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Aberrant: Children of Quantum Fire - [Chapter 6.1] Rising Tide


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"Kamiko you're with me. Stealth is simply not something I or my quantum signature is really geared for." She chuckled and walked through the portal high into the sky, allowing herself to fall first before catching herself in the air, and hiding in a nearby cloud, waiting to see if she could surprise her sisters and Kamiko.

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Kamiko offers her hand to Marina. "We'll jump together. Just hold on to me and I'll pop the drogues. There's a couple metal handles on the back you can hold on to. Knowing Alex she'll go off wherever. Hopefully we'll catch up with Maia during the decent."

Kamiko makes sure with her other hand that her glasses are secure. "After you, Alex." She says with a smile.

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Alex steps through the warp into midair over the Congo...and drops like the proverbial rock.

As she freefalls, she idly toys with the idea of just plummeting straight down and hitting the ground. This is not a suicidal impulse by any means. She's well aware she'd survive. She's just curious what the effect would be on herself, and on the environment.

Of course, it's nothing that a few milliseconds of calculation can't come up with a probability curve for. The number of intervening variables on the falling body equation was minimal. The damage of energy transfer to her body and the composition of the streets in Kinshasa were easily estimated.

Kinda took the fun out of the moment.

She sent a tightbeam radio signal to the airport, and another to the military communications relay. Kinshasa, four novas entering your airspace are Genesis, Maia, Marina and Kamiko. They are military assets for the Congo. Authorization code follows. A string of alphanumeric characters came in a burst afterward; the unique code assigned to her by Kinshasa Air Command when she was granted military clearance.

Rather than create a jetpack from nothing, she extruded a pair of stubby wings from her back and shoulders, and shaped a pair of turbines out of them. The wings were largely control surfaces and to keep a comfortable distance between the fans and herself. Powered by the same system that powered her body, the airfoils had her fall under control within seconds, and soon she was in a power-assisted dive towards the capital building...keeping an eye on the others as they dropped through the air to make sure their chutes and precautions worked.

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Kamiko smiles as Marina walks over and holds on. Paper straps seem to go around Marina's waist once she held on to the metal handles on the rigging of Kamiko's gear. "Okay, once the drogues deploy, let go so we don't get tangled."

Marina nods and after some shuffling they hop through Kamiko's portal and it snaps shut behind them, leaving a pile of 8.5 x 11 paper on the Primus.

Kamiko and Marina fall for a bit, until Kamiko opens the drogues to slow them down to a safer speed, then start to enjoy the fall down. Looking about they wonder where Maia disappeared.

Until she appears next to them flying at a speed equal to their falling speed. "Aah! you scared me, Maia!"

Kamiko activates her comlink. Setting it to the encrypted frequency Star told her about before her recent trip began. "Ground control, this is Paper 1, entering Congo airspace. I am with one PAX, and I am a ranking officer of Galactic Navigation Services, Captain Kamiko Hideyoshi, of the Hikari Maru. The Pax is Lieutenant Commander Marina Johns. We are landing via HALO drop. Activating retrieval beacon, intended landing zone is in the Congo River or near it on the Kinshasha side. SAR is not necessary. I am visiting the nest."

The Nest referring to the Dragon's Den bunker near the Capitol. "Tell his Majesty I sent my regards and wish him victory."

She turns on her GNS retrieval beacon as she releases Marina and lets her drift away by about 40 feet before her paper tethers are taught.

"Maia! Fly escort as we drop. You are his Majesty's Daughter, after all!" She shouts. "Say... I need a First officer on the Hikari Maru, Interested? I think I might recruit Alex for the Chief Engineer position."

Note for Maia
You may fast-foreward us to land... Commander. ^_^

Note for Alex
Seriously, Kamiko has placed you at the top of the list for that position.
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For Maia, her beautiful white-feathered wings sprung from her back as she began to follow Alex down. "Kamiko, Alex has enough on her plate right now i believe. You can ask, but I don't know how available she is for something like that."

She looked at her pointedly. "That little factoid you just blurted out isnt common knowledge yet either, Kamiko be abit more careful."

With that she head downward, a descending angel returning to her new home.

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Kamiko pouted.

After Maia left earshot, Kamiko whined; "Was that a No..."

