ABERRANT: WEIRDER STUFF - Sleepover

[Lilly Pryor]

"Dude! You totally gotta check this out!" said as she typed in a search. "This kitten totally attacks these apples, and the owner set it to a music score!"

"Huh?" Kia responded as she looked to the monitor and then was transfixed by the adorable kitten doing a mixture of circling, assaulting and feeling from two green apples sitting harmless in the middle of a bed, set to dramatic music, only to occasionally stop mid-assault and groom for a moment to a jaunty, little tune before resuming the assault.

"That is sooo cute!" Kia squealed as Lilly, in pajama bottoms and tanktop with hair up in a simple high pony, sat back in the chair, giggling.

"I know, right!" she concurred with her friend.

Lilly and Kia, though best friends, had little time together since their quantum enhancement to just hang out and be friends. It was a friendship that they both valued and finally, after several months and the battle in battle in China, the pair were getting a chance to just hang out and be teenage girls again. After a day of some much needed retail therapy in Great Falls, the girls were staying the night at Lilly's house (though Kia's home was right across the street) and were relaxing, looking over video, listening to music, talking about whatever, doing their nails, eating entirely unhealthy food and all manner of teenage girl activities.

Lilly stood up and stretched her arms out together over her head as she arched her back with a relaxed sigh.

"Dude, it feels sooo good to not be training, or fighting, or freaky Star Trek timeline/alternate dimension hopping or whatever. It's been too long since we've been able to just chill." she sighed.

 

[Kia Mizuki]

"I know," Kia agreed. She sat down on Lilly's bed and watched the monitor on her computer from that distance, still giggling a little at the kitten's antics until the video ended. "I was starting to get worried I was forgetting HOW to chill, you know? Like, how long can you be on edge and worrying all the time before it just sucks the fun out of everything?"

She reached down absently to get a handful of Ritz crackers from the plastic bowl on Lilly's nightstand. The secret to eating them without getting crumbs everywhere was just to eat one whole cracker at a time. Then there was no explosion of tiny golden-brown baked goods.  And they called Sean and Abel the geniuses!

Once she'd swallowed, Kia asked, "What do you think happens now though? I keep thinking...okay, aliens are gone, day's saved, good job guys lets get back to our regular lives now. But...is that how it's going to work? I mean, I'm graduating soon. I was telling Abel I was still wanting to get a degree and he was all, 'well I can teach you stuff better than they can,' and I guess that's true but..." She shrugged. "I don't know. It's not the same."

"What about you?"

[Lilly Pryor]

Lilly sighed at the question, for a multitude of reasons. She had plenty of her own issues at the moment, and now realized that Kia had either forgotten or missed something Pandora had told them. Ignorance was bliss, but Lilly did not want her friend to be unprepared, so she had to unfortunately take it away from Kia.

"You know, I really hate to burst your bubble, but Pandora said her siblings, our wold-be alien overlords, are still physically traveling here. What we did in China, taking out the Asheen and screwing their portal network,  just bought us time. Hopefully it is enough time for the world to get it's act together and for us to prepare for their arrival... whenever that will be. So we just do what we can to prepare and hope we are ready. And that means more than just us, or the KEYs, ready. With Abel and Sean busting out tech, they can hopefully elevate the world and end some aggression. I mean, making sure people have food to eat and that their lights stay on alone are huge deals." Lilly explained as she picked up small bunch of grapes from a bowl and began to pick a few off of the bunch.

"We still have to train, with each other and likely with Pandora and Apollo, but we cannot let preparing be our all consuming goal though either. I mean, you still have to live. Work hard, play hard, or whatever." she added and shrugged as she popped a few grapes into her mouth, chewing for a moment before continuing. "I know I still want to graduate, but with things how they are now, it looks like we can't go back to the high school. Maybe we can finish being home schooled? I would really like my diploma, and for it to especially match my jacket. I and would like to get a degree too, but I am not sure if that goal will jive well with being an alien battling, superhero." she said with another shrug. "Granted, studying would be much easier when each Lilly takes a subject, but there would bound to be arguments over who gets the stuck with what subjects." she joked.

