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

[Joani]

"This all makes no sense.", Anna quietly said.

"If they have the power to move us forward in time by for years - why didn't they do the same with the Asteriod. We would have never seen it coming or have the chance to deflect it. Something is wrong - we're looking at the results but are drawing the wrong conclusions.", she was slowly standing up.

"Face it - truth is, we know nothing. Everything is gone and those who survived are too scared to trust us. Why do you glory hounds want to go back up there and ask them questions they won't answer? Why should they? They owe you no explanation. As far as I can tell we're not different to them then the Aberrants that caused this. Earth is dying, there is nothing to rebuilt for us. What good is any attempt to retaliate except to satisfy your own twisted hatred now? Or is this about justice? Who cares? It's over."

[Courier]

Doug grunted and said, "Some serious problems with all that. First the moon never changed orbit. A time field covering the moon presumably wouldn't send it zooming off into space."

"Second you're assuming that the field generator on the moon has a range which lets it change time for an Asteroid further away that the Earth. Or you're assuming that building the generator is cheap and easy enough that they can do it anywhere for any reason."

"They're not gods. They have limits on what they can do, we just don't know what they are."

Doug added with a bitter false cheer, "So maybe they didn't do it after all. Maybe we're being abused by some OTHER high tech group that ALSO thinks we're diseased animals."

Doug added a hair more seriously, "Or maybe there is no group. It could have been that Beth or Raider's Dad build some device which did the job right here." Doug pointed his finger down at ground zero... which at the moment was a glassy rock. "But if it was some lone aberrant, I don't see how we prove it."

Doug lifted his arms wide to include the entire burned out town, "This was our best hope for rebuilding everything and/or finding some more clues about what happened. But fine, let's just go down the list of lesser possibilities."

Doug sat Indian style two feet in the air and tried to use the link to contact Buzz, then anyone else who he'd ever linked to but just hadn't spoken to recently.

[Joani]

Anna raised a finger in an accusatory motion to Doug as she answered him, "Don't try to mock me, Doug. I am not stupid. I may not understand what has been going on up there and honestly I could've cared less if our lives weren't on the line. I wanted to help and we were seeking peace. They didn't like us and sent us back. Maybe I would've done the same if I was in there position.", Anna was getting angry, something they have never seen before.

"What if we are truly the monsters, the aberrations they just try to stay away from? We may differ from those mindless beasts that destroyed this settlement but we are doomed to end like them. Sooner or later we're going to be just like them. Look at me... how much time do I have left before it gets worse... before I become like them? How much time do you have left?" she pointed at Doug. "Or you?", she pointed at Raider.

"We're idiots to believe there is future to rebuilt and start over with.", Anna let her arm fall again and shook her head. It was pointless arguing about it. She looked at Ashley with great sadness in her amber eyes. If they only had never left...

[Courier]

Doug closed his eyes to show that he was concentrating and said, "Them trying to kill us doesn't make them good and us evil. Their other actions? None of those paint them as good either."

"Anna, I don't remember you wandering around and killing baselines because they're on your land and can be treated like vermin. Whoever dropped the rock did exactly that."

"And how long can you stay sane? Without outside interference, basically forever as long as you don't abuse your power. This situation around us isn't a result of novas naturally becoming aberrants. I met John and Beth, both of them seemed a lot like you. They didn't deserve this. The people around them didn't deserve this. And yes the people responsible for this fully deserve to be punished."

[SalmonMax]

"It's hard to imagine something they did reaching this far," Ashley says, looking away. "Not impossible, since we don't know much about them...but if this is hundreds of miles away..."

She looks towards KB.

"Listen, you were there when this happened. What do you remember? Was there...I don't know, an explosion? Some kind of beam? Anything at all? Or did people just start changing for no reason?"

[jameson (ST)]

Doug finds that few of his contacts reply, and those that do are baseline, every one. The Process takes perhaps twenty minutes during which time the others talk and search the area. KB, surprisingly, seems to possess a conflict of emotion regarding the charred ruin of Goodwood. When Ash addresses her at first she seems stupefied, lost in thought. In time, and after being asked a second time she replies, "There was no warning. It was like, like my eruption happened anew. I felt flush with power, stronger than before, stronger than ever before. It... I wasn't in the city when it happened I was out searching for Doug." She looked at Doug, her sadness seemed to drain away, "But I found nothing, he was gone, robbed from me!"

