Aberrant: 200X - One Minute Closer To Midnight

[Jael Carver]

Jael didn’t make it. Paul wasn’t super-fast, but he was still faster than a human. Before Jael could back into the warp, he was in front of her. With strong hands, he caught her by the arm and arrested her progress. “Jael,” he said, “we need to talk.”

“No, actually, I need to get to work, and you need a shower,” Jael said, eating the dust and worse caking his clothing. “We don’t need to talk.”

Paul’s face drew into angry lines, but before he could reply to that, Sunshine had pushed between them. Paul looked up that the taller man, seeing a bizarre combination of worry, anxiety and curiosity in his eyes. “Who’re you?”

“He’s a total amnesic,” Jael snapped, trying to step around Sunshine. The glowing man wasn’t helping her much, shifting with her. “I found him, he’s a bit attached.”

“This isn’t your business, buddy,” Paul said, putting his other hand on Sunshine’s arm and pushing him to the side with super-human strength. The newborn nova was no wimp, but he had no chance against that greater power. “Let me talk to Jay, and then you can have her all to yourself.”

[Evo]

The slump that Donald had been in had winded down, and he had been quietly watching 'Sunshine' for a bit while the group talked and discussed about the apparently blank nova, but he had felt it impolite to intrude. And the mysterious song made his sorrows fully melt away, soothed with the understanding that other felt it as well.

And then, he realized: Never again. This shouldn't happen again.

He turned away as the warp disappeared, off to return to the Rashoud clinic. Whether to simply hone his powers and get used to novahood, or join Utopia, he didn't know yet. But that which was the Victoria Crush had marked his soul, and he would not accept another similar event.

And the Utopia woman had said she wanted to have Sunshine brought to the Rashoud clinic right? Perhaps he could see the interesting young nova in person.

[Firanis 'Fi' Flux]

Feeling Ryusei suddenly closer, Katya shot him a wicked smile, then blew him a kiss, which, with a jolt of quantum, he - and only he - actually saw dance through the air, then felt it caress his lips.

At the mention of Sunshine needed sunshine, Katya glided to a panel and adjusted a knob and golden sunlight began streaming into the penthouse, gleaming off the ebony, blackened steel, and glass furnishings as the vitrium skylights faded from opaque to crystal clear. Sashaying back to Sunshine and Jael, Katya noticed her - well, really, Jason's - ghostly guest eying the electronics and smiled.

"Feel free to play with Jason's toys," Katya offered, gesturing at a side table abutting the leather couch, on which sat a jumble of remotes and console controllers, including one she couldn't identify to which system it belonged. "She won't mind."

Joining Sunshine, Jael, and Dr. Randalls, her footsteps were a whisper on the thick rug, which turned into muted clacks as her heels struck the dark, hardwood floors. She nodded, readily agreeing to letting the Doctor stay, then gave Jael a sincere, reassurance at her almost command. "He's in good hands, Jael, I promise."

She looked up at Sunshine, giving him a smooth, slow smile, a thumb soothingly rubbing the webbing between his forefinger and thumb, his hand as warm as a sun-baked stone. "No worries, Sunshine, I'll take care of you until Mama duck Jael returns."

She was ready to close the portal as soon as Jael stepped through, but annoyingly, they were interrupted. With inexorable force, Sunshine was pushed aside, his depthless blue eyes wide and bewildered, though he let himself be pushed aside with docile grace. Katya could feel his anxiety and tenseness through the nerves in his hand as he reacted to Jael's and Paul's tone.

She squeezed his hand consolingly, then stepped in front of him, shielding him with her shapely figure as she fixed Paul and Jael with narrowed eyes the colour and hardness of steel. "Play nice, or you will be asked to leave," Katya warned, her Russian accent adding a certain, emphatic bite. "If you have to have it out, please go out on the balcony, I think Sunshine here is an impressionable youth, after all. Try not to break anything."

The portal wavered, green and black light fluctuating wildly, then stabilized after Katya gave it a venomous glare. "Don't take too long, I can't keep it open forever." Giving them a sharp sniff, she urged Sunshine towards the kitchen. He might be solar-powered and possibly have no need to eat like herself, but that didn't meant he couldn't enjoy the taste. "C'mon Sunshine, let the children play, I'm going to show you the joys of strawberries and cream."

[Ryusei Hideyoshi]

Ryusei marveled at how asily Katya could ease his fatigue and stress and watched the little interplay between Carver, the man he'd brought, and the amnesiac.

"I don't think anyone plans on doing anything that would get them uninvited, so no need to worry. He looked over the tall Amnesiac and nodded. His eyes were split between Katya and the newcomer, "Do you have a name, friend?"

His eyes focused on Katya, "...or something we can call him as a manner of address?"

Ryusei knew he was going to need a shoer soon, but it was rude to not at least introduce himself.

[GDP_ST]

Sunshine looked at Jael, then at Paul, his eyes still wide. He didn't seem to be confused or worried at how easily he'd been moved aside, merely confused and worried generally. His brow was heavily furrowed as he stared hard at the angry Paul, trying to comprehend why he was grabbing Jael, his eyes following the shape of the words on both nova's lips.

He resisted Katya's urging towards the kitchen, but didn't try to free his hand from hers. Rather he stepped around the petite beauty and towards Jael. Clad as he was in simply a folded-up blanket he didn't really cut an imposing figure, but there was something gently determined in his eyes as he tried to interpose himself once more, placing a hand on Paul's chest in a mimicry of the gesture Jael had used to get him to stop.

[Evo]

The howl of a nearby landing plane filled the air and Donald clamped his hands over his ears. With his enhanced senses, at this point the noice developed to an unbearable level. Like great drums pounding on his head, he felt pain and tried to ignore it, with little effect.

Then, with a focused push of sudden power, the noise went down to a mere buzz, though the other sounds around were no less noisy. Donald's mind raced as he tried to push the noise back up, and it slowly built up. Now he stopped it before it going too bad, little more than the rumble of light thunder.

Impressed, and greatly satisfied, Donald continued to the Rashoud clinic.

Click to reveal..

Sensory Editing Enhancement developed!

[Jael Carver]

Jael snarled soundlessly as Paul made a big fat scene. Sunshine wasn’t helping as he kept trying to butt back into the mess. Then he touched Paul and Jael felt a spike of true concern. One guy touching a guy like that was a really good way to insure he’d try to remove the other guy’s head. She hadn’t been worried when Paul had done it to Sunshine because it’d both gotten Sunshine out of the way and because she knew he wouldn’t have the same cultural reaction.

Swiftly, she ducked around Sunshine and under his arm. Wrapping her free hand around his forearm, she pulled with the joint, forcing his arm to close. He was half-hugging her, which was nice but probably didn’t help with Paul. “Paul, he’s a total amnesic as in he can’t remember even how to talk. He just had to learn how to walk. Now,” she said angrily, “are you going to pick on a guy who can’t even understand why you’re upset?”

“I just don’t want him here,” Paul said. “I want to talk to you.”

“There’s nothing to talk about, Paul,” Jael said with an aggravated sigh. At his expression, she snarled under her breath and said, “Fine, here’s all there is to say. We fucked. What do you want from me?”

“I want you to quit running from me and have to balls to tell me that’s all to my face!” Paul snapped. “I knew when we started that it probably wasn’t going to change anything, but I want you to say it!”

“Fine, it didn’t mean anything,” Jael snapped, the warmth of Sunshine against her back making her feel weirdly safe and bold. “That make you feel better?”

“Goddamnit, you can be such a bitch,” Paul said and let go of her arm. “That’s all I wanted, Jay. Why couldn’t you just have the… nevermind. You don’t have… I dunno, the capacity for that.” He turned away from her.

“Well, now that that’s done, good to see you Ryusei. This is Sunshine,” Jael said. Using the grip she still had on his arm, she extended his hand to Ryusei. He was still pressed against her back in a really comfortable and distracting manner, but thoughts of his mental handicap made her a little uncomfortable. It was like taking advantage of a child.

Bemused, Ryusei shook it and Jael let go of him, but instead of moving away, Sunshine looped his arm back around her. Jael grinned while looking abashed. “Talk about teaching bad habits,” she laughed. “Ok, Katya, are you ready to try this again?” At the woman’s nod, Jael went through the steps of passing Sunshine off to her again, then pulled herself out of his half-hug. “I will come back,” she said, heading for the warp again. She gave him a final wave then ducked through before another former sexual conquest showed up and made things difficult for her again.

[Ghostwriter]

Ghostwriter smirked at Katya, her insubstantial features highlighted by the stream of sunshine that passed through them. "I'd better not. Touching them would require I solidify... and I'd rather not."

She looked at the shenanigans between Paul, Sunshine and Jael. "Shinie's gonna follow you," she predicted dryly. The autistic nova seemed almost amused by the emotional interplay.

[GDP_ST]

As he watched Jael duck away through Katya's green-and-black limned portal, it seemed for a moment that Sunshine was going to prove the Australian nova correct. Katya felt his emotional as well as his physical balance shift, emotions flitting around as he tried to make sense of them and decide what to do. She tightened her grip on his hand, enough to grab his attention for just a second... and then the portal collapsed behind Jael and Sunshine was left staring bewilderedly at the empty patch of space. He turned his gaze to Katya, summer-blue eyes wide with questions and fear. Paul looked at the childlike expression and smirked bitterly.

"Join the club, kid." He turned away, heading for the shower. "We have a decoder ring." Katya scowled faintly at his back, then looked at Sunshine. She was pleased, and somewhat fascinated, to note that the sunlight streaming into the penthouse was causing his skin to fluoresce gently. Faint pinpricks of golden light, almost invisible save from the corner of the eye, moved under the young nova's skin and danced like fireflies in his eyes as his cells drank in the solar energy. Pretty!

