Aberrant: The Middle Children of History - In the Crosshairs

[Dauntless]

Over the last few months, sense she and Conner had become a item, both Dauntless and Mech had fallen under much greater scrutiny. Not being telepaths or clairvoyant, neither of them were quite aware of it, though Aurora did have her sisters occasionally giving her some measure of advice, they were young and had other interests regarding their time.

For those watching them, it was becoming more and more a matter that required intervention. Somewhere, a conversation of sorts over the matter, went along the following lines.

"Your sure she's pregnant."

"Absolutely, we double checked and triple checked, they are keeping it quiet, but it is ture."

"That is not good... both of these novas are classed as extremely powerful, I have no desire to see another nova of their power, let alone another potential Bastion or Elspeth, even that of Divis Mal himself unleashed upon the world. We have no idea what their child could become, matters are already difficult enough, we don't need another random factor."

"So take steps to eliminate them?"

"Discretely, after all, if anything has been taught to us in the last decade or two, is that matters may not work out as we desire. I don't want a pair of nova's of their power attempting to hunt us down if this should fail. Use what resources we can, but if it fails.. we'll need to reassess the situation."

[Mech]

Targets have left the premises of both Seattle and Lake Charles. All other homes belonging to Fontenot show no activity. Security systems in place but circumventable.

Filming is done, saboteurs in place to ruin editing. Option two for accident proceeding apace.

It has been noted that both nvas are incredibly tough. suggest we find a way to neutralize some aspect of protection.

[Dauntless]

The individuals involved in the matter considered the situation carefully, and discussed the situation.

Dauntless was less known then Mech, though they had considerable data involving her in combat, shrugging off and ignoring all kinds of attacks, physical and energy, and becoming either. Mech's shapechanging capability was well documented as well, and trying to kill the two of them was going to be.. difficult.

After consideration, they decided a method of neutralizing powers might be best, if it could be managed

[Mech]

The method would require advanced technology, Each of the targets had multiple layers of defensive abilities. multiple devices would have to programmed and used. It was deemed best to wait at Dauntless's Seattle apartment, as they spent less time there, but it was far more readily accessible.

[Dauntless]

They continued to plan, although, there was some concern about how quickly or how capable either of the two nova’s could adapt to the attack. Dauntless had been observed more in battle, so some ideas of her patterns and capabilities were apparent, but they were concerned about how quickly she seemed to adapt on the field of battle, and what capabilities she had yet to display, or that she might adapt on the spot. Mech had been observed in acting, so some measure of his capabilities were recorded, however, they were not sure just how much he was capable of, beyond his shape changing.

However, the plan was formed, and they decided on a method that should work, and her apartment was chosen as the best spot for the attack. Then, they laid in wait, for the two novas to appear, whenever it might be.

[Mech]

Connor smiled as he and Aurora appeared in Seattle. It was time for the weekly visit for both of them, though she had to be there more. He didn't mind it had been part of what drew him to her.

"Well it's nice to see our other home in the condition we left it."

[Dauntless]

They had selected a total number of 12, of those, nine were baseline humans, if exceptional ones, who would attack as the chemical agent was applied. They had placed the devices in the room at the proper locations, to spray the chemical Eclipsidol agent into the air, hopefully coating both novas, and rendering them easier to take out, once they had been fully effected, and lost all of their quantum pools. At which point the agents would attack, if they failed, the eclipsidol should have dissolved by then, leaving the 3 novas a chance to take out their targets.

“Ye.. Wait, look out!“ Being mega-perceptive, with holographic awareness, something that their assassin’s were unaware of, and having a near perfect memory of her home, Aurora recognized devices as not belonging here, even as they activated, to spray both of the novas.

[Mech]

The Spray hit connor and for all incredible reaction speed, his powers all began to trigger. Instinctively as he became metal he grew in size and stature as he took the form of the Superior Gundam. 4 copies appeared, while his own defensive barrier activated. Both the achnerar sword and his beam rifle appeared in his hands, as the now Five Gundams actively searched for hostiles. One of the copies found one and hauled them into the air. "WHO ARE YOU?!" they were held tight in the viselike grip of the fifty foot robot's grip.

[Dauntless]

For Aurora, the matter was different, even as the spray touched her skin, increadibly, her instant knowledge of her body and systems were such that she was completely aware of what it was, and what it was trying to do, within nano-seconds, by baseline human understanding. Against most other novas, this attack would have been disasterous, but Aurora was not most other novas.

In less then 10,000th of a second, she had already developed some increadible invulerabilities to attempts to manipulate her quantum structure.. and within a 1000th of a second, her adaptive capabilities had completely neutralized and immunized her to the effect of the chemical.. for the time being at least.

It did nothing to neutralize her sudden rage, however, as her sudden tatical analysis considered the situation, and recognized it as a assassination attempt. Moving with superhuman precision and skill, she shifted across the room, her every strike perfect and her balance absolute, as she responded to thier attackers.. and for those watching on camera's, the fact she was still in control, and apparently was completely unaffected by the chemicals, was frightening.

