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Aberrant: Weirder Stuff - Chapter I Homecoming


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Lake Aloe Scout Camp

The party was in full swing groups of kids were laughing, drinking smoking and having a great time. Some had paired off and moved away from the big bon fire for more intimate private celebrations.

Down at the waters edge Abel swallowed hard his mouth suddenly dry as he stared at Kia. He knew she wasn't nude, that she was trying to shock him, after all he could read her mind but still he hadn't been prepared for the illusion of what he saw and what his mind said he saw or what it did to him. She was absolutely beautiful.

Suddenly from across the lake to the north came a loud and long rumble of thunder and in the distance flashes of lightning.

Abel put his hand out for Kia's and pulled her back onto shore from out of the water, “I don't think swimming is a good idea right now.”

The storm had skimmed across the northern Rockies and barreled onto the plains in a east south east direction the cold northern air colliding with the warmer air still present on the plains produced the perfect conditions for a dangerous storm.

The kids in the faint light from the base could see the wall of rain and wind driving down the lake toward the party, the strong winds already blowing past them making the temperature drop rapidly. What was moments ago a nice comfortable 76+ degree temperature had dropped over ten degrees to 62 and the rain was still minutes away.

There were a few minutes of confusion the the students weren't going to let their homecoming celebration to be ruined by a little cold rain. The kids started to pack up and moving the party chests the food and most importantly the beer to the nearby scout cabins.

The ten log cabins had been built in the 1950s when the Boy Scouts had used the then remote lake as a gathering site for their yearly events. One of the cabins served as a dining/meeting spot and could easily hold 100 persons, another cabin was divided into administration offices and still held old desks and rusted empty filing cabinets, while the other cabins were built to be used as class rooms and bunkhouses.

Chet and his little gang drove their truck up to the large cabin and began unloading the beer and food most of the kids that decided to stay and party headed there.

The Irregulars had gathered at the vehicles and after a quick discussion decided to stay at least for a little while longer they hopped into their cars and moved the up to the cabins. They were the last ones off the lake front and so had to park a few cabins away from the main gathering.

As Sean and his friends got out of their cars the rains arrive and it is torrential. In seconds they are soaked

“Fuck this,”Sara shouts as she runs, dragging Sean with her, up the steps of the nearest cabin. The rest waist no time hesitating but follow them in out of the downpour. Sean and Sara are pressed up against the wall as the rest of the gang pass through the door into the old Cabin. Sara shuts the door and Sean notices the time on his watch.

 

12:00 AM

The rain pounds the area, flashes of lightning and peels of thunder echo across the lake. Lost in the darkness of the deluge are other flashes.

On the outskirts of the camp a thing scurries from the bushes it's call heard and answered, close to the grounds silent flashes of silver light become discs floating in the air where the disc come in contact with anything solid, that thing, or at least the part within the disc, vanishes. Out of the discs come things not of this earth.

 

Blitz raised his head and sniffed.

The movement and sound roused the soldier in the room guarding him. The Airman reached up to the table and picked up a dog biscuit they had bought at the commissary. “It's ok boy, you hungry,” he held the treat out for the doberman.

“No time for food human we need to get to the portal NOW!”

Airman Sanchez froze the dog biscuit dropped from his finger forgotten.

The rumor was true,The dog had talked.

 

It was sudden.

The pain.

Like a hot needle shoved into the left eye straight back into the brain.

Alec, Felix, Kia, Lilly, Sara, and Sean all felt it at once the headache which had come and gone over the last week multiplied by 100, no by 1000. each of them struck by incapacitating pain. Their minds seemed to explode, every memory, every hope and dream, every fear. All of it flooded into their consciousness from their subconscious.

Data overload

And Able felt it all his connection to his friends locked him into they're experience, an experience he had had when he was 15

Suddenly they collapsed.

Abel could hear screaming.

Talena was on her knees shaking Alec tears running down her face sobbing, Sandy had caught Lilly as she fell and was holding her limp form stunned. But they weren't screaming.

The screams were coming from outside.

In the storm

Spoiler

This is your manisfestation I would like a short post from each of you discribing what is going on in your head and body keep in mind what I have written about how this works so far. Each post needs to have the teddy bear in it except for felix. Felix's post can have the teddy bear but must have the girl from the dance in it.

The teddy bear is comforting, for everyone...

Abel you may continue to post in real time.

In addition. Each of you gains the psychic link power (PG page 64)at level one for free and the extra link extra x 3. your characters all share a mind link exactly as written in the rules. This power may be raised with xp.

 

 

 

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Abel fell to his knees at the mental shock of what was happening to his friends.  Quickly he managed to shield his own sanity, walling away a part of himself to maintain control, and the other to maintain whatever link had been forged with the others, a link that couldn't be severed.   First thing's first, he checked for Kia's pulse.   Finding it, he relaxed, moving to each of them, checking them.   While he could feel their minds, it was good practice, what a normal person might do.   

Speaking of normal people, Taleena and Sandy needed some attention, as the former was in tears and both were almost hysterical.  "Okay,  They've got strong pulses, they're fine.  I dunno what is going on, but at least that much can be said.   Gather some blankets, we've got to keep everyone warm."  When they both just looked at him, they saw one of those famous scowls he gave.  "I am not joking.  Get the damn blankets."   

Outside, they could hear more screaming.   Abel's gaze however didn't waver from the two conscious friends before him.  "I need your help to keep them safe, at the same time, We've got to check on the others.  Now do as say."  his voice was icy cold, nearly devoid of emotion.   He wasn't afraid at all, at least not just yet.  

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Outside, the sky was torn by jagged tears of light and booming thunder. In the last moment of her consciousness, Kia felt as if the storm had actually torn into the room, into her head. She was no stranger to discomfort or pain...you couldn't get far in sports and swimming and running if you were faint of heart...but this was on another level. She fell into the black, into the seething heart of the storm...and it pursued her.

And then the pain was gone.

Kia hesitated for a moment, afraid that moving would tip her over and start whatever was going wrong up again. She was numb with terror. There was an instinctive understanding in her that pain like that wasn't normal...it was signal of something irreversible, of something changing in a way it wasn't supposed to, forever.

The room she found herself in was dark. The storm was still howling outside. A flash of lightning made it look like the cabin she'd taken shelter in with the others. Those others weren't here though. There were shadows in the room, shadows like people, where the flashes showed shape but not details. The shapes were still and silent.

"Guys?" she said hesitantly. "Are you..."

Lightning. The pain returned. The cabin burst into flame, exploded, the earth collapsing under it tumbling Kia down again...down again... Desperately she flailed, trying to find something to grab onto. Something to stop the fall. Her hand closed around something soft and fuzzy, and then she was falling.

She opened her eyes, again in a dark room. This time she knew where she was though. The living room of her house. It wasn't as it really was though, it was like it had been in a dream some time ago. Frozen in time, with evidence of haunting violence clinging to it. Kia looked at her hand and somehow wasn't surprised to see that teddy bear in it. The one Lilly had bought when they went shopping for the dance.

"This isn't real," she told herself. As if to prove the point, the teddy bear spoke.

"That's not entirely true," said the stuffed toy.

Kia looked down at it, surprised...but shock and fear were muted things for her. This was a dream, so why wouldn't a toy be able to talk?

The teddy bear went on. "It's true that you're still in the cabin, up at the lake, caught in a storm. But it's also true you're here, in another way. What's confusing you is what here is. It wriggled in her grasp and grunted, "Would you...just loosen a little? Ah yes, much better."

It managed to twist itself around between her fingers so it could peer up at her face with its unseeing button eyes. "What are those tears for my happy girl?" it asked. The question only brought fresh tears to Kia's face though. It was something her father had used to ask her when she was younger...usually in a gentle, teasing kind of way that made whatever was bringing her down seem far away.

The room was getting darker, colder. Fangs of ice were growing from the ceiling, and through the window were eerie patterns of light playing that suggested the whole house was underwater.

"I feel like I'm dying," Kia said in a shaking voice.

The teddy bear gave a shrug at that, awkwardly. Its rounded shoulders weren't sewed to move like that. "Well, you are. Just like always."

"I don't want to," was her response...delivered in a small, petulant voice. Like a child saying she didn't want to clean her room, or brush her teeth. "I'm not done yet."

The lights in the house flickered on fitfully, showing the other 'irregulars' in the room too...just as frozen motionless as was everything else in the room. Only the room was the cabin now, and they were arrayed around Kia, who was lying on the floor. The other Kia, the one speaking and crying, went over to them and put a hand on Abel's shoulder. He didn't move, so she turned to Lilly who was just as unresponsive when hugged.

She let go and the lights fizzed and clinked as they went out again, plunging Kia and the bear back into pitch darkness.

"It's not fair."

The bear moved...it felt weird to Kia. Like a puppet might feel; something was inside the bear's cloth covering that made it move, but wasn't the exact same shape as it. "Well, it seems fair to me. Everything dies, which means it's equally applied, and that's all fairness is, isn't it?"