"It's okay. She'll come back. Come with me." she told him gently, smiling. She tugged on his hand and pointed towards the kitchen, pleased to see that Sunshine, after one look back at where the portal had been, came along without resistance. His emotional 'shape', to her empathic perceptions, was almost exactly that of an infant, with few of the complexities or conflicts of an adult psyche. His fear retreated almost completely as he turned his attention to the lavish surroundings, from the deep pile carpeting against his bare feet to running a glowing hand over the gleaming countertop in the kitchen as Katya led him in.

"I really wish he was in the Clinic." Doctor Randalls said quietly, following them and still taking a few notes in her shorthand. She clicked her pen then tucked it and the notebook away. "He's essentially a child with a very strong quantum signature, unquantified abilities, and needs a quiet secure environment to explore that, not exposure to real-life nova soap-operas. We're fortunate his mind is fast enough to reason and assess: he's unlikely to have tantrums. Still, the sooner he's where he belongs, the better." She squinted speculatively, studying the young man. "How old would you say he is?"

"A couple of hours." Katya said with an impish grin as she opened the fridge with one hand, still holding Sunshine's as she took a large tupperware filled with strawberries out. "Here, handsome." she carefully placed his hand around one end of it, then guided his other hand so he was holding the container securely. Sunshine looked down at the plastic, then at her, surprise on his face. Katya giggled, then got the cream jug.

"I mean how old physically." Jia said, smiling despite her worries as she watched the byplay. "It's hard to tell. He could be a mature teen, or a youthful twenty-something. The Eruption process tends to accelerate physical maturity." Katya nodded, then led Sunshine over to the counter with a gentle hand on his elbow.

"Put it down here." She made a pantomime out of placing the jug carefully on the countertop with both hands. She tapped the box of strawberries and pointed at the surface. "Go on. Your turn." Sunshine looked at her, then at the tupperware, then smoothly placed it down next to the jug. Katya made a delighted noise. "He's adorable. And I'd say late teens." she said by way of answering the doctor's enquiry before fetching bowls.

"This could be an important study, actually." Jia mused, leaning against another counter as Ryusei came into the room after having showed Paul the shower. Ghostwriter trailed in as well, curiousity well-masked behind the sardonic facade as she hovered by the door: the proverbial spectre at the feast. "Assuming a nova child is born with enhanced intelligence and processing skills, we could be looking at similar behaviour to what we're seeing from Sunshine. Of course, that's just speculation." She shrugged, eyeing the glowing nova. "A baby's brain isn't fully developed at birth, too, though that might be different for a nova child."

"You'll get your chance to play doctor." Katya told the doctor with a sly smile. "Right now, he's going to live a little."

Sunshine had been diverting his attention between what Katya had been doing, looking curiously at Ryusei and Ghostwriter, and listening to the words the doctor and Katya had been exchanging. His glow had strengthened further under the direct sunlight, the nimbus extending more than a foot from his form and filling the kitchen with a warm, shifting golden light. And warm was the word, Katya realised. Standing next to Sunshine now was like stepping into direct sunlight on a warm summer's afternoon.

[Bombshell]

Danielle flew back to Sonja and Einherjar, several members of Northern Shield and Utopian in tow, bearing extra EMTs and supplies for the survivors dug out of the collapsed parking garage. Danielle was just able to make out the glint of her girlfriend's silver hair when Jason's heavenly voice washed over them. Her mouth dropped open in surprise. She was one of the few who had heard Jason sing before, but she hadn't expected to hear it here, nor had it ever been so evocative. Danielle was barely aware of the voices murmuring in the air behind her.

When the sensual, silvery voice shivered to a stop, Danielle shook her head, then pressed on with more speed, inadvertently taking a leadership role as she led the way, though no one gainsaid her. Landing, she found the survivors stsring at Jason's slumped form in wonder, stress and grief easing from their features. Even Einherjar's grim mien cracked, revealing an easy-going side Jason had seen on the set of Valkyrie.

Danielle instantly moved to kneel at Jason's side, checking on her. "What happened? Is she okay?" Danielle asked no one and everyone, hiding a catch in her throat.

The adorable twin girls sitting on Jason's lap, faces smudged with dirt and hair tied up in messy pigtails, looked up at her with wide, brown eyes. "The pretty lady sang the dark away, then fell asleep." Both snuggled their cheeks against the resilient softness of Jason's impressive bustline. "Mommy went away behind the rock and they said she can't come back. Can we stay with the pretty lady?" The silent twin ran a ran hand through Jason's silky, silver hair.

As Danielle tried to figure out a response to that, the EMTs and other Novas began circulating, handing out food, water, and medical aid. Einherjar stepped forward to allay Danielle's concerns, mouth quirked in a wry grin. "No worries, KO. Jason just worked herself too hard. After a week straight, it's about time she run out of juice. Sleep will be good for her."

He reached down, plucking up the girls with a silly grin on his bearded face. It should have been scary coming from someone with blue eyes that cold, but they giggled instead. "And you worry non either, little ones. Jason - funny name for a girl, right? - might not be able to take care of you, but she'd never forgot two girls as cute as you."

Einherjar handed the girls off to a female EMT, Beverly Munro according to her badge, chucking them under the chin. Her lap free, Danielle easily picked Jason up in her arms. After a moment considering the woman in her arms and the girls in the EMT's, Danielle asked Beverly is she'd be able to call her or Jason to tell them how the girls are doing. Jason would want to know - being thrown out by her own family had hurt her deep.

Jason stirred sleepily in Danielle's embrace, arms and legs hanging slack, silver hair almost brushing the ground. Danielle's keen hearing could hear her murmur through the dreamy smile on her face. "I'm so exhausted and it feels great" Her head lolled, facing landing Danielle's abundant bosom. Borealis leered, but hid it after Einherjar gave him a flat look with his icy eyes.

"Uh, I guess I should get you home then," Danielle said, blushing a little as eyes turned to watch to two women. Hearing they wear the leaving, the survivors cheered their gratitude to the three blond Nova. Einherjar nodded, Knockout waved, and Bombshell tried. Then they took to the air.

They were passing over the Salish Sea towards Vancouver on their way to Whistler when Einherjar's phone beeped. Looking at the text, he grunted then gave Danielle and Jason a regretful smile. "Sorry, but I've got to deal with this. I'll show up at Jason's when I can."

Einherjar began descending to green and high-rising city when Danielle called out,"Do you know where it is-"

"I know the way," he affirmed. Danielle stared at him for a moment, feeling an odd pang of... something, then snorted at the thought and flew her girlfriend home.

Landing on the wide balcony, Danielle walked up to the sliding doors, using a foot to slide them open, then stopped. She wasn't really surprised by Katya or Ryusei being there, but she had never seen the round-faced woman, the ghost girl, and the golden boy before, who Katya was trying to feed strawberries. She caught the sound of the shower running and instinctively looked through the wall before quickly looking away. Nope, haven't seen him before either.

It looked like Jason's penthouse, but she had made this mistake before. "Erm, this is Jason's place, right?" she asked, hefting the amazonian goddess in her arms as if she was proof she had the right be here.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Einherjar entered the room of the high-end, discreet business hotel he had rented while he was filming Valkyrie, mouth tight. He stepped up to safe, swiping his thumb against the biometric scanner, then pulled out the secure SatPhone DeVries provided only to their most reputable operatives.

[Eingar]

"Einherjar." he said, lifting the phone to his ear. There was a tone, followed by a faint electronic pinging sound as the 1024-bit encryption system synchronised, then another second-long pause.

"Talk to me." a female voice on the other end said. It was a strong alto, brisk and confident with a hint of Afrikaaner in it's vowel sounds. The faint whir of air-conditioning could be heard, and Ein had no trouble picturing the sunlit grounds visible from the office windows there in Praetoria, nor the leonine, tanned woman who sat there, tawny eyes fixed on the Picasso on the opposite wall as she prepared for the conversation at hand.

"Ms DeVries." Ein rumbled, his eufiber responding to his mental command and unfastening, coming loose and falling to the floor. Naked, he padded across the hotel room to the kitchenette and pulled a box of enriched jerky out of the fridge.

"Ein, I thought we were on first-name terms." Though the words were light, Anna DeVries' tone was probing, cautious.

"I thought formality better, considering the nature of the call." Ein said as he plonked down on the edge of the bed and chewed on some jerky.

"Alright then." DeVries said without any sign of pique. "What's the problem here?" That was what Ein liked about Anna: she was capable of being all-business without being cold or off-putting.

"What do you know?" he asked in response.

"I know there's some problem with you and our Vancouver office. I know the head manager of the office has called me and claims that you are violating your contract with DeVries. He also claimed you threatened him personally. You know my feelings about that. And I know you know, so I'm calling you to get your side of this story. So I ask again: what's the situation, Einherjar?"

"He claims I threatened him?" Ein sounded amused as he stood again, absently chewing on the strip of dried meat as he walked to the large-pane window and looked out over the city. "Untrue. I simply told him that if he continued to push on our matter of disagreement that he would rue the consequences. That wasn't a threat, Ms DeVries."

"Sounds like one. But I'm sure you can enlighten me. Now it says here that Mr Cinciano was trying to negotiate with the Canadian authorities regarding your services and you told him that DeVries would not be negotiating this contract. Is that true?"

"It is." Ein said easily, chewing.

"Freelancing, Einherjar? That would be a breach of exclusivity. You're not supposed to work independantly. Are you unsatisfied with our treatment of you?"