[Courier]

As Doug concentrated he slowly drifted down and settled on the Earth. Eventually he stood stretched, and said, "Lot's of news, none of it good. I can't reach ANY novas, not Buzz, not anyone. But I did get through to a few baselines, not many, but some."

Doug hesitated then decided to be quick about it, "The event happened about 2 years ago and a bit. Everyone I talked to, the news was the same. All novas were affected, nobody knows any sane ones, and get this, a ton of baselines popped at the same time. And before anyone asks, I checked, every one of them came out zapped as well."

"We can pretty much count out the entire East Coast north of us. I got through to Nova Scotia, Quebec, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, & Old Massachusetts."

"I didn't get through to anyone South of that... but that's probably me, I didn't get down South very often. Same holds true for further East.

OOC Note: Newborough is in Central Mass, there's no way you'd have gotten down to Cuba, the furthest south you have been is York which is in Penn.

[SalmonMax]

"That's sounding less and less like the moon men," Ash points out. "Unless they didn't mean for it to work like this. The aberrants got more powerful too...and they turned a lot of people into novas."

She frowns. "But it affected such a huge area. That does seem like it'd almost have to be something in space. Something that could affect the whole planet..."

[Courier]

Doug thought about that for a moment then frowned and said, "They wiped out our reserves. Some or all of our breeding population too. Ash, you erupted with the power to deal with your current situation. So did I. So did Raider. Most of us do."

"And for the last two years, the number of new eruptions has been... zero. Everyone who could erupt to save the day already did. So if someone were to say, drop another rock on us, there would be NO ONE who could transform into a nova with just the right powers."

[Gregory]

His mind was racing back to something that they learned in York a long time ago. He remembered something about a place where it was warm. They made York build stuff- lec'tron'ik stuff

"York was making lek'tron'ik stuff for a warm place. Maybe they made something that did this." Gregory's brow formed neat rows of dark golden scales as he thought further. "They were south. Way south. Meebe they made a mistake."

Gregory realized that most fo the abbie population had gone somewhere, and he was afraid to think what that might mean.

"Are all the Abbies alive? If they are, where did they go?"

[Courier]

Doug said to Gregory, "Since the event they've been killing each other. Other than that... they're around somewhere I guess." *KB will drift away on the wind and 'become' weather eventually. That's how I'm going to lose her.*

(Only Sent to Raider:)

*The more I think about it, the more I'm concerned that one might not be enough. Any chance we can get our hands on a few more? Didn't the old USA have massive stockpiles? Or maybe you could find another in orbit?*

[Courier]

Click to reveal..

First is mega, Doug has a quality that applies
9d10.hits(7) [2,3,2,1,10,7,8,8,3] = (4)
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2141008/

(extra die) 1d10.hits(7) → [10] = (1)
Total of 4 sux

[Gregory]

Click to reveal..

1st die mega. Rerolling 10's for Alert (if applicable)
(05:49:48) ChatBot: (Gregory) rolls 8d10 and gets 4,7,5,2,1,10,8,10.
(05:50:13) ChatBot: (Gregory) rolls 2d10 and gets 4,4.
[4 sux]

[SalmonMax]

Ash can't help but snort in amusement at the idea that she, of all people, was the voice of restraint right now. The amusement quickly fades as she remembers the fate of the people at York though. If she'd stayed there, instead of going with these guys, maybe more could have escaped.

Or maybe you'd be right there with the rest of the aberrants.

She shivered and looked around.

"Can we get out of here?"

Per+Aware (8dice): 7, 9, 5, 3, 8, 4, 5, 10

3 successes

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2142229/

[Mr Fox]

Raider desperately needed more info. For him it was coming down to two possibilities, the moonies or an unknown but very knowledgeable and very powerful nova.

Click to reveal..

(19:49:29) ChatBot: (Raider) rolls 8d10 and gets 6,2,10,3,5,4,4,4.

(19:49:35) ChatBot: (Raider) rolls 1d10 and gets 10.

4 successes total

[jameson (ST)]

None of them had any idea that they were being watched. None of them but one. Adam held his power at the ready, spending less time watching the others or searching the ruins than he did slowly ensuring that he knew precisely where the watcher was. When the rifle cracked Adam spun and lobbed a glowing blob of energy out at the hidden target. The bullet struck Courier squarely but aside from the feeling of impact it failed to do anything to the nova. The orange energy sphere exploded and the shape of a man was tossed out of his hiding place at the edge of the forest. He tumbled through the air, his clothing already aflame, before hitting the ground in a tangle of limbs.