"It's NOT though!"

Water crashed in through the windows, and the walls of the house cracked and were torn apart and vanished. Even though they were underwater, neither Kia nor the bear were inconvenienced by breathing or pressure. They didn't even get wet. On some level, this was working more like a movie than a dream now...an image that surrounded them that was responding to what Kia was trying to communicate.

In the deep dark of the ocean, the bottom of the bottom, there was no light...but there was warmth. An irregular tube of accumulated minerals marked a plume of incredibly hot water gushing in a geyser from the ocean's bottom. Arrayed around the geothermal vent were creatures that would have looked perfectly normal swaying on the surface of an alien planet. Fronds and worms and tiny specks of color, even here where the sun was unknown and the pressure was so great that the sea couldn't boil from being hot, nor freeze from being cold.

Kia turned away and took a step, and everything was just a blur for a moment. Light thundered suddenly, blindingly bright after the abyssal trench. Daylight, on a rocky spire covered with snow with the clouds dwindling terrifyingly distantly below. Wind gusted, but had surprisingly little force. The air here was thin...too thin to breathe, too thin to blow. It was cold on a scale that the human mind couldn't understand...it felt warm. It would continue to feel warm for the handful of minutes required to completely sap the body's heat and send the brain into hypothermic shock. But here, on the rocks, freeze-dried and bombarded unmercifully by the barely-shielded ultraviolet rays of the sun, was lichen and mold.

"Someone's been watching National Geographic specials," the bear commented.

It found itself held up to Kia's face, and while she was still tearful, she was now angry as well. "There's nowhere in the world you can't find living things," she told it...lectured it, really.

"And they all die," it reminded her. "Sooner or later."

"But life doesn't! Maybe...maybe each little thing dies, but...life as a whole goes on! It goes everywhere!"

The bear awkwardly shrugged again. "True enough, but you're one of the little things, you know?"

Kia looked away, out over the breathtaking vista of the mountain peak. One she'd never really see, because a human being had to work and work and work to get the skills just to master one environment like this. And it wasn't enough. "I don't want to be a little thing."

There was a distant, echoing boom. Like an explosion. Like thunder.

The bear put a mittenlike paw on Kia's thumb. "Look, if it's any consolation you're not really dying right now now, all right?"

"It's not all right!" There was a line on the horizon, a bright one. As Kia and the bear watched, the line resolved into what looked like a distant flame rushing towards them, racing along the contour of the land. "Not with me! It's not enough! There's so many things I'll never get to see, or do, or go or...anything!"

Kia's plush companion sighed dramatically. "You realize this isn't going to end the way you think it will, right?"

She glared at it. "It doesn't have to end at all." Then she sighed too. "At least...not here. I guess when I wake up things will be different."

It chuckled at that. "So...let me give you a hint. You don't want much...just to live forever, and be able to go anywhere, right?"

At that, Kia had to break into a laugh of her own. The firestorm was roaring over the mountaintops not far away now...the crackling and heat of them could be felt even now. Rock boiled and streamed away. Vast clouds of steam from the snow were towering into the sky. "Yeah."

"Well, you want to be more like life as a whole than a single living thing? How does life as a whole do it? How does it go on and on, spreading everywhere as it goes?"

Kia shrugged. "I dunno. It just...there's something for everything, I guess. No matter where you go."

The bear started wiggling again, with gusto, and thudding her hand with a paw. "Argh, hey. Put me down."

Bemused, Kia complied.

"It's the oldest rule in the book," the bear told her. "Sink or swim. Adapt or die." It rolled up snow as it spoke. The flames were at the base of their mountain now, devouring it as they roared towards the top. "Fall...or fly."

The teddy bear pitched the snowball, and it smacked into Kia hard enough that she took a step backwards...and realized belatedly that she'd been standing on a mountain peak. There was nowhere to step to. Abruptly the illusion of detachment vanished...it wasn't just an image of a mountaintop; a movie that she was standing inside without interacting with. The cold hit her, the airlessness hit her, and she was falling. Falling and the ground was miles below and there were white-hot flames reaching up hungrily for her.

But it couldn't have been completely real, because it wasn't panic that overtook her...it was a stubborn kind of determination. This would not be the end!

She felt something happening as the fire rose around her. It burned her without consuming her. The world went white, but slowly enough that she could see the her fall change into a glide as wind caught onto her and instead of just letting her go, caught her and swept her up.

And though maybe it was an end, Kia realized deep in her bones, deep in her cells that it wasn't the end, and she laughed.

She was still laughing when she woke up.

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Sean stood up in an endless field of black. He couldn't tell what he was standing on, if anything, and in every direction he looked was pure darkness. But he wasn't blind - he could see his himself when he looked. Suddenly, the darkness was broken by a circle of light centered beneath him, light from no source he could see. He began to run, his footsteps soundless, the spotlight unerringly following him. He couldn't even tell if he was actually moving or running in place.

After an unknown amount of time, he stopped running, not from exhaustion, just because it didn't seem to make a difference and peered into the black. After a moment, a faint glare resolved, like looking through a barn-sized window. Beyond the 'window' a soft, muted glow began to expand, revealing a sloping plain with oddly geometric tiles separated by narrow clefts, from which varying hues of light issued. The glow flowed further, showing the outline of a gargantuan, fuzzy shape looming over what Sean realized was an impossibly huge RGB keyboard. The roundish, brown thing blinked button eyes at him as it planted blunt-ended arms on the keyboard.

In the manner of dreams, Sean didn't find it odd or alarming to find a Godzilla-sized Teddy Bear looking at him from beyond the confines of an immense computer monitor he seemed trapped inside of.

"What is this?" His voice sounded high and small and tinny.

"Just a sec, let me fix the audio," said the Teddy Bear in a voice that could have been any voice, sounding like it was right in his ear. "Say something."

"What?"

/laugh

Sean found himself laughing with uncontrollable gusto, just as he had at Homecoming witnessing Courtney's outrage.

"Much better," Teddy said, then he leaned close to the screen, his immobile face - save for the button eyes - swelling even bigger. Sean took an instinctive step back, but it didn't seem to put any distance between them. "This, Sean, is Character Creation."

"For what game?" Sean asked with a frown, planting his hands on his slim hips. He had to know the game, so he could know the rules and how to win.

"I could say Second Life," Teddy replied with a growling chuckle, "but it's not. It's the same one you've always been playing, always connected, always online, with the Griefers and Trolls, but friends and Guildmates too. You know, Life. You just get a chance to go through Character Creation again and this time make some choices yourself. Well, a part of you does anyway."

Suddenly in front of and to the left of Sean appeared what seemed a notated character sheet of made of light, his character sheet. Some of the numbers seemed embarrassingly low, while a few looked reasonable. He didn't want reasonable. He reached forward and started hitting the tabs on the Physical Stats, upping them to max. Incredible strength, agility, and vitality rushed into him. He felt amazing, but was disappointed when he looked down and still looked like his small, scrawny self.

"Aw! I still look the same," Sean complained.

"No worries, finalizing appearance comes last," Teddy reassured him. Though its face didn't - couldn't - change, Sean had the sense the Teddy Bear was smirking at him.

Sean continued on with Mental Stats and Interaction Stats. He finished maxing out Mentals - Intelligence actually topped the maximum by one - the inrush of improvement not quite drastic as before, but still fantastic, connections, correlations,  and contexts growing sublimely clear, when he glanced back at Teddy. "How many damn stat and skill points do I have to spend?"

"Looks like as many as you think you need, Sean."

"Huh."

Having always been curious, Sean wanted to see how far he could push things. He maxed out Interaction Stats as well and overwhelming confidence and understanding flowed into him. He'd had his friends, but he hadn't exactly been a people person. He was - or he could be - now. Done with Stats, he moved on to Skills.

His eyes were immediately drawn to the combat skills. Now he'd be able to defend himself. From anyone, With each point he put into Unarmed Combat, Sean felt his body moving into a new stance of a new style, Boxing, Karate, Muay Thai, Krav Maga...  In his hands appeared a nail-bat, a katana, a kusuri-gama, throwing knives and ninja stars, a pair of heavy pistols, a grenade launcher, and an oversized sniper rifle and more as he added points to various weapon skills. By the time he was done, he had the talents of a Ninja-Commando-Gadgeteer-Seducer, understanding machines and people as well as he did combat.

Sean had always had an excellent memory. But with each skill point added to his stats, it felt like his memory was expanding by a factor of a thousand in breadth and clarity. Every single thing he may have ever seen or noticed, experienced, even for a fleeting moment or in passing was seared indelibly into his brain, connecting and correlating it with anything else he may have witnessed that was applicable, expanding on the breadth of his knowledge. Sean would have orgasmed if it hadn't felt so... right.

With Skills done, he just had to pick a Perk. Most seemed locked out, but one caught his eye: Calculate The Odds - Some call it luck, but you know it's skill and the ability to account for any possibility. He hit select and the character sheet dematerialized.

