ABERRANT: WEIRDER STUFF SEASON TWO - EPISODE ONE - "WELCOME TO THE NEW AGE"

[Lilly Pryor]

Lilly stood there, still holding Kyle on her hip still, as she watched things play out in her mind. Despite all of her nearly limitless strength, speed and invulnerability, she had to stand there... a silent, powerless witness to the death of her father... at the hands of somebody she called a friend. Lilly, who the other Irregulars has always known as so tough, steadfast and confident, dropped to her knees, clutching Kyle close as her face twisted into a silent mask of anguish. She shut her tight, so tight that she was not sure if she if light would ever reach them again, as if trying to block the image of the fear on her face of her father.

All her life he had been there. He helped her fall in love with sports and athletics, instilled in Lilly his work ethic, patriotism and sense of duty. He coached her and taught her so much that has helped her, even now, or especially now, that she was a Key. She never doubted his deep, unconditional love for her. He was her mentor... her protector... her superhero.

And now he was gone.

And for Devin be the one to do it, to take his life and rob her of her father, and to do it so casually, made it hurt even worse. She knew he was hurt and angry, but this was a new level. She had thought that Devin would never do something like this that would hurt her so bad. Not Devin. Maybe it was the naivete of youth, but she thought that they had something special, at least on some level... that he cared for her. 

This though, this was cold and uncaring, taking the life of her father with unthinkable casualness. It just wasn't right.

Lilly opened her tear-filled eyes and looked to Sean. "I know you will." she said, nodding as tears began to streak down her cheeks.

"I need to see my mom, to tell he-" she said, as her voice cracked.

Sean nodded. "Mckeller said you would. I can beam you to him and he'll get you to her."

""I want to go with Lilly." the little boy in her arms said.

Lilly forced a smile as she wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. She hugged him and nodded.

"Don't you worry about any thing. Remember what I said? I'll make sure you safe. You'll get to meet my mommy too. She's really nice."

Kyle nodded and rested his cheek on Lilly's shoulder, closing his eyes as she held him close.

"I'll leave a Vanguard with you guys, or more if you need. Either way, I'll be back. Too many are in danger." she said, trying to regain her composure, even if it were just a thin facade.

She then looked to Jeane.

"Sorry you had to see that." she said, even now still thinking of others.

"We'll make sure your family is safe too. If you want to stay with them for now, then believe me, we understand. If you want to stay with us, then you are with us." she explained.

[WS ST]

Sean looked at the others most still in shock and processing. "Okay, McKeller is waiting." she pressed some buttons and the hum of the transporter filled the room and Lilly and Kyle faded from view.

"The rest of you grab what things you need from your quarters and get back here so we can beam down."

"What about the crew?" asked Charlie.

"Their already gone, we are the only ones here now. Hurry. Don't worry Jeane we will get your family to safety." Sean started resetting the coordinates and shot a thought to Abel the the link he had established. <You need to warn Tease.>

Abel moved quickly and nodded, even as his hands flew across the keyboard of one of the communications panels.   <Yeah> was his only reply to Sean, even as he quickly made a connection to Mari's phone, waiting for her to pick up.   It was true he could simply send it telepathically but he didn't really want to alienate her any further.   This wasn't going to be easy to hear, and unless she let him show her exactly as they'd seen it, then it was somewhat unlikely that She'd believe him.

He waited for her to answer, even as he thought about everyone's families.

[Marissa Jauntsen]

Completely oblivious to anything and everything not involving her (and seemingly content to stay hat way), Tease flipped over her phone as it vibrated on the table where she sat, still speaking with Darrin.  She saw who it was from and her lip curled in a disgusted twist and she set it back, face down.

"You need to take that," Darrin politely added.

She smiled and shook her head.  "I assure you, it's no one important.  So, back to me... what kind of movie is this?"

[Jeane]

Safe. Okay. That was all she needed to know. Move on. 

"Thanks but I'm good here," Jeane replied, fighting heroically to keep an inappropriate grin of triumph off her face and mostly succeeding, "I'll get my phone call when they're safe and sound. Much as I need a change of clothes or two, Mom'll be too busy having it out with me to get the brat and the baby ready by the time Dad gets home if she finds me there. No one needs that right now."

Especially not her. Long as they weren't actually dying...   

[Charlie Cole]

"She's not going to pay attention to you, Abel." Charlie said dryly, far more than he should. To hear was Ronin did was horrific, even if on some level he'd felt this coming, and felt that the main Irregulars weren't really listening to him when he'd described Devin on Tahiti. That his words and behavior had reflected something more dangerous and chilling than 'hurt and angry.' But Charlie was nowhere near as heartless as to consider saying 'I told you so.'

He in turn made his phone call to Tease, hoping she would pick up.

[Marissa Jauntsen]

She looked at her phone again, flipping to swipe right on Abel's name again.  With an exasperated sifh she swiped left at the sight of Charlie's name.

She knew they were trying to reach her, she wasn't dumb, she just didn't like Abel.  "What?"  She asked Charlie through grinding teeth.  "I'm in the middle if a job interview."

They'd just left her not but an hour ago and here she was setting up roots?  Charlie learned early though that when it came to Tease, self-centered insanity was just barely scratching the suface.

[Charlie Cole]

"Your brother has murdered Lilly's dad."

One giant bulldozer, coming right up.

"So reschedule a new appointment."

[Marissa Jauntsen]

"What the fuck are you talking about?"  As always she put the emphasis on her swearing like a spoiled Cali brat.  She gave Darrin the universal 'one second' gesture and walked away from the table.

She took several steps away and did her best to keep her voice down.  "Bullshit," she said flatly.  "My brother wouldn't hurt anyone unless he had good reason, let alone, kill someone.  What did you guys do to him?  Where is he?"

[Charlie Cole]

"To answer your questions in reverse order, no idea, nothing, and if you don't believe me, take it up with Sean, because what she showed us was pretty damning." Charlie responded in a cold level voice. "Incidentally, Kia and Lilly were denying it as much as you. But the fact is even if you think Jaunt wouldn't, Ronin did do this. Even I could tell the change from first meeting to Tahiti. So whatever the fuck happened, he's no longer the person you think he is."

[Marissa Jauntsen]

"I don't believe you," she said flatly.  It was her brother, so it was impossible for her to accept word of mouth as any sort of valid evidence.  "Either way, what do you expect me to do?  It's not like I have him on speed dial," she lied and continued.  "You ass hats left me in Virginia, it's not like I can do anything form here."