[Courier]

Courier felt the impact and wondered, *Was that an attack?*, and then Adam went nuclear and the sniper went flying.

In a flash Doug flew over to the injured man and started examining him. Doug yelled, "Anna, Raider, he might still be salvageable."

[SalmonMax]

At the sound of the shot, Ash instinctively reached for her power. Light exploded from her skin and eyes, and coruscated through the air around her in a halo. Even so, she knew it would've been too late if he'd shot her, not Courier.

With blinding speed, she flickers over to where the sniper landed and lifts a hand to point ominously at him.

"Alright fella," she warns, "Sit still, keep your hands visible."

[Joani]

Anna quickly dashed to the direction she saw Doug flying and tapped on her healing powers which made the veins that patterned over her entire body glow in a dim green light.

Once she reached the wounded she knelt down next to him and poured her healing energies into him without hesitation.

Click to reveal..

Use Healing to heal either 2 Lethal or 4 bashing damage on the wounded man.

[Mr Fox]

Raider followed at a slower pace now studying the surroundings looking for other potential snipers. "Anna you can fix him, you are better at healing than me." It was true of course, but more than that, it allowed Raider to watch and be wary. He also shifted out of phase enough that material objects like bullets would not harm him.

[Gregory]

Almost instinctively at the sound of the crack, Gregory raised his bodyshield. It was invisible, yet it's ripples could be seen pulsating along his body if they looked close enough.

That there was only one sniper meant little. Gregory was a survivor and he would make sure he lived. I there were more, he would be ready for them. He held the shield as the other ministered to the hurt man.

Click to reveal.. ( Forcefield)

(08:36:40) ChatBot: (Gregory) rolls 10d10 and gets 7,6,5,8,8,10,7,6,7,6 [8 sux]

Soak= 29/24

[jameson (ST)]

Anna got to the man quickly, owing to her long strides and great urgency. He was bruised and bleeding but not seriously injured. At Anna's touch the bleeding stopped and the wounds began to fade. The man's eyes fluttered open and he immediately struck out, striking Anna's hands away and scrambling to his feet in an attempt to flee, oblivious to the others. It was a simple matter for Doug to grab him in a vise like hold and prevent him from fleeing or flailing about. "Let me go you bastards!"

[Courier]

Doug briefly considered crushing the man's head like a grape but on the list of bad things to happen to him today the attack seemed minor.

Doug gave the man a light shake and asked him almost mildly, "Who are you?"

[Joani]

Anna withdrew her hand like a hurt child. She was clearly confused by the man's hostile reaction and made an awkward step backwards as if he could hurt her even more. She looked at Ashley and Doug and sat down the sadness still dominating her overall mood. Even if she did only help people they seemed to hate her.

[jameson (ST)]

The man twisted in Doug's grasp but was unable to get free. As he struggled they got a good look at him, his face and arms bore the scars of long heal burns, burns that had healed with nothing more than time. He was a garish mockery of the man he had once been, skin permanently reddened and rippled in waves of scar tissue. It didn't take much to realize that this man must have somehow survived the conflagration that destroyed Goodwood. "Why should I tell you? Just kill me if that is what you are going to do! Get it over with!"

[Courier]

Getting a little annoyed with all the flailing, Doug pulled the man down to the ground so he was flat on his back and said, "You shot me, remember? Why all the hostility? What happened here?"

[jameson (ST)]

"You're one of THEM! You all are! Aberrants! That's enough reason to try and kill you!" The man continued to struggle fitfully, a vain attempt to break free. "You come back here to gloat over the ashes? To revel in the destruction caused by your kind? The bones of good people lay in these ashes! Or maybe you heard that there was a cure here? Well here's your cure, death and fire and pain!"

[Courier]

Doug sighed and replied, "No, we came to see if John and his crew could help us. Someone is trying to destroy the world. Their most recent try was to overload all the novas, turn them all into abbies. That's what happened to Beth here, why she went nuts with fire. Their next try will be the same as their first, they'll drop another big ass rock on us."

Doug said seriously, "Novas stopped them last time, but we're probably the only ones left on the planet. The only ones who were off planet when the taint bomb went off."

{Persuader On}

[Joani]

Originally Posted By: jameson (ST)

"You come back here to gloat over the ashes? To revel in the destruction caused by your kind? The bones of good people lay in these ashes! Or maybe you heard that there was a cure here? Well here's your cure, death and fire and pain!"

Cure? CURE?! "What?!", exclaimed Anna suddenly. The barest hint of a cure brought her out of her reverie.

