Aberrant: The Middle Children of History - Pulling the trigger

[Netherworld]

Dark mahogany panelling covered the walls of the spacious, yet cluttered office. The smell of old pipe smoke still clung to the furniture and maroon drapes, all of which were were in excellent shape, but dated to a period almost forgotten among those of modern society. A simple lamp cast yellowish light, atop a teak dest, through a browning linen lampshade. A stack of 30 to 40 dossiers lay on the desk, their multi-colored jackets a contrast to the rest of the room. Grizzled fingers, attached to aged purple-veigned hands, opened the top file and began leafing through its contents.

"He has become quite powerful. Don't you agree?" A man's voice spoke from the shadows near the desk.

"Yes." An aged woman's voice emanated from the old figure reading the dossier. "We should have taken him out while he was still in his mother's womb." She laid the file on the desk and folded her hands. "If his father had not been a precog, and seen our trap, we would have too. Unfortunately, after that incident, his mother kept him secluded where we were unable to find him."

"And now he's grown into his power and we would be hard pressed to eliminate him." The man spoke again. He leaned foreward, revealing himself to be a middle-aged man with dark intelligent eyes and unnatural vitality. "He is, afterall, the union of two powerful Nova parents. It was only a matter of time." The man paused in introspection. "We knew that such things were going to happen, even with almost universal coverage with the sterility drug."

The old waman's lips pursed in frustration. "It would have been universal if those Aberrant rabblerousers and Teragen miscreants had not put out warnings to new Novas to stay away from our Rashoud facilities. And despite our best efforts, their warnings did not fall on deaf ears.

"And now we have this.." The woman continued, as she ran her fingers down the sides of the files. "..Progeny despite our best efforts."

The man moved closer to the desk and sat in a dark velvet-lined chair. "Which is why we continue to try and prevent these 'situations' from occuring. Unfortunately, there are more reports every day of Nova pregnancies and births. Director, our 'Mother-hunters' can barely keep up with the demand."

"I understand they are taxed." The elderly woman broke in. "but their efforts must continue." Her voice turned cold. "Our efforts against these 30 or so that survived our initial hunts must continue as well. Unfortunately, most are now so frighteningly powerful, that any attempts to deal with them in a populated are would kill thousands and tens of thousands. Maybe even more. Collateral damage of that scale is unacceptable."

"Then we draw them out where we can use whatever tools necessary to get the job done." His voice became as cold as hers. "Everyone has a trigger that can be pulled. We just have to find the right ones."

[Krul]

“Ok, who’s next on the list.” A folder is pulled out from the various dossiers set to the side, and opened, so that both of those at the desk can take a look at it. It’s followed by a grimace, and a deep sigh. “This one is going to be a problem, going after at this point has limited returns, we can’t even find her family. Its really two of those we thought eliminated?”

“It’s certain, Director, our genetic analysis from what we could get of her, have confirmed it, it appears that her father, as a Brainiac, likely carried some sort of double bind mastermind trick to make us think we got him. With her mother’s extreme shape changing capabilities, we believe that she took our Mother Hunter’s place, send the message of mission completed, then went on leave. At the time, we didn’t follow up on it, as we were distracted by other problems, the whole Slider/Corbin issue.

Considering that the body showed up 7 weeks later, and appeared to only have been dead two days, we’ve reevaluated the matter, we think that the body was placed in a stasis chamber that the father built, one that held the body suspended in time. Though we‘ve supposed it‘s also possible someone with some sort of Temporal Manipulation ability was involved.”

The woman blinked, then shook her head. “Damn.. And we didn’t even suspect.”

“No Director, until Dauntless showed up on the radar, this one was completely lost.”

“I want a reevaluation of all missions marked successful, especially ones where our agents ended up dead between 8 to 20 weeks later.” the man nodded.

“I’ve already informed your analysts that that would be required, they are working on it as we speak.”

He paused, then gestured down to the file in front of her. “Director, this one though, is a problem, we’ve tried to douse her twice, and not only have we failed.. But she’s become aware of it.”

“What?! How?”

“Apparently she is hyperaware of her own body, to an extreme degree. The analysts who’ve investigated the matter believe that she knows everything about her own body, right down to the number of blood cells flowing though her veins, and can establish conscious control over every aspect of it. Including fertility and health. Insert an unknown, and it’s instantly known. What’s worse, they’ve estimated, there is a 99.99998% probability her body is in essence, completely immune to being sterilized, or any poison, sickness or disease. Douse her again, and she‘ll know it, and she might even know enough to reproduce it, and synthesize an antidote.”

“Fuck… your telling me she’s a super Breeder? Well, can we eliminate her?”

“That’s the other problem, Director, we have estimated a 5.1% to 7.3% of succeeding in any direct attempt to eliminate her, and our analysts have said this may be overly optimistic. No doubt you’ve seen the footage of her battle with Obsidian Rampage? On a side note, he’s still in a coma, but we have him in personal custody at the moment, he might be useful at some point. Back to the point, however, that just is the tip of the iceburg, our genetic analysts say that she’s a Alpha Class Personal Molecular Replicator. In essence, Director, she can become anything she touches, and fully take on it’s properties. Add to that, she’s super humanly perceptive, and quick witted, not to mention physically one of the toughest and healthiest Novas alive.. She never sleeps, and doesn’t need to eat or drink unless she wants too.”

“Crap, so we really have a problem with this own.”

“Well, there is a upside.”

“Oh? Tell me, I really could use some good news here.”

“It’s not really good news, but, she’s yet to indicate a desire to have a family, and until she does, her control over her own fertility means that she’ll not have any children until she’s ready.”

“Oh, yes, great, what happens if she means another one of the nova prodigy who manages to change her mind about the matter? Bad enough we‘ve already got second and even third generation out there, I don‘t want any more. Alright, so we can‘t eliminate her directly, what about indirectly, and what about finding her parents?”

“Indirectly suggests some possibilities, though if she manages to escape them, she’ll become more dangerous then ever. As to the parents, we’re not sure yet, we haven’t been able to isolate them, and she simply vanishes, teleporting apparently, from time to time, likely visiting her family. We don’t know the limits of her teleportation capabilities, but we believe that traveling to the edges of the solar system are not impossibilities for her.”

The older woman on the other side of the desk sighs and rubs her forehead. “Find some weaknesses, everyone, no matter how tough and powerful has a few.”

The man’s voice was cold. “Indeed, if possible, perhaps we can even get two birds with one stone.”

“Don‘t get too fancy, we don‘t want them to slip the net after all.”