyes caught hers.  "Hey," Laurie asked.  She seemed concerned that his typical jovial demeanor had slipped away.  "You okay?  Dev, we just saved... everything."

It took a moment for that to sink in but when it did he shot her a smile and nodded his head.  "We did, didn't we," he shook off the funk and pulled himself back into the now, trying not to get lost once more in her eyes.  He clapped his hands loudly.  "Okay, we gotta dance to get to.  But first, I need fries... fries?  Anyone?  fries?  Screw y'all, you're getting fries."

He was gone and already in the kitchen, keeping up with his movements was difficult as keeping up with his thoughts sometimes, there were as everywhere as he was and then suddenly he appeared in front of Abel.  "Dude... do not fuck this up for us with your autism spectrum, staring off into space, cryptic phrase, bullshit.  For once, just once dude, try and act like something that resembles a teenager with his social life in order.  We just saved billions of lives and our home planet.  Quit with the Jedi crap, and if you can't, then dude, seriously, go over into a corner and be weird over there... don't take the good times from us, it's all we have."  He smacked the counter in front of Abel.  "Parmesan fries... that what you need, Parmesan fries... see?  Obi-Wan didn't have that shit, so he didn't have coping mechanisms like we do.  Gimme a sec."

He was in the kitchen, getting the meal ready.  "Order up bitches!  Tonight... WE FEAST!"

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They scarfed down some much desired food in short order then with Able and Alec's abilities remade everyone's dresses and suits and by 10:30 the Irregulars were back at the dance.

It being the last big dance of 2016 wasn't scheduled to end until 12:30 and while a few of the attendees had already left due to what had seemed to be a worsening storm the blizzard had actually let up quite a bit in the last half hour to where the snow fall as a mere dusting now. With a clearer weather forecast the Ball was allowed to continue and so when the Irregulars arrived they found it in full swing.

Some people noticed the gang coming back into he ball but there was no fanfare like there had been with their earlier arrival. They quickly discovered that Courtney and Chet had been voted King and Queen of the ball and they were eating up the attention.

As soon as Courtney spied Sean she left the dance floor and with a smug look on her face sashayed over to the irregulars her puppy Chet following close behind. As she neared the group her smarmy smile seemed to twitch and then fall off altogether as she took in the Irregulars as a group. Was that a worried look on her furrowed brow?

"Sean, you guys came back. Are you all okay?"

It wasn't as much concerne in the beautiful blonds voice as maybe a hint of Fear.

 

Spoiler

Everyone now has Dorm at 5 dots. if you had previously taken dorm for XP or BG or give yourself 5 XP

 

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"How nice for you on winning the crowns, Courtney. Chet."

Sean did not sound like she meant it, her enchanting voice dripping with condescension, suggesting the crowns for Queen and King of the Winter Ball were of the most trifling concern to her. She hadn't missed the look on Courtney's face or the tone in her voice. If Courtney didn't what they had just faced, she still hadn't expected them to come back, and possibly not even to have survived.

"We just had a... small issue to deal with and now it's been... taken care of." Though Sean was speaking to Courtney, smirking down at the shorter woman who was her only challenger in looks and sex appeal, she had infused her voice with such seductive sultriness for Chet's benefit, it might as well have been tactile. "I'm sure your friend Otter can give you an update or there may be some details in the news in the morning. But for now, we just want to dance a little. Have a... good night."

With the clicking of heels and extra sway in her hips, Sean led Sara onto the dance floor, flashing Chet a wink in passing. Chet might be following Courtney like a puppy, but he'd be thinking about her all night and she, Chet, and Courtney all knew it. Oh well, I guess I'm more irritated by Courtney with the crown than I thought...

Sensual and glamorous, with sublime grace and skill, Sean took the lead as she danced with Sara, relaxed and at piece. Watching the coruscating bloom of quantum plasma shoot up into the sky from Kemu Valley, Sean had felt a schism between the woman she was now and the boy she had been.

The superpowered woman had felt grim satisfaction - the Asheen had threatened their entire world and had been utterly eradicated for their temerity and arrogance. Their Overlords were still out there, but the Asheen were not and Savant accepted the outcome.

The boy had felt guilt and shame. Yes, they had saved Earth, but how many worlds had they destroyed in the process. Inhumans eyes had been able to the rush of quantum plasma as few - or no - others could, and it had been the essence of destruction and creation. The boy had no doubts as to what had happened to those planets connected to the Asheen portal network. Surely some of those planets had been enslaved, unable to resist the Asheen rather than being wholehearted supporters.

But then Sean had pulled her eyes away the beam of beautiful, terrible energy to look at Sara, her sister, and her friends, and the dichotomy had faded. There were safe and alive, her family was safe and alive, the world was safe and alive, and there was no shame or guilt in that.

