Aberrant: Phoenix Rising - Book 2: Chapter 4: The Division Bell

[Courier]

Doug sent back to Raider, *Good to know. From the looks of KB and my place, I don't think we won.*

*She's asleep... I'm going to do an overflight to see what can be seen.*

Doug mentally gave himself 10 minutes. He wanted to be back before KB woke up, then he stepped outside and flew at top speed up, and then started to circle around the city.

[Joani]

Originally Posted By: SalmonMax

(OOC note - Ashley is dormed at the moment, so she's not all glowy and stuff.)

"Looks like the city was attacked," Ash says, conscious of the obviousness of the observation, but not sure what else to say. "Anna, I barely got here before we went to the moon...do you know who's in charge of the city? Is there a mayor or council or something?"

Anna hesitantly shook her head. "I think there is a council but I never met them personally. The Abe... Novas of the city didn't look as monstrous as I do and the citizens stay away from Aberrants...". Anna looked selfconsciously to the floor and added with a quiet voice, "like me."

[Gregory]

Gregory knew what gnawed human bones meant. There were abbies around who ate people-just like the ones who consumed his folks. After holding down the bile churning in his stomach, he decided to tell the others what he'd found.

When the link comeas around to him he sends back to Doug. * I found a trail. It leads away from the city, but I don't know where it goes. I...uh also found skeletons and bones and...they...were eaten. The haltering fear in Gregory message could be sensed through the link.

Gregory moved off the side of the path, into the nearby foliage. He continued on a parallel trajectory with the path, making sure to keep it, and any possible encounters in sight.

Slowly, he crept forward, all his senses keen to any sounds while keeping himself as well hidden as possible.

[SalmonMax]

Ash nodded, then patted Anna's arm.

"And me, you know. Just because I don't always show it doesn't mean it's not there. Look, I think need to talk to someone...okay, maybe not the council itself, but maybe whoever runs the town security or something. Any idea who that'd be?"

[Joani]

"I always sticked to Raider and Doug. I'm sure they know.", Anna answered. Then she added hesitantly, "I think they were part of it but I'm not sure about that. At least they didn't throw me out the instance they saw me so I'm grateful for that."

The tree-woman looked at Ashley through her amber eyes and wished she could dorm her powers and appear normal. She couldn't remember anymore when that was. Anna looked at her huge muscled arms taking in the difference between her and Ashley and sighed wordlessly.

[jameson (ST)]

From the air the city looks bad, its immediately obvious that there was a battle and from the looks of it the trail that Gregory said he was following was the exit path of the force. The center of the city is little more than ruins, blackened buildings and torn up streets.

****

Ash and Anna were debating what to do next when a man exited a nearby building, appearing to have been shoved from within. He looked back inside with a sour expression as the door shut behind him then adjusted his clothing and walked toward the two women. "We the umm, citizens brigade of Newborough want know why you are here. Why have you returned?"

****

Gregory moved at a stead pace as he followed the trail, though he was slowed by keeping to the undamaged wooded area. The path ahead seemed to stretch away to the horizon itself. The forest surrounding it was quiet and Gregory soon stopped and listened finding he heard nothing at all, no insects or small animals, no birds. It was as though the forest itself were devoid of life.

[SalmonMax]

Ashley turns around and gives the man a tired smile as she runs a hand through her hair.

"Hey, good to see you. This whole thing is really weird for us. We never meant to be gone for four years. For us it's only been a few minutes. So we really have no idea what's going on."

"We came back because we live here. That's all, really. Can you tell us what happened? I mean, I can see there's been trouble, but..."

[Courier]

Doug rotates through the link... *From the air I see torn up streets, torn down buildings, burned out buildings. I think there was truly massive fighting in the center of the city.*

*I see the path Gregory is following. Definitely the path the army took out of here. My impression is they won and then left.*

*Gregory reports he's found human bones well eaten. I'm not sure if we call it cannibalism under the circumstances.*

Like a good observer Doug didn't color the relay with his own conclusions. This was a York slave raid.

[Gregory]

Silence in nature was an anomaly. Something was always making some sort of sound. A bird chirping in the trees might not always be heard, but the pattering of a small animal as it scurried across the ground was common. Even the earthworm made sounds as it displaced the soil around it as it searched for microscopic life forms to eat. Here, though, there was nothing.

Gregory pondered the reasons for such mass death and understood. Some abbies killed things, just by being near them. Even Gregory understood, as he had that same effect. Usually though, it took some time before he denuded an area of life. Either what had passed here had done it many times, or was highly tainted.

