Aberrant Pt. 01

The Terat looked down at them. He blinked a few times, then looked up at the scowling face of Cestus Pax - the most powerful nova on the planet, a man widely known for being able to take down entire small armies by himself - glaring in from the window. Then he looked back at the newly erupted cadre of novas - all ten of them, with the many copies of Gillian.

Then he turned and streaked away as fast as his powers could carry them. And due to the rattling sonic boom that left their ears ringing and the streak of crackling purple lightning left behind him...they could figure that as fast as he could go was pretty fucking fast.

Peeking out from underneath the desk, Miss Zhou whispered. "W-Wow..." she blinked.

Alexa did a little hop-skip, then hefted the section of pipe after the Terat. It was a nobel attempt, but she'd misjudged the angle, and the pipe embedded itself in the office building across the street like a spear. "Bitch," she muttered, looking down at her hands.

Vanessa turned to the other newly erupted novas and opened her mouth and...nothing came out.

"..FUCKING COME ON!" Caestus Pax cried out, sounding more frustrated than anything.

"Who...is making the holo?" the Utopian nova asked. Turning to look at her, everyone was a bit startled to see that the blackened skin had receded into an angry red sear, while her withered arm had started to plump out. Her hair was even starting to grow out as she stood, her eyes flickering with pain - but the pain was fading.

"And," White said, turning to her copies. "He," Black continued with a wide grin on her face. "Is OUTTA HERE." All seven of Gillian roared, lifting their hands to highfive before turning towards the Utopian Nova.

Vanessa raised her hand, looking annoyed as she dismissed the fake nova with a sigh. Cestus Pax vanished from the window.

"Holy fucking shit-" Sean cursed before turning the phone away from the empty hole and having it look at the wounded Nova still with him. "Project Utopia, I hope to dear god you've caught this feed by now, you got a wounded one." He said before giving the address of the school and flicking his stream off.

And then searched for the Utopia Emergency number.

The Utopian blinked. "Um...well, good thinking..." She said, then hissed as her face fully cleared of the red burns. "The name is Tenor, oh my god, I am so sorry about the roof, the building - I was trying to dodge, but I misjudged the-" she stammered as Sean found the emergency number fairly easily.

"You know, I wish I knew something about first aid right now." Sean said as he dialed up the number.

"We aren't dead or harmed, you're alive, I'd say you did good?" He asked, not really quite sure himself.

Vanessa patted the woman on the shoulder, then she blinked, focusing and speaking with a low, sensual voice "It's okay, miss." She smiled, "I tend to blame the bigoted attempted murderer more."

"Round up, see if anybody needs help. Clear things," Gillian eventually said towards her copies. Each of them offered a lazy salute before jogging around the class to check on everything while the Gillian with the white streak in her hair moved to join the rest.

Alexa wriggled her fingers, then looked across the street at the piece of pipe she'd hurled like it weighed nothing. Then she began to giggle, then cackle, then laugh loudly, bending over at the waist. With the crisis over, for the moment, and the slow feeling of the line connecting over to the switchboard, Sean took the moment to look around and actually see his friends. And was a little shocked.

As Alexa giggled and laughed, the various Gillians hurried off. Her bodies moved with amazing, incredible speed, picking up debris. A few students were trapped under debris, but most of them were fairly intact, while Tenor nodded and smiled at Vanessa. "T-Thanks..." she said, quietly as Sean looke at his friends.

In the distance, they could hear sirens - and they were coming fast.

"So if I had a crush on Gillian-" Sean started, speaking with the others that remained here, "would that make her my lucky number now?"

"That was me pushing myself. I really thought for a second he'd 'jump in the pit'." Gillian said, folding her arms with a snort. "Though, side note: Vanessa did I really hear you talk?"

Vanessa smirked slightly, and Gillian heard the sensual voice whisper in her ear, "Not saying you should go with the code name Gangbang..." She sighed at Gillian's comment and the voice filled the room again. "Nope. Just an illusion like Captain Plastic." She looked irritated.

Alexa was still laughing, shadowboxing the air in front of her. She could feel the air become displaced with her punches. "This. Is. Epic!" she roared.

Gillian blinked and then nodded lightly, "Oh. Well, it's...Still nice to hear you in a round-about way, all the same?" She offered, doing her best to smile Vanessa's way. She glanced over towards Alexa, even one of her copies breaking into a fit of snickering, "Enjoying yourself?"

