Aberrant: Children of Quantum Fire - TI introduction

[Ichigo]

A moderate house in Buenos Ares, sign of a moderately successful man, was witness once again to the difference between it and the buildings which neighbored it.

Looking in the living toom, one would not see anything particularly strange. A middle aged man with the muscles of a labourer sat in a comfortable chair, facing a small television, a six-pack sitting at his side. "Good night, Papa. I'll make sure everyone stays silent and doesn't bother you," a young, black haired child said. This child was.. average. Nothin stood out at all about him? her? It was really hard to tell which from a casual, or even not so casual observation. Remembering anything about the child's appearance seemed difficult, like a child you go share every class with for 10 years and never know their name.

Turning a balefull glare to his child, the man said, "Why aren't you staying up to watch the game? You should watch it to help you play better."

"I have a game tomorrow, Papa, and the coach said he wanted us all well rested for it." Mollified, he turned his attention back to the television and the pregame showing starting on it.

The child entered the room shared by its siblings. Closing the door behind it, it relaxed, causing features to shift. The hair lightened to a dark blue, eyes grew a bit and features softened, revealing the true appearance of a young girl, relieved to be where she didn't have to keep up the appearance of being normal. Waiting for her in the room were 5 younger children. "You know, with us just having had dinner, I bet none of you are hungry," she teased. A chorus of quiet but fervent denials met her statement.

"Lucille, would you mind giving us some space?" The young girl she spoke to closed her eyes and conentrated for a moment before making a twisting motion with her hands and pushing outwards. As she did so, the Room grew to nearly triple its previous dimensions. 6 beds still lined the walls, but the space between them had grown enomously. "Excellent work. Carlos, a table if you pleae?" A small boy focused on the empty space in the middle of the room. Light flowed slowly from his hands to fill the center. The light gradually contracted, drawing into a grid of sharp edges with intricate swirls that hardened into a low wooden table.

"Nice designs, Carlos. You've been practicing I see," the girl said as she examined the carved filigree and delicate creatures worked into the structure of the table. Before she had a mini-riot on her hands, she bgan to pull plates out of nowhere and pass them along the table to the other children, who had quickly kneeled beside the table. They had tried generating chairs before, but it just wore Carlos out too much, and the messes tha came with using the beds for seating were... something she wuold rather not remember, honestly. It was amazing that such a small child could make such a very large mess...

So, they knelt instead.

Once veryone was seated and had plates, she passed around silverware, then pulled a large platter out of the same nowhere everything else had been in and placed a large ham on it. Her younger siblings stared at it with naked hunger, but she had managed to teach tehm some manners, at least. Rapidly, she carved the ham and divided it amongst them, then pulled out a seond and then a third ham, repeating the process to make certain they all had enough protein, before adding fruits she diced up and a few pots of vegetables she had one of her little sisters heat up and finally finshing off with some pastries.

Contrary to most children, these groaned when the pastries came out, as they knew that it meant that their second dinner was over. "Come on, you know I can only carry so much at once. I've got a concert tonight, but I'll try to be back early enough for pre-breakfast. Papa's watching the game, and we are up against a very bad team, so he shouldn't be a problem tonight. If he is, you have the pager to call me; green for 'come when I can', red for 'come now.'" She turns to her eldest sister, "If he wakes you to celebrate, push the red button. He's been better lately, but I don't want to risk it. He thinks I'm going to bed early to be rested for tomorrow's game, but if he is looking for me and can't find me..." She let the rest go unsaid, instead collecting all of the plates and silverware for cleaning before the table dissolved and Lucille let the room shrink back to its normal proportions. She made sure all of them made a trip to the restroom to wash up and brush their teeth, settled them all in their beds, giving each of them a good night, turned off the lights, and vanished.

She reappeared in the middle of the Pacific ocean, about a mile down, where she pulled out each of the plates and spun in place to rinse them off in the clean water at those depths. While some fish swam around down there, most bacteria in the sea stayed at the surface or clinging to those fish for sustenance. Having cleaned off all of the dishes, she teleported again, this time miles up, whe she spun in place with her arms and limbs held out, slowly falling towards the Earth as the extreme low pressures sucked most of the moisture off of her body, crstallizing what was left. She teleported again, this time to a dark bedroom in Japan. "Lights," she said, and lights came on. She stripped off her icy clothes and hung them in the shower adjacent to the bedroom before opening up the closet and revealing a wide array of clothes, all in her size, for this room was evidently hers.

