Aberrant: In the Beginning - Richard Stevenson

[Titan]

As he spoke, Samantha walked into the kitchen, yawning. She pecked her dad on the cheek in passing, and gave Em a huge hug. Emily yelped as some of her milk slopped over the edge of the bowl onto the floor. Sam didn't seem too sorry, but grabbed the paper towels to clean it up.

On the phone, Director Merletti agreed to have the photos released to the news, and to have the files available for Rich by that afternoon.

"The F.B.I. should be around to your home shortly. If they don't have the files for you, they will be at the field office by noon at the latest, Mr. Stevenson."

The Director asked if there was any other way he could help, then bid Rich good day.

From the living room, Alice called, "Rich? Have you seen my damned pumps? And, could you get some breakfast into your son, please? He wants to come with me, so you just have the girls today."

[Courier]

Rich hung up, then replied without thinking to Alice, "No I haven't, and of course I will."

????! No. It can't...

Hoping against reality, Rich walked quickly into the living room saying, "Alice?!"

[Titan]

She is, of course, not there.

A knock at the door.

Through the curtains, two dark suited agents waited. One looked left, one watched right.

Behind him, Sam and Emily entered the living room.

"Who are you talking to?" asked Sam hesitantly.

[Courier]

Rich frowned. Not good.

He sighed and replied to Sam, "The first part was to the person on the other end of the phone, even after they hung up. I'll tell you about that later. The second part... for a moment I was so happy seeing Em that I forgot..."

Liar. That was more than simply forgetting Alice was dead. That was a replay of an old memory or something. Someone got into your head. Mr. Bang isn't this subtle or this good.

As he walked to the front door, Rich thought at his 'guest', Cheryl? What are you up to?

[Titan]

For a second, Rich felt almost as though he floated outside himself. He saw a woman, her face strong but kind, suited from head to toe in a high-pressure suit. She reclined in a control chair, facing upwards. Her voice rang out clearly.

"Roger that, Mission Control, we are go for launch."

But then, she seemed to sense Rich, glancing all around herself. Her skin took on a mottled, greenish hue.

"What... Are you here? I don't...."

Rich was pulled rudely from his reverie by a second knock at the door, a bit more firmly.

[Courier]

Deal with what's in front of you. Worry about hearing dead people latter.

Rich said loudly, "Coming" and answered the door.

And speaking of what's in front of you... what do you do if Mr. Bang sent them?

[Titan]

Rich opened the door. A gust of wind seemed to blow past him, strangely, as it seemed a calm day outside. The agent in front of the door had his badge and I.D. card out.

"Mr. Stevenson, I am Special Agent Pope, and this is Special Agent Church. We are with the Chicago branch office, F.B.I. I understand that you have had some threatening letters?"

Meanwhile, the agent scanning the street produced his shield and card, and approached the door.

Behind him, Rich heard a shriek. He turned to see the girls running down the hallway. Sam seemed to be chasing Emily, perhaps trying to tickle her, or otherwise annoy her. Emily was the one shrieking, but Sam seemed to be yelling loudly as well. Back at the door, the agents were waiting.

"May we come in?" asked Pope.

[Courier]

Several things bothered Rich about this, if only subliminally. The agents seemed on edge and they'd said the wrong thing. Asking about the letter said this would be a waste of time, they should have said they had profiles for him. That could be a bureaucratic snafu, but their names also irritated him. He was Catholic and believed firmly you should go to church... on Christmas and Easter. Actually he'd converted for Alice's sake, but the names still bothered him.

Facing the agents, Rich turned his head to one side and said, "Girls!". Then back to the agents he said, "What's your supervisors name? I'll call and verify you."

[Titan]

Rich reached for the phone. Outside there was a squeal of tires. Agent Church spun, registered the SUV- Agent Church spun, registered the El Camino pulling up over the curb. He pushed at the back of his partner and the two barreled over Rich on their way in the door.

A man- Emily ducked her head into the room. For a moment, shadows across her face twisted into swastikas and eagles- For a moment, Rich could see concern across her face. Further down the hall, Sam is wailing Emily's name- Further down the hall Sam is calling Emily to come back.

"What is it?" Emily asked.

Agent Pope turned from the window, "It's the-

Agent Pope turned from the window, "It's them."

Deep within, Rich feels her stirring. From far away, deep underground,

"What is this?"

[Courier]

Rich yelled, "Em! Sam! Lock yourselves in the bathroom and lay down in the tub!"

Rich wasn't sure he could trust the 'agents' and his daughters were in danger. Contamination wasn't an option.