Vanessa nodded, "Oh, I'm not saying it's not WAY better." She grinned brightly, "Especially since I can do this." Suddenly the room filled with thrumming bass and blinking, multicolored lights.

"Augh!:" Alexa yelped, clapping her hand over her ears. "Damn, that shit's loud!"

Vanessa stuck her tongue out, dropping the music out and returning the lights to normal. "No one's telling you not to punch the air.."

As the music faded, the other students - and the teacher - gaped at the lot of them, looking as if they were stunned to see novas before them. But by then, the sirens had become loud enough to be overwhelming and a pair of flying cars darted by overhead, then landed near the smashed up building. Tenor held up her hands - her body a hundred percent returned to full health- and said: "Okay, kids...I want you to stop using your powers...we need to train you how to use them safely, okay?"

Vanessa grumbled, then signed, "Fucking super..." Her shoulders slouching slightly as she pulled out her phone to text her girlfriend with the news.

"To hell with safety!" Alexa said. "I'm gonna go kick Meltdown's ass just so that Brian has to live with the fact that a girl whooped his idol's ass, hah!"

As a copy of Gillian moved to grab hold of her bag the strap managed to get torn off cleanly with a simple tug. Gillian blinked, glancing over her shoulder as her copy Black swore and winced, "...Might be a decent point the-"

She turned to Alexa, "Wooooah, we managed to scare him off but that was with numbers girl. Are you sure that is a good idea?"

"You can seriously hurt yourself if you go running around without training," Tenor said, her voice firm. "Or hurt other people - remember that pipe you tossed? What if you had hit a person, rather than a building? And, more, who do you think has to repair that building, miss?"

"I didn't miss by that much," Alexa protested. "Fuck, don't get your ovaries in a twist."

Sean just shrugged and went over to pack up his things.

Tenor frowned at Alexa. "All right, we're definitely getting you to a Rashound Facility." She said, sounding stern as several police officers started to approach.

"A what now?" Alexa asked, folding her arms.

Vanessa signed to Alex, "How about this? How lame would it be if your powers crapped out during your big showdown because you're not super strong, but actually a touch telekinetic and you ran out of boom juice?"

Alexa gestured to herself with both hands. "Do I look telekinetic to you?"

"A Rashound Facility - you know, the places where new novas go and get trained," Tenor said, smiling at Alexa. "Everyone's gone there. And you might be...I've known multiple telekinetics whose powers exhibited first as superhuman strength."

Sean appealed to another side of Alexa's personality. "Come along and just roll with it, you'll get the best meal of your life out of it, my treat." He offered, subtly bribing her.

"I just fucked up my bag..." Gillian mumbled, holding her arms out as Black brought her duffel over. The rest of Gillian's copies moved to join her, placing a hand on the shoulder of White before fading away into smoke behind her.

Vanessa frowned slightly, "Telekinetics don't have a look. Just.. seriously, be cool and get the bullshit over with and you can then go about kicking all the ass you want."

"They'll make you stronger than Meltdown Alexa. How about that." Gillian continued, looking over her broken strap with a broken heart.

Alexa shook her head. "If I'm telekinetic you might as well pitch me into the sun," she grumbled. "I don't want to be a goddamn spoon bender."

Vanessa frowned, "So, the idea of being able to literally juggle a dude without touching him is lame?"

"Hey, would you call Skew uncool?" Tenor asked, shaking her head with a smile. "Skew is a magnetokinetic, and he's a world wide sex symbol!" She sighed, then pulled out a communicator. She tapped at it a few times, frowning as she waited for her link to go through. Satisfied that everything was in working order, Sean picked up his bags and went back over to the rest of the group.

Vanessa signed, "So.. not to be bossy, but should someone go get the cops and direct them here?"

"Skew's lame," Alexa said to Tenor turning towards the hole in the ceiling. A thought occurred to her. Shit, what am I gonna tell dad?

Vanessa stood up and walked over to Alex, poking her in the side, frowning.

"What?" Alexa asked, rubbing her head.

Vanessa signed, "What's with the bitchy attitude? Seriously, just fucking enjoy being a nova and stop trying to start a fight."