[Charlie Cole]

"Sean will beam you up." Charlie told her. "So you'll get a chance to see and decide for yourself. I suppose you'd better make goodbyes to your interviewer. Unless you want to be dramatically sent up in front of their eyes."

[Marissa Jauntsen]

Despite what she had just heard, that last part brought a mischievous smirk to her lips.  "Well, duh.  Make the arrangeents, I'll go let this guy know I'm heading out."

She walked back over to the table and smiled politely.  "I'm sorry Darrin, we'll have to continue this later, something incredibly important has come up.  I have your card, and I'll call you once this little issue is dealt with."

"Uh, yeah, yeah, sure," he smiled back and shook her hand.  "By all means, yes, please, do what you have to do and we'll be in touch.  I hope everything is okay and works out for you."

She tried to smile but was easily recognized as forced.  With everything that was going on with her brother she had her doubts that everything would work out fine in the end.  The more she tried to stay a loyal sister, the harder he seemed to make it.  "As do I, thank you."  She placed her phone to her ear and spoke to Charlie.  "Okay, do your whatever thing..."

"Beam you up," Charlie said.

"Whatever, nerd, just do it already," she fumed.  There in a busy burger joint in Norfolk, Virginia around lunch time in one of the most densely populated military cities in the U.S., Tease's molecules glittered, sparkled and she faded away.

Within a minute she was standing there with the other Irregulars and her overbearing snobbery was the brightest thing in the room compared to the expressions they all carried and the mood they all seemed to be in.  She approached one of the large viewing panels.  "Alright, so, where is this Ronin business you have to show me?"

"I have to show it to you," Abel said calmly.  "It's a series of mental images that play out what happened, but, I have to show you," he paused, knowing how she felt about his telepathy.  "Telepathically."

The mood of the room spoke volumes, if this was going to be some sneaky intervention to adjust her attitude she'd have noticed by now.  Mostly because, for a drama student, Charlie as a horrible liar.  She'd have seen right through it by now.  She wasn't fond of the idea, but she nodded and waved it on,  "Fine whatever, but I swear to god if a single memory is out of place, I will castrate you with your own mouth."

"There's that Jauntsen charm..." Abel sighed as he focused and broadcast the events as they played out.  Tease's eyes glossed over as she left the room mentally and walked the path of memories.  She winced a few times.  Cringed a couple more and even inhaled deeply in surprise, covering her mouth shock like she was watching a horror movie.  When it all passed by she slowly came back into the now and took in a deep breath to center herself.  Her eyes were glossed over with moisture but it was impressive one the less how she managed to not let slip a single tear.  She reached into her handbag and grabbed a tissue, wiping away the hidden tears as best she could without ruining her makeup.

"Okay, so what was that?"  She asked, after a moment.

"Simply put," Sean replied, stepping forward to speak with Tease face to face.  Of all the assembled, Lilly and Tease had the greatest weight to bear from all this.  After all it was her brother that was being accused of murdering Lilly's father... and they still had to work together after all this.  "I have the ability to see into the past, postcognition, they call it.  In General Pryor's office I used that ability, and that is the scene that played out.  I'm sorry, Marissa."

Tease folded her arms and gave Sean the 'you're full of shit' eyebrow.  "So, you walked around in a room?  Used some sort of magical power.  Relayed what you 'saw' to Abel, and he in turn magically relayed it all to us?"  She scoffed with a hard snort.  "Yeah, that'll hold up in court.  Look, Sean, for all I know you just thought the whole thing up in your head and gave it to Abel to give to all of us.  I don't know what to believe, but what I know, factually, is that my brother was fine before he started hanging out with you guys.  Now?  Now he's off the deep end somewhere and you guys are doing a lot of blaming him while lining your own pockets and playing 'Overlords of Earth' from your rocket ship here in orbit."

"It's a satellite, actually," Charlie corrected her with an extended finger to accent his point-of-fact.  Every head in the room turned to him slowly.  He shrugged and leaned against the console.  He raised his hands palms up as if to 'push' all the looks away from him.  "I'm cool with rocket ship.  Carry on."

Sean was about to protest Tease but she was still fired up.  "However," she raised her own hands up now in an attempt to quell the on coming revolt of everyone else's opinions on matters she cared nothing about.  "I will concede that you guys, collectively, had done some serious ass kicking on behalf of heroism everywhere.  So I'm willing to give this group the benefit of the doubt.  It is my strong belief that you guys, knowingly or unknowingly messed up my brother, but in fairness the only person who can answer that is Ro-," she paused and lost her composure for a moment.  They all saw it and respectfully allowed her to regain it with an awkward silence.  She was his sister, his twin.  It was obvious she didnt' want to believe her brother was capable of doing something so horrific, especially to Lilly's father.  Like all the Irregulars had done previously, instead of listening to reason she automatically sided with her emotional gut.  After only a second or so, she continued.  "DeeJay."

"It's no secret that I'm not really a fan of any of you nerds, especially the new homeless girl who looks like she did her hair this morning with a Flowbee.  But the fact is simple, we are the only one's equipped to bring him in.  We have the tools and the talent to..." she looked around rolled her eyes.  "Well, the tools anyway.  So, I'll reserve judgement of my brother until I see some actual proof he's guilty of something, not your over active imagination."

[Sean Cassidy]

"Fair enough, Tease" Sean said, giving her a nod of sympathy and understanding, though her lips tightened faintly at the questioning of what she had witnessed, however unorthodox. She would remember the look on General Pryor's face for the rest of her life - it wasn't something she would inflict herself with just to paint Devin as a villain.

She hoped it wasn't.

"When they recover, you can talk to the soldiers he... incapacitated at Fort Bulwark, before he left." Tight lips turned down in a slight frown. "And I believe McKellar may have more to share with us on... Ronin's activities."

It hadn't been her intention to involve Tease with confronting her brother, just to warn her. A part of her questioned whether Tease would actually help instead of hinder bringing Ronin in - he was her twin, after all and Sean didn't doubt she still communicated with him. But she wouldn't let Ronin's actions taint her with suspicion, not yet, and would take Tease at her word.

And hope she and the rest of the Irregulars didn't pay for it.

<You'll all find out where we're going when we get there, Abel,> Sean thought at him as her fingers worked the console, preparing the security measures to be activated and wiping the teleportation logs. <Unsurprisingly, Guardian Shield made some contingencies. Alchemy and Gatekeeper are already there. The samples from the Psyops lab have been secured elsewhere waiting for us to go over them in case Ronin decided to leave any surprises with them for us to stumble into.>

"Don't worry about it, Jeane," Sean said with a small grin, as she picked up a tightly packed rucksack. "I'm sure the military can spring for a couple changes of clothes. They have the budget for five hundred dollar hammers, after all. This isn't exactly how I wish you would be introduced to the Irregulars. I hope you don't come to regret it."

