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Aberrant: Phoenix Rising - Book 2: Chapter 6c: Keep Talking


jameson (ST)

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The first thing that Ashley noticed was the almost painful slap of dry heat. The ground here was dry and cracked, dotted by hardy scrub brush and thick tough weeds. The sun shone overhead in start contrast to the night sky of the city. Ash looked around, the portal remained open behind her but the landscape in every direction was otherwise the same as that where she stood. At the edge of her vision she saw something shining in the sun, something that rose up out of the landscape. She set off in that direction, hoping that Adam had done the same and that he had a good reason to have done so.

Half an hour later she could tell that the shining artifact was a building, or perhaps a complex of buildings. Fifteen minutes after that she could see the shining crescent of the ocean, or a great lake beyond the buildings. Scowling she rose into the air, enveloped in emerald, clad in power incarnate, and with the barest hint of desire flew through the air. She covered in seconds what had taken nearly and hour, and in minutes was at her destination. A lighthouse, the shining object at the top a great mirror and Fresnel lens. And standing outside looking up into the sky as though waiting for her was Adam, and the last person she would ever have expected. James.

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What landed before the two novas was a human figure wrought from yellow-white light; a sculpture of 'solid' energy wreathed in a bright glow. It took effort for Ash to shove it all back down, effort of will and a funny sense of 'physical' effort as well, as if all that power was resisting being folded up into a metaphorical box again.

"Adam...James," she greeted, perplexity showing on her face. "What are you two doing clear out here?"

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Adam looked at James as if to ask, "Should we tell her?" The other man, if you could call him that for his mutations seemed to be progressing, nodded. Adam said, "Maybe we should go inside, have a seat first. Its a bit of a doozy." Ashley reluctantly agreed and together they entered the old lighthouse.

Inside she found a rather cozy interior, the living quarters for the lighthouse's tender. They say down and Adam took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "James fled York when we returned, there was nothing there worth saving. Before we went o the moon it was home to little more than aberrated degenerates before, as you know, after the, whatever you call it, the taint bomb, well, since then it was basically razed and those that

remained were even worse.

"Thing is whatever this taint thing is we're all in the shit together right? I mean yeah I could burn him down right now, but in a few months, maybe a year, I'd be a freak, or dead if I was lucky. So why bother?"

Adam shrugged, "That's beside the point though. You asked why we're here. He's here because its safe here, and I'm here because he asked for my help, and I'll be damned if I think maybe he's got an idea that could work."

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"You wont like it," James said to her, his voice sounding unchanged. He turned to Adam, "She won't like it, I told you you should have closed that portal."

"And I told you I still haven't figured out how I'm keeping them open for so long. Closing them is a whole different problem." Adam took another deep breath after his retort, he clearly wasn't entirely at ease with James. He looked at her, "Ash, answer this question for me ok? Is it better to do the right thing for the wrong reasons or the wrong thing for the right reasons?"

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Ash covered her eyes for a second then sighed and shrugged.

"I don't know. There's no hard rule for that. You just have to take things as they come. And believe me, right now no one's giving me options I like. At this point I'll settle for options I can live with."

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They looked at each other and shrugged. James seemed pretty confident of the idea as he spoke. "I want to use my powers to compel the remaining healthy baselines through his warps and to the city. In theory the best chance for survival of the species is to gather everybody into the one place that can take care of them."

Adam looked uncomfortable, "But it also means probably forcing them to go and them to cooperate. It means messing with their free will. Its also not a shoe-in to work. There's just as good a chance things will work out with people scattered about, maybe even better." He halted and shrugged, "It shitty either way, especially since we don't know what's going to happen as we lose it. I mean its only a matter of time before taint overwhelms us. Right?"

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Ashley nodded.

"Honestly, I don't think you need to to force the issue. Plenty of people would come if they knew what the city was like."

She gives James a wary look. "It's the 'taking care of' thing we have to watch out for. Even if we had good intentions, as we lost our hold on ourselves, things would get ugly. Look at Doug's girlfriend."

"Which brings me back to why I came looking for you, Adam. Raider and Doug ditched me and went to the moon. Raider's probably got a nuclear bomb with him, and they're prepared to blow it up. I can tell that much just because they left me behind."

She rubs her forehead and plows on. "The idea I was toying with is that the moon-men and us can switch places. They come down and run the city and save humanity. We go to the moon. They seem to have a lot more knowledge of how these powers work than we do...maybe they can deal with the 'bomb.' Meanwhile, we have a place where we won't keep mutating, and we can live basically forever if need be. I mean, might be a bit lonely, but if it's that or go crazy...I know what I pick."

"But I never got a chance to tell all that to Doug and Raider before they went. So I have no idea what they're doing up there. For all I know they could be trying to extort them or something. Adam...can you get me up there?"

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Adam's jaw dropped a little, "What?! I ... shit, I figured the situation was safe without me being around to gate them there." He rubbed his hands over his face scrubbing at it like it would wake him from some nightmare. "Crap."

