In reply to Operations (msg #49):

As wood chips and smoke hung suspended in the air, Phantasm contemplated the coming moments.  The gun would have to go first, and then all of these idiots needed to be taken downstairs.  Preferably unconscious, as that would limit the amount of their vitriol she'd have to listen to.  She planned out her movements, mapping out the room and her path through it: continue sprint, clothesline the two closest to the door, kick the doorknob as it hits the floor, dislocating the shoulder of the woman holding the gun before spinning her and hitting the man next to her in the face.  Grab the aggressive one already preparing for a rush, throw him into the two by the window, weave over to the otherside of the room, palm heel to the solar plexus of one of the michaelists' guards, long-hand punch to the kidney of the half-turned guard further back.  Run to the stairs while trailing a sheet of green energy that solidifies into an undulating membrane coated in thousands of small tendril leg-fingers who's only goal would be to rescue those inside the building. Rolled up it would be smaller than a grown man, but unfurled it could envelope several of the prisoners and float them down to the ground safely before climbing back up to rescue any left behind, leaving Phantasm free to climb the stairs and find Gale.  Turn around before running up, and warn anyone left standing that they either hitched a ride on Sheety, or burned to death painfully and slowly.

Plan solidified, Phantasm moved into action. God, it's so nice to be work at normal speed for a change...

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

Activate Quickness and Multi-tasking, take 7 actions on first, 1 on second.

The dice, they hate me. with a few exceptions it should be enough to hit people though.  Anyone left standing at the end should be frightened enough that they'll comply though hopefully.

Clothesline: ((6,2,3,2,1,4,6,10,5,8)). +1 reroll 10 =3
Clothesline: ((8,10,3,8,7,8,9,10,5)). +0 reroll 10 =10
Doorknob + Ricochet: ((5,1,2,3,9,2,8,2,9)). =3
Grab: ((4,10,4,5,9,4,6,3)). =4
Throw: ((3,4,2,5,2,1,10,4)).+0 reroll 10 =1
Palm: ((9,4,3,2,10,2,7)). +1 reroll 10 = 5
Punch: ((7,2,2,6,5,9,1)). =3

Q.Construct: ((1,3,6,8,4,4,6,2,9,3)). +1 Will =4
size 1, sentient, 10 nova points (mega str 1, Patagia, adhesive grip, 4 maimed health levels)

Scare remaining goons into cooperating: ((10,3,9,4,10,6,8,7,9,1,5,1,1)). +1 reroll 10 = 10

---

Even with her quick reaction time, she didn't have a witty response to his question before he came at her again.  A leap, a duck, a twist.  She didn't have a chance to get a hit in.  Just when she thought she might have the chance, she turned, coming face to face with him just as he hit her.  Spots filled her vision as she stumbled back.  Man, he hit hard.  How could she go down so easy?  "Phan....tasm..." she mumbled before she slipped to the ground, unconscious.

The woman dropped the gun.  The room exploded in well planned high speed violence.  Sheety came into being and gave a protective moan.  The final terrifying pronouncement shattered any resolve they may have had left.

"Holy shit, that was Phantasm!"
"Who the fuck cares, let's do what she says and get out of here."
"I ... I can't breathe."
"Come on.  You have to survive this so I won't feel guilty when I break up with you."

But the Phantasm was already tearing around the stairwell.  Her changed lungs pumped smoke and ash in and out and her eyes glazed over to prevent hot embers from scorching them.  She reached the destruction on the 20th floor just in time to make eye contact with the demon nova, wreathed in flame, standing over Gale's body.  He'd done a number on her.  Fast too.

Phantasm was faster, but she still had to clear a whole room.  In one hell of a hurry, he knelt and vanished in a flash of brimstone, taking Gale with him.

Phantasm read the details of the fight in the physical evidence left behind.  Whoever this man was, he was improvising and didn't want a real fight, let alone one with Phantasm.

-

The fog of ages parted, and Gale found herself staring at her own knees through a black bag in a very dark room.  Her hands were tied behind her, and her ankles were tied to the chair.

Light came from beneath a door, she guessed.  And someone was arguing outside.  She hadn't been here long.  The bruises told her that much, and she didn't think she'd lost much time.