"Now what?"

"Now, it's appearance customization."

"I want to be taller!" Sean exclaimed immediately. "Not crazy tall or anything, just, like, taller than the average guy."

Sean felt himself stretch. It wasn't painful, but was decidedly odd. When the feeling stopped he looked down at himself. He looked like he hadn't put on a pound, was just a distorted figure of spidery, long limbs. He arched a brow at Teddy. "Think maybe you can fill me out in proportion?"

"Righty-O!"

Sean felt himself changing once more, this time swelling and filling out in a specific way. He looked down again.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" he screamed.

"What?" Teddy protested calmly. "You'd find a figure like that in any number of video games. Tell me those aren't great proportions? Mathematically perfect even."

Sean twisted around seeing as much as he could, not noticing that he was rotating in place before the button eyes of the Teddy Bear "Well, yes, they are," he was forced to admit, "Just y'know, not for me?"

"Are you sure?" Teddy replied doubtfully. "More than half your appearance characteristics are on this matrix than the other one. I can show you the specific sliders if you like. Besides, tell me honestly you never imagined this before?"

Sean blushed furiously, brushing a lock of hair from his face. "Even if I did," Sean hedged, "it doesn't mean it's what I want. I dreamed of myself other ways too."

"Fair enough. So you did," Teddy agreed, "big and muscular and... vague. This is a much more concrete image you came up with. And really, is it that bad? Who's ass would you rather stare at for the rest of your life, your old one or this one?"

Sean will silent for a long moment. "It's not the same..."

"Who's do you think Sara would rather stare at?"

"That's not fair!"

"Neither was how many stat and skill points you used," Teddy countered.

"Can't I at least use the other matrix to customize my appearance, to compare."

"Sure! But as you didn't give yourself a good image as a base, you'll have to start from scratch with the sliders."

Sliding bars determining each physical characteristic appeared around him, by ones and twos then by the dozens and hundreds, until even the most detailed character creator seemed facile in comparison. Sean groaned. While he enjoyed character generation in video games, it could be time consuming trying to make a specific appearance. This would take him a thousand years.

Stubbornly, he started, but had barely touched the first slider when a ringing tone made the black field and innumerable of sliders shiver.

"What's that?" Sean asked suspiciously.

"Sorry Sean, time's up," Teddy informed him, not unkindly, seeming to have just glanced back from looking at something offscreen. The sliders disappeared

"Hey! Since when is there a time limit on Character Creation in a video game?" Sean protested.

"I told you, this is Life, not just a video game." The glow of the monitor faded, hiding Godzilla-Teddy and the keyboard from sight, leaving Sean once more in a field of unrelieved black, but he could still hear Teddy's voice. "And it's time to Play!"

Two icons appeared before Sean, RESTART and PLAY. PLAY seemed to sink into the surrounding darkness, auto-selected and Sean felt himself being digitized, taken painlessly apart particle by particle...

... and she woke up, rebuilt, renewed, and feeling completely natural, as if she had never been any other way.

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The grew and grew in Lilly's heard. It was like a hundred screeching violins surrounding her as the pain reached an unbearable level and then... silence.

Lilly sat there, crouched in a fetal position, holding her head, eyes closed tight. As the pain subsided a scent hit her nose... fresh cut grass. She could feel the warmth of the sun on her skin and slowly began to hear a general rumbling of a crowd  nearby.

*BANG!*

Startled, Lilly's head snapped up, her eyes open wide and then squinted in the sunlight. She could see a crowd running from her as fast as they could.. and they were fast. But wait.. they were all women... in athletic apperal... and she was crouched on a track. Looking down at herself she could see that her rain-soaked clothing was gone, replaced with her track gear.

"Go! They are getting a lead on you!" Lilly heard from right behind her head. The voice was unfamiliar and yet familiar at the same time. She turned her head to look at it and caught a glimpse of the teddy bear from the mall, sitting on her shoulders.

"What the f-" Lilly confusedly exclaimed, but was cut off by the bear.

"Hurry up! Go! Move your ass!" the beat encouraged.

For some reason she felt herself rise up and then place one foot after the other. It felt like slow motion, but she could see the girls rounded the bend. She began to grunt, forcing one leg and then other, gradually moving faster and faster until she was in a full run. The other girls were well ahead of her now. She kept pumping her legs, but it seemed like a futile gesture.

"Hurry. You can catch them!" the bear encouraged again.

"They are too far ahead.. too fast. I can't do it." 

"Yes you can! What did Coach Meyers say? You have to want it more. You have to want it. So what do you want, Lilly?" the bear asked her from it's perch on her shoulders.

"I.. I wanna catch them." she said as the she began to close the gap on the girls rounded the next bend, with the finish line fast approaching.

"No you don't." scolded the teddy bear, "You don't want to just catch them..."

"No... I wanna beat them!" Lilly confirmed.

As she passed through the crowd of flailing arms and track shoes the sky darkened and it was night, the women were now young men in football gear, swarming at Lill as she tucked the football. Ahead of her, beyond the young men was the end zone, and beyond it, the score board. 4th quarter, 00:03 seconds remaining, Rangers down by 5.

"No you don't. What do you want, Lilly?" the bear asked again and Lilly glanced down.

She was tucking the bear like a football as she scrambled with the defense closing in on her.

"I want to win!" she growled through her mouthpiece.

"Warmer..." the bear said as Lilly evaded a tackle with a spin and then broke two tackles to a chorus of cheers and held her arm out, the football suddenly back in hand as she crossed into the end zone. 

Lilly closed her eyes, basking in the moment and when she opened them she was running down a track, the football now replaced with a javelin.

"What do you want, Lilly?" she head the bear ask as it sat on one of the official's shoulder.

"I want to be the best!" she grunted as she hurled the javelin, falling forward and catching herself with a hand from the force of the throw, sending it soaring through the air, past the edge of the grass and into the field beyond.

"Warmer..."

 Lilly looked up to meet the gaze of another young man. They were in the gym, both in wrestling attire and he launched himself at her.  

"I wan-" she began to say as the bear cut her off

"Those are all well and good.. easily done, but deep, deep down.. what do you want, Lilly?"

Time stopped and her surrounded began to fade to black as thought for a moment. consider herself, her life, her family, and friends.

"I... I want to protect those I care about and never be hurt again." she said softly.. honestly...

The fading stopped and her surrounded returned, only instead of the gym, she was outside of it in the hallway and the faceless teen wrestler was now Chet. She knew that Sean was behind her, having just humiliated Chet somehow, something he deserved of course.

Chet's fist came right for Lilly's face. She could see it coming. She knew where it would hit, but she just stood there, and unmovable barrier between her friend and his tormentor. The sound of bones breaking in Chet's hand was audible, as Lilly just stood there without even a bruise on her face.

"Leave. Him! ALONE!" she yelled and shoved Chet with both hands, sending him flying down the hall and into a bank of locker at the end of it.

"You're getting hotter! Red hot now! What do you want, Lilly?"

She though again at the teddy bear's question, digging deeper into herself, into feelings that she did not even know about.

"I..." Lilly sighed as tear began to well up in her eyes, "I want my dad to be proud of me. I mean.. I know he is and I know he loves me.. I KNOW that.. but.. I just to make him proud.. like he would be of the son I robbed him of.." Lilly sobbed.

It was a painful thing to admit, but that was how she felt. She knew her father loved her and would do anything for her and die to protect her, but as she got old she began to understand things and could not help but feel like he would always miss the son he never got to have. The son Lilly was supposed to be... Liam... She had done so much to try and make him proud.

To prove to him that she was just as worthy...

"What do you want, Lilly?" she was asked, only this time, instead of the bear, it was her father's voice.

She looked up and found herself leaning against the doorjam of her father's office door with him at his desk, looking over some paperwork.

"I.. I just wanted to say..." she got out before she began to choke up.

Noting the catch in her voice, Lt. Colonel William Pryor looked up from his work to his daughter with concern on his face. He sat down his pen and rose to his feet, walked over and wrapped his arms around her, cradling her cheek to his chest. His inclination was to say something, but living in a house with only women had taught him a thing or two.

"I just.. I wanted to say.. I love you." she finally choked out.

William Pryor tilted his head down and kissed Lilly's forehead tenderly.

"I love you more." he said, risking a partial smile, "You make me so proud. You've grown up to be a beautiful, intelligent young woman who is hard working, brave and compassionate. You know, your mother and I tried to have kids for a long time, and if I could only have one child, I'm glad it's you."

Lilly hugged him tight and shut her tearing eyes tighter. Father and daughter stood there as everything else seemed to fade away.

"Winner, winner, chicken dinner." Lilly could hear the teddy bear cheer.

 

And like that, Lilly was blinking, looking up at the ceiling of the cabin, the storm still raging outside, as Sandy's face, still worn with concern, entered her view...