Over Sara's shoulder, Sean smiled at her sister, radiant, excited, and sarcastic as she danced with Devin. Perhaps Laurie hadn't considered all the ramifications of what they had done yet, and while there might be a time for that, it wasn't tonight. She nodded at Devin, unabashed in their accomplishments, thanking him for bringing Laurie home and giving her what he could for this night.

They had face an entire hostile civilization and won, but for the moment, they could be the teenagers they were, dancing at the Winter Ball.

Sean twirled Sara out to the length of her arm, then pulled her back in for a dip. She brought her back up then bent her head down to give her a deep, passionate kiss. It was good to be alive and she would never doubt the actions she took to keep her and hers alive ever again...

... probably.

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"Courtney, sugar-tits... we.  Are.  Terrific," Devin approached with a smile on his face like the cat that ate the canary.  "See, we squared off against an alien invasion, traveled across time and space, sifted through alternate dimensions and portaled through the galaxy to some alien ship with a bomb and totally Iron Maned that bitch in a massive ka-boom... and still have time for fries.  We've seen a lot tonight."

"Except you though... yeah, whole world is burning around us, we're bleeding and fighting to our last... and here you are... getting a cheap-ass crown and all for what?  To be the prettiest, to beat Sean, to be popular,"  he looked at them both and shook his head.  His expression was one of pure disappointment.

Devin began to break away to go get some punch and see if maybe Laurie was up for a dance or two, but he had to just back up a step and remind them one last time.  "Can't really congratulate you guys, sorry.  I can't congratulate you on something you only have because we made it possible.  An hour ago we prevented the world from being annihilated... so I'm gonna take my Maui moment here and just say: 'you're welcome'.  Enjoy the dance, do tons of underage drinking and teenage sex, and try let the fact that Devin Jauntsen and these other guys too, sorta, saved your life... not completely ruin your evening."

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Abel wasn't even really bothered by Devin blurting out what he did.   He looked to Courtney and nodded.  "Congratulations.   Enjoy tonight, that's what we came back to do too, so if only tonight, let's just call a truce and enjoy the rest.  I'm in no mood for more conflict."   With that he nodded once more, and then offered his arm to Kia, who he led out to the dance floor.   For the rest of the evening, he'd push away everything they'd done.   His feelings for Kia were like a warm blanket, her own energy and good nature a comfort against the harshness of everything else.  

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INTERLUDE

GUARDIAN SHIELD OPS CENTER

DURING THE BATTLE OF KEMU VALLEY

 

Contained Chaos

Col Pryor was trying to watch a battle unlike any he had ever seen or expected to see what meager visuals they were getting looked like something from a video game his daughter and her friends would play. His Daughter, Lilly, and her friends. The very people who were fighting the alien horde with powers only seen in the craziest of superhero movies.

His daughter. Fighting Aliens.

“Sir we're getting Images from the ISS you need to see this sir!”

The call broke Pryor's reverie eh crossed to the indicated station and watched as the silver and black ball fell toward Earth.

“What the f...” He muttered spinning he called out to his personal assistant.” Julie get me the President now! Not the the pentagon not the secretary of sate I want the fucking President!” He spun back to the technician beside him at the work station. “Cut all communications to the ISS nobody but us talks to them and I mean nobody.”

 

Frantic seconds pass.

“Colonel we have lost all incoming signals from the battle site. Correction from all of Asia sir they are dark and we are blind.”

 

Minutes later USGS sensors detect a localized earth quake at the Kemu coordinates that indicate a near ground burst of a nuclear weapon of a minimum of 45-75 megatons.

 

Seconds later em emissions began to return and communications were reestablished with the area.

No sign of the silver and black sphere could be seen.

The Kemu valley was gone.

 

“Col Pryor, could I have a moment of your time.” It was the young girl who was dating one of the boys, Alec, Talena, if Pryor recalled correctly. “How did you get ..” She calmly interrupts him, “Lilly and the others are alright so you don't need to worry about them right now, they are unwinding.” She hands him a disc as he stares at the little girl open mouthed. “That contains everything you need to convince the world that what just happened was an small, 200 meter or so, nickle/iron asteroid strike. The Object was not detected due to it's small size and luckily impacted in a very remote area of china while the devastation was great there was no loss of human life thankfully. As for the loss of communications it is explained in detail but it was due to the composition of the asteroid and it's high speed interaction with the earths own magnetic field which produced an emp wave disrupting electrical transmission..” She smiled at his puzzled expression.

“How do you..”

“How do I know all of this? Don't worry about that Colonel. Just know that the world is safe for now. And you must give your daughter and her friends time to grow. The future begins today.”