[Mech]

Things went from bad to worse when an agent had been captured, and then One of the targets proved immune. A shot rang out and the agent in the clone's hand slumped over dead. A clone appeared right there, massive hand enclosing the gunman.

It was time for the nova operatives to get involved, and they had to be fast if they expected to salvage this. Mech was weaker burning through reserves at a prodigious rate, but there were a number of identical copies, all doing similar things, it was impossible to isolate just one as Mech Prime. Instead all Three novas went after Dauntless, Their goal to at least take one of them down.

[Dauntless]

It made sense, to take out the pregnant female, if at all possible, that would still complete the mission as it had been indicated. However, so far, the situation had proven less then ideal, from what they had expected. Dealing with a fully powered, ticked off nova of Aurora's class was not at all what they had planned for.

Wearing body suits that were attuned and protected them from the effects of the eclipsidol chemical, the three nova's attacked her directly. Each of them had thier own personal strengths and they were a team, working together, to minimize weaknesses.

For Dauntless, when they charged forward, she activated her Quantum Awareness, she could see and sense the forces around her opponants, and she knew they were, she knew every second, she knew the prefect location and posistion of every opponant, the battlefield had unfolded around her, and there wasn't any aspect of it she wasn't aware of.

There were levels of skill that could be considered to be possessed by individuals, strengths and weaknesses. For her, there was nothing remaining, but prefection.. she moved with an impossible grace and speed as her opponants came upon her, and she considered what she had been taught by her masters, in martial arts. While for most of the others, things might have been happening increadibly quickly, especially the baseline humans, for her it moved at more steady progression.

She had avoided doing this lately, not wanting to influence her son too much in the womb, but now, she was protecting herself and her child.... and that made such considerations insignificant. With the diamond ring on her finger, it was easy to touch and absorb the properties of diamond, it's toughness and it's sharpness. Her strength enhanced, her fingernail's as sharp as claws, her beauty that of a human diamond, and her already superhumanly tough body increased by much greater preportions she was ready for them as they came.

[Mech]

Outside, the miniature army rounded up the baseline agents, squeezing them hard to induce unconsciousness without killing them. The real Connor had just found the sixth one, and he could feel his power starting to ebb finally. Police cars were showing up and one by one He set the unconscious assailants down, One of the copies kneeling down and relaying what had happened, as he burned deeper and deeper into his reserves of power. Knowing that he couldn't continue there long without firing off attacks he Rose to the window to see Aurora being attacked. A huge battlearmored fist crashed into the room and grabbed the middle one. Massive fingers closed around the nova and Everyone hear the sickening crunch as his fist closed.

On the other side another Clone appeared ready to reach in. Connor left without a word, his eyes ablaze as his vision shifted spectrums. He looked at the Nova in his hand and hit the street with him. He released him as he fell unconscious. He set him down by the Police. I want to press charges for attemped Murder, he's got two more friends attacking Aurora in her apartment."

He shot off into the sky over the harbor. He couldn't start firing wildly over land, noly over the water. Finally he began releasing bolts of energy, straight overhead. Soon enoug even his reserves began to fade as the energy shielf faltered.

[Dauntless]

One of the nova's who were attacking her struck with as much force as he could, and being as strong as he was, that was quite a bit.. however, as a force field formed around her, increasing hre natural soak so high, that most normal attacks wouldn't even bruise her. She also used the force field to parry the force of his blow, and reduce the strength of the attack, so that force of the blow was tremendous.. but between her enhanced soak as a being of diamond and her bioenergy force field, it was reduced to nothing.

"My turn." Reaching out with increadible speed and precision, her hand grasped the slower of the two nova's around the neck, lifting him off the ground, so that he could find no leverage against her, and she began to drain his Quantum Pool, directly into her own.

[Mech]

Connor was starting to Flag, the copies found the last Agent and put them with the others. On the water the huge metal nova unleashed a final brilliant blue bolt, leaving a slight energy trail as Fifteen tons of organic metal falls back and crashes into the harbor. Connor's body already starts changing back to normal, his power completely drained.

Due to his light show there was already at least one coast guard boat in the area. But Connor was unconscious, and barely affloat.

[Rorx]

Darren had been concerned about the couples safety since he stumbled across an agent observing them during the recent filming. Unfortunately, at the time he hadn't had any concrete information on the observers aims due to the compartmentalisation of the information within their agency. He had tried a couple of times to find a time when they weren't being observed to warn Connor, but their observation seemed to complete. The psychic shields that Connor and Aurora had in place also prevented him from contacting them more intimately.

In the end he had to make do with observing the observers, a task made easier by the use of his ESP and cautious use of post-hypnotic suggestions to leave clues for him planted in a couple of the agents. It was through this that he was able to track their planned attack site down to Seattle, but of course the time was to be dictated by the arrival of the couple. Given the movement powers of the pair, that was something that could never be predicted with a high degree of certainty. In the end he had had to copy the agent and set up his own observation of the home that the agency were targeting.

