Aberrant Pt. 03

He grinned. "And sneak out..."

When they left, they both felt very clever.

The man who had scribbled the notes...was already gone.

###

Alexa beamed, finishing up her story with: "And then I rode his face, for, like, an hour." She put her hands on her hips, looking quite proud.

Tavi sighed, quietly. "No one saw you, right?" she asked, sounding nervous.

Vanessa tapped away at her phone with a slight sigh, then put it away, snickering slight at Alexa, "So.. did you even bother to keep a look out for paparazzi?" She said curiously.

Jay glanced back between the conversing trio, then reached into his pocket. 'So text it?' pops up on Gillian's phone a few moments later.

Sean just gave a shrug, amused by Alexa's comments. "Honestly, not surprised by that Alexa."

Gillian choked on her soda and set it down before checking her phone. She stared at it before sucking in a breath, laying her hand on the table. "Right, I got to head out for a second and take care of something. I'll be back fast."

"Assuming you don't need any help with it?" Vanessa said curiously. "Because I think we've all proven we're down to help." She said, smiling. Jay flashed a thumbs up, frowning a little but returning to his soda.

"Just family shit," She said, ruffling her hair with an exasperated expression.

"Alright Gillian. Feel free to give me call if you need anything." Sean offered honestly before she left.

Tavi bit her lip slightly, then nodded. "We'll be here, Gillian," she said, smiling, then squeezing her lover's shoulder.

Alexa winked at Tavi again. "I'm pretty sure. What's anyone going to do, give me shit for having sex like everyone else does?"

"Thanks," Gillian said, rubbing at her brow before suddenly blinking out of existence from the seat she was sitting in.

Tavi sighed, looking at Alexa. "You're still in high school and he's working for Utopia - even being eighteen doesn't make that somewhat..." She made a vauge gesture with her hands. "You know!"

"Kosher?" Sean offered.

"I'll tell you what's eighteen, though." Alexa licked her lips. "His big ole dragon dick. Inches, that is."

"Oh dear Alexa, you are clearly unaware of the kind of shit people will give you for daring to be a public figure and having a libido." Vanessa shook her head. "And of course his position with Utopia and any number of factors that shouldn't matter, but of course they do.."

"You really care about who people fuck, don't you Tavi?" Jay asked casually, reaching for Gillian's plate. No sense letting food go to waste. Even if it was his third plate.

Tavi did blinked. "H-Holy...I..." She shook her head. "N-No, Jay, I care about not seeing my friends hurt!" She said, flushing. "...holy s-shit, though...e-eighteen, how does that...fit..." She looked stunned.

"Or she understands that many people will give Alexa an incredible amount of shit for who she chooses to sleep with." Vanessa snickered at Tavi's reaction, "I knew you didn't open those videos I sent you." She said, smiling wickedly.

"I would assume Novas are more durable and can adapt." Sean said casually. Tavi blushed, furiously.

"Baseline women can take horse cock. I think Alexa's fine," Vanessa said, smirking.

Alexa leaned against the wall. "Oh, he couldn't get all of it in. A good amount for sure, but not all of it." She smiled, a blush coloring her face. "He was real sweet about it though. I'd like to see him again. Well, I mean. After I sat on his face back at his house and, um..." She giggled, then grinned, then sighed - clearly remembering what had happened.

"Baseline women can, in fact, take horse cock," Jay confirmed around a mouthful of food.

"And I'm the pervert for my artistic work." Sean teased as he finished his plate and set it aside.

"You're the pervert for your artistic work. I'm just the pervert because I like it," Jay said, grinning.

"You don't recall me supporting your work one hundred percent?" Vanessa asked, pouting at Sean slightly.

Tavi snickered." I think she commissioned some peaces too, right, Vanessa?"

"Now now, you don't get to try to pull those strings. You've made requests." Sean teased, confirming Tavi's statement. Jared just whistled an innocent tune as he cracked open another soda.

"Speaking which, I'm now kind of tempted to learn shapeshifting." Vanessa grinned wickedly at Tavi.

Tavi snickered. "You know...I'm kind of scared about how easy you're going to find that..." She shook her head. "I've been practicing and haven't managed to expand my powers beyond just sonic effects. I have gotten the sonic bubble for flight working. But...oh! Oh!" Tavi shone with excitement. "Everyone, Vanessa learned how to make hard-light holograms! ...k-kinda!"

Alexa blushed further. "I uh... I can shapeshift a little..."