James shook his head slowly, "Even I'll admit that it seems like something I should be doing not my brother. I know you have reason to hate me Ashley but people aren't always given a neat and tidy way to live their lives, I worked with the York Aberrants because they were my best bet to make sure that the planet was safe. I understand your concerns but let me ask, what can you do to prevent my brother from carrying out his intent? It may be for the best that he be allowed to either complete this course of action, or not, on his own."

Click to reveal..

James is using persuader and swaying Ashley to forget going after Raider.

Ash's WP roll

(15:59:38) ChatBot: (Jameson) rolls 7d10 and gets 10,4,10,1,6,6,6.

James' roll

(16:03:46) ChatBot: (Jameson) rolls 8d10 and gets 1,6,4,4,4,7,7,3.

(16:03:53) (Jameson): plus mega

(16:03:57) ChatBot: (Jameson) rolls 3d10 and gets 9,4,9.

gross sux = 6

Net sux = 4

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Ashley shook her head and looked away. "You don't understand. What you're saying is that it's best if Raider and Doug, for their own reasons, decide whether or not the best hope this planet has for recovery live. And Doug's...he's not rational. There's no argument he'll listen to, no evidence that'll convince him. The only reason he's playing the game at all is because he doesn't control the nuke. Raider does. But if Doug's voice is the only voice Raider hears..."

She slumps and leans against the lighthouse wall.

"I don't know...I guess just appearing there might only make things worse. It might force their hand, make them react. And there's a better than average chance that they're just...dead. I can't imagine the people up there wanting to take chances with nuclear-armed novas."

"I just feel like I have to try, or when I look up there and see a bright spot on the moon, it'll be partly my fault."

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Adam looks at Ashley, "I could try Ashley, but I have no way of knowing what's there, or if it would be inside or outside. can you survive vacuum?"

James sighed, "What would you do Ashley? If they Lunars are innocent you would kill Raider to prevent him exploding the bomb? If they are guilty would you ensure they died? Or would you grant clemency knowing that they may try again? Right action for the wrong reason or the wrong action for the right reason? Or do you think you know the right action for the right reason?"

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"What could they be guilty of that would justify destroying them?" Ash asked James. "Especially when they're the only ones I can think of who will ever have a chance to reclaim Earth from the...monsters who've taken over it. It's not about what they did or didn't do any more."

She rubs her temple. "I've gone up and down this a billion times it feels like. Even if they're guilty, even if they're terrible people, they're also the only untainted people left. While they live, there's hope. If they die...then this..."

Ash looks around, out at the wasteland around the lighthouse. "This is all that's left."

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Ash grimaced and looked away...but nodded slowly. "If that's what it would take," she said quietly. "God knows I'd do it another way if I could. But this is bigger than me, and it's bigger than them. It's the future of the whole...race. I can't put anyone ahead of that."

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"And what if they won't help? If they are guilty and would rather just eliminate us all? As you said, they are the only ones left without taint, what if that makes us unworthy of survival to their way of thinking? What if my brother is right?" James seemed to be trying to cover his bases, but more it seemed as though he was searching for a path of action.

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"Look," Ashley said, "I'm not trying to build a case on how great they are. They might really be that way. But the way I see it, we're pinned between life and death here. They don't have to DO anything to eliminate us all. That's going to happen regardless. So if they turn out to be genocidal, well...it doesn't change the fact that through them humanity will live on. If they die, humanity dies with them."

"That's what I believe at least. I know I can't save the world. If I use my power, I'll be crazy inside a week. If I don't, I'll be fodder for the next aberrant I meet. There might be places humans got together and managed to survive, but...that's all they'll be doing. Surviving. They won't be in any condition to rebuild, or recover, and I don't see how they ever could be."

"If the people on the moon live, they have the chance to make better decisions in the future...there's hope. If they die, then...hope's gone. I guess I'll still try to do what I can, but I don't really see what that is."

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James nodded, "It seems like you have made a decision then. That regardless of their innocence or guilt more killing won't solve anything, but can you convince my brother of that?"

Adam looked up, "Does it matter? If she can't nothing changes, if she can," he shrugged. "I don't know, maybe we'll regret it before we go mad. Maybe we will know. I can try and open a portal but I don't know for sure what will happen, things have changed, my powers are different now." He looked at James and then to Ashley.

James nodded, "If this is what you want to do." He didn't finish the thought, he simply waited for her reply.

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Ashley nodded. "Yeah. If you're willing to send me, this is what I have to do."

She opened up the floodgates again, and felt her body consumed by the power waiting on the other side. In a flash of light she was a creature of pure energy again, no longer dependent on human frailties like oxygen or air pressure.

"I'm ready."

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Adam nodded and looked at James, "You going?" The other man shook his head, "Ok. Ash, I'm going to try and teleport you directly without a portal, I don't know how to close those damn things and I don't know if it would let air pass through. Seems like a bad idea to do something that could siphon off the entire atmosphere if I fuck up." Adam closes his eyes, and starts to concentrate, fire soon erupting from his outstretched hands and enveloping Ash. The fire did not burn her though, instead it just trailed around her like a web or cocoon being woven. As the flames closed around her she could see Adam straining to hold his concentration, sweat beading on his brow and his jaw set hard. The flames closed around her and she heard a horrible cry of agony and then an explosion ...

Continues ...in 6a: Lost for Words

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