Aberrant: Phoenix Rising - Chapter 1: The Delicate Sound of Thunder

[Courier]

Courier pauses and mentions the others present,

“Adam is busy.”

(To Fox & Gregory)

*Hey there Doug here. Our tech guys here have translated the box and it’s post-burn technology that fell apart on them in mid flight. And get this, the pilot spoke French. It sounds like K-bec is starting to come up in the world. Good news I think, the more communities to trade with the better. Better still, it would appear this box recording thingy is important, so we have something they want.”

(To KB)

*Hey KB, what’s up? <pause> I’m over at Jimmy’s place, he and I and a couple of others went out to look into that fireball. Eyeball scale was misleading, it was a solid hundred miles away. Post-burn aircraft, watch yourself if you trade that info though, someone else already recovered it. <Doug sends: Picture of Squidward teleporting away the craft>. Not a total bust though, we got the flight box and it would appear it’s a K-bec job. Appears Jimmy and Raider speak French, so there’s the chance of a new trade route here. Maybe business for you too, K-bec’s weather is <I think> harsher than ours and their population is less.*

[Gregory]

Speaking back to Courier:

*I think I have found a man who might have weapons and such for us to trade. He does not trust me enough to trade for information, but he might trade goods, like tek'nawlo'g. It is good we know that box is from K-bec and that pilot speaks in French.

[Michael Peters]

Jimmy furoughs his brow.

"Adam is busy? He's at the walls isnt he? What could he be..."

He trails off as he comes to the most basic conclusion.

"The walls may be under attack. I think we should go see if he is alright, and get the guards to be alert as well."

He pulls his old bicycle from against the wall and settles into the seat.

"Does anyone agree?"

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: Gregory

Speaking back to Courier:

*I think I have found a man who might have weapons and such for us to trade. He does not trust me enough to trade for information, but he might trade goods, like tek'nawlo'g. It is good we know that box is from K-bec and that pilot speaks in French.

Courier responds,

*Well, good. Get his name, when we need weapons we'll know where to go. Um, I think what you are trying to do is sell information about the craft. If he doesn't have useful information, what you need to do is either move on, or trade him for what he does have, food perhaps.*

Originally Posted By: Jimmy Boothe

Jimmy furoughs his brow.

"Adam is busy? He's at the walls isnt he? What could he be..."

He trails off as he comes to the most basic conclusion.

"The walls may be under attack. I think we should go see if he is alright, and get the guards to be alert as well."

He pulls his old bicycle from against the wall and settles into the seat.

"Does anyone agree?"

Doug slowly nods,

"I guess that makes sense."

(Assuming we leave, Doug will fly)

[Gregory]

Turning around, Gregory heads back into the bar where he met the stranger. Winking at the big man behind the bar he turns towards the seated man.

"Who should I ask for if I want your services?" Gregory queries quietly, so as not to startle the man.

Whether he is given his name or not he thanks him and then leaves. He heads back to the shop.

[jameson (ST)]

Adam decides that discretion is the better part of valour and dives through a warp back toward the wall giving him some much needed distance between the aberrant and himself. He charges up and lets fly with another series of rapid fire bombs. When the smoke clears the aberrant lays dead, its body smouldering in the middle of the road.

*****

Jimmy jumps on his bike and darts out of the garage. Behind him Courier grabs Raider and flies after him. As they are not far from the wall they can already see the smoke from the small fires caused by Adam's bombs and hear the final explosion as Adam drops the Aberrant. They arrive at the Wall in time to see Adam slide down the wall, apparently taking a breather.

*****

Gregory meets the man's eyes levely and the other finally says, "Ask for Mad Max, they'll know to come and get me."

Gregory nods and without word leaves the bar and heads back to Jimmy's. When he gets there he finds the place opn but nobody is there.

*****

The councilor mutters, "Stubborn old man," under his breath as he waits for Buzz to reply. Finally he simply turns and inroduces Buzz to the others as they come over to meet the older man.

"This is Jaques and this is Pierre. Gentlemen this is Buzz one of our oldest citizen's, he and some of his freinds may have some information for you. Of course Newborough will be more than happy to help if we can ... in the intrest of relations between our two cities."

