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ABERRANT: WEIRDER STUFF - CHAPTER III "THE BALL DROPS"


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IN SPACE

Laurie lay where she was, breathing hard and trying to collect her thoughts as she stared up at the sky. All those things she had seen when falling through the Portal, it was an Alien or Predator movie, but worse, because it was real. There was a distinct different between being told about aliens, even if she completely believed her sister and seeing them for herself.

Laurie sat up, patted herself down, then climbed to her feet, still amazed she wasn't hurt. It might have looked like she was hardly wearing anything more than body paint, but the stuff seemed to protect her better than any biker's leathers. I went out passed Jupiter and all I got was just supersuit...

And she was alone again. "God damn it!" she groused to herself. "Every time I go throw a portal and get teleported, I end up by myself. Getting real tired of this shit."

She looked around and up the hill she had tumbled down. At an initial glance, wherever they were looked... Earthy enough, but there wasn't any snow. Probably not home then, she thought wryly, trying not to panic at finding herself yet somewhere else. We're probably on Alpha Centauri now or something! Cautiously, Laurie began working her way up the hill, trying stay hidden by the trees as much as she could. Who knows what could be watching her, but maybe Devin didn't spit out down the hill by the portal like she had.

"Devin!" she whispered sharply, trying to be heard without her voice carrying too far. "Devin, you better be here and not have left me alone again. Not because I'm scared or anything, I just need you here so I can kick you in the ass! Devin!"

Then she physically facepalmed herself, she was such an idiot. <Devin! Where in Hell are you?!> Laurie eyed a con trail, long and sharply defined, in the very blue sky with wary suspicion. <This better not be Hell! I saw that movie and it didn't end well for anybody.>

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Devin quickly recovered with a kip up to his feet, the gymnast in him didn't take well to falling, let alone not being on his back unless there was a hottie... oh who was he kidding, it's not like being the brooding ass-hat of Shelly High had won him a lot make out sessions.  At least he looked cool at the moment, kip ups looked awesome and chicks dug kip ups.

"Clare!?"  She was on his shoulder, she was right there, where'd she go?  "Laurie!  Laurie!" He shouted, looking around in a slight panic.  He was in a strange place possibly not even on Earth anymore.  Jaunt did the one thing he was good at: reconnaissance.

He looked up and took a single leap and simply disappeared.  The air tore at his face and his cheeks rippled from the surge of heavy winds bombarding him but his quantum infused musculature bore the brunt of what regular humans would have found unbearable without the proper equipment.  This suit though!  Oh, man this suit... he was gonna have Sean definitely make him one of these... but like... with a cod piece... and nipples!  Take that Clooney!

From his vantage point above the world, as his body launched back to the Earth in free fall, just high enough that he could avoid space, Devin was performing the first High Altitude Low Orbit decent to the planet that had ever been attempted with no protection.  His eyes darted back and forth as he took in the lay of the land and almost immediately he knew where he was: China.

He was getting cold, but the suit held.  Mentally he shifted the freezing parts of his skin, adjusting the vascular flow to keep those spots warmer, longer.  It would still hurt for awhile but he could stave off the more lethal frostbite that would certainly set in if he continued this for much longer, but he had to... she was worth it, they all were.  He'd seen the Enemy and his fists clenched while his stomach tightened into knots.  Not on his watch.

His eyes immediately looked to China down, a small spot that no one anywhere could have seen from his height.  Honestly, he couldn't see anything either but his vision was drawn there like a mental tug.  He was looking right at where he needed to go even though he had no idea where there was.  He disappeared.

He reappeared a few feet above the ground, terminal velocity doing him a bit of favor as his hardened frame slammed into the ground like a bolt from he heavens.  He knelt there, one arm draped over his knee, looking down at the earth.  Did he have to land like that?  Nope.  Did he look cool as fuck landing that way?  Hells-to-the-yes he did!  He hit the ground like Thor descending from Asgard, and slowly he stood up.

"You kiss you boyfriend with that mouth?"  He said as grinned.

Laurie was... conflicted.  A part of her wanted to have a heart attack as the massive shock of the impact could have been an alien hungering for her face-meat.  When she saw it was Devin, she dropped down several rungs on the 'Shit-Yourself-And-Die' ladder for fear.  Okay, fine... it did look kinda cool too, h arrived like a superhero, and the nerd inside her sorta squeed... but just a little bit.  Her lips pursed and her fists clenched.  "I don't have a boyfriend, jackass, you know that."

"Well of course not," he smirked.  "Listen to how you talk to people.  You're gonna be thirty trolling the internet for Mass Effect fan fics, with a house full of cats and poorly drawn wolf art on your walls."

She laughed slightly, it snuck out as she trying to remain mad at him, or mad at the situation... or... she didn't know why she was mad.  Swiftly she punched him several times in the chest.  The things she'd seen, being thrown through the portal, slamming into trees and being trapped on a space ship... she broke down and just let go everything she'd had built up inside.  Her eyes watered with tears and her punching stopped as Devin grabbed her and held her tight.  He understood exactly how she felt.  His eyes were damp as he held her close and just let her take a moment to let it all out with only the two of them to keep the secret.

"Yeah," he said softly.  His voice choked on the emotions he was processing.  "I missed you too."

She held him tighter.
 

Spoiler

Jaunt developed his first dot in Mega-Stamina and took the Enhancement 'Durability'.  The Stamina helped him survive the cold with just the suit and the Durability converted the lethal frost bite into bashing damage.  I imagine he's pretty tired at this point (2-4 bashing).

I know we're supposed to buy stuff in between stories, but it seemed like a good time to incorporate the development into the story.  Since the power is 'developing' I'd imagine it's not actually working at 100% until after the story itself, while his muscles and bones or configuring their density to match his new Stamina score.  I assume his Stamina won't actually be applied until after the story and I've spent the appropriate amount of XP.

If I've assumed too much, let me know and I'll adjust the post.

 

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Crying helped. Devin's embrace and the heat of his body pressed against hers helped even more in releasing all of her pent up stress. Starting to feel better, Laurie reached up over his shoulder - their skinsuits squeaking as they slid against each other - and rubbed her eyes dry with a knuckle. She took several steadying breaths then leaned back, pulling her head from his shoulder so she could meet him eye to eye, but didn't move to break free of the circle of his arms.

"I so wouldn't have a house full of cats - I'd have a dog," Laurie protested, her expression a mix of seriousness and tension-breaking lightness. "And I hate to break it to you, Dev, but there's still something else you're missing."

"What?" Devin questioned, getting lost in Laurie's grey-blue eyes, bright with shed emotion.

Laurie's lips quirked. "A big pair of boobs."

Devin smirked back, booping her on the nose. "I don't know if you know this, Laurie, but Sean aside, boys usually don't have big boobs."

"Not yours, Idiot!" Laurie scowled through her grin, unable to help picturing what Devin might have looked like with a rack like Sean's. "Remember Clare? You found me, but where is she?" Laurie looked around at their surroundings and up at the fading contrail before returning her eyes back to Devin's.  "And where are we, for that matter? Is this Earth at least?"

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Abel smiled down to Kia and nodded.  "Clare's nice, but I definitely prefer present company."   He held her close as they danced, the threats of the world and to his friends pushed back in his mind, Enjoying this last dance with Kia.   "I'm glad we still got to do this.."  He whispered softly.

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"Yeah, we're home.  We're in China, somewhere, not sure where."  He looked around as if looking at an unfamiliar landscape would suddenly make it pop like a he had a GPS in his head ready to tell him where everything was.  "I don't know where Clare is, she was on my shoulder and when I came out of the portal she... she was gone!"

Laurie looked at him her eyes narrowing a bit as she tried to loop her mind around exactly what Devin's powers were.  "Dev, what exactly is it that you do?"

"Witty banter and snarky commentary, mostly."  He mused, stressfully looking about in the same manner he did before like Clare might be up in a local tree or something waiting to be rescued.

"I'm serious," She slapped his arm, suddenly coming to the realization that they were still embraced and it wasn't half bad.  "C'mon, I need you to focus up, your powers, Dev, what are they, what do you do exactly?"

"I, uh, well, I teleport," he let go of her and they separated.  He walked around a bit, searching for words.  "I can... how'd they put it... uh, cease to exist in one place and re-exist in another.  Teleport sounds cooler, though, shorter too."  I turned and faced her.  "But it doesn't help when looking for Clare, because I have no way of tracking people.  I need to know where I'm going, I need to be familiar with the destination.  I've never been to this part of China, and even if I had, I can't just say... 'take me to Clare' and have my powers whisk me away."  He sighed, defeated.  "She could be anywhere."