Lilly spun in her chair to face her computer, opened a music app, started a playlist, starting with the Atomic Blond soundtrack, and then spun back to face Kia again as the music began.

"Abel and Sean are so smart, but they miss the little things. They do not seem to grasp wanting to set an academic goal and achieve it. A degree is something you will have all your life, because honestly, who knows how long we will have these powers. Nothing says they are forever., and I do not want to be a 'washed up superhero' cliche or something." Lilly mused as she got up and took a seat on the bed by Kia, claiming several of the crackers for herself, which she quickly devoured.

"Those two worry me too. I mean, look at what Sara losing her powers did to her? I think they would be at least equally devastated, probably more so, with their uber-smarts gone. We cannot let out abilities define us. The more you do, the further you drift away. That's why I usually power down. Yeah, I heard it from them that it is stupid to do that, since I could crash my truck and die, but I never want to forget who I am. And I sure as hell never want to look at people as simply asserts or parts of an equation instead of people., but yeah, I suppose it is irresponsible to some degree, to risk my life like that since there is a lot of good I can do, but to me, that is living."

Lilly took to Kia sitting beside her and frowned. "Bleh. Sorry. Wasn't' trying to get all philosophical on you." she apologized as she hit Kia's shoulder with her own. "Anyways..."

[Kia Mizuki]

"Nuuuh uh," Kia said, turning to face Lilly. "You don't get to anyways your way out of this one. I've actually been thinking a little about the whole Pandora thing. They're coming here because of US, right? They don't really care about Earth or anyone else. At least, that's kind of what I thought Pandora was saying. That made me think...what if we just leave? Find another planet or something. Have the big fight for the ages there, where no one else'll get hurt. Then we can come back and...I don't know...we'll still have whatever future we want."

"I just feel like we're turning into these weird super-soldiers and I guess I don't really know what to do about it. Being super is one thing, but a soldier? Part of me wishes we could ALL just lose our powers like Sara. If that meant these aliens would leave us alone, it'd be worth it."

She looked away uncomfortably. "Maybe it'd help Devin too."

[Lilly Pryor]

"You got it kind of backwards. Humanity started playing with portal technology. That is what got their attention, long before we were KEYs, probably by noticing the portals on their network scanners or whatever. The Earth was set for invasion the moment we started screwing around with portal tech, essentially.

So they started invading. They did so more or less by the book. First they send in an advanced recon party to gather intel on the world and it's life forms, like the dragonflys and displacer beasts. Remember all the weird and weirder stuff that happening all across town? Cow mutilations, people missing, stuff taken apart down to the bolt, and all that?

Then, the night at the lake, they send in the bugs, with the wolves as escorts or guards. Remember how they were stinging to incapacitate, and then webbing people to take through their portal? They weren't stocking their pantry for the winter. They were collecting specimens, grabbing some of us, the indigenous life forms, to study and possibly alter to send back as spies or whatever. Remember the virus we purged from them? Again, by the book to further prepare for their invasion. 

We were not KEYs at that time, except for Abel. It was a side effect of the portals, that turns some people into KEYs, a radiation or particle or whatever. Abel got a big dose from the portal that Blitx when vanished through years ago, enhancing him. Apparently our nodes put off some of the same stuff too, but at a lower dose I think, so being around Abel was slowly dosing us. Remember the headaches? I am pretty sure those were are nodes starting to form. The portal opened at the lake and really cranked out the juice, which gave us a big dose, pushed us across the finish line and changing us into KEYs that night.

 Then we handed their little advanced recon party their asses.

Then the base finds us and all that. Then later the displacer beast that we still running around was confronted at the lake by the base choppers. So when leave school, having just purged the virus, and go back to the lake and kill it. By that time though, they had gathered a fair amount of intel.

