Aberrant Pt. 02

Back at the stairwell inside the house, Vanessa smirked, "I prefer exotic. Also, nova-cool works too." She said cheerfully. "So.." She looked to Sean, signing, "Want me to try to talk him down or just back your play?"

"Hey man, a bit disrespectful." Sean teased, trying to lighten the mood. 'Play it as you will, just keep him calm. I need to know if one thing is genuine,' He openly signed back to Vanessa. Then, aloud, he continued: "Now for reals. Do you want out, or do you want your freedom and protection from your buddies?" He asked.

Vanessa smiled at Mark, trying to look encouraging and nonjudgemental.

Mark bit his lip slightly. "What I want is to have to not worry about some Yakuza guy cutting my head off with a freaking samurai sword..." He admitted, nodding slightly.

"I think what your cousin is asking, is do you want to go straight or are you planning on going back to your friends if we help you clear all this up?" Vanessa said calmly, laying her hands on her thighs in plain sight.

"Guess we just gotta wait, now," Jay mutters to himself as he looked at the motorcycke. With his sleuthing done, he just sits on the seat of the bike, swings himself to face toward the front door, and follows his own advice.

Inside the house, Mark sighed, slowly. "I...I want to go straight, man, I'm sick of this shit." He rubbed his palm against his face.

"Might I suggest then we talk to his employer and convince him that we are good for the money Mark owes him, and letting Mark go assuming we pay his debt will earn our goodwill?" Vanessa said, looking to Sean.

Sean gave a sigh of relief. "Then I'll help you, you're flesh and blood. You're family." He said to Mark. "And yeah, my thoughts exactly." He said in response to Vanessa. "Mark, call up your boss and tell him that there are a few Novas that want to talk about something lucrative. You think that would take some pressure off of your back?"

Mark rubbed his hand along his face. "Okay...it's gonna take me a bit that's...that's cool, right?" He asked, nodding slightly. "My boss isn't super easy to get a hold of for, um, for me."

With things more calm Gillian had her copy move toward the front door. She started into the house, then came up to the stairwell, arms folded. "I can go with him, keep an eye on things?" Alexa jumped down from the tree, her fingers curling against the bark, hurrying over to join her friends in the increasingly crowded stairwell .

Vanessa signed to Sean, "Do.. we want to send one of us with him to make sure nothing happens to him?"

"Relax, give me the gun, take a seat at the table, and start calling up your chain." Sean said. "I'll take care of my parents, I've got a few people to talk to about this anyways. I'd rather have you here than feeling like you're being chased back to their den."

Mark bit his lip, then sighed. "Fine..." He said, reaching into his back pocket, tugging out a brutal looking pistol - it looked like a glock. He handed it to Sean, before walking insdie - leaving SEan holding the piece. There was an insane amount of tension Sean felt form just holding that thing.

When he sees Gillian move up, Jay relaxes a little. He hops off the bike and moves for the door, content not to hide now.

"Mark, I've got a few friends over and my parents are home, so don't get spooked, okay?" Sean asked kindly as he went about to inform his family of what was going on. Gillian's copy blew out a tired breath and moved to go play sentry by the tree while the real Gillian hung around the stairs, watching and waiting.

Meanwhile, up in Sean's room, Tavi - and the rest, who had been watching through the window and through Gillian - shook her head. "That...that was insane..." she whispered.

Vanessa headed back up to the room and sighed slightly, "Well, that was a thing." SHe snickered slightly. "Still is I suppose to be honest.."She moved over to sit back with Tavi.

Tavi hugged her tightly. "W-What if he had had nova killers!" she said. "Oh my god, are you okay?" she asked, shivering. "I-I'm shaking, like, my hands are shaking."

As she spoke, Sean talked to his parents - the gun safely stashed into his pocket. Soon, he had Mark with him in a private room, away from the prying eyes of his family, for any discussion he wished.

"And that is why I need to start carrying my gun with me all the time now," Jay laments when he gets back into his friend's room, slumping back against the nearest flat surface.

Vanessa hugged her girlfriend, petting her thick, silky black hair. "Well, we talked him down, so it didn't matter if he had a pistol full of atom bombs." She said, smirking slightly as she kissed the other woman's head, then shrugged at Jay, "Or learn some kind of quantum bolt. Or the ability to make things incorporeal, or any other number of powers."

"Hey. You can use a gun even when you're exhausted. Nova powers, not so much," Jy said.