Turning to a full length mirror, she held a number of outfits up against herself before finally deciding on one and then going to her dresser to pick some underwear to match. Everything in this room was nicer than anything in the home she had left minutes before. All of her clothes were silk or satin or otherwise just plain nice. The one thing that was not present in the room at all was anything made of cotton, for she was quite allergic to it.

She paused in just her underwear to look at herself in the mirror, confilcted by what she saw. She was only just beginning to develop curves; a little over a year ago she hadn't had anything to warrant a bra at all. Part of her was excited, part of her was repulsed, part of her was afraid... the list went on, as it did for a rather large number of teens facing the uncertain world of puberty. She slipped on the outfit she had selected, a blue dress with a skirt a little shorter than she was really comfortable with, frills down the front, with separate sleeves that tied near her shoulder and wrist. Looking at herself, she couldn't help but admit it: While the outfit was a little embarrassing, it felt nice to feel pretty. It had taken her nearly three years of sneaking out almost every night to admit to this side of her and even embrace it. Looking at the clock on the wall, she could see that even taking her time, she was still early. Her friends wouldn't be out of school for nearly an hour yet.

When she had first started visiting Japan, she had just tried to join the kids who were playing sports. Even at her girliest, she was a serious tomboy, but hanging out somewhere with no expectations of her had really helped her explore parts of herself that weren't... welcome at home, as had being introduced to this place, Horaryuko, the den of the dragon children.

She had picked Japan due to the time zone diference. Generally the kids here were just getting out of school around the same time her parents finally went to bed. The Japanese authorities ahd been a little concerned when they detected an unregistered nova teleporting in and out of the smae park area every day around the same time, especially as it was an area where a lot of kids hung out. A nova response squad was gathered to watch the area, only to find that it was a child teleporting in and playing with the other kids, causing a rapid switch to plan B. Calling up a teenage reserve member, they sent her in to talk to the child. Nova children weren't very common, but a CEO with his own nova daughter had created a safe place for them to just be themselves. She still hadn't told them where she was from or about her homelife, but they had learned long ago that pressing a child for information was a good way to make them clam up completely, or in the case of a nova, occasionally quite literally vanish off of the face of the planet.

Reminiscing had taken her all of two minutes to work through three years. Sometimes, nova powers sucked. So, she could be bored for the next hour, or venture into the Dragon's den alone. While she had never had real problems here, she didn't like wandering around alone. There were a few regulars here who made her.. nervous... when she didn't have anyone on her side to back her up. Gathering her courage, she stepped out of her room and into the rest of the complex, heading to the games area to have some fun and kill some time.

A little while later, she was distracted from a hyped up version of Halo made specifically for nova reflexes by two voices from the doorway shouting the name she chose for herself, "Ichigo-chan!"

Smiling, she let her character die, turning instead to her friends and greeting them in Turn, "Minmay-chan, Rei-chan! Great to see you! I got in a little early today, but I missed you guys."

"We missed you, too! You ready for the concert tonight? It's going to be sooo much fun!" The three girls proceeded to discuss in ear splitting squeals what was goin on that night, namely one of their few chances to perform as San Kawaii, the Three Cuties. Minmay was lead singer and played the guitar, Rei played a complicated drumlike device that she was constantly redesigning and did some back-up vocals, and Ichigo wrote most of their songs and was lead dancer and secondary vocalist. As good as her voice was, Ichigo didn't quite have the knack for it that Minmay had.

They went together to their martial arts class, a recommended class for all of the novas of the Dragon's Den to help them with self control and knowing the exact limits of their abilities. Next they worked on Minmay's and Rei's homework--mostly Minmay's to be honest, as she was the only one of them not working on at least trig at this point. Not every nova was extra bright, but she was still fun to be around, which helped the others avoid developing the superiority complex so common to the mega-bright. Kurosama had done better than he ever thought in building this place, to the point that, at least in Japan, novas who are or were members of it outnumbered Utopians and Terragens, though not combined--and thought both of them were a bit crazy.

Soon came the time to get ready for the concert. Ichigo's outfit included a flesh colored bodysuit that left no skin bare so she could mingle with fans without worry of someone wearing a cotton outfit. Over that she wore a flashy blue dress, knee high blue boots, and soft gloves with a frill of fabric similar to a Poet's sleeve, coming to short points that wouldn't be long enough to get in the way, but would enhance the look of her hand motions.

Rei had tried to get them to dress like the Sailor Senshi again, but they had only given in on that once. As a result, she was wearing a tight fitting red top and black shorts, nothing loose to risk getting caught in her instrument, though still very pretty.

Minway had the least restrictions on her clothing, so she went all out. The puffy sleeves might have seemed a bit much if not for the lace wings and all of the ribbons that made the sleeves fade into insignificance.