"Not at all." Einherjar's grin was practically audible. "The letter of my contract says that I am not to accept any payment from any other agency, organisation or individual whilst working for DeVries without prior knowledge and consent of the aforementioned agency."

"Then wh-"

"I'm not getting paid for this, Ms DeVries. No money, no goods, no services. Apart from the odd cup of tea." he added as an afterthought. "I'm not sure that counts."

"So... You're working for free?"

"It's not combat, Ms DeVries. It's search and rescue and clearing rubble. You've seen the news? It doesn't do the scene here justice. If I wasn't in the area when the explosion happened, it's possible that I might not be here now. But I was, and there were non-combatants that needed help, and medics trying to save lives at the risk of their own. I could not walk away. It's not a matter of 'working'. It's a matter of honor."

There was a long silence on the other end of the line. Anna DeVries knew each of her Elites personally, had taken a personal hand in each one's development. Einherjar was a holy terror on the battlefield, a man who would kill hundreds, slit throats, and wipe out whole encampments as dispassionately as he would fasten his trousers... as long as his code of honor was not violated. It was both a plus and a minus, but to have an Elite who was known to be both brutally effective and honorable, in an old-world warrior sort of way, was a major PR coup for DeVries.

"Why didn't you tell the local office head this?"

"I did. He wouldn't listen. He claimed I was lying and that I had cut a deal on the quiet."

"And the threat? What consequences would Cinciano rue?"

"You getting involved with this." Ein stated bluntly. "I want that man slapped across the wrist hard. No wonder our recruitment in Canada is down when a shrill, pushy little man like that is running things in a major office. The morale in that place was lousy, as well."

"You knew he would call me into this?" Anna's voice took on a tone of relaxed amusement as she made a few notes on her desktop pad.

"Of course. The only way he could continue to push was to involve Praetoria." Ein smiled out of the window. "He insulted me, Ms DeVries. He called me a liar. It is out of respect for the company that I didn't pull his head off and throw it to Alaska."

"Well, I appreciate that. Why didn't you call me yourself?" she asked mildly.

"I was busy saving lives." Ein said shortly, going back to sit down. He felt tired suddenly, and it came through in his voice.

"It's bad, then?" Anna's voice sounded concerned.

"Don't worry about me, Anna." Ein said with a smile. "I'm just tired. Found a cluster of live ones today, though. That was heartening."

"Careful, Ein. Your ice-man image will be affected: the world will think you've gone soft." Anna's voice was only partially teasing.

"Let them." Ein said. "All that means is that they'll underestimate me." That got a laugh from his boss.

"Well, I'll deal with Mr Cinciano. I think being moved down to our offices in Medellin might give him time to reflect on his attitude."

"Not much time, if he offends the Cartel people." Ein replied with a laugh. "Always a pleasure, Anna."

"Oh, I know." came the playful response. "Talk to you later, Ein."

Einherjar hung up and lay back on the bed, plucking another strip of jerky out of the box and wolfing it down before stretching out to sleep for a while. A catnap was in order: a couple of hours and he'd head over to Bombshell's place."

[Ghostwriter]

Ghostwriter studied the big-boobed chick who called herself Bombshell. "Your place was kinda volunteered to keep Sunshine over here by Jael, and I just followed along," she said. "P.S. nice song. Cheered up a lot of folks here."

She walked up, deliberately, to Sunshine and Paul, looking between the two men before speaking to Paul. "Paul, don't be a dick. We've got the proverbial tabula rasa here and when people figure out how powerful he'll be, they're gonna come gunning for him. Our job's to teach him enough so he can make his own choices."

Then she looked at Sunshine. "The point of anyone's identity is a name, and Sunshine won't cut it... So, got suggestions? I'd go for Baldur, only because he's both ridiculously attractive and shiny."

[Jael Carver]

Paul finished his shower quickly. He didn't want to be in there - he was anxious and all too aware that he owed the people in the room an apology. He'd forced them to watch his personal shit with Jael because he hadn't want to draw it out anymore. He'd messed up, big time. He was willing to own up to that and go make his restitution and he was the kind of guy who wanted to do it sooner rather than later. Also, there were others waiting to use the shower.

He was a little surprised by how masculine the soaps and shampoos smelled, before he remembered whose shower this was. That thought was a little disconcerting, which added to his speed. He finished soon after that and dried quickly. His eufiber shed water with a thought and he turned it into a button down shirt and khakis.

He stepped back out and headed for the group, nodding to Ryusei. "Shower's open," he said, giving him a smile. Everyone else was in the kitchen, marveling over the new guy. Paul sighed a little at the thought of watching all the fawning; becoming a nova hadn't changed his social acumen much so he'd always been the guy in the corner. But knowing that this guy was rather helpless made it only marginally better - Paul had to apologize to him, too. Might as well start there.

He wove through the people in the kitchen to stop next to the annoyingly attractive man. Paul drew a breath to steady himself, then another to start to speak when the see-through lady started into him.

"Look... whoever you are... I know I was a dick," Paul snapped. "I'm trying to apologize here." As usual, he was ignored. I have the great power of being ignored. Jael'd been great at it until she was drunk - maybe that was the answer - get everyone he wanted to talk to drunk.

"Actually, I have a better idea than naming him," Paul offered. "Let's get him mentally up to speed and let him pick his own name."

"We do need something to call him," Jia said.

"Fine, let's call him John Doe for now," Paul said, spreading his hands. "I mean, he's got the chance to build himself from the ground up and he doesn't need us picking something for him. And he really doesn't need some Greek god's name or even Jael's nickname - that's fine for a nova name but for a real name, he deserves something more normal - or to make his own choice in the matter. If he wants to be Balder Jones, then that's cool. So John for now, and we'll let him decide on his own, later."

[Bombshell]

"Yes, Danielle, this is Jason's place," Katya said with an amused chuckle as she scooped up a dollop of cream on the end of her finger.

"Oh, right. I knew that. Never hurts to check though, right?" Danielle said as she moved into the penthouse.

The big-boobed chick in the other big-boobed chick's arms stirred, eyelids fluttering to reveal lambent slivers of twilight coloured eyes as Ghostwriting came up to thank her. "Don't worry about it," Jason murmured muzzily, her voice still carrying echoes of her heavenly lament. "I never have many people here anyway and there's lotsa room..." Her flawless brow creased as she tried to make sense of what she had mentioned while sleep deprived and far beyond tired. "What song... Y'know, I can see right through..." Jason trailed with something similar to a giggle as sleep rolled over her again.

"Uh, sorry about that. She's never been this tired before," Danielle apologized with a shrug as she continued moving to the hallway that led to the Jason's room. "She'll be better in a few hours."

Just as Danielle was about to enter the hallway, another person she didn't know came walking out, his dark hair still wet. Her eyes almost began drifting down before she stopped herself. Right, the guy in the shower. Don't turn red, don't turn red, it's nothing you haven't seen before, just not in a while. "Er, yeah, hi, bye, need to put her to bed."

The sheer amount of exaggerated, female pulchritude standing in front of him almost made him forget about Jael. Then Gold-hair Barbie and Silver-hair Barbie disappeared into a room and the ghost-woman came up to him with her blunt words.

Setting Jason down in bed, with superhuman deftness and not a little practice, Danielle stripped her girlfriend bare - Jason preferred to sleep nude - and pulled the blankets over her, still pausing a moment to admire the glorious sight she had seen often. Jason still might have been pristine, but she wasn't and she was debating between joining her in the bed, jumping in the ensuite bathroom to clean up or going back out front to socialize and keep people from imagining what was going on in here when her OpPhone vibrated.

Her eyes widened. Despite everything that had happened to Victoria, Calgary was still her city and it seemed they needed her as soon as possible. She gave Jason a quick kiss on the lips, then rushed back outside almost running for the balcony.

"Oh, hey! Kat, can you tell Jay I had to go back to Calgary? There's an, er, incident they need me for. I'll be back when I can."

Katya looked up at the busty, blond beauty, a sable brow arched in inquiry. "Of course, Danielle. It's nothing too serious, I hope?"

"I hope so too," Danielle prayed, feet already leaving the ground as she pulled the balcony doors open.

"Danielle."

"Huh?"

"Here." Katya gestured and her portal opened once more, right in front of Knockout. Danielle found herself looking at a familiar front door, C.F. staring at her in surprise, then trying to peer around her to steal a glance at any other Nova hotties. By his reasoning, since Jason was a Nova Model and Uber-babe, all her friends should have been too.

"Thanks, Katya. I'll be back when I can." Then she flew through the portal, which snapped shut a moment after Katya licked her lips with teasingly at Conrad.

Sunshine glanced at all the comings and goings in wide-eyed wonder, then looked up at Paul calmly, head tilted. "Jon?" he said slowly, testing the word, though there was little comprehension in the amber hues swirling deep in his sapphire eyes.

[Evo]

Now ensconced at the Rashoud clinic, Donald found a brochure for Project Utopia and began to peruse it quietly. It looked good, at first glance. First three years at Nova Services International, various projects for hire to get a salary at... This was his initial inclination, but like any red-blooded young man, he did wish for the comfort and thrills of something like DeVries.

Ironically, given the strife of the past week or two, comfort itself was as valued in Donald's mind as doing the right thing by people.

He slitted his eyes to black behind them, as he warred in his mind, ashamed for the desire for luxury, but the humbling of the Victoria Crush did not wipe away the wish entirely.

Then, he tasted something in his mouth, sticky and cloying, like some unknown pudding. At the same time, he felt something mentally shift, as if his eyes seemed to be sending feeling down the mouth and pushing into his tongue.