[BlueNinja]

Originally Posted By: Dr. Raphael Bradford

Adam decides that discretion is the better part of valour and dives through a warp back toward the wall giving him some much needed distance between the aberrant and himself. He charges up and lets fly with another series of rapid fire bombs. When the smoke clears the aberrant lays dead, its body smouldering in the middle of the road.

Adam gives a Oo-rah that would do credit to a US Marine (if any still existed), and then takes the shortest non-quantum route to the outside of the wall. He'll use a stick or rock to make sure the Aberrant is dead, then search the corpse to see if it had anything useful. Once he's done, he'll walk back to the walls and greet the others. "Hey guys, find anything useful?"

[Mr Fox]

Raider enjoys the ride over the city and the walls. "Man, I love flying!" After a second he adds, "Sorry, I'd decrease my weight, but I wanna save my energy incase I need it for any action incase someone shows up looking for the box or something."

Once they land, he will walk over to Adam, "Hey, whatca got there?" He points indicating the crispy dead aberrant.

[Gregory]

His bare leathery feet were caked in oily mud by the time he got back to the shop. It was quiet, so he peered in, and noticed that no-one was there. where did they go? he said to himself, perplexed as to their absence.

Paging Courier with his thoughts, Gregory queries:

*Where are you, I am back at the shop and everyone is gone. Is everthing OK?

[BlueNinja]

Originally Posted By: Mr Fox

Once they land, he will walk over to Adam, "Hey, whatca got there?" He points indicating the crispy dead aberrant.

"Aberrant: The Green Meat! Nah, just kidding. He came barrelling in at vehicle speeds, chasing down," Adam trails off as he looks around for what happened to the guy in the wagon. "Well, he was chasing some poor guy, and I, ah, missed his cart when I tried to head down there. So instead, I proceeded to blow the crap out of him. Got anything to eat?"

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: Gregory

*Where are you, I am back at the shop and everyone is gone. Is everthing OK?

*We're at the wall. There was a fight. Adam killed an Abby. No one is injuried that I can see.*

Originally Posted By: BlueNinja

"Aberrant: The Green Meat! Nah, just kidding. He came barrelling in at vehicle speeds, chasing down," Adam trails off as he looks around for what happened to the guy in the wagon. "Well, he was chasing some poor guy, and I, ah, missed his cart when I tried to head down there. So instead, I proceeded to blow the crap out of him. Got anything to eat?"

Doug looks at the corpse and the heavily damaged landscape and comments,

"You leave collateral damage."

Doug takes out his radiation counter to check the Abby and the landscape.

(To no one specific) "Where are we headed now?"

(These actions are forwarded to Gregory as well).

[BlueNinja]

Originally Posted By: Courier

Doug looks at the corpse and the heavily damaged landscape and comments,
"You leave collateral damage."

Adam raises what used to be an eyebrow, crosses his arms over his chest, and smirks. No words are neccessary.

Quote:

Doug takes out his radiation counter to check the Abby and the landscape.

Unless the Abby was radioactive, Adam's attacks don't leave any behind.

Quote:

(To no one specific) "Where are we headed now?"

"Um, you tell me. What was on that flight box? Or could you guys not get it working? Say, where's the fogey, anyway?"

[Gregory]

Quote:

"You leave collateral damage."

What the hell does 'co ladder all' mean? Gregory thinks to himself.

Quote:

"Where are we headed now?"

I think I'll leave that decision to the others

After receiving the message, Gregory runs towards the wall where the incident occurred. He pauses long enough to end his Dorming, in case he needs to activate any of his powers.

[jameson (ST)]

The group searches the body and finds nothing but singed flesh and scraps of burnt clothing. As the group heads back toward the Wall they are greeted by the other gaurds and the two men from the wagon.

"That was amazing!"

"Incredible"

"Thank you for saving our lives!"

The populace heaps praise on Adam, offering to buy him drinks at the pup and such. The capatain of the gaurd organizes a group of men to drag the aberrant out into the woods and put out the fires as the crowd finally begins to dissapate.