= After landing =

Kamiko climbs onto the riverbank of the Congo on the Kinshasha side, she patiently awaited Marina's arrival. She also hoped the quick tutorial on how to use the guide lines on the chutes would help.

She brushed off her "uniform", and looked about.

"Marina should be arriving shortly, and I don't see Maia or Alex anywhere..." She said, unbuckling her parachute harness. She manages to get everything off, leaving the life preserver on around her chest, and resting her arms on it.

"Just to think a few months ago I was boating down this river... Shaman's dissapeared, Star's been too busy, Dan's got his problems... I wonder if any of them wonder what I've been up to."

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Shen sighed. "There are times I hate seeing the future, the mix and mess is a pain, just knowing what is going to happen changes what is going to happen changes what is going to happen.. Cora has changed things with her own actions, the future is changed from what.. and it is changing further. My death is by no means certain, but I need you to accept it if it happens, I will not go blindly to death, and I will not simply yield to death, but if the moment comes when it is my death or that of one of those I love, my friends or my children, it shall be my death I choose when the moment comes."

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That answer was... Less than she was hoping for, a nonanswer in fact. And it hurt that Coraline understood what answer there was in it. He'd taught her the best of what she was after all.

"Just don't expect us to stand by when you attempt your sacrifice, Uncle Shen. You've shown all of us better than that. And I *will* save you yet. I've lost two parents too many already," she offered bluntly, the beautiful young woman looking both vulnerable and resolute at the same time, lips a thin, bloodless line pressed together before focusing the full force of her presense on Butch, "Brother, if you want to really help the others, we need to cure the disease, not just fight it's symptoms. You know how we can do that. I'll be in the Rainbow Room if you decide to give yourself wings and follow me. I'm going to be no good to anyone right now trying anything else. Too many disapointments."

Shen earned a contemplative look from his daughter in all but name, her chorus whisper soft, "I'm not stupid. I know if we do what I hope to do there will be alot of new troubles. But they'll be exactly that. New troubles. And not just the old ones we've ran around wrestling with ever since we discovered what Aeon allowed Proteus to do to us, firefighting in a burning refinery. You can't escape a vortex by going *with* it's flow."

Two nearly undetectable pulses of quantum. One to disolve the quartet of familars into motes of dust. The other to covert flesh and eufiber into pure light that shimmered every color of the rainbow in Coraline's upset. A breath longer of waiting and the metamorph dove through the wall and out of sight.

Goodbye, Homunculi. Hello, Bodymorph: Light. And off to Ibiza to unwind.

:D
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“I wonder what you are up to.” The voice couldn’t be called friendly but there was nothing definitely hostile in it either. The speakers turned to see two glowing red eyes; as the form stepped from the shadows into the light, they were greeted with the image of none other than the Morrigan herself. After a moment of facing that ominous nova, she smiled and inclined her head a degree. “Greetings, all. Welcome to the Congo.”

Her expression was less severe than it had been. There were rumors that she’d been receiving psychological treatment and that might be the cause of her change in demeanor. It wasn’t to say that it completely nullified the aura of death that hovered around her, merely that she seemed less tense than before.

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"Eep!"

Kamiko falls back from the shore hitting the water with an ungraceful splash. When she rights herself again she sees The Morrigan standing there.

"Oh... Hello Morri... Nice to see you again."

She gets herself back on shore, her blush was quite visible at this point. "I was actually stopping in to check on the Den here, and to assess any final needs they require of me before I have to return to Japan."

She scratched her head. "I thought that I and my companions would be picked up by the enemy hence the Broadway production getting here."

She starts to gather her parachute that was sitting on shore. "Man this is going to need cleaning and the repack's gonna be a bitch. But it was fun."

"Is everything okay with his Majesty, Morrigan? It was an honor to meet him last time, I just regret not being here more. What with all the space exploration I was doing with Starseed."

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It wasn't a long flight from the Primus's current location to Ibliza and the Rainbow Room. Then again, very little was a long flight to Coraline when she pushed herself like she was now, uncaring of altitude and objects that would normally count as being in her way. Waves, ships, mountains, she passed through and among them like a ghost, too fast for conventional vision and silent as anything. The metamorph burned inside, frustrated and angry. Today should have different. Better. Not a reaffirmation of her family's descion to abide by Aeon's rules of the current conflict and not use the power they had to end it. Revolutions were won with daring strokes, not hesitation.