Their contrasting styles, far from detracting from the image of the band, gave their fans three different styles to identify with and increased their popularity.

Their concert began with one of Minmay's favorite songs, the reason she had chosen that stage name in the first place, to warm up the audience: "Do You Remember Love?"

I leave it at this piont to see what Krul decides to do with/to me.

[Quantum Fire]

The concert had gathered a large number of individuals, the incredibly cute and very musical three of them were quite popular, but as young as they were, they had draw a good degree of attention from folks beyond the one's they had already attracted. Child nova's were fairly rare, at least among the first generation, most nova's were at least teenagers before they erupted, and that was a matter that caused certain individuals to take a closer look at the three children. While they were preforming at a good distance, someone with a scope and very special type of bullet was taking aim, they would only be able to take out one of them here.. and this was the easiest moment to take advantage of.

Of course, if a precognitive have been involved they would have warned against it, but not every group or team of hunters had a precognitive or the connections to one that were readily available. In a move that was to become one of the greatest disasters for the hunters of fertile nova's and their children, the assassin took aim and fired at the easiest of the three nova's to hit.. it was supposed to look like an accident, the bullet was soundless after all, and properly placed, it would be a sudden collapse and draining of quantum as the bullet closed the entry wound behind it, and left the nova child to a slow death.. except the target aimed for was not the one hit, because one of them managed to notice the shot before it hit her fellows.

[Ichigo]

She would never remember what tipped her off, whether it was some sound made by the motherhunter that made its way across the distance to be picked up by her ears, a glint of light in the wrong place, a flash of light from the gun firing, some twelfth sense honed from standing between others and danger--but midway through one of her recent creations, the words to her song flew out of her brain, and without any thought at all, she vanished, reappearing in front of Minmay with both of her hands held in front of her.

To call the projectile that streaked towards her a bullet would be to do it a gross injustice. It was a masterpiece of antinova technology. Everything had been designed with them in mind, from the tip that was at just the right angle to deflect most forcefields and provide maximum penetration, the circuitry that would detect once it was buried deeply enough in flesh to deliver a lethal cocktail that would accelerate regeneration while causing the cells it contacted to stop dividing entirely so that the opening the bullet made would heal behind it, to the vanes at the back that could discharge quantum energy and which would mushroom out once the bullet was inside the targets body to stop it. The quantum discharge would even destroy the bullet and all evidence of this being anything other than a tragic medical accident.

The bullet hit the space in front of her right hand and started bleeding energy away from her faster than she could reinforce her forcefield. Past the field, it drilled into the tough skin of her hand, through her flesh, out through more armored skin, through the forcefield again, into the forcefield covering her left hand, on through it and back out again, heading inexorably towards her chest. The bullet was bleeding so much quantum energy that the vanes in the back were giving off a bright glow visible to the audience--not part of the plan. Nor was how much velocity had been bled from the bullet through it's repeated trips through Ichigo's defenses, nor how little of her quantum energy was remaining when the head of the bullet buried itself in her chest, but not deep enough to trigger the poison it contained and too little energy left in her to do more than warp the bullet.

All of this happened in a microsecond, so fast that only the most perceptive of novas could have separated the input and made a coherent picture of what happened. Gasping, feeling more drained than she ever had, Ichigo turned and collapsed on her side, asking faintly on her way down, "Minmay? Are you ok?" before passing out.

[Quantum Fire]

Looking into the future was a difficult prospect, every time he did, he saw thousands of potential possiblities, and if he did it freely, it became overwhelming, so the Nova known as the Traveler to most, as Shen, or even Uncle Shen to those who knew him, focused. He aimed his ability to see the future at individuals, most especially his children, the ones he had saved or rescued from the futures that would have taken them down different roads, most of them leading to death, and all of them leading to worse choices for the future. That made it easier, but it also anchored thousands of other futures he might have changed, if he could have seen them, and that was something he couldn't allow, it was a responsibility, and the man he was wasn't the sort to shirk any responsibility.

Still, he had other responsibilities, and balancing them was important, so to meet this one, every week or so, he would retire for quite meditation, and spend a few hours trying to sort though the billions of futures that shifted and changed for every choice made throughout the world, baselines were easy to see, they had only so many ways that the future could turn.. nova's and other inspired, however could change the potentials in huge ways, so even then, he would scan by counties.. and today, the future of Japan was in sudden flux as a man took a shoot.. and everything, the entire future turned on the outcome here.