Laurie paced, wondering where Clare could be but also thinking about Devin.  Then an idea struck her.  "Wait, Devin... how many alien space ships have you been on?  Must be a lot right?"

"No, I told you, that was my first one."

"Exactly."  She glared at him, a smile forming on her lips.  "You weren't familiar with the ship, but you found me."

"I got lucky," he shrugged.  "So?"

"No, you didn't get lucky,"  she walked to him, meeting his eyes with her own.  "You weren't familiar with the shit Dev, you were familiar with me.  Remember, we were guild chatting and suddenly..."

"...I was there, I followed your voice.  I tracked you through the Psychic Link.... Holy, crap, I think you might be right!"  Envigored with new hope Devin bounced around for a bit to amp himself up.  He shook his hands letting his finger waggle about.  "Okay... I can do this... establishing a psychic link can't be all that hard."

"Sean says you have to be careful," Laurie reminded him.  "If you take in to much feedback it can really hurt.  Try and go slow."

"Psh, I got this.  Sean isn't an expert in everything, y'know.  She's so full of herself I'm surprised there's room for Sarah's tongue."

"Ouch," Laurie smirked and the exchanged a sideways 'five'.  "Good one."

"Thanks."  He smiled back and prepared for setting up the link with Clare.  Sean had given him the run down on how to do it, but he'd been watching porn on his phone the whole time while pretending to take notes on the phones keyboard.  No biggie though, he'd gotten the jist.  "Clare... Clare... Clare, Clare, Clare... ClareClareClareClare.... I summon the mind of Clare..."

Laurie punched him.  "Ass.  It's mental, not a spell..."

"It's not working."

"Sorry to hear that.  Performance issues?"  It was her turn to get back at him for every crappy joke he'd told up until now.

"Fuck off," he said dryly, half smirking but still sitting there with his eyes closed, concentrating on Clare... or at least the parts her he remembered.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, you know.  One out of five men..."

He raised his middle finger slowly and gently, telling her, lovingly, what he had told her a moment before.  He couldn't see her but she was smiling wide, for once enjoying some of the idle banter between them.  Then he jerked and spasmed and Laurie freaked out.

All at once he'd found Clare and without Sean's discipline or practice all her anxiety and fear washed over him like a swarm of dreadful locusts on feeding frenzy.  His eyes shot open wide but he didn't see Laurie.  In a panic he fell backwards and kicked his feet outward, pushing his back against a nearby tree where he raised his arms to defend himself or block from his eye a sight he didn't want to see.  Laurie almost flew into a panic herself, she clawed after him trying to get a grip on him but flailed and pulled away from her.  She screamed his name, talked to him, begged him to calm down, but it was all too much.

Finally the connection seemed to balance and Jaunt lay against the tree, breathing heavily and looking about like he wasn't really there.  He could feel Clare, her fear, or pain.  She was fighting him, something, or someone had been in her mind before and it left a scar, a deep scare that repelled Devin with every push he made to get through to her... <Clare. Clare... I know you're scared, this is Devin, and I know you don't want me in your head, love, but I'm trying to help you...>

She was up in the mountains somewhere... somewhere... he knew that mountain!  He knew where she was!  Before her was a massive black disc, a portal perhaps, and all around it were aliens, monsters... whatever you wanna call them, but they were there and she was scared near to death.  <D-Devin?  Devin... where are you?  Get out of my head... leave me alone!  They're... they're everywhere... I see them...>

<You don't want me in your head, I get it, I do.  I hate this mental link stuff too, trust me.  But right now, sweetheart, you ain't alone.  With this link I can find you and I can come get you...>

<Really?> He could hear  the teas in her words.  Clare was so frightened, so... so out of her damn league, right now achord in Devin was struck.  She didn't deserve this, none of them did, they deserved to finish school, go to college, get married (in the states that allowed it Sean's and Sarah's case)... not... not... this... sitting on a mountain watching the arrival of Cthulu's-In-Laws marching from some... Oblivion Portal.

<I think.>

The conversation quickly changed tone and suddenly Clare was a bit more sober.  <Wait... what do you mean, you 'think'.>

<So, yeah... Laurie says 'hi'...> and just like that he was gone.  Laurie saw him fade away, swiftly, like he had honed on something and taken off.  There were others who possessed Devin's power of teleportation, but he was made for it.  It as in his programming, his DNA... it was who he was.  The world moved in slow motion as Clare faded into view.  His quantum particles began to reconstitute themselves as he wrapped his arms around Clare.  Before they had formed he was nothing more than a faded version of himself, a ghost, almost.  She barely even noticed him, a blur, a smeared image of young Devin in a suit like hers.  His particles didn't even have the opportunity to build a full Devin before he enveloped her in his hold and whisked her away to where Laurie was waiting for them.

For Laurie it had only been the blink of an eye before Devin reappeared, with Clare in his arms.  He gave her a moment to readjust to what just happened.  "Clare, hey, you're here, safe with me and Laurie... okay?  See?  No mental link, just words... we're talking like regular people."  He looked to Laurie.  "She's in shock, I think."

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GUARDIAN SHIELD OPS

BULWARK AFB

Pryor came into the situation room and glanced at the large view screens he could see the large blinking reticule over the target site in north china, fucking great timing, he thought.

Major Douglas, the duty officer came to him as soon as he saw the Colonel.

“Colonel, this is bad its a massive and I mean massive Qutrino event, still gathering data but it's close to ten times the output of the previous events. And it's playing hell with sensor.”

This alarmed Pryor, “How so, Dave?”

“About thirty seconds into the event we started getting interference on the main spy sat, as per orders we already had standby ready to move into position we initiated so we could have multiple coverage for when we sent in the assets. As soon as we got spy2 in range and locked in we started getting the same interference.”

Pryor had given the Major a sharp look when he used the term asset, but it was the proper term and he better damn well start thinking like a commander and not a father.

“Do we have any visual of the site?”

“No sir.”

Pryor rubbed his chin, he needed a shave, funny thing to think of at a time like this, “Ok go to condition 2, get McKeller in here since he's the Field Ops commander, wake up the SecDef, he needs to know we are about to infiltrate a foreign nation with PMDs” he takes a deep breath, “ and call in the Irregulars, looks like their party is gonna end early tonight.”

 

BUNNIES BURGERS

SHELLY MONTANA

A groan from behind him brought caught Alec's attention from where he was watching mesmerized by the huge monstrosity coming slowly through the portal outside. He glanced over and saw that Bunee was beginning to stir. He moved that way.

<Guys, we have a really big problem, I have a portal which just opened up here and a huge thing is coming through it. Bunee and Mary seem to be waking up. Guys this thing is a lot bigger than the others and so is the portal> The images broadcast from his mind got every one of his friends complete mental attention

Alec looks at Bunee, “Bunee it's ok, but you need to be quiet right now.” He glanced back at the window to see that the creature had cleared the portal and mover fully into the empty parking lot taking up , what to Alec thought looked a lot like a defensive over-watch position. As he took this in a dozen small humanoid alien came through the portal and they too ran to make a defensive perimeter around the portal and then the head of a second giant alien started to come through.

<Guys, I need you here, NOW!>

 

SECTOR SPACE

7TH GALAXY

The Asheen Supreme Commander, Indat'Sh'al, gazed at the various observation globes showing the gathered might of no less than six full battle centers. This... Earth … as they called themselves would bend the knee to the Asheen and the Mighty Overlords, or be eradicated. He was very displeased with the Directorate, they had elected to notify the Overlords against his wishes, had told the Horrible masters of the threat and galvanized those dread creatures into action. Even now the call had gone out to the other six galaxies, and the Overlord Fleet was massing.

It was his job, the job of the Servant Asheen, to pacify the 7th Galaxy. And now the directorate had placed the kernel of doubt into the Overlords mind as to the Asheen's capability to do this.

A subordinate approached.

“Commander, the Generator is established and the first assault team has made breech near the enemies stronghold there has been no contact with the threat so far.” he reports to his lofty overseer.

“Good,” Indat'Sh'al chuckled, “Commence the invasion.”

 

ASHEEN INVASION CONTROL POINT

NORTHERN CHINA

EARTH

The class 3 Infantry drones circled the the great black disc in a defensive perimeter while the class5 anti air drones moved into positions higher on the mountain the Class 1 Scout/Hunters spread out in non complex search patterns to watch for the planets inhabitants. Two special class 6 units took up positions on either side of the generator and their heads turn upward necks craning skyward as the each began emitting waves of concentrated vibratory radiation aimed distant at orbital targets.

