Aberrant: No Fate - Chapter 2: The shape of things to come

[Joani]

Sgt. Harris has a rather consterned look in his face. "Sir, I need you to come with me to my car. There is something I have to show you, please."

You can tell from his face that he is doing something he doesn't want to.

[Courier]

Tom glances at him and says,

"Sure. Let's make this quick, I figure I can work miracles on 10 people an hour for several days."

[Joani]

Cherub can clearly see the relieve in the Sgt.'s eyes and he leads the way to the car. At the car the Sgt. dismisses his partner and tells him to take care of the queue at the entrance of the makeshift hospital.

He asks Cherub to get into the car where he types some commands into his board console. On the heads-up display a file gets loaded and you can see your image with your official PU-profile.

"I just got this over the radio - I'm supposed to put you under arrest for acts of terrorism against the people of New York and the US of A in general. There is an APB for 7 other Novas that are supposed to be your complices. I think it's a load of bull."

The screen displays Gray, Nosferatu, Seans and your face. For Jack, Callum and a seventh Nova there is just a general desripiton about gender, age and height.

"Now tell me, Sir, what am I supposed to do? I think PU will be here within the next 15 minutes and one of their teleporters may aswell appear here any second. I don't believe this crap but I'm a police officer and I got my orders..."

Sgt. Harris takes off his cap and smiles at you. "Just don't break my nose or my jaw, ok?", he lifts his chin a bit obviously waiting to get knocked out.

[Courier]

Tom says,

"Well... crap. All I did was play hooky and get drunk and laid. Someone picked a really poor time to pull this. Thanks."

Tom puts his hand through the rear windshield (if he has to he'll adjust his energy form to either slide through it or melt it) and zooms off at a right angle to the others, then a few miles away he changes course and goes back to them.

(To everyone) *Utopia has found a group of fall guys for this incident and you can look in the mirror for who it is. They've got pictures and police out looking for Gray, Nosferatu, Seans, and me.*

[Travis Kincaid]

Originally Posted By: Joani Reikspar

There are no survivors - nowhere.

Callum stands there for minutes, his mind searching for the capacity to piece together everything he is seeing. Dad, where are you?

Eventually he falls to his knees among the rubble and stares, expresionless at the carnage. Keep it together, you don't even know for sure if he was working at the time. What about Molly, you need to be strong for her.

Callum reachesd out to the power held barely in check behind mental blocks and embraced it. Suffused with power his eyes flooded with darkness, the black abscence of light so thorough that it seemed to abosorb the light around his face casting his features in darkness and shadow.

The sweetness of oblivionn crept at the edge of his vision and he strained against his desire to simply flood the area in darkness and cocoon himself in the shadow. Instead he forced himself to his feet, vigor and strength returning as his body once more allowed the quantum energy to wash away his baseline weaknesses.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw something ... off. A glimpse of verdant grass and a playground with childen laughing. Turning toward it he found only the long shadow cast by a section of barely standing wall. Without knowing why he walked into the darkness it cast. He swore he could hear children laughing and playing yet no matter which way he turned it remained within the shadow at the edge of his vision and hearing.

Frustration and despair mounted and Callum wavered, whatever had happened was threatening his sanity as surely as it was threatening his very life. In his mind he pictured his daughter playing at school in Scotland, he could hear her voice calling and he could smell the fresh cut grass and the faint salty smell of the ocean miles away. His eyes snapped open when he felt something tug on his hand and he found he was standing there in the school playground.

Molly had his hand in hers and was tugging on it, "Daddy, Daddy! You came to visit!" Well aware of his aberration Callum throtled the flow of energy into his body and imploded once more into the baseline he had been so long ago.

He opened his eyes and smiled, "Yes dear, I wanted to say I was sorry to not see you off this morning and I'll be here later to pick you up from school." He knelt down and gave his daughter a great bear hug wrapping her in his arms in an effort to comfort himself as much as to protect her from the world at large.

