Aberrant: Children of Quantum Fire - [Interlude] Forbidden Fruits [FIN]

[Dawn OOC]

In Detroit, behind an abandoned warehouse, a van waited. The blonde and the dark-haired man appeared in a warp as the driver opened the van from the inside. Sakura was put onto a stretcher and strapped down; as the dark-haired man bent over her and hooked up a prenatal monitor to her belly, the blond and the Middle Eastern driver got in the front and drove away.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Snow looked at Darion, her eyes wide for a moment. “Damn it,” she muttered, her face scrunching into a scowl. Then her arm was slimy – not sweaty, but actually oily – and much thinner. With a twist of her arm, she pulled against his greater strength. His hand clamped down on her arm, but her hand was thinner and she pulled through his fingers with an audible squeak.

He scowled – Why do they always run from me? – and let her get six or seven feet before he reversed her momentum and bounced her back into his arms. This time, he snaked one hand around her neck and the other under an arm and locked it behind her neck. “That was unwise,” he said into her slime-coated ear. “Now, again – where are Sakura and Snow?”

“I can’t tell you,” she said, and Darion squeezed. She woman gagged, then thrashed against him. Several of the staff who had been lingering eyed him with fear as he appeared to be throttling a woman.

“Where. Are. Sakura. And. Snow?”

“The woman,” his captive rasped once he eased up so she could draw breath, “in the back room. Dunno where Sakura is.”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Star burst through the first wall and found herself in the middle of an orgy. Two women crawled all over a third, as a man took turns from behind one of the crawling women. Star ignored them as she ghosted past, invisible. The hallway should be here…

It wasn’t; there was another room, this one empty. Star hesitated only a second; her concern for Sakura was too great to allow her to remain still for long. The vitrium in the walls was impairing her x-ray vision; not blocking it, but rendering it hazy. Something in the walls was deadening noise with way too much effectiveness, and Star silently cursed as she found herself in the dead space between walls before she plunged into the next room – which was a hallway that went left and right. This place was a maze, built for privacy.

I need to get another plan, she decided quickly…

[Toby Lupin]

Darrik's expression darkened as he watched the impostor from being interrogated. It wasn't directed at Darion of course, and he swung around to focus on the staff as they looked with trepidation at the work being done. "You got work to do. Clear away the patrons, give us space." With his force of personality they scurried away to comply immediately.

Darrik went back to Darion. "Give me a shot at this, please?" Darion frowned, but stepped aside for a moment. Darrik leaned in at the female nova, locking her into place with eyes that hypnotized her, with both fear, and a rather growing and demanding haze of lust. "Where are you taking Sakura?"

"I... said I don't know, damn it." She rasped, cursing the feeling of heat and wetness down there. Darrik frowned, the look seeming to hit her like a thunderbolt. "Who sent you?" "Van Hout Elites."

Darrik stepped back, furrowed into thought. "Ok, back to you, Darion." He knew that name, something from the past when he'd a passing interest in the Elite field from his father's work at DeVries. It took him a step away and a few minutes of pondering before he had the answer.

Van Hout Elites. A rather small niche elite group, catering to those with small jobs and not enough means for DeVries or even the second-tier competitors like the Janissaries or the Argus Agency. That didn't make sense... or maybe it did. Sakura did have that 'aura' of possession around her. Perhaps someone currently unknown had decided to use force to obtain her.

[Doctor Varroxxian]

Star thought to herself ... she considered the entire situation again in microseconds to incorporate the new information.

The back is constructed like a maze, designed to counter searches by novas. This was new information. Logically, since Sakura had renovated this place like this there was something her that she wished to hide. Likely related to one of her projects, because a burlesque club - even one that catered to private needs in order to rake in big profits - just didn't justify this level of security. Further, Star's massive intellect could deconstruct many things from what she had already seen compared to how the architecture should have been laid out if it were intended purely for club privacy, as she understood architecture and the design process that left its fingerprint on constructions. It just wasn't a security layout solely dedicated to protecting sexy-time parties in those private rooms.