 

Pryor stared at the scenes of utter devastation being delivered by satellite. He looked at the disc in his hand. “We'll tell them it was an asteroid. Here use this to figure it out. Do you have my line to the President yet?”

Colonel Pryor went into his office to talk to the President of the United Sates. He had no recollection of talking to a little girl who hadn't even been there.

Spoiler

filling in holes there will be additional interlude post just keep your coming

 

 

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"You don't think that was a little... I dunno, more dickish than your usual dickery?"  Laurie hooked her arm in Devin's and led him towards the refreshments.  The music was loud and the lighting was low as students danced and talked and hugged the walls afraid that socializing might cause them some sort of harm.  "I mean, Courtney can be, well, Courtney... but that was uber harsh, Dev."

"Nope," He replied, smirking as they passed through the throngs of kids their own age enjoying being dressed up and dancing.  "Laurie, Courtney and the others are like us, they are amazing, and look at them... they're so caught up on... this."  He motioned to the auditorium around them with his free arm.  "Popularity, one up manship, drama.  Those guys would be at our throats and squander their abilities for a pretty crown or a seat at the big kids table.  We should be working together to protect this world, not fighting and griping with each other."

Laurie's smile was borderline sarcastic with a smidgen at flirtation.  "Wow, you save the world and an hour later you're all kinds of altruistic."

He dipped the ladle and collected them some punch, smiling back at her.  Handed her the small plastic cup and the turned about to face the crowd for some people watching.  "I'm not whatever you just said... I like girls, thankyouverymuch."

"Ass."  She nudged him with her hip.  "Besides, it's not like you guys, you especially, are angels to be sure."

"Okay, I'll concede to that,"  He sipped his punch, looking at a a couple of his classmates sway about on the floor, her date scared to touch her and make things awkward.  Devin couldn't help but laugh under his breath.  He wanted to approach the guy and just shout at him to lighten up, live a little, take a chance and just make a play.  Then he considered it, they way he thought, the way he looked at the world and yet every time he was on his high horse about how everyone else should live or act, he was never willing to take his own advice.  He pondered that thought for a few more moments.  "Laurie, look, I know I have a ton of things that I should be sorry for.  The way I acted towards your brother, three years of treating my parents like every problem in my world was all their fault.  The way I treated you..."  He paused and sipped his cup again, trying to avoid looking directly at his lovely date.

"Gods in heaven,"  Laurie laughed.  "Are you actually apologizing?  Where's my phone, I want to record this.  Where is this coming from all of a sudden?"

"Have your fun,"  He joined in with her laugh, realizing how odd it must sound for him to acting with some measure of humility.  "Being out there this evening, doing all that we did, saving all these lives... I'm not joking when I say I feel completely humbled.  All the crap in my life I was so pissed off about seems so petty.  I seem so petty.  We did something amazing tonight, something no one else in history can ever brag about or take away from us.  So, yeah, Red, I'm apologizing.  Faced with imminent death has me on one of those 'say it now, or never get your chance' sort of highs... I'm sorry Laurie.  For the way I treated your brother, the way I bullied him, the way I treated you... the things I said... although I'm sticking to the whole you having no booty thing."

"Gee, I'm swooning..." Her eyes rolled as her monotone words rolled of her tongue.

"Chill, you still got the whole Emma Stone thing going for ya, and she's totally bangin'."  He recovered, not missing a breath.  "The fact is, I've had a thing for you since last year when you were at my sisters pool party for the cheer squad."

Laurie nodded sagely, sipping her punch.  "Oh, the one you took pictures of and photo shopped away all our bikini tops.... that pool party?"

He took in a deep breath, trying not to grin proudly at the remembrance of his handy work.  "Okay, again, dick move on my part, but this an apology... let me power through it, please?"

"Oh, I wasn't judging," she shook her head, shrugging.  "You gave me a whole extra cup size.  Far be it from me to complain.  Hold up, you said you've had a 'thing' for me since then?  It took for me to be practically naked in a bikini for you to think 'hey, I'd like to get to know her'?"

"Guys' gotta have standards," was his only argument.  "I know, I know, classic Devin... but everything, all this time was just my childish way of getting you to notice me only so I could push you away because I was too much of a coward to tell you... to... tell you that I'm... so incredibly attracted you that I don't quite know how to phrase it."

With one brow cocked towards the ceiling, Laurie finally tune to face her date.  "Is this the Devin Jauntsen, half-assed way of asking a girl out?"

"I wouldn't dream of it," Devin confessed, turning to face her.  "We've been through a lot of stress this evening, and you were quite clear the last time we stared death in the face... relationships that arise from stressful situations never last.  It's a fact."

Laurie pursed her lips, nodding again, smirking a bit.  "Right, right... I remember.  So, we'll just have to make out furiously until the magic has passed, then go back to hating each other."