A flash and Shen was gone, to rescue a hurt child and to turn the future of an entire country, and with it, the world. He arrived just as a somewhat panicked shooter made two more shots, shots that would have ended the matter, but were stopped by a man able to snatch bullets out of the air, a man who knew what was going to happen an instant before it did, his ability to see the immediate future much easier then seeing across the years, a man who might be one of the most accomplished martial artists in existence. His ability to react and see was such that he was able to react faster then any bullet, no matter how advanced, could possibly move, and there was a blur on the stage, no one baseline could even see anything of him but the blur, for the first few seconds.. three seconds into his action, a ricochet hit the shooter in the right shoulder, shattering his shoulder, and making it impossible for him to fire another shot.

With a snap, and a flash, he teleported to grabbed and dumped the shooter on the stage, with his gun, into the hands of the guards and police officers still trying to react at that moment, then going to the hurt girl and lifting her in his arms. Looking at her friends, ignoring the others present, he smiled at them both, allowing all of his superhuman charm to shine though. "I need to get her to a healer fast, before the poison in the bullet does more damage, girls. I suggest you two go somewhere safe, I'll be back with her in a day or so." With a nod from them, he vanished.. to take the girl to Butch, his ward could clean her system completely of everything the bullet had done to her, except draining quantum.. that would take time to repair.

[Butch_Cole]

Butch was in the infirmary a few moments after Traveler called on him to put his healing abilities to good use. There wasn't much time to think, so he just ran for the infirmary without checking in with anyone else. As far as he knew, no one was out on a mission or anything, but you never could tell with his siblings...

When Butch entered, he saw Uncle Shen place a young asian girl on a gurney. Butch breathed a sigh of relief as it wasn't one of his siblings lying there injured and in need of his help. The more they ventured out into the field, the more it became necessary for Butch to tend to their injuries, a job his quantum abilities made him well-suited for, yet he was still getting used to acting as a medic. While he had studied enough medicine to be considered a highly capable EMT or perhaps someone in med-school, Butch knew that he could and should become more skilled, enough so to be a full-fledged doctor or surgeon. When this was over, he'd discuss things with Alex about coming up with a plan to make this so.

"What's going on here, Uncle Shen?" Butch asked. He made his way closer to the table and reached out with his senses to get an idea of how injured this person was. To the girl on the table, he said, somewhat loudly, "Can you hear me? Hey, can you hear me? You're ok. My name's Butch. We're gonna help you here. Don't worry."

Lifesense Roll

Spending 1 Q and using Lifesense to figure out the health levels of Ichigo. Straight perception roll, last die is Mega

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3191938/

So, 4 successes.

[Quantum Fire]

Shen responded to Butch's questions. "A mother-hunter assassin in japan, the bullet is a new innovation, nova designed, not something a baseline could come up with, it's causing her to bleed out quantum as well as blood, but the girl is very tough for her age, she's still alive, if she had been either of the others, not only would they be dead, but no one would know the cause.. it would be ruled some sort of taint effect, her ability to shield herself and grow tougher the more she is hurt however, changed all of that, Japan is likely to become rabidly anti-mother hunter and pro-nova because of this... and especially protective of nova children." Even as he spoke, he opened the girls shirt where the bullet had gone in and healed the damage done, leaving it embedded in her body

"I need you to get the bullet out and purge the poisons it's creating in her body as you do, it actually healed the damage done, so that it would be fully embedded and able to release it's poisons into the body leaving no trace of the source as it breaks down." He could see it as he allowed his vision to extend into the x-ray level and he put a finger over the spot where the bullet entered. "Right here.. use your power over life to have her body expel the bullet and then repair the damage, it's something only you can do at the moment, Butch... she'll be conscious within seconds.. her resilience is that great, but she has no way to heal herself with her quantum reserves spent."

Ichigo has taken a serious amount of damage, but her body has managed to heal some of it as her quantum burned way, presently she's at incapacitated, sense she's unconscious, but by my ruling she's just managed to heal enough to reach maimed.. but the bullet still inside her keeps adding 1 to the damage even as it's healed.. until the bullet is out.. or an hour passes.. she's just barely on the edge of consciousness.. she can force herself awake.. with a stamina+endurance roll (difficulty 4), but she can't really move until she's healed a bit.. Sense she has 12 health levels.. that's how much damage she's taken.

[Butch_Cole]

OOC note

Per discussion with Krul, this thread takes place four days after the start of Jungle Storms in an infirmary at the palace. I thought it was a good way to include everyone. I hope that works for everyone else, too...