[SkyLion]

Originally Posted By: Lily

Gray surveys the devastated area again for a moment. Soon she would have to venture forth and face what consequences there were for this. But for now, 'Jack' was too fascinating to pass up. She suspected strongly that it would be a long time before he resurfaced once 'The Fool' returned to dominance.

"Jack, is it? Tell me what you remember of your life. Maybe I can help you."

The tears now wind dried on his face the former Fool seems to have regained a measure of his wits. Standing up he concentrates on her question, searching his mind for what fragments remain before finally shaking his head.

"I...I don't remember anything really. Just nightmares of fetid jungles and death and carnage everywhere. There was...someone. The Adversary, like the devil himself, but after that everything sort of shatters. Being him is like being inside a waking dream. Nothing is as it seems."

[SalmonMax]

Gray nods slowly, wondering if it's a real split personality, or just a shift in his perception of himself and the world when he's empowered by quantum...and afflicted by taint.

"I think our time is running out for chatting," she says after Cherub's message comes through. "We're going to need an escape plan."

On the comm she says, "Utopia shouldn't have any reason to link us, and only us, together. There may be something else behind this new complication. We need to get out of here to regroup."

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: Lily

On the comm she says, "Utopia shouldn't have any reason to link us, and only us, together. There may be something else behind this new complication. We need to get out of here to regroup."

Tom sends back,

*Someone dropped a dime on us. I don't think even our employers could connect the dots this quick. They shouldn't even know we're here. That leaves the guy we just came from. He's blaming us for his mess.*

[SkyLion]

Originally Posted By: Lily

Gray nods slowly, wondering if it's a real split personality, or just a shift in his perception of himself and the world when he's empowered by quantum...and afflicted by taint.

"I think our time is running out for chatting," she says after Cherub's message comes through. "We're going to need an escape plan."

On the comm she says, "Utopia shouldn't have any reason to link us, and only us, together. There may be something else behind this new complication. We need to get out of here to regroup."

Rubbing his eyes with his palm, Jack inadvertantly smears some of the dust and ash he had just been kneeling in on his face.

"Agreed...lets get out of here. But...to where? You heard what Newton said. Do we really want to go back to the company? I don't know if I want to go back to being their pawn. Maybe we should find somewhere to go to ground first. I...I have a sanctum in Paris. Very hard to get to...but I...I can't take us there without...without..." Jack struggles to find the words for his inner demon.

[Hyoseph]

Shiva twitched, suddenly. His eyes widened for a moment as he watched the approaching vampire and a realization struck him. He couldn't be here... there were going to be people descending on this place at any time, and he was NOT going to go through that nightmare. Elites, fine. Savage creatures, whatever. Media cameras and questioning authorities, no.

"Another day, vampire, another day."

Shiva launched himself backwards, his quantum-enhanced body smashing through the side of ruins like so much paper. By the time the dust cleared, Shiva had vanished, having teleported far from this about-to-be-human-infested place.

[Tim Wiley]

Nosferatu stopped, as the creature materialized. It's him!. His mind raced when he saw him. How did HE get here. No sooner had the man appeared, did he vanish; leaving a cloud of debri and dust.

Originally Posted By: Gray

"Utopia shouldn't have any reason to link us, and only us, together. There may be something else behind this new complication. We need to get out of here to regroup."

,,

Originally Posted By: Tom

*Someone dropped a dime on us. I don't think even our employers could connect the dots this quick. They shouldn't even know we're here. That leaves the guy we just came from. He's blaming us for his mess.*

We have been betrayed to the mob. He thought to himself. Nosferatu then let out a wry smile as he saw an image of villiagers, who were charging up the mountain trail to get at the vampire in his castle. He looked to where Tom had flown and with a predatory grin in his eyes, licked his lips.. I will retreat for now. But tonight, my human prey. You will know terror as I prowl the ruins. For tonight I feast!