Spoiler

4dff229799b6099f4861801d0ee58b5a.jpg    The Class 6 Special Units

 

A SHORT DISTANCE FROM THE INVASION CONTROL POINT

Clare felt...oddly exhilarated as her fear and doubts washed away suddenly replaced by and overreaching sense of control and surety in self she had never felt before. Devin's arms around her felt good, very good and safe, she looked into his eyes saw her own reflection staring back and was amazed, he wanted her, “Devin, you saved me.” She kissed him deeply and with more passion than Devin had ever been kissed before

Laurie was stunned at the disappearance and reappearance of Devin with Clare in his arms, She was even more stunned when Clare kissed Devin, and then she was downright shocked by how pissed that made her.

“Hey! Stop kissing my boyfriend!”

Like a bad horror movie, Clare's head snapped bringing her glare onto Laurie. The newly enhanced girls eyes were solid black shiny full of malevolence. At least that's what Laurie thought as the force of a locomotive slammed into her chest.

The T'tauri Skin Suit Reacted at the nano-second of contact going super rigid to spread the kinetic force across the whole of the surface of the girls body, redirecting it in waves across the outer layer of the suit. Lauri felt the blow that sent her flying over 2 dozen yards and through a 150 year old Fir tree, but she was again miraculously unhurt. However that may not be for long.

As the teenage sister of arguably the most beautiful woman in the world rolled over onto her hands and knees preparing to stand, her mind reeling from the series of events unfolding she found herself face to face with a nightmare.

Spoiler

11378465_1582124132049372_418243212_n.jpg      This is what Laurie is face to face with

 

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Devin had been around enough weirdness to quickly do the math on what had thrown Laurie.  "Clare, what the hell?!"  She was still holding him tightly, and seemed totally content to just keep making out while Laurie was devoured by a Fugly-Nimble-Shart... the wolf-like alien creature that was now glaring at her.  Okay, that wasn't their actual name, but military designations really didn't jive well with him, so he gave all the alien creatures he'd been briefed on their own names so he could remember them... and what the hell else do you call a nimble, ugly AF, creature with a carapace that looked like it rolled in explosive diarrhea?  Yeah, thought so.

He faded from her view, denying her anymore of the greatness that was... well, him.

Two dozen yards was like a single step for him these days, but he could feel the warning in the back his mind... he couldn't keep jaunting around like this all day.  Sure, around friends it was one thing, the stress level were low, the camaraderie and kinship kept his energy levels up, but this... the stress, the anxiety... it was all different, it was wearing him down, fast.  Mentally he made the call to save just enough juice for two good jumps... hopefully.

He reappeared not far from her, already running.  He could go from laying on his back and disappearing to reappearing in a full-tilt sprint and since it all quantum science... no one could argue the physics, much to the frustration of the bases' resident science geeks.  He slid past the snarling creature, kicking up leaves and dirt, his suit held up to the abuse.

The fugly-nimble-shart lunged at her and Devin slid up just in time to punch it in the 'jaw'.  Alien slobber sprayed the area and it recoiled way more than Devin thought it would.  Somehow he'd whacked it with nearly a ton worth force in a single blow... and all it did was back up a few steps, shake it's... uh, head, and readied itself for another whack at them...

<Lilly... I could seriously use your perfectly sculpted ass right about now... please tell me you're listening... Sarah... anyone?  Seriously... I'd settle for Abel at this point... but only if he has a shotgun...> the fugly-nimble-shart roared and snarled as slobber coated the ground in icky alien slime.  <...a really big shotgun...>

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Spoiler

MAin group is on the dance floor dancins to a slow romantic song wishing the night would never end when three things happen pretty much all at once.

1) Alec calls for help over Guild Chat and sends a what he is seeing

2) Devin reestablish connection with Guild Chat as per the end of his last post

3) Everyone base  issued phone start vibrating with the emergency alert

Sean At the same instant Her Cosmic Awareness alerts her that one of the Pending threats which could lead to the end of the world and her death is happening now.

I don't need initiatives right now but we are pretty much going into action rounds so lets get some posts and kick some ass.

 

 

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Lilly smiled and nodded to Sandy. Shedid have concern, but Alec was there, so she allowed herself a few more minutes.

It was times like this that she cherished, because she never knew how many more she would have, or how they would last or when they would come. But this.. Sandy, moments like this and these people are why she had joined the program. Why she trained so hard and why she would not quit. These were the precious things that were certainly worth dying for.

 

21 hours ago, Jaunt said:

<Lilly... I could seriously use your perfectly sculpted ass right about now... please tell me you're listening... Sarah... anyone?  Seriously... I'd settle for Abel at this point... but only if he has a shotgun...> the fugly-nimble-shart roared and snarled as slobber coated the ground in icky alien slime.  <...a really big shotgun...>

< I knew it! I knew you were staring at my ass! > Lilly replied in the Guild Chat, half teasing.

<What happened to you guys? Where'd y-> Lilly's though was suddenly cut off as Alec came though...

 

On 6/30/2017 at 8:23 AM, AWS ST said:

<Guys, we have a really big problem, I have a portal which just opened up here and a huge thing is coming through it. Bunee and Mary seem to be waking up. Guys this thing is a lot bigger than the others and so is the portal> The images broadcast from his mind got every one of his friends complete mental attention

<What the... See! I TOLD YOU it was the damned aliens! Damnit> she said over Guild Chat as Sandy felt her tense up.

Then Lilly's phone vibrated, along with the other Irregulars. She held Sandy close and whispers,

"It's Power Rangers time. I need my stuff from the car. Like NOW. We gotta go."

 

 

 

 

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Sean slipped off her shoes with casual grace as if she had been doing so all her life and held the five-inch stiletto-heeled sandals in her hand as her thoughts raced with crystalline focus. Fear for her sister, her friends, and the rest of her family was still there, but it was locked behind the calculations and considerations to deal with the imminent and multiple threats.

<Devin! Is Laurie with you? Is she okay and where are you?> Sean thought towards the newest Irregular as she glanced at her work phone, read the emergency alert, then responded with her acknowledgment.

<She's right behind me,> Devin replied. <As for okay, she's either going to kick me in the nards or go slap the super out of Clare before the Fugly-Nimble-Shart eats us. On the plus side, I'm at the mission zone already. Not sure recon is that necessary though - Can confirm the aliens are already here.>

Under everything else, Sean felt a sense of relief that Laurie was back, that she knew where she was, even if she was still in tremendous danger. <Roger. This is much greater assault, perhaps an invasion in truth.> she informed everyone over GuildChat, calculating how much it would take to retrieve her personal armaments. <Not only are Devin and Alec on site for Portal breaches or beachheads, I can sense a threat around Sydney. The world ending kind of threat.>

It would be trite mentioning it portended her own death - it could mean a great many more. Striding towards the entrance, she gave the Deviants a glance of feigned casualness. <At least three major points of contact with the enemy. If we can't disrupt the entire invasion by taking out a key control center, we may need help and presumably Courtney and Company would still like a planet to be dicks on. What say you all?>

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"What. The. Fuck?!" Laurie whispered emphatically, staring up at the fugly-ass alien looming over her.

She was going to die. There was so much she would never get to do, an alien monster was going to eat her, and the thing uppermost in her mind was Clare kissing her boyfriend Devin then throwing her through a tree with her mind when she was called on it. All she wanted now was the chance to slap the stupid and the super out of the bitch before she was alien food.

Then Devin was there, punching the thing in the 'face', standing in between it and her. Laurie scrambled to her feet, looking around for anything she could use as a weapon. It might be useless, but she would go down swinging instead of cowering like a blonde in a horror movie. She glared over her shoulder back towards Clare.

She should probably have ameliorated her tone, considering the ungrateful bitch tried to kill her when she protested her kissing - fuck it! - her boyfriend, but she was still pissed, quite justifiably she thought. She pointed at the alien with emphatic intensity. "Attack it, not me, you bloody cunt!"

<So, yeah, my sister and the Irregulars are going to show up any second now, right?> she thought at Devin, trying to stay behind him without crowding him.

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<Guilty.> Devin said in his mind to Lilly.  <But, hey, can't blame a guy loving the scenery you add to a room, girl.  I hurts, I admit... you coulda had all this, but you had to go and date the football guy.> There was nothing about that he was serious about.  As much as he gave the ladies a hard time, a part of him was slowly falling in love with each them.  They'd began growing on him.  <So, I do have some bad news and it kinda looks like this.>  He sent her a mental imagine of what he was going up against.  <So, yeah, guys... Laurie, Clare and myself are in China... weather is beautiful, by the way.   We were spewed from what could be described as 'Cthulu's anus' and ended up at the portal we were supposed to reconning... big army... lots of drool... murder, death, kill all around.  Oh!  Good news though, Laure and I are apparently dating now... so... yaaayyy...>  The yay was a was comically very dry and unenthusiastic.