Trying to get a sense of that feeling, he opened his eyes, and his mouth became inundated with flavors, as if he had indulged in a massively varied buffet, all dishes eat simultaneously.

Feeling sensory overload, he tamped down difficult, lowering the sensations of the tastes, as best he could. Then, he focused on the link of feeling and rolled his eyes reflexively as he reasserted the normal pattern of sensations.

The mouth of his returned to normal, tasting nothing but its wet insides. Another weird trick, was it?

Click to reveal..

Developed Synthesia Enhancement!

"Excuse me, Mr. Wallace?" Donald looked about to find a short black-haired woman in a shapeless sweater and tight jeans giving him a perky smile. "Do you have a minute? I'd like to talk to ya, I'm from the Argus Agency."

Donald raised an eyebrow briefly, intrigued. He'd heard a little bit on the news once in a while about the Argus Agency, but a sales pitch this sounded like. Huh.

"I suppose. Got nothing better to do at the moment." He thoughtfully replied.

[GDP_ST]

"Yeah. John." Paul nodded, all but seeing the mind behind those blue eyes moving as Sunshine considered. Deciding to help, Paul pointed at the golden bronze chest. "John." He repeated. The fog of confusion in those blue eyes cleared and Sunshine's expression became one of radiant comprehension.

"John." he proclaimed, pointing a finger at himself. Paul nodded again, and 'John' pointed at him, a question in his eyes.

"Paul" The other nova replied. John mouthed the word, then said "Paul."

"I think we have contact." Paul said to the others with a smile, feeling a little better about being here now. Katya reached up and offered a strawberry to John, who looked at it, then at her.

"Strawberry." she said, taking a bite from it, then offering it again. There was an element of flirtation in the gesture, but it was mostly unconscious on her part. What she really wanted was to see how he'd react to the taste.

"Strawberry." John repeated perfectly. Doctor Randalls blinked and drew in a breath, letting it out in a low whistle as John carefully bit into the fruit Katya was holding for him.

"His synaptic activity just took a huge jump. We've got word-to-picture association forming and he's going to- Whoa!" The last was said a split second after John tasted the strawberry. The golden nova's eyes shot wide open and he looked at Katya in amazement, then at the remains of the fruit in her hand.

"So that's what it feels like to taste a strawberry for the first time..." the doctor murmured, but John had already gently taken the last bit of strawberry from Katya's hand and popped it into his mouth. Then he pointed at Katya questioningly, rolling the fruit around in his mouth and savoring it.

"Katya." she said in answer, smiling up at him then over at Ryusei. John followed her gaze and pointed at the Japanese nova, eyebrows raised in enquiry. "Ryusei" Katya said simply, then on impulse pointed at the others, naming them off one by one. "Ghostwriter. Jia."

"Katya." John pointed at her, then went around the room. "Paul. Ryusei. Ghostwriter. Jia." He pronounced the names perfectly, albeit with the same slight accent Katya had used. "Strawberry." he pointed at the bowl of fruit, then poked at the cream before copying what he'd seen Katya doing and scooping up a dollop of cream and licking it off his finger. By itself it was an innocent gesture, but some quality he loaned to the action made it unconsciously erotic. As the women present reminded themselves of the newly-christened John's mental incapacity he pointed at the cream.

"Cream." Paul told him. John nodded in understanding and repeated the word back: "Cream." Paul looked over at Jia. "How's he doing upstairs?" The doctor shook her head in wonderment.

"He's conceptualising, only without the language to express the concepts. It's the strangest thing I've ever seen. It's like watching someone try to put a roof on a house without walls." John was studying her as she spoke, brow furrowed intensely as he sought for the means to express what he felt, what he wanted.

"Walls." he said out loud, then looked around at their faces. "Red-hot, perhaps in all meanings of the word. Sunshine. I'll come back." The disjointed non-sequitors tumbled from his lips as he tried to communicate. Frustration was etched on his handsome features as he balled one fist. "Isn’t your business, buddy! What do you want from me?" He thumped the countertop in a sudden fit of anger, then stopped as he saw their reactions, letting his hand fall to his side once more. Katya could feel the intense frustration rolling off him gradually turning to sadness as he silently regarded everyone present.

"John." he said while pointing at himself, then indicated them all with a sweep of his hand before letting it fall once more. His attitude was that of one wanting to say more, but who couldn't. His head sank and he sat down on the kitchen floor, hugging his knees. "John." he said again in a low, sad voice. "John."

It was perhaps the strangest lament anyone had heard.

[Ghostwriter]

"Hey psychic, I got an idea," Ghostwriter said suddenly, walking up to the Utopian. "I'm a writer, I got a fairly good command of the English language. Do you reckon a telepathic word-dump, with all associated images, might work?"

She held up a hand to forestall the telepath's reply. "I don't like folks in my head, but I know what it's like to want to speak and be unable to."

[Firanis 'Fi' Flux]

Katya watched Sunshine/John with unalloyed pleasure as she saw his expression eating his first strawberry, tasting his first dollop of cream. She kept a hand on him, fingers resting lightly in his wrist or thigh, caressing his shoulder or back, his wonder and curiosity coursing through him and up her sensitive touch...

And then it collapsed into frustration and melancholy, undiluted by the scars of life experiences he didn't possess. As the solar-powered youth huddled on the floor in the blank darkness of his own mind, Katya joined him. She held him close, pressing his back to her chest and rocked with him, murmuring soothingly, no words with context he had to strain to piece together. Her cunning hands slide up and down his arms, across his smooth chest, in a manner that could be construed as sensual - and Ryusei knew Katya liked to tease - but the look on her face said it was anything but.

She exerted a subtle flow of quantum, her touch slowly and gently easing his stress, his grief, the self lament constricting his heart, raising his confidence and letting him know he wasn't alone. She didn't force it upon him, simply let it seep beneath his sun-kissed skin.

Their ghostly guest's suggestion made her snap her head up from the man-child in her arms, silvery-grey eyes intent, then turned her argent gaze on Dr. Jia, the questioned conveyed in her very posture.

[Jael Carver]

Paul's heart wrenched with sympathy at John's anguished frustration. He stood by awkwardly as John threw his fit, and then everyone rushed to comfort him. At Ghostwriter's suggestion, he nodded, though he was still frowning. "I don't know that a direct word dump is the right way to go," Paul said. "I mean, we learn what words mean to us through experiencing them. 'Heartbreak' to me is linked to every girl who ever dumped me. It's more than a word, there's a lot more to it. To someone like him, who's probably never going to get his heart broken - unless he sleeps with Jael, that is - its not going to mean the same. I mean, the word 'cock' to a guys means something really different than it means to girls. Or... so I've been told."

"So why were you nodding?" Jia asked.

"With your help, we can teach him words faster," Paul said. "He's picking them up right away, we just need to teach him faster. I think I saw an OpNet terminal - let's just show him images and teach him the words, as fast as we can. Keep talking to and with him... I mean, to you, John." He crouched to look the glowing man in the eye, nodding and full of enthusiasm. "Doctor, you can help with the harder concepts, but once you've got the basics, John, it'll just snowball and next thing you know, we won't be able to shut you up!" Paul was grinning and clearly excited. This felt better than pulling twisted bodies out of holes. He'd have to go back to that darkness soon enough, but maybe pulling John out of his own black hole would refresh him.

[Ryusei Hideyoshi]

Ryusei marveled as he watched the new unnamed nova come into his own recognizance, or at least the beginnings of it. He wasn't jealous, in his eyes, the young nova was no threat, Katya was simply using her natural gifts and talents to comfort him.

"Could such a dump supress his memories further? I think Paul's idea might be a safer route, if only because it doesn't involve any mind linking, and lets John relearn at his own pace."

He'd wait to see what was decided before seeing to other things. He'd nodded to Danielle, and would make sure no one disturbed Jason. before she left he smiled. "Call if you need help."

[GDP_ST]

"Well, he's a tabula rasa. It means 'blank slate', which in turn means that there's no memories to suppress." Jia explained to Ryusei, her eyes on the glowing nova as Katya soothed his sad frustration as she would a child's. "No blocks, no subconscious knots, nothing at all. If we want to get poetic about it, for all intents and purposes he was born during the Crush. Of course once we get him the the Clinic we can check his fingerprints, dental and blood type, see if we can track him down, plus run a 'have you seen this person?' campaign."

"You think he looked like that before?" Paul asked with mild amusement. Jia shook her head and shrugged.

"Maybe a little. Hair and eye colour, perhaps. Facial features might be similar to pre-eruption."

"Great." Paul remarked dryly. "Every unattached woman in the northern hemisphere will claim him. The press will have headlines for weeks."

"If that's what the Project has to deal with, then that's what we have to do." Jia said staunchly. She looked at Katya. "Let's give Paul's idea a try. He seems calm enough now thanks to you."

They trooped through to the lounge, Katya taking John's hand and tugging him gently to his feet before leading him after the others. The OpNet terminal was switched on and it's feed routed through to the opulent large-screen display mounted on one wall. John was seated on the couch, his funk giving way to renewed curiousity as he watched what was going on around him with clear eyes. Snacks were brought through, people were made comfortable. And when all was settled, with Katya and Paul bracketing him on the couch and Dr Randalls sitting to one side, Paul quickly searched through the morass of OpNet information and found the Hooked On Phonics site, selecting the toddler level Visual Phonics program and hitting "download". Katya giggled.

"What?" Paul asked, John's expression saying the same thing as both looked at the raven-haired woman.