Anger.  It wasn't an emotion she was used to.  Sure, she had the dull anger that everyone did at the grand horrors of the world; given the scope of her mental abilities, she probably experienced more than her fair share of that.  And of course she had the minor bouts of irritation boardering on rage that people get when they're cut off in traffic or have to wait in line for a new cashier to learn to operate a register; again, given the speed of her thoughts, she experienced this sensation in spades.  But full on anger, the kind that resulted from completely thwarted will or a loved one in danger, that she was unused to.  She held in her anger long enough to take in the full scene and commit it to memory before taking out her anger on the building.  Enhanced strength shattered walls and shook the building for several seconds before Phantasm burst out a wall, allowing gravity to provide her with a fast exit.  She didn't bother taking precautions, she just let herself hit the ground at full speed and relied on her shield and enhanced durability for protection.

This was bad, and it royally pissed her off.  Calling Sheety to her side, Phantasm pulled out her cellphone as she approached the nova's lackeys, sending a text to the only other people she knew who might have insight into how to find Gale.

To: Quentin Abernathy; Doctor Zero
Msg: In Vegas at [INSERT ADDRESS], Gale kidnapped by 'porter, need to find her ASAP. Call anyone you think can help, I've got people to interrogate...

Message sent, Phantasm moved forward menacingly.  Like she'd said, she had people to interrogate...
This message was last edited by the player at 06:47, Tue 22 Feb 2011.

Police and fire crews were just down the road, and the would-be Satanists were trying to start the engines on their three cars and get the hell out of there.  Sheety was getting in the way, though, and half of them were unconscious or too dazed to beat an effective retreat.  With Phantasm's arrival from the sky via deadfall and apparent subsequent resurrection, the coughing, bruised and miserable goons were cowed into stillness once again.

The big guy that she'd clotheslined, the one who couldn't conjure with Latin to save his soul, actually had the gall to try to walk up to her.  "Phantasm ... Phantasm I am really, really glad you came when you did.  We, uh, we all are.  We're just going to get some medical attention for the smoke inhalation and and and get out of here so the professionals can do their job.  Thank you.  So much.  I really can't thank you enough."  Real talker.  He got away with shit for a living.  Probably maintained himself off of the generosity of others while espousing some cultish ethic of strength and exploitation.  He had a greasy goatee, sunglasses, and the sort of clothes that gave a bad name to concert goers and occult enthusiasts everywhere.  In panic, people generally cease to be effective liars, and from his face this guy thought that if he was lucky Phantasm would let them go for now, probably giving him enough time to get out of town and look up some other friends to hide him.

The two Michaelists were alive, and free of their gags and chairs.  They were busy hacking their lungs out.

She wasn't often tempted to kill people.  Really, she wasn't.  She'd done it, a part of war and all that, but she didn't really enjoy it most of the time.  This jerk would be an exception.  People like this, the ones that lead others to their deaths and worse, these were what made the world the shitty place it was. He wouldn't be worth talking to, and the mood she was in it would be safer for everyone if she didn't.  "Sheety, hug this prick. He's in danger of hurting himself."  She moved to the others.

"What happened here?  Lie to me, I'll know, and you'll regret it.  My friend is gone, and I DON'T HAVE TIME TO FUCK AROUND! Give me ANY information that can help me find her, tell me about the wannabe devil nova you were working with, and do it fast."  As she yelled at the frightened cultists, her shield moaned in harmony, punctuating her points with the cries of damned souls.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
I don't have a high charisma, but I figure between manipulation, analyze weakness, and seeing displays of raw power, the kids will be fairly compliant.

---

Wilhelm was used to making deals with peculiar fellows.  There was that one warlord in Nigeria, Kogbara, that insisted on being addressed as the Pope of Jos and could only be bribed with fanciful hats.  Still, it never paid to assume eccentricities were harmless.  Now that he could threaten KHI assets, Anders would have to be watched.  Now Wilhelm was glad he had insisted on developing a backdoor for the killbots that could be pushed through in a firmware update.  It really helped with the old piece of mind.  The backdoor would never be found nor even seriously suspected.  The firmware was open source after all.  If you'd inserted a subroutine into the bot's compiler that inserted backdoors into other programs during compilation and simultaneously inserted itself into the compiler when the compiler was compiled, though, it didn't matter what the source code said.  You'd have to go through the machine code and that would take years with a codebase the size of Killbot Linux, even for a nova.  Hopefully the backdoor wouldn't have to be pushed, but you never could tell.

