Aberrant Pt. 02

Tavi frowned at Alexa. "Once you smooth your tongue, Alexa, then I shall gladly cease to be ladylike." She said, sniffing. "Well...not gladly..."

Gillian patently avoided any further mention of genitalia, downing the rest of her coke in one go. Sean was listening in, though one hand had a coke and the other had his phone as he looked something up, typing away with a single thumb. "Wanting another Gillian? You almost swallowed that one whole." He teased.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever," Alexa said, sucking down the soda and crushing the can into a small disk with her bare hand. "It's a moot point, anyway. We're all living tanks at this point. How strong a normal pussy is doesn't mean jack."

Tavi opened her mouth, then closed it, then flushed, looking speculative.

"Well, it DOES insofar as language shapes thought and continuing to use pussy as a pejorative encourages people at large to think of women as weak." Vanessa said, shrugging. "And by dint of our power and influence it could be argued we have a greater potential and responsibility to shape the world."

Gillian crushed her can into a small disk as well and nodded, holding her stomach. She covered her mouth to stifle a burp before offering a thumbs up, "Yes please Sean."

Tavi blushed, then bit her lip. "Yeah...like...there are still terrorists in Sub Saharan africa. Or Kashmir. Or the Megasyndicate. Like, how can we sit around being regular teenagers when they exist and we can stop them?" She asked, sounding nervous. "It's like that obscure character you told me about, Vanessa...Megaguy?" She paused. "Super...man! Superman, that guy!"

"I dare anyone to call any of the women in this room weak." Alexa made a fist and smacked it into her other open palm. "I just hefted a ton in that gym. I can turn anybody into paste if I wanted to."

"...do we need to show you the ten most violent seconds in human history?" Tavi asked, grinning slightly. "Sean! Search that up on the opnet, it should be the first video that pops up on OpTube!" Without looking up Sean set his drink on a nearby table, used his foot to open the fridge, his hand fished out another coke and tossed it to Gillian on the exact same arc as the last one.

Gillian caught her drink and cracked it open, mumbling as she settled back into her seat.

Vanessa snickered, "We're not QUITE on his level, some of us less so, but as I said, we do have a certain responsibility. We ALSO have some responsibility to not stick our noses in where they're not wanted.. It's interesting you mentioned Superman as his most common conflict is how much power one should exert before risking becoming a totalitarian." She blinked at Tavi's comment, "Ah yes, a true triumph of diplomacy." She snickered.

Tavi blushed. "It also looks cool..." She admitted, quietly.

With the request he shrugged, tapping something on his phone that brought up a holo-keyboard and he typed in the lines to the computer. A bright light flicked on as the thin laser projector pressed to the ceiling turned on and put the image of a web browser up on the one wall.

She smiled, kissing her lover's cheek, "Sorry, I don't want to come off as all superior or anything. It is pretty cool. I just prefer flashier, safer combat." She shrugged.

The image was crystal clear, save for some shuddering, cell phone camera footage. It showed a dusty village, but it was angled up. Two novas soared by overhead. One was Cestus Pax - a muscular, hulking figure, his body covered with enough muscle to make him seem almost like a caricature come to life. He was shrouded with a crackling, bulging kinetic field...and his enemy was a brown skinned, bearded Pakistani nova whose name escaped them at the moment.

The view slowed down as Cestus Pax lifted his hands over his head, then brought them swinging down - in slow motion, the movement had a glacial, inevitable quality to it. Then they connected. And even at slow speed, the Pakistani nova went flying off camera so fast that they lost track of him for six of the "ten most violent seconds ever recorded." When the camera whipped around again, they could see the distant ridge of a mountain range, surrounded by smoke and rubble. It looked like a good half mile of the mountain had been shattered off.

"So, just saying..." Tavi said. "We're all cool. But...we're...not the biggest fish in the barrel. and we're never going to be the biggest fish."

"Not necessarily true. We don't know what exactly controls a nova's power growth. It is entirely possible any one of use could meet or exceed his power level in the next five years even." She said, shrugging. "He hasn't been a nova for more than a decade, so there's nothing saying he will continue to grow at the same pace powerwise."

"You're never safe in combat, Van," Alexa said. "That's literally the antithesis of combat. And, Tavi, we can be the biggest fish if we work hard enough." Her eyes glittered, full of determination.

"You know," Jay says as he meanders back in, "I can't help but feel like we're already letting this Nova crap go to our heads."