"Oh, I was just imagining the expressions on the faces of the people picking up the tab for Jason when they see 'Hooked On Phonics' on the OpNet bill." Katya grinned, her eyes sparkling merrily. That got a chuckle from the other novas present, with the natural exception of John, who merely looked around at everyone's smile curiously.

Seeing that the program had downloaded, Paul started it running. John's attention was immediately captured by the screen, and with the help of the others he began the exercises. After ten minutes, he'd finished with the toddler level and was on pre-kindergarten. After half an hour, he was in second grade.

After ninety minutes Paul had handed the control off to John and was sat back munching on chips as the glowing nova, perched on the edge of his seat cushion, was clicking through an online picture encyclopedia designed for middle-school students. John's eyes were flying over the text, and he paused only to check difficult pronounciations with the others before moving on to the next word.

"Do you want to take a break, John?" Jia asked, rubbing at her face and pinching the bridge of her nose. John stopped and looked at her curiously. Though his vocabulary of stored words and their associations had increased hugely, he still had some trouble with idiom and spoken sentence structures. "Take a break." Jia repeated. "It means 'rest'."

"Rest like tired?" John asked.

"Yes." Jia nodded. "Are you tired?" John considered for a moment, then shook his head.

"No." was all he said before he went back to clicking. Paul laughed. John stopped clicking again and looked at Paul, his expression curious. "Why funny?"

"It's funny because Doctor Jia is tired." Paul explained. "She's been in your head for a lot of time, and that is hard work." John's eyes widened as he understood. He looked over at the doctor as another question occured to him.

"Why ask John to rest? Jia should rest if Jia tired."

"I... I won't be able to help you if you continue." Jia said with a trace of embarassment. John thought for a moment, then smiled a little.

"John...no, I will keep questions in my head until Jia not... is not tired." He turned his sapphire eyes back to the screen and began reading again. "Jia, you must rest now. Sleep is important for people." The doctor exchanged a look with Katya and Paul, then looked at John.

"So when will you sleep, John?" Katya asked, basking a little in the solar radiance he was giving off. The heat was making her feel a little lazy, like a warm afternoon at the beach. Of course, Ryusei perched on the back of the couch and stroking her hair added a dimension to her hedonistic enjoyment.

"I will sleep when tired." John replied with calm simplicity., his eyes not leaving the screen. "A lot of things are better now. I understand more. But I want to understand more than this." He looked at Paul. "This was a good idea. I used to feel like I was trapped because I could not talk. Thank you." He started to turn back again, then paused. "A dick is a bad thing?" he asked bluntly. Katya supressed a laugh and Paul grinned slightly.

"Sometimes. When you say that a person is a dick it is a way of saying that they are being stupid or bad." he answered. "Maybe both." John nodded then, his eyes examining Paul's. He shook his head and turned back to the screen.

"You are not a dick." he said with quiet authority as he resumed clicking.

[Jael Carver]

“Thanks for the endorsement,” Paul said with a dry smile. “I’d appreciate it if you’d tell that to Jael and any other hotties, of course.”

“Hotties? Jael?” John mimicked Paul’s words.

“Man, I need to remember to watch the words I use around you,” Paul murmured, before rising from the couch and grabbing another bag of chips. “Hotties are cute girls.”

“Cute?”

Paul laughed self-consciously. “I’m going to work myself into a corner here. Mmm, let’s see… cute means girls you like to look at and would like them to like looking at you.”

“Why?” John’s question was the perfect set up for a joke, but his expression was guileless.

“That, uh, I’ll explain when you’re older, John,” Paul said, rubbing the back of his neck, the chips forgotten. “When you’ve gotten through the high-school stuff at least, ok?”

“Why not ok now?” John asked, his blue eyes glowing with curiosity and quantum ‘leakage’.

“There are other things you need, some other knowledge you’ll need to comprehend what you’re being told,” Paul explained. “It’s a topic that is… intense with emotional joys and problems, and I don’t want to make problems by explaining things too fast. So I’ll tell you, I promise, but later.”

“Ok,” John accepted. “John wants to learn what Jael is?”

“What is Jael indeed,” Paul muttered. Dropped the chips back on the end table, he crouched on the floor next to John, holding out his hand for the remote. John handed it over, watching as Paul minimized the program and opened a browser. Paul did an image search on Jael and drew up his favorite public picture of her: Jael in a black dress on the runway at a XWF event. That prat Crimson Light had stepped out of the frame, so it was just her and she looked hot.

John perked up immediately of course. You poor, poor bastard, Paul thought wryly. “Who she? Where she? What her job?” John had been big on jobs since one of the modules had covered professions.

“She is Jael Carver, she’s right now at the Crush, working to help people and her job is to be a criminal justice major at Stanford and a general pain in the ass.” Paul winced a little and sighed. So much for not being bitter. “Forget I said that last part. I shouldn’t have mentioned it; it’s not really true.”

[Ghostwriter]

Ghostwriter shrugged as her suggestion was brushed aside. She supposed being a nova was going to be no different to being a baseline: everything she suggested ignored or shot down in flames.

She watched John as he learned with a speed that impressed even a highly intelligent woman like herself.

[Firanis 'Fi' Flux]

A dick is a very good thing, Katya thought, her mirth traveling across her mental bond to Ryusei as she tilted her head back to give him a wicked grin as she basked in the dexterous fingers sliding through her hair and the luxurious warmth emanating from the Man-cum-School Boy sitting next to her. Seeing Doctor Jia debating with herself whether she should take a rest or push herself to keep an eye - physical and mental - on their golden wunderkind, Katya sighed and reluctantly got up from her comfy pose.

"Relax, doctor Jia, you won't be any help to John or yourself if you can't keep your eyes open," Katya said persuasively. "Here, let me show you to the guest-rooms, rest for a few hours. Since the Crush, too many have been pushing themselves too hard - it's going to start leading to mistakes." She flashed a dimpled smile. "By the time you wake up, we'll have John quoting Shakespeare. Or maybe singing along with Alejandra."

Katya and Jia where about to head down the hallway to the guestrooms when she heard the talk shift shifting the topics of cuteness, hotties, and Jael. She glanced over a shoulder, emeralds eyes twinkling merrily, husky, accented voice teasing. "Keep the descriptions PG, Paul. John isn't even out of Elementary yet."

Katya led Jia to one of the spare rooms, well appointed and elegantly spartan in stark, solid shades of blue and grey. Jason's taste wasn't bad she admitted to herself, for a guy. After promising to wake Dr. Jia in three hours if she didn't get up on her own, Katya slowly closed the door, then checked on Jason in the master room across the hall.

All she saw was the thick, long mass of Jason's silver hair, a fantastically long, lightly tanned leg that Michelangelo could have spent a lifetime capturing in marble, and the quilt mounding over her considerable assets. Her sharp ears caught Jason's soft, velvety breathing, more a purr than a snore.

After Jason had erupted, they had tried to keep their relationship intimate, but it hadn't worked. Jason was still adjusted, and she just wasn't into girls, though there may have been a lingering jealousy and resentment of the new beauty. Gazing at her now, relaxed in slumber, she could feel a stirring arousal, her heterosexual orientation temporarily wavering in the face of such aching gorgeousness. Life is full of what ifs...

Katya pursed her lips as she dwelled on one of Jason's more subtle changes that few noticed or were aware. Jason wasn't even twenty-one yet, but she looked a few years older, the same age as Danielle. Which made sense, considering she was a near copy of Knockout. Time...*Ryu, can you use your Temporal Magic to find out how old Sunshine is? It might give us a clue about who he is.*

Katya walked back into the open design lounge, noting the insubstantial figure hovering behind the couch in solitary silence, keen and intelligent eyes watching John at his lesson.

Katya had heard a little about the woman and went over to help her feel a little more welcome, giving John an encouraging smile and a fluttering-fingered wave as he perked up at her return.

"Regan, right?" Katya confirmed, lips curving into a quick grin as she read the slogan written across the small woman's shirt. Jason and her share a similar dubious taste in shirts it seems. "I believe I've heard something about you having a rough time arriving her to help out at the Crush. I'm helping out with organizing donations and such, and I have some contacts in the government and several businesses. If you like, I can see about you making sure you get reimbursed for travel fare and accommodations."

Katya pondered the significance of Regan's Nova name, an idea percolating. "Ghostwriter, hmm? What do you know about Mythology, in particular, Norse Mythology? If you're not currently employed, I could ask Jason if she can get position on the writing staff of her show, Valkyrie." Katya looked out the window to the West and sighed, green eyes melancholy. "Though due to the Crush, I don't know when production is going to resume."

[Ghostwriter]

"I haven't helped yet, so don't bother about getting me reimbursed," Ghostwriter said with a faint shrug. The insubstantial nova sat down on the floor, the bottoms of her legs solidifying subtly so she wouldn't fall through it. "And given there's a shitstorm out there, worrying about employment's a bit ... " She visibly struggled for a word before continuing, "inappropriate. I don't need to eat, I don't need to drink, and I don't need sleep. I can wait. Golden Boy there can't."

Privately, she wondered where the hell she'd developed a sense of altruism.

[Firanis 'Fi' Flux]

"Sunshine seems to be catching on pretty quick," Katya added in a fond tone as she glanced at John leaning forward, intensely watching the program on the UHD-TV, Paul awkwardly trying to explain asses without having to explain curse words. When she turned back to Ghostwriter, her eyes were somber.

"I agree with you completely, I have the same lack of needs - though eating and drinking and sleeping can be fun, if shared with the right person." Green eyes danced towards the slender and stunning Asian man before returning. "The job offer was just a thought for a later time. It's terrible out there and there's no shame anyone can't continue to toil in it."