Originally Posted By: Titan

Deep within, Rich feels her stirring. From far away, deep underground,"What is this?"

Cheryl triggered a thought. It hadn't worked when he'd tried it on her, but it might work for him. Rich reached over and grabbed a Pewter statue of some Saint whose name he couldn't recall. And Pewter was mostly lead.

{OOC: Activate, Bodymorph: Lead}

[Titan]

The properties of the statue flowed into his hand, up his arm, and spread over his body in the blink of an eye. He felt strong, and up to just about anything.

Agent Pope looked at Rich. "Good idea," he said-

"What is this?"

Agent Pope stumbled back, startled. He had his weapon out, pointed at the ceiling-

"What the hell IS this?"

He had his weapon out, pointed at Rich. Through the window, the El Camino emptied of leather clad convicts-

"WHAT IS THIS?"

Through the window, the black SUV was emptying of Kevlar-vested agents. Emily still stood in the doorway-

Rich felt a wet sucking at the nape of his neck, something pulling free from his Cerebellum. It seemed that reality flexed, and then the sense of a bubble bursting.

In that moment, Rich 'heard' a chuckle. Not in any way put out, but amused.

"I'm gettin' better, even you gotta admit that. Ah well, this one wasn't even about you, fuckwad. You were just the fuckin' distraction, like. See ya."

The presence faded. And several things registered with Richard.

That was not Emily in the doorway. It was a man, his face tattooed extravagantly with Nazi symbols and crosses. Prison tats. Down the hall, he heard his girls screaming and sobbing. Pope and Church were unchanged, but their suits had become tank tops and jeans. Out on the street, suits with 'F.B.I.' emblazoned across their vests were approaching the house quickly.

Down the street, flashing lights and sirens.

[Courier]

Crap!

For a moment Rich stood pole-axed and didn't trust anything he saw. Which was the illusion and which was real?

Assume Cheryl did her thing again.

Angry and afraid, Rich walked towards the tattooed man (and past him hopefully his girls) and ordered, "You! Down on the ground." Are there others in here?

[Titan]

Originally Posted By: Rich

Rich walked towards the tattooed man (and past him hopefully his girls) and ordered, "You! Down on the ground."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the flash. It took him a second to realize both that Church had fired his weapon, and that he, Rich, was hit. For that second of time, Rich simply felt something hit his hip about as hard as Emily could probably hit him. He heard a ~ssstch-TING!~ The flash merely made him flinch.

Glancing down, Rich saw a deep dent in his side, like a finger pushed into play-dough. Looking back up, he saw Naziface grabbing the side of his head, falling sideways into the door frame. He spun and fell.

Continuing past Naziface, Rich stalks down the hallway. He turns the corner into his bedroom, and sees:

Emily and Samantha are duct-taped to the headboard by their hands. Their legs are duct taped apart, though they are still clothed. A very muscular man with bleached blond hair and a three day beard is convulsing on the floor, drumming his heels. Richard notes with a surprising detachment that the buckle to his belt is undone, the button on his pants is unbuttoned, and his fly is down. Behind him, almost muted, Rich hears a barrage of shots fired. All he can see for the moment, is the wide-eyed relief in the eyes of his daughters.

[Courier]

What is going on? Rich looked at his daughters and had to restrain himself from rushing over and letting them go. Partly it was wanting to make sure no one with a gun walked into the room, but partly it was not being able to trust what he saw. Church had shot him. Was he really FBI, or was he with the goons? Was Rich even in his house? Would untying the girls be something else entirely, something that Bang wanted? And if what he was seeing what was real, then why was this guy convulsing?

After hesitating, again Rich consciously decided to treat what he saw as what was real. Rich moved to the convulsing man and picked him up, looking for any sign of resistance, any excuse to put a hurting on him.

[Titan]

The man in Rich's hands continued to thrash about, his eyes rolled back into his head. Flecks of foam, streaked with red, leaked from the corner of his mouth. As Rich examined him closer, the man went limp in his hands. Rich placed a hand on the man's neck for a moment, and his lack of pulse seemed to indicate that he was dead.

Samantha watched her father closely, obviously scared but in control. Emily wept incoherently, on the verge of hysteria, if not beyond. From the living room, a voice called.

"This is Special Agent Pope, of the F.B.I. Intruders, be advised that I will use lethal force if necessary, so if I were you, I would come out here with your hands empty and in the air. Mr. Stevenson? Are you here, can you hear me?"

[Courier]

Rich yelled out, "Yes, I'm here! In the bedroom!"

Bad guy would be rapist dead and without Rich making a moral choice to kill him. And Bang had bragged about Rich "being the distraction", whatever that meant... this was too easy.