[WS ST]

INTERLUDE

CNN, MSNBC, FOX NEWS

Breaking News... eleven airmen are hospitalized after an unknown assailant, a suspected Key, attacked Bulwark Air Force Base.  While details are as of yet unknown, we have do know that General William Pryor, according to witness testimony, was attacked and killed in the assault.  General Pryor, as you may know, is the father of world renowned key Lilly Pryor, who often goes by the name 'Vanguard'.  More as details come in, our hearts go out to General Pryor's family, he leaves behind a wife and daughter.

 

UNDISCLOSED LOCATION

...who often goes by the name 'Vanguard'.  More as details come in, our hearts go out to General Pryor's family, he leaves behind a wife and daughter.

"That little shit." Pandora clicked the television off and looked at Apollo. "Are you sure it was Devin?"

The stocky well muscled black man nodded and frowned. "Yeah, Savant left strong after impressions, she's more capable than I gave her credit for. They were clear, it was Devin."

"And he gave you no indication that this was something he was planning." Pandora's gaze was withering.

"No, to be honest this looked like something spontaneous to me."

"Spontaneous? What he just happened to pick the exact moment when Savant was giving a fucking speech to their UN about the Keys? Don't be Obtuse Apollo.' She walks to a bar and pours a glass of wine. "Where are they now?"

Apollo shakes his head "I don't know, they used that damned Frog teleporter, I cant track it."

Pandora drains the wine from her glass. "And Devin?"

"Same place in California, by the beach. He keeps going back there. There's a girl."

"Find the rest of them." She set down her glass and faced Apollo, " I'll go talk to our wayward child."

 

CAMP AZURE

THE PLANET APALON

HOME IN THIS GALAXY OF THE GUATAL FEEM

 

Sara watched as the last group of the Irregular families came through the gate. They consisted of The Jauntsons and some new people she didn't know from a new Key They had found before Devin had gone batshit crazy. No that's not right Devin went batshit crazy before then maybe even before the whale incident that had robbed her of her powers.Hell he may have always been batshit crazy and they all just missed it.

She looked around. Another world. The GF had set them up in a nice spot not far from their city but not close enough to disturb them either. Aside from the families of the Irregulars and others who might be on a potential Ronin hit list there were some 200 Military personnel and Scientists of all different types. This would be the first offworld settlement but not the last already small teams of soldiers and scientist were preparing to start exploring other potential worlds for colonization. That whole eggs in one basket not a good idea thing.

Sara could see her dad over in the camp helping out with the folks It was nice to see him engaged. Her eyes drifted over to the small shelter where she knew Lilly and her mother were, Grieving. Lilly, her mother and the small child Lilly had brought with her named Kyle.

 

 

CAMP CENTURY

GREENLAND

 

It wasn't cold, which was surprising, but it wasn't warm either. The Irregulars materialized in what must have at one time been an auditorium but was now just and empty space. The air held a chill but considering that they were underground smelled fresh.

Blizt trotted up to them as the materialization completed his tail wagging. “Good that's all of you then. I have hooked the Rector into the bases power grid, but we want to go slow firing things up It hasn't been operational since the last century. I know it's not warm yet but it will probably take a day or so for the whole place to thaw. I found some crates with coats in it you can probably find something that will fit.”

He led them into the base proper and showed them around. “We are the only ones here and until we get our communications set up we are cut off from the rest of the world except for your sat phones.” He barked a little laugh “Welcome to our own little fortress of solitude.

 

THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS

 

The bear was fishing it had already pulled three fish from the shallow stream but it was still hungry. Something it didn't know what made it stop. The large head swung around but it could see nothing, smelled nothing heard nothing. Yet still it knew something was wrong. It raised its head and gave a bellow of warning which suddenly turned into one of pain.

Blinding spears of agony burst through it's skull it's vision went dark and light all at once as it's muscles spasmed and the bear fell into the river thrashing...

 

 

 

 

[Lilly Pryor]

Lilly, or rather the exact duplicate of Lilly that 'Lilly Prime' left behind before going to see her mother, caught Jeane's expression as Blitz, the dog, walked up and started talking to them.

"Oh, yeah." she said to Jeane,  "That's Blitz. He was Abel's dog, but wandered through a portal years ago, was found by the Guatal Feem (friendly aliens) who modded him so they could communicate. Then he got back here the better part of a year ago. So yeah, he's a talking dog and our friend." she explained to the young, blonde Key.

She thought for a moment, and nodded. 

"You know, it all happened so gradually for us, when we try to explain all of this stuff to other people in one go, it sounds batshit crazy."

"Anyways. He's intelligent and talk and stuff, but he still like scritches and stuff, like any dog. He's cool."

[Jeane]

"I'll take your word for it," Jeane answered once she got her jaw off the floor, "Ya know, you hear stuff about Keys and aliens from the internet. *I* pull weapons I don't know the name of from an infinite box of them in my head. But a fucking do... Er, sorry. Nice to meet you, Blitz?"

She really didn't want that to come out as shaken as she had, but after battling a video game character, meeting two, no, three of the hottest human beings ever, witnessing a mental murder, going to *space*, and getting her family sent into witness protection... The blonde daredevil flailed to divert the topic gracefully. And failed.

"So. Ah. Clothes? Not Air Force surplus maybe?" 

[Abel Cross]

Abel was happy to see Blitz, and went over to scratch between the doberman's shoulder blades as they stood, even as he smiled at the back and forth between the Vanguard copy and Jeane.  "Blitz is the best dog ever."   he  chuckled as his dog's tail wagged even more, a canine response to praise from his master, Even if they were friends now more than anything.  Blitz made him think of his own family, his parents and sisters, and he was glad they'd be safe for now.  "It is crazy Lily, we're just kinda used to all of it now.  Granted some of us are more used to this than others, but Things have definitely gotten weirder in the past year.  I don't expect that to stop."

He sighed and looked around.  "Yeah, lets get everyone squared away regarding warmth that needs it.  Let's see what we've got first, then we can see about any other material needs everyone has. "

[Marissa Jauntsen]

Quote

"So. Ah. Clothes? Not Air Force surplus maybe?"

"Oh.  My.  God."  Tease curled her nose in disgust.  "You guys are billionaires and we're slumming it in this... 'pit'?  I can easily help you out just as easily from Hawaii as I can here... just book me a flight."

