An Aberrant Update: Chasing Crazy Cajuns.

I've got a lot less time for writing than I did in my old job - partly from settling into new job and partly from a bit of mess in the Real World, which really sucks but isn't a matter for this blog except that it's delayed things. Basically, I'm going to try and catch up with Aberrant tonight - and it is going to be a scatty third-person catch up because it's been a while and I'm a bit muddled on what I've missed - then work on posting weekly until I'm at least caught up with my OU work. So Aberrant tonight, Pathfinder next week and then alternations and occasional diversions into coding, circus and books.

We left our daring duo after they'd broken into NASA, 'mugged' a former employee and returned him home after stealing his memories of being controlled by novas before any known nova existed. They haven't seen Antaeus since.

Anyway, back at the Hub, Jen called Chrissie out to meet her for coffee. It was a bit of a ruse: Montgomery, the man who'd held her and Adam when they first erupted, was there with Jen and Alastair. They both apologised, but knowing Chrissie still held some resentment towards Montgomery had felt it necessary. Chrissie was annoyed to discover he was a 'close family friend': the cogs whirled in her head as she realised Benedict had almost certainly arranged for her brief interment. Still, Montgomery's offer was appealing: with the replacement internet due to go live in the UK the next day, he needed her team to help ensure the turn-on ran smoothly. The main event was happening in London and was already well-guarded. The Nova Initiative were requested to be at the Manchester data centre, much more vital to the event. London was a distraction. Alastair insisted on joining them.

There was, of course, trouble at Manchester: the walls of the building were filled with C4. In the process of trying to rescue the place, Chrissie and Alastair teleported off to another location, following the trail of a nova. Alastair, appearing to be outside himself, exploded two of the people they found, whilst Chrissie defended the third as a captive. Taking her back, Mark insisted on torturing her to find out who'd put the C4 in and how to disarm it. Chrissie wasn't happy about the torture, and it didn't help.

Some powerful nova with a Cajun accent showed up. A bit of investigation suggested his name was Robert A Fett [this was Husbit's fault. Chrissie, having not seen Star Wars, did not get the reference: even Pax, when he learnt of this, teased her for it]. He wouldn't give his real name so ended up known by various frustrated pseudonyms. Rescuing the captive, he threw a deadman's switch to set off the C4 as he stepped with the captive through a warp: despite Adam's best efforts, it was Alastair's lightning speed that saved the building.

London was not so lucky: explosions later, and the Houses of Parliament was destroyed. Adam and Chrissie helped dig MP's (some with some reluctance on Chrissie's part) out of the rubble: the President of the USA owes them his daughter's life and now the PM of the UK owes them his own life. 

In the confusion, they discover Jen has gone missing with the book Benedict left her. Alastair was understandably terribly distressed: he couldn't find her anywhere. Chrissie and Adam took him to the moon and, working his way through the base, he found a room akin to (but sufficiently different from) cerebro. This is also when they had the conversation that got so under my skin.

Using the device in the moon, Alastair discovered that the Cajun was the one holding his mother. He told the three to stop looking for him, that Jen would be returned on the Cajun's timescale.

They struggled to track him down as time passed.

The team convinced Adam to propose to Sam on Christmas Day a short while later (I think the internet turning on was 23rd November: the anniversary of Vienna). They were married the following Christmas, in an ice palace (it may have been late and we may have been starting to get a bit silly...) The Cajun showed up and made veiled threats against Sam if they didn't back off. This terrified Adam, so Chrissie didn't tell him when she kept looking whilst he was on honeymoon - even when her own brother was kidnapped, even when she learnt the Cajun would be in Paris and faked an accidental meeting with him that backfired and resulted in her receiving an email attachment showing the Cajun pushing her brother from a plane. She tracked down where he landed (shown in the footage), but there was no body, only lots of blood.

Her parents were not impressed.

Adam and Sam got back. Sam fell pregnant some months later. Chrissie looked at the quantum signatures and worried that the child might have the potential to be as potent as Alastair.

They stepped up their hunt, calling a favour from President Clinton - they'd discovered from a nova who'd faced him in combat that he seemed military trained and somewhere they learnt his name (Remy something-that-I-forget). Clinton called in a favour and got them access to his records. From this, they found an impossible happening: he'd been holed up in a room during a war. No hope of escape as enemies came in. Yet he survived.

They tracked down his former team, all of whom denied any knowledge of him. One now worked security for a factory making the action figures of Team Tomorrow: a life-size Pax stood in the lobby of the factory and Chrissie managed to convince them to let her have one. They gave it to Pax and filled him in - he offered to join them as he had some leave available.

They went to see the Cajun's family, pretending to be journalists. The family all believed him to be dead and all spoke very highly of his morals. Chrissie had to bite her tongue.

As they left, the Cajun arrived to warn them off again: he had Sam and made a threat against Holly.Chrissie flew straight home and crept into Steve's apartment using her spare key. Steve slept silently but spread across his whole bed: he seemed fine. Holly snored like a monster truck, and a note lay on her pillow. Chrissie read it and pocketed it to destroy later. It stated how well Holly slept.

Steve heard her creeping out. She wouldn't have been able to hold herself together without her control over the quantum energies as she explained what was going on. She omitted the details of the threat against Holly, but suspected Steve was smart enough to understand.

It was agreed some crazy play was needed, and they returned to the Cajun's family (with cakes. Another late night moment...). He arrived and there was a brief fight. I say brief: the entire team with Pax in support were completely outmatched but refused to be defeated. 

"What the hell did Benedict do that you're taking it out on us?" Chrissie eventually shouted.

"He was my friend" was the unexpected reply. It had been Benedict who had saved him from the impossible situation - he had not been a nova at that point.

It turned out that Remy thought they'd caused the destruction of Vienna and had taken Jen from them to keep her safe. As a human, Jen had been unable to stop him and unable to convince him otherwise. He took them to Jen, Sam... and Pete. They filled him in on what they knew of Vienna and on a few of their concerns with Project Utopia. Remy had erupted as a nova earlier than Adam and Chrissie, but they explained (to the surprise of their team and Pax) their own early eruption. 

Pax was shocked at what he learnt of Utopia and ended up joining the Initiative, although agreed to return to Utopia undercover.

Remy had had doctors check out the pregnant Sam and claimed there was no sign of any nova nature in the foetus. Chrissie is dubious and slightly concerned.

In romance news, at some point after the discovery of Sam's pregnancy, Adam accidentally mentioned to Chrissie that he had concerns about their relationship. Chrissie was concerned because she'd finally started to admit to herself that she had feelings for Steve (Holly's presence meant she hadn't been able to run away at the point she normally would). She's aware she could develop feelings for someone like Pax or Jean, but is still not comfortable with the idea of a relationship - but with Steve, a lot of the emotional closeness she is afraid of has already happened. Adam admitted that he had developed feelings for someone else on the team - and Chrissie has seen how Rachel looks at him... She's keeping an eye on this: she doesn't want trouble but has no idea how to control this sort of thing.

I think that brings us up to date with Aberrant. Another session tomorrow means I can find out if I have managed to miss anything big...