Not only was Sakura fairly thorough about her projects, but those projects were usually meaningful ... important. Star didn't wish to blow the lid off anything.

Also very strange, Sakura had left no scent trail near or shortly after her exit from the main scene ... Since she was a naturally fragrant individual this would be exceedingly difficult. Unless she had fled, altered her own biology and didn't want to be tracked. Setting that thought aside ... why else would there be no scent trail?

Star's olfactory capabilities exceeded that of any bloodhound many fold, and bloodhounds were amazing trackers able to follow days old scent trails across running water. Perhaps some of the surfaces in this maze had been somehow treated but even the slickest of surfaces usually retained scent - clouds of it. Tricks like strong ventilation don't tend to work well on erasing these trails because they stick to surfaces on or near a scent trail, which is why scent tracking works out doors. There were still all sorts of normal objects and materials around that belonged in a club - decor and furniture that would retain strong scent from passage even feet away. Not being able to follow a strong scent ... that in itself was very suspicious. Perhaps her scent had somehow been scrubbed ... hard to say based on available information but very suspicious.

Concluding that she had to alert someone that something might be seriously wrong, she cut a direct path back to the main area she had started from. This was so like the scenario that had almost ended in her own death. Create a distraction in one area, or even just wait for one. The argument earlier qualified as that distraction. It would focus the attention of security and patrons. From there, opportunities are created. When Father had been attacked, he had been attacked in a manner that left her and Mother aware of it ... they could hear the fighting. Had they not followed the family safety plan to evacuate, and instead focused their attention on trying to help Father they would have walked right into the cross-hairs of the enemy. In this case, the distraction seemed to have effectively distracted security ... but maybe Sakura was still in a safe room.

Hopefully she was safe.

In a moment she was standing next to one of the security staff, or perhaps a club manager of some sort, but the fellow looked to be someone who might be of help. She dropped her cloak and became normally visible - still insubstantial but normal looking.

As the spectacle of Darion throttling the woman was unfolding she said to the staffer "My name is Starseed. I am a good friend of Sakura ... I think something might be wrong. Can you find her? Do you know if she is safe?"

Star spoke with charisma worthy of a demi-god, and almost as much social grift to go with it. She wanted cooperation - time was a factor here.

[Toby Lupin]

Darrik saw Star and thought quickly. They needed information on who hired Van Hout in the first place, and he was certain Starseed could hack. Also, Snow needed talking to. Through the gestalt he gave her a sharp quick private memo.

*Star, Sakura has been kidnapped. I need you to go into the Blue Room in the back and find Snow, see if she's not harmed. Also, you've got your computer, right? I need you to look up and hack into the Van Hout Elites computers as well. Extremely small-scale, low end elites, and someone hired them for this.*

[Doctor Varroxxian]

Star nodded, and materialized enough to manipulate a physical computer ... and materialize the computer itself so it could link to the wireless net. In moments she had taken the fairly hefty looking hardware - a combination computer and versatile transceiver - from her purse. Star started the work to see what she could find ...

... or rather, to see what a few of the other Star's currently planet-side might be able to find. All the Star on scene did was send a heavily coded message with minimal info on the situation out to the secure links at GNS. Decoded, it would read "Friend from organic optics in trouble at opening night. Look up elites - Van Houte. Indigo twelve."

[Shosuro Miren]

"You appear to be the only one." His eyes flicked between Darrik and Star, but he didn't try to dissuade them from whatever they were doing. Darrik was an adult and well capable of defending himself if the fracas renewed, and Star was a clone; the woman carrying his child was safely at home in the Belt. It might be rude or cruel to think in such a way, but she wasn't like Lucrezia, spread out across all her clones. If this one died, she wouldn't go through that pain and she'd simply replace the missing clone.