They barely realized that they were already caught up in the gravity of the moment, slowly allowing themselves to be drawn closer, and closer.  "I could totally live with that..."

The music was a slowly becoming a low hum in their ears as their minds refused to pay attention to anything else but one another.  "Dev..."

"Yeah?"  He asked, feeling nothing but her breath on his lips.

"Sac up and kiss m-" There in front of the entire dance Devin and Laurie stood in front of the punch bowl and shared a passionate kiss that seemed long over due.  What the two of them felt was certainly beyond their expectations.  Maybe it was the pent up angst, or somewhere under it all there was genuine feelings, but their passion was certainly more than just the garden variety make-out under the bleachers at a football game.  A few students insisted on hooting and wooing them on, but they didn't hear any of it.  There was only her, him and their moment.

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Lilly enjoyed the small party at Bunnee's. It was a little odd, she had to admit, for there to be eight of her talking, dancing, eating and so forth. They were all here, only different in the most minute of ways due to their individual experiences since they were created. They all talked, sounded, thought, laughed, danced and joked the same, and it was something that Lilly wanted to let them do. They were all her, really, and all risked their lives too. They should each have a chance to enjoy their hard earned victory.

After a time though, she could feel a subtle shift and knew that they did not have long. Instead of simply letting them cease to be, she instead gathered the Vanguards together and one by one thanked them, giving them each a hug as she re-integrated them, adding their memories and experiences to her own, as if she had done it herself. It was an odd thing, to have eight different perspectives on the same event, but it gave her an even greater understanding of what all had happened in the valley, kind of how different camera perspectives could combine to create a 3D image, but this was on a much greater scale.

In a short time, the Vanguard was gone, leaving just Lilly who took some time to sort through her new memories and even when done, she had difficulty thinking of the dance. Things like that were what she was fighting for, but right now, she had so many things going through her mind after what all had happened, and she still had certain convictions, but they could wait until morning.

At the dance Lilly was a little surprised at Courtney's reaction to their arrival. She was also disappointed that 'Death Otter' did not hear what she said due to the weird time loop/distortion thingy. She was certain there would be other chances, but still, it was now a missed opportunity.

"Congratulations, Courtney." she said with a smile and nod.

"If you, Chet and the others ever want to do some good with your gifts beyond winning a plastic crown unopposed, then come let us know. The door is always open and we'd love to have you." she said sincerely, though with a tiny bit of teenage sarcasm, of course. 

"That goes for your fearless leader too." she added as they moved away.

Lilly took a seat and looked around the dance, taking it all in. All of these young people, the town and even most of the world outside of a few handful of people, had no idea of what they just did... and that was exactly how she wanted it. This was what she was fighting for. This blissful ignorance so that they could all continue with their lives without fear or worry of alien invasion or worse.

Lilly sighed though as she noticed Devin and Laurie over by the punch bowl, kissing so passionately. She was envious, she had to admit. Sandy, even if he was just a normal guy and not some sort of.. something else... was a nice guy. Thoughtful, respectful and loyal, but 'passionate' was not a word she could use to describe him, or even 'assertive'. She had to make the first move, imitating their first kiss when he was blubbering, and at times he just seemed like... well, she just wished he had more confidence and assertiveness like Devin.

Yeah, Devin could be an ass at time, but she could see a change happening in him. Knowing the fate of the world was resting on your shoulders had a way of making a lot of the petty, teenage, high school bullshit fall away. She had to admit, they did get along when it came down to it. Sharing jokes and a sense of humor that seemed to escape the others. Abel was a serious sourpuss, Sean was often too analytical, Kia was too sweet, Sara was.. well Sara was okay when she wasn't being a bitch, and Alec was decent, but just had a different sense of humor. Now that she thought about it, they did share things that the others did not, both of them being from California or the fact that they were both potential Olympians before their enhancement and other things as well.

Lilly sighed.

"Are you okay?" Sandy asked, causing Lilly to look up and nod, forcing a smile.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Just thinking about stuff after tonight..."

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The Irregulars danced. For the next two hours each was lost in his or her on thoughts even as they were connected like nothers had evenr been connected before. Not only through their miraculous mental links but by circumstance and action as well.

Midnight came and the last song was announced, partners held each other close as the band played a melancholy slow song. 

Jaunt was watching Laurie wondering if this was all they had or if the future was like what he had seen was it even possible. He saw her glance at the braclet on her left wrist from time to time. The Alien armor. This time she caught him watching her. "They said they would be back in a few days. Something about having to take care of the energy they collected from the blast."

"That's not what I was thinking about." he whispered in her ear pulling her closer. Laurie rested her head on his shoulder and smiled.