He sends back to the others over the comm: *We should find shelter in the rubble. And unless you think that it will be too late, we can move easier at night. I for one, have been up for 24 hours and would like to rest.

[Travis Kincaid]

"Daddy why didn't you come home last night?" Molly asked as she returned her father's hug.

What? Last night? Callum snuck a look at his watch and noted that it was three days later, whatever they had been through he had lost two entire days. "I'm ... I'm sorry baby, I had to work. But I'm back now. I'll always come back." Callum released Molly from the hug and smiled, I'll go through hell if I have to, but I will always come back home.

[Joani]

As Callum reached his home and prepared some food for Molly and himself he found an envelope hidden in plain sight. Opening it he recognised the handwriting as that of his liason officer of the Directive. He knew that the content of the letter wouldn't make any sense, the important part of the message was that it was written by hand. It meant trouble.

Molly was in the living room watching her favourite cartoon till Callum was done preparing the food. He always dreaded this moment. Something must've gone wrong, something that put the Directive on its toes. He already lost two days, who knew how much time he had left until someone came and started asking questions.

(ooc:@Callum - I assume you have a fall back plan for this situation - I leave that up to you)

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: Nosferatu

He sends back to the others over the comm: *We should find shelter in the rubble. And unless you think that it will be too late, we can move easier at night. I for one, have been up for 24 hours and would like to rest.

Tom sends back,

*These ruins cover a huge area. But I think he dropped us right at the exact center. I know I can pick up at least one person and fly with them. We should probably try to move before people come.*

[Joani]

As Cherub rejoins with the others at the epicenter of the crater you can see a blueish light radiating through the cracks of the rubble and debris. Loose concrete shifts and gets shoved aside as a large humanoid shape manages to free itself of its former grave.

The female body glows with blue phosphourescent light and floats about 10 feet above the ground looking down at you with a quizzical look on its face.

"Who are you... where am I?"

[Mr Fox]

It took Sean a few minutes to come to grips with the situation. He had had a very expensive penthouse apartement here. The doorman was a really nice guy too. He'd done Sean a favor once or twice. The doorman had a family, he'd seen the pictures. A pretty wife and two little daughters. They would never be seeing their father again. He would have to do something for them when he had a chance. There were a lot of people that needed some help. He was just about to head to where Cherub had gone to help out, he could move a lot of debris afterall, when Cherub had spoken over the coms again.

"Danmit, that bastard Newton is gonna die. He set us up." He tought of his place in Paris, and the fact that it had been purchased under the name of an associate of his since he didn't have French citizenship.

He blinked and looked around. He was there, in his house. He looked down at this teleport device, but it didn't register that it had done anything. Interesting. He jumped back to the crater where he'd just left. Over the communicator he said, *I've got a house in Paris, I can take us there one at a time if anyone wants to go there rather than sleeping under rubble. Personally, I'd like a shower.*

Right after he finished speaking he noticed the glowing form rise from the rubble. "Hmm... Caroline, I presume?" He addressed the woman.

[Travis Kincaid]

Originally Posted By: Joani Reikspar

Molly was in the living room watching her favourite cartoon till Callum was done preparing the food. He always dreaded this moment. Something must've gone wrong, something that put the Directive on its toes. He already lost two days, who knew how much time he had left until someone came and started asking questions.

CRAP! Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap...

Callum looked down to see his hands were shaking. Irritated he balled his right hand into a fist, crumpling the letter into a wad. Mentally he forced his rage, fear, and worry into the ball before tossing it into the trash. This is bad, this is very bad. I wonder how the others are faring. I'll have to try and find them later though, family first.

Pushing worry about his father's fate, fear of losing his child, and anger that this was likely a setup from the beginning away Callum concentrated on somethign comepletely mundane; he made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Slathering the last of the jelly onto the bread he stuck the dull butter knife into his mouth, sucking the mixture of salty peanut and sweet grape off as he assmbled the sandwhich. He took a clean chef's knife and cut the crusts off before dropping the now cleaned knife out of his mouth and into the sink. He gobbled up the crusts while he quartered the sandwich on the diagonal and the poured a glass of milk. He dropped a handful of goldfish crackers onto the plate and brought the meal to the living room, his mind now clear of the pent up emotion.