He took Infinity's hand, attuned her to him as he shifted to his energy form, and then moved them both back to the Exalt! USA headquarters. Once there, he solidified and took the time to look her over, making sure she hadn't been scored by glass or broken bits of wall. She was shaking, just a little, and he pulled her into a hug. "So much for a fun night out, huh?" He teased, his cheek brushing her hair. "Perhaps she'll be a little more discreet on the guest list in the future. Or build stronger walls. I do hope she doesn't close down over this. The small bit of the burlesque show before the theatrics started was quite good."

[WhiteRain]

Darion put his hands on his hips when Puck teleported out of the room. So much for supporting the Crèche, he thought. Puck could hear butterflies in flight on the other side of Ibiza. He had to have overheard his ‘chat’ with the fake Snow. For that matter, so much for showing concern for your fellow Anavasi. A kid is just a kid at the end of the day. He wiped his mouth, mind whirling as he tried to figure out who was behind it. Proteus were out, Sakura would be dead. The Aberrants were an option but daylight kidnapping wasn’t their style, plus they tended to avoid direct clashes with the Teragen where they could. Utopia made no sense, which seemed to rule out ‘the big boys’.

That left various fringe groups, protesters, extremists and independents. In other words, it could be just about anyone. Whoever they were though, they were either all Novas or backed by a government. Sakura wasn’t a weakling and neither was Snow. They would have needed custom gear or bodies of power to take on either of them. Someone with contacts. Need more info. Van Hout elites are either working alone – which doesn’t seem to make any sense – or someone got enough money to hire them. “Hang onto her. I’ve got some calls to make.”

Darion grabbed several of the staffers and told them to search the back area to find Snow. There were plenty of rooms she could be in. Then he took out his phone and called up his local contacts. He knew someone just about everywhere thanks to his time as Starling. He had to guess Sakura was either going to be airlifted out by a flying Nova – if the elites were involved – or via a private helicopter or plane. Ibiza being an island opened up options for a sea exit as well.

All I can do is leverage what I’ve got. Darion made a series of calls, informing the coast guard, airport security, and anyone else he could get his hands on. Later he would delve into his information network and drag up everything on Van Hout elites, and see what he could do from there. He then went on to leave a call with the Congo embassy. As far as he knew Sakura was a guest in Einherjar’s palace. If the King was so kind as to provide cover for her kidnap, the least he could do was descend from his throne to help get her back.

Darion’s leveraging his kingpin background (upgraded contacts) to try and get as many eyes on Ibiza looking for flying Novas, aircraft or even submarines, on the off chance of spotting them on the way out, and then he’ll put a call through to the Congolese government about the incident, and also mention Van Hout elites.

[Toby Lupin]

Darrik went back to find Darion in between a phone call, apparently. Darrik looked concerned, which was a sudden plus in Darion's book, apparently the age difference did bring some wisdom to the table compared to the shadowmaster's lover. "Star's still here, I asked her to hack into Van Hout and see if she can pull up anything. Anything I can do at the moment?"

Darion gave it some quick thought before answering. "Is there any way you can follow Sakura? Scent, quantum tricks? I'll calling out everyone I know that can keep an eye out. If we can't stop Sakura's kidnappers from leaving Ibiza by the air, it'll be a bloody mess- we'll have to make a proper search."

Darrik shook his head, in a doubly concerned way. "Puck- who should have stuck around- I know, would be much better at that... although- trust me, I've had a lot of time observe this- any decently strong warper could take them out almost anywhere on the planet. Our worst nightmare."

"Let's hope it isn't the case." Darion agreed. Darrik closed his eyes before stepping aside for a moment.

*Puck, get back here now with Infinity.*

*What?* Darrik could practically know Puck was blinking.

*You know Sakura's been kidnapped! We need your help- NOW!* The frustration in Darrik's mental link 'voice' was a warning, and Puck could swear Darrik was implying an undertone of 'or else I'll drag you here.'

[z-Infinity]

Infinity sank against Puck gratefully, accepting the hug from her lover with a happy sigh. “We should go back,” she said softly, “because that show was damned good. I was really enjoying that, damnit.” She’d been so busy; she’d taken time out of her schedule just to have a fun night out and this happened. Surtr was going to tease her about it, she just knew. And, she really wanted to talk to Sakura some more. She really wanted her to join the Cult of Mal...