Lilly and Sandy danced he held her tight. Lilly  could feel his tenseness, knew he wanted to ask her what had happened but his sense galentry kept him from prying. He knew she would talk when she was ready. But still he knew that something momentous had occured he could see it in her eyes in all of them. The song faded and the lights came up. Sandy kissed Lilly gently holding her tightly for a few more seconds. Lilly's phone vibrated.

All of the Irregulars phones vibrated.

Couples parted and phones came out and the young enhanced looked at the text message displayed and it wasn't what any of them had expected.

*meet me at the gaming room, bring Lauri, leave the other two, limo is outside waiting*

Sara clicked the phone off and gave her lover a look which said 'what now?'

Around them the other kids were leaving most arm in arm with a date , all except the Irregulars who stood looking at phones and each other.

These were their special phones the ones only the base could call, and this text was from an unknown number.

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It was a weird night. Kia was aware of how absurd an understatement that was, but didn't want to spend the rest of the evening on Thesaurus.com trying to do better. So...weird would have to do.

After fighting an invasion, and then getting sucked into nightmare alternate histories (if that was even what happened...she still wasn't sure how all that worked), and then fighting ANOTHER invasion only bigger, now she was dancing at a school dance with Abel like nothing had happened.

It felt like the more they tried to clutch at the shreds of their normal lives, the more desperate and futile it all became. Who were they trying to fool anymore? Once they graduated were they still going to shuffle off to college and get degrees and join the workforce? How do you even put 'repelled alien invasion by blowing them all up' onto a resume? How did they go back to normal after all this? Did they even want to?

She wasn't a telepath like Abel, but she had at least as much empathy as another human being might. She could feel Abel pulling away even as he held onto her to dance. Something had changed in him...maybe from the other worlds, or maybe during the fight, Kia wasn't sure.

Finally she had to say something, so she pulled back a little, to see his face, and asked, "Abel...what's wro..."

And then her phone went off. Because of course it did.

I'm not dropping this, Kia promised herself as everyone started heading for the 'game room.' No matter what.

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The end of the dance had been perfect.  Kia in his arms as they danced one last song, and while the horrors of the night were not gone, he'd pushed them away for now.  Still he could feel her concern, and knew his own was bleeding through.   Just as she was about to bring it up, their special phones went off.   He sighed with both frustration and resignation.  "Can't even give us three hours to just be normal."   He met her gaze and nodded.   We'll talk, I promise."  and then he smiled, not some fake smile but a small genuine one, one that only Kia could bring out.   The discussion wouldn't be fun, he was sure, but If he kept this to himself, it would only lead to more problems. 

As he made his way to the Limo, he shrugged.  <So, anyone want to take a wild guess at why we're being summoned, and who it is doing the summoning?>

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"Are you flippin' serious?"  Devin looked at his phone, rolling his eyes.  "I swear to god, can these guys wipe their asses without calling us in to hold the roll?  I mean, come on..."

"I'm getting tired of all this summoning us crap,"  he clicked his phone off.  "I'm gonna head home and change, I'll meet you guys there."

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Sean enjoyed dancing more than she expected she would, now that the steps were as easy as breathing for her, but she wanted more. They had endured a war, surrounded by death, and caused more in the service of life than most could know. And what was more life affirming than sex? Arousal and desire rising, Sean's movements grew more languid and sensual and she was about to suggest to Sara that they skip the end of the dance...

... when her phone vibrated with a text. Naturally, Sean fumed as she fished her work from her bra. She arched a single brow, not so much as the message as for the fact it came from an unknown number. The number of people who had access to numbers to their work phones was very limited and she had personally upgraded the security on them.

"We find out who's calling and what they want, of course" Sean murmured at Sara as she tucked her phone back between her breasts. Sean would have much rather ignored the text altogether, but coming so soon after they had repelled an alien invasion and destroyed the civilization it had belonged to, it really wouldn't have been a smart idea. She could conceive of a few people who might be texting them at this moment, but it would really just be conjecture.

She turned gracefully on her heels and began striding towards the door with Sara, casually focusing the spectrum of her vision to peer through the wall to observe the limousine idling outside to make sure there was nothing suspicious and untoward about it. Though almost as irritated by the disruption as Devin, Sean concealed it better, giving him a sharp nod of acknowledgment at his exasperated outburst.

"See you there, Dev," Sean confirmed, glancing from Devin to Laurie and back, silently asking them if Laurie was accompanying Devin or the rest of them. "Just be aware, it might not be who you think it is."

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As soon as the group, less Devin and Laurie, were in the limo it took off  out of the parking lot and headed through town toward the Cassidy residence. There being little to no traffic at this time of night and with the snow they made very good time and within five minutes the Limo was pulling up to the converted barn where the gang has spent so much of their time.