"I just got a hold of Lilly, they're... en route, I hope..." the fugly-nimble-shart lunged at him and he deftly dodged to the side, as it passed him he pushed it with as much force as he could muster.  It threw it off balance enough to avoid Laurie.  Quickly he interposed himself between her and the beast again, going on the offensive as it lunged again he threw a punch and the impact sounded like a high branch in a tree being broken by a strong wind.  Hard as it may have been it didn't seem enough.  Sure Devin had strength, but he wasn't a fighter, he didn't know how to make the most of each strike.  The beast snarled and lashed out it's claw tearing into Devin and sending him flying.  His suit seemed to absorb a lot of it but he hit the ground, hard.  He struggled to his feet, spitting up some blood as he rose.

Laurie tightly gripped a thick tree branch, she was to the beast's right flank.  Devin stood, more or less, not far from the front of the creature.  Clare was still sitting several yards away, on the creature's left flank.

Devin spit up some blood, hawking it into the leaves.  Devin didn't have a lot of weapons at his disposal but one thing on him that never quit running, was his mouth.  He arched his head to Laurie.  "You see that, you four-legged fleshlight?  That's my 'it's complicated'.  You're gonna try and go for her, and I'm gonna kick your ass.  You're gonna try and go for me, and I'm gonna kick your ass.  That's right you miserable alien fuck, all hundo and eighty pounds of my scrawny earthling ass is gonna wreck the rest of your short, painful existence and the only thing you can count on from now, until I end you... is never understanding how I did it."
 

Spoiler

 

Devin is in full combat mode, ready and awaiting orders.

I'm not 100% certain of it will work, but he will/is attempting to use his special power on one, and/or all of the Irregulars.

Oh, and that fancy little speech... damn right he broadcast through guild chat if he's gonna sound badass, you best bet he wants everyone to hear it, it's also the preparatory action for activating his special power.

 

 

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As the last syllable left Devin's mouth the beast was flattened by a tree.

The sudden and abrupt end of the Fugly-Nimble-Shart finally did something nothing else on earth had ever done, made Devin speechless.

The tree hadn't simple fallen over the creature crushing it, no the tree had come out of the sky like a missile. Sixty meters of hard wood traveling at terminal velocity slammed into and through the alien monster burying almost  a quarter of it's length into the mountainside, spraying the gore all around.

It seems Clare hadn't been simply sitting where Jaunt had left her.

In the distance a weird ululating howl could be heard joined by a second and a third and more until the air seemed to reverberate with the unearthly sound.

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"So...," he looked around, mildly confused.  "That just happened.  Because that shit sounded way bad ass... and now I can't use it again because you all have heard it already"

Despite one oddity after another, Laurie remained a bastion of fortitude.  With the beast gone however she dropped her stick and ran to Devin, holding him tightly.

Clare stumbled through the trees, meeting up with them.  Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the way Laurie held him.  No.  Brute force wouldn't win a guy like Devin over he needed a strong woman, but an equal.  Bashing Laurie with a rock or slamming her against trees... no, that wouldn't work.  Ugh, she was so stupid!  She staggered and stumbled, almost fell, but in an instant Devin was there.  Leaving Laurie's embrace he caught her before she fell.  "Careful."  His touch was welcomed, he was kind to her, protective.  It was sensations that she was not used to and at the moment she was still emerging.  Her body was in flux and her dopamine, endorphin and adrenaline levels were all spiked to levels that would have put Laurie baseline physiology into seizures.

"I gotta get you two back to Shelly and meet up with the other Irregulars."  He supported Clare, helping her walk back to where Laurie was waiting, still a bit miffed that he'd just vaped out on her, but she understood, to some extent, that Clare's 'condition' was a bit of a priority.  Didn't make her any less of a raging bitch, though.

"Dev, take her first, I'll go and find a safe place to hi-"  Their world blurred and suddenly and the next thing they knew they were standing by Lilly and Sandy.  The sudden appearance of the three of them cut off Lilly and Sandy and they all almost tripped on each other.  Devin fell to the floor, Clare in tow.  He was exhausted.

"Hide."  Laurie looked around, recognizing Lilly and felt a burst of confidence, but it didn't stop her from mumbling.  "He did it... he got us home..."

Devin had teleported all three of them and the strain it put on his system took it's toll.  He raised a very tired thumbs up.

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Devin hadn't quite made it to the floor before Sandy caught him and Lilly caught Clare and over a dozen phone caught the whole thing.

Ever since October weird things have been happening in Shelly and while everyone knows on some level everyone has also been ignoring it. People who have seen things that just couldn't happen simply explain it away even if the explanation made just as little sense as what they think they actually saw. But tonight was too much.

First the Irregulars and the Deviants, the way they looked could not be put aside these two groups of kid were no longer ...normal. Then the incident with Clare. Many saw it, saw her change, some even saw her disappear then reappear, but it was just another thing to look away from because things like that just didn't happen, plus there was the distraction of Sean Cassidy, 'cousin' to the weirdest kid Shelly had ever known who strangely was also the most beautiful creature anyone had ever seen, except for Courtney Adams, who suddenly was every bit Sean's physical equal. Then there was the pajama girl. Things were stretched thin with the appearance of DeathOtter and her sudden disappearance, but again things were diffused by an Irregular with Lilly's quick thinking.

But this, this was too much.

Maybe they could have ignored the sudden appearance of three more people out of thin air. Maybe not. But what no one who saw it could ignore,  was what they were wearing and the fact that they were glowing a strange neon blue.

Spoiler

You may post again... no the suits did not glow before but they are now although the glow almost immediately starts to fade. you all are not in the middle of the dance floor since there was about thirty seconds or so from Devins GC message before thy reappeared in the room in front of Lilly, and i figure that y'all were heading off the floor trying not to draw attention again,  so there are only about 15 people or so that witnessed this completely and about half of them are already raising their phones to take pictures.

 

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With everything going on and now the miraculous appearance of their three missing friends/family/other, Abel sighed.  "Well there's no hiding it now is there."   He smiled at Kia and chuckled.  "You heard Lily, It's Morphin' Time."   He released her and made his way to Courtney and the Deviants, of all people.  "You and your group have a choice, you can take the opportunity to leave and maybe things blow over, or you can fight too.   THEY are HERE, and I'm sure your Friend knows this all too well.  It's a chance to show the world the self you want them all to see, or not.   We're going to fight Them.  If you're in, let us know."   

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Laurie felt one of Sean's sleek, impossibly strong arms go around her shoulders, holding her tight and she melted into her superhuman sister's embrace, shaking in relief. Reestablishing their mental link, Laurie quickly updated Sean on everything that had occurred to her, and looking up, she noticed Sean give Clare a deceptively casual glance.

Sean had moved with almost unthinking speed to Laurie's side as soon as she had appeared, instinctively taking a closer look at the thin, skintight body suit she was wearing, trying to decipher its structure to get a greater idea of the alien technology. Sean considered everything Laurie told her to the smallest detail, adding the permutations to her calculations and predictions on how to forestall or repel the invasion.

The fact of their nature becoming public was only given the slightest iota of thought. The excuses and deceptions they had made had never meant to withstand scrutiny, they had only been a delaying tactic until the government made arrangements for their reveal and the truth of extraterrestrial life. Well, they would not be a secret any longer, and they would not be the only thing not a secret after this night and Sean could not care less about that fact or that the government's plans had been co-opted by the Invasion. Stopping or repelling the Invasion was the priority.

<I need to get to base post haste. I need access to all their data streams, need all the information I can get and I need time to determine every variable and permutation needed to prevent Sydney's destruction, because if it goes, that is a high probability the world is following after it,> Sean said with focused determination over GuildChat, glancing at Abel as he walked over to the Deviants.

<Laurie is coming with me, and I suggest the other non-enhanced SOs and Devin do too. Devin, we'll need you to recover as swiftly as you can, because we're going to need you to get the right assets to the right place at the right time. Plus you can tell me everything that you saw and experienced on your trip without risking an alien eating your face while you are distracted.>

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Kia was left in the dust with all the rapid-fire developments, going from startled at the news coming in to startled at the appearance of Devin and the girls to startled at Abel's sudden decision to engage with Courtney after having yanked her collar about NOT doing that a few times. She couldn't keep up with all this, couldn't follow it. With the unthinking expertise of long practice, she shoved all the stuff she couldn't deal with over to the side and focused on one thing that seemed important.

Where was she needed right now?

"You guys, I'm going to Bunnee's," she said, and stepped out of her heels to break into a run for the exit. Once outside she could change into something more appropriate for the new venue.