 

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IN THE CABIN

Talena looked around until she found some blankets stored in an old cabinet. They smelled bad but they were dry. She brought them back to Abel and Sandy who covered their respective dates  so she went about covering Alec. After they were covered they each took blankets to the other three and wrapped them.

Outside the rain had slowed and they couldn't hear any more screams, Sandy went to a window and looked out.

"I can't see anything. It's too dark."

"Guys, Sara's really hot, she's burning up." Said Talena her voice small and full of worry and fear.

The boys looked back at Talena bu their attention was drawn to Sean.

As he lay there covered he seemed to start shaking as if going into convulsions. Abel went to him and Sandy pulled out his phone.

"We need help I'm calling 911." He keyed in the number , put the phone to his ear and took it back down and looked at it again almost immediatly. "What the hell? Listen to this."

He turned the phone to speaker and a strange sound issued from the tiny speaker a low pitched warbling unlike anything any of them had ever heard before the pitch was very unsettling.

"What is that?" whisper Talena asking about the sound.

Before anyone could answer though there was a loud bang as something hit the door shaking it in it's frame!

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pain

she imagines this is what giving birth must be like times a million.

she imagine her brain bubbling and oozing from her ears, her eyes, her nose

she spins

she is falling the others are there but twisted stretched fallin

flying

she sees Sean, she is twisted too. she is beautiful

she hits the floor

her brains spill out and run away like all her hopes

her dreams

her mom

Samantha

she is alone

in oblivion

 

Sara opens her eyes and sees stars. It is a familiar sight for her she smiles. She is lying on her back, the ground hard against her, but not uncomfortable, only a blanket between her and the dirt. Above, the milky way spins, it's beauty unparalleled. The edge of her vision catches the silhouettes of the trailers and ramshackle houses her indian friends call home the camp fires cloaking them in shadows. She hears the native drums they play, pounding like the heart beat of the Earth. She can feel each thump in her bones, the vibration carried through the ground and into her body. She feels a presence beside her. Samantha.

The first person she ever fell in love with. Her first everything.

Sara turns her head a smile for Sam. But Sam isn't there.

Instead there is a stuffed animal, a teddy bear dressed like an indian complete with a headband and feather.

Sara bolts upright and has to fight vertigo. It isn't the stars that are spinning. It is the earth or at least the small part that she is occupying, but then that is all the earth that there is.

As she staggers to her feet she fails to notice that the teddy bear has also stood and moved to her side.

Sara spins looking around her again, the place is the place where she spends her time on the reservation, the drums beat but there is no one else there and the land ends beyond the firelight. She is standing on an island floating on a sea of stars.

“Fuck, some one slipped me some acid how...”

“No Sara no one drugged you.”

The small voice came from near her feet. Looking down she saw the teddy bear, as she watched, shocked, it reached up and took her hand and started walking her to the edge of the floating island.

As they passed the camp fire in the center she saw her and the teddy bear on the other side of the fire walking in the opposite direction, she saw that she was dressed like an indian too with a doeskin fringed dress and feathered headband.

Like the bear.

Sara looked down at herself and saw that she was dressed the same the same as the her that was walking away.

“Don't mind us there, time and space are complicated here. Anyway as I was saying, it isn't an acid trip but your brain chemistry is undergoing changes as is the rest of your body.” said the bear matter of factually.

“Wait! What?”

“It doesn't matter Sara others will eventually explain things for you in ways you can understand much better than I can. What matters to us is out there.”

The bear swings its short furry arm to encompass the universe outside the small island on which they stand.

As if the tiny stuffed animal is directing a concert the drum beats multiply and the tempo changes beats overlap and swallow each other. The circle of land spins and flips but Sara doesn't move or even feel the shift. Behind them there is a loud whoosh which momentarily drowns out the drums. Sara spins toward the sound to see the campfire which had lit the circle of her memory explode into a column of fire shooting up into the sky to vanish in the distance light-years away.

A tug at her hand pulls her back around to stare off the edge of the disc they occupy only now there is more to see.

Around the island at a distance of a couple of dozen meters rushes a river of turbulent water. The water is a cylindrical ring around the whole of the island, beyond it is an encompassing globe of rock, earth and large boulders all spinning and moving crashing and spinning off again like some asteroid field in a hi budget sci fi movie. Between the river and the rocks, clouds are driven by winds which blow hard and fast and all of it is lit by the light of the column of fire behind them.

It is a wondrous and beautiful sight and scary but somehow Sara is unfazed by the sight to her it seems natural.

“Why am I dressed like this? I'm not and indian.” she asks her diminutive new friend.

Teddy leans back and and up to see her face, “Aren't you?

Did you know that almost every single indigenous people of the Earth call themselves by a name which means the people. And by people they mean Human."

Sara's brow furrowed, in response the bear stepped right up to the edge then stepped off pulling Sara with him. Instead of falling they seemed to float then the bear swooped away and around Sara following her hand held tight in his.

They flew around the island and saw below them the earth spread out not a s a globe but as a flat plane, Sara could make out the continents, and the oceans, the island chains, all of the world. Miraculously she could make out cities and towns, forests and meadows, she could see the world all stretched out below her in minute detail. And everywhere there were pin points of light.

“The people, Sara, humans like you, well generally speaking. But they are all humans all the same. All live and die, want to be happy want to live long fruitful lives. Something else the indigenous people all shared was they need for a protector, someone to guard them from the darkness and the unknown, the evil things which haunted they nightmares.” The teddy bear explained and it all made sense to Sara.

As the bear spoke Sara watched the lives below her, they fascinated her soothed her, made the ache of loneliness and abandonment, that was so much apart of who she was, fade. But then she noticed that some of the points of light seemed to burn bright and streak off the Earth below. She followed the streaks and saw that they were sparks of fire that flew through space to become one with the column of fire which lit all like a strange sun.

“What are those Teddy Bear,” she asked her toy friend?

Teddy frowned, “Those are the people for whom protection was not enough.”

“But whats happening to them”

“Look behind you Sara, look at the fire.”

Sara turned and gazed at the huge column of fire as she looked something started to form. She felt strange now how and her limbs tingled.

The form took shape It was a bird huge and fierce.

“Another commonality shared by the People, Sara, the Protector was always from the sky and sometimes when protection was not possible,” The Great flaming bird spread it's wings, “when guarding was not enough then Justice was needed.”

Sara let go of the teddy Bears hand she staggered back heat was coming off of her body, flames flickering from her fingers fire in her eyes. She looked up at the flaming bird met its eyes and she stared into ther soul.

“But beware, Sara, Justice is separated by a very thin line from vengeance.”

Sara burst into flame.

 

She opened her eyes. There was a flicker of fire in them, so deep only the eyes staring into hers could see it.

Sara was looking at the most beautiful turquoise eyes she had ever seen and calmness flooded into her heart. She took in the eyes, the flawless skin, the perfect nose, full sensual lips. She was looking at the most beautiful girl she had ever seen The girl of her dreams.

“Sean?”

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"Stay away from the door."  His voice was cold, and his scowl intensified.  The other two conscious members of the group did as he said, mostly in shock.  Abel, on the other hand looked around to assess what exactly he could use as a weapon to protect his friends.  He'd scanned the area, and the results were not comforting.  The rest of the students were asleep, that was fine, they were alive at any rate.   What worried him were the multitude of other minds he felt, all of them in distress, which was about the only really clear thing about their emotional state.   The other unifying feature was that those minds, they were unlike anything he'd ever felt before.   If any single word defined how they felt, it was "Alien."

He moved between the door and the rest of the room, still well back from it.  "Sandy, Hang up the phone, that noise is disconcerting to say the least."

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Sandy disconnected the phone, "We gotta do something."

As he said this and Abel moved between the door and his friends, what ever it was out there slammed into the door  shaking it in the frame and made some sort of noise which sounded eerily like what had been heard over the phone.

Talena started a scream but clapped her hands over her mouth silencing herself.

Sandy Cursed and grabbed a steel chair hefting it to use as a club. He stepped up to join Abel and the door shook again the bolt holding it locked starting to pull away from the wall.

Abel could feel a second thing outside the door.

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"Sandy, whatever comes through that door, it doesn't get past us."   He set his jaw with a look of grim determination, and grabbed one of the other chairs, ready to hurl it at the door.  He trusted the quarterback with his back, and if it came to it, even with what he could do, if it meant keeping his friends safe.   "Taleena, get down, and stay silent.  Whatever you do , don't look."

The noise made him worry, that somehow they'd tracked his power, which normally left no traces of his presence.

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The boys stood chairs held ready both of them scared but neither willing to show their fear.

Talena did as she was told and scurried to behind one of the bunks but she didn't turn away she had to watch.

Again and again the door rattles then with a painful screech the screws holding the door bolt gave way and the door swung rapidly inward against the wall then back closed from the force of the impact.

Sandy and Abel both saw...something but their minds rebelled at what  they thought they had seen both stiffened.

The door remained shut.