As soon as the they exited the Limo it left. The lights on the main house were all dark except for the porch light and Abel could tell that the occupants, Sean's family, were all asleep. He could feel no other minds anywhere closer than the nearest houses.

Looks and shrugs and the kids, if you can still call them that, entered Sean's apartment and the place they gamed.

The smell of food was the first thing that hit them then the sight of the table laden with dozens of dishes and pizzas, platters of steak, baked potatoes, corn on the cob all sorts of food something for each of them and more. It was enough food to feed the football team. Each of them was suddenly struck by how hungry they were even Sara who truly had no need of food anymore as long as she had power.

"Go ahead eat. You all must be famished after tonight. I made sure we brought all of your favorites." none of them had noticed her being there, sitting in Sena's GM comfy chair. Sean and Abel could swear that she hadn't been. But she was now an older handsome woman dressed casually but elegantly all in white.

Abel immediately scanned her and while he could feel the presence of her mind he could get no purchase. She was shielded unlike any thing he had ever experienced before.

"My name is Pandora and my companion there," she lifts a hand and points behind them back at the door where there now stands a stocky black man, also in white, who none of them had seen either, "is Apollo. We'll just wait for Jaunt and Laurie and then I'll explain when we are all together. In the meant time Eat... Enjoy. You all did so well tonight."

She smiles.

It's dazzling.

Spoiler

Pandora Helen-Mirren.jpg   Apollo shutterstock_257319646-200x200.jpg

 

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"Wow, your bedroom already..." Laurie looked around Devin's room which was a combination of discarded clothing, empty soda cans and discarded school books.  It smelled like axe body spray and 007, the Shelly Wal-Mart high end brand.  "I'm not sure I'm ready for this sort of commitment.  You know, I don't think I've ever been in here,"  She gave the place another once over.  "Not that I missed much."

"Hey, a man's room is his castle, his Sanctum Sanctorum!"  He thrust his finger into the air dramatically while sifting through his drawers for something to wear.  He settled on an outfit and began to change.

Uh, this is a sanctum, Dr. Strange's house is a Sanctum Sanctorum," she pointed out, heading into the bathroom that connected Mari and Devin's rooms to change into something she'd borrowed from Marissa, Devin's sister and her bestie.  "Where's Mari, anyway?"

"Making it a long night I think, her and that semi-rich guy, Colin have been going out a lot."

"Colin Mathews?  Wow, she sure knows how to pick them.  I heard he's Grade A jerk material."

He pulled his shirt over his head and shrugged.  "Eh, it is what it is.  Marissa's still living the Malibu dream.  She likes the designer brands, the popularity, the guys with... means, I guess is the term.  She told mom and dad she was staying at Katie Nash's place tonight.  Y'know Katie, brunette, too much make up, seriously massive ti-"

"I-I know who Katie Nash is, Devin, thanks for the break down,"  She swiftly cut him off to stop him from talking.  "I text her to let her know I stole some clothes,"  Laurie came from the bathroom just as Devin was tying his shoes.  It still hadn't sunken in yet, the kiss the shift in their relationship to one another, what tomorrow would bring.  Over the course of a month or so Devin had gone from the guy who antagonized her to her... her... boyfriend?  Boy toy?  Fling?  What were they?

She had to admit, she didn't see it coming.  Well, she did, but she didn't.  Through all the madness and adventures they had grew closer together, and he did save her life already, more than once, which she was sure he'd never let her live down.  It still didn't strip away the teenager-in-love awkwardness of standing close to a guy she hated a few weeks ago and now finding that her vision was blurred around all points except him.  She noticed how handsome he was, the way the right side of his lip curled when he was trying to be witty.  The way his t-shirts were a bit tighter since he came into his powers or how his eyes... ugh, it was infuriating trying to make sense of all this!

"Hey, you okay?"  Devin approached her, a slight smile forming on his lips.  "You still with us?"

She smiled back.  She stammered a reply, still half lost in her thoughts.  "Y-yeah.  We should get going... everyone's gonna think we're just making out..."

"Eh, let em."

A few minutes after everyone arrives and Pandora and Apollo's introductions are concluded...

"Wassap bitches!"  Devin appeared with his typical fanfare, loud and proud.  Laurie rolled her eyes with a smirk at his boundless energy.  "So is this like, the save the world after party or whaaaat?"  He was just in jeans and a t-shirt that had a name tag on it that displayed: "Hello my name is: Mr. Steal Your Girl".  Laurie was also in jeans that were a bit too tight and a shirt that was a bit more low cut than she was used to, but she had to consider who's closet she got it from.  She reminded her self again why she didn't borrow clothes from Mari... they were the same size, except Laurie bought clothes that actually fit her.