Suddenly, she realized that she was alone with Puck. That was something very rare anymore; usually, one or the other of them had someone else around. That was fine, but Infinty couldn’t remember the last time it had just been the two of them. Besides, this would be a great distraction. She grinned up at him, the heated look in her red eyes making him grin.

“You’re fine,” he said with a smirk, “if you’re looking at me like that.”

“You should take all my clothes off to make sure I’m alright,” she cooed at him, a kittenish look in her face. “I might have a bruise I need you to kiss…” They were in the process of doing just that when Puck paused, frowning. “A spider sneezing again?” she murmured to him, kissing his bared shoulder.

[Dawn OOC]

The van only drove ten or so miles before turning down another alley and slowing to a stop. The dark-haired man focused again and another warp opened in front of them. He’d taken more effort and time for it to be big enough for a van. The vehicle eased through it and to the other side, which was a stretch of runway somewhere in the back-end of South America. A plane was waiting, along with some staff, who helped move the still-unconscious woman onboard.

“She doing alright?” the dark-haired man asked, a touch nervous about her being pregnant. They were being as careful as they could be with her and he didn’t want anything to go wrong.

“Yep, and the kids too,” the blonde said, keeping an eye on the monitoring equipment as they secured her in the plane. “Everyone’s doing great.”

“Good.” After he reopened the warp long enough to send the van back to Detroit, the dark-haired man collapsed into a seat. The plane had transmitters to block quantum signatures, and he needed to rest and recuperate some juice. He was asleep before the plane had left the ground. His blonde partner continued to monitor Sakura’s physical health.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The Stars acknowledged Star’s request and started to do a search for Van Hout Elites. With that taken care of, the Star onsite was able to focus on the search here.

Darion’s staff looked through the back rooms for fifteen minutes before reporting that Snow was unconscious in the Blue Room – along with a sleeping lion. The staff were understandably unwilling to enter the room. Meanwhile, every boat and plane leaving Ibiza was being watched covertly. So far, there was no sign of Sakura on any outbound traffic. The Congo embassy promised to pass on the message immediately and discreetly.

Now it was a matter of getting the information back.

[Shosuro Miren]

He wrapped an arm around her, but shook his head. "No, Darrik said Konohanasakuyahime's been kidnapped."

*How exactly was I supposed to know?* He snapped across the link. *Honestly, this assumption that just because I can eavesdrop on every conversation in the continent I'm on means I am is becoming tiresome. Chang might because she enjoys knowing everything that's going on around her, but I prefer to focus on my date or on the nova in the room that can be killed because some pretentious nova king can't act like a civilized being for an twenty minutes in public.*

He frowned. *Why do you want Infinity there? What is she going to do to find who took Konohansakuyahime and how to rescue her?* The question was asked across the link in Bodhi, as was nearly all communication in the link, and conveyed a frank appraisal of Infinity's abilities as a nova, but lacked any of the condescension that might be inferred from phrasings in other languages.

"Darrik wants us to return to help rescue her. He asked for both of us." He looked down at her, his concern obvious. "Do you want to go back?"

[z-Infinity]

"Oh, yeah, I can't wait to go back to a place where mad King Einherjar is rampaging through the streets of Ibiza," Infinity said with a snort. Had she known that Konohanasakuyahime was the green-haired beauty she'd met, she might have felt differently. Since she didn't, Infinity didn't care that much. If Darrik was on the job, then it was probably rapidly solved. There was nothing she could do personally other than be in the way or be someone who'd have to be rescued. "Are you going?"

"Yeah," Puck said reluctantly. "If she's been taken, it bears some looking into."

"Finish here first?" Infinity asked, pouting hopefully.

"There's nova men around," Puck said as he pulled himself away from her. "Go find Eric." He grinned as he pulled on his clothing. "He can keep you warm for me."

"Bah," Infinity snorted, then smiled. "Good hunting."