He sat an litened for awhile, then decided to make some hoise of his own. Hopefully, it would stir up something. He took aim at a bush on the other side of the path and shot an invisible bolt of force. Dirt and leaves erupted from the ground.

Gregory crouched back down, and waited for something to turn up.

[Joani]

Originally Posted By: SalmonMax

Ashley turns around and gives the man a tired smile as she runs a hand through her hair.

"Hey, good to see you. This whole thing is really weird for us. We never meant to be gone for four years. For us it's only been a few minutes. So we really have no idea what's going on."

"We came back because we live here. That's all, really. Can you tell us what happened? I mean, I can see there's been trouble, but..."

Anna tried to keep behind Ashley and did her best to play down her imposing size and aberrated appearance. It was difficult for her to cope with the situation since she naturally felt compelled to help people but most "normal" folks preferred to stay out of her way. Something she couldn't blame them for and she deeply resented. Her face showed how disappointed she was of herself.

[jameson (ST)]

Originally Posted By: SalmonMax

"We came back because we live here. That's all, really. Can you tell us what happened? I mean, I can see there's been trouble, but..."

"We don't want your kind here! Not any more, leave now or we will make you leave!" He appear unarmed and so was either braver than he looked or had backup somewhere that could put his threat to effect.

****

Originally Posted By: Gregory

He took aim at a bush on the other side of the path and shot an invisible bolt of force. Dirt and leaves erupted from the ground.

Gregory crouched back down, and waited for something to turn up.

Making noise was his goal and it wasn't difficult to cause some racket. The silence however seemed unwilling to give up and the forest quickly muffled the the noise until it was deathly quiet once more. After twenty minutes Gregory came to the conclusion that nothing remained alive in the forest.

****

Raider emerged into the crumbling wreck of his home and found that James was gone. The place didn't look any better in the daylight than it had before. Four years had combined with looters to eliminate everything of use from the home and to damage the structure beyond ability to repair without major work.

****

Above the city Doug floated observing the way that the once thriving community now seemed to be falling into decay and rot. What ever had happened had broken the back of the city. The people still there were not sustaining the city. Like a vine with no water the city was slowly withering away, until eventually it fell to dust.

[Courier]

It was disturbing seeing his home like this. Denial warred with reality for several moments then Doug processed it. He decided to open the link and share his thoughts.

*I don't see any repair. I don't see any novas flying around. I don't see any novas organizing things.*

*I don't think this was the first raid. I think most of the nova defenders are dead, driven off, or maybe became tainted like KB. The city is... dead.*

*The Loonies basically kidnapped our founding fathers. We were the ones trying to get people organized to deal with York. Without us there was a lot less vision, organization, and York acted first.*

*I hope I'm wrong about all this. One view from the air isn't proof. Has anyone made contact with the locals? Are there still novas around, maybe a rag tag resistance group?*

Doug decided he'd see all he could bare for the moment and let himself drop down to go back to Kelly.

[Mr Fox]

Raider was afraid Doug was right, he expected that without them there to lead the effort York would have stuck first. *Ok, I'm going to take a quick side trip to York to see what's up there.*

Raider stayed incorporeal and teleported into the air above York to take a look around and see if it had continued the rebuild of their vision of civilization or if it too had fallen to ruin.

[Joani]

Originally Posted By: Courier

*I hope I'm wrong about all this. One view from the air isn't proof. Has anyone made contact with the locals? Are there still novas around, maybe a rag tag resistance group?*

*Ashley and I are talking to one of the locals right now... they are hostile - I think because of me.*, her mental voice sounded very selfconscious as she answered to Doug.

Originally Posted By: jameson (ST)

"We don't want your kind here! Not any more, leave now or we will make you leave!" He appear unarmed and so was either braver than he looked or had backup somewhere that could put his threat to effect.

Anna stepped backwards as if the mans words hurt her and she slowly shook her head. "We mean you no harm - please don't hurt us.", she pleaded to the angry man.

[Gregory]

Gregory sends to Doug * The forests are silent. No birds, bees or squirrels...nothing.

He followed the trail. This time, he stayed on the road when it appeared to be safe, and used the forests next to it for cover when his visibility of the upcoming trail was obscured. He kept his 'ears open' for danger.

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: Joani Reikspar

*Ashley and I are talking to one of the locals right now... they are hostile - I think because of me.*, her mental voice sounded very selfconscious as she answered to Doug.

Doug paused in his descent, and sent back, *First, where are you? Second, ask them where the nova defenders are. If there's a resistance we need to contact them.*

[SalmonMax]

Ashley, oblivious to Doug's mental communication, gives the man facing her a level look, then glances at Anna quickly.