"Yes, we're late.  Yes we were making out, like, a lot.  Not quite at second base yet, but I'll keep you posted.  Guys!  C'mon... what's with the old people in our secret hide out!?  They're gonna roll up in here and the next thing you know we got moth balls in every corner, plastic on the furniture, oh hey, food..."  And he was quiet.  Without another word he was preparing himself something to eat.  He offered Sean a nod and the others the same except for Lilly who was near something he wanted to devour.  His mouth was full, a piece of lunch meat hanging from it, so he gave her a series a playful hip bumps to scoot her aside followed by a flirty wink and lunch meat filled grin.  Ever since his jaunt to the alternate timeline he'd been both more awkward and flirty with her, like he knew something he wasn't telling anyone.

Laurie was trying to hide her embarrassment for... well, Devin being Devin.  She glared at Sean with that 'WTF' look in her eyes.  Sean smiled and shrugged.  "Don't look at me, you kissed him."

"It's the only way to shut him up..." she grumbled.

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Abel looked at Pandora and Apollo with resignation.  He was about to ask a few questions, and then Devon showed up.   "Way to make an Entrance Devon, and remind our guests that we're all still just teenagers, some with more attitude than others."   he sighed, and accepted that he'd met another pair of people who's minds he couldn't read.   It was a perfect shield, much as he liked to think of his own considerable defenses, but that had been put to lie more than once.   

He looked to Pandora, and nodded.  "Well, we're all here now.  I for one would like that explanation you mentioned."   There was no edge to his voice, not even his eyes betrayed agitation.  He didn't touch the food, not out of suspicion, but it was an act of will for now.  He was hungry, but food could wait, he wanted information now, and he really wasn't in the mood for pleasantries anymore.    Mentally, It was as if a cold wind came from him, more obvious to Kia than the others, as she was holding his hand.  

It was somewhat different in that he didn't give in to the paranoia that had been part of his daily life for some time, but him simply going cold, well it was as if all emotion had left him.

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Kia looked at Abel, and took hold of his hand. It hurt her to see him like this...it felt to her like he didn't trust himself.

"Thanks, I guess? But we're all..." she glanced at Devin enthusiastically chowing down, "...well, most of us are just really tired of feeling controlled and manipulated right now. And when strangers just appear in a place we think of as being ours, without asking permission or warning, and then start talking to us like you're one of our parents or a teacher...that's like you're telling us we belong to you."

She sighed and squeezed Abel's hand slightly.

"Maybe that's not how you mean it, but that's how it feels. So I guess, if there's a point to all this...maybe just get to that part? It's been a really long day for us."

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The black man gets a cross look on his face and glances at Pandora who is still smiling. "Show a little respect..."

"Not now Apollo, Kia has a point they don't know us and they have let themselves be controlled by others of... less ability and by fear.

As I said my name is Pandora, or you could call me Liliu, Lilith,  Eneshkailli, or any of a hundred other names. All would be appropriate, but I like Pandora. I like the myth that goes along with it. And in a way I am your parent. The benevolent one, that is.

Really you all should eat it will help replenish the energy you expended, making the exhaustion go away and some of you less cranky." She stands and picks up a peach and bites into it. "Mmm very fresh.

Tonight was a crucible you had to pass and you did. Your not children anymore, now, from this point forward you will define yourselves and the world you will create, you will direct the path your future takes.

I will guide you"

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"Well, y'can't do any worse than the teddy bear,"  Devin said with a mouthful.  "I mean, for reals, Enish-ka-gooli-booli, I'm not even gonna try and pronounce that, we love meeting new people, we do.  You sure do certainly seem like you guys would be a cool crowd, named for mythological figures... a sun god with one hell of a tan, and I would love to hear about your box, at length."

He cracked a can of cherry coke (how did she know?!? squee!) and took a sip to wash down a mouthful of food.  "All joking aside, you seem a very well established, well-spoken, and well mannered group of individuals.  So, you understand that you're in our house, uninvited and unannounced, and currently, I'm sorry to say, unwelcome."

"We're all being raised on CW right now, trust us we know all about drama, self-loathing, how to blame ourselves for everything that isn't our fault... we know the drill.  I get it, you don't want to tell us too much at once, you wanna build up the suspense... but you gotta give us something.  Something more than food,"  he nodded appreciatively.  "Although this is a hell of a start."

"Work with us."

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"Yes the CW, entertaining, let's use that as an analogy then, you" she indicates the irregulars with a sweeping gesture, " are the Vampire diaries, we are the Originals. And it's all my house."

"They are still children Pandora..." starts Apollo before being cut off again by the woman.

"Enough Apollo! Why don't you go and see how the T'Tauri are doing with the energy they siphoned off, hmm?"