The wagon driver pulls Adam aside, "I thank you for saving our lives, I have little to give you as thanks but you can look through what I have in my wagon and maybe we can work something out."

[Gregory]

A large crowd was gathered around Adam. They seemed to be very happy with him, and were shaking his hand and patting him on the back. Adam seemed to be enjoying himself.

Gregory walked to the top of the wall to see what had happened, and he saw that a large aberrated creature was being pulled towards the woods by several people. It looked like it was dead.

There were fires in the fireld where the aberrant was killed, and Gregory knew that they could be trouble. Running up to the man, who seemed to be getting people together to put out the fires and disposing of the dead aberrant, Gregory asked if he could help. He told the man he could make a creature that could help put the fires out.

Gregory was going to create a creature that shoots water from it's mouth, to run around and help douse the fires.

[BlueNinja]

Originally Posted By: Dr. Raphael Bradford

The group searches the body and finds nothing but singed flesh and scraps of burnt clothing. As the group heads back toward the Wall they are greeted by the other gaurds and the two men from the wagon.

"That was amazing!"
"Incredible"
"Thank you for saving our lives!"

The populace heaps praise on Adam, offering to buy him drinks at the pup and such. The capatain of the gaurd organizes a group of men to drag the aberrant out into the woods and put out the fires as the crowd finally begins to dissapate.

"Really, folks, it was nothing. Just lots of explosives." Adam really does do his best to downplay it, not used to being the attention of a crowd, but he will do what he can to help the captain get the crowd organized to put out the fires.

Quote:

The wagon driver pulls Adam aside, "I thank you for saving our lives, I have little to give you as thanks but you can look through what I have in my wagon and maybe we can work something out."

Adam will look at Courier, Boothe, and Raider, and ask in a quiet aside, "Unless you guys see anything really important, I'm not huge on a reward from a guy with so little to spare." He turns back to the driver, (requesting anything the other novas think will help), and leads him to the group. "Listen, my friends and I were wondering, how far was that Abby chasing you? We're just trying to make sure it wasn't connected to that big fireball in the sky a few hours ago."

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: BlueNinja

Adam will look at Courier, Boothe, and Raider, and ask in a quiet aside, "Unless you guys see anything really important, I'm not huge on a reward from a guy with so little to spare." He turns back to the driver, (requesting anything the other novas think will help), and leads him to the group. "Listen, my friends and I were wondering, how far was that Abby chasing you? We're just trying to make sure it wasn't connected to that big fireball in the sky a few hours ago."

(Assuming he accepts the link this time)

*Unless he's French it's unlikely the abby is connected to the plane. We (meaning those two) translated the box and it’s post-burn technology that fell apart in mid flight. The pilot spoke French (as do our two tech-heads here, and that is a serious break). Sounds like K-bec is coming up in the world. Good news maybe. I gather this box recording thingy is important, so we have something they want.*

[Michael Peters]

Jimmy takes a quick glance at the caravan, checking for any signs of tech.

While glancing over, his eyes focusing to get a good look at this distance, he speaks to the driver.

"Also, good sir, do you come from the north? Specifically from the area of K-Bec?"

[jameson (ST)]

The grateful man brings the group over to his wagon while Gregory goes off to see if he can be helpful. The captain of the gaurd is doubtful, or perhaps put off by Gregory's obvious aberrations but in the end relents. Gregory quickly conjures a bright blue sheep which begins spitting water onto the fires quickly drowning them out. The colorful creature attracts the attention of more than a few children who begin to play in the streams of water the creature shoots out of its mouth. Although the day is not warm the children are mostly wet from the rain anyway and seem to not notice the weather at all.

As the other four and the driver approach the wagon the man who was riding shotgun puts his rifle up on his shoulder and walks to Adam, "Thank you sir for saving our lives back there, that beasty came out of nowhere it seemed. Chased us like the dickens for a good 5 miles or so. Luckily Al's got a pair of good steeds and we were able to keep ahead of that thing."