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  • Nina locked this topic
  • Nina unlocked this topic

 

AT THE BALL

Courtney and her gang had been sulking as the party resumed and continued after DeatOtter's departure and since they were not in a position to see the Irregulars and weren't looking they missed the newest event. Courtney's plan which she had thought was brilliant was in shambles and DeathOtter was not amused, to say that she was deflated was an understatement. Gina had noticed her friend Clare hanging out with Abel and that really pissed her off first he chose that slant eyed whore over me, she thought, and now your going after one of MY best friends. Chet sat crunching the ice from his cup, he wanted to dance and have fun and while Courtney was hot, the hottest that he had ever been with ever, he couldn't help but keep stealing glances at Sean Cassidy. He still wasn't sure that he believed that Sean was not really a girl but there was no denying that Chet wanted her and watching her dance with the dike was just turning him on even more. Dan was lost in his own thoughts and was not really here at the party still it was he who noticed the approaching Abel. He tapped Courtney who looked as directed and stood up to meet the Irregular.

Abel dispensed with the pleasantries on his arrival before Courtney and the rest of the Deviants. He got straight down to business.

 "You and your group have a choice, you can take the opportunity to leave and maybe things blow over, or you can fight too.   THEY are HERE, and I'm sure your Friend knows this all too well.  It's a chance to show the world the self you want them all to see, or not.   We're going to fight Them.  If you're in, let us know."   

Courtney squinted at Abel, she had known him since kindergarten and still couldn't tell what the fuck the nerd geek was saying 90% of the time. Like now.

“What the fuck are you talking about Abel?”

 

Laurie felt one of Sean's sleek, impossibly strong arms go around her shoulders, holding her tight and she melted into her superhuman sister's embrace, shaking in relief. Reestablishing their mental link, Laurie quickly updated Sean on everything that had occurred to her, and looking up, she noticed Sean give Clare a deceptively casual glance.

While her mind sort of responded to Sean's line of almost clinical mental questioning it was impossible for Laurie to not see the flashes of the phones taking pictures of her Clare, Devin and the rest of the Irregulars that gathered around them. Suddenly she remembered what she was wearing and tried to cover herself as much as possible.

 

GUARDIAN SHIELD OPS

BULWARK AFB

Like a well oiled machine the men and women sprung into action alerts going out and forces being placed on standby awaiting orders. The call to the Irregulars had gone out and Capt McKeller was just entering the center to take Tactical command.

“Sir,” One of the Technicians called out over the low murmur of voices drawing the attention of Col. Pryor and Capt McKeller, among others, “We have just lost the feeds from KH 13 and 16, Correction 13, 16, 12, and 7. That the entire Keyhole coverage of the area.”

Another Airman breaks in a surge of alarm in his voice. “We have outages across the board, some sort of cascade effect is taking out our communications”

All around the room screens are going to standby as their feeds stop. Alarm lights are winking to get the attention of their operators.

“Colonel, I had the Pentagon but the line just went dead sir.”

 

EARTH

SOL SYSTEM

THE 7TH GALAXY

It started in Asia, or rather above Asia. Communication wit satellites abruptly disrupted. It spread rapidly around the globe the wave of Radio-logical Vibration knocking the planets vast array of satellites offline. Even the International Space Station was cutoff.

For the first time in over half a century the sky over the Earth was silent.

 

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"Copy that," Devin said in both guild chat and out loud.  Everyone was getting pretty used to it now.

<Dev, you sure you're okay?  No shame in warming the bench for a game.>  Sean asked, he tone was sympathetic.  He knew he'd been through a lot in a small amount time and brought her sister back home to her, she supposed she owed him something for that.  <Live to fight and all that...>

"Put that baby to bed, Cassidy..." he grunted.  He was slowly getting his feet back but this newly discovered ability of his was, as he found out the hard way, was taxing without proper practice.  "Silver ain't gonna cut it.  We signed up for the Gold and that's what we're walkin' home with," He looked to Laurie and offered a reassuring smile.

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Kia looked back at Jaunt. She was fast, and with a little shapechange could be faster still...but if Jaunt could take her to the action, that would be the fastest of all.

<If you're sure you'll be okay, I think we'd better get to Bunnee's.>

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Sean gave Devin a sharp nod of satisfaction and her smile in agreement could have stopped or started hearts. "Well and good, Dev, you might be man enough for my sister after all." Her tone was light and bantering, but her determined eyes didn't conceal the gravity of the situation. "But we're gonna have to work for that gold."

She tossed her head towards Kia, who had also taken off her heels and was prepared to move. <Kia has the right idea - you guys should back up Alec at Bunnee's. Yes, you were right, Lilly, now we can't allow the aliens to get a foothold here in Shelly that would let them strike at Bulwark and Guardian Shield. You guys need to buy them time to get organized and deployed to maximized effectiveness while I go to Bulwark and figure out how to disrupt the rest of the evasion.>

There had been only the slightest flicker of her eyes going towards Sara when Sean said they should fight the aliens at Bunnee's, but Sara felt Sean's concern for her, the yearning for them to stay side-by-side, and then steely resolve. Sara had firepower the Irregulars would need to face down the threat Alec had showed them and with her speed, she'd be able to help with transport, to some degree if something happened to the teleports or interfered with their capabilities. Sean would be more effective on the whole, for the moment, in determining the exact countermeasures and actions they needed to make.

<Devin, you're gonna have to ready to jaunt to and fro when I say. There's a vanishing small chance to stop this in its tracks and I'm going to need everyone ready act when I call to have everything fall into place.>

"Does anyone else have something to add, suggestions or objections to make? Alec is alone, the aliens are invading in truth, and time is ticking."

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Trying to conceal what she was wearing - or almost wearing - by hiding behind her sister's tall, curvaceous form, Laurie tried to return Devin's smile with one that looked reassured. She wasn't. She just been on a spaceship passing Jupiter, almost got eaten by an alien wolf and telekinetically sucker punched by the duck-suddenly-turned-swan trying to steal her boyfriend. On top of that, she was standing here, in front of everyone and their phones, wearing something that covered less than paint.

Mom was going to ground her for life if they didn't all end up dead.

And the worse part was Devin and her sister and their friends were going to go back into it and other than trying to give Sean all the details she could remember about her trip off planet, Laurie couldn't see how she could help. She had on an embarrassing supersuit that left nothing to the imagination that let her survive being thrown through a tree, but somehow, she didn't think swinging a tree branch or throwing a rock at the aliens was going to do much to help stop an honest-to-God alien invasion.

<I'm guessing these aliens are going to be stopped by glasses of water or the common cold, right?> she sent to Devin and her Sister, while saying it out loud at the same time in her nervousness.

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Sara glanced around shaking her head slightly at the looky loo's snapping pictures and uploading them as fast as they could to Instagram and Facebook.

"I guess secrecy is a thing we don't have to worry about now." she said to no one in particular.

Even as she spoke the irregulars could se the wave of uncertainty passing through the crowd as first the music stopped and as uploads failed.

Spoiler

Any communication requiring satellite is offline only local cellular is available and land line of course.

 

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Abel looked to Courtney and sighed.  "Courtney, all of you, there are Aliens who want to destroy us.  They're here.  In fact, their first forays into our world are why all of us have the abilities we do, as an unintended consequence. This time, it's not a recon, they're here to fight now.   We have a shrinking window of time to stop this, and any help we can get would be appreciated.  No more hiding, just doing whatever it takes to save everyone.  I know this sounds crazy, but given everything else going on, that you all have seen, have been apart of, do you really find it so farfetched?"

He looked to each of them meeting their gaze.  "We're going to fight, you all have a choice to make.  If you come fight alongside us, and we win, I will tell you more of what I can.   If we don't win here and now, anything after really won't matter."   His voice was steady and even, he was here because they could be of use, if they set aside their animosity.  It was a gamble, they could All be killed, but it was the same risk Abel himself faced, just like the Irregulars.   He gave them a moment to think, to reply,  as crucial as each moment was, he knew if they did actually go along with them, it would help them all.

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Courtney just stared at Abel like he had lost his mind but Dan who had listened fascinated spoke, "Aliens that makes a lot of sense."

Courtney glared at Dan "What?"

"You know I never did buy into that whole struck by lightning stuff or the 'it was a government plot to create super soldiers' BS that DO was trying to shovel at us." said Chet nodding, "Kick Alien ass fuck ya count me in bro." He holds out his fist at Abel inviting the bump.

"Come on Gina, Courtney, It's starship troopers, everybody fights. No more skulking around and hiding who we are." Says Dan as he places a hand on each girls shoulder, He looks at Abel and beyond him at Lilly and the rest of the Irregulars. "Where do you need us?"

Courtney slumps giving in to the inevitable.