"I DID say safer." Vanessa snickered. "I meant XWF's ass grabbery to be honest."

Tavi bit her lip slightly, then shook her head. "Well, we did all get much bigger heads..." she smiled. "Nodes do expand rapidly, eh?" she asked, winking at Jay.

Vanessa snickered, hugging Tavi, "How do you mean, Jay?" She said curiously.

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely?" Gillian offered, shrugging, "I think it Tavi meant more 'We have a power now, we should try to be responsible'?" She waved her hand, "Not to put words in your mouth."

Jay just rolls his eyes, but then nods toward Gillian. "Yeah, I get that. We should do -something.- But... come the fuck on, we're not even out of school yet. There are already plenty of superheroes. We're not even considered fully grown-up by American society, let's worry about getting our lives in order before we try to save the world."

Satisfied with the video that has played, Sean shut the projector off instead of letting it jump to a related video. Though, Jay was the voice of reason as his comment got Sean to look away from his phone and give a groan. "Damn, we are going to have to finish school. Aren't we?"

Tavi snickered. "That...is a good point. Are we still going to stay in high school?" She asked, curiously.

"I think currently we can easily argue our responsibility is to learn how to use our abilities responsibly. ..and try to make a lot of money doing safe stuff like public appearances and charity shows and such."

Alexa laughed, full on from the belly. "If you think I'm going back to that brick and mortar indoctrination house you can kiss my well-toned ass."

"I kind of want to hook up with Utopia just to get my GED away from the limelight of N!." Gillian groaned, rubbing her cheeks. "The less chance they can connect me to my family and annoy them, the better."

"I don't know about you guys, but I wanted to go into business. I'm not sure public appearances and charity events really lead that way," Jay said, nodding.

"I don't want to get gawked at in class either," Gillian added.

"Alexa, I have a question. Do you think other people would be more likely to finish their education knowing that even a nova is willing to endure high school?" Vanessa asked, looking at her friend. Then she looked over at Jay. "And public events and charity are good PR no matter what we eventually decide to do. Did you have a specific type of business in mind? Something like DeVries?"

Jay shrugs. "Way it sounds, I'm not going to have much of a chance to think about it anymore. What do you mean?"

"I want," Alexa said slowly. "To hit things. I want to hit things hard. Or move things. Heavy things. I don't want to sit on my ass and not use these powers, which is exactly what we'll be doing if we work with charity."

"I don't think there is anything we can do to prevent a connection between us as Novas and our families." Sean said, sighing. "Trust me, I would if I could. For myself, I'm pretty sure I could likely print money now. Though really- there are local issues I'm wanting to tackle."He looked thoughtful.

"There's a lot we can do to prevent connection. Nobody has to know anything you don't want them to," Jay said, breezily.

"You could totally use your strength for charity! There's the simple ideas of fighting for charity, you know, put on exhibition matches. Then there's the construction you could do, also disaster relief," Vanessa said, smiling at Alexa.

Alexa thought about it. "I guess so..." she muttered, not sounding entirely convinced.

"I wouldn't mind helping out different police. Take their shifts and hours so people can get some time off. Give back to their community," Gillian said, rubbing her cheek with her coke can.

"I mean. I know a cop," Jay suggests.

"Well, what do you want to do, Jay? Everyone else seems to have some ideas, but I don't recall you mentioning something you want to do. Of course I could have missed it, I admit," Vanessa said.

Jay sighs and shrugs. "I want to lie low for a couple of weeks to give N! a chance to forget that six novas were admitted to the Rashound facility. I feel like if we try and do anything before then, we're gonna be plastered up on the news and have people chasing us down in the streets. After that, I kind of just want to get through the school year and then see how many benefits I can leverage out of Utopia. It's clear they want us, we can use that."

"I'm.. not sure how easy it would be for us to lay low.. and I'm not saying I don't like getting bennies our of Utopia, but I would like to be a bit more active.." Vanessa said, leaning against her girlfriend. Tavi, who had been quietly watching, nuzzled her head.

"That's not my only plan. But it's just the start. I didn't exactly realize I'd be superhuman before today, so it'll take a little planning," Jay said, lifting his hands.

"Well, I think we are going to have problems anyways, with a room of people that witnessed most of us erupt, and when we don't show up to class. Or worse, if we do. And that's only one degree of tracking, it goes deeper than that." Sean countered. "I think the only person that could pull their butt out of this fire is you Jay. Between your own personal situation and your own talent set, you may get your wish if you try it." He added.