Her heels clacked on the hard floor and her handbag swung from side to side as she took in her surroundings.  "Yeah, soooo not okay with this.  Jacket, please, preferably something not military.  I have to side with Henrietta Homeless... this place is freezing."

[Jeane]

Thank God for stupid, crazy bullies to focus on.

Jeane rallied around her anger and smirked at Tease, "Oh, I don't know. Looks like a blank slate to me. Give me three spray cans and a half hour, and this room could be pretty colorful. Wouldn't be art, oh hell no it wouldn't be, but *colorful*. That's leaving aside what else Blitz the talking dog has to show us outside this room. Besides, teleporter plus money equals upgrades. Right? Just guessing."

The smile froze on her face, eyes narrowing in focus on Tease, losing all of her false cheer, "My name is Jeane Hebert. People like you are why I gave up on *your* scene entirely three moves ago. Call me homeless one more time."

[Marissa Jauntsen]

"Oh, strike a nerve?  So sorry," the other watched on as the exchanged happened.  Devin handled all of his stress, angst, and irritation through snark, witty remarks, and being a douchey pervert in general.  His sister seemed to vent her same negative afflictions by being mean, bitchy, and hurtful.  To say the Jauntsen twins were dysfunctional would have been an understatement.  "It's not my fault your entire look screams 'Hi, my name is Jeane Hebert, my likes include Pabst Blue Ribbon, trailer parks, methamphetamines and coat hanger abortions, don't forget to thumbs up if your family tree doesn't fork either!'.  There, you have a home now."  She gave Jeane the most taunting, condescending, agonizing, 'mean girl' sneer she'd ever seen in her life.  It dropped on her psyche with 50 megatons of bitchiness wrapped TNT punctuated by a solid gold 'fuck your couch, bitch', left at the base of the wreckage.

[Lilly Pryor]

Jeane's fist lashed out in a low punch, intended for Tease's gut, but the duplicate Lilly's (though Tease did not know that) hand snapped out so fast that that an un-enhanced eye could not even see the motion, catching Jeane's fist in her hand barely an inch from Tease's stomach.

"That's enough." she barked as she released Jeane's hand and stepped between her and Tease.

"I've had more than enough to deal with today, especially from people named Jaunsten, and do not need this heaped on top. WE do not do this." she nearly growled at both of them and then turned to Mari.

"You are here to help, not berate others, so keep your shitty, little comments to yourself, and play nice, or gee tee eff oh. " she said to Tease in the most 'I have had enough of your shit' tone she had ever heard from Lilly. Her expression was stern, making it cleat that she was clearly not playing around right now.

She then turned her attention to Jeane and rested a hand on her shoulder without force or intimidation.

"I know she can get under your skin, it's practically her super power, but you cannot give in. Don't you think a part of me is howling for Devin's blood? Because it is. But giving into that is just letting others manipulate you, giving them control over you." she explained to Jeane.

"Do you understand? WE have to be better than that." she encouraged. 

[Jeane]

Jeane's expression and clenched fists made her thoughts perfectly clear, bounced straight through the red and into the black by Tease's too incisive words. Get the bully bitch on the ground! Get a few kicks in! Bounce her head off the concrete until she stopped struggling or cried uncle! Didn't matter if you got dragged off and restrained or beaten yourself, intent was as good as execution with these poisonous social butterflies. Any other time, she wouldn't have stopped, and for a moment,  she tensed take action against Lilly, a elbow throw or kick...

The effortless ease  with which her punch had been stopped was a dash of cold water enough to start the work of clearing her head of Tease's poison. She was here to learn, not merely endure.

"You're lucky that she's here to have the *substance* your *words* lack," Jeane growled at Tease, violence only latent now, "Don't care if you can melt my head with heat vision or not."

[Marissa Jauntsen]

Marissa's lips pursed tightly.  A part of her had grown cocky since she received her powers, but Jeane's balled up fist, caught by Lilly or not, caused a visible flinch.  She breathed deep as Lilly spoke, judging whether or not she should make Jeane wander about the place skipping and singing nursery rhymes in the voice of five year old for the rest of the day.

"I'm trying to help," she snarled back.  "But we're not doing anything.  We're in a bunker in the middle of nowhere with a talking dog, freezing our asses off!"  Her raised voice echoed in the hollowed halls like a banshee's wail.

"UGH!"  She fumed and turned away from the group and paced about for a moment trying to calm down.  Her heeled boots were the loudest things in the hallway for the longest time before she finally looked past Lilly and Jeane.  "Where's the bathroom?" She asked.

[Sean Cassidy]

Sean arched a disappointed brow as she looked around - and through - what was clearly an old, remote military base. She'd have thought Guardian Shield would have prepared a back-up or emergency base better than this. They had responded quickly, but it still came off as a last minute thing to her. She had established a few boltholes of her own, but hadn't wanted to believe they would need them due to Ronin.

18 hours ago, AWS ST said:

“We are the only ones here and until we get our communications set up we are cut off from the rest of the world except for your sat phones.” Blitz barked a little laugh “Welcome to our own little fortress of solitude."

"Then let's get those communications set up. McKellar promised me some answers he still has to deliver on."

But before Sean had taken four steps towards one of the branching hallways, Tease was being extra Tease-like and Jeane was having none of it. Good for her. She eyed the new girl - she didn't seem to possess hyper-enhanced musculature and wasn't evincing any other Key ability. There was some excuse for Tease - what she had learned and was still processing about her brother was taking a toll - but Sean would admit to herself that she'd have liked to see Tease taken down a peg or three. Then again, they were in a confined space and couldn't devolve to infighting with the situation as it is.

Lilly intervened before Sean did. Sean crossed her arms as she watched and listened, then nodded. "Well said, Lilly." When Tease looked past Lilly and Tease, Sean sighed and pointed. "I haven't been here before, but judging from the piping I saw, it should be that way - though for the plumbing to work, it still needs to thaw some."

Sean joined Tease in the hallway, eager to work on the communication systems. Her expression managed to sympathetic and irritated both. "It's not ideal, I agree, but it does give us the chance to collect ourselves and come up with ideas on how we're going to deal with Ronin without having to worry about him picking us off one by one. Any Key can be dangerous, but Ronin's power set makes him particularly so. We're still in reactive mode, but we'll get proactive soon enough. Finding him is just part of the problem. We'll still need to have some way of keeping the greatest teleporter known around long enough to determine what his issue is--"

Sean held up her own hand as Tease opened her own mouth to protest. "-- Yes, yes, and determine his actual culpability -- and what we can do about it. As for coats and clothing..." Sean wasn't immune to the cold like some Keys, but it wasn't that bad and her PAM bodysuit kept her warm enough. "You and Jean will have to rough it with military surplus for the moment."