Katya reached out to place a hand on Ghostwriter's wrist, lips curving into a light moue as it sunk through her ephemeral form. She was a tactile person and it was disconcerting that she felt no resistance as her hand passing through her ghostly flesh. Her lips turned up into a rueful grin as she folded her arms beneath her breasts.

"Don't discount yourself short, Regan," Katya said honestly. "Just coming to the Victoria Crush, you've done more than most Novas. Nearly all the ones here were sent by their governments or their organizations, very few have come on their own."

[Jael Carver]

Another section of rubble was sliced into smaller parts and Jael pushed it to the side, sliding it past her for Klaus to remove. It went to Reynold, who pushed it behind him, always making sure he was within reach of her in case of a cave-in. She was zoned out on her task, mechanically cutting and sliding and shoving. She was thinking of Sunshine, wondering if he still missed her. She wondered why it mattered if he stopped missing her. He was a stranger, someone she happened to find and pull out of a hole. Jael didn’t make friends; she didn’t start to like people. Sunshine was nothing to her.

So why did she secretly hope he was missing her?

Her claws cut through something that wasn’t rock, rubble, building materials or meaty pulp. The dissonance of the feeling was enough to jar her back to the present. Her ears started burning as Reynold’s words “Don’t cut the evidence” rang in them. Oh, he’s never going to let me live this down. As carefully as she could, she pulled her claws back out.

“What’s wrong?” Reynold asked. Jael wondered what had tipped him off, then realized she wasn’t pushing anything back anymore.

“I hit metal.” Her voice was hushed with annoyance.

“Describe.”

“Plate. Riveted. Curved slightly.” Jael turned off her night goggles and turned on her head lamp. “It’s very shiny.”

“It’s… curved but not compressed?” Reynold asked, his voice sharp with interest.

“Correct.” Jael brushed her knuckles against it, then tapped. “It’s not warm, but it is hollow.”

“This must be what we were looking for,” Reynold said. “Cut into it, make a hole. Be careful.”

“You don’t need to tell me twice,” Jael said and started to cut deeper into the rubble around them. Soon she’d hollowed out a space big enough for her and Reynold to kneel, side by side.

“I’m not sure what this is made of,” Reynold said softly.

Jael didn’t answer; she was too busy cutting into it with great care. It was easier to make shallow cuts; deep ones required a great deal of effort on her part. “It’s tough,” she muttered. She was forced to make shallow cuts but she kept working at it, slowly making an opening. “Blah,” she said suddenly, recoiling. “Something’s dead.”

Reynold put his nose near the hole she’d just deepened. “Smells like it,” he mildly observed. “If you’ve broken through, it’ll be easier.”

It was easier, though the stench pouring out made her sick. She controlled her gag reflex, struggling not to vomit in front of Reynold. Slowly, she created an opening, revealing the interior chamber. Inside was a man in a chair, a table and a large device on the table. The man and the device alike were quite dead; the machine appeared to have no power while the man was missing most of his head. There was no other entrance; Jael found weld marks where the entrance had once been.

“He was sealed in here,” Jael whispered. Reynold eased past her to slip in the hole; Jael paused only to put some Vicks under her nose to dilute the worst of the smell before she followed. Klaus wiggled in after, though Jael wasn’t paying any attention to him. She eyed the device, but Reynold seemed to understand what he was looking at, while she didn’t. She inspected the body; it was a man in his late thirties with a single large-caliber wound to his head. Jael noted that the caliber matched the gun on the floor beneath his hand. The muzzle-burns were consistant with a self-inflicted wound.

There was a piece of paper on the table. Curious, Jael shined her light on it and read the short note.

Quote:

He made me do it. He got in my head, made me do it.

I had to push the button. I had to get in here, I had to let them seal it, I had to push the button. I couldn’t stop him.

I’m so sorry.

He wanted me to tell you he’s not done yet.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The air was chilly up this high, but Jael didn’t care. The chill was comforting – it matched the coldness leeching into her heart. Another manipulator. Another Sakolove.

“He wanted me to tell you he’s not done yet.”

Jael shivered in horror. This was her personal nightmare – being pitted against a manipulator. She wondered if that was why Reynold had told her to go home. He had a gruff and heartless exterior, but Jael knew he cared about her. He’d said that he could take it from there, but she knew he was giving her space to calm down.

Jael settled down on the balcony at the penthouse. She could see everyone inside, but she hesitated. She was terrified and not sure if she could pretend to be normal. Reynold had asked her to keep this between them. She was struggling with tears already; she wasn’t sure if she could keep her cool. She should probably leave until she was calmer but she also needed company. She didn’t need it often, but today was one of those days. She needed someone to reassure her that she wouldn’t end up a mind-fucked puppet again – but she couldn’t ask for those assurances. No one could know. She could leave – she should leave-

The choice was taken from her. Paul turned and saw her; he gave her a hesitant smile and waved at her. She saw his lips move and knew he had said, “Jael’s here.”

[Ghostwriter]

Ghostwriter shrugged at Katya's words. "I... thought there was something I should do. Like, I dunno, go through shit or something. And please call me Ghostwriter."

She looked to where Jael was on the balcony. "Hey John, Jael's back."

[GDP_ST]

"Hey John, Jael's back." the woman named Ghostwriter said at the same time that Paul gave a wave towards the sliding glass french window and said "Jael's here." John looked away from the screen and straight at her, then immediately got up.

There he goes the other novas present all thought to themselves with varying levels of amusement and other emotions. John walked across the lounge in a straight line, stopping only when he came to the closed door/window. It took him a moment to figure out the handle, but only a moment, and then the door was open and his aura's golden warmth was washing over Jael, eroding the chill within and without as his blue eyes studied her face.

She returned his gaze, wondering if he had really consciously missed her, rather than simply missing her instinctively, the way a duckling misses it's mother. It was an absent thought, and one that didn't really matter to Jael: all that mattered was that Sunshine missed her, period.

"Hello, Sunshine." she said, smiling to fight back the tears that were threatening to come with the thawing of her body and mind. He'd never known what this felt like, the sick dread and sense of helplessness. It didn't exist in his world, as if the solar warmth of his glow created a pocket devoid of horror and cold fear. She could hug him and be surrounded by that world... But that would mean she'd cry, for certain. And that would confuse and upset him, because let's face it, he didn't even understand her-

"Hello Jael." It took a moment to realise that the words had come from the youth in front of her. She blinked, and Sunshine smiled at her, a simple, happy expression, warm and filled with proud pleasure that he had surprised her. He stepped forwards and wrapped his arms around her in a hug, resting his head on her shoulder in a trusting, childlike fashion. "You came back." he stated as his warm, summery smell filled her senses. "Thank you for coming back. I wanted you to come back."

[Evo]

Donald got a cappuccino, Evie had a simple coffee with half and half in it. Sitting in the cafeteria of the Rashoud clinic, they made an interesting pair, the short dark-haired sprightly woman, and the quiet, brooding red-haired younger man. To his surprise, she had teleported them straight there, but soon he had remembered her from the news report where he first heard about the Argus Agency, as she introduced herself.

Evie 'Evac' Piedmont, having garnered that nickname according to N! from having rescued and evacuated Vietnamese non-combatants from a battle where hired security of Argus Agency protected the region from an assault of Cambodian-hired Elites.

And here, now in the wrecked city of Victoria, Canada, since its boss had foreseen the Crush two hours prior to the actual happening of the event, the Argus Agency had mobilized many of its staff and sent them out to aid in the ensuing recovery efforts as much as they could. For free, as Evie pointed out.

"We're a business, but so is Utopia yunno? With the comics and the action figures... We're just as charitable as the Project, except we don't stick our noses into world affairs."

Donald nodded quietly, listening carefully. "So how did you find me?"

Evie smiled simply, as if it wasn't as complicated as Donald made it sound. "This isn't an official pitch, to be honest. I saw you working yourself to the bone digging out there and I got curious. I talked to the Rashoud Clinic people, and then I got this idea that you might want to join Argus. You want to help people, with as little complication as possible. That's what we do. And I talked with Mr. Argyle himself, on a hypothetical example, and with a little training, you'd be good for emergency management and investigations. All freelancing at first, no here-only work commitment and the company covers medical, insurance, etc."

Donald raised an eyebrow questioningly, but it looked as if he'd been slowly drawn in and hooked. "Company training?"

Evie chuckled lightly. "Part that, part self-training. After all, you can cram for the more academic information easy-peasy when as I understand it, you don't need to eat or sleep. Constant study, to get you started."

"You're darn right about that." Donald admitted with a similar chuckle. She had been right about him. "Sign me up then."

[Jael Carver]

It was what she was afraid of; exactly why she’d considered fleeing. Sunshine’s arms curled around her with gentle insistence, and Jael felt the tears rise. She never cried, but this time, there was no choking them back. The long hours, leaving Sunshine behind, the quiet voice telling her he’d been shipped to the Rashoud Clinic the second she’d left him, finding out that wasn’t true and the irrational fear she had of mentalists all came crashing down on her. Jael wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him back, his warmth and earnest trust shattering her normal cynical composure. To her shame, she started blubbering almost immediately.

Sunshine stiffened around her and released his hug. “Tears? I am hurting you?” Sunshine asked and tried to jump back; Jael retained a death-grip on him and was dragged along, her feet shuffling awkwardly.

“No, no,” she wept, turning her head so that the others wouldn’t see her tears while speaking to him. “You’re not hurting me, something… Something else hurt me. You’re fine, please don’t let go.” His arms settled back around her, hesitantly at first before tightening a little.