Coraline could have screamed if she wasn't already pushing herself for a personal best run, trying to lose herself herself in adrenilien and raw quantum as she finally closed with the city and roared skyward at a 90 degree angle. A burst of light and she converted back to flesh and blood, dropping back towards the ground in utter silence as her eufiber rewove itself around her. She shed speed as she descended, coming to a picture perfect halt a mere two feet from the sidewalk outside of the Rainbow Room.

And there were pictures, flashbulbs going off from the inevitable journalists as they took advantage of her sudden arrival, the metamorph clad in an eufiber copy of one of the more daring little black dresses she had modeled, glittering with quantum energies. Coraline gifted them all with a somewhat feral smile, hair loosely framing her face, and dropped to the ground. A few graceful, angry strides and she was inside the soothing sensory perfection of the Novas only club, cheeks flushed in burbling anger, senses sweeping for someone, anyone, she knew that wasn't a family member. She needed the distraction. Badly.

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For Yokiko the day was good. Norman had spoken highly of this club, and indeed, So had Infinity, so when it was suggested they meet here for drinks, well She wasn't one to argue. Pictures were taken when she entered, a first for sure, and she smiled Thinking about the company. Everyone within was a nova, and it felt "right" to her.

Still, considering Infinity would be meeting her today, and they'd finally get a real chance to catch up on things, well, That made her happy. She was decidedly unprepared for who walked in. It was Coarline, perhaps the only woman she'd met face to face that truly stirred more carnal, primal needs within her. As much as she liked Infinity, and wanted to tell her, Cora drove the primal side of her, and she waved, knowing Cora would catch it. "Hey Cora, Join me?" She knew Cora could hear her even amidst the din of the club, still something looked to be bothering her, and She waited for Cora to come over to the booth she sat in alone, hoping Infinity wouldn't mind a little extra nova company.

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Playing her senses along four different events at once, it took a heartbeat for her to note Yokiko, but when Coraline did, she smiled broadly and nodded her head. Her sandaled feet made rapid progress through the club to the booth.

"Yokiko, you have no idea how glad I am to see you here," her chorus hummed as she scooted into place across the table from the furred Terat, distorted with just a hint of angry disonance, "But what has you here? I'd have invited you myself if I knew sensory perfection was up your alley."

The smile twisted wryly as she inhaled deeply, awareness still very much drinking in everything else around around them.

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Yokiko smiled. Actually I'm meeting someone her tonight. Infinity and Norman always speak highly of this place, and Tonight Infinity is meeting me for drinks."

She blushed a little, though it was only possible for someone as perceptible as Cora to see the signs. "It's my first time in a bar though. I admit all the sights and sounds and smells are stimulating, though they can be overstimulating too. Very different from space, on the whole."

"What's got you so up and bothered Cora, that you storm in here so noticeably?" There was genuine concern in her voice, as another part of her wondered if Infinity was going to be okay with another nova in the booth..

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Infinity was actually tired this evening. She wasn’t physically drained but mentally and emotionally. Clarion was being a little bitch and it had taken every ounce of her patience to not slap the man silly. Of course, sadly, slapping him would only break her hand. So she was really looking forward to meeting with Yokiko tonight. With luck, she’d finally convince the cute furball into some between-the-sheets fun.

So she was a little dismayed to see Yokiko was sitting with Coraline. Infinity was disappointed for a second, then shrugged it off. First, as far as getting eye candy, Cora was more than acceptable. Second, sometime in the last few months, Infinity had fallen out of her crush on Norman, mostly because he was an idiot. So there wasn’t any reason to resent Cora. Of course, there was that weird way that Cora made her feel and the fact that Cora was far too prim and proper to be any fun, but honestly, those were all minor issues. Infinity was more than prepared to ignore all of them in exchange for spending quality time with Yokiko.

“Hey, ladies.” Infinity dropped into the booth, her loose black skirt ballooning slightly with air before settling over her legs. Today she’d gone for the Gypsy-Goth-high schooler look, which was a broom skirt with a white t-shirt that said in black letters, I have the pussy so I make the rules and black Keds. A red and black lace scarf was knotted around her hair somehow while skull jewelry decorated her fingers, ears, neck and tongue. The outfit should have looked a hot mess, but somehow, Infinity made it seem coolly casual and fun instead of off-putting and weird. “What’s up?”