"Thanks," Puck replied as he finished a final button then leaned over to give her a final kiss. "Have fun." Then he was gone.

[Shosuro Miren]

Puck flashed back into the ruined and now mostly empty club, alone. "Infinity decided to stay in New York. Now, you said Konohanasakuyahime had been kidnapped." He quickly reviewed his memories, shifting through the the all the millions of pieces of perception that bombarded his mind every second until he could pair them down to the sound of the club during the fight; he caught Sakura's voice and followed it through the scene. "She left when Einherjar punched Wendigo through the wall. She was in the company of the novas Tahir and Snow. They made their way to a quiet room...."

His expression pinched up as he concentrated on hearing through the "static" of the quiet room and the space directly around it. "I can hear two men outside the door before it is opened a second time, metal hitting carpet with a hiss. A canister of gas, I assume. It smelled like...eclipsidol. There's also a sound of quiet gun...a dart gun, I think. The door was immediately shut and then opened and shut again a few moments later. It's hard to hear in the room. The men walked around for a moment, then nothing. I'd assume that they teleported or warped out."

He sighed and shrugged. "I can try to look for her, her quantum signature I mean, but I don't know her all that well. It will probably take some time." He arched and annoyed brow at Darrik, "Unless you have any other orders you'd like to bark out?" He shook his head, a half-apology for snapping at Darrik, and sighed again. He pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers, "Has anyone told Chang yet? Or Geryon? This is pretty much exactly the sort of situation he has built a faction around dealing with."

[Doctor Varroxxian]

On finishing the immediate task, one of the other Stars sent a coded message - along the secure channels - to Alex. Perhaps her satellite and drone network could assist in this. No doubt she already knew - given her data sorting would probably not miss the King of the Congo causing his usually atmospheric effects, being involved in a street fight, smashing out a wall ... etc. - but having the information about the scene and the Van Houte involvement might assist her in digging deep.

The Star on scene communicated her initial findings:

Opnet Findings

1) Van Hout is less like DeVries and more like a middle man. They give interested buyers access to the elites looking for work though a website. If the buyers and elites connect through the website, VH receives a finders fee.

2) The company headquarters is based in Taiwan, making them a Taiwanese company, which puts them in an interesting political situation. China protects them because it's technically Chinese, and in reality, Taiwan runs itself.

3) VH doesn't offer kidnappings, murders or any other illegal crimes. The jobs are 'extractions', 'acquisitions' and so forth. A little fishy but nothing illegal. The jobs are rated by price, difficulty and type. The elites advertise as well; they are rated by charges, area of focus and skills.

4) They do have a small stable of in-house elites which are highly specialized who are trained together; reading between the lines, they are a very effective covert ops team against baseline defenses.

In short, VH is great for baselines or low-risk jobs. Someone can hire novas and not have to pay Elite-level prices for them.

With a little time having passed, more Stars could be gathered ... she had to conserve quantum so it had taken seven minutes for a Star at the Congo Space Center to hitch a ride with one of the ministry warpers out to the belt. Once in the belt, Star was in comms range for potentially dozens more of her. In the next half hour many Stars would be making their way back through regularly scheduled GNS, Mitsubishi, and other corporate warps as they occurred. They would be coming in from mining sites, the various ship yards ... and from the Martian operations from hoping another scheduled warp.

Ichiro and Violet Arachnia would help with the investigation. Arachnia appreciated motherhood, and this was the type of thing that got under her skin. A massage would even be put out to Metaphase, if she could be reached.

The instructions were simple. Find out who, specifically is involved with this Van Houte effort. Find where they live, who their friends are, where they work ... do so quietly, but not so much that alacrity suffers. Look for clues along the way.

The few Stars planetside continued along with their same efforts for the moment. They would use their simultaneous op-net access to tear down firewalls. They would find the offices of the people involved ... and very soon a team of five Stars would visit those offices. Each and every clone had a wide variety of skills and quantum tricks that didn't actually involve spending quantum. Each of them had access to top level gear, each of them was supremely motivated, and they were all ultimately disposable.