A matter for another day, though.  What needed to be done now was recharging the laser.  After the first few thousand meters of Nevada bedrock, the TBM stopped cutting it, figuratively and literally.  Too much heat that deep.  The hydraulics just couldn't take it.  The laser, however, could vaporize its way through the rock like butter in a foundry regardless of depth.  Every hour the laser was out of fuel was another thirty meters lost and there were still thirty-one kilometers to the Moho.  No borehole to the Moho, nowhere near enough power to run the completed Jackass Flats Facility.  That was why Wilhelm was standing before the newly completed Olympic-size swimming pool at the KHI worker's housing facility in Mercury in the dead of night.  The ethylene was easy to get, as was the nitrogen trifluoride.  The deuterium was another matter.  Wearing a robe over his carapace and bearing a staff, Wilhelm started intoning.

"Behold his mighty hand!"

The heavy water in the pool took one step to the right, the ordinary water took one step to the left.  The robe and the staff really didn't have anything to do with the Maxwell's Demon job, but Wilhelm had always had a flair for the dramatic and a respect for the films of Charlton Heston.  Besides, no one was watching.  Extending a separator across the length of the pool, Wilhelm released his control of the water, now safely divided into its constituent parts.  A bit of pumping and there would be enough deuterium to last the next few weeks.  Only a couple of months more and the Jackass Flats project could proceed properly.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:01, Tue 22 Feb 2011.

In reply to Suzukaze (msg #44):

Logan stared at Suzukaze for a long moment.  "We'll see about getting your boyfriend taken care of, but I'm not part of the medical crew so I can't really tell you if that'll be possible.  As far as Annette's concerned, whether she eventually goes free is all on her; sorry sweety, ain't your decision.  Murderers don't just get a free pass, but if she keeps behavin' you'll get the chance to work with her often.  And your last request... Well, we've got plans for that, I think you'll be happy when you hear them.  But yeah, we should get going, you're right.  Time to hitch a ride..."

Logan gestured for them to follow into a nearby alley, where an angry looking nova stood waiting, features hidden behind a eufiber mask.  As soon as they approached, the nova opened a dull orange portal to what appeared to be the inside of the KHI facilities.  Logan gave the man a menacing glare and said "Be sure you open it on time, and in the right spot.  Fuck us over, you'll live a long time regretting it."

After the group went through, Annette broke off, following orders of her own.  Logan and 'Kaze were free to explore the base.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Okay.  I'm going to see if Kraken wants to describe some of the base and its hurdles (he's already been doing a good job of that, but I figure he might like the chance to respond to your actions).  Annette will be distracting some of the facility's security by utilizing the body of the super-strong nova she's possessing, so 'Kaze and Logan's job will be to get info on the place, and steal stuff of value.

---

"I don't know anything!"
"Wait, we're on the same side!"
"Okay, calm down!  It ... it was Belphegor!  He promised us he'd come back and we'd have real power."
"He's the sixth!  The end is neigh.  You can't win, because Astaroth-"
"Brandon shut up!"
"Look, it's this guy who called himself Belphigor, okay?  Please don't hurt me anymore!"

Sheety wrapped itself lovingly around the big ring leader and rocked back and forth humming slightly deranged lullabies.  The goons weren't much help though. The woman with the dislocated shoulder, for instance, was too terrified to make a sound but when prompted to speak up could only manage tears and whining about how much it hurt.  The rest talked over each other, alternatively pissed off at how bad this had gone down and terrified beyond belief.

The teenage girl of the bunch eventually stepped away from the others and found some courage.  "We were counter-protesting.  That demon guy appeared and he seemed really cool, okay?  We just figured we'd scare that Michaelist couple and make a little fire.  Richard called it sending a message."  The whole idea seems lame to her now and she's wondering if her whole life will be screwed up from this.  Prison time never really occurred to her before an hour ago or so.  At least she's resolved in fessing up now.  "The others think he's a demon ... but I think he's probably just a nova.  He knew a lot of stuff, but it looks like he left us out to dry."

Police and fire crews began pouring onto the scene.

Gale came back to consciousness quickly.  She had a bag on her head, and was tied to a chair.  She'd been kidnapped.  Damn!  That demon nova must have something to do with it.  Had he hurt Phantasm?  Had he kidnapped her too?  Probably not, she decided.  Phantasm was even quicker than Gale, and if the guy had been a match for the winged woman, there was no way he could beat her friend.

She needed to be quiet now.  It was difficult, she couldn't tell if she was still bleeding, and the position she was tied in was awkward.  They didn't seem to have tied her wings at all, but that wasn't much help.  Using her great flexibility, and her sharp claws, she started trying to wriggle her hands free.  She needed to be quick, while her captors still thought her passed out.