 

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Phones be damned.  Jaunt had seen them in the portal, the monsters, the nightmares.  He had two passions his whole life, his art and his gymnastics but he'd never been motivated to pursue something like he was now.  Those things were coming, but they weren't getting his world.

"Alright," Jaunt shouted over the fading music.  He pointed to Abel, Courtney and the others.  "Sage, get them up to speed and to rendezvous.  Chimera, you're with Abel, Alec in the shit and he needs you guys."

"They have code names..." Dan said softly, his tone laced with a bit a awe.

"I'm taking Laurie and Savant back to HQ, we'll meet up with you as soon as we can.  Lilly, give them a hand, please.  And pick a code name already." He smiled and winked at her.

"And an HQ... oh, man..." Dan mumbled again, this time sounding completely impressed.

Courtney sighed, completely annoyed.  "Dan.  Shut.  Up."  She approached Jaunt and Laurie and Savant on her way out to work with Abel.  She had to stop to get in her two cents.  "You think you're the shit, don't you," He goose necked Devin... she actually goose necked him!  "But you're not.  This isn't the end of this, trust."

"I feel ya, Nummy Tits, be me an mine are gonna go out there be 'gods', small 'g'.  You wanna stay in here and settle for 'queen', well, that's on you girl."  He smiled at her raised up his hand, thumb to his ear and pinky to his mouth he whispered 'call me', and then they were gone.

They appeared close to Colonel Pryor, Jaunt slouched again, leaning on a close by.  He prolly could have handled just himself, but this whole new experience of moving multiple people with him was still undisciplined.  "Hey Sir, Colonel, Sir..."

Spoiler

Savant, Jaunt and Laurie are at the AFB, the rest is on you guys.  Go kick ass.

 

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"Didn't you get the memo? It's Vanguard." she says back to Devin, managing a grin as he faded away along with Savant, Laurie and Sandy.

Once they vanished Lilly looked back to the others, her face and voice taking a somewhat more serious tone.

"Okay. Irregulars, get suited up. I got mine in the car." she said as she moved toward the nearby exit into the parking lot.

"And then everybody into their limo. I'll get us all there so the fast rest of you can save juice. And get the driver out of it too. No used bringing him along." Lilly said, pointing to the Deviants, who had arrived in a large humvee limo.

 

With the Deviants and whoever else needed to get their gear from the Irregular's limo behind her, Lilly ran to Sandy's car with unnatural quickness. She opened the door and leaned in, pulling her satchel and bow case from the backseat. Running in to a bathroom just to change and run back out would just be a waste of time, so Lilly shrugged, move behind the car to provide at some degree of cover, or so she thought, pulled out her PAM suit and slipped off her dress, and kicked her heels into Sandy's car with the dress thrown in on top of them. This left her standing in the parking lot in her her bra and panties. Modesty though, was something that had faded a good degree with Lilly over a lifetime of competitive sports, so she thought little else of it and begin slipping on the skintight PAM suit.

The male Deviants, to varying degrees tried to conceal the fact they watched. The sight of the beautiful, athletic girl with a physique that would make Wonder Woman envious, nearly naked and slipping into the skintight suit certainly drew reactions. Dan could not help but turn beet red at the scene before him, shy and a bit embarrassed, but he could not help but watch, while Chet, ever the gentleman, watched with mouth agape and a very visible boner.

Courtney stood there, arms crossed beneath her breasts and rolled her eyes.

"I am not changing in front of them. No way. No freebies from me, damnit." she snapped, to which Chet just grinned and shrugged.

"Hey. Can I get one of those?" Chet asked, wanting to get in on the superhero vibe.

"Maybe. We'll explain how if we all don't die." Lilly replied, finally fully suited up.

"Everybody in." Lilly called out, pointing to the humvee limo as she buckled on her quiver and slipped her bow across her body, the string resting between her breasts.

Irregulars and Deviants alike ran to the Limo, hopping inside while Chet ran to the driver's door, opened it up, and with a single yank pulled the drive from the seat, sending him tumbling into the snow.

Once they were inside, Lilly squatted down, with Chet trying to peek out the widow and get a shot of her flexing ass in the skintight suit, and picked up the limo, moving it overhead.

"Hold on!" she called up the car.

Lilly let the energy course through her muscles, propelling her overland, with the car limo over her head, at roughly 200 kph, though careful enough to build acceleration so as to not risk whiplash to the occupants. Taking the most direct route she could think off, with road no longer being a requirement, she ducked down streets, between buildings, and through parking lots and, cutting the trip to roughly 1/4 mile, having been able to take a nearly straight line path there.

When She arrived though, she was still not entirely ready for what she saw...

 

Spoiler

Lilly's code name is Vanguard.

Nina said that Sandy went along with Jaunt and the others to the base and as per her instructions, I took the post just to them arriving so that she could take it from there. 

I did not specify which Irregulars got in (though I would assume all of them left at the dance), so you can go your own route/thing if you like (I assume that is okay with Nina)

The main goal though was Lilly using her q pool, which she does not use a lot, to get everybody on site, thereby conserving their pools by not having to shapechange or fly to whatever just to get there. It'll cost Lilly the same amount of q if she runs alone or carries everybody, so may as well make the most of it.

 

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GUARDIAN SHIELD OPS

BULWARK AFB

Jaunting seemed easier that time and more importantly both Talena and Sandy, two people he did not have a quantum link to had seem to come along with them. Easy it may have been but it was still costly in terms of power even though it seems to have been off set by something. No time to think about that know though.

 

They appeared close to Colonel Pryor, Jaunt slouched again, leaning on a close by.  He prolly could have handled just himself, but this whole new experience of moving multiple people with him was still undisciplined.  "Hey Sir, Colonel, Sir..."

 

The Colonel almost jumped out of his skin as the team appeared out of thin air in the middle of a secured area one that Jaunt had never been in before. Others were also caught off guard and weapons were raised two airmen jumped ontop of Col Pryor and carried him to the ground covering him with their own bodies.

“No! Don't shot It's us the Irregulars and we have civilians!”

Rifles still pointed at the Capt. Mckeller shouted “Stand down! Stand down! They're ours”

In a moment the Colonel was back on his feet and staring at the QEH's and their friends. “Where's the rest of the team? Wheres my daughter?”

 

BUNNIES DRIVE IN

SHELLY MONTANA

 

Alec had quickly explained things to an awakened Bunee, who really took it much better than he should have, he simply nodded and mumbled “Should have figured it was goddamned Aliens” as he did as directed and led Mary into the back of the diner to take refuge in the big freezer.

Alec turned back and sent a mental plea to his friends <You guys better hurry and you better be bringing an army>

 

Outside of Bunnies Diner, the second Class 4 War Drone had finished it's emergence and the nose af a third huge creature, different than the other two and if anything larger, had just begun to emerge. The two Class4 drone took up positions as four smaller transportals opened and more Class 2 Infantry drones began flowing through at a rate of about one every four second each infantry drone was folloed by two of the class one scout/attack drones.

Alec knew he couldn't wait much longer but there were so many

<We're on our way be there in less than a minute> came Lilly's thought

We may not have a minute, thought Alec but he didn't send it instead he prepared to attack.

 

Lilly sped though the yard part of her mind was still trying to wrap itself around the fact that she was running carrying a huge limo and that the thing hadn't simply torn itself apart when she arrived at bunnies. She skidded to a stop and kept the limo in lifted in the air. She was still covered by the houses and hadn't been spotted. She could see the large portal and the four smaller ones that Alec had reported but she could also see the other side of the large portal where four more small portals were pouring forces into the parking lot of the Bowling ally across the street. In a glance she could see that there were over a hundred of the Humanoid alien of a type she hadn't seen before they wore armor and carried what looked like big guns. And there were almost twice as many of the wolf howler creatures that they had first encountered when they had all manifested. But the horror was the thing coming out of the Big Portal It looked lie a slug with centipede legs and its entire head was a huge green jewel.

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"Vanguard," Sean said with subtle emphasis, her melodious voice cool and professional, but there was sympathy in her devastating turquoise eyes, "along with the rest of the Irregulars and a number of deputized auxiliaries are engaging an alien incursion at Bunnies Burgers." A faint frown crossed her red lips as she was updated by the Irregulars on the scene. "The incursion is much greater than initially anticipated."

"Well done, Jaunt," Sean said, nodding at Devin and flashing him a small grin. She noted in interest that he had also managed to bring Taleena and Sandy - Intentional or accidental? - and filed that tidbit away. "Get some rest, dude, I think you're going to be busier sooner than you'll like."

Sean had seemed completely unperturbed with the rifles of the surprised airmen pointed her way and now strode through the secured area as though she had every right to be there. The textured bodysuit of her PAM suit struck a striking contrast with her made-up face and styled hair meant for the Winter Ball, but she stood straight and strode surely, as though she was a veteran of many alien invasions, her self-assurance radiating out to effect those nearby. It wasn't blithe overconfidence, but simply the determination to do what needed to be done.

