Aberrant: Training Part 2

Aberrant: we left the Nova Initiative on a live-training exercise to find a Nova with empathic powers and convince him to come with us. The downside? The team don’t know his name or location beyond Tbilisi and are doing this without superpowers. Mark has gone off at a tangent to track down a young girl from Hong Kong who had been kidnapped and was being tracked by Omar, an old acquaintance of his but the rest of the team has loaded up into a van and are driving towards an area Steph believes their target may be.

Adam pulled up in an underground car park a couple of blocks away and the team disembarked. As they moved towards the area, it became clear a Nova battle was taking place up ahead: Cestus Pax and someone unknown. Using the partially demolished buildings as cover, the team made their way up and past carefully, but after careful scouting realised whoever had been there had since left. Snatched sleep and moving on. Carefully, carefully – not wanting to draw attention from the fighters.

After a time, Mark radioed in – he was under heavy fire not far away and needed help. The rest made their way as fast as they can – the Nova battle seemed to have moved away, which sped them along. They found Mark hiding behind an outcrop that was slowly being whittled away by gunfire from a building opposite: the troops inside (he estimated about 30) were spread throughout, rather than in some nice, easy collective that could be dealt with together. Rachel made her way, sniper rifle on back, to another nearby building from where she can get a good view. Jean, Steph and Robert made a distraction to buy time for Adam and Chrissie to get round to the back of the building with the C4 Adam had made whilst recuperate from the gunfire not long ago.

They were spotted by a couple of guards – a very short fight ensued, ending with the guards throwing a flash-bang grenade into the room Chrissie and Adam had taken shelter in. Blinded and disoriented, Chrissie managed to jump out of the window with Adam close behind her. They lay still whilst the guards shot a few rounds after them, then as their heads cleared moved along the building to enter through the windows of the next room. A little more care and no further distractions, the C4 was carefully placed in key locations on a short timer. They warned the others as they legged it from the building. It collapsed behind them, taking out the troops and saving Mark’s life.

Rejoining the team, Mark advised he had a further lead on the girl. They continued travelling – Cestus Pax flew overhead and paused, no doubt realising they were responsible for the destroyed building. He flew on again after deciding they weren’t interesting – to their amused relief.

A delay when, again, Adam and Chrissie got badly shot up in a shopping centre. Chrissie had seen a young girl running through so followed her down with a desire to help and had been shot up for her trouble (forgetting, a little, that she was vulnerable as she moved towards the girl to disarm her after the first bullet winged her). Adam had gone to help but was hit even more ferociously so shot back – aiming to disarm the kid but accidentally killing her. They set up in a camping store for a couple of days until their Nova healing had done its trick. Steph had used the time to find a new starting location for their hunt. Chrissie was beginning to think her Nova name should be ‘Bullet Magnet’ rather than ‘Phoenix’.

Finding the new location, Jean stayed with Steph to protect her whilst Rachel, again, found a vantage point to cover Robert, Chrissie, Adam and Mark as they entered the building. It had power and internet (traffic on which was how Steph had found the place) but seemed utterly empty – until on one of the higher floors they found a man typing away. Mark recognised him as Omar. He recognised Mark as Simon… and several other names. But knowing who we were and hearing Mark had a lead on the girl, Omar agreed to help them track down their target – part of the resistance – if they helped him track down his to return her to her family.