"I've never seen a man who can aim well while starving or out of ammo," Tavi said, snickering quietly.

"You could learn super strength and carry around darts." Vanessa said, shrugging. "Or marbles given some nova's strength.."

In the private room, Sean pulled out his phone and started texting visibly before Mark. 'Well, if you are in then feel free to join me with my cousin.' He finished texting, then looked up at his cousin. "So Mark, I'm going to have some friends join us. You got a phone?" He asked

"Why don't I do that, and also have a gun?" Jared suggests, eyes twinkling with coalesced snark. Then he pushes himself back up, after a quick glance at his handheld, to back Sean up.

"To be fair, if you can make a power that makes guns work on novas, I'd want to see it on their faces..." Tavi said, giggling. "I'm a big bad whose immune to bull- ow ow ow ow!" She mimed being shot repeatedly

"That creep puts a finger out of place and I'll suplex him through a wall," Alexa muttered at Sean's text, then followed Jay.

Vanessa checked her phone, smiling to Tavi, "You okay to go talk to the guy?" She said curiously.

Tavi nodded. "Sure!" she said, smiling.

Vanessa snickered, standing up and following Jay and Alexa. As they walked over, Gillian rubbed her brow as she headed to the private room. She blew out a breath, finding a chair to settle into again.

"Goodbye sleep. Going to have my blood pumping all night now," she said.

Mark scoffed. "Of course I've got a fucking handheld," he siad, shaking his head. "What do I look like, a loser?" He asked - clearly unaware of how he looked.

"Making sure you had it with you." Sean said with a smirk. "So call up the LT over you and let's get this started. If you're serious about wanting out, we get you out, but we aren't doing that crazy scheme."

Mark blinked as the others walked into the room, sighing quietly as he frowned. "All right..." He said, then tapped his fingers a few times. "But I'm just saying, the spike was only guarded by two flunkies! Even one nova would go through them like freaking butter!"

"Right, but then we'd be dealing spike." Vanessa said, frowning slightly, shaking her head, "Also," She said looking to Jay, "I DO admit backups aren't a bad idea."

"You'll still give me the details of that after." Sean said with a nod.

Tavi's idea, as much a joke as it might be, actually gets a thoughtful look from Jared. "There's an idea... " he mumbles to himself, but then pauses. "What about dealing spike? This guy was dealing spike?"

"As somebody who wanted to be a cop, I'm not happy dealing with spike." Gillian said, letting the simple statement stand on it's own.

"And Jay, do you even know how to use a gun?" Sean asked.

"Yeah, actually." Jay said, nodding.

Alexa cracked her knuckles menacingly and growled, showing what she thought of spike.

"And I know what to do with a stash of fucking spike. If this stuff is just sitting around, I need to make a call to the precinct. What's the address?" Jay asked.

Mark frowned, then pulled out the phone. HE tapped away, then put it to his ear. He grinned. "Heyyyy, Liam..." he said. "Y-Yeah, uh, I got the money...just...put me on with Takai...I know, uh..." He paused. "Wh-What? No, I'm not wearing a wire!" He gulped. "N-No, I'm not talking to the cops!" He looked increasingly sweaty.

Sean pulled the gun out from his pocket and handed it to Jay. "Disarm this please. I don't want it loaded and operable in this house." He whispered

Vanessa frowned, looking to Sean and signing, "Do you want him to just put it on speaker, I make a Holo to talk for him?"

Jay takes the Glock into one hand, careful to point it toward the floor. Cautiously stepping past the others and back out of the room--out of hearing distance of the phone--he promptly drops the magazine, racks the slide to pop the chambered round out, and safes the pistol. Then shoves the separate weapon and mag into his pocket.

"Mark, put the shit on speaker." Sean said, his voice firm. "We aren't hiding shit, we doing this public." He said, his tone a bit clipped.

Mark flushed, then tapped on the phone, setting it down.

"Who is this?" An annoyed sounding hispanic voice asked. "What's going on, who you got online, you fuck up?"

When he steps back into the room, Jared fishes his handheld from his pocket to pop off a quick text of his own.

"This is a newly erupted Nova that said fuckup is very close to." Sean plainly and firmly, as if saying the sky was blue. "He has shared a lucrative idea, and I am wanting to speak with the boss." He added, the slight touch of a commanding tone that won't take no for an answer creeping in.

There was a short pause as a chime came from Jay's phone - he had gotten a text back. Meanwhile, Gillian rubbed her chin, thinking.