"Here you go kiddo, eat up. I've got to talk Uncle John and then we're going on a trip, you want to go visit grampy?" Molly's eyes lit up as he mentioned her grandfather. Where Callum simply doted on her, his father flat out spoiled her. The though brought a smile to his face though it was touched with sadness. You'd better have been playing golf, old man. I need help right, now I don't know if I can get through this. He grabbed John and went into the bedrooms where he started to pack up some clothing and some of Molly's toys while in the background the TV returned from commerical.

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Terragen bastards do, that's who.

*John, Somebody is on to me, not the mob, somebody maybe worse. I'm going back to New York. I can take you if you want but I think you'll be fine here so long as I am gone.* Callum quickly filled John in on what had happened to make his disappear for two days, giving him false detail and outright vague information. Twenty minutes later he sent his old freind home, confident that he would be ok even if he wasn't confident in his own situation.

Callum grabbed the backpack the the duffle and went into the living room. He turned off the TV, "Ok time to go visit Grampy!" He tried his best to make sure Molly wouldn't be able to hear the worry in his voice. "Take my hand and close your eyes ok?" Molly put her little hand into his and scruntched up her face. Callum nodded to himself,
You did this once already and barely even tried, you can do it. Once more he reach into his mind and embraced the torrent of pure energy allowing it to wash over him. The filthy feeling as there again, threatening to wash him away but he resisted; he knew the feeling of taint and figured that whatever had stepped up his power hadn't been the best way to advance his ability.

Pushing those thoughts behind him he reached out and pushed. Darkeness flooded from his body and filled the room. Callum open his eyes, now stained flat black from taint and sucking residual light into them. He searched through the darkness. At first he could see the shadows under the bed in his room. Then under the car outside. Further; the shadow of Big Ben over the Thames. Further and harder he pushed until he located the shadow under the big oak tree behind his father's house. The mid-day New York sun was banished by a wide dark shadow the great tree cast. Nodding to himself he focused and shifted.

He opened his eyes and saw that he was there. He grappeled with the hose of quantum power flowing over him and tied it off once more. Power fled and the light of the world returned as the shroud evaporated. "Ok, Molly, you can open your eyes."

[Tim Wiley]

,,

Originally Posted By: Tom

These ruins cover a huge area. But I think he dropped us right at the exact center. I know I can pick up at least one person and fly with them. We should probably try to move before people come.*

* Agreed. I can pick someone up and carry them to a hiding place as well. Once it is dark, we can start scouting around.

When the blue woman rose from the crater, Nosfertau was awed. Not because it was a nova who had been reborn through the Chrysalis, but it was Caroline Fong: One of the founders of the philosophy.

Nosfertu hovered towards her and spoke, his hands slightly apart in a non-threatening manner. "Welcome back sister. We have been waiting for this day to arrive. I regret that recent events will prevent us from reuniting with Count Orzaiz and the others at this time."

Nosferatu's smile fades. "We need to find shelter, Caroline. Someone out there wants to blame us for all of this." He sweeps his arms across the blasted landscape. "They have orders to capture us. DM wants you safe. I plan to do what the big guy asks."

[Joani]

The blue glowing woman furrows her brows and slowly shakes her head. "I don't know you... Who are these people you are talking about? I am not your sister, stranger and why are you calling me Caroline?"

The eyes of the woman flash in a brighter tone and her voice sounds increasingly vexed.

"What is this place?", she looks around the devastated landscape just turning slightly in mid air. You realize now how tall the woman actually is. She must be over 8 feet tall, should she decide to walk.

[Courier]

Cherub says,

"Wait, you're not? Then who are you?" He pauses, "This used to be New York."