Al (the driver) pipes up, "Yeah I would say that thing had us good for about 5 miles though it could have been tailing us longer. To answer your question, no we aint coming in from the north, odd question considering we're on the south side of the city but hey you ask anything you want."

He pauses obviously out of breath and still somewhat terrified, "As for that there fireball ... well here look at this ..." With that he throws back the covering over the back of the wagon revealing a sight which drops Raider's and Jimmy's jaws; the apparently intact turbine engine from the craft.

[Mr Fox]

Raider has been standing around listening to everyone talk and watching with amusement when the kids start playing in the sheep spit. He'd been listening to things with only half his attention until the cover was thrown back. Then he practically started to drool, as his mind raced.

He spoke as he began to approach the engine, "This must have come off the craft during the explosion and landed nearer the city than the fuselage." He looked over at Jimmy, "We should take this to the shop and make measurements before that Nova shows up to take it too."

Raider looks to the cart driver, "Sir, we will not take the engine from you, but we would be willing to pay you somewhat for the time to examine it closely. It seems the engine belongs to K-bec, and they've already sent a nova to retrieve the rest of that plane, it's likely only a matter of time before he comes for this piece. If you'd like we could even try and help you get a finder's fee out of them. No promises on that though since they flat out took the other piece of the ship from us, but we can try. So getting paid by us to examine it for what time we have before they show up is a darn sight better than nothing, what do you say sir? Raider hopes they have enough time to do the measurements and draw out some schematics before it's too late.

He looks again to Jimmy, "I figure, squid boy, powerful though he may be, won't have the kind of energy necessary to port two large objects in one day. Least ways I hope not."

[Gregory]

The sheep Gregory conjured did two things. First, it did it's job, and began to put out the fires. The second, and an unexpected side effect, was that the blue sheep became a magnet for children. Gregory watched, with a smile, as they played in the water, that was vomiting, from the sheep's mouth.

He noticed that Adam, Courier, Boothe, and Raider were gathered around the man's cart. They seemed to be looking at something in it. He did not see the older man, Buzz, with them. Courious, Gregory walked over and joined the cluster.

There he saw another odd piece of T'- his new word for complicated metals and things from the past, because the word everyone else used was too complicated. They were talking about the squid-man from earlier and how he might return to retrieve the object, when something occurred to Gregory. He'd better speak up with his hunch before it is too late.

"What if that abby'rant was a friend of the man from earlier?" Gregory blurted out while the others were talking. "Could he have been trying to get this piece back for K-bec? Won't the strange man from earlier, get angry at Adam for killing his friend?"

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: Mr Fox

He looks again to Jimmy, "I figure, squid boy, powerful though he may be, won't have the kind of energy necessary to port two large objects in one day. Least ways I hope not."

Courier comments,

"You really think Squidward's got a way to track us? Or every piece of his gear?"

[BlueNinja]

Adam all but jumps up onto the cart, looking intently at the engine. He's always had a thing for planes, almost as much sa he did explosives, and he'd love to be able to say something smart before Raider does.

(Engineering roll please, trying to figure out why the engine broke/came off the craft. And an Initiative roll to say it first. )

[Michael Peters]

Jimmy is intently examining the engine as well, a grin slowly spreading across his face. His iris' contracting with quantum energies, allowing him to see through the outer shell and into the mechanical guts of the engine.

"Fantastic..." he whispers, oblivious to the others as he becomes absorbed in the machine.

(Engineering + initiative as well!! Jimmy must prove his expertise over that bomb throwing guardsman!)

[BlueNinja]

"Hey, Raider, I think this engine was still intact and working when the craft broke apart. See, here," Adam goes on for about fifteen seconds, pointing out the damage around where the engine would have been mounted to the jet, and the way the propellers are bent from impact with the ground.

When he finishes, Adam fall silent for a moment. "Huh. Didn't realize I knew that much about aircraft. Guess all that reading when I was a kid finally paid off."

[Mr Fox]

Raider looks at Adam impressed. "I didn't realize you were so well versed in aviation technology. You're probably right about the damage."

Turning to the man in the cart, "So, do we have a deal? The right to examine it first before you sell it or get forced to give it back to K-bec?"