"Alright," she says to the man in what she hopes is a placating tone. "We used to live here, we've been away for awhile...whatever happened, we missed it. But if things changed, we're not welcome now...okay. I'll go get the others, and we'll go."

She pauses and adds, "Before we do though, is there someone in charge we could talk to? A mayor or council or...whoever calls the shots around here nowadays?"

[jameson (ST)]

Gregory moved along the trail as quickly as he could. Calling it a trail was like calling a deer path a highway however, and the wreckage of downed and blasted trees, ruptured earth and the occasional animal or human skeleton put the rest of the forest into stark contrast to the scar that Gregory now followed. The best speed he could manage while staying quiet was slow and a tiny spike of envy burned as Gregory thought about how quickly and easily Raider or Courier could navigate through or above the ruinous wound in the landscape. He stopped and silence engulfed him, the only sound was the bare whisper of wind in the trees. The trail continued ahead for what must have been miles before Gregory found himself unable to tell it from the forest around it.

OOC: Gregory is on foot in rough terrain and trying to stay stealthy so keeping you in time with the others severely limits the ground you can cover. Suffice to say that this path of destruction continues for miles and shows more or less the same signs of Aberrant activity

[jameson (ST)]

Courier spiraled down over the city and then leveled off and shot out toward his home. Toward the ruins of what had been his home. The building was still little more than a burned out shell and he found himself frowning at the hope that maybe he'd been deceived somehow, even if by himself. He settled to the ground and picked his way through the building to the bedroom. KB was where he had left her, sleeping fitfully on the bed, corona of electricity casting off the occasional spark that was thrown into the false wind that seemed omnipresent around her. Doug could recall what seemed like ages ago when that little trick of KBs subconscious power what the only real aberration that she had, now it seemed like the only thing familiar. As Doug watches her sleep he realizes what had struck him as odd about the ruins of his home. This spot, the bedroom, the bed, while ravaged as it was should not be in the condition it is in when compared to the char that is the rest of the house.

[Courier]

Doug frowned and walked around a bit more. The house was almost a cinder, but the bedroom was wasn't burned. For that matter KB had thrown him against, not through, the wall in there. The bed room floor and walls still had structural integrity.

Maybe KB had pulled some kind of weather trick? Like rain... in one room? That wasn't manipulating the weather, that was outright creating it. Doug considered this and walked up to the bed and checked it for water damage or other evidence of 'one room' weather.

Another spark almost zapped him and Doug wondered if Raider could hook up some wires to this room and maybe harvest all that electrical energy. Then he wondered if someone else already had and looked for that too.

[jameson (ST)]

Reality shifted. Raider was a phantasm gliding on the winds. Below him lay the ruins of a city that had at one time in the past been Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Now it was was known as York and the first thing that Raider observed was that time had been just as cruel to York as it had to Newborough. The wall of debris and rubble that had surrounded that city lay broken in multiple places. The dome at the center of the city was shattered, it's massive roof collapsed inward, the machinery ruined, the building useless. Even the gleaming Tower had not escaped the past four years. Windows were broken and the entrance at the base of the building looked obliterated. Most striking was that three quarters of the way up the building simply stopped. The top quarter was gone, it hadn't fallen, or collapsed, it was just gone.

The rest of the city was worse than it had been as well. The streets were one more rubble strewn and ruined. The buildings that had four years before stood either in whole or in part now showed the signs of battle and destruction. As much as Newborough has appeared destroyed York was worse. Raider descended and saw things moving in the rubble, occasionally two would meet and tentacles would lash out with rays of searing energy or a mouth would vomit forth plasma that could liquefy concrete. York was still home to Aberrants but they had descended to the very lowest depths of taint.

[jameson (ST)]

Originally Posted By: SalmonMax

She pauses and adds, "Before we do though, is there someone in charge we could talk to? A mayor or council or...whoever calls the shots around here nowadays?"

"They're all dead, or they turned aberrant. Which is probably worse. Look 'ere miss, if youse one 'a them I'm sorry fer ya, you should feel lucky tho' that you was gone when all them novas suddenly went an' turned abby." He gestures to the ruined street, the burned buildings, the wreckage of the wall visible down the stree. "They did all of this. All of them. It was ... it was horrific. Now you'd better go, before fear drives these people into a mob."

[jameson (ST)]

Courier's search turned up nothing that would indicate anybody trying to harvest KBs power. The room was a mess and it was hard to tell if the water damage he did find was due to the hole in the roof or the actions of a nova, or an aberrant. So engrossed in his investigation that he was caught off guard as a slender hand laid itself upon his shoulder. His army started to feel tingly, the kinds of pins and needles feeling he remembered from having a limb fall asleep. He turned to find KB regarding him, "Doug? Is that you?"