Apollo glares then his form shifts into streaks of light and flashes out of the barn through the spaces between.

"Please forgive him, his existence has been trying to say the least." She sits back down and crosses her legs and folds her hands onto her lap. "Alright Jaunt, where would you like me to begin?"

 

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"Yeah, and if I remember correctly Klaus is a murdering psychopath drunk on his own power and sense of entitlement.  Don't get me wrong, I'd totally go gay for the guy," the rest of the Irregulars shot him a look and he shrugged.  "What?  It's the accent."

"Pandora, what you're suggesting is mentorship, guidance, understanding and all that requires one thing between us we don't have yet: trust.  We have no reason to trust you, especially since you have the name of a woman who is solely responsible for releasing upon the world all its woes, misery, and misfortune... not really the sort of thing that makes me go from six to midnight, y'feel me?"

"So, what exactly do you want from us?  Barring having a host of kids to talk cryptically to."

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On 9/28/2017 at 2:50 PM, Jaunt said:

"It's the only way to shut him up..." Laurie grumbled.

"He's your windmill to tilt at, Sis," Sean replied sotto voce. "I wouldn't hold out hope fixing him - he's not buggy, just made that way - but he just miiiight be worth it." She glanced over at Devin with a small grin and ruefully shook her head, sunset coloured hair falling to partially obscure an eye. "Maybe."

Though she kept her face smooth and neutral at the appearance of the unexpected guests in her barn-come-apartment, inside Sean was slowly simmering with annoyance and growing anger. The trespassing was one thing, but all she had wanted to do was come home, strip down, and spend some intimate time with Sara after all they had done and endured. While she was sure Devin wouldn't have had an issue with her continuing her plans, at the moment, she, and likely most of the others would.

While the others spoke with the ones calling themselves Pandora and Apollo, Sean studied them with surreptitious scrutiny with all the enhanced senses at her disposal. And despite the vast array of senses she brought to bare, Pandora, Apollo, and the feast set on the gaming table registered as completely mundane, if in peak health and fine quality, respectively.

Pandora and Apollo were clearly anything but normal humans, grandiose claims aside. There was virtually no way a regular human could have surprised her with a sudden appearance, and even little chance to get the drop on Abel or Devin (if had arrived with the rest of them). They had access to information very, very few had access to, especially to soon after the situation. And of course, there was Apollo disappearing between split photons of light.

Though her empowered metabolism almost growled at the feast laid before them despite having been satiated at Bunnee's a few hours ago, Sean contented herself with a selection of fruit - melon, citrus slices and various berries - for the moment... and a cup of coffee from a sterling silver carafe. Sumatran, sweet, earthy, and smooth. Very excellent, she'd give Pandora a little extra of their time for the coffee alone. The steak and potatoes could come afterward.

"There are a number of... people claiming some part in our... provenance and seeking to be our mentors or guides," Sean added, her melodious voice cool with a biting edge of irritation she didn't bother to hide. She mirrored Pandora, crossing her own legs - still miffed that the older woman had claimed her GMing chair - and savoured another sip of the coffee. She hadn't watched The Vampire Diaries or The Originals, but knew the gist of it from catching bits of the shows when Lauri watched them.

"Accepting your claims as true, for the moment, as an addendum to Devin's question: How many other of your proteges or children... " Sean's crimson lips briefly frowned at Pandora's claim, however nebulous, "... have you seen or sent into such a crucible as ours, and where are they now? Project Stepping Stone hadn't been without success before we arrived." It was classified information, but if they knew about the T'tauri, and what they were doing right now, there was little point in dissembling. "Yet there was no mention of you or someone like you in their files, even when reading between the lines."

 

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"Yeah, the name Pandora does not inspire much confidence, and showing up in our place, uninvited, even less so." Lilly said after being hip bumped playfully out of the way by Devin and listening to the others.

"So, not to be rude to a trespasser, but just cut to the chase. Who are you really, and what do you want from us? It's been a rather long day, and our patience is worn rather thin."

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  • 2 weeks later...

"Really Lilly," the woman claiming to be Pandora said with a little laugh as soon as everyone finished barking at her, "Do I look like someone who needs to pretend. And what I want is for all of you to succeed.

Now eat, don't eat, I don't care, but sit down and listen and don't interrupt.

When I said we were the originals,  I meant it. I was born nearly 14 billion years ago and until recently my kin and myself were the pinnacle of evolution in the universe. And before you ask, no this is not the form I was born with but it is the form I choose to wear here. And yes it was I who took over your friends and nudged you hear and there. And third and more important to us going forward, My kin are the ones who are on their way here to destroy you.."

Spoiler

if none of you interrupt her I will continue

 

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