It was a little after midday in Kinshasa, so there was some activity just beyond the curtain they were behind, and the nurses were keeping a distance.The infirmary in Kinshasa at the palace was well-stocked and full of bleeding-edge equipment. There was a private area where he had set up shop to keep from getting in the way while he fixed his sister. Butch was quite thankful when he was allowed to use the facilities and had been using the last four days to not only return Maia to working order, but also to learn. This situation seemed to be quite different though.

Before he responded to the revelation of a nova-killer bullet, Butch focused on removing it from the wounded young nova in front of him. Reaching out with his own energy, Butch made a bioenergetic connection and started to fix things. innerButch knew where the bullet had come to rest and convinced the surrounding tissues to expel it back through the skin while at the same time healing the damage it was causing. This bullet would definitely be something to research, so he wanted to hold on to it. Cautious of what this bullet could do, Butch used a forceps to grasp it as it passed through the skin and then placed it on a tray. Once it was removed, he returned to the work of healing.

Health Manipulation Roll

Stamina + Biomanipulation = 21d10
Last 8 are Mega
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3193495/
So, 12 successes. Krul ruled that as totally healed.

After a moment, Butch was content that the damage had been fixed and the young nova would be ok.

Over the network, Butch sent a specific message to Alex: I need you in the infirmary ASAP. Nova-killer bullet for you to analyze. No joke.

"She'll be fine, Uncle Shen," Butch said to his guardian, who struck him as concerned. "I'm more worried about what this bullet means though. I called Alex in here to take a look. And Einherjar should know about it, too. He'll want this kind of info, I'm sure."

[Ichigo]

Ichigo stirred on the gurney. Her mind couldn't quite grasp where she was or what was going on. All she knew that she was in pain, though she had felt worse, and felt empty in a way she had never felt and couldn't quite describe. She was only half conscious when she cracked her eyes open to the light and mumbled, "Papa," expecting to see him there. Instead she saw a hospital, which really confused her. Her father would never have taken her to one, and the others knew she would heal from whatever had hurt her.

Reaching back in her mind, she could remember going to Japan like usual. Needing so little sleep gave her an opportunity to pursue a second life free of the restraints on her home life, an opportunity she was intensely grateful for. She met her friends, they had some fun, they started the concert... and then everything was replaced by pain and fear for her friends. Adrenaline spiked enough to wake her up long enough to ask one of the people standing over her, in Japanese, "Minmay? Rei? Are they ok?" Adrenaline could only do so much, though, and her reserves were so exhausted that it had nothing to draw on, leaving her to collapse back on the bed. Healing so much damage in so little time had taken a lot out of her, even with the help of the other nova, and there was a lingering feeling she couldn't name in her chest, having never been sick before to recognize nausea and the general ague caused by her body dealing with the lingering traces of poison.

Breathing heavily from the exertion of sitting up, she kept her eyes focused on the men beside her, anxious for a response to her question.

[Quantum Fire]

Shen responded to her question in Japanese "Your friends are fine, I saw to that, you took the lions share of the damage, brave girl that you are. I brought you here, because without my ward's actions, there was a chance you would die, even with your incredible toughness.. and that could affect more then just you. Also, the bullet needs to be analyzed, and action taken to prevent similar events."

Even as he spoke glanced around a moment, her shirt was completely ruined, and the hospital gowns nearby were made of cotton, which a nurse was trying to put on her, and she had already left the bed holding her hands up in a warding gesture toward the nurse.

He paused a moment and blinked, as he glanced into her future, then stepped in the nurses way, letting her hide behind him. "Also, girl.. " he paused a moment on that word. "You and I need to talk... privately."

[Ichigo]

Ichigo accepted his aid with a measure of relief. That cotton gown would have been uncomfortable to say the least, given her allergies, and whatever language the nurse had been speaking, it was not one she was familiar with.

Given that I was apparently having no luck convincing her that the gown was worse than my bloodstained dress, I'm going to guess that the main language of the Congo is still Afrikaans, with which I have no familiarity.

She responded to Shen's last words by asking, "What do you mean?"

[Quantum Fire]

Shen looked at her for a long moment, considering what was the best response, and glancing at the future for a moment, catching a number of nuances as he did. "I'm precognitive child, I can see dozens of possible futures for you.. and some things about you become clearer in the future." He was perceptive enough to catch the hint of panic in her eyes. "Don't worry, I don't intend to speak of anything you want kept secret, publically.. but it's important for us to talk, I have taken in children with your.. genetic origin's over the years."

[Ichigo]

Ichigo hesitated. "Um, ok, I guess." She looked down at her ruined dress a bit sadly. "It took me a week to make this, and seconds for somebody to destroy it. You just can't get blood out of silk, though. Any chance I could get a change of clothes that doesn't involve any cotton? I have a really bad allergy to cotton."