<Unless you want to keep the peace, Abel, and give them a small present,> Sean thought at Abel over the telepathic web he hadn't dropped yet, accompanied by the image of a pair of coats - an extravagant, fashionable one that matched what she was wearing for Tease, and something high quality and sporty that didn't restrict movement for Jeane.

Sean's lips curled wryly. "While we may have the funds - if not as much as you seem to think - this place isn't exactly Fifth Avenue or Rodeo Drive."

She gestured at Blitz. "C'mon, let's see what we have to work with here to get this place up and running."

[Abel Cross]

Abel just smiled.  "That said, something can be arranged, in the spirit of teamwork, Does anyone else have any clothing needs?"  <I was already thinking along those lines, Thanks for the designs, I want to help keep the peace.  We need to do a quick inventory of what we actually have on hand, and what we need, then We can work with James to either bring it here, or make it.>   Abel concentrated for a moment, and Even as some of the others watched, the coats Sean had imagined came into being in his hands.  They were as flawless as if they were hand tailored, and he also created a box of clothing for the others, nothing as extravagant, but certainly more comfortable and warmer than military issue gear.   "There,  Everyone should be good with those."

 

[Jeane]

"Ooooooo," Jeane all but cooed in appreciation as she tried on the jacket provided  for her from literal thin air, still a little mad at Tease but happily distracted by her present, "Thanks. I was talking underwear and socks and pants but this will be nice for when I damp my powers back down. Which I should do now that I don't need them."

The cold bit her exposed flesh as she put words to action and lost her protection against cold. She raised the hood over her head, muffling her voice a little, "Okay, that does suck. One more thing Tease is right about much as I hate  to admit it..."

[Marissa Jauntsen]

She really didn't need to use the bathroom and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.  She just needed to be... away.  Away from them, away from the girl whose father her brother killed, away from Abel and his magical coats (which she refused with a scoff and dramatic hair whip) and Sean and her pretentious speeches.  She sat there in the cold bathroom stall, watching her breath wisp upward and fade away as she rubbed her shoulders and thought about all that was going on.

She checked her phone.  No signal.  She assumed as much, but reflexively she kept checking it every few moments as if the results would be different.  It was so cold that her sniffles were all easily concealed, but her willpower was almost at an end and tears were ready to break through the dyke of her impervious, bitchy exterior.  She'd reached hr limit, and now she was only being mean because it was something to do... well, that and they made it pretty easy.  Being snarky and bitchy wasn't any fun anymore, it had become her standard ever since Devin ran off and decided to go terrorist.  She tried so hard, defying logic even, to protect her brother and the herder she tried the harder he seemed to make it on her.

Her family were light years away, her brother was a terrorist and she was out of ideas.  She should be planning the prom in Shelly, not saving the world from her own brother!  Physically drained and mentally and emotionally exhausted, she clutched her hand bag tightly to her chest, hunched over and just let go.  It didn't solve any of her problems, it didn't make anything go away or provide any solutions... but for the first time in a long time, her mind was blank.  Her thoughts were empty and the silence from all the stress and the drama was precisely what she needed.

"You have the ugliest crying face." she heard in her mind, remembering back to when her and her brother were a lot younger.  The conjured memory made her half laugh and half cry at the same time but it didn't last.  Alone, in the middle of nowhere, billions of miles underground in a strange and forgotten bathroom stall, Tease broke down and just cried until she couldn't anymore.

[WS ST]

Someone handed her a tissue and Tease took it without thinking, then she realized she was in a bathroom stall, alone. Slowly she raised her head and gazed at he little figure standing in the stall with her. Her first instinct was to scream but she couldn't move.

She must be in shock, yeah that's it .

That had to be it.

Tease was sitting on a toilet in an underground abandoned base buried in the middle of the Greenland Ice Sheet, staring into the black button eyes of a two foot tall teddy bear holding a box of generic tissues.

"Hi Marissa, feeling better now?"

 

 

[Marissa Jauntsen]

In for a penny, in for a pound when it came to weirdness.  First a talking dog, which when Devin said Abel had an natural relationship with his dog, Marissa honestly thought he having sex with it.  Celebrities had incredibly strange fetishes, she could only imagine what sort super heroes had.  At least that was cleared up though... she hated Abel a little less now.  Not enough to kindly ask his twin sisters to brawl in the front yard for her amusement, but a little less.  So, yeah, now a two foot tall talking teddy bear.

Why.

The.

Fuck.

Not.

Right?

"What?  No," she snatched a tissue as casually as one might were it being held by an ordinary person.  She ever so casually smiled and said.  "Thanks."

She blew her nose and used a second one to dab away at her eyes in some vain attempt to save her eye makeup.  It was a lost cause, but try she did.  "I'm pretty fucking far from okay, Teddy Bear Guy.  I'm sitting in a frozen bathroom stall in the middle of 'I don't even know where', having a nervous breakdown while hallucinating and spilling my emotional burdens to figment, a very polite figment, might I add, but a figment nonetheless, of my imagination.  At this point little guy, it's safe to say I've hit emotional rock bottom but I'm still determined to dig by bashing my face to the ground."

"Also," she raised an eyebrow at him, and pointed a stern finger.  What the hell, right?  He wasn't real.  "You're lucky my leggings aren't at my knees mister, or this would be an entirely different conversation."

[Sean Cassidy]

Sean strode through the chill hallways, her footsteps a bare whisper, each stride one of sinuous, eye-catching grace. Only the most observant would have noticed the tightness in her straight shoulders. She could hear all the sounds of this place, the groan of ice outside, the pipes beginning to thaw, the murmurs back in the auditorium that had grown almost unintelligible with distance. She had just caught the edge of Tease in the bathroom and began to hum to herself so as to not inadvertently intrude on her grief.

She felt like she was walking through oobleck*. The harder she tried, the harder things were becoming. Despite the tremendous benefits provided to all by what was coming out of Irregular Solutions, some still balked, out of greed or sheer contrariness when all they were trying to do was enable the Earth to resist an invasion as an united front.

She was trying to find out what had happened to Sara, trying to find out how to undo it, and was making little headway and now Sara was so far away - Sean could have calculated the distance down to the nanometer - to keep her safe because she couldn't guarantee it herself. And the longer they stood on uneven footing, the further away it felt they were becoming, despite their efforts, a gulf bigger than the one between Earth and Apalon.

Inquiries into Operation Deadbolt and trying to contact Felix kept running into dead ends or got interrupted by another emergency or situation or small annoyances. Fucking Courtney and her social assassination attempts. Dealing with Death Otter circumspectly with no evidence yet it was worth the price. Being tapped to speak with the UN, while helped pushing her agenda, was still frustrating.