"You've got a cure? Where? Who?!", she came closer to the man shadowing over Doug and the stranger through her sheer size. Her amber eyes looked frantically for any hint that hinted at the man's words.

"Tell me you've got a cure!", she half pleaded half demanded.

[SalmonMax]

"He doesn't have a cure," Ash says quietly to Anna. For her, looking at the man was eerie. It hadn't been so long that it would have been her there, shaking with fear and helpless raging wrath against beings that she couldn't hurt or stop...but that she wouldn't give up on trying to.

Holding onto the power, he seemed so small now. So slow. It made her feel sick at herself for feeling that way. She wanted to push it away, but the possible threat of more snipers convinced her to keep it on for now.

"We're not going to find any answers here. Maybe we can find one of the new novas, the ones that were human beings that changed when this happened. They might have clearer memories. Someone has to know what happened."

Like it or not though, Ash found herself starting to feel like it didn't matter. What happened, happened. More and more she felt like the better idea was working out how best to survive next. If that was even still possible.

[Courier]

Doug replied, "We need a non-nova. John is probably dead, but Raider's Dad might still be alive."

Doug turned back to the man and said, "Robert O'Reily. Is he still alive? Just so you know, one of us has the power to heal. We could clear up all these scars and the like."

{Persuader still on to convince him to trade and that we're sane}

[jameson (ST)]

He laughed scornfully, "There was never a cure, but that didn't stop people from learning about Johnny's gift. They kept coming and he kept trying to help them. He's dead because of you people. They're all dead because of your kind. Johnny said he could help them ... he said he had to try..." He stopped speaking and struggling, his eyes wide as he remembered something horrific.

[SalmonMax]

Ash feels a prickle at the man's expression.

"What happened?" she asks thickly. "John's the one who cancelled out nova powers right? What happened when he pushed that too far?"

[Mr Fox]

Raider just stood silent listening to the conversation. No point in interrupting, they were asking the right questions. Raider wanted to know what happened here after they left, and about his father.

[Courier]

{Lie Detector On}

[Gregory]

Gregory remembered what it was like to be in Johnny's draining field. What made him feel so weak and powerless then, would now seem like a blessing. He looked at the scales that now covered his entire body and wondered what it would be like to look normal again. If there was not the ever present threat of abbie attack or angry men with guns, he might dorm. Maybe tonight. When it safe.

Gregory listened to the man and wondered if maybe Johnny caused what happened.

"Maybe Johnny couldn't store any more abbie taint stuff and he 'sploded." Gregory put in his 1/2 cent, sounding excited.

[jameson (ST)]

"I don know ... maybe lizard boy is right maybe not. Alls I know is that the other abbies, they said his juju stopped working. Some couldn't handle it and had to be put down. But after ... it was like somebody put gas on a fire. Suddenly they were all turning into monsters. We didn't have time to run, she just ... she looked at us and said, 'You are an infection that needs to be sterilized,' an then the whole town went up ..." Suddenly he pulls a knife and jams it into the flesh of Doug's forearm with suck force that the blade snaps off at the handle leaving steel protruding from Doug's arm like a growth. Without a word KB sent a fine lance of lightening shooting from her fingertip. There was a flash and a muted thunderclap like an engine backfiring. The man lay still, a circular hole, still smoking, burned though his forehead.

[SalmonMax]

Even with her boosted reflexes, Ashley wasn't faster than lightning.

She whirled, tried to lunge at KB to throw her aim off. "No, wait!"

Too late.

"Damnit! We might have been onto something! He couldn't hurt us! Why did you do that?!"

[Courier]

Doug said to the smoking corpse, "'A' for effort. 'E' for effect. 'E' for smarts too."

Originally Posted By: SalmonMax

"Damnit! We might have been onto something! He couldn't hurt us! Why did you do that?!"

Doug answered, "Because when your best friend gets into a fight, you get into a fight."

Doug flicked the knife head away. The blade had stopped at his skin, snapped, then was held in place by his strength field, presumably the same way large objects didn't collapse of their own weight. Doug saw blood, rubbed his finger in to to make sure it was his, and mentally corrected himself. The blade had stopped just under the skin. Doug said, "Hey, he made me bleed."

Doug said to the corpse, "OK, 'D' for effect."

Doug said, "Hey, Anna, could you take care of this for me please?"

[SalmonMax]

"This wasn't a 'fight'," Ash corrects Doug. "He was no threat to you. When a six year old smacks a grown man, it's not a fight."