[Quantum Fire]

"Cotton is the easiest to get, but let me see.." There was a momentary flicker as he was gone and back again, teleporting and returning, then handing her a pair of jeans and a blouse that was exactly her size, down to the last detail. "There, that should do it... now, shall we go somewhere for a private talk?"

[Ichigo]

Blushing, she asked, "Ano, is there somewhere I could change first and get cleaned up? A bathroom or something?" Shen lead her to a bathroom, where she went in and changed, washing off the sticky blood with water from the faucet. She started to cut off the ruined material of her bodysuit, but just trying gave her a massive headache and reminded her of the gnawing emptiness deep inside of her. More, she was feeling a cramping sensation as her body kept wanting to shift but lacked the power to do so, leaving her afraid of a spontaneous change in public if she couldn't relieve the need soon.

Slipping on the jeans and blouse, she came out of the bathroom to find Shen waiting patiently for her. "You, uh, wanted to talk?" Shen lead her to an empty room and turned to face her once she was in and had closed the door.

[Quantum Fire]

"Yes." Shen sat down across from her in a chair and looked at her for a long moment, his face somewhat closed down, and for a long period there was silence, as he simply looked at her and said nothing. "This is hard, there are no good ways to say this, but not saying anything produces worse results in the long run, I hate moments like this, when the future is a choice of evils." He sighed.

"Alright, in this case, blunt just barely better then beating around the bush. Your father is sick, you know that, right? His mind is unbalanced and unhealthy, it's a mix of things that make it so, taint, personality, experience, there is little that can be done to heal him at this point, and your mother has been badly affected by him also. I know they are your parents and you care for them, but it's not a healthy environment for you or your siblings.. and it's not going to get better."

[Ichigo]

Ichigo was shocked by his words. Nobody outside of her family who knew her in this form knew about her father at all, much less her siblings--or rather, that had been true until this man came into things. "He's been much better lately. As long as I'm not home at night to tempt him, he doesn't try anything, and when he's in a bad mood, he can hit me until he passes out. It doesn't bother me, and it keeps everyone else safe and together. He's my papa, and I'm not going to give up on him because he has his bad moments." Kept to herself was the worry that one day one of her little sisters would attract his attention as they got older. "Besides, he only did that stuff to me because I'm a freak. If I could be more normal, we wouldn't have any problems."

[Quantum Fire]

"You are not a freak, your father is sick, and in this case, he's the one at fault, not you, and you and your siblings are what you are because of what he is, not what you think you are.." He paused a moment to rub his forehead, then shook his head slightly. "If you were all baseline, I'd simply call child protective services and let them deal with the problem, but that would only make matters worse in this case, sense it would also alert you all to the mother hunters, and it's nearly impossible to make a child with your capabilities do anything ." He seemed thoughtful, then he nodded slightly as he looked though the futures. "I'll give you 6 months to a year, before I step into this situation directly, though I would prefer not to have too, if you deal with it yourself some way, or if you decide to move your brothers and sisters, I have a place that is safe that you and they can stay."

[Butch_Cole]

Butch listened as the girl on the table spoke in what sounded like Japanese, which he did not understand at all. Other than English, Butch could speak Spanish from years living in various cities up and down the east coast. Between New York and Philadelphia, Butch had picked up enough to read, write, and speak that language, but other than that, he had no other languages under his belt. It was something he hoped to rectify.

Uncle Shen and the girl left the Infirmary together, and Butch did not follow. Instead, he sent out another mental note to Alex:

If you won't come to me, I'll come to you. I'm bringing you a bullet I pulled from an injured Nova. Uncle Shen said it's special and designed specifically to take out Novas. He seemed concerned about it. I want you to have a look. When we learn more about it, I want to tell Einherjar about it, too. This seems like something with the potential to make things difficult for all Novas. Now...where are you?

He couldn't be sure with his brilliant sibling. Since arriving in the Congo, Alex had been interested in a variety of things including exploring the jungles and the various fascinating biological specimens therein. She had also been interested in the Port of Kinshasa and other infrastructure related things as well. Wherever she was, Butch wanted Alex to have a serious look at the Nova-killer bullet.

[SalmonMax]

There was a pause, then the electronic squeal that seemed to come just before all of Alex's telepathic communications these days.

On my way back to Ein's place. We can meet halfway. Where are you?