The boys glanced at each other then the door burst open again  and two creatures from a nightmare skittered into the cabin.

insect_alien__first_concept_by_little_dom-d5nsxau.jpg

Spoiler

This is what just knocke the door in they are about the size of a 30 - 50 pound dog. there is a strong smell of burnt vinegar accompanying the creature. both are emitting the Ululation sound  from the bulk of the body . the only sound coming from the head area are the clicking of it's teeth.

 I will create a combat thread post your rolls there

Both Sanday and Abel will have to pass will power tests to take any action. If you pass you will need to roll for initiative.

I will make a combat thread post your rolls and sux there I do not need link or pitures of rolls only results we are all adults and I  trust all of you.

 

Talena screams!

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The pain struck, like an Icepick being jammed into his brain, an icicle of almost crystalized pain that followed him down into the Black, the rumbling of thunder in the distance sounding almost mocking in nature. The bass rumble shaking him all the way to his bones and rattling around his skull.

And then, peace. The transition itself almost painful for how quickly all the sensation just ceases and he finds himself on his back, finally free from the headache that he now realises hadn't retreated at all, that he had just gotten used to. He's lying on something hard and smooth, no give whatsoever in it. Frowning in discomfort, he flips over and nearly jumps out of his skin at the Cacophony that accompanies the movement, the arm that was supporting him, sheathed in Golden plate. He staggers to his feet, the lack of grace sounding like an accident in a Bell Foundry. He idly notes through the rising panic that he's covered head to toe in this plate and that he's much taller than he used to be. A polite cough from the side renews the clangour as he spins around to face the..... teddy bear. He blinks in almost bovine incomprehension as he tries to process what he's seeing. Small bear. Not even a foot tall. Wearing a mantle of silver plate, two flared pinions of silver light trailing idly behind him.

"Ah, you're with us. Excellent. We'd been beginning to worry."

Well this was alarmingly familiar. Though he couldn't quite put his finger on it, the bear was familiar, somehow.

"I'm dreaming again, aren't I?"

The bear hmm'd noncomittally, rasing one stuffed arm and making a so-so gesture

"Not quite, but close enough. You're here to let the changes crystalise, so your chrysalis can finalize without causing you undue harm."

The alarmed look that received had the bear waving it's arms in a placating manner.

"Easy, easy. Don't worry. Neither you or your friends will come to any harm." He huffs a small chuckle. "You and she are a lot more similar than many would believe."

Deciding to brush aside that comment for the moment

"And what about this" he gestures to his surroundings, the Marble arches and wide boulevards, the sheer drop over the edges into swirling clouds below, the Dawns blazing light piercing the clouds above to illumate everything in an almost painfull glow. "Don't think I don't recognise it, or just whose Armour it is that I'm wearing. I've spent long enough going over the details of it, if the Wing's hadn't given it away." He flexed the cascade of golden light forming a set of almost skeletal wings behind him, the bass rumble echoing oddly from the black void he knew was hiding his features. The bear was nodding along as he spoke

"To couch all this in a way you can understand, to allow us to show you what you need and what you want, and to give you a frame of reference. Come, follow me, if you would."

He hesitates for a moment before he takes that first tentative step, soon drawing apace with the bear, who reaches up gently to take him by one gauntleted hand. The incongruous image of the giant armoured figure being led by the small bear almost had him in hysterical giggles. He leads him up to the balustrade and the rest of the city was revealed to him, all shining arches and Marble statuary. It was astonishingly beautiful and serene.

"Ah, but that's not all, is it?"

Of course it wasn't. He had missed it on the first pass thanks to the distance and the distraction most of the view offered, but there were growing sores on the otherwise pristine cityscape. Black cancerous growths, some spurting blackened, oily smoke into the air, and a trail of destruction leading up to a massive crystal spire.

"So this is then?"

"Not as such." The bear was shaking his head "As I said earlier, it's just metaphor and allegory, if a bit heavy handed in places. Would you care to guess why we chose this scene in particular?"

Alec was silent for a moment, arms crossed over the ornate golden chestplate as he surveyed the tableau in front of him.

"It was the time of his worst defeat. His failure here led to the breach and the spread of the corruption and thousands of deaths."

"No credit for Partial answers, Alec. That was the when. What I'm looking for is the Why." The great-helm, it's visage so reminiscent of a stern scowl turned towards the bear in irritation before dismissing him entirely to focus on the issue facing him, the gears churning as he chipped away at it. A few moments pass in silence.

"He failed. It was his duty to protect the city, his singular goal to banish the opponent and protect those under his Aegis." he paused here, the bear continuing to wait in patient silence as he worked it through. Continuing, Alec begins slowly, voice gaining surety with every word. "He fought alone. He had any number that he could have called on for aid, even those on the Council, but he chose to fight him alone and underestimated him."

The bear nodded in approval, the scene warping, taking them to the plaza before the crystal arch, only none of the destruction was present, just a beast screeching it's defiance at the Gates. Alec stumbled back in surprised horror.

"That face, why does it have that face?!?" The bear shook it's head sadly, curling it's arms around one armoured calf in an approximation of a reassuring hug.

"Because that's the crux of everything for you, isn't it? All roads lead to Rome, as they say. Humanity is capable of so much, but not a one of them is a lone bastion against the dark, even the greatest of lights will sputter and die without something to reinforce it. You hold everyone at arms length without even realising it." There's a moments pause broken only by a faint quivering in the Shoulders.

"don't want it to hurt... when they leave" the faint echo coming from the helm was almost broken.

"We know. And we know it will take work, but you, all of you, are capable of so much that it's breathtaking. Just try. Trust them. Believe in them and they will help to light your path, as you help light theirs. Trust." There's a faint sense of pressure on both shoulders. Looking back at the gauntleted hands resting on either shoulder, a small company of armoured figures, cowls over darkened features, but a sense of support that helps ease the crushing weight.

"Protect them, Alec, be a beacon to the lost, and an Aegis to those in need. After all." and here the bears voice turns almost sardonic "The night is long, and full of terrors."

And looking down at his blazing hand, he nodded in acceptance. Resolve firmed.

 

And suddenly, it's dark and the wind is howling again, the door rattling as something tries to force it.

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 Abel shook his initial shock at seeing these nightmarish horrors, he charged forward his mind actvating another ability of his, to be safe.   He brought the chair down on one of the creatures with everything he had.  While the blow from his chair wasn't enough to kill the creature outright, the sickening crunch of its carapace being broken by the steel chair was satisfying.   Fighting wasn't something he really liked, but he didn't have a choice right now.

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The sicking crunch of the things shell and its accompanying high pitched ululation as it fell prone bleeding a thick greasy grayish ooze from the cracks the vinegar smell intensified, galvanized Sandy into action. 

He rushed forward raising the chair and smashing it down. but his target was not standing stil and spun away emitting a hissing sound. The creature stiffened its legs straightening them which thrust its body upwards while the forked tail shot forward between its legs stabbing at Sandy.

Sandy tried to dodge away but he was off balance and the tail struck him high on his left thigh. The force of the blow knocked Sandy's legs out from under him and he fell to the floor writhing, clutching at his leg.

The beast skitter over Sandy darting toward Talena.

As the creature which struck Sandy dashed past Abel the one that he had struck did the same thing lurching upwards the pronged tail flashed at Abel's chest and slammed into Abel.

Or it would have but something seemed to interpose itself between Abel and the creature stopping the twin dagger like protrusions milometers from Abel's chest.

Talena seeing the monster rushing her grabbed the mattress of the bunk to use as a shield.

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Abel moved with the same alacrity he was known for on the field, bringing the chair up to smash the one that had gotten by.  While knowing he was leaving himself open to the other monster, he was trusting in the new defensive power he seemed to have gotten, and protect his friends.  He'd seen Sandy go down, and hoped he'd not been injured to badly.   Still he knew he was making the choice Sandy'd make.  He was rewarded with almost the selfsame cracking sound and foul odor he'd gotten from hitting the first one.  "Get back on your feet Sandy, they're not dead yet."

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The chair smashes the second creature to the ground and before it can react in any way Talena throws the thin mattress over it and leaps on top of it. The small girl starts jumping up and down on the mattress in an attempt to  crush the creature underneath.

Sandy suddenly his limbs feeling leaden and his head fuzzy, attempts to stand but can't even make it to his knees. He collapses back to the floor and tries to speak, but the words only come as a muted moan, and the darkness swallows him.

Abel see that Talena has at least trapped the creature in front of him for a time spins to meet the charge of the first one and again is rewarded with the monster being stopped by some unseen force before it can actually come in contact with his body.

The creatur falls away from it's charge and Abel raises the chair to smash it again . as the chair raises he sees that there are two more of the creatures on the porch beyond the door.

 

Sean, who feels control of his limbs slowly returning, stares into Sara's eyes seeing...fire?

Spoiler

Sean is waking up he will be able to act next round. if he spends a will power point he can take one action at the end of this round forcing herself to act.