Slipping through the initial portion of the facility were easy for Logan and Suzukaze.  Both were well equiped for the job, and both had a knack for staying hidden.  But their time was limited, and the facility was large.  After a short while, Logan ambushed one of the facility's automated workers, pulling a device out of his suit similar to a standard flash drive, and slamming it into one of the robot's ports.  15 seconds and a reboot later, the robot was under their control.

"Suzukaze, meet our new tour guide."

Voices came from just outside the door.  The demon and someone else.  Other voice was yelling.  Just far enough away to be a pain to hear.

"... out, right now! ..."
"... out of the question!  You should know better!"
"... maybe THEY can figure out what in God's name we're supposed to do now."

The lack of Nova-Class ears is really a pain right now.  Doesn't matter much.  Gale's not in proper restraints, and with a little twisting and cutting her nimble hands are sliced free of the zip ties and duct tape they hoped to bind her up in.  Her wings weren't bound either.

Once the hood was off, she could see that she was in a cramped closet.  There were even some brooms and cleaning supplies still in here.  Light did, indeed, enter from beneath the door, and a large cross was painted on the inside of the door.  No windows.  Just shelves, cheap cleaning supplies, wooden folding chairs, music stands, and her.

Once freed, it became clear exactly how hard of a beating she'd taken.  Her sinus cavity ached, and there was dried blood beneath her nose.  Her forearms were swollen and turning black -- defensive wounds from the brawl.  Her wings and back ached from the impacts too.  No cell phone.  And standing brought on a pleasant, light feeling that left her swaying and in search of balance.

Naturally, the door was locked.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:34, Wed 23 Feb 2011.

Of course.  Of course the door was locked.  She could just try to kick it down, but that probably wasn't a good idea given how woozy she was feeling.  She took a moment to wipe the blood from her face and pressed her ear against the door.  Maybe when they came to check on her, she could take them by surprise.  But she needed to be ready, and that required her to listen in.  Maybe she could find out more about who had kidnapped her.

Phantasm texted while she talked.

To: Frostburn, Gravitas, Zero
I need info on a Nova going by the name Belphigor, has a demon-themed power suite.  RESPOND SOON, THIS IS IMPORTANT, GALE IS IN TROUBLE.  Zero and Grav, I could still use a 'porter for fast transport.
Also, I will make your life miserable if at least one of you doesn't text me back in the next 2 minutes.

Damnit, I'm going to have to do this myself.

At least one of the idiot cultists had a little bit of sense. "So, we'll ignore the truck-full of stupid it takes to resort to kidnapping and arson just to scare some people.  Just tell me anything you know about where this nova might have gone, and any other novas he might associate with."

A text appears back on Phantasm's screen:
Acknowledged. ETA 3.65 minutes. it said.

On the other side of the door, Gale heard more people milling around.  Her short time with T2M had conditioned Gale to recognize the sound of automatic weapons being moved, assembled and cleaned, and she heard at least one person doing just that.  Useful knowledge in case she tried to get out of here herself.

Someone called Belphigor, and she heard his footsteps getting farther away.

"You think he's in trouble this time?"
"Sister Mariah will decide."

---

The young woman was quite afraid of Phantasm, but seemed to understand that Phantasm was at least on the side of law and order.  "I don't really know.  He promised power.  Like we'd learn how to erupt.  Power like you have.  We just had to hurt them the way they hurt us.  He'd come sometimes when we summoned him."    She chewed her lip and swallowed, trying to hold together in the face of he moaning green aura.  Her eyes traced onto the ringleader -- probably the Richard she mentioned -- as a police officer tried to get the Sheety to release him.  Another officer was standing a polite distance behind Phantasm, waiting for a safe chance to ask what the hell was going on.  "We thought we were getting close to controlling him."

"I ... I don't know where he went in between.  You could blink and miss him he was so fast."  She was really wracking her brain.  Maybe she thought Phantasm would help her get off the hook?  Yeah, probably.  "He always smelled like rotten eggs and church incense."

Phantasm felt a bit of sympathy for the girl.  She didn't like anything the kid had done (haha, "kid," she's probably older than I am!) but her desire for power in a world full of novas was understandable.  What would I do for power, if I lost mine?