<How are things in New York, Laurie,?> Sean sent to her sister over their personal link. <I know you refused to go with Mom and Dad, but stay safe.>

and now coming here, isolated for their safety but without access to many of their resources. It didn't escape her, after Devin's actions, this would be a decent place to send the Irregulars if someone or someone's in the Government or Military were suspicious of them.

Ronin. Devin.

The last time she could really remember him being... content was when they had taken a spontaneously trip to his old stomping grounds in California.

He had changed after Cape Town, but she had badly misjudged how much. They had saved the city, and Keys had become public then, but Sean was reconsidering if they had actually won that day. Sara depowered, Devin altered, and a giant monstrosity from out of nowhere that had gone back to nowhere, and still little idea of why or how or who. Linked to the samples that had been recovered in Norfolk? Perhaps...

My My Hey Hey
Out Of The Blue & Into The Black
They Give You This But You Pay For That
& Once You're Gone You Can Never Come Back
When You're Out Of The Blue & Into The Black

Devin Is Gone But He's Not Forgotten
This Is The Story Of Johnny Ronin
It's Better To Burn Out Than It Is To Rust
Devin Is Gone But He's Not Forgotten

Hey Hey My My
Rock & Roll Can Never Die
There's More To The Picture Than Meets The Eye
Hey Hey My My

Sean entered the command and control room, the soft song fading from her lips as she looked at various lights and consoles slowly glowing to life. Considering the evident age of the base, they had kept the communications and electronics updated, but stuff from the nineties was basically obsolete compared to what she was used to working with. She could tune it up to a degree, but she would need more supplies to get it up to what she considered functional.

She walked around the room, running a pair of fingers over a console or along the top edge of monitor, then rubbing them with her thumb. Cool, with a hint of frost and dust. She folded her arms under her full breasts and glowered a diagnostic panel showing the rising power levels and activated systems of the base, as though the weight of her stare could speed it up.

"McKellar better have more than a thousand words for this picture," she muttered crossly as her thumb idly spun a ring on her right hand Sara had given her.

Spoiler

oobleck*: A Non-Newtonian fluid made of cornstarch and water, named after the substance in the Dr. Seuss book. Because of its properties, oobleck is often used in demonstrations that exhibit its unusual behavior. A person may walk on a large tub of oobleck without sinking due to its shear thickening properties, as long as the individual moves quickly enough to provide enough force with each step to cause the thickening. Also, if Oobleck is placed on a large subwoofer driven at a sufficiently high volume, it will thicken and form standing waves in response to low frequency sound waves from the speaker. If a person were to punch or hit oobleck, it would thicken and act like a solid. After the blow, the oobleck will go back to its thin liquid like state.

 

[Jeane]

Jeane considered the four teenage Keys and one alien dog still in the room, hands deeply buried in her jacket's pockets. Then she had the best idea ever., one reflected by the biggest grin.

"If no one has anything better to do, I'm going to wander off and get lost for a bit. Open doors. Push shiny buttons. Maybe find my way back if I don't get eaten by aliens. Maybe one or two of you might keep me company. Could be fun."

Left unspoken was the desire to be out of the room if Tease came back. Thwarted bullies could be extra vindictive in her experience, and Jeane didn't feel like she could get away with a round II today.

[Abel Cross]

Abel shrugged.  "Just remember nothing's thawed fully yet, and don't hit any red buttons."  Abel looked to Kia and over the newly constructed network sent  <Are you alright?>  They had been through alot in the last hour, and even as they were starting to explore the base, and see to getting everything up and running for their use, as unassailable logic dictated, He knew Kia had been shaken by all this, the same as the rest of them.   Kia had been silent through it all, and he was concerned.  He knew they were all concerned for Lily, but Kia and Lily were close, and this had to be hard for her too.
 

[WS ST]

CAMP CENTURY

AUDITORIUM

Blitz and Abel were following after Sean when Jeane informed them she was going wandering. The cyber-doberman glanced up at Abel then back over his shoulder. "It's a big complex, Miss Hebert, if you see a door or corridor sealed and marked with yellow bio-hazzard or radiation symbols, don't go there."

Spoiler

Jeane, Kia, Lilly2, and Charlie are left in the auditorium.

COLORADO ROCKIES

The pain was unceasing, maddening. The hunger grew and with it came rage. A new scent came to it, intangible, far off, waiting... food.

The first sign of anything wrong was the wildlife. The birds had largely gone unnoticed, but when the first deer, herds of them, burst from the mountain forest and fled across the roads and through the towns followed by at least three separate packs of wolves, and many other beasts all fleeing as if a great fire were chasing them.

The towns people of Tete Jaune Cache stood on the porches and watched the wildlife, stared from behind living room windows, pulled off the roads to let the stampeding animals pass, Deer, Wolves, Bears, everything you could imagine. The humans could not fathom it, a sight like this, all eyes turned toward the Mountains expecting to see smoke but there was nothing.

Then the roar shattered the morning air. Up on the mountain they could see the great forest shaking like in an earthquake, the trees falling in a line like a wave rapidly advancing. Advancing straight toward the town!

CAMP CENTURY

BATHROOM STALL

The bear took in a deep breath and let out an exasperated sigh. "Like I told Lilly, I am not a pervert, and I am very  much real, thank you." He set the tissue box on her lap then  he floated up to be level with her face.

"Really? You float and expect me to believe you are real."

"Your not crazy Marrisa, and neither is your brother. The two of you are more connected than either of you think. With Devin, Sara, and the real Lilly out of the picture for now, The Irregulars are going to need you more than ever. Trust me your own self-interest will easily be served by singing a different tune than the one you are looping right now."

CAMP CENTURY

CONTROL CENTER

When Sean, Abel, and Blitz arrived at the control center they found James and the other newer Keys already there unpacking material and equipment. Blitz trotted over to a large set of boxes. "These are the Com dishes, we will need to set them up on the surface and run the cables back to here. It's pretty barren out there and we don't want to be seen. This place was abandoned in the 1960s and We are here illegally."

Abel feels a brush against his mental shield, it is very weak...

CAMP AZURE
PLANET APALON

NIGHT

The three small moons chased each other across the deep blue night time sky of the new world they found themselves upon. Almost everyone was still in shock at the sudden changes in so many lives. Families huddled together and tried to sleep. Parents watched over their children and worried about the ones who were still on Earth. Soldiers stood guard at the Portal ring, guns trained on it lest anyone or thing try to come through.