[Ichigo]

Ichigo was hesitant to respond to the ultimatum the stranger in front of her had just issued. While she had considered moving her siblings before, she had never had a place where she was certain they would be safe. She had considered the Dragon's den, but they would be the youngest there, which could cause its own issues. Now he had offered her somewhere safe, but how could she trust him? How could she know if they would really be safe? Besides, so far she had managed to keep any harm to herself, and she could handle it. She loved both of her parents, flaws and all, and leaving would mean abandoning her mother and any future children they had.

Shen, sensing the conflict in the young nova, decided that the best thing he could do was not push this particular matter any further.

[Quantum Fire]

Shen studied the girl for a longer moment, then lowered himself to look the girl in the eye. "Alright, how about I take you to meet a friend of mine, she's very famous, but she likes to live out in the jungle away from civilization, and she has a daughter only a couple of years younger then you." He waited until he had a nod from the girl, then he reached out and touched her, attuning her and teleporting to Jason's retreat just in sight of the spectacular ruwenzori mountains, that ran along the border of Congo and Uganda.

Despite having incredible wealth, Jason's home here wasn't as spectacular as one might expect, the woman was very down to earth and Shen knew she would be gardening behind the house with her little girl. When she looked up, he would be standing there with Ichigo beside him. "Hello Jason.. I'm here to ask another favor of sorts, and I thought Danica could use a friend closer to her own age."

[Butch_Cole]

Butch's eye twitched as the electronic squeal announced Alex's communication. He was still getting used to her new form and all that it meant to things like their mental conversations.

He responded: I'm in the infirmary. Meet in your room?

[SalmonMax]

The infirmary? Which one? Primus? Ein's? There was a pause. What do you think of subdermal GPS locators? I can encrypt the signal, and use my spy sats as recievers. Totally secure.

[Butch_Cole]

Butch mentally continued:

Ein's Palace. Uncle Shen popped in, said someone needed some special healing. I was just chillin' out after finishing up with Maia. She's better now in case you were wondering. Anyway, I'm at the infirmary at the Palace. So, your room here? I figured we should take a look at this thing, discuss, and share with Einherjar. This seems like the type of information folks like us need to know. And I don't know about GPS locators. Unless you can assure me that the signal is 100% safe and can't be followed by any other technology out there or novas with abilities like that, I'd have to say I'm really wary about that. Convince me?

[SalmonMax]

Nah. I'll just slip one in your dinner, came the mischievous response. Seeya in forty-five seconds.

She was as good as her word. Less than a minute later Butch, standing in the corner bedroom that Alex had staked out as her own, could hear the sound of approaching jet engines. Sheets and pillows flew off the bed as she flew in, rocket pack spewing fire and wind like a tiny litle apocalypse. Then, suddenly, it was gone. Alexandra walked over to the night stand and dropped a small plastic box on top of it, then lifted a pair of goggles off of her eyes and blinked at Butch as she adjusted to life at less than three hundred KPH.

"Hey. Glad to hear Maia's doing better. How's her hunny-bunny? Oh, and the bullet." She held her hand out.

[Butch_Cole]

Butch chuckled at Alex's little joke. Well, at least her sense of humor wasn't mechanical...

He passed her the glass vial he placed the bullet in prior to leaving the infirmary. Touching this bullet was still something he was not ready for given what it had done to the mysterious young Japanese nova.

"I didn't touch it except with a forceps," Butch said. "Uncle Shen said this thing was releasing some kind of poison into the girl. Said it healed the damage it created so it could fully embed, release its poisons, and then break down so it wouldn't be traced. He also said it leached quantum. I figured best not touch it in case it might go for another source of quantum. That, or it might break down with continued contact with a biological quantum-infused organism and then we'd be shit outta luck."

Perhaps he was being overly cautious, but Butch hoped Alex would appreciate how he treated the specimen.

"As for Maia and her beau? The boy wasn't an issue. I mean, his Juice is a bit twisted, but nothing I can do about that. Maia was more of a challenge. She...I don't know how to describe it...twisted open her own source of Juice and...it was sort of like a blood transfusion only it was Juice, Quantum. She said she dragged the process out, but I can only liken it to performing a transfusion with a rusty needle and moldy tubes over a course of a few days. Infection went both ways. Couldn't fix hers, but I was able to bring her back to working order."

He paused for a moment. The experience with Maia and Justin had opened a potential within Butch that likely came about thanks to his Apotheosis. The ramifications of it were potentially...big.

"I figured out something about my own powers though. innerButch...what I call my own innate understanding of myself and well, living things...um, it tells me that if I wanted to, I think I could potentially unerupt a Nova. Sort of the reverse of what Maia did. I've been meaning to talk with you about some of the implications of my change. But we can table that for now. Let's see what you can find out about this bullet."