[jameson (ST)]

The man looks at Adam who is busy looking over the engine, "Tell you guys what, I'll give you the engine as repayment for saving our butts back there. I just ask that if one of you could take a look at my wagon here, I think the frame got cracked, you boys look like mechanics and it would be right nice of you to repair that for me if you could. We can call that even, how's that sound?"

*****

Courier is trying to keep up the the techno-babble when his psychic link tingles. He accepts the link from Buzz and recieves the following:

Is this thing on? Ya know back before the burn you could actually talk to people, ya know, with your mouth. Anyway I'm at the council building, guess who's here ... damn canucks ... err you wouldn't get that, the Quebecouis, that is a pair of guys, one's a nova, from K-bec. Looks like they're looking for help locating their crashed aircraft, they're hoping the pilot may have survived. I've yet to talk to them, again with actual words ... crazy kids these days ... but one thing I can tell you, if these guys are legit Squiddy pulled one heck of a fast one on us. Course these guys could be full of ... anyways gotta get back to the negotiations...

[BlueNinja]

Adam, blinks, and turns back to Raider and Boothe. "You guys have tools, not me. Courier, you wanna drop the wagon straight to the shop, or do you think it won't hold with the engine on it?"

[Courier]

Courier walks over to the wagon and unhooks the animals while he says with confidence,

"Logic and math say it shouldn't, but it'll hold together no problem. I make a strength field or something when I pick up stuff. Everything always stays together if I want it to. If we could trust them not to panic, we could even leave the animals hooked in."

After the animals are unhooked and handed to their owners Courier flexs his muscles and picks up the entire cart, apparently without much effort. When it's all in the air and he's a few feet up he pauses... and then keeps flying.

(Courier attempts to send to each of the others in turn, and KB while he's at it)

*Just got a message from Buzz. He's having a conferance at the town hall with some guys from KBec... about recovering their aircraft and pilot. Sounds like Squidward pulled a fast one on us.*

[Gregory]

As Jimmy and Adam both stared intently at the object in the cart, Gregory listened to what the man said about getting his cart fixed. It seemed like a fair trade, but who was he to argue, he didn't even know what the thingy did.

A few moments later, while Gregory watches, Courier picks up the unhitched wagon for repairs. Courier then speak inside Gregory's head:

Quote:

*Just got a message from Buzz. He's having a conferance at the town hall with some guys from KBec... about recovering their aircraft and pilot. Sounds like Squidward pulled a fast one on us.*

Gregory's mind needled him until he had no choice but to admire the strange nova's abilities. We just got conned out of our goods. Getting the metal thing back was going to be fun. That, Gregory knew for sure.

[Buzzkill]

Buzz's eyes glaze over when he sees the two men...something about them...something...

He staggers, dimly hearing someone saying "stubborn old man" but that doesn't matter. All he can see is Alex and Trevor...they were 13 and 15 when he last saw them, when they were going out to scavenge and hunt, and never came back. They were wearing their flannel shirts and homespun pants, the last present their dead mother gave them. He's stumbling, crumbling, being submerged in memories. One of his greatest powers he always felt was how much he knew and remembered, but no one knew the terrible cost at times.

Tears welled in his eyes and his knees trembled, he reaches back for a chair before he collapses on the floor. He half makes it, falling partly onto a chair and mostly on the floor. His other hand clenches into a fist that he bites hard into, hoping the pain will show him a path out of this quicksand. He chokes back a sob and takes some ragged breaths, his vision finally starting to clear.

"I'm...I'm fine...just a little under the weather." he mumbles as he tries to right himself into the chair.

[Michael Peters]

Jimmy was tring desparetly to contain his elation.

"We must get this engine back to my garage for assessment." He blinks at the cart owner. "And your cart as well good sir."

He sits in th eback of the cart, next to the turbine already looking for access ports and estimating how long it was going to take to reverse engineer it.

"Not long." He thinks, grinning like a child who just got a huge handful of cotton candy "Not long at all."

