Previously, on Aberrant: Our heroes completed their training in the Rashound Facility and got themselves involved in an illegal technology smuggling ring - and the plot to stop them!
Starring
Lucithana
as Vanessa Stacks
Kitty
as Gillian Haynes
NathanRavenwood
as Alexa Fairchild
Jason
as Sean Toulman
Guardsman Griffin
as Jared Vance
It was strange how quickly something could go from shocking to mundane. It's a curious quirk of the human mind - and the nova mind - that what was unthinkable could become normal. This had led to quite a few terrible things in human history - genocides once considered unimaginable were now something to hardly blink over.
But it had its upsides.
The third time Alexa woke up and realized that she was, in fact, capable of leaping through the window of her father's trailer, clear the three trailers between it and the exit of Cape Cod Village (a somewhat ironic name for a trailer park in the most landlocked part of Sunnyvale)...she stopped being stunned by it. Similar stories could be told about each of the group.
But there was one thing that was harder to get used to than their raw powers and abilities. The last week of school proved that: They went to school and weren't quite mobbed but each of them found that they, shockingly, were the most popular kids in school now. Girls and boys who wouldn't have been caught dead being seen with the group were now more than eager to share their table. It was exhausting, more so when combined with their finals.
Some of the group - Sean, for instance - had an easier time doing their tests than before. But it was a bit hard to, say, get a passing grade in woodshop when you could shatter a chunk of wood with your pinkie by accident.
But beyond the small sphere of their lives - and the looming meeting with Mr. Takai - each of the teenagers were aware of the news that came out. The current hot topic was torn between the election. They had all been a tad young to vote, but they had had plenty of choice between the Four candidates that had run. But no matter if they had supported Libertarian, Democratic or Republican candidates, they could all be glad the American Eagle party had lost, despite several close calls in the Deep South.
But while the press wasn't going insane over the election of a new Democrat President (though impossible after the sex scandals of the late 90s and early 'oughts), they were further going crazy over the double firsts, with the first nova President in the form of Randal Portman - famous for being the world's first publicly recognized nova - and the first black vice president in his running mate, Barak Obama.
But between the local coverage of the election, there was also a continuing spate of news stories about Andre Corbin, still the most wanted man on the planet. Utopia had been interviewed about several raids to try and capture the renegade Team Tomorrow member for his suspected (and now confirmed via DNA and other forensic evidence) murder of Jennifer "Slider" Landers. None of the raids had been successful, and at least one had caused the near maiming of a Nepalese boy, which was causing a great deal of negative flack for Utopia and T2M.
Still on the 14th of June, school had let out and the balmy warmth of summer vacation stretched out before the six teens...a vacation that would be shaped by their last week of school as much as by their actual plans.
Alexa had adjusted to her new powers as well. After testing her limits - she still couldn't believe she could lift a ton - she'd worked on her control, going to the scrapyard after exam sessions and hefting steel girders around under the proud eyes of her dad. She'd had an appearance for a local wrestling promotion booked before everything had happened, and she didn't want to skimp out on the obligation. Unfortunately, that had led to her learning that while every local wrestling manager she had been speaking to before her eruption was overjoyed, excited,
thrilled
to have a nova possibly starring at their fights...no one had actually taken the plunge and accepted a bout. The simple fact was that they weren't sure about her strength - it was hard enough to wrestle someone and not hurt them when they were both the same strength and toughness. What about when the other person was able to bench press a full metric
ton
?
This had left Alexa more than a
bit
frustrated. A growing irritation that boiled in the back of her brain - an incongruity between what she had expected novadom to be like...and...what it was. Where was the action? Where was the bare knuckle brawling? Thus far, the most exiting thing in her life had been a phone call with some criminals.
And so, she stewed and waited.
Meanwhile, Vanessa had gotten to work contacting local film crews about the use and abuse of her powers. Some people missed the West Coast being a movie mecca and were more than happy to have a living special effects warehouse to work with. It especially helped that unlike CGI, the actors didn't need to guess where a being's eyes were when she simply constructed a visual and auditory illusion. Granted, she wasn't working with big named studios, but being a nova she could skip out on sleep and then eventually got rid of her need for it entirely and when you could make your own sunlight, you could work a 4 AM shift as easily as noon. It hadn't quite made her rich yet, but considering she'd only been working a week, her business acumen was doing damned well on putting her on the fast track to getting there.