"Nice!" Vanessa held her hand out to Alexa, then snickered, "Less hardlight holograms and more just forcefields at the moment." She said, as if the latter was something everyone could do.

"The things you learn about people. And they're not even drinking," Jay remarked, looking over toward Sean.

Sean blinked. "Alexa, embarrassed? Say it ain't so?" He teased. "Though, that's pretty amazing. Expanding your boundaries that way isn't easy." He noted.

Jay snickered. "Oh, she expanded some boundaries, alright."

Tavi nodded, then sighed. She picked up some of the cleaned off plates. Then, quietly. "S-So...I want to...bring up something that might be a bit sensitive..." She looked at her friends. "Is...that okay?"

Alexa waved her hands awkwardly. "I'm still figuring it out! I can't like, turn into a bat or anything. Just hair, skin, that kind of thing." She shook her head, then looked over at Tavi: "Yes, Tavi?"

"And I don't have anything to share really. Yeah sure, if I could I'd be a sexy snake man for a moment, among other things, but I kinda like looking mostly normal for the most part." Sean stated to Jay.

"And I'm willing to listen, open door policy with me."

"Not going to wait until Gillian gets back to suggest an orgy, dear?" Vanessa smirked playfully "And hey, still cool!" She said to Alexa. Jay's attention turned back to Tavi. The talk of an orgy just makes him snort again.

Tavi shook her head to Vanessa, her face grave. "Have you...well, I..." She sighed. "Did you all notice what made Gillian need her space?" She bit her lip. "She started getting...kinda agitated when you two..." She nodded to Alexa and Vanessa. "Started joking about beating up racists..." She gulped. "A-And I know that you want to do wrestling, Alexa, but I have to admit, I'm kinda nervous about that too. There are loads of novas out there who seem to think that we're living in a comic book. But...we're not..." She sighed. "Not only are we not guaranteed to survive, there's no coming back to life. Slag was on Team Tomorrow, Slider was on Team Tomorrow, and they both died - the most powerful, skilled nova teams in the world, and they still died. A bunch of Elites have died! Heck, even a few Terats have been killed, and they're not coming back. This isn't a TV show, where everyone gets to live, you know?"

She sighed, quietly. "But also, the people we hurt are people, not...cutout villains..." She rubbed the back of her neck. "I mean...it's scary how much damage I can do with my voice alone. Literal damage, I mean...I could blast a tank with my voice." She shook her head. "Am I making any sense?"

Sean sighed and shook her head. "I'm not going to out Gillian on anything, if she has something to say or work out then she can approach us with it when she is ready. But I can firmly say that she wasn't feeling that way due to that part of the conversation. So that isn't a worry." He carefully explained...and was utterly unaware that he was completely, totally, and absolutely wrong. Sean's superhuman intelligence made him able to spot subtleties and minute details in the world around him...

But it still left some blind spots to his friends.

Vanessa sighed, "Dear.. I don't wish to undercut your point, but we are far less likely to die than baselines and most of us do not actually plan to go into anything terribly violent from what I've seen. And as for beating up racists I was...mostly, joking. Ignoring the fact I can relatively easily make myself bullet resistant as hell if not bulletproof." She shook her head, "But.. I'd like to think we are aware of the dangers facing us and like any people in our situation are looking to lighten the tension involved in our unavoidable situation."

Tavi blushed, looking down at her hands, which were resting on the kitchen counter. "S-Sorry," she said, her voice soft.

Vanessa moved over to Tavi quickly and wrapped her arms around her, "You misunderstand, my love. I am not saying your warning was without use, just that I hope we are all aware of what you said, and if not we should be, but we should also not surrender to fear."

With a snap of the fingers, Jay pointed over to Sean as if to say 'bingo'. Then he made a thoughtful sound. "I don't think anybody here thinks we're videogame characters. But a reminder to be careful every so often doesn't hurt."

Sean nodded to Vanessa and her point. "Gillian can create clone to help protect herself, Jay is just naturally lucky, I would expect Alexa to be a walking tank, and I can defend myself as well." He added. "As for causing harm, don't worry so much about it. Just be more aware and intentional with your usage and you'll be fine."

Tavi blushed. "Well, um...maybe we can ask her when she comes back? Or would that be prying? Gillian is almost as private as Jay likes to be," she said, nuzzling her girlfriend.

"Might be prying. If she wants to talk to us, she'll talk to us," Jay said, shrugging.