"Colonel Pryor, that incursion is just one of what I believe is a minimum of three assaults," Sean informed him while she glanced at various monitors, analyzing them with barely a glance. "Jaunt and Laurie just returned through a portal after being abducted to an alien vessel, arriving in China, at the mission zone in fact, an incursion either directly preceding or following them. And I intuit an existential threat starting with the destruction of Sydney that I had believed was a more distant concern."

"We were on a sort of observation deck," Laurie offered weakly as she got her shoulder under Devin's arm to offer him a bit of support, to somehow help. "And it looked like we were passing Jupiter. I mean, it looked like Jupiter always does on TV."

Sean dipped her head towards her sister acknowledging her input then gestured at several of the monitors. "I understand satellite communications have been disrupted. Are radio or cellular systems still active? I need as much information as possible on recent quantrino fluctuations, coverage of the mission zone, any another anomalies detected, even anything that strikes someone as a hunch."

Her lips tightened into a firm line as she gave Lilly's father a direct, frank look. "Global forces and resources aren't united and organized enough to counter this threat. We need to find a critical juncture in their in command or force structure that we can strike surgically to disrupt the global assault."

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It was captain McKeller who responded to Sean's questions as Col Pryor was call to a land line phone, the Pentagon had been reached.

"Everything that relies on satellites is offline. Radio seems to be working but there is a great deal interference. Land lines for what it's worth are still active." He points at an airman, "Get savant the information we received before everything went down."

He went to a big screen with a global map, placed his finger on a spot in northern China. "We were starting to get massive Quetrino Readings here that's were are target area was for you recon mission, but we lost contacts with the overhead sats before we could get imaging operational."

He looked back at Sean. "That's was pretty much when we sent your recall. But now you say that there is portal activity in Shelly?"

Devin had plopped into a seat at Sean's suggestion. So much was happening so fast He looked over at where the soldiers has corralled Sandy and Talena. That was a mystery how did they get here?

He almost jumped when someone touched his arm. It was Laurie.

Laurie too was looking at where the soldiers had moved Talena and Sandy off out of the way and were keeping a close eye on the obvious civilians. They had ignored her though  not realizing, she thought, that she was just a civilian too. She assumed it was because of the suit. It did make her look like one of the super-friends. And that made her think.

"Dev," she whispered so that only he could hear, "Why did they put us in these suits?"

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21 hours ago, AWS ST said:

BUNNIES DRIVE IN

SHELLY MONTANA

 

Alec had quickly explained things to an awakened Bunee, who really took it much better than he should have, he simply nodded and mumbled “Should have figured it was goddamned Aliens” as he did as directed and led Mary into the back of the diner to take refuge in the big freezer.

Alec turned back and sent a mental plea to his friends <You guys better hurry and you better be bringing an army>

 

Outside of Bunnies Diner, the second Class 4 War Drone had finished it's emergence and the nose af a third huge creature, different than the other two and if anything larger, had just begun to emerge. The two Class4 drone took up positions as four smaller transportals opened and more Class 2 Infantry drones began flowing through at a rate of about one every four second each infantry drone was folloed by two of the class one scout/attack drones.

Alec knew he couldn't wait much longer but there were so many

<We're on our way be there in less than a minute> came Lilly's thought

We may not have a minute, thought Alec but he didn't send it instead he prepared to attack.

 

Lilly sped though the yard part of her mind was still trying to wrap itself around the fact that she was running carrying a huge limo and that the thing hadn't simply torn itself apart when she arrived at bunnies. She skidded to a stop and kept the limo in lifted in the air. She was still covered by the houses and hadn't been spotted. She could see the large portal and the four smaller ones that Alec had reported but she could also see the other side of the large portal where four more small portals were pouring forces into the parking lot of the Bowling ally across the street. In a glance she could see that there were over a hundred of the Humanoid alien of a type she hadn't seen before they wore armor and carried what looked like big guns. And there were almost twice as many of the wolf howler creatures that they had first encountered when they had all manifested. But the horror was the thing coming out of the Big Portal It looked lie a slug with centipede legs and its entire head was a huge green jewel.

 

<Are you guys seeing all this?> she asked through Guild Chat, sending mental images at the same time as she sat down the limo as carefully and quietly as she could.

As soon as the Irregulars and Deviants spilled out of the limo, Lilly grabbed Kia's hand and looked her in the eyes.

<I am juicing up and calling in... reinforcements. You should pay attention.> she said in Guild Chat, but it was clear she was speaking to Kia mostly.

"Powering up..." she said, which caused Dan to look confused.

"Powering up? I thought you were alred-" Dans voice trailed off as he watched Lilly pull off her bow and hold it in her other hand.

She concentrated for a moment, opening the floodgate in her mind, allow quantum energies to surge through her body as she grimaces for a moment as a wave of energy waved over her body from head to toes, causing muscles to visibly tense, the energy lacing into her nerves, skin, muscle fibers, and even some brain tissues, strengthening... reinforcing... accelerating...

<That's step one...> 

She looked at her bow and poured quantum into it, the PAM enhanced recurve bow, fortifying the material to withstand the inhuman stresses she would soon be placing on it.  

"Now time for to call in the rest of the Vanguard..."

Lilly looked into herself, suddenly become acutely aware of her body... every hair, fuild, fiber, bone, nerve, tissue, cell, even particle, for just a fraction of a second, and grabbed at it with quantum energy, in the process 'pulling' identical copies of herself out of her body, to the left and right behind her with a visible 'heat' distortion rippling in the air. In a moment they formed a Delta V of identical Lilly's, all in PAM suits and armed with the same bows, with Lilly 'Prime' at the point of the spear.

And at the same time, six more minds... all Lillys, could be felt in Guild Chat.

"Whoa!" Dan said as he stood there, eyes wide at the sight of the self-duplicating Lilly.

Chet, on the other hand, now had is mind racing with fantasies that multiple, identical Lillys could offer.

"Oh gross!" Courtney said when she noticed Chet's obvious boner.

Lilly looked at Kia, with a broad smile on her face as the duplicates all began spreading out, forming a perimeter. 

<Think you can use that?> she asked mentally with with obvious giddy excitement.

<Just make sure you shift first. They all draw on your energy.> she warned her BFF.

<Sorry for keeping secrets guys, but this is kinda new and I've had some... issues... with this ability...> she though apologetically through Guild Chat, honestly feeling back for keeping the ability from the others, but at the same time a bit of unease or embarrassment could be felt as well.

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"Keeps us fresh.  Locks in all our natural flavors."  He mused, once again not taking anything seriously (or was he?), it seemed that he was usually at his best when he was acting his worst.

Her lips tightened and she squeezed his shoulder.  "Not funny."

"Not joking." He said, hoping he wasn't right.

Second Lieutenant Wilks approached with one of Devin's phones.  Savant managed to clone their cellular devices in case they lost them (not surprising given what they did for a 'living', all the same number across several replacements.  No one was supposed to have their cellular devices in the SCIF, but then again no one was supposed to be teleporting into them either.  The Irregulars were the only chance the military had at gaining an advantage in this threat, so Captain KcKeller arranged for a few considerations.  "Sir," Second Lieutenant Wilks handed him his phone.  "Captain McKeller thought you might want to let your family know you're okay, sir."

"I'm not a sir," Jaunt said, as polite as he could through his fatigue.  The device was already booting up.  "Thanks."

"You may not be an Officer, but you've been farther out there than any human ever has, your friends are out there fighting, you're saving lives, Savant is..." He trailed off as his eyes caressed every curve of Savant's PAM suit.

"Pretty hot, I know..." He smirked. Laurie shared in the grin.

Wilks composed himself.  "I-I just mean... with all you guys are doing, when you don't have to be... that's a 'sir' in my book, sir."  He stood at attention and saluted Savant, Jaunt, and Laurie (still thinking she was part of the super-team).  He was still young officer, and a bit embarrassed he composed himself.  "I'll get you some sweats or something..."

There was a certain weight to the scene as Wilks walked away.  Things were getting weird out there and those who were scared were already latching onto what they felt might be the last vestiges of hope, these new, super people... and Jaunt and Savant were among them.  Common school kids thrust into an uncommon life of heroism.

Jaunt raised his hand and touched Laurie's where it was resting on his shoulder.  "Hey, you were amazing out there.  Just thought you should know."
 

Spoiler

 

JauntText_zpsig21vgka.jpg Hey.  You OK?

MariText_zps4ouwizj4.jpgOMG, where the hell are you!?  People at school have pics of you in bondage rubber dude... WTF?!