 

 

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Abel moved to deal with the immediate issue, and in spectacular fashion splattered the creature in a vinegary mess with a ovehead hammer blow with the chair.   None of the gore got on him, but it did spatter around on the floor and furniture.   He was aware of the two outside, and looked to Taleena.  He had to kill that one too and drag the injured Sandy to her.   If two more were added to the fray, he wasn't going to be able to handle them all, and keep everyone safe.

"Sandy stay with us, We'll get through this."

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Sean smiled, seeing the fire in Sara's eyes that once had lain hidden. It seemed no stranger to her than she did to herself, or the rank stench of burnt vinegar and the skittering of the bug things she could just see in her peripheral vision. Striving against the paralysis of cellular transformation, she reached out, brushed the hair from Sara's face and pressed her lips against her forehead. Then she winked and flowed to her feet in a fluid roll.

"You're not alone, boys!"

Abel looks around to see a tall figure with hair the colour of a sunset wearing what appears to a very tight crop-top straining over impressive curves and a pair of cargo capris beginning to split up the sides of remarkably long legs glide across the room with eye-catching coordination and economy of movement. She picks up one of the small tables in passing and in one continuous motion, rips off one of the legs as she winds up and whips it through the door.

Sean has never felt like this before, every step and motion she takes is strange, alien, yet she can't imagine feeling any other way. She knows exactly where to place her feet, how to hold her hands or twist her wrist. She exults, grinning in fierce satisfaction as the table plows edge on into one of the extraterrestrial bugs and clears it off the porch.

Sean comes to a stop standing a step in front of the ailing Sandy, a table leg held like a club or baton, a weapon she clearly knows how use, to attack or defend as needed. She glances over at Abel for a moment and smirks. "If I'd known what went on at the After-parties, I'd have come to one a long time ago."

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Talena who was  jumping up and down on the mattress covered bug stopped when the new Sean stood up. She stopped jumping her eyes even wider than before, didnt even notice that the mattress was no longer moving.

Sean was an Amazon!

"Wow," the little indian girl exclaimed!

Outside the thing still on the porch stretched it's head around to watch it's companion sail off the landing to slam into the side of the jeep parked in the mud. it's body followed it's neck and the thing ran from the porch and out of sight but it's ululating wail rose in volume and pitch.

A wail which was answered in kind.

Spoiler

still in combat Sean need to roll initiative. everyone else can as well for when they arise. there are no targets alive in the cabin this round so you may take other actions or leave the cabin.

 

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With the last of the creatures in the immediate vicinity gone, Abel relaxed, slightly, and set down the chair.  "Alright let's take a look at Sandy."   He stopped as he got a good look at Sean.   "Dude, we are definitely gonna have to talk."  He heard the cry of the creature and shook his head.  "not right now though, we gotta move and tend Sandy, he got hit by one of those things."   

He wanted to ask alot of questions, but making sure his friend's date was okay was the immediate priority. He went over to the fallen quarterback and grabbed him by his shoulders and moved him to where the others were, and set about inspecting the wound on his leg to perform first aid.   He quickly found his pulse, and his breathing was steady and shallow.  When he opened his eyes, there was no reaction to light, which was worrisome.  Moving on to his leg where he was hit, he saw no sign of injury, and mentally he was like the other students, in a deep state of sleep.  "Okay, there's no blood, but I know it hit him.   I guess it's got a stunning attack that induces sleep..."

 

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Talena peeled back the mattress and looked at the squashed bug she almost vomited from he combination of the smell and the gooey sight. She dropped the mattress back over to cover the mess and looked over at Abel and Sean.

"This ones Dead Abel. Is sandy ok?" Then she bit her lip looking at Sean's new...body. "Sean, your...your a girl."

Just then the ululations stopped silenced by an earsplitting sound that sounded like the cross between a wolf and an Amtrak train but twice as loud. In seconds the first was joined by a second..

Outside through the door and windows a flickering silver light pulsed. Sean hefting his...her metal leg quickly moved tot he window nearest the the light pulses.

"Yeah I am, but we have bigger problems," she said, "a lot of them."

Outside between the irregulars cars and the cars of the rest of the students two silver discs had appeared in the air. a dozen of the bugs were milling about and even more of the bugs were pulling students, unconscious and wrapped in some sort of grey silk like web, out of the big cabin and placing them in rows.

But that wasn't what had Sean's attention.

In front of one of the discs stood a creature even more terrifying than the bugs, it's head raised howling at he other disc a second creature joined it's companion with it's own how and as Sean watched a third monster stepped out of the nearest disc to join them. Once the third was on the ground all three looked toward the cabin Sean and his friends occupied.

11378465_1582124132049372_418243212_n.jpg  The howling creatures.

 

Spoiler

The new creature is roughly the size of a lion  so about 300 - 400 pounds. there are three of them. there are also about a dozen of the smaller ones like those that have already attacked you all. after I get everyone initiative we can proceed. everyone is now waking up and regaining the ability to move. I will post relevant stats for the monsters in the cmbt thread.

 

 

 

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Lilly windmilled her legs and flicked them out, snapping to her feet in the cabin with inhuman grace. Her head snapped around toward the door, sending her long, wet hair fanning our around her for a moment before falling about her shoulders. Somehow she knew what was going on.. what was out there.. like she could nearly see through Sean's eyes and knew what she had to do.

<I got the big ones!> she thought and snapped off a table leg one handed, with almost no effort. Lilly, clad in her black shirt and jeans ran out the door and right into the night and all of the.. bugs... scurrying about outside, gathering their quarry. She ran just a short way from the cabin in a flash, her powerful legs pumping, propelling her with small jumps almost, until she could get the wolves lined up before her. She wanted to get all three, but that was not an option with their placement, so she had to settle for just two.

"Leave my friends ALONE!"" she yelled, hoping to get he attention of the beasts.

With a surge of strength coursing through her body and down her arm, she hurled the steel table leg, point first, at the pair of creatures.

With an accuracy that people had come to expect from Lilly's throwing arm the point hit true, sinking into the neck of the first wolf, before bursting out the back, sending it to the ground, spitting and gurgling some foul bile and blood, thrashing limply.

The table leg continued on, striking the wolf behind it right in the body where it exploded out the other side in a spray of inhuman organs and bodily fluids, almost entirely vacating the body cavity of the creature from the raw power of the throw.

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"Hmm," Sean mused speculatively as she watched Lilly bolt out of the cabin and assault the Howler aliens, processing it all calmly despite the sheer insanity of the situation. Clearly, she wasn't the only one who had changed, and just as clearly, they hadn't all changed in the same way. She glanced over her shoulder at the rest of the Irregulars who were beginning to stir. It was reasonable to assume the rest who had suffered headaches throughout the week would be changed too.

How? That went for where the extraterrestrials as well. Some manner of exotic radiation from the disks? Were they white holes? It didn't matter for now, only that too many Shelly students were in danger. Is the Base aware that something other than a party is going on? With Lilly seemingly making short work of the Howlers, Sean's next concern was for Sandy and the other downed students wrapped in silk.

The... things had come out of the silver disks. While she couldn't deny a curiously of what going through one would be like and what was on the other side, she didn't think it would be good if the bugs started dragging their cocooned school-mates through. She turned back and nodded at Abel.

"Yeah, we really do need to talk," she said to Abel. It wasn't accusatory, but there was definitely a serious tone to her smooth, womanly voice. Recalling the occasional  oddity she had overlooked with what was going, in general and with them, she believed Abel had been keeping things from them. "Later. Right now, we gotta stop them from-- hmm."

Something in the air caught her eye, light from the silver disks reflecting off them. They looked something in size and shape to dragonflies, vaguely, with heads made of a giant eye. Eleven, a dozen she could see. But it was the way they moved and hovered, individually and as a group that really piqued her interest, reminding her of... Drones?

<Keep an eye out guys, the aliens have some little flyers in the sky> Sean said/thought as she slipped gracefully out onto the porch with the sound of more popping seams in her pants. Huh, guess we have built in Guildchat too. Convenient. <not sure if they have a toxic sting or something, but I think they might be drones.>

She wanted to see how the rest of the swarm, and their ground-bound brethren reacted. Keeping the table leg in one hand, Sean scooped up a small rock and with a deft flick of her wrist, whipped it at one of the drone-flies. It struck square, making it crumple. As soon as it began falling, the rest of the drones stopped flitting about and swiveled to eye her.

<Huh. I guess I got their attention.>

It was eerie. She didn't feel any fear at the revelation, just collected the information for later use. Really, what she felt was... exhilaration.

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The Spotter literally exploded as the rock sailed through it's tiny frame, but since all of them were tied into the same  local network, the other spotters were perfectly aware of what had happened to it. An aerial threat had not been projected in the data plan so the spotters fell back on default contingencies. The trajectory of the missile used to destroy the spotter was tracked and the source identified, commands were relayed and the Wolf stopped its run for cover to engage the newest threat.