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Clothing wasn't something Yokiko wore too much of, tonight, wearing shorts and a teeshirt she was largely overdressed compared to normal. Still reading the shirt, her black and white furred tail lashed about and a smile curled her lips, revealing pearly white teeth, including her fangs. Infinity!" she smiled, an arm snaking out to hug her oldest friend, and in all fairness, secret crush.

"Cora came in upset and I invited her over, I hope you don't mind." It was true in some ways Cora felt off to Yokiko too, but in the end attraction simply won out. "That's a good look for you, and from how things have been going lately it's pretty accurate too." Her voice had dropped to a near purr towards the end, and she cleared her throat. "Sorry." She drank some water to cover up her embarrassment.

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"Infinity," offered the metamorph in reply to the newly-arrived Terat, voices pleasantly in tone as she stuffed her upset back under control, "My family is being..."

She visibily paused as she fought for word choice. Stupid. Short-sighted. Uncaring. Agrivating. Annoying. No. No no no. None of those fit. They meant well, Coraline knew that below the hurt at the rejection of her idea. In fact they were more... Yes. That was the word.

"Overcautious about something important to me today, and I needed to get away before I exploded at them," she concluded with a suddenly happy expression again, savoring the small victory with a deep breath, "Round one on me since I'm the third wheel to your meeting?"

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The "F" word.

Could be great at times. Could get you in trouble at others.

Though Butch hadn't really used it much in his life for most of his early years, he had been using it more and more since Uncle Shen popped in to that abandoned rowhouse in Upton a few years ago. It was a few days after that massive BBQ and the awful thing that happened just off Fremont. A drug corner crew beat the shit out of Peanut for nothing, because he was skinny and weak looking. They put him in a coma. And no one would say a damn thing about it because the word on the street was that Malik's crew was run by a nova. It wasn't right, Peanut getting wrecked like that, so Butch did something. He put the entire corner crew in the hospital, from the crew chief to his runners and even the kids on lookout. After that, Butch had a bounty on his head, $1,000 for the big white boy, likes a hoodie and always wears shades. Wasn't like the dead-not-alive order out for him from Proteus since his birth, but a grand was enticing for a lot of people...

There he was, only a block away from where it went down, in a room on the second floor, formerly a bathroom, broken porcelain toilet in the corner, walls stripped where all the copper was stripped out and sold. Butch kept looking out the window, waiting and watching. He remembered looking away from the window and seeing the asian-looking man standing there, smiling.

And he offered him that "F" word: Family.

Cora's plan and the meeting hadn't gone well. Their talk with Uncle Shen wasn't what she wanted to hear, Butch knew that. He wasn't expecting her to leave yet again, run off to the Rainbow Room, but she did. And he wasn't exactly sure what she meant, too. Did she mean only follow her if he was willing to go ahead with her plan? He already gave Alex his word that he'd at least give her until a resolution to this Angola affair before they returned to Cora's plan. Butch hoped that Cora understood that.

And he didn't really want to be there right then either. A trip to the Rainbow Room might be nice, but Butch needed a moment to decide whether or not he should follow Cora.

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She scratched her head. "I thought that I and my companions would be picked up by the enemy hence the Broadway production getting here."

She starts to gather her parachute that was sitting on shore. "Man this is going to need cleaning and the repack's gonna be a bitch. But it was fun."

"Is everything okay with his Majesty, Morrigan? It was an honor to meet him last time, I just regret not being here more. What with all the space exploration I was doing with Starseed."

A single dark eyebrow rose as Kamiko explained things. The feral woman looked puzzled. "I assure you, Angola doesn't have the ability to intercept our guests, particularly ones as powerful as Maia. Our airports remain open; though the Air Force is quite busy defending them, our citizens and visitors fly in and out in safety." There was a note of pride in her voice as she spoke. "And if they were foolish enough to try, not only would Maia had shown them what it means to anger someone with power, but the Congo's intervention, in the form of Evo, Ein or myself, would have been the kind of interventions that the bards sing of." Her grin became fierce. "As in, painful, fatal and epic.

"King Einherjar is fine, but busy. I thank you for your concern, as would he." Morri's smile softened. "Do you still feel concerned about your safety? I can arrange an escort to the Den, if you feel in danger traveling through the heart of the Congo." Her words were gracious but her manner was slightly annoyed. To those perceptive to human emotion, it was clear that Morri didn't find Kamiko's concern to be of merit, but she was willing to go the distance to make Kamiko feel comfortable in her lands.