She hadn’t been this much of an emotional wreck since Kazuo had liberated her from Sakolove years ago. Reynold had done a lot of work to help her build herself back up again; she was embarrassed to have all that work undone. And she was angry at herself that all it had taken was the hint of a mentalist to break her apart again. “You’re not hurting me,” she repeated, letting go of him to rub at her tears. She’d wanted to make herself presentable, but all she did was smear dust into streaks of mud. “Your hug was nice. Really nice.”

He said, “Your hug is nice, too” which just cracked her up.

“Yeah, if you like it wet and blubbery,” she grinned, trying to make light of the moment. She brushed away the last of the tears and gave a final sniffle, hoping her eyes weren’t red and puffy.

“I like it with you,” he told her sincerely, making her laugh again, this time self-consciously.

“Thanks, Sunshine,” she said, genuinely feeling better. The threat of the mentalist was still there, but his presence had shoved it back. She released him and after a moment, he followed her lead. “You’re talking pretty well now.”

“Thank you,” he said, smiling proudly. “You were surprised.”

“You betcha,” Jael grinned. “I’m also surprised that those heathens found time to teach you to speak but didn’t get you a decent pair of pants. What’s up with that?”

[Ghostwriter]

"We quite haven't gotten around to the concept of modesty," Ghostwriter drawled from her seat on the floor. "So, what's the bet you two will hook up?"

Tact was obviously not a word in this young woman's vocabulary.

[Firanis 'Fi' Flux]

"No need to inundate him too many new concepts after all," Katya agreed with an impish grin. She wouldn't take Ghostwriter's bet, though, hearing Jael's tone and grateful tears, she didn't think it would happen that soon.

Leaning against Ryusei, teasing fingers surreptitiously caressing his thigh, the raven-haired beauty gave Sunshine a blatant and appreciative once-over, then arched a sable brow at Jael. "I think what's up with that is quite obvious, Jael. Don't begrudge us, well, me, the scenery. Besides, I'm not sure if Jason has anything kicking around that would be... suitable." Emerald eyes twinkled mirthfully. "I'd be willing to find out, though."

Katya gave Ryusei a final, playful squeeze, then walked over to the embracing blonds, laying a gentle, surprisingly tactile hand on their wrists. "Did you want to get cleaned up first, Jael? We'll keep John occupied in the meantime." Her lips curled with mischief. "Unless you want to lesson him in personal hygiene, of course."

[GDP_ST]

"Washing?" John blinked at Katya, oblivious to the narrow look that Jael was giving the Russian beauty, even as Paul was peering at Ghostwriter. "I have never done that before. It does not look difficult." His speech wasn't stilted, but oddly formal-sounding due to the lack of contractions. He looked down at the few smudges of dirt on his body that did nothing to diminish his own beauty, then examined his blanket before looking at what everyone else was wearing, then smiled as though he saw the joke.

"I do not have any pants!" he exclaimed with a chuckle. Then he pondered, the smile fading a little. "Why do I have to have pants?" he asked Jael earnestly, blue eyes guileless. "You gave me this. I like it. Will you teach me about hygiene after you are cleaned up?" His brow furrowed a little as he glanced at Ghostwriter. "And what does 'hook up' mean?"

[Ghostwriter]

Ghostwriter grinned at John. "Why don't you ask Jael?" the insubstantial nova told him. "I don't know anything personally on 'hooking up', as I've never done it."

[Jael Carver]

"Jael doesn't know hooking up either, at least for more than a night at a time," Paul said dryly. Jael shot him a venomous look which he answered with a shrug. "I'll explain hooking up, John, at the same time I explain hotties to you."

"Hotties are cute girls," John said solemnly to Jael.

"So... I've heard? I knew I shouldn't have left him with you guys," Jael sighed, sounding bemused more than angry. As Paul sputtered innocent noises, she added, "What's with the 'John' stuff?"

"We're calling him John Doe until he picks something he likes," Paul pointed out.

"But his name is Sunshine," Jael said, frowning a little.

"Your name for him is Sunshine. The guy needs a grown-up name, Jay-jay."

Jael sighed again and waved her hand. "Alright, fine. I'm still calling you Sunshine; it'll be my special name for you. I can also get you pants, if you want to wear something I gave you. And yeah, I can teach you hygiene. In fact, let's do that now." Taking his hand and ignoring the looks she was getting from the others, she drew him into the bathroom. His eyes immediately began to study each new object, filing it away into his brain; Jael could almost see the process.

"Ok, hygiene is simply the art of being personally clean," Jael started. "There are three main components: teeth, hair and body. For your teeth, you'll use a toothbrush and toothpaste to scrub them clean." She held up the objects in question. "These are Bombshell's or Knockout's so please don't use them. Since the brush goes in your mouth, its important to not use someone else's."

"Why?"

Jael pondered a second. "Because mouths are a different kind of dirty, and unless your mouths are already in contact regularly, its best to use your own."

"Why would mouths be in contact?" Sunshine asked. "How could you talk?"

"Uh... well, people kiss, and that uses mouths, and you don't talk while kissing," Jael explained, unsure exactly how she'd found herself explaining kissing to such a hot guy with such a guileless smile.

His blue eyes were puzzled. "The computer showed kissing being on the cheek."

"Yeeeees, but some kisses are more intimate than that," Jael said, wondering how to dig herself out without just brushing him off. "Look, here's the important part: kissing is a sign of affection using your mouth, ok? Paul will explain more when he talks to you about... hotties.

"Let me finish this lesson, before you ask something else," Jael added quickly. "Hair hygiene is done by getting your hair wet in the shower and using shampoo on it. You lather - er, make it foam - up the shampoo into your hair, then wash the lather away and the dirt and oils go with it. Body hygiene, which is what I can best show you right now, is similar."

This was kinda fun. She got a washcloth and a towel from the closet, then grabbed the soap. "You would normally do this in the shower, but you only have the one dirty spot, so we'll do it in the sink real fast. You wet the washcloth and yourself," Jael instructed, handing him the washcloth and pointing to the sink. He figured it out rapidly and soon had his chest wet. Yawzah! Focus, Jael, focus... "Uh, then rub the soap in the towel until it's lather, then rub the dirty spot with the lathered washcloth. Yeah, like that!" Just like that, only a little lower... Stop it! "Now rinse out the washcloth and your chest and you're all clean. In a shower, you'd do that all over yourself - and your hair at the same time." Jael braced for the litany of questions sure to come her way.

[GDP_ST]

"So how many times must I wash?" Sunshine asked as he carefully rinsed out the cloth, then wiped down his smoothly-muscled chest. Jael tried not to ogle and focused on the questions.

"Every day is best if you can. If you do things that are really dirty or sweaty, like... Sex... No, bad! like I've been doing today, for instance..." Jael indicated her somewhat less-than-pristine appearance. "...then you'll want to wash as soon as you're finished." Sunshine sniffed the bar of soap, then carefully tasted it with the tip of his tongue. He made a face. "Yeah, don't do that." Jael advised with a smile. Sunshine smiled back at her and put the soap down.

"You are going to use the shower now?" Sunshine asked, looked curiously at the frosted-paned cubicle.

"That's the plan." Jael took out a couple of fresh towels. Sunshine brightened expectantly, watching as she made the preliminary preparations. She set the towels on the rail, then looked at him with an expectant expression of her own.

He just looked at her curiously.

"Are you planning to leave?" she asked, patient amusement in her tone. Sunshine's brow furrowed in puzzlement.

"No. I want to watch and see how you use the shower." he answered earnestly. Jael sighed.

"No."

"No?" he looked confused now.

"No." she stated again, firmly. "Under normal circumstances, guys and girls don't watch each other in the shower unless they're, um, hooked up. It's not right." It might be right if you were about 10 mental years older than you are now, though... Urgh, stop right there, brain! She pointed at the door. "I'll show you how to use the shower when you need one. Go on and wait out there for me."

"Okay." Sunshine nodded affably, a little puzzled but satisfied for now with the explanation, and turned to go out. He closed the bathroom door behind him and, crouching, sat down before it, staring curiously up and down the wide corridor the bathroom was situated in as he waited patiently.

[Eingar]

The vitrium-built Omega Nova watch on his wrist beeped, a subtle sound that would be easily missed even in a relatively quiet room... by someone who didn't have nova senses. Einherjar sat up and stretched, then looked at the watch and, shrugging, swung out of bed, heading to the bathroom.

As the stream of hot water hit him, Ein leaned forward, placing his hands against the wall and bowing his head to let the water beat on the back of his head and neck. The short sleep had been filled with dreams, doubtless resulting from the myriad of broken bodies he had ferried over the last couple of weeks. Only this time they had all been his wife. He'd been walking through the haze of dust and smoke with her on the makeshift bier, trying to find the EMT as his ears clearly picked up the slowing of her heart, the rattle of blood in her lungs. Then he'd had to lay her body out on the end of a row of bodies, next to the corpse of her killer, who's features were locked in a rictus grin atop his pulped, twisted neck. As nightmares went, it had definitely been one of the more upsettingly surreal. He raised his head, glancing at the gold ring on his finger. His pale eyes regarded it as he remembered, the same as he did every day. Her smile, the touch of her hand on his face, the slight patch of gold in her brown eyes, the sound of her voice. Every detail.

"I miss you." he told her quietly, as he did every day, tears invisible in the warm water running down his face, no other sign of his grief apparent as he looked calmly at the ring. "I'll always miss you." The words, so often-spoken, had the ring of prayer. Einherjar smiled and leaned forward, kissing the ring. "See you soon." Then he sighed and straightened up, the ritual done, and began washing.