"I always wanted be a pro wrestler, but now I can suplex buildings and punch through walls for real," Alexa said. "The whole cool thing about being a nova is fighting,"

Tenor smiled at Vanessa. "I sent the police a little sound-ping...upsides of sonic powers." She said, before pulling out a ruggedized handheld. She tapped it on, then lifted it up to speak into it. "Uh, Fangirl, I need a P2P from my location to the SF Rashound facility, please..." She smiled. A moment later, a faint hiss sounded and...a...perfect replica of one of those doors that led into and out of the Holodeck on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The doors opened, revealing that it opened into a smooth, pale white corridor, a woman in a doctor's coat with a silver-blue jumpsuit underneath. "Hello, are you the new novas?" she asked. "I'm Doctor Marzin, I'll be taking charge of you - just step through the warp please, and we can get you all checked out."

Vanessa blinked slightly, then signed, "Is she stealing my schtick?" She sighed, moving into the gateway with the others.

Gillian favored turning to Tenor and watching her up until the warp appeared. She spun and broke into a small grin, pointing. "Now that is fucking slick." Gillian said, hefting her bag over one shoulder as she went.

Sean just chuckled. "I think we are still running on the adrenaline still, Alexa." He offered and then gave a soft nod to the doctor. "Still going to aim at Pro-Wrestling or are you considering different options now?" He asked honestly.

"Probably XWF now," Gillian said.

Alexa looked down at her hand. "I mean shit, if I'm this strong I can still fake it with normal people. But hell, the XWF is a thing. Might as well give that a shot." She grinned, showing teeth. "They're not gonna see me coming. No sirree."

"So, want to go solo or get proper training to be the best?" Sean teased.

As she spoke, the fake door - well, the real warp - closed and vanished. Doctor Marzin smiled slightly. "Hello, hello," she said, cheerily. "Before you ask, no, I'm not that Doctor Marzin..." She shook her head. "So don't get too excited. Now, each of you seem to be fairly cogent and not in too much pain..." She rubbed her chin. "But we should still get you some moxiqantinate." She said, nodding. "Follow me!" She turned - starting down the corridor, leading them along.

Vanessa followed after the woman, looking mildly irritated as they walked, eager to get back to using her powers. She tugged the woman's arm gently, signing, "Hey, can you understand this?"

Gillian nodded, watching the fake door a little before stepping through. As they walked she seemed to pause and adjusted her jeans every few steps before letting a out a groan, "And, sorry; can I hit a restroom real fast?"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to ignore you." Sean offered. "Just wanting to make sure we are all on the same page- no regrets."

The woman looked at her, then blinked. "Yes...can you not speak?" she asked, curiously. "That's unusual - usually, being a nova fixes that kind of congenital illnesses..." She said, tapping a door near the corridor they had walked down, opening it up to reveal a series of examination tables - each one looking remarkably mundane, considering this was a facility for examining superhuman novas. Looking over at Gillian, the doctor smiled and nodded. "Yeah, sure, right over there." She pointed to a door a few feet away from the one she had opened. Gillian offered a thumbs up, setting her bag down before ducking into the room.

"Vanessa doesn't need to be fixed," Alexa said, adopting a surly posture.

Vanessa snorted, signing, "Fuck yes I do. I was just going to ask if I need drugs since I doubt a random hologram is going to kill anyone."

Gillian only needed a few minutes, but she returned a little surly and frustrated looking. As she walked back, Doctor Marzin spoke: "Well, a hologram is coherent light. Also coherent light?" Doctor Marzin frowned slightly. "A laser. But if your holos can just create sound waves, just making sound waves would be fine. Also, can everyone get to an examination table - don't worry, no need to get undressed."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Alexa said. "Though if you come near my ass with anything I'm punting you across the globe."

Vanessa frowned, signing, "I can just make light pictures, not touchy holos." SHe sighed, moving over to sit on a table.

"Oh thank god," Gillian mumbled, reaching for her bag. She moved to find her own table, moving to hop up onto it after a few moments.

Sean shrugged and dropped his gear off out of the way before following directions. "Careful Alexa, some might look forward to that." He teased. Alexa rolled her eyes and hopped up on an exam table.

Doctor Marzin lifted her eyebrows. "All right..." she said, quietly. "And to be fair, miss, you don't actually know what you can and can't do until we figure out what it is you do in the first place..." She smiled slightly. "Now, lets get the set up ready..."

As she spoke, several other techs walked in, and soon, each nova had a scalp covering scanner that was shaped roughly like a soup strainer snapped over their heads. They were allowed to move their heads - apparently, the scanning technology wasn't disturbed by movement or even talking. As the scanners whirred and bumped, Doctor Marzin passed out a series of mox and adrecolin pills, and gave each a cup of water to drink them down with.