It was new, that she was thinking of others. Maia had seen hints of this, but now she saw that the Morrigan was truly trying to behave with the graciousness of royalty - particularly the kind of royalty that Einherjar himself tried to emulate.

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Kamiko's assessment and the telling confidence from The Morrigan was all she needed. Kamiko nodded in acceptance.

"Actually, I'm just waiting for my friend Marina to arrive. I... my concerns have been assuaded. Thank you."

She had a longing in her eyes. Was she gone for so long now that the concerns she was originally saddled with didn't matter?

She didn't care, what was important was that Marina made it safe.

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"Infinity," offered the metamorph in reply to the newly-arrived Terat, voices pleasantly in tone as she stuffed her upset back under control, "My family is being..."

She visibily paused as she fought for word choice. Stupid. Short-sighted. Uncaring. Agrivating. Annoying. No. No no no. None of those fit. They meant well, Coraline knew that below the hurt at the rejection of her idea. In fact they were more... Yes. That was the word.

"Overcautious about something important to me today, and I needed to get away before I exploded at them," she concluded with a suddenly happy expression again, savoring the small victory with a deep breath, "Round one on me since I'm the third wheel to your meeting?"

The red-eyed nova smirked. “That’s practically a hallmark of family, to be overcautious about stuff.” She shrugged. “Do their fears have any merit? If so, you should listen to ‘em. Otherwise, tell them to chill out and that this is your life. You get to make your own choices.

“And fuck yes, you can buy drinks.” Infinity stretched her arms over her head. “I can’t drink as much as you two, but I need something after the last few months. You have family problems, but I have asshole problems.”

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Yokiko blushed even as a smirk curled her lips. "I'll have something light to start, I'll trust your discretion there. I've never been a big drinker."

"What are our fellows in the movement doing now Infinity, that's got you down?" She looked at her and nodded. "Anything I can do to help? I can turn some of them into toddlers if you like..."

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"They think so. I disagree, but, unfortunately, I need their help to do this. At least the way it deserves to be done," responded the metamorph with no small ammount of rueful annoyance even as she offered an apoligetic glance to Yokiko for cutting her off temporarily, "I can see *where* to insert the lever needed to fix the problem and *how* to push it, but I don't *have* the lever myself. It's... Frustrating. Can't do instead of don't want to do."

She laughed and slid out of the both to her feet, amused at herself, "Node, I better get those drinks before I start complaining like this. Be back in a minute."

Coraline grinned down at the other two and moved into the flow of the Rainbow Room, brushing a lock of hair out of her face as her progress to the bar was slowed to an eratic crawl by various well-wishers she took the time to greet in return and even exchange a word or two if she knew them from her work public or private. It felt good to lose herself in the shallow greetings. Her modeling may have stated as debt repayment and social cover, but it wasn't all bad by a long shot, at least when she let herself simply act her age, trust her read of most people as basically decent at heart.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The moment that Cora had disappeared into the crowd, Infinity turned to Yokiko and caught her by the shoulders. With a little smile, the red-eyed nova pulled the stripe-skinned woman toward her for an invasive, lingering kiss. Infinity’s hands shifted, one rising to knot in Yokiko’s hair while the other snaked downward aggressively. Only her knowledge of how shy Yokiko could be in public kept Infinity’s hand on the outside of her shorts. “I can’t wait to get your naked,” Infinity whispered against Yokiko’s cheek. “I have plans for you.”

“Like?” Yokiko whispered, biting her lip.

Infinity whispered softly for a few moments, making the cat-shaped nova’s tail with delight. “Just a few things like that.”

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Her touch was like someone sent an electric current through her, a warmth quickly spreading through her body, something Yokiko wasn't used to. "Promises, Promies, my dear Infinity." Her own hands didn't remain inactive, drifting down infinity's back, the light kiss of her claws against her spine, enough to tease the nerves into excitement.

She seemed to almost purr. "I wonder if your stamina is as endless as your name implies. I've seen the infinite of space, Now that I'm home, I've great interest in exploring an Infinity much closer to my heart." Her tail moved to coil around her leg and she smiled.

She chuckled, and her blue eyes lightened. "I have my own naughty ideas, and it won't just be us there."

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