In the Shelter set aside for the Pryor's Lilly sat on the low bed with it's air mattress, her legs folded beneath her, her mothers head resting on her lap. Her eyes red rimmed from crying, finally closing. She was mentally exhausted and she needed to recharge to get those images out of her head. Her mom was sleeping and Little Kyle was asleep on the other bed. It wouldn't hurt for her to at least try to get some sleep.

Kyle opened his eyes, he didn't move, didn't make a sound. He could feel it tugging at him pulling. His gaze shifted to where Lilly sat he liked LIlly she made him feel safe. He had never felt safe before. But he also knew that she wouldn't like him going to where it was. Her eyes were closed. He wasn't sure if sh e was asleep or not. Silently he rose from the mattress and with no sound floated too the entrance of the shelter. He looked back at his new friend and a wisful look came over his face then he seemed to fade from view his body becoming transparent, intangible. Kyle passed through he closed door and floated out into the camp following the pull, like a moth to a flame.

Lilly was in her fathers office she was wearing an airforce generals uniform, fighting Devin, Devin was winning. The portal had opened and she was beaten, held in Devin's arms "I'm sorry Lilly, but this is the only way" He had said as he had thrown her out into the void she could no longer hear him but she could see his lips moving "I love you..." Lilly's eyes flew open, her heart pounding in her chest. She had been having a nightmare.

Her mom was still on the bed with her but she had rolled off her lap onto her side into a fetal position. She was deep asleep. Lilly looked over to check on Kyle.

He was gone.

 

 

[Marissa Jauntsen]

CAMP CENTURY

BATHROOM STALL

Hooli and his cryptic messages were as legendary as the Irregulars themselves and every time he showed up he generally left them more confused than were before his arrival.  Marissa's cold, bitchy exterior melted as she sat looking at the floating bear.  She smiled warmly and almost gave into desire to grab and hug him.  Her teddy's always gave her comfort and love when she was a girl.  Whenever things were going poorly she'd huddle up in her bed while her brother was off doing something jerky, and she would confide in them all her secrets and troubles.

There was a time, before she left the trappings of childhood imagination behind, that Marissa was more of a nerd than anyone would have guessed.  A time when she believed in magic, unicorns, fairies, and dragons protecting princesses in towers.  In fact, her own power emulated that part of her psyche, granting her powers and abilities from fables and legends of faerie powers.  Then she got older, started running with the more popular cliques, as soon was running the more cliques and farewell went her dreams and imagination.  Everything was reality and what she could get out of it by hook or crook.  High school was more cut throat than adults realized.

"Same tune?"  She asked softly, in case the bear wasn't real, and someone heard her talking to herself.  She snapped her fingers, "Because no one knows my brother better than me.  The only way to capture him is to think like him, and the only to think like him is to be more like him... which is to say stop working against the ner- Irregulars and start helping them like my brother would."

"Well-" Hooli began, but Marissa wasn't finished.

"Devin was a leader, a figure head, like Lilly, that kept everything running smoothly with witty banter, good cheer, and quips.  He was their hope, their positivity when the chips were down.  Lilly brings them together, shes the glue that binds, but Devin was their hope that no matter what, they could defeat any opponent that came their way..." her voice was louder, slowly gaining volume as confidence returned to her thoughts and words.

"And together-", He tried again to get a word in.

"Together they kept things going like a machine," the floating bears eyes rolled as he just wished she'd shut up.  "Sean and Abel are the minds and the working extensions of their ideas and ideals, Kia is their Conscience, Lilly their Unity, Devin their Hope."

"Without-," once more he gave it a go.

"Without him, they're fractured," Hooli sighed, throwing his little stuffed arms up in defeat and letting them fall to his cute fluffy sides.  "They're just as lost and confused as I am.  Scared and frustrated at the prospect of one of their own going rogue and I've not been taking the time consider how they feel and what they've been going through.  Like Devin said," she could almost hear his voice in her mind as she repeated his words.  "Being an Irregular is about being a part of something greater than yourself."

Marissa stood up, confident and strong as she wiped her tears away with a tissue.  With a quantum pulse her makeup righted itself and all the smears and blemishes faded away.  Her eyes were still puffy and her nose still rubbed red by the tissues, yet she was still easily a twenty on a scale of one to ten.  The stuffed toy's expression shifted to surprise when she gripped him in her hands and pulled him towards her to smother the poor, surprised little guy with her chest and she exited the stall and spun around with restored vigor and mirth. She even squee'd.

He lifted him to eye level.  "You.  Are.  The.  Best, Little Guy!  Thank you so much," she pulled him in and gave him a big kiss on his snout.  She scampered out of the bathroom as quick as was humanly possible in her heeled boots on the rime slicked floor.

Hooli floated there.  All the possibilities of the cosmos spun lazily in his mind and none of them could tell him when, exactly, he lost control of that conversation.  His small, button eyes shifted slowly from side, to side then all around as he floated amongst  the silence of the empty bathroom with a massive burgundy lip print plastered to his adorable stuffed snout.  He sighed.  "Good talk," he shrugged.  "I guess?"

[Lilly Pryor]

CAMP CENTURY

AUDITORIUM

"I'll go with you." Lilly said to Jeane. Right now, she had to keep doing something.

If given time to think, the results would not be good. The Lilly there, in Greenland, knew that Lilly, the original Lilly, went to see her/their mother about what happened, and though she wished she were the one going instead, she was still good with how things worked out, because she knew it was still her, that is going, even if not personally.

Right now she was here to protect her friends, and leaving them to wander off alone in a possibly radioactive facility was not the way to that. Abel, Sean and Kia, she figured, would bee fine together, but she still had some concern about where exactly Mari had went, even after refusing the coat Abel made. Lilly figured she probably just needed some time to herself. She was a bit blunt, possibly even harsh, with Mari, so even if she did manage to get on board with the rest of them, it would likely take some time for her to sort herself out.

And, of course, she could help but worry about her mother and even Kyle, but right now those thoughts she has to push from her mind and allow her other self to deal with them. Soo enough, she felt, she would be one again with the other Lilly and they would share what they each had experienced individually.

CAMP CENTURY

CORRIDOR

Lilly departed with Jeane, and the pair made their way down a cold, quiet corridor. The cold honestly did not bother her, but she still tried to be as normal and least off-putting as possible, so as they walked, Lilly concentrated for a moment, shifting her running shoes, yoga pants and hoodie into some much more appropriate attire for the climate in just a few seconds, right before Jeane's eyes.