[SalmonMax]

Alexandra looked up from the bullet at that, fixing Butch with an unreadable gaze for a moment, then she returned her attention to the task at hand. Butch noticed that while she took it with her fingers...she exuded some kind of silvery covering over her fingertips before touching it. Not quite as incautious as she pretended then.

"You weren't shot with this," she said after a second. "Who was? Because whoever shot them...really REALLY wanted them dead."

[Butch_Cole]

He had mentioned it was an injured nova that Uncle Shen brought in, so he wondered if Alex was being cute or maybe she just was distracted before. Perhaps he had to be incredibly specific with her in the future. Either way, he didn't let it bother him.

"No," Butch said. "It wasn't me who was shot. Uncle Shen brought in some girl who got shot. Younger than us by a few years maybe. She was in bad shape. I could feel she was close to dead, which isn't exactly pleasant. So, yeah, I can see that they really wanted her dead. She started speaking Japanese and then Uncle Shen escorted her out of the infirmary. Haven't seen them again, but I'm sure Unc's got his reasons."

He peered intently at the bullet. The substance Alex exuded must have been protective, which Butch was silently thankful for.

"So, what do you know about it so far? Anything we can use to track its manufacture? Type of gun it was shot from? Anything that might help us out? Drop some knowledge, sis. Impress me with that mega mind of yours."

He winked for good measure.

[SalmonMax]

"It's not a bullet."

Alex conjured up a small box made of something transparent and dropped the 'bullet' inside. When she closed the lid, it sealed so tightly that even the line separating it from the rest of the box vanished.

"It'd probably be more useful to think of it as a micro-engineered missile, specifically designed to destroy novas. Designed and created by a nova who is very good at designing and creating things. It has several parts. The warhead is a penetrator, tungsten-jacketed depleted uranium. This shell was probably quite a bit bigger when fired, but it shed that mass as this was kicked out. But where I'd expect to find explosives, it has some kind of bioengineered tissue...consisting of a large amount of modified faracytes. It has connections to those vanes on the end of it there, which are radiating a very weak quantum signature. Very weak NOW, I should say, because the faracytes are dying in droves. It's not meant to survive long after impact."

"From what's left of the signature, I can infer it has a couple of effects. The first is a disruptive modulation that curves around the front. Meant to disable quantum-based defenses, and possibly to shunt quantum power out of the target's signature. Then, the envelope changes at the back to something I think would actually...kind of weirdly...restore damaged cells. Since a dense penetrator like this would have a small wound cross-section, I can say at full power that quantum effect might be strong enough to actually seal the bullet wound behind it."

Alex paused for a moment, still examining the thing. "There's another thing too, but it looks like it's a triggered effect. I'm not entirely sure what it is. It might explode or something...though that would make the wound sealing kind of silly." She finally looked back at Butch.

"It was individually made. It was fired from a large caliber weapon...probably custom-made. A sabot this large would need something the size of an assault cannon...maybe twenty or thirty millimeters minimum, and it could be bigger. Shoulder-launched or fired from the hip. Because it was custom made, there's no serial numbers or other ways to trace it. I'll try to disarm it, then do a more thorough materials analysis...see if there's any clues about where the metals it's made of came from."

"It could have been fired by anyone skilled in the weapon's use, but it was definitely created by a nova. Only a nova could imprint a quantum signature onto an inert faracyte mass like this."

[Butch_Cole]

Butch studied the not-bullet behind the transparent case. Then, he looked at Alex.

"So, not mass produced in some kind of bleeding edge factory. I guess that's a positive," he said, shrugging. "We're dealing with one nova out there who produced this. My big question is: lone nutjob nova, or working for someone else. And why try to take out this kid?"

Butch crossed his arms and leaned against the wall for a moment, thinking, then made for the door.

"See what you can find and then we'll let the others know. Our host, too. I'm gonna go find Uncle Shen and see what other information he has. Be back in a few."

Butch left the room and began looking for Uncle Shen. After a few minutes, a nurse mentioned she saw Uncle Shen and the girl go into a room, but neither came out. So, apparently they were no longer on the grounds of the palace. He returned to Alex's room.

"Well, Uncle Shen's off being Uncle Shen, I guess," Butch said. "The girl's gone, too. So much for that end of the investigation."

[Quantum Fire]

Note: Please move the Butch/Alex portion of this Thread to It's a (nanotech)Bug's Life (once that's done, I'll move this thread to the Archives)

End of Thread

XP: 2 Standard, 2 Baseline, 2 Nova