So homecoming rolls around and we all remember the weird stuff that happened there. We did not know it, but Pandora and Apollo were already influencing us through Sandy and Taleena. They invade Shelly, likely to keep us distracted, and all over the world. Then the cross time and dimension wackiness happened, it all got rewound, and then we go to China because they were still messing with portal tech and the Asheen used it to open their bigass portal and start invading, or at least doing a recon in force. We meet the T'Tauri, and with their help, we put the smackdown on them, jack up their portal network and save the world.. sort of.

Then we meet Pandora and Apollo, they tell us about their siblings and that they are still physically coming here, so we need to prepare. Then more KEY's start popping up, Capetown happened, Sara, Devin, the rose garden announcement and all of that. And now here we are, in pj's and eating Ritz crackers.

So the Earth was set for invasion as soon as they noticed us goofing with portal tech, not because we are KEYs. We, the Irregulars, just threw a big-ass wrench into their invasion plans and hopefully bought us enough time for us, and the world, to prepare." Lilly said and then took a swig of her water.

"There is an old piece of military wisdom that came from a Prussian military commander named Helmuth van Moltke, 'No plan survives first contact with the enemy'. We sure as hell proved that one to the Asheen and their overlords." she said with a faint grin. 

"Pandora and Apollo say they do not see eye to eye with their siblings, so they are here to help us prepare for their arrival. And from what I gather, we are the first and only species to resist their invasion at all, and keep in mind they have conquered galaxies or whatever. I get what you are saying though, that it why time like this is important. We need to remember who we are. Preparing cannot be our all consuming goal, lest we lose ourselves and essentially become that which we are preparing to fight." Lilly said as a frown crept across her face. It was no an expression common to Lilly. Kia had always know her to be generally good natured, confident and fairly optimistic. 

"And Devin does not get that. He's lost himself, consumed by her power and need to prepare. I'm sure it's no coincidence that right after he channeled all of that energy and went into 'god mode' or whatever that he then got consumed by it. He is out friend and he needs us, now more than ever. Sara too.

Devin is a better than he seems sometimes. We've all seen it. He can be heroic, noble and even sweet, even if it is usually behind a facade of douchiness. I probably know him better than most of us. We got along and talked... and stuff. I know he will come back to us. Right now he is hurt and pissed and lost, but he will see the light. It will just take some time, and hopefully the price for him to realize how astray he has gone will not be too high."

Lilly sighed and centered herself, letting down her high ponytail only to immediately tie it up again, a habit of hers when she was worried, one that Kia had noticed a long time ago.

"So yeah, us leaving will not stop the invasion of Earth. It'll just leave it defenseless. And if you or anybody does not want to fight, then I don't blame them and would hold nothing against them. Nobody can be forced into this. It has to be by choice, but we must never forget who we are either." she said as she picked up a couple of crackers and tucked them into her mouth.

Lilly's eyes widened as she chewed and she raised a finger for a moment, lifting her other hand to hide her mouth as she spoke with her mouth somewhat full. "I met another KEY." she said and then swallowed. "Out on the Crow Reservation. She was cool."

[Kia Mizuki]

"I guess I thought the Asheen and the Pandora aliens were different," Kia moped. "I thought..." She shook her head and focused on the part of all this that didn't give her feelbads.

"Who is she? What can she do?"

[Lilly Pryor]

"They are different. The Asheen were minions of Pandora's siblings. They were sent to conduct the invasion. They failed and the portal network got screwed up, so now the bosses are stepping in." Lilly said, clarifying for her friend.

"Anyways..." she said, playfully bumping shoulders with her friend.

"The new KEY?" she asked. Right then, Lilly's phone beeped. She picked it up and looked at the text. 

"This. She does stuff like this." she said. laughing as she showed Kia the text on her phone.

Spoiler

 Hey Lilly. This is Paulina. Was thinking bout what you said and I think I'd like to help, if I can.