At the same time one of the spotters darted toward a trans-portal.

 

The wolf had ducked low and sprinted for the cover of a cabin across from the one the gang were in, but before it covered half the distance it skidded to a stop and spun and charged toward where Sean was creeping

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Alec rolls nimbly to his feet, taking a moment to acclimatize to the new influx of information flowing over the network. 3 wolves. Primary threat. Seem to be some form of dedicated combat unit. The crunch of Lilly's chair leg had him pause for a half a second before correcting himself. 1 Wolf. Lilly moving to Neutralise.

He dismisses the workers currentl gathering the students. They seemed to be in no particular rush and the students were comparatively safe where they were. The drones on the other hand. Some form of link, seemingly. Possibly much like the one they were using, given their simultaneous reactions to threats. Possibly some form of Recon and Control unit. Which would mean the one currently darting towards the portal was bad news.

<Keep them away from the portal. If they're recon, we don't want them coming back with friends.>

Barely even thinking about it, he reaches for that pool of warmth. The sensation as he grabs it is almost like that of a sedate summers day, lazing about and lying in a patch of sunlight. Warmed straight through to the core. The cabin is lit from within as the golden light pools, hoovering in a ball over his left hand. He frowns in concentration, tracking the drones movements through eyes not his own before raising his hand, leading slightly ahead of the drones zipping movements.

Humming in satisfaction, he loosens his hold on the incandescent ball. There's a brief flicker before it extends, blazing an almost blinding white as it extends into a beam and consuming the drone in it's entirety. A brief second is all it lasts, but when the beam fades there is nothing left of the drone, but a few motes of carbon soon dispersed by the wind and rain, the perfectly circular hole through the wall the only testament to it's previous existence.

<Heh. Scratch one Grub.>

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With Lily, Sean, Alec and now Taking off to combat the aliens, Abel in turn turned his own focus inward, to study the mental link they all shared.  His familiarity with mental abilities allowed him to quickly map the minds of his friends, and of a sort, take on the role of "Hub"   While he was quite tough, he knew his combat abilities were not anything like what the others were showing.  I am going to remain here, with Taleena and Sandy, in case any get by the rest of you.

Using Sean's perceptions, he studied their foes.   Alright the flying ones are like spotters,  they can call and direct the others, focus on bringing them and the final "Wolf" down.   Anyone not busy with that should be squashing the bugs before they finish gathering the rest of the students.   I do not know if their gore has any effect other than smelling of vinegar, so be wary.  Their main attack seems to be one that stuns its target, inducing deep sleep.

After sending his message, he retreated back from the link, within his own head, to begin looking for a better picture of the hive mind these creatures seemed to have, and if there was actually a central command node.

 

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Sara watched Seans eyes and she knew what he was seeing she was seeing, she knew what Able was seeing and Alec it was crazy.

Lilly zipped outside and the leg flew Sena followed and the threat solidified.

The cabin filled with light

Guard and Protect.

Serve and Protect.

 I am not my fucking father.

Sara rose from the floor,  Abel and Talena stared at her, Allec turned

Sara floated for a only a second a foot above the floor her hair a halo of fire about her head, sparks dance across her fingertips and her eyes were literally orbs of molten flame.

She saw the last howling monster spin and charge Sean, saw it from Sean's eyes and Lillys eyes, just as she now saw herself from other eyes.

The thing was going after her Sean!

She burst into flame the heat was so intense that Talena and Abel staggered back, the blanket on the floor caught fire but like a meteor Sara was already gone.

With a whoosh she flew through the door way and out into the open, to hover in midair ten feet above the ground A flaming figure defying gravity and logic.

"Sean,"  her warning shout echoed across the camp!

Her eyes flared and twin lances of fire speared the darkness. The beast twisted and sidestepped as the searing flames arrow into the mud, creating a small cloud of fog as the moisture boils away. it is unhurt but at least  it's charge was stopped.

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Images kept dancing in her mind as the...dream? vision?...faded into wakefulness. Though the crazy, giddy euphoria she felt stuck with her, these new visions were far more troubling. Her friends...weird creatures...why did reality seem so much more surreal than her dreams?

Her eyes opened, and immediately she felt the difference. She felt like that 'second wind' high she got when doing track...when she hit her stride and her body warmed up and for a few laps it felt like absolutely nothing could stand in her way. Her muscles were seething under her skin, and even inside the cabin she could smell, hear, feel everything around her with the clarity that used to come only in moments of perfect focus. When Kia stood up, she felt absurdedly light to her own senses. She took a moment to look at her hand, wondering if what was happening could be seen.

Kia only had a dim lingering memory of the flash of insight she'd experienced as the fire in her dream had overtaken her. It had filled her, and...she'd felt something that was like a memory well up. Not from her neurons, or her brain alone, but from all the cells in her body. Knowledge stored not in flashes of electricity and the transfer of specific chemicals, but in peptides and proteins, and the primordial language of nucleic acids. She was connected in some way to the legacy of what had come before. A heritage that stretched far farther back than her hominid ancestors. And now...she thought that her body could 'speak' that language to itself.

She looked away from her hand, at the wall...but a new sense was what she saw with now. Not with her own eyes, but with the eyes of her friends. They needed her.

But...maybe not as she was.

The old Kia might be able to squish one or two of those little ones before they got her. And then Kia would be gone, and all the information she carried in her brain and blood and bones would dissipate into the ground, into other organisms, and much would be lost...and the rest would change.

Life found a way though...and it had been doing so for millions of years. The environment had changed...the pressures she faced changed...and she had to change to meet them.

Below the range of even her expanded perceptions, Kia's body was a riot of sudden activity. Cells divided at a frantic, cancerous pace...but each new generation consumed the last just as quickly. The pattern that was Kia held stable, even though her substance was shifting constantly. In response to her recognition of a new need though, the next generation of cells was a little different; new expressions of old code had rotated in. They overcame the previous generation. The next was even more different, and only seconds behind the last. The energy of these reactions should have been impossible...she should have died of starvation almost immediately, or mutated within a few generations into a giant tumorous mass. But then again, becoming a creature of fire was also impossible. Throwing blasts of laser light was impossible. The same energy fueled her, simply to different ends.

Within a few systemwide generations, the new mutations were visible. Kia was growing noticeably, both taller and gaining significant muscle mass. Her clothes stretched and split...but thick rhinocerous-like plates were bulging out from her skin over her body, providing protection to life, limb and modesty. Spurs of thick keratin-like material erupted in viciously curved hooks from the back of her hands, creating talon-like structures that scythed out from between her fingers.

Kia had been just over five feet tall, and weighing in at around a hundred and ten to fifteen pounds depending on how much she was digesting at the moment. What came bursting out of the cabin was between ten to eleven feet tall, with a thick and stocky build that rippled with muscles overlaid with something that looked like either incredibly thick hide, or some kind of loosely interlocked carapace, and adorned with nasty-looking juts of bone and horns. Aside from its bipedal stance and bilateral symmetry, there was nothing recognizably human about it.

Amidst the splintering of logs, the t-chinkle of the front window exploding, and the earth-trembling falls of its feet, there was a bestial roar of anger that...if one listened closely...was also a voice.

"LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALOOOOOONE!!"

(Action: shapeshift, and move to engage)

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Talena fell on her ass her mind couldn't process what was happening anymore.

Monsters were trying to kill her and her friends.

Her boyfriend just summoned a ball of light from nowhere and fired a laser through the wall.

Sara, her sisters ex-girlfriend just burst into flames and flew...actually flew outside.

Then Kia turned into  a thing and smashed through the wall.

hysteria was coming on fast she looked up and saw Abel just standing there in the middle of it all calm almost serene, a flicker caught her attention.

The blankets where Sara and Sean, who was now a girl, had been laying was on fire.

Burning blankets she could understand.

Talena scrambled to her feet grabbed a mattress from a bunk and threw it on the flames smothering them out.

OUTSIDE

The Bugs dropped what they were doing and in pairs skittered to the nearest unconscious humans already outside and began dragging them toward the portals. In the Air the spotters began weaving and swerving climbing and diving in elaborate evasive movements and as one began diving towards the Portals

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Lilly did have time to be amazed by the abilities of the others. That would have to wait till after. Right now she just had to keep focusing on the task at hand and things were taking a turn for the worse. The bug were dragging their victims toward the portals while all the drones were hauling ass to the portals as well.

"Shit!" Lilly cursed and looked around, her brain trying to process the area. She could stacks cars (starting with Chet's).. but they are too far away. She could use their cars,.. but there would still be gaps for some bugs and drones to get through. The picnic tables were down by the lake.. too far as well.

She needed something bigger... the cabins!

<I'll block the portals!>

Lilly bound to the corner of a cabin and grabbed the wall, with a grunt of exertion she could feel her muscles surging as nails, screws and joints popped, tearing the wall from the cabin in a single, huge piece!