Then Liam sighed. "Well, since a nova stuck his fucking nose in, I might as well tab you to Takai. I'm not authorized to...fucking deal with this level of shit." He said. "Got it?"

"Fully understand and appreciate it." Sean replied, his tone carrying his grin. "That's been my day so far."

The phone crackled. Mark rubbed his face with his palms. "How the fuck are a bunch of fucking kids better at fucking dealing with this shit than me?" He asked, glaring at them as if it was all their fault.

A sudden thought struck Gillian after a moment and she reached for her phone. She quietly texted a short message to everyone, 'Heard about this guy on the net. Blacktech smuggler, bringing in stuff from great ole' Japan.'

Jay checks his phone with interest--and also makes sure to set it to silent. He kicked himself mentally for not doing that sooner. First his response, then he looks at Gillian's text and makes a thoughtful sound.

Sean shrugged. "We are up to our neck in it? And Eruptions can change the way you think." He noted, ignoring the matter that when he was a baseline his first reaction to the fight was the stand up and stream it when everyone else hid. He then glanced at his phone, absorbing the message in a second before giving attention back to what was before him.

Vanessa nodded, smirking and checking her own phone with a slight frown. She pointed to Sean with a casual nod.

"We can also eat a bullet or two," Alexa said to Mark, her voice dark. "You can't."

"Alright. Let Sean do the talking for now," Jay suggests quietly.

Mark gulped, while the phone clicked.

"Yes?" A rather calm, nice sounding, English accented voice came through. "This is Takai, I've been told that you are novas interested in speaking to me?"

Vanessa looked to Sean, trying to let him take the lead if he wished.

Sean nodded and signed "I am literally winging this here, feel free to jump in," and gave a bit of a weak smile before slipping a mask in place.

"We are. Someone that is close to me is currently entangled in your organization and I wish to discuss his honorable discharge from your service. Ensuring he will remain unharmed as long as he keeps his nose out of your business." He stated plainly. "So how much has he made himself owing you?"

Vanessa nodded, signing back 'Just didn't want to stomp all over your family stuff.' She smiled, waiting for the man to respond before jumping in.

Jared, as he usually does, finds a wall to lean back against. He keeps a very careful, very interested eye and ear on this whole thing.

"I've been trying to get him since I found out. You can break my foot stepping on toes if it gets results" Sean signed back as a joke.

Takai sighed, unaware of the sign language flipping past the phone. "Your family member purchased from us a considerable amount of imported technology. This stuff must be returned - and in exchange, he has made extravagant promises. Promises that include operational security in Los Angeles, links with several other local affiliates, even alternate sources of revenue."

"I'll give you an alternate revenue source," Alexa muttered, her fists clenching with audible pops

"Excuse me, I didn't quite catch that," Takai said.

"She said we can help replace those alternate sources of revenue." Sean said, which was technically true.

"Well, I'm interested in what you have to say, then," Takai said, sounding alarmingly level headed for a gangster.

Vanessa coughed, then leaned over the phone. "Mr. Takai? Takai-san? Takai-Sama? I'm a weeb, so I'm not super familiar with your culture in a real sense, so I want to be respectful here, and I need you to help me out on that. We need some hard numbers because.. let's be real. Mark is a decent guy, but he tries to hard to impress people and sometimes lets his mouth get away from him. So, you give us some hard numbers and we'll see what we can work out in addition to the good feelings of a handful of novas." She said, smiling brightly.

Jay... opens his mouth, then closes it again. He shoots Vanessa a very confused look and mouths, 'What the fuck?'.

'Trojan ploy. Let it play out,' Gillian texted to Jay after a moment, watching his confused expression.

Vanessa signed to Jay to back up the text, "We start talking nice and work from there. Calming someone you've pissed off is hard, but if you need to go hard from nice it's a lot easier."

'I guess. As long as we don't accidentally piss him off anyway,' he signs back.

There was a short pause, then a sigh as Mark watched. "Well, we're currently moving in three boat-loads of tech every month. We're talking full stim VR, some gravitic technology, a few heavy energy weapons - mega-damage stuff." Takai sounded casual. "But we're still losing out in terms of profit thanks to the Coast Guard and our competitor. Since pharmacology is a technology as well, our...in-house talent..." He sounded amused. "Can be put to work creating new and interesting drugs. But it's better to clear away what already exists before trying to build something new, doubly so when they have guns and miteoids to follow it up."