[Joani]

"New York...?", the glowing woman looks concerned suddenly. Her face expressing internal conflict.

"I am... I don't... I... I feel... exhausted... so tired..."

Her body flickers and she slowly drifts to the floor. As her feet touch the ground she stumbles and falls to the ground. You see a naked woman lying where the blue glowing woman touched the ground roughly 5'6" tall. She has brown hair and is rather good looking (App 4). Her eyes are closed and she draws shallow breaths.

[Courier]

Cherub moves in and attempts to quickly examine the naked woman.

(Medical Roll, Healing if there is any damage).

[Joani]

Her breaths stay shallow and she seems to have lost consciousness.

(ooc: The woman is not hurt physically but she is extremely exhausted and hyperventilates - and for reference she looks a bit like Sandra Bullock)

[SalmonMax]

"Another nova, newly erupted? Or is this the Singularity?" Gray speculates aloud. "I wonder what relationship she has to all this. Was she the one that caused this destruction?"

Gray Goo's body ripples slightly, like water, as she crouches down to put a hand on the woman's forehead...then takes it away again.

"We need transport to a safe place," she says. "Utopia novas will be here any second with numbers."

[SkyLion]

The dormant Jack regards the collpased Nova impassively,almost stoic.

"Looks like The Singularity found a body after all..."

To Sean he smiles weakly.

"Paris sounds nice. After all this darkness the City of Lights sounds, well...delightful."

A thought then occurs to him.

"How do we know the company won't immediately search for us there?" "If it even exists..." he murmers almost under his breath.

[Tim Wiley]

It was not Caroline? Nosferatu thought to himself, a little ashamed. Then who is our mystery girl?

He flew to where the unconscious figure lay and picked her up. As her motionelss from lay in his arms, he found himself staring at her skin. She gave off a metallic scent that was sweet and salty. Nosferatu recognized the smell: Blood. He found that he was overcome with a desire to drink deeply from the pulsing veigns in her neck. Shaking his head, he suppressed the hunger and flew towards a derelict structure at the edge of the crater.

"There is probably a subway entrance near here. We should find it and move underground until night time."

[SkyLion]

Jack shakes his head.

"That would be tactically unsound. Grey is right. Any moment now investigative teams are going to be pouring over this place. They will be able to detect us and worse, they are already looking for us. We need to get out of New York. Now."

[Tim Wiley]

Nosferatu pauses in his flight. He turns and looks over his head to the others.

"I was only suggesting we seek cover until we can get away from New York. The longer we are out here in the sunlight, the greater the chance they can pinpoint our location."

[SkyLion]

Jack looks to Sean to see if he is indeed going to transport them away stat.

[Mr Fox]

Sean nodded at Jack, "I can get us there, but only one at a time, I'm not a warper. And the house is one of my residences, but it was bought under the name of an acquaintance of mine to avoid the red tape of not having French citizenship. The company might be able to find us there, but it will take some time to track us, even for the company. Anyone else it will take longer. Only way the company can find us inside an hour is if they track us through equipment using GPS, but although I'd rather we had some time sort this out, it's not the company I'm worried about."

Sean looks to the others, "Anyone else here able to teleport? If so I'll take you in the first trip and then we can both come back for others."

[Courier]

Tom says,

"My attunement is way up, maybe enough for another person. Maybe two if Gray Goo can shrink. And I'm super fast now, I could zoom a hundred miles away and then turn invisible and keep flying."

"If you don't have the juice to take everyone I can flee and you could pick us up later."

[SalmonMax]

Gray shakes her head. "No shrinking. I can look smaller by compressing myself, but I don't actually lose mass unless I'm in the process of being destroyed."

"That said, it might be wise for me to infiltrate the crowd as a refugee, so we have an ear to the ground."

[SkyLion]

Jack looks down uncomfortably.

"I...I could teleport myself and one other..."