Alexa tapped bumped her fists together a few times. "Everyone dies eventually, Tavi. It's a sad fact. But I've always wanted to have fun. That's why I became a wrestler. I did it because it was fun. Now that I can bend steel with my bare hands, the opportunities for fun have grown exponentially. I can control it, for sure, I'm not just going to go smashing through buildings for the laughs. But I also want to find my limits. Test my strength. As far as I can." She punched at the air - the energy and frustration she had felt building crackling on her face.

"You are totally going to smash through a building for laughs at some point in your life," Jay accused Alexa. Though he was mostly joking. "Don't you lie."

Alexa held up a finger at Jay. "Only if it's empty!"

Tavi frowned at ALexa. "You're going to make my hair turn white, aren't you, Alexa?" she asked, her voice slightly tired as she leaned against her lover.

"There.. is also one other point.. recall how we acted in causing us to erupt?" Vanessa said, hugging her lover tightly. "We are the type of people who are willing to risk ourselves for others. At the very least we are all now becoming more ready to deal with the many threats life has for us. I mean, if nothing else, I know I can now survive both a volcano AND deep space. While I don't think I'm anywhere near invulnerable, I know I can take far, far more damage than I used to be able to accept."

Alexa turned to Tavi. "I mean..." A ripple passed through her hair, and the blond locks immediately turned ivory. "I can turn mine white for you, if that helps."

Vanessa snickered, "You should totally make an Opnet show based around you smashing stuff."

Alexa tapped the side of her mouth thoughtfully. "Now there's an idea, Van. Hmm..."

"Or getting smashed," Jay suggested before taking another too-casual drink of Coke.

Tavi giggled, quietly, leaning more against her lover. "You've created a monster, Vanessa..." She said - but her voice held considerably less tension.

Sean nodded. "Fair enough. I am with Jay, it would be prying, but I'm also a bit flexible in that." He said as he fished out his phone. "Alexa can speak for herself but I'm pretty sure I'm pretty well immortal. Just let me give her a text."

Vanessa snickered, "While watching a nova getting smashed is technically a more impressive feat it's kind of like chess." She frowned slightly, then raised an eyebrow at Sean, "So.. what you're saying is we should keep the mistletoe away from you?"

"I don't think we're talking about the same kind of smashing," Jay said, snickering.

Alexa waggled her eyebrows at the group. "Oh come on, you know you all love smashing."

"Ooooh! Smash or pass! THAT would definitely get more hits." Vanessa snickered.

Jay's attention quietly turned toward Alexa. He gives her that look that says 'don't tease if you won't deliver'.

Tavi snickered, quietly, then grinned at her lover. "Hey, Vanessa, I'm going to hit the dishes..." she said, nodding. Having fired out a simple text to see if Gillian had a moment Sean chuckled and shook his head.

"Not quite what I am meaning. Forgive me for mashing together two points," he said. As he spoke, a text arrived from Gillian, apologizing for not returning. And, unknown to the rest, Gillian sat alone in her room, her mind racing around and around and around in circles. Her worries about her body...her friends...her future...and she had no answers. She closed her eyes and locked her thoughts away tight, trying to put it off for the future.

The next day dawned bright and early as Alexa sat up, stretched, and admired the beautiful sunlight shining through the windows...and walked out to the front door to find her father standing beside the front window, looking outside, his bathrobe hanging around his shoulders as he sipped from his World's Best Dad mug.

"Honey..." he said, quietly. "Why's there a bunch of reporters outside of the trailer park?"

Looking out, Alexa saw that a bunch of news vans - including one from TMZ - had parked outside, the reporters waiting for her to emerge.

Meanwhile, at the same time, Gillian was munching on her toast at the Utopian cafeteria - free food - and reading a text, while a loud voice came from the corridor.

"I'm sorry, David, but-"

"I can't believe this, you'd be pulling all sorts of defense for anyone else!"

Looking up, Gillian saw a mousy looking woman in a pantsuit walking beside the familiar, blue scaled draconic form of David Cheddar. The two walked by - heading to the elevator, too angry to keep their voices down.

"We can't just cover this up!"

"That's bullshit, Utopia-" The elevator doors closed.

At Vanessa and Octavia's new house, Octavia was doing something she would never in ten million years admit: Snoring quietly, her nude body sprawled across the entire bed as Vanessa scrolled though her E-mails...and found the headline on Facebook that cropped up in her feed was...

DRAGON DEVIANT FIRED FROM UTOPIA OVER TEEN SEX SCANDAL.