Vanessa nodded, "Also..a bit of a problem is Tavi and I.. we can't exactly pass as baseline given our appearances." SHe snickered, pointing to her own chalk white skin, blue hair and red eyes and her lover's stone grey skin.

"If you got it, flaunt it," Alexa said.

"Okay. So drop out of school, pretend to move out of state, come crash at my place for a while, then get your GEDs somewhere quiet and out of the way?" Jay said, shrugging. "Granted, making up stories would be a bit of a doozy, but I could probably whip something up in a few weeks."

"Family..." Gillian mumbled, rubbing her cheeks. It was the best excuse to why she couldn't go about that.

Tavi nodded slightly as she did so. "And I'm thinking you might be underestimating how much draw you're going to be pulling, Jay, just for being a nova."

Sean nodded. "And that doesn't address the issue being our families being harassed by it."

"Also.. I'm not saying I want to stay out of the public eye.." Vanessa said, frowning slightly. "Though.. if you all wanted to try it that much I'd be willing to try it, I suppose.."

Tavi nodded as the doorbell rang. There was a sound of Mrs. Toulman calling out: "Briiiian! Get the door!"

"Why can't Sean get it-" Another voice called back.

"Brian! Don't backtalk to your mother!"

Gillian rolled her eyes before closing them.

Jay sighs, flopping back into some seat or another. "Man. I could hide one person from the press, or maybe two. But not six. Goddamned American media."

Seans eyes snapped to the direction of the front door.

Tavi snickered. "You could hide six baselines, I think..." she said, sounding amused. "But not one nova, Jay."

"Fuck, yeah, you're probably right." Jay looked cross. "Kind of wish I could just turn this shit off until I figure it out."

"That is sort of what training with Utopia is good for, honestly." Gillian said, eyes closed.

Tavi snickered. "Some novas do know how to dorm down and shut off their pwoers. But now Vanessa will never forgive you for betraying her commitment to awesome powers."

Vanessa shrugged, "Well, to be fair it's not like being a nova is particularly horrible. I mean, it's not perfect I'll admit, but it could be worse.." She sighed.

"No arguments here." Sean said as he stood up. "I've got to check on something, be back in a few." He said simply and left his room.

"It could be," Jared admits, shoving his hands into his pockets, "I just like my privacy. This is the exact opposite of that."

"We could build an orbital space station?" Tavi suggested as they heard the footsteps of Sean heading downstairs - then an excited, male voice, calling out.

"Seannyyyy! Heyyy, you look great, cousin!"

Tavi blinked. "Sean has a cousin?" she asked, looking surprised.

"To be fair, you could learn certain abilities to enhance your social skills and use that to turn the media away.." She said to Jay, then shrugged to Tavi, "Probably? They're common, or so I'm told."

"I think I've met the guy like... once?" Jay lolled his head back.

"I've got better clothes than this guy," Gillian said aloud, opening and eyes and sitting up.

Vanessa blinked, looking to Gillian, "How can you tell?" She said curiously.

Gillian pointed over to a tree facing the front door. Sitting in it was Gillian herself, who looked up after a moment to wave over to the original.

Sean's response was welcoming, but low and muted compared to his cousin.

"Hello Mark, I've been great. How have you been doing?" Sean asked kindly.

"Great, hey, I hear that you just hit the jackpot, you know?" Mark said back - though his voice was softer now. They could only hear by straining their ears. "Can I come in, and chat up your future? Cause I got this slash thing you gotta get in on, coz!"

"Yeah," Jared mumbles, "I already don't like this guy."

"The fuck is a slash?" Alexa muttered.

"It's the hip term for swag!" Tavi said, giggling quietly.

Vanessa blinked, then gave Gillian a thumb's up, "Nice! And it means cool I assume." She said, smirking.

Sean just sighed. "How about I make you an offer. You leave them, I'll get you setup with something that is even a better payoff, a cushy life, and keep you protected from them." Sean replied, the friendliness leaving his voice.

Vanessa frowned, "Well.. that.. doesn't sound good at all.."

"...Jesus Christ I think he has a gun in the back of his waistband," Gillian hissed under her breath after a moment. She gripped the chair she was in while her copy hopped down from the tree and started slowly walking up from behind.

"Heh, heh, uh, listen, coz...it's...I can't just go, I owe them..." Mark whispered. "Listen, it's super easy, it'll get us both a cool hundred K, I can give half to Takai, and then I'll leave, promise..."