However, with the adrenaline of the eruption and the fight fading...well...something else had come back. Migraines. Sean was getting it worse, as blood dripped from both of his nostils, while Alexa was getting it second worst. A tech smiled and offered Sean a tissue to hold to his nose, murmuring in his ear: "It's okay, most novas get nosebleeds from time to time."

"It's like my brain's a fucking ketchup dispenser," Alexa snarked, her voice nasally as she soiled yet another tissue to add to the growing pile next to her.

"Well," Doctor Marzin said. "You had a latent Marzin-Rashound node expand from the size of a pea to the size of a thumb or a golf ball...honestly, the fact you're not all on the floor twitching is just part of the remarkable physical capacities of a nova." She smiled at Alexa - tapping buttons to adjust the scanners.

"It's odd, I can measure the pain as being the worst migraine I've had yet, but at the same time it's like rating negative on my tolerance for this stuff." Sean commented, rather confused about the sensation. Still, he did was what natural to him when it came to headaches and popped the pills- swallowing them dry first then chasing them with the water.

Gillian was a little more braced for the pain, but still looked more than a little unhappy with the experience. She brought her hand up to her mouth once offered the pills and calmly chased with water, crushing the cup in her hand before offering it back. She stayed wordless, sometimes wincing or pausing to reach up and tap the scanning instrument on her head.

Alexis nodded, smiling at Sean as Sean felt his headache fading. "All right, doing a basic scan, Gillian and Sean, you two have slightly larger nodes than your friends." She smiled. "It may cause some additional headaches from time to time, but if you experience any hallucinations or nausea or loss of memory, please tell us immediately. You can take the scanners off."

Vanessa sat on the table, fidgeting slightly as she waited for the scans to end. Alexa stared one of the techs attending her right in the eye as she swallowed the pills dry, not even reaching for the water. The tech in question - a round faced, mousy looking man - smiled at Alexa, looking entirely unruffled by her attempt to stare him down.

"So you're saying I'm well endowed?" Sean asked, his tone laced with the innuendo as he took the scanner off. Normally he would be too worried about other people to actually say that but now- well he seemed to not care anymore. A burden of his off his shoulders.

"Roger," Gillian said. It was the most she felt comfortable talking about as she reached up, grabbing the scanner with one hand. She pulled it off to set aside and started massaging her temple. "Hope those pills kick in so-" She started to say, though Sean managed to get her into a sputtering cough with what he said.

Vanessa smirked, signing at Sean, "I believe I heard somewhere that average for a nova is like twelve inches."

Sean shrugged. "Well I'm not the one with the measuring devices."

The doctor, her cheeks flaming red by this point, stammered. "W-Well, uh, okay!" she siad. "Now, lets have each of you taking your, uh, physical. I'll take Alexa to a private room, and doctors will come for each of you, w-would you prefer doctors of the same gender or..." She stammered.

Vanessa grinned, signing back "They're called vaginas, you misogynist."

Alexa burst out laughing at Vanessa's signing, then hopped off the table. "Ready when you are, Doc."

Gillian slowly let out a breath, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Sure, lets...get this amazing day over with." She said, starting to drift towards the sarcastic.

Sean wanted to bite back with something witty, but ceded the battle with a laugh. "I must be horrible to put up with then." He admitted. "I'm good with whatever? My family doctor was a woman so I had to get over that quickly."

"I will only allow a male doctor if he only wears a thong and one of those clown rainbow wigs." Vanessa signed.

The doctor sighed and looked as if she was regretting her choice in profession.

The next few hours were spent in being poked, prodded, exampled and studied. Samples were taken - though each member of the group required special needles to break through their newly enhanced skin. It was about as tiresome as a normal visit to the doctor - and edged some of the glow of being a nova off. But there was another part of being a nova that reared its ugly head as they wrapped up their doctor visits and the doctors set them off towards the cafeteria - telling each that their samples would be tested.

And that facet of being a nova...was a ravenous, biting hunger.

Each of them walked out of their doctor rooms to find that the floor had a pale blue line illuminating the floor, which they had been told would lead them to the caffateria. As they walked along it, Vanessa's handheld buzzed with a text, and Sean and Gillian and Alexa's rang - they were all getting called at the same time.