Sean and Jay, by comparison, were having relatively calm mornings, doing their normal daily routine, as of yet unaware of the drama bomb that had rolled into all of their lives.

Alexa stared at the news vans outside her trailer for a good long while with her dad, neither of them saying anything. She held out her hand, and her dad placed the coffee mug in it without a word. They drank it the same way. Alexa sucked down a few sips, then smacked her lips. "Good coffee, Dad."

Alexa's Dad slowly looked at her, sipped his coffee, then tugged the blinds shut. "So, what's your plan for today, hon?"

In her apartment, Vanessa frowned, checking the article and already began writing up an angry speech in her mind to deliver to the press and another, slightly more vulgar one for Utopia as she texted Alexa So.. I foresee an annoying morning for you..

Alexa's phone buzzed as she got the text. She made a resigned noise somewhere between a groan and a sigh. "I've got a few phone calls to make. And a burrito restaurant to give a one-star review of."

In the Rashound Facility, Gillian didn't want to intrude or make anything worse. There wasn't much she knew she could really do for David in the cafeteria. It really hurt though, and she felt terrible for him and couldn't imagine what Alexa was probably going to have to deal with soon. A frustrated sigh escaped her as she started finishing her breakfast while pausing to text her friend.

Hey Alexa, you might want to get a message to David when you can. Something bad went down I think.

As she got Gillian's text, Alexa was already dialing David's number in her phone. Her dad had gone back to the kitchen and returned with another mug of coffee for her. She sipped it as she thought about what she'd say to the dragon. She wasn't mad. At him, at least. There was plenty of anger for other people. It was a nice day outside, and now she had to deal with this.

David's phone rang for a few minutes - but then Alexa heard the familiar, soft tones of the dragon: "Yes?" he sounded tired. "What...uh...sorry, hello Alexa..."

Meanwhile, in Vanessa's apartment, Tavi sat up, her hair mussed and tumbled. "Whazup, Vanessa?" she mumbled sleepily.

Vanessa sighed, "Alexa got caught by the paparazzi after all." She said, her fingers hammering on the keyboard, sending off a letter to the paper in question, threatening a lawsuit against the paper and the 'reporter'. "And so David's been suspended, so I need to chew out Utopia..."

"Oh boy..." Tavi mumbled. "Should I call the gang and get us all together?" She asked, rubbing her eyes with her thumbs.

Vanessa nodded, "At least let everyone know what's going on.." She sighed, texting David and Alexa offering her help if they wanted it.

In the trailer park, Alexa was still on the phone. "David," she said, her voice tinged with sweetness. "I suppose there's no real point in asking if you know what's going on."

"No..." David said, sighing. "S-Sorry for making all this come down on your head. Just...ignore the newsies. I've got this!" He said, trying to sound calming and confident. But even Alexa could tell it was an act.

"I can ignore them just fine," Alexa said, shooting the reporters outside the bird before she closed the shutters. "But something tells me that you don't have this, hon."

"I...may be in some hot water..." The dragon-man said, nervously, as both of their phones chimed with Vanessa's text.

It was easy enough for Vanessa, Tavi, Sean and Jay to arrive at the Rashound Facility - they simply had to walk. Gillian had it easier still, she merely had to finish up her breakfast. Soon the five of them were gathered in the cafeteria - David having texted Vanessa and Alexa to tell them that he was still in a meeting with his supervisor.

Alexa arrived a few moments later, puffing softly, her feet still slightly slick with mud.

Vanessa frowned slightly, shaking her head as she stood in the cafeteria, her arms crossed over her chest, "I'm tempted to push my way into that meeting.." She said, looking to Tavi as she hammered her fingers on her arms.

Alexa cracked her knuckles, her face darkening a little. "I mean, I can push my way in no sweat. No guarantee about the structural integrity of the facility, though. Especially in the mood I'm in."

"Yes, that will help the situation," Tavi said, shaking her head slightly. "What...exactly...is our end goal here? Saving David's job? Getting him a better one? What?"

Having gotten the news that David was still 'in talks' Sean didn't just sit around and wait. He pulled out his phone and shot out a text. "We might not need to force our way in." He noted.

"One, save David's job. Two, find out who saw us, and three, kick their ass," Alexa growled.

"Lets not do the third. We're better than that, right?" Gillian offered.

"Save David's reputation." Sean corrected, tapping his phone with his thumbs. "That will make his job his choice. Otherwise, we use a different plan."