"Shit, and I left mine at home." Jay hisses in frustration, then looks at Alexa. "Come out the window with me. If this turns into a fight, we go in through the front door."

Alexa cracked her knuckles and nodded at him.

"Well, he works for the Mega-syndicates, him having a gun makes sense.." Vanessa said with a sigh. "Also, we're all fucking novas. Unless by some miracle he's packing nova-stoppers we're probably going to be fine."

"It's not us I'm worried about. His folks are home, Van." Jay muttered.

"And his brother," Tavi said, nodding.

"I just meant we can disable him. But.. I do see your point.." Vanessa sighed. Jay moved over to the window, scoping the street out, checking for any oddly placed cars or passerby before he starts to climb out.

"Miracle already happened today, didn't it Vanessa?" Gillian asked as her copy quietly advanced, trying to make a gesture with her fingers shaped like a gun to Sean while his cousin had his back turned.

As Gillian's copy started to creep down from the tree, Mark - a roughly shaven older version of the Toulman mold - was unaware of her, or of Jay creeping out of the window. More, Jay didn't see any vans or other parked cars, save for a small motorcycle parked on the grass.

"No man, I get that you owe them." Sean said with a shrug. "You keep me up at night, you know? I worry about you." He said honestly.

"I can take care of the debt, if you will get out from this shit." Sean offered. "I'm not going to be doing a job for you Mark, but I will let you give them my number. This shit can be worked out."

Mark tensed. "I need the money by the end of the week, dude!" He whispered, softly.

Jay beelines for the motorcycle, double-checking over his shoulder to make sure Mark isn't looking that way. When he gets there, he starts to check the bike for... well, anything odd. And for the keys. If they were still in it.

Vanessa sighed, standing up and moving over to the door. She walked to the edge of the corridor, to where Sean and Mark were talking. Before she leaned around the corner, Sean's hand went into his pocket, taking hold on his phone.

'Don't start anything. I can hear you guys.' Was sent to their cellphones as a text.

Alexa waited in the tree like a blond bird of prey, lining up the angle and distance she'd have to jump to punch Mark.

'10 4' gets sent back to Sean's phone from Jay's with the quick flick of a thumb.

"Have them talk to me. I can arrange something for it." Sean said, cool and calm. "You're hear for a reason right? You know, right?" He asked, lightly grilling the gang member.

Gillian checked her blocky phone and shortly after her copy carefully shifted, moving to slink behind the tree and remain there.

Mark frowned, looking at Sean - unaware that Jay had just discovered that mark's bike was a very illegal street conversion from a landcycle to a skycycle. If he kicked on the right engine, it could fly real fast. But not exactly the most...safely. Mark sighed. "Yeah. There's this stash of spike - real pure - that is just gaurded by some local hoods. We bust em up, we get the spike, we take it to a buyer, we're good!"

"Fucking spike trade, really?" Gillian mumbled under her breath, fists clenching up.

"You can join, just don't spook him. I want to see his answer to this." Sean texted as a reply to Vanessa.

"So you're after me because you know this? Or is there another reason why you came to me other than us being family?" Sean pushing the question.

"Well," Mark started, looking at Sean. "My idea is that, well...s-since you're a nova, you can do th hit real-"

Vanessa pulled out her phone, then nodded, smirking and using sign language back to Sean, "Could always just do this." She stepped around the corner waving to Mark, "Sup, Mark? How's it going?"

Mark jerked as Vanessa came out. "Jesus!" he snapped, then stepped away. "Who the fuck is that!?" He asked, his eyes wide - his hand dropping to his hip

"Mark- stop. Don't do something I'll regret." Sean said very seriously.

Jay didn't know a thing about engines, but something... aha! That kit on the engine looked like the same technobabble bullshit from that one episode of CSI he'd caught in passing. A fucking skycycle? Now he's definitely looking for keys to steal.

"Whoa, whoa! Calm down, Mark!" Vanessa said, smiling and slowly raising her hands. "Just a friend of Sean's who's got a personal interest in everyone being happy."

Mark looked from Sean to Vanessa, his body tensed. Then he gulped slightly. "R-Right..." He said, slowly drawing his hand away from his hip. "R-Right. You look pretty freaky, you know?"

'Bike. Way illegal mods' Jay texts back to Sean, just on the off chance he can read his phone from in his pocket. Then to Gillian, since he knows she can risk taking a look at her phone right now. Gillian seemed to be waiting for things to get worse before doing much, though she did shoot a quick 'thx' back to Jay.