JauntText_zpsig21vgka.jpgYeah, trying something new.  Really hugs the junk, could be a new look for me.  Look, I need you to get home, get Mom and Dad, and go somewhere safe.

MariText_zps4ouwizj4.jpgDev, what the hell is going on!?

JauntText_zpsig21vgka.jpgPlease, just do it.  I'll explain later.

 

JauntText_zpsig21vgka.jpgAnd, just in case... despite the last few years, me hating this place, the serious dick I've been... please tell tell Mom and Dad that I love them.  Love you too, Mars.

MariText_zps4ouwizj4.jpgWhat's that about?  You're scaring me.  What's going on?

 

MariText_zps4ouwizj4.jpgDevin?

 

MariText_zps4ouwizj4.jpgAnswer me.

 

MariText_zps4ouwizj4.jpgDev?

 

Spoiler

Yes, I'm playing with pictures... leave me alone. :P

 

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Abel chuckled  <Lily it's cool.  We've all likely got things we can do that we haven't told everyone about yet.   They're your abilities, you tell us when you're ready.   Though I gotta say,  Shadowclone-jutsu there is gonna come in damn handy.  I'm sure before this is done, we'll all know abit more about each other's abilities."

His energy field crackled to life, creating a barrier wall of telekinetic force between the Aliens and the gathered Deviants and irregulars.  "I will try to find the leader, and provide a protected area."  He looked to Courtney and the Deviants.  "You know your abilities better than we know them, I'll trust your judgement on what you think you can handle.  Keep in mind these things shoot lasers, their claws are sharp and they can stun you, just like at the cabins, so don't let them hit you."

Once he said that, he turned his attentions to finding the alien commander.     Reading the various "minds" nearby, he quickly saw the patterns emerge, and deduced that they were combat maneuvers, similar to how a coach would mark plays for a football team.   Once he hit on that, it was easy to find the mind with ALL the plays, and pinpoint it, A humanoid alien surrounded by half a dozen other infantry sized aliens.  He quickly relayed this over guildchat.   <So, a choice,  strike the head from the serpent and see what happens, or stall, and give me a chance to dig through his mind for anything of use.>

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10 minutes ago, Jaunt said:

Jaunt raised his hand and touched Laurie's where it was resting on his shoulder.  "Hey, you were amazing out there.  Just thought you should know."
 

  Reveal hidden contents
  Reveal hidden contents

 

Laurie grabs Devins hands and using a trick Sean had taught her twisted them into a rather painful hold.

"You idiot! Listen to me Why would the Alien's trying to kill us put us in freaking supersuits and not have us under guard? They let us walk around their freaking spacship!"

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Quantum Energy flowed the folds of space time twisted as the Irregulars powered up.

The nearest Class 1 Scout/Attack drone an upgrade from the last model used on this world registered the twist in the Quantum fold and opened its sensors to full Scan.

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GUARDIAN SHIELD OPS

BULWARK AFB

"Yes, Captain McKellar. It started with the sudden manifestation of a new QEH at the Winter Ball..." Sean informed him, updating him on what she knew about Devin, Laurie, and Clare's abduction - though not hinting at the reason for Clare's manifestation - Alec's investigation, and the subsequent portal activity and incursion at Bunnee's Burgers. "... is clearly a coordinated assault."

Sean nodded at the airman as he handed her her tablet with the data they had acquired so loaded on it, giving him a brief smile. "Thank-you Airman Dwyer. If you would, there is one more thing I would like... "

After telling him her request, Sean started reviewing the data at a rate that was far beyond human while continuing to discuss the situation with McKellar. The text and images on Sean's tablet was barely more than a blur to McKellar's eyes, yet he knew the unnerving, yet enticing woman he was speaking with was not only reading it in its entirety, but also comprehended it and was considering all the ramifications while holding her end of the discussion.
 

15 hours ago, AWS ST said:

"You idiot! Listen to me Why would the Alien's trying to kill us put us in freaking supersuits and not have us under guard? They let us walk around their freaking spacship!"

"Just what I was thinking, sis," Sean said, giving her sister a smile and making Devin and Laurie jump.

They hadn't seen her approaching or even heard her. She now had what looked like a large caliber pistol holstered on each thigh and something that was too long to be called a knife and too short to be called a sword sheathed on her back, as well as a tactical harness over her bodysuit, though it hadn't been equipped as yet. Over her arm was a pair of BDUs, which she extended towards Devin and Laurie.

"Despite it feeling like we're in a bad sci-fi movie, the circumstances are rather suspicious, aren't they? I need you guys to change so I can get a better look the skinsuits. We might be getting played, here." She frowned for a moment then tilted her head towards McKellar. "We should have a containment room set up, just in case. I'm starting to smell something rotten in the state of Montana."

Her eyes narrowed and Devin would have gloried under the scrutiny of a woman built like Sean - and he did anyway - if he hadn't known she was looking at the suit and not the meat inside it. Sean focused her vision down to the microscopic scale even as she expanded her perception of the electromagnetic spectrum. Was is sending out a signal? Analying biometric data? Something else?

"Here?!" Laurie squeaked, looking around at everyone, inadvertently tightening the hold she had on Devin's hand which made him yelp.

Sean arched a brow, lips curving wryly. "Look at what you're wearing, Laurie. Does it really make a difference?" Sean smirked at her sister's imminent protest and turned around. She raised her voice to be heard over ops, modulating her tone so though it wasn't quite a command, it came across as a clear suggestion. "Please give my sister and her boy-toy some privacy. They're the shy sort." Sean turned back to them, or more specifically, their skinsuits. "Better?"

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5 minutes ago, Sean Cassidy said:

GUARDIAN SHIELD OPS

BULWARK AFB

a few moments passed Devin was torn...do i watch Laurie change or do i be a gentleman... we will never know the answer.

Both of them tried to find a zipper or fastener  of some sort to stretch the the neck so they could peel the suits off, they even tried on each other...

"Um sis, we don't know how to take them off."

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GUARDIAN SHIELD OPS

BULWARK AFB

They fumbled blindly trying to find some means of removing the suits, but it was no use.  In a bit of desperation Jaunt even tried tucking his fingers into the collar in an attempt to just rip it off, but the suit proved to be a literal second skin, providing no means for him to get beneath its layer.  He was frustrated, tired, and borderline exhausted.  He decided not to mention that Second Lieutenant Wilks had just left to get them sweats to wear (he was not wearing BDUs), and he bit his lip at snapping at Laurie for turning him into her personal Kung-Fu training dummy.

While Laurie fretted over the suit, Jaunt tried to relax, he was really coming down off the adrenaline high he was on and his body was still trying to grasp at that straw to kick that high up again.  He was edgy, irritable.  He looked at his arm, he put his focus on the suit because if he tried to deal with either Laurie or Sean right now, he'd prolly say something super dicky and no one needed the drama right now.  Sleeve, roll up.  He willed the suit to perform an action with his mind and for a moment there was nothing until the suit responded.  Much like Jaunt's thought the suit came back with a 'feeling'.  The feeling impressed upon Jaunt that the suit was either unable to comply with his command or that it couldn't comply.  He wasn't sure which, alien machine empathy was still one in a long list of new things he was trying to wrap his head around today.

"They've halted our biological functions," He said finally.  "No need for food, water, metabolism has shut down too so we don't have to worry about pissing ourselves."

Laure continued to look for something, anything to help remove it.  "There's a plus, De-... Jaunt." A part of her had to admit, the cloak and dagger code names were kinda cool.

"...and you gleaned this information from?" Sean asked through a myriad of descriptives that Jaunt's mind wasn't in the mood to process.

"I asked the suit." He said calmly.  "These things have done nothing but protect us, they're either programmed to preserve us until Killer Clowns come and suck out our insides with alien crazy straws, or they were given to us to help.  I figured it couldn't hurt to just try and talk to it."

"And?" Laurie asked, covering her chest with arms instead of the staple move of folding them under and hiking the sweater puppies up for all to admire.

"It told me to it can't, or won't listen to me, I don't know, I don't speak 'Fetishwear', Laurie."  His frustration was reaching a boiling point and it was visible in his expression as well as his tone which was laced with far more snark than he'd intended.  He realized this and let himself fall against one of the workstations.  Leaning there he let himself sigh a deep sigh and raked his hands through his hair, trying to calm down.

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GUARDIAN SHIELD OPS

BULWARK AFB

Suddenly Jaunt felt rested and...renewed. It was as if a new set of endorphins had been pumped into his veins washing away all the fatigue poisons and giving him burst of energy as if he had just down a 16oz Monster.

Laurie made a little gasp and straightened. "Something just happened."

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