If he wasn't dead by Rich's choice that left Mr. Bang.

Rich grimaced and tried to heal the... person(?) in his hands. There was a good chance he'd regret doing this.

[Titan]

Rich sensed a spark of life in the attacker. He fanned that flame and convinced the heart to take up the burden of pumping blood through the man's veins once again. The man's lungs once more injected oxygen into that blood. All through the body, organs and tissues continued to thrive, thanks to Rich.

There was, however, no corresponding awareness on the man's face. An unbroken strand of drool ran from his lip to his chest. Vacant eyes stared up at Rich. The body lived, but the man was gone, whoever he was.

Behind him, footsteps, then a man stepped into the room, weapon drawn. He looked over the scene and called down the hallway.

"One more. Breathing, looks like."

He moved forward carefully, weapon trained on the vegetable in Rich's hands.

"Mr. Stevenson, please step away from him," the man said gently, "I need to place him under arrest. His three friends are dead, so we need him to find the other ten escapees. You tend to your daughters."

The man is no one that Rich has ever seen before.

[Courier]

Richard put the man on the ground like a sack of flour and moved to free Sam. Rich said, "It's ok honey." Nightmare over... right. You wish. If this is Pope then the one you were dealing with was one of them... which explains why he shot you come to think of it. If this isn't Pope then you're still not free. Rich pushed aside that disturbing thought and focused on not hurting his daughters with his leaden strength.

As he was working Rich said, "I don't think you'll get anything out of him. I think he was brain dead before he got here. And fair warning, their puppet master bragged that this was a diversion."

[Titan]

Samantha and Emily clung to him as the F.B.I. swarmed over the house. The man in the bedroom turned out to be:

Originally Posted By: F.B.I. file

David Lawrence Benge - (23) Currently serving consecutive life sentences for two counts of first degree murder. According to the report, Benge came upon a couple walking in the park and killed the man while repeatedly raping his companion before killing her. Previous convictions include: Aggravated assault and battery. Juvenile record is sealed..

Agents Pope and Church turned out to be actual Fibbies this time, it seemed. The two men posing as them were also inmates. The actual Pope and Church stood in the kitchen where Richard and his daughters sat at the dining table. Church was shorter than his imposter, with red hair and a neatly trimmed moustache. His partner was tall and older, with thinning brown hair.

The front of the house was just about destroyed, from what Rich had seen on his way through. A dozen agents worked diligently, tagging the bodies which lay in the living room, or talking in clusters. As the escaped prisoners went into convulsions, the F.B.I. had taken them out with a barrage of gunfire. Naziface still lay in the hallway, dried foam on his lips. Outside, the Chicago P.D. had erected a barricade. No reporters, or even many onlookers, so far.

Emily had her head down on her forearm. Her hands both clenched at Richard's like a vise. She almost seemed asleep, except for the occasional shaky breath and resultant sob. Sam was calm. Her face seemed older, though, with a certain lost innocence that Rich feared she would probably never reclaim. In front of him, on the table, was a neat stack of fourteen files.

The agents were talking. Rich forced himself to listen.

"-aren't necessarily after them as the primary target. I would suggest letting them stay at a family member's home. We will provide constant protection and surveillance, but we think their focus will be on you. You will have two agents with you at all times, with a surveillance unit-"

The phone rang. It was almost comical the way the agents whirled and looked at the phone. The caller i.d. said David Brown. Rich checked his watch. Only 7:20. Probably he was calling about the morning's meeting.

[Courier]

Rich stroked Em's hair and failed to convince himself this hadn't happened, or that this wouldn't matter or that it was over.

David Lawrence Benge... killed the man while repeatedly raping his companion before killing her. What a piece of work. Rich felt a small piece of animal, petty, vengeful satisfaction he'd saved his life. On some level Benge might be aware he was now a prisoner of his own flesh.

He thought vaguely he really should go through those files and see which one matched the painting.... but it could wait.

Quote:

The phone rang. It was almost comical the way the agents whirled and looked at the phone. The caller i.d. said David Brown.

7:20am and it'd been a long day already. Rich picked up the phone and said, "Hello David... I've got a personal emergency here. Everyone is alive but this will be front page news tonight. How has your morning been?"

[Titan]

Once David had been properly filled in, he was aghast. His business partner and friend assured him that he should take whatever time he needed with his family.

"I can take the meeting, Rich, you should be with your girls," he said, then paused.

"I do think... you should probably meet with the psychologist, though, if you can. Emily probably needs her help more than ever. Be well, Rich, and call me if you need me."