Showered, dried and dressed in khaki jeans and white shirt worn open over a ice-blue t-shirt, Einherjar stepped out of the elevator into the lobby of the hotel. Pale blonde hair gleaming in the sunlight as he nodded to the concierge, strolled outside and took to the air. Blue-white borealis playing around is muscular frame the Elite spiralled upwards, fixing his bearings, then disappeared north-west, towards Bombshell's apartment, leaving only the trace of a sonic boom behind him.

Five minutes later, he touched down on the plant-decorated balcony and wandered into the lounge, announcing himself with a rumbling, laconic "Morning, all."

[Bombshell]

WTF?!

She and Danielle fell on the bed in a wild embrace, hands roving with familiar delight, lips locked, when Jason felt a tight spasm wrack her body, not painful, but unexpected. The voluptuous lovers and friends, near twins, broke their intimate embrace and watched Jason's body flex and contort in shocked awe.

For Jason, her metamorphosis seemed to pass in languorous slowness. She was able to watch every single alteration with distinct clarity, yet after a single blink, it was done. She ran a hand wonderingly over her flat, muscular chest, ran fingers through the short-cropped, dark brown hair topping her head.

"I'm a man again!" Jason crowed, both hands dropping lower to grasp the most obvious sign of his restored gender. He looked over at his awesomely gorgeous girlfriend, felt himself harden even more, and smiled widely. "I'm a man again."

Danielle gave her head a small shake, long hair glinting like a golden waterfall, luscious lips curved with something almost like envy. "I've noticed."

"I know you fell in love with Bombshell, but do you think we can still be a couple?" Jason asked hesitantly. He was a guy again, and his girlfriend was one of the most attractive women in the world. It was like a fantasy come true.

Danielle leaned closer, feminine fingers stroking his cheek with infinite tenderness. "Of course we can, silly. I fell in love with you, not the skin you were wearing." Her voice deepened into a sexy growl that he had never heard before. "Come show Knockout how much of a man you are!"

The old-new male Jason didn't need to be told twice. He pounced on top of her, pressing her down on the bed, kissing her anew, Danielle reciprocating ardently... And that's when everything went wrong.

Their lips pressed to together and Jason began losing breath as it went on too long, unable to get a new gasp of air, unable to break Danielle's loving, implacable grasp. Her slender arms went around his thickly muscled back, superhuman strength making his fragile, baseline ribs collapse against her over-endowed torso. His hips shattered as she wrapped her long, sexy legs around him and flexed. And then, he was inside her, steel-like nether muscles tightening like a vice, and he screamed...

Jason woke up with a start, sitting up, blanket sliding down her chest, and stared at her breasts with stark relief, running her hands over them to reassure herself of their presence. "What the fuck was that?" she murmured in her velvety soprano as she tossed her long hair our of her face.

She glanced to the side and noticed with regret, Danielle wasn't in bed with her, but even then, her odd dream was growing foggy and ephemeral. She felt extremely relaxed, a pleasant lassitude permeating her. She hadn't been so exhausted through physical endeavors - not counting bedroom acrobatics, which was something else altogether - since she had erupted. She missed the pleasurable ache after a long work-out, the sense of accomplishment that accompanied it.

This was almost the same. She was able to tell herself, after pushing for a week straight, she had done all she could at the Victoria Crush, she had accomplished some good, even if it was small in comparison to the extend of the destruction.

Jason tossed the blanket off her and slid out of bed with unconscious grace, then padded soundlessly into the en suite, flicking on the light. In the mirror was reflected the nude and glorious woman she had faced every morning for a year and a half. Though her astounding beauty was more than familiar, she still couldn't refrain from reacting to the sight, nipples stiffening. She wasn't sure if that was a sign of narcissism or a product of being raised male, but it was one more thing she had grown accustomed too.

Lambent, twilight eyes glanced pass her figure in the mirror as she brushed her teeth, considering the big, deep tub and the frosted-pane shower stall. Spitting out the toothpaste, she shook her head. Despite her time in the Crush, she was still pristine enough to have had just emerged from a salon and she didn't care for getting the thick mass of her hair wet at the moment anyway. Besides, baths and showers were more fun when shared. Where is Dani anyway?

Jason walked back into her bedroom, slipping on a pair of black, boy-cut panties and a grey and white sportsbra with habitual ease. It wasn't as if she suffered from gravity, but the bra did help with excessive jiggling. Picking at the clothes scattered on the floor, the silver-haired amazon put on a pair of loose, faded jeans that clung to her hips and a tight, black shirt. The lime-green slogan on the shirt, distorted by her dramatic curves, asked 'Does This Shirt Make My Tits Look Big?'

After tying her hair back in a luxuriant pony-tail with a black scrunchy that writhed under her touch, Jason stepped out of her room, then paused, looking at the guy sitting cross-legged on the floor in the hall in front of the bathroom. He was youngish, bronzed, wreathed in golden sunlight, and of course, hot - Actually, hot, well... warm, as if he really did radiate sunlight. She had never seen him before, though admittedly, she'd been pretty out of it when Danielle had flown her home.

They stared at each other in silence, quizzical, incandescent indigo eyes into guileless sapphire blues, golden flecks lurking in their depths. Though Golden Boy's stare was intense, riveted by her appearance, it wasn't the slack-jawed, lust-stricken leer that she endured from most men. Really, it was reminiscent of how most children looked at her.

"You are a hottie," Golden Boy declared as their moment of mutual appraisal stretched too long, his tone oddly definitive.

"Uh, yeah, thanks. You can call me Jason." Jason looked up and down the hall before looking back down at the guy, who didn't seem inclined to stand up... And who was wearing a sheet that was doing precious little to preserve his modesty, especially in his cross-legged pose. "Who are you and what are you doing just sitting out here?"

John listened attentively to the tall, silver-haired woman's mellifluous voice, hearing in it an echo of something he had heard before just after waking up. Something he now recognized as singing. "You can call me John," he said in imitation of her faintly accented inflections. His expression grew slightly somber. "I do not know who I am. Jael has a special name for me, she calls me Sunshine. I am waiting here because Jael told me to wait here while she is taking a shower and people do not watch people taking showers unless they are hooking up."

Am I still in bed dreaming this? "Ooookay. And why don't you have any pants?"

Sunshine stroked his impromptu sarong. "Jael is nice. She gave me this and I like it, but she says she will get me pants."

"Dude! Your thing is showing!" Jason protested in a sharp whisper, gesturing around her crotch.

Sunshine tilted his head, trying to figure out what she meant, then followed her hand before looking down at himself. "Oh. You mean my penis," he said brightly, his smile fading slightly as he caught the disapproval in her tone. "It is bad, to be showing my penis?"

"Usually, yes, unless it's to someone you're hookin' up with. Look, here, I'll lend you a pair of pants - and a shirt - until Jael can get you somethin', okay?" When Sunshine didn't protest, Jason slipped back into her room and began rummaging around, before scavenging a pair of grey sweat pants and an over-sized football jersey. The pants would probably bunch up at his ankles, but the jersey was unisex and he certainly wouldn't have to be concerned about it being tight in the chest. She flicked the clothing at him with an underhanded toss. "Here."

Sunshine caught them as the bounced off his chest. Hyper accelerated cognitive functions arrived to the logical, inescapable conclusion of 'one-leg-at-a-time' and he stood up, pulling the sheet off. After one brief glimpse, which despite - or because of - her dream held too much envy for her taste, Jason spun around. "John! Give a guy some warnin' when you're goin' to do that!"

"You are a girl," John replied with some confusion, but he copied Jason's movement and turned to show his back as he got dressed for the first time.

"Are you done?" Jason asked after the rustling stopped.

"Yes."

Ready to close her eyes in case of... whatever, Jason turned around... and almost choked. John was dressed alright, the bright red jersey fitting him better across the shoulder than it did her, big number '8' centered on his back, the jogging pants bunching up around his ankles as she expected. And stenciled in pink across his ass was the proud proclamation of, 'JUICY'. Ooops!

"You can turn around now, John." John did so, a tentative smile on his face, seeking approval. Don't laugh. "Yeah, yeah, you're fine." Jason tossed her head, argent mane rippling like a waterfall as she nodded down the hall. "Why don't we head to the livin' room, okay? When Jael said to wait outside, she didn't mean right outside the door."

John pondered that, then pondered her, then nodded in agreement. "I will continue me lessons so I can communicate even better when Jael is done with personal hygiene."

"You do that," Jason said wryly as she led him back to the living room. Bare feet gliding soundlessly over the dark hardwood floors, Jason gave everyone a slightly self-deprecating smile and a wave, though the transparent figure of Ghostwriter made her twilight eyes widen in surprise "Heya Kat, Ryusei, Ein, everyone I haven't meant yet. Sorry about that, seems like I needed some beauty-sleep."

With child-like, yet focused, inquisitiveness, John studied everything as he made his way back to the couch, paying particular attention to the women this time. They were all similar, even Dr. Jia who was tired and sleeping and who seemed different for some reason. But it was more difficult to look away from Jason and he tried to analyze why....

"Jason has the biggest chest," John asserted, smiling and pleased with his reasoning as everyone turned to look at him.

"Okay, who is this guy?" Jason demanded, jerking a thumb in his direction.

[Ghostwriter]

Ghostwriter was too busy pissing herself laughing at the shenanigans involving Bombshell and Sunshine to respond to anybody. Then she fell right through the floor as she reflexively became fully intangible, her laughter turning to a string of obscene words which hinted she had done this before...

Several minutes later, the tiny brunette had returned, hovering in mid-air with a pissed-off expression. "Hi, I'm Ghostwriter. And Sunshine over there seems attached to Jael."