It would not be a polite visit, and no appointments would be required.

A not so friendly visit ...

Star can be somewhat emotionless when set to a task. This cold, meacing but not *legally threatening* tone will be how she interrogates people she identifies as key to this operation - like people in charge at Van Houte. She is incredibly social, and should be able to strike fear in their hearts ... fear for themselves, their way of life, their future (and by extension fear for those they treasure, even though Star will not explicitly suggest such a thing she will demonstrate that she can uncover the secrets of these people).

She will demonstrate the *potential* consequences of making enemies of potent Novas to these people first hand. At her level of Charisma, this could be the moment in their lives that sets them back on the straight-and-narrow. Certainly, it is calculated to get information and strongly disincline them from making an enemy of her. She would avoid actually injuring anyone, at least physically - she didn't need to. With her ability to ghost through defenses, combat was something unlikely to occur.

The plan is to squeeze the insiders for information. Getting right to the root of this organization. Given that this is stopping alot of her GNS operations for the day, and that she keeps a strategic reserve of quantum ... and that in a pinch she can just take Q from enemies ... the team of five Stars will be able to draw on their full level of power.

[WhiteRain]

Darion clicked his phone closed and sighed. He knew how this had panned out as soon as he heard confirmation that elites were involved. Even a smaller unit like Van Hout would have access to a warper. It’s one of the first rules of Nova warfare. No warper no chance.

Listening to Puck in the main room sparked something in him, though. Maybe it was residual fear over facing down the Storm King, maybe it was the usual frustrations boiling over. He wanted to take Puck in hand and beat some responsibility into him. Or just punch him out.

All he did was sigh. This is our world, run by overpowered idiots up until overpowered children get involved. Hooray.

Darion stalked back into the main room. “Darrik’s not giving orders,” he snapped at Puck, “I am. If you can track her quantum signature, that’ll make things easier but I doubt it’ll help unless you can go cross-continental with it. Ninety per cent chance she’s already off the island, and if she’s not she will be before any of us can find her. My sources are getting back to me with whatever information is available but it’s going to take at least twenty four hours before we can get anything substantive. This was a professional job carried out by elites. We need to know who hired them and why.”

“Isn’t that obvious?” Darrik asked.

“No. Wasn’t Proteus, she’d be dead if it was. Could be religious groups – there are a half dozen cults based on the ‘nature’ goddess – or some of those groups she’s talked about who wanted her to breed Nova superweapons for them. Either way, she’s one of a handful of Novas on planet earth who can make sterile Novas fertile, and it’s our responsibility to help get her back. This isn’t going to work,” he said, gesturing at the club around him. “Too much chaos, too much to do. Everyone who is able to help with this should turn up to my place in an hour, and most likely again tomorrow morning once we’ve got a clearer picture. Right now, Puck and Darrik, you both go quantum sniffing. You can both teleport so if it goes somewhere you’ll be able to get the rest of us and get us following. At the very least, I want to know the route they took.”

Puck put on his quiet face. Still as water, unreadable. He would probably do it, though.

“I have the coastguard, police and airport watching, so it’s safe to assume they’re not leaving via conventional means. Geryon will be informed about this in short order, I assure you. Starseed, whatever you’re doing, stop doing it for the minute. If we don’t co-ordinate the best we’ll do is step on each other’s feet and at worst we’ll get in each other’s way. You and me are going to talk information since it seems you’ve got connections. Oh, and we’ll go wake up Snow and the kitty cat. King Einherjar created the opportunity for this to happen, I’m sure he’ll be happy to help us sort out the mess. Besides, Sakura is officially under his protection. I think his personal code of honour obligates him to assist. Either way, having a very embarrassed and probably angry cat-man speaking can’t hurt either.

“Questions?”

[Quantum Fire]

End of Thread

XP: 3 Standard, 3 Baseline, 4 Nova

NOTE: Great roleplaying here, gave a few extra xp above for all of that.