[Courier]

Doug turned around and said, "Yes, it's me." Doug put his hand on KB's and said, "Feel me, this isn't a dream, I'm back."

Looking at KB awake was still heart breaking. Doug struggled to say, "I... can you feel me?"

*It's me. What happened here?*

[Joani]

Originally Posted By: jameson (ST)

"They're all dead, or they turned aberrant. Which is probably worse. Look 'ere miss, if youse one 'a them I'm sorry fer ya, you should feel lucky tho' that you was gone when all them novas suddenly went an' turned abby." He gestures to the ruined street, the burned buildings, the wreckage of the wall visible down the stree. "They did all of this. All of them. It was ... it was horrific. Now you'd better go, before fear drives these people into a mob."

"Turned? Do you mean suddenly or after a while?", Anna asked seriously concerned.

"What exactly did happen here?"

[SalmonMax]

Ashley swallows, suddenly dry-mouthed.

"You're saying...the novas here...they all turned aberrant at the same time? That they seemed normal and then just changed all at once?"

The thought of it turned her weak at the knees. It was everything she'd feared, but had been convinced was a myth.

She grabs the rough bark of Anna's arm. "Come on. We're getting the others and leaving. Now."

[Gregory]

The travelling was hard and slow. Gregory thought about Doug and the others and how easily they could travel. As he pushed his way through a thorny shrub, he realized that the path he'd found was getting smaller and overgrown. There was no reason for him to head down it. It might take half a moon or more at his rate. He'd found the way that someone went and it would be better if the group went down it together.

He sent to Doug: * I am still on trail, but it will take me along time to get to where it goes. It would be better if we followed it from the air.

Gregory turned around and headed back to the town.

[jameson (ST)]

Doug was on the floor twitching before he even realized what had happened. KB stood over him, her face a mixture of concern and anger. "Never, ever, do that again." Courier gasped as the pain began to subside and his body slowly returned to his control. She blinked and then seemed to see what she had done and knelt down beside him. "I'm sorry. I ... I didn't mean to hurt you."

OOC: no damage but the pain and debilitation was very real.

Not sure where Ash and Anna are headed specifically so I'll hold off for a bit, if you want to assume they find Courier's place or locate Gregory as he returns feel free to do so.

[Courier]

*Ouch. Ouchy Ouch. Felt that. Cut through the stamina.*

*OK, she's still not over the idea of telepathy and she's got some kind of feed back power to enforce it. Healing factor is taking care of it fine.*

*Kind of clever. I have to figure out a way to let James experience that.*

Doug lay on the floor for several moments and caught his bearings. Then he rolled on his back and looked up at KB ruefully and said, "Well, that was unexpected."

The memory of pain was blissfully short... but being helpless had sparked some memories. Doug sat down next to KB and said, "Don't worry about it. I'm tough and I heal fast. If anything it's good to see you have a way to defend yourself."

"KB, what happened? We left, you had to organize the defense of the city by yourself? Then York came in anyway?"

[Joani]

Originally Posted By: SalmonMax

She grabs the rough bark of Anna's arm. "Come on. We're getting the others and leaving. Now."

The huge tree-like woman let herself be dragged away reluctantly. She was more than strong enough to withstand Ashley's pull but she felt that they were not welcomed and any second they stayed longer could turn a peaceful situation into a conflict.

Anna still wanted to hear the answer from the man - she wanted to hear if the Novas suddenly became Aberrants or if it happened over time because they were abusing their powers. Maybe it could be reversed? And if so, maybe she could become normal again. She barely remembered the time when she could "change back" like Ashley does but she lost access to that a long time ago - at least that's how it felt to her.

"But what if his answer is important to know?", she quietly asked Ashley as they moved back to where the others were.

[Mr Fox]

Raider was shocked by what he saw below. York was worse than Newborough. *Doug, this is bad. Very very bad. York is much much worse off than Newborough. The the aberrants that are left have completely devolved to taint. The city is in ruins and the top of the tower is gone. I don't mean that it fell either, I mean it is just not there. Either those bastards on the moon hit the planet with something while we were up there that upped the taint or something down here did, but it looks like all the aberrants have been artificially tainted.*

[Courier]

Raider's news was disorienting. Doug had mentally built a story of KB trying desperately, and self destructively, to take up the work of 8 novas after everyone else was stuck on the moon.