He was in the form of an off-duty cabbie apparently snoozing in his cab when the attack kicked off. There was little change in his appearance but inside Darren was glad to see how well and quickly his friends were able to respond to the attack. He had been intending to take control of an agent or two to help them during the fight, but that was made unnecessary by Connor's clones who would be able to quickly deal with them. When one of the clones disappeared Darren assumed it was the real Connor and briefly checked on his new location with his telepathy. It wasn't enough to contact the distracted Nova through his psychic defences but it was enough to pin point his location over the nearby bay.

Although he was not the combat experienced Nova that the other two were Darren had learnt a little from his filming experiences and was able to act quickly when called for, and this was obviously one of those times. Seeing the last Nova aiming into Aurora's back while she held the brick by his neck Darren slipped into her mind and shifted her aim into her team mate. The attack was brutal and would have given Aurora's boosted defences a run for her money, the Nova dangling in her hand had less chance. It penetrated his defences with ease leaving him dangling seriously injured. However, Darren couldn't waste time watching the events here as through his telepathy he had sensed Connor's fall lapse into unconsciousness. Swearing to himself he teleported to Connor's last location.

[Dauntless]

With her increadible levels of perception, she knew instantly when conner vanished, and she heard and saw him over the bay, and while her head remained in the fight for the moment, she felt a moment of fear. "Conner!"

Her fear was not on her own behalf, she was completely and utterly confident of being able to deal with the attacks on her. Her fear was for Conner at the moment, and when the other nova accidentlly hit her opponant, she flung the injured nova in her hands straight into the last opponant standing.

With her mind instantly calculating the distance between her and where Conner was overhead, she vanished with a flash, to reappear over the waters of the bay, and then to the water below, reaching Conner just about a second or two behind Darren.

[Mech]

(OOC Connor's not waking up any time soon, and he's out of quantum points.)

[Dauntless]

With Conner unconscious in the water, she was better prepared in some ways then Darren might be to rescue him. Grabbing Conner, she stood on the surface of the water, and pulled him up and out, then cradling him in her arms as she carried him back to the shore, walking on the surface of the water as she did.

She saw Darren as she pulled Conner out the water and looked up at him questioningly. "Just visiting then? How did you end up here just now, with this?" Her tone was a touch suspicious, she didn't think he was involved, but right now, she wasn't feeling as charitable as she might have been at another time.

[Rorx]

Darren in the form of an overweight mid-forties asian guy in jeans, check shirt and faded casual jacket replied, "I'm surprised you recognised me like this, but please no more names. If you have somewhere that you don't go often or that is hidden then take him there now."

He looks around nervously, "I spotted this crowd watching you two back when we were filming but you were always under observation and with your mind shields I couldn't get through to tell you about them. Instead I've been watching them and staying ready to help you when they made their move."

Facing her again his form and eufibre shifts to that of one of the Shadow Ninja from his first film, "Before you go will you accept a mind link? It's like a mental telephone line between us with a range of a couple of thousand klicks. Then you can contact me without giving me away to those watching you."

He barely waits for her reply before saying, "Ok, got to move before they find you again."

Click to reveal..

If she agrees he pauses long enough to establish the Psychic Link before teleporting to a cinema close to the apartment that was targetted.

[Dauntless]

As she walked over the surface of the water, pausing a moment only to check and make certain that Conner was breathing ok, she responded to Darren's statement. "I recognize you by the essence of your quantum signature, it's a method only a nova could manage, and even then, not all of them." She paused a moment as to his suggestion.

"I would, but I can not teleport without him awake, I can't attune someone of his size... and I'm not sure about a psychic link, are you sure it's a good idea?" There was a hint of uncertainty in her tone as she spoke, and with lightning fast speed she considered the situation, then she frowned. "But.. Elspeth could, using her warp power, open a portal to some place safe in her kingdom. You think you could contact her and ask her for her help?"

[Rorx]

Sighing in frustration Darren quickly revised his plans.

"You don't want to try the link, fine. We'll just be stuck not being able to communicate unbugged then."

He shook his head at her mentionof Elspeth, "Nope, don't know her except by reputation. And I'd be surprised if she wasn't protected as well."

Darren quickly considered, he supposed he would have to go back to a version of his original plan.

"Did he tell you about our surfing trip? I'll take him to the hotel we stayed in there, and you can move him on as soon as he wakes up."

As he spoke he started to Attune the unconcious nova in preparation for the 'port.

[Dauntless]

"If you can attune him, and teleport to a safe place, I'll open a psychic link, it would better allow me to keep in contact, and allow you to show me where your going." She reluctantly lowered her psychic shield and allowed the other nova to make the telepathic link between them, even as she allowed him to take Conner from her, with a similar measure of reluctance. Of course, he would no doubt be aware of the reluctance within her mind immediatly, if not before he made the link once he made it.

It wasn't nessarily that she didn't trust him, though right now she wasn't feeling very trusting, it was more of a matter that she felt that she should be better able to deal with the situation. Especially sense she would have a child to protect soon, as well as her beloved.