She'd also made it more than clear how eager she was to start working with foundations to help disabled children and teens, even if she was made slightly unpopular among some by saying she was a hundred percent behind getting people with disabilities fixed up to be closer to physically normal. She was well aware and still rather shocked some parents would rather keep their children disabled.
The tests and school finals had been a breeze for Gillian who completed everything with a frustrated but absentminded headspace the whole time. She was friendly enough when talking but given five minutes alone in class and she'd usually fall into a dull frown while looking out a window. The whole reason probably being that after class she'd usually venture out into the city to investigate. It was a constant itch now that she could do things most people couldn't. When she wasn't out and about with her hood drawn up tight Gillian was usually speaking with a Utopian rep in order to get her family a more comfortable home and a steady flow of support in exchange for help when possible. So it was a busy week with little sleep and plenty of running around- more so given her ability to create clones.
Leading to a tired and groggy choice to make plans to spend time out of the country for some of her vacation. The ability to teleport and travel at a whim made the choice easy, and without a real 'land' to choose she figured she'd settle and enjoy someplace eventually before coming home. She still carried a phone so anyone could keep in touch with her, though the burner nature of the device made it so she only gave the number to her friends and mother.
Jared had rediscovered, over the last week, just how much he'd come to love his privacy and why. He didn't even know half of these people now suddenly trying to be his best friend, much less like most of the rest of them, and so it felt like every single passing period and lunch break had been spent smiling and politely deflecting the next group of opportunistic high school peers rather than... well, shit, anything.
He'd barely had time to make some calls to the local precinct about the drug stash Mark had tried to get him and the others to go after before having to keep some of the social insanity from getting into his own apartment. "Thank fuck for good customers," Jay found himself thinking not for the first or even the twelfth time by the end of the week, thankful that his 'connections' could understand subtlety enough to keep from blabbing about the Nova topic.
It also didn't hurt that they were probably too high to worry about telling their friends their weed guy was a Nova after visiting, so hey. Small blessings.
It was only by the end of the week that Jay realized just how scarce he'd been making himself, even to his friends and better-liked teachers. If it wasn't for finals, he wouldn't be surprised if they thought he'd died in the last week of school.
While Sean had an easy time of the tests with how his own talents unfolded he was bothered by a lot more. Not that it showed during the day when he was polite and courteous with the entire school body, acting a bit as a buffer for those that now circled the group like vultures when before they were otherwise mostly ignored or in the case of some treated like rotten meat. Even if Sean sort of preferred it that way.
But behind that smile and countless excuses relating to the finals and new responsibilities, coupled with vague half promises about more time next year, his own gears were turning. He had continued contact with Utopia after their collective eruption over a number of things, most public was an announced charity auction for his own artwork being promoted by Utopia itself with the proceeds going to the school in the wake of the terrorist attack on it. Most of that contact had been through their short term trainer Ska, though honestly a lot of it was having someone to talk to at night.
Sean didn't sleep anymore and that was a dawning on him as to a difference in how one would live when the rest of the world passed out for a third of every day. The last thing he wanted to do was waste the time just browsing the Opnet during that time.
The inside of his room was something out of a bad crime drama, his projector put to good use with just layers upon layers of charts, names, and raw data as he seemed to be attempting to figure out something. Something more at home in a conspiracy nuts living room than that of someone who otherwise acted quite well mannered. And being that Sean had dismantled a black tech hack job and rebuilt the bike for Mark even better than it was new- perhaps it wasn't a sign of such madness but instead something reasonable.
As for the world at large and his day to day life, it didn't seem to change much at the moment. He didn't really stick his nose too far into politics, didn't let himself get dragged down by the latest dredging up of news about the most tragic death or most dangerous man, if you listened to the news, and focused on the days ahead. It was his mindset for the time being.
And so it was - with a mixture of privacy and openness, a mixture of eagerness to make money or an eagerness to push that trial off onto other people...there was one thing that could easily get them together.
Specifically, a house warming party.