Ah yes, miteoids. Humans who took mite, the nova-derived super-steroid. Pros were low level superhuman strength. Cons were madness and heart attacks.

"Sounds like you could do with some double duty," Jared suggests. "If the Coast Guard is already harassing your operation, they're got a scent. If you're lucky, you may be able to throw that scent onto a competitor. Like, say, a competitor with guns and miteoids?"

"If it were that simple, would that not be grand?" Takai said, sounding amused. "The locals get their supply overland, from the south and east, I believe."

Vanessa fiddled with her phone, recording the conversation, "Well, firstly, you never said what to call you, you can call me Vanessa so we keep this all nice and friendly." She said cheerfully. "Also, you could not just throw the scent, but actually get some use out of Mark here by using him, let him go to them and give them all the info you have on them, then you've got a good incentive to cut ties with Mark and you get something out of it. And of course if you give US all the info you have, you have a group of motivated novas looking to take down your competition and let's be real how much better is that than the Coast Guard?"

Sean was in thought for a moment, weighing options and opinions.

"And to add to that incentive, I can personally say I have been in touch with both Utopia and Count Roaul Orazai on cordial terms. As you might imagine such groups have serious issues with miteoids and may act favorably with such information." He added.

Vanessa raised an eyebrow at the second point, but didn't comment.

There was a short pause, then Takai said. "Well, you offer me boundless opportunity. And I would love to act on them. Shall we arrange a meeting, so that you may meet me and my own associate?" he asked, cheerfully.

Alexa was unable to peer past the veil of words to see his true intent...but everyone else could tell that the smooth talking, British accented, Japanese gangster definitely wanted to bring in a nova to check on the other novas...possibly one who could see through deceptions. There were rumors - unconfirmed by Utopia - that some novas could read minds or worse. So...it was an intimidating concept.

Sean caught the look and signed to his friends: 'He sent an email to the account I streamed from. I was polite in response, didn't sound like it would make a difference as we were telling Teragen when to stick it. I think we'd be fools to pass up the opportunity, wouldn't we?'

Vanessa nodded to Sean, signing "It's cool. I don't want to make an issue of it now." She spoke to the man, "That sounds interesting. Where exactly would we possibly have this meeting? I wouldn't want you to feel potentially threatened, but by contrast I have trouble thinking of a safer way for us to converse than via phone."

Takai chuckled. "We'd have it in a meeting place of our choosing, so that both sides would be secure. But as I am not as abundantly blessed with novas as Mark seems to be, it will need to be in two weeks at a minimum."

Vanessa paused, then signed, "So.. two ways we can play this. We can honestly try to make friends, or work with Utopia to fuck this guy so hard that his superiors don't think Mark is worth the effort to take revenge on. Opinions?"

'The second one,' Alexa signed. 'I don't like Utopia all that much, but I like gangbangers even less.'

'I'm already working on getting the city cops to back us up if we go meet the guy', Jared signs quickly, 'So whatever that's worth'.

"Alright, Mister Takai. It sounds like we've got a plan. Would it be more appropriate for us to set the meeting place up now, or a little closer to our meeting time?" Jay said, leaning over the phone.

Vanessa frowned, then signed at Jay -- her hands flashing out the words: "Kind of figured we'd wait for Sean's opinion since it's his cousin."

"Tell me in advance with at least a week to plan," he said. "Thank you for being so...thoughtful."

And with that, the phone clicked as he hung up. Mark breathed out a slow sigh. "Jesus, you guys are real sharp..." he said, shaking his head.

"I'm good with the latter" Sean signed with a smile. "We might not be able to offer as much but we are a bull in a china shop. Expensive if angered."

Vanessa sighed, "Alright.. so.. Mark.." She paused, then looked at the others, signing "So.. we're not going to tell Mark what's going on, right?"

"Usually I'd agree with you Van, but these syndicate types are real pushy. If they don't think we'll be decisive, Mark won't have a chance either way," Jay says aloud, once the phone clicks off. Vanessa lifted her eyebrows at Jay -- it seemed that that question had been answered.

Mark blinked, looking on - clearly not entirely sure what was going on due to him being...well...He wasn't the smartest baseline in the world.

"It was a good read." Sean signed in agreement. "He'll freak, he is terrified of the guy."

With the phone off Gillian finally let her held breath free. "Pan to literal grease fire here." She groaned out loud.