[Travis Kincaid]

Originally Posted By: Callum Uallas

He opened his eyes and saw that he was there. He grappeled with the hose of quantum power flowing over him and tied it off once more. Power fled and the light of the world returned as the shroud evaporated. "Ok, Molly, you can open your eyes."

Molly opened her eyes and took a quick look around before declaring, "Daddy's magic!" She immediately released her father's hand and ran toward the old swing set climbing up into the seat. Sitting there her legs swinging and her face beaming with joy she shouted, "Push me daddy!"

Callum ... no he was Malcolm once more, home in New York he was Malcolm. Malcolm smiled and dropped the bags going over to give Molly a great big push to get her started. "I'm going to go look for grampy, can you stay here and be good?" Molly nodded as she swung in great arcs.

Malcolm smiled once more and laughed a little to himself, Would that I could forget my worries so easily. Picking up the bags once more he went into the house through the backdoor, unlocking it with the key hidden in a secrect compartment build into a nearby window frame. Dropping the bags in the kitchen portion of the greatroom that took up most of the first floor he called out, "Dad?! Dad?! It's Malcolm and Molly, are you home?" Silence. Corncern. Malcolm looked around and spotted a calander on his father's fridge. He checked the date on his watch once more and then the calander. Oh thank god! he thought as he saw the neat block lettering that read, "Tee Time 10:30".

An hour later Malcolm was sprawled on the couch half asleep with a completely asleep Molly draped over his chest. The TV was all but muted and yet still loud enough for Malcolm to follow the constant news feeds that were covering the disaster effort in Manhattan. His concentration split between the TV and being half alseep he didn't notice that he was no longer alone until his father poked him in the arm. "Not that I'm not happy to see you but what the heck are you doing here son?"

Malcolm looked up and was instantly awake once more. Quietly so as not to disturb the sleeping child he replied, "Trouble dad, I needed to get someplace safe. It's been a year, I figured it'd be safe here for at least a little while."

His father gave him a look and rolled his eyes. He scooped Molly up off Malcolms chest gently and laid her on the nearby loveseat. "Ok boy, you'd better fill me in."

"Love to dad, but I'm going to need you to do the same. Something happened and I've lost the past two days. I think that I'm being setup, my partners and I, I mean."

*****

Hours later Malcolm was on the opnet posting to certain sites using certain specific phrase and identifications. I hope this works ...

[Tim Wiley]

Nosferatu was already on his way to the rubble with the strange woman in his arms. He wanted to get out of the suns rays. It was darkening his complexion. He also wanted to get away from where everyone would be focusing their cameras and satelites: the crater.

,,

Quote:

"If you don't have the juice to take everyone I can flee and you could pick us up later."

He sends over the link to those present, so as not to yell.

*He's right. We have to get to somewhere less conspicuous. The crater is a giant bullseye. We can continue this discussion away from this place. There are miles of subway that will give us time to teleport everyone away.

[Mr Fox]

Sean nodded, "Nos is right. Plus, I'll need to know where to come back to after each trip and I don't want to be popping back into this crater." He nods to Nosferatu, "Lead the way."

[Courier]

Tom looks around and walks over to Jack and says,

"I think you're the slowest right now, so I should probably carry you."

Assuming Jack allows Tom attempts to attune him.

[Tim Wiley]

Nosferatu looks for any street signs or landmarks. Once he does, he will try to locate the nearest subway entrance, and descend into it's depths.

[SkyLion]

Originally Posted By: Courier

Tom looks around and walks over to Jack and says,

"I think you're the slowest right now, so I should probably carry you."

Assuming Jack allows Tom attempts to attune him.

The imposingly tall Jack looks down sort of sheepishly at Cherub and it's easy to forget that this is one of the most feared novas on the planet among those made in the underworld.

He shrugs.

"So much for nimble and quick..."

[Courier]

Cherub grabs him and says,

"You'll have to settle for quiet and fast... "

Following Nosferatu and seeing him locate an entrance, Cherub (and thus Jack) descended into the darkness... which actually wasn't all that dark considering their glowing forms.