Without wasting the momentum she had just generated she kept the wall moving through the air in a graceful arch and slammed it down in front of the portals, blocking them.

"None shall pass!" she proclaimed... though she was not sure why.

Must have been Sean's influence from all those nights of gaming. Hmm.

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She must exert some sort of tactile telekinetic effect, Sean mused as she watched Lilly tear a wall off a cabin and slam it in front of the portals without it breaking apart. As impressive as the feat was, Sean was already moving before Lilly's ad-hoc barricade hit the ground.

"This side at least!" Sean countered as she sprinted to round the wall to the far side of the portals, her long legs eating ground as she never could before, her pants now split well up her thighs. She was glad her shirt was so tight, as it was doing double-duty as a sportsbra. She gave Sara a thumbs up in thanks for covering her. <I can only guess at the actual mechanics, but they can probably enter the portals from either side. We gotta try to stop any of the drones or the bugs dragging anyone from getting through!>

If the portals were some manner of black or while hole, there was likely a singularity at the center and the silver disk was a visible emanation of the event horizon, able to be entered from either side. Trying to theorize the scientific principles of the portals would be an interesting exercise at a latter time, just like deciding which Avenger they each were analogous to.

Lilly was Captain American, Kia was essentially the Hulk, apparently, and Sara was the Human Torch - a Secret  and Uncanny Avenger. She didn't know what Abel could do and only had a light blast from Alec to go on. Monica Rambeau/Pulsar maybe? So, does that make me Black Widow?

Coming to the far side of the portals, Sean positioned herself in front of one, prepared to move if anyone else tried to copy Lilly or did something else fantastic to block the portals. Steel table-leg club in hand, Sean was prepared to swat down any of the drone flies trying to escape or stop bugs trying to drag away their cocooned schoolmates.

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The remaining howling wolf creature was confused by the sudden appearance of a wall blocking off the portals and it's target left it's acquisition range much more quickly than it should have been able to. However the proximity of a secondary target presented itself and the beast lunged at the human slamming its muzzle into a solid chest its zap probes making connection and sending a full charge into the creature.

Lilly had just let go of the wall when Sean's mental voice came into her head then she felt a solid thunk as 500 pounds of beast slammed into her. As soon as the monster hit her Lilly slid with the thing pushing her a couple of meters in the slick mud she also felt and odd tingling where three oddly shaped prongs around her things mouth made contact on her chest.

Other than that she didn't feel a thing

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Alec nodded, a sense of affirmation flowing through the link as he swapped targets from the darting flies.

<Gonna have to do something about the flies, but as you say.>

He winces in concern at the impact between Lilly and the Wolf, but relaxes as it seems to have no absolutely no effect on Lilly. He couldn't help but feel somewhat sympathetic for it. Given what he'd seen she was capable of with the Chair Leg, he wouldn't want to try her toe to toe.

He reaches for that glowing star once more, the energy flowing thick and fast. The glowing sphere forms once more and he frowns in concentration, debating mentally. He could handle one stream, what about two? There was more, he knew there was more that he could do, but reaching for it was an effort in futility. Dismissing it for now, he lets the beams loose once more, the two beams twining in a double helix as they fly before splitting and flying towards two different workers.

His eyes widen in Alarm as one of the beams strays off his intended target, mentally reaching for it before it impacts one of the students. The beam halts in place before almost reversing it's trajectory to impact the second worker from the other side, a brief squeal echoing as the solidified light impacts once more, devouring it hungrily and leaving one student untended in the driving rain.

<That's probably gonna be as many as I can get each shot. Hard to concentrate on the two streams.>

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Understood, you guys are doing great  He relayed his encouragement to the others.  The drones were moving far too fast to swat down easily, and seeing as Lily had already taken the roof off a cabin, Abel saw no point in trying to mitigate further damage to it.  It would have to be torn down as it was.He needed to remove the bugs' access to the portal, using a single wall was good, but they had access from the other side still, and a wall could be removed if they thought about it.  He reached out with his mind and took hold of the the entire roof assembly of the 3 walled building.   It was heavy,  but he was able to tear it free with his mind, and set the fully enclosed roof down on top of the portals, blocking them completely from any sort of access.  Their ability to bring people into the portals and escape should be nil, let's clean this up  The wolf's the only thing big enough to break a hole for them in a hurry..

He turned to look at Taleena and gave her a reassuring smile.  "You're doing fine Taleena, really.  Thanks for putting the fire out.  Once all the creatures are dealt with We can all sit down to talk about all this."

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Sara spun ou tof the way of the Roof as it came down on top of the silver discs.

So much was going on but with the links to the rest of the gang and see and knowing what thye were seeing and know while over whelming was also starngly focusing. The Wolf like monster had slammend into Lilly but Lilly was amused by it so that wasn't a threat still Sara didnt want o leave the Quarterback hanging.

<Lily, You got that thing?>

Lilly's thought came back instantly way faster than real speech < "I got it! Save the others!" >

<I'm going for the drones then we can clean up the bugs! Sean you might want to duck!>

Sara zoomed over the roof covering the portals and taking a deep breath she pushed the Fire out!

In the air the flaming girl stopped again and the fire surrounding her flashed outward in a sphere of fire 15 meters across. The drones were caught in the expanding blast which flashed so fast they blown the from the sky, wings singed and bodies burned they plummeted to the ground.

On the ground below Sean reacted without thought and rolled out of the way of the ball of fire in the sky, coming up on her feet ready to smash bugs.

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Lilly had brought her arms up and braced herself to meet the wolf as it charged her. The creature had pushed her back, but she had remained standing, though her feet to left small, twin trenches in the mud from the push. The flash of fire above and the spiraling beams of light illuminated everything for moment, casting dark shadows which only added to the bizarre visage Lilly had before her.

She figured it was the only creature with a chance of breaking through the makeshift barriers they had erected, so she had to deal with it and leave the bugs for the others to deal with for the time being.

"You're not going anywhere, ugly!" she grunted as she fell back on her wrestling training and shifted her grip, transitioning to a full clinch on the beast.

Her back and arms flexed, surging with new strength as she began to crush the alien monster, adding the sounds of sinew snapping, bones cracking and beat's own squeal of pain before it began to gargle up blood. It's body fell mostly limp, but not entirely lifeless, many of it's bones and organs crushed or ruptured, but Lilly kept her hold on the creature, making sure it was not going anywhere and certainly would not be hurting her friends.

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Sean ducked under and ahead of Sara's great ball of fire, turning it into a smooth roll and coming back to her feet with effortless ease, swinging her table-leg club at a pair of Bugs dragging off a cocoon. Her first blow smashed a bug's back, the cracking of chitin loud. Her following strike had perfect extension, the flange on the end of the table-leg completely destroying the head of the second bug.

It was a heady sensation, this pure martial mastery. It was like she had absorbed a lifetime of martial arts skills from every movie and TV show she had ever seen by osmosis, the lessons learned so well they had become instinctive muscle memory. The movement of every limb, every digit, every muscle was flawlessly coordinated with every other, so that Sean almost seemed to be dancing, a violent, beautiful dance.

With Lilly grappling the Howler into utter submission and Kia-Hulk crushing a bug into paste, Sean flowed towards another pair of bugs that were dragging away a cocoon. With the Drones downed and the portals covered, the Bugs seemed to have lost any sense of direction or purpose, so Sean went on pure offense, wanting the bugs squashed before any of them inadvertently got away with a victim in tow.

The first strike of her flurry was an underhanded swing that caught the bug in the softer underbelly and sent it sailing through the air over a dozen feet away. Then she brought the table-leg down, plunging the blunt end right through the second bug. Perhaps not as explosively impressive as what the others could accomplish, but equally effective. Efficient and final, she thought with satisfaction as she blew the lock of hair hanging down the right side of her with a sharp breath and scanned the camp ground for the remaining bugs, looking for any in danger of getting away, then across the lake to see if there was any visible reaction from Fort Bulwark.

"Four more Bugs downed!"

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Eerie shadows played across the camp the only light cast by the hovering Sara.

On the ground the small bug creatures seem confused and Sean and the monstrosity which used to be Kia were smashing them with ease.

Lilly had the remaining creature, the gang was thinking of as wolves due to the howling they had made, in and super tight clinch she had twisted it's head and neck breaking bone and crippling the monster.

it spit the oily mess it uses for blood and clawed pitifully at the ground but it's strength was quickly ebbing.

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The fire certainly gave the world a more ominous vibe. As if the driving rain and wind by an abandoned scout camp beside a lake wasn't bad enough. They seemed to be going for broke in making this place as alarming as possible.

Two orbs of light form hovering over his shoulders, hissing as the rain impacted them, and strike out with an almost casual flick to erase another two of the workers in a corona of golden light. 

Taking in the feedback from Seans glance around, he nods in satisfaction.

<Four left. Provided there's nothing waiting to jump out and yell "boo". Seems like they might have done it sooner if that were the case though.>

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