No sooner had he hung up the phone, when there was a commotion out in the living room.

"No, YOU will listen to ME! I AM going in there, and if you WANT to STOP me, then you WILL have to SHOOT ME!"

Bob.

[Courier]

Quote:

"I do think... you should probably meet with the psychologist, though, if you can. Emily probably needs her help more than ever. Be well, Rich, and call me if you need me."

Rich thought, He's right, Em should come first... except Bang is going to make sure that can't happen. Am I blaming him for my problems? Darn right.

Quote:

"No, YOU will listen to ME! I AM going in there, and if you WANT to STOP me, then you WILL have to SHOOT ME!"

Recognizing the voice, Rich sat up and yelled, "Bob! We're in here, we're all right, you can come in!" Rich said to the agents, "Let him in. It's my father." Mentally Rich added, In-Law, but close enough.

Assuming the agents let Bob through Rich moved with Emily to great Bob and bring him up to speed.

[Titan]

Pope called out to the agents in the living room, "It's ok! Let him in."

Bob stormed into the kitchen, and Emily threw her arms around him and cried into his chest. She had been mostly calm, but fresh sobs shook her. Bob looked a bit wild eyed around the kitchen, but finally he settled on Rich, his face a mask of perplexity.

Rich told the tale simply, from the news story to the home invasion. [OOC: I leave it to you whether or not to include Bang's mind fuck] When he finished, Bob jumped in.

"They can't stay here, obviously. We can go to my house, but the question is, do you trust the F.B.I. to protect them?"

Typically, Bob spoke bluntly, with no regard for the Fibbies standing right there.

[Courier]

Rich waved his hand his hand in the air in frustration and said, "I really, really want to say no. If Bang works at it then NO ONE is safe. He can turn anyone against anyone. But brutal truth time, for all my power, the FBI did a lot better here than I did. They saved the day, I did not. I'm more resistant to Bang's mind powers, but that just means he has to work harder at it and he will because I'm a challenge and the obvious target."

Rich tapped his finger on the table in obvious frustration and continued, "And there is something to having more than one person around on guard. The only person he got to here was me. I'm tempted to..."

Rich frowned, stopped, then said slowly, "I'm tempted to give you some cash and put you on a train to Florida." Now that sounded pretty close to a workable plan.

[Titan]

Bob nodded slowly.

"I don't need money, but I think if I got on a train to somewhere with the girls, that would be a good idea. So long as I can count on some protection from this Bang character. Do you know that he can't find us that way? Or is it just a guess? And, come to think of it, what about your London friends? Couldn't one of them possibly help us with this?"

Church cut in,

"I can call the area director, but I'm moderately certain that I can promise some sort of detail attached to wherever your daughters end up going for refuge. That said, I want to point out that the F.B.I. has safe houses available and one of them might prove useful."

Sam turned from the kitchen window, where she had been standing by the sink.

"Reporters are here, Dad." She sounded defeated, monotone.

[Courier]

Rich sighed at hearing that reporters were here and moved to squeeze Sam's shoulder. He said to her quietly, "Courage. In a few days this will be a bad memory."

Deciding more was needed, Rich said, "Sam, Bob, everyone, listen up. We're going to get through this. Do you want to know what Bang is doing right now? He's sleeping or eating. He's doing that because after pulling this kind of stunt he needs to recharge, just like me, just like the others. He's dangerous but he's got limitations, weaknesses, and he's already made several mistakes that are going to cost him."

Rich nodded to Bob and said, "You asked about London? Surprise, there are three people who could help, and two already have. In a few moments I'm going to go through that stack of paper and pick Bang out. Then we'll know his real name, his address, and the rest of his mile long rap sheet."

Rich continued, "And some other things. I know when it comes to telepathy I make a good nuclear engineer. It's not my field and it's not my power. But we've only see Bang get into one person's head at a time, and if his power works like mine then he's got to be focused on doing that. I think if you're on a train out of town then you'll be both a difficult target and a low priority one. That's..."

Rich swallowed and tried to continue his pep talk, "That's the best I can do for defenses. The real solution is to give him other things to worry about. Which brings us to that third person."

Rich sat down and started going through the folders, just looking at pictures. While he was looking he said calmly, "When the problem gets too big, bring in a professional. There's someone else who has powers a lot like Bang. I've met her. After I find Bang's name I'm going to see if she'll help. She..."

...is a Chicago native.

...has the same name as my dead wife.

...is the most physically attractive woman I have ever met.

...is someone I barely know and I have no idea if she's willing to get involved.

Rich ended lamely, "...is interesting."