(To Everyone) *... oh those SOBs.*

The various pieces of the puzzle came together.

*It wasn't just KB, it was everyone. They dropped a ton of taint on all the novas. KB was less effected because she was pretty normal even with the hair. That's why no one is directly repairs. The city defenders are out eating people. This wasn't York, this was us.*

Doug looked at his house with new eyes. *She was in this room when it hit and she cooked the house. The outer part is an electrical fire, probably multiple lightning strikes. She's immune to her own powers so the lightning refused to strike her.*

*Raider, everyone, the real question is whether or not this can be undone. The only people who might be able to are... NO! Correction, John might be able to undo this.*

Doug said, "KB, I think I know someone who can make you better. I'd like to take you to him."

[jameson (ST)]

"Make me better? Better than what?" she almost laughed in his face. "I am become the weather, the very mistress of storm and wind, the gatekeeper of the sun! I am the eye of the storm, clad in mist and wind, I am the rider of lightening! How am I insufficient? How could I be better than I am now?" As she spoke she rose into the air on winds her figure became intangible literally composed of little more than roiling clouds and mist shaped by wind and given power by the electric arcs within.

[Courier]

Doug responded, "KB, the power is great. Your form is great. Your control isn't. You've hurt me several time in just the last few minutes. Someone has stripped you of your control."

"I think they did this to you. Just like James made you help him even though it hurt you. Please, don't let them win. It's been four years, you should be stronger now... but you're missing pieces of yourself."

"I think John can give you back those pieces and you'd still be keeping all this wonder for yourself as well."

(Persuasion On)

[SalmonMax]

"I think I understand what he meant," Ash told Anna. "He meant something happened to the novas HERE. They all went aberrant at once for some reason. All this destruction...it's not because the city was attacked from outside. It's because they were fighting their own people..."

She led Anna towards Raider's lab...the place she was most familiar with.

"We have to tell the others. Doug's probably looking for his girlfriend...God only knows what he'll find. Starting to wish I'd done that mind meld thing of his..."

[jameson (ST)]

Ten minutes perhaps fifteen later Ash and Anna were back at the remains of Raider's shop. It was still boarded over, looking much like the condemned and abandoned building that it was. Though they did not see him Gregory was there as well, camouflaged and hiding atop the rickety roof of the porch. He found that the scales that not replaced his skin felt especially good in the warm sun.

****

Again KB laughed, though the sound was like rolling thunder and electrical arcs, "You assume that I did not mean you harm. Perhaps you should assume less. You have touched my mind for the last time, you would do well to remember that. Why should I trust you? You vanish for four years and suddenly you return, apparently unchanged, and seek to dominate our relationship once more? You left me to protect this place, to oversee those baseline monkeys. They are right to fear me, to pay tribute to me, I could destroy their town. Perhaps I should have left it to its fate those years ago, to be buried under a glacier's worth of ice and snow."

She looks at Doug, "Did you even stop to mourn her? Did you pay even a token of remorse for Calypso's death? She destroyed herself to unmake that storm. And now what? You claim I am sick? You have been back for less than a day and you already know best?"

[Courier]

Doug replied, "You should trust me because, for me it's been less than four hours. I look unchanged because I am unchanged. They halted time on us." Doug said gently, "It's me. I didn't vanish. I didn't leave you. Those bozos on the moon played a sick, sadistic joke, that's all."

Doug paused to let that sink in then continued, "And that wasn't the only one. Raider just told me over the link that all the York novas are animalistic aberrants now. I think it was the same bozos playing another sick joke. If we don't stop them they'll make you like the York novas. KB, right now you think of the baselines as monkeys, but you can. Still. Think!"

"They didn't want you like this. They wanted you as mindless as the York types. And if we let them do it again, that's what you'll be."

[Joani]

Anna was terrified by the thought that taint could be induced and thus finishing the last step of her transformation into a monster. Her eyes were haunted and she hunched over even more than normally.

At Raiders house she waited impatiently to get inside - she was scared and afraid that her presence could cause a riot.

[Gregory]

Gregory watched the others gather outside the beaten-up shack that used to be Raider's place. He had questions.

"Do we know who did this?" Gregory said, revealing his location on the roof above them. His question in obvious reference to Doug's sending.

[Joani]

Anna almost jumped back and grew a few inches before she realized it was Gregory talking to her. She hadn’t seen him and was too caught up with her thoughts about what she just heard.

She was slowly shrinking back to her “normal” size which was still huge and looked at Gregory obviously scared. “I think it was them”, she said pointing up to the sky. “The people here hate us now…”, Anna added sadly.