 

"She just kind of happened to showed up right where I was, in the middle of nowhere, that day. And now, she is just happening to text just as we are talking about her. I mean, what are the odds?" Lilly laughed. 

"She said she can manipulate fate or luck or whatever, and can see the past and future. Kinda neat, and would probably really helpful to us, but I just made the offer. I told her I would not blame her if she just wanted to live out her life. She had to make the decision, and I guess she did."

"What should I tell her?" she asked as she typed just a few letters. "And oh yeah, how's things with Abel?" she added.

[Kia Mizuki]

"Tell her I like her bird emoji thing," Kia said, reaching out to brush her fingertip over the screen of Lilly's phone absently.

At Lilly's other question she sighed and covered her eyes with her hands.

"I don't knoooooowww...we're good, I guess, but it just always feels weird." Kia lowered her hands and stared at the ceiling. "He's just...really...talky? Like that's his communication style, he's a thinker-talker, and I'm more of a feeler-doer so it can make things kind of hard. To really connect. You know?"

[Lilly Pryor]

Lilly looked up from the phone and chuckled at her friend's mild frustration.

"Well, he can't talk if you are kissing him. And any guy who tells you he does not like a woman to take charge is full of shit, pardon my french. Men totally want to be led, and told, and ideally shown, exactly what to do. It saves them the effort and guess work." she said, offering sage wisdom.

"Heck, I had to make the first move with Sandy or we never would have even kissed." she added with a sigh and a shrug, and then typed on her phone and set it aside.

[Kia Mizuki]

Kia shrugged and smiled wistfully. "Yeah, well, how's it going with Sandy now?" she asks, with just a hint of teasing archness.

She laid back on her back to stare up at the ceiling.

"It's hard to really talk about, but I feel like we want different things sometimes. I want...adventure. Lots of ups and downs and intensity. I'm not really sure what he wants. Trying to get him to open up is weird. It's like, he won't disagree with anything I say, right? Anything. So if I said, 'Hey, lets do something exciting,' he would just say 'that's a great idea, what should we do?' And then whatever I ask for, he'd make it happen...but...it's like HE wouldn't really care, you know? He doesn't really care what we do, or where we go, or...anything...as long as I'm there."

"I just never feel like I'm really getting to know him. I only ever see him trying to win me over."

She turned her head to look at Lilly. "Is that what Sandy's like too?"

[Lilly Pryor]

Lilly looked up from the phone and chuckled at her friend's mild frustration.

"Well, he can't talk if you are kissing him. And any guy who tells you he does not like a woman to take charge is full of it. Men totally want to be led, and told, and ideally shown, exactly what to do. It saves them the effort and guess work." she said, offering sage wisdom.

"Heck, I had to make the first move with Sandy or we never would have even kissed." she added with a sigh while she typed on her phone.

Spoiler

 

Awesome! I think you can do a lot of good.  

Am here with my BFF, Kia (Chimera), right now. We both like your icon/emoji thingy. 

  Thanks. 

  So what now?

We'll have to bring you here to meet the other Irregulars and stuff. Maybe in the morning, if that's cool, or whenever you are free.  

  Cool.

 

Lilly tossed her phone on the table when she finished and sighed, looking back to Kia.

"Like, I know sometimes a runner takes a wide arc around first base, but you'd think he'd eventually have to make it second base sooner or later, right? Well, not Sandy. I mean, is truly is a great guy. He's thoughtful, polite, would never cheat... but he's also really, really boring. I mean, any girl in town would be lucky to have him, but for me he's just so milquetoast. I don't know. Maybe it is just me, because of the life I live now, but I think I am going to break up with him. The thing is, I don't want to hurt him either. I really do like him." She said as she grabbed a pillow off the bed, smothered her face with it, and scream in frustration into the pillow.

"I just... I don't know what to do." she sighed, hugging the pillow.