CAMP AZURE
PLANET APALON

NIGHT

 

Lilly sighed and rose from the mattress, looking around the shelter for Kyle. He was small and somewhat easily missed. She would have been that surprised if he was asleep anywhere but the mattress. He was nowhere to be found in the rather small shelter though, so she considered other possibilities, like maybe he simply needed to use the bathroom. She had given him some soda and junk food earlier, so she stepped outside to look for him. Maybe some guards had seen him.

 

[Jeane]

CAMP CENTURY

CORRIDOR

Jeane's eye caught on Lilly's display of shapeshifting clothing as they meandered down the icy tunnel.

"Woah. You have GOT to show me how to do that. Most of my problem with fashion is that you pile up so much shit trying to keep up with trends. A good wall run never goes out of style, long as you can stick the landing. Easy once you've put in the work. Which I do. Work really, really hard if it's important to me. And this How to Key stuff is to me. important. I don't really have words for how glad I am to be here, shitty as everything else is about today. I mean... Shit. I'm just spewing words now. Sorry. I'm going to start over."

The younger Key halted in her tracks next to a sign marked 'Dispensary', looking down and taking a deep breath. She looked up again, a shadow of nervous energy still playing behind her eyes, "Yeah. This place is pretty crazy. I don't really have a plan except to work off some of this energy enough to sleep tonight. Most of the cool stuff is probably gone or locked up, anyway. You can ask me anything you want, too, see what kind of Fledgling you've let into your Crew. God knows I'll ask my share once my head stops spinning. Freaking alien dog..." 

[Lilly Pryor]

CAMP CENTURY

CORRIDOR

 

"Oh Blitz isn't an alien. He just has some alien tech making him a cyborg," Lilly clarified.

"And this is just my PAM suit." she said, looking down at her newly formed outfit and then back to Jeane, noting that what she said did not seem to clarify things at all.

"Okay, so the basics about KEY powers." she said as they walked along.

"Our powers come from channeling and manipulating quantum energies. Our nodes," she said, tapping her head with a finger, "...the little lumps that KEYS develop in our brains, let us do that." she said, pausing for just a moment.

"Anyways, our powers make a quantum field around us, so that we do not hurt ourselves with our own powers. The thing is, though, that it does not protect our clothing or stuff we carry or whatever. BUT, you can learn to attune things though, and even people, you are touching, to your quantum field, extending that protection and allowing your powers to work with it.

Like, take Charlie... Sorry. Proteus, for example. And he turns into fire. Say he is wearing normal clothes and is holding somebody in his arms. Well, that is cool and all, but unless his clothing and the person he is holding is attuned to him, then he is going to burn them up. But if he attuned them, then his fire would not burn them at all.

Or like myself. I can run at mach speeds. It's my power, so my quantum field protects me from the acceleration and stuff. But if I were holding you in my arms and ran that fast, the acceleration would probably snap your neck. If I attuned you, then you would be fine.

Or say you turn invisible. Well, unless your clothes are attuned, they do not go invisible with you. If your clothing is attuned, then it is all good." she said and stopped walking for a moment.

"So my clothes right now are actually a PAM suit." she said, letting her clothing revert make to it's natural state, looking almost like a skintight, full body wet suit, akin to amm manner of suits seen in sci-fi and superhero moves and comics. "PAM stands for Poly-Adaptive Molecules or something like that. Anyways, the material reacts to the wearer's quantum field, so that it works with our powers and is not harmed by them, even without attuning. It's more like it attunes itself to you.

PAM suits have other neat benefits too. The suit can store some quantum energy for you, like an emergency supply or whatever. It is also part body armor, but only as long as it has stored quantum in it, I think. And the last benefit is that with some concentration, the wearer can will it to take different shapes." she explained as she concentrated again and the suit shifted into cold weather attire again.

"With my PAM suit I can use my powers freely and do not need to worry about clothing getting in the way. I mean, I can attune stuff too, but it is nice to not have to always do it." she clarified. "We don't just have PAM suits laying around, unless Sean and Abel.. sorry.. Savant and Sage, have figured out how to make them, but we can probably get you hooked up with one at some point. Hopefully sooner than later." 

"As far as the other stuff.. yeah. Really shitty day in some respects, and better in others. I mean, we met you." she said with only a slightly forced smile. "We found Kyle too, and rescued him, so that's good too. It was hard seeing him living like that, and then what they did to him..." her voice trailed off as she clinched her fists and shut her eyes for a moment before relaxing them again with a long, exhale.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, with 'Ronin' and my father too. I mean, you kind of just got dragged into all of this, way more than you even thought you might be signing up for." Lilly sighed.

"And even still, you do not need to keep trying to sell yourself or impress us. You are already here. When it came down to it, you were there, standing with us, risking your own life for the good of others. That goes a long way in my book, and I am sure everybody else's too. You're good." she said, with a faint smile.

"And yeah, I could stand to burn off some energy too. Frankly, the last thing I want to do right now is be alone to think." 

[Kia Mizuki]

Kia looked over at Abel with a worried expression on her face. She had been on her cellphone before, and even now was looking at it as she moved around the auditorium, hoping for bars. She desperately wanted to go with Lilly, to offer support, but...

"My dad's still at Bulwark," she said to Abel. "I was trying to get him to leave before we came here but he's so stubborn...and now I can't talk to him."

She went to him and embraced him in a hug that hovered on the edge of being uncomfortable.

"I'm a terrible friend. All I could think about was my dad. Devin threatened him to his face just before he left us in the first place and...I should find Lilly. She needs me."

[Charlie Cole]

Charlie, after the tumult subsided, realized it was time to have an overdue talk. Namely with his mom. They'd had little catch-up after the Cape, beyond, 'I'm still alive, and hey, I'm one of the Keys and with the Irregulars now.' No discussion of his dead dad. He had no idea where the bimbo was, and frankly, he didn't care in the slightest. But he knew the group had her on the list of pick-ups, even if it seemed unlikely Ronin would focus on her.

So he went looking for her. And then remembered that the families had been taken to an undisclosed location, causing him to ground to an awkward halt.

[Marissa Jauntsen]

At about that moment Tease dashed by Charlie doing her 'Bevery Hills' stride on the floor since she dared not run too fast in her heels.  She almost skid to a halt as she passed him up and tried to spin about and run back to him.  She fell into him, gripping his arm for support.  "Charlie!  Charlie, Charlie!  Sean!  Where's Sean and Abel?  I need to find Sean and Abel."

"If you see them, tell em I'm looking for them!  Kay?"  Just as strangely as she arrived, she ran off again, the thick heels on her boots clacking loudly in the hallway.  She rounded the corner and the echo of her heels faded.