[jameson (ST)]

Courier flys the wagon and it's contents back to Jimmy's while the others walk over with the two traders. Gregory reluctantly lets his construct dissapate, mush to the disappointment of the children, as he heads back with the others.

Once back at Jimmy's they offload the engine and Jimmy give the wagon a once over. He quickly determines that the frame does need some work, it looks to have been scavenged from an old car. Either way he figures it will take him good 4 or 5 hours with Raider's help.

*****

At the council building Buzz is helped to his chair still reeling somewhat from his flashback. While he has had these incidents all his life they seem to have gotten worse since his eruption, some of the other novas figure that his memory has been enhanced be his eruption and that as a result his flahsbacks have become more vivid and, to a degree, more frequent.

One of the foriegners appears outraged and at last blurts, "Stop stalling, a man's life could hang in the balance! I cannot belive that even the difficult relations between our two nations could justify these delays!"

[Mr Fox]

Once back at the shop, Raider will dive into tearing down the engine. He will measure every part and make diagrams and reverse engineer it, working with Jimmy to do it as efficently as possible.

"Hey, has anyone heard from Buzz? His preburn knowledge might come in handy here."

[BlueNinja]

Adam glances over at Raider; certainly he doesn't think he's going to be of much use at drawing diagrams. "I'll head over and find him." He makes sure to let the guard captain know what's going on, and then heads for the city government building where Buzz is supposed to have gone.

[Gregory]

Seeing that there was not too much going on at the moment, Gregory decided he would find a nice uncluttered corner in the shop, and lie down. The floor was as good as any place else to sleep, he just wished he had his old furry friend to keep him warm.

"Wake me up if you need me." He curles up into a fetal position on the floor, and goes to sleep.

[Buzzkill]

Buzz takes a ragged breath and waves off further offers of help. Finally getting himself back in order he takes stock of the visitors, rude and urgent as all hell, and stands up to face them.

"Ease up Canuck! Your boy's already dead." he snaps. "We found that ship of yours, but we weren't the only ones. Just after we got there an Aberrant popped in, tentacles and all, and after a few words he popped out again, taking the ship with him. We managed to see inside it though, and there weren't no one alive in it. Tends to happen when a ship falls out of the sky." He crosses his arms, now that he's got their attention he intends to get some answers.

"And that Aberrant said it was his ship, and he knew plenty about it too. So why don't you tell us, what the hell were you doin' flying that thing over our town, and why do you got an Aberrant like that workin' for ya'?"

[Courier]

Back at the shop, Doug carefully puts the cart down to avoid further breakage and even moves the engine off of it before he fully lets go.

He then settles back down into the chair he left earlier and alternates between lightly napping and watching the others work.

Originally Posted By: Mr Fox

"Hey, has anyone heard from Buzz? His preburn knowledge might come in handy here."

Doug speaks up,

"Last I heard he was still in conference with the K-Bek guys. Those things can take a while.”

[jameson (ST)]

In the shop Gregory and Courier are each taking some time to relax and recharge their proverbialy batteries. Adam has gone off and with the blessing of the guard on duty has gone to locate Buzz.

Jimmy and Raider are in the garage, Raider has already started to remove the cowling from the engine when the wagon driver pipes up, "Umm, I'd really appreciate it if you guys could take care of my wagon first thing, I need to try and get my good traded so that I can buy some food foy my family and return home."

*****

IN the council chambers one of the two foreigners drops silent and begins to cry, "Dear god, my brother ..."

The other pulls Buzz and the others aside, "You expect us to believe that some aberrant, a single aberrant, stole the cockpit section out from under your nose? While I certainly cannot doubt that the pilot died in the crash I suspect that you are retaining the technology for yourselves! I suggest that you turn over the recovered wreckage and the remains of the pilot..."

[Mr Fox]

Raider looks up at the wagon owner, then looks over to where Courier is settling in. "Hey Courier, I hate to impose, but could you help him out? We're in a time crunch on this engine. Those K-bec guys could show up at anytime and demand this thing back. We have to work fast."

Looking to the wagon owner, "If Courier can't help, I'm sure Jimmy and I can compensate you for slow delivery of your trade goods."