"Ok. At least you've got some sense.  I'll note your help when I write my statement...  Damned paperwork, supposed to go away when I quit." Phantasm mumbled to herself as she walked toward the officers arriving on scene.  She let the shield fall away, but retained the subdermal bone plating.  One couldn't be too careful.  As she approached she cooed at Sheety, letting it know it did a good job before it reintegrated into her dissipating forcefield and was gone.  Did I just give a part of my subconscious a pat on the back, or do the constructs have a mind for the short time they exist?  If they do, what does that mean...?

She let the ringleader fall to the ground and tried to ignore the jerk while she spoke to the cops.  She informed them of the bulk of the details, suggested that there might be some nova mojo at work making the idiots do what they did, and informed them of an unknown nova assailant.  She pointedly didn't comment on Gale's kidnapping however.

The attack was novel.  Had it been made against one of the run-of-the-mill ROV-3C killbots patrolling the streets of Baghdad or Vegas it would have been successful and gone unnoticed.  KHI used the superficially similar ROV-3D model for facility security, though.  The only difference was an added circuit board buried deep in the body of the bot, but that addition was important because it provided redundant processing, storage, and communications.  It didn't have the power for path determination, signal processing, or any of the other computationally intensive tasks that the bot's main computer handled, but there was more than enough power for the intrusion detection heuristics, hardware interlocks, and telemetry uploader.  Killbot #187 thus had some processing to do on reboot.

Guru Meditation:  80000073
Task 0x2f736aed ("Kickstart")
generated an error of type IUF (Invalid Unsigned Firmware)
on address 0x00000001
Flash is corrupted
NVRAM is corrupted
System halted

How peculiar.  The firmware residing on the primary SSD wasn't signed using the correct key.  Moreover, the media sensor was reporting the presence of a drive in Maintenance Port #0.  The intrusion detection heuristics indicated a 97% probability of a hijacking attempt.  Killbot #187's redundant processor core could restore the firmware from known good PROMs, but Killbot #187 wasn't programmed that way.  The bot instead shot off an encrypted panic call on the auxiliary Opnet channel, then dumped system memory, sensor telemetry, and a copy of the fraudulent firmware to the central computer.  47 milliseconds later, Killbot #187 received a response.

Run Pooh_Bear

Well, that explained things.  Some sort of attack on the facility was underway.  The central computer would know best how to handle the situation.  For now, Killbot #187's orders were clear.  Firstly, it allowed the execution of the fraudulent firmware, but activated the weapons system control servos interlock.  Any attempt to activate the taser, water cannon, mace dispenser, or baton projector would prove unsuccessful.  Secondly, Killbot #187 set the motor control unit to degrade cross country performance by 1.75% immediately and to degrade performance in further 1.75% increments at random intervals.  Lastly, Killbot #187 connected to the peer-to-peer distributed sensor telemetry network.  Due to the redundant core's lack of processing power, Killbot #187 couldn't actually perceive the output of its sensors, at least not until the correct firmware was restored, but the other killbots would make good use of the data.  There certainly seemed to be a lot of other killbots connecting to the network.  Goalkeeper was online, as was Kashtan.  The 688MDs were even warming up in the garage and the V-24Ds had already taken off from the hanger.  Things were about to get interesting.

92 milliseconds later, Killbot #187 pinged and printed "Please Enter Destination" on its external OLED maintenance console.  No sign of the bot's internal machinations displayed to the outside world.  Indeed, most of the bot wasn't even aware of the redundant core's efforts, at least not yet.  While the bot waited for input from Logan and Suzukaze, tracers bounced off the desert floor far away on Frenchman Flat.  The third party to this shindig must have been detected.  No time like the present.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:14, Thu 24 Feb 2011.

Gale's pretty face wrinkled into a frown as she listened.  There were two things very wrong here.  First, someone with a gun.  She was fast, but could she outrun bullets?  Without knowing exactly where he was, she wasn't sure.  Second, Sister Mariah?  The winged woman must be in a church.  Which explained the cross on the door, and the music stands here in the closet with her.  That bothered her.  Was a church participating in terrorist acts?  Not unheard of, but troubling all the same.  But that didn't narrow things down.  There were tons of churches in Las Vegas, and that was assuming that she was still even in Vegas.

She listened for a moment longer, and then came up with a plan.  The demon nova seemed to have been called away; now was her best chance to try to escape.  Taking a measure of her power, she smashed the door to pieces with a blast of air.  So much for the lock.  Of course, that was going to draw attention, so she re-summoned her wind shield as she stepped through the remains of the entrance.  She needed to quickly discern her surroundings and figure out the best way out.

Phantasm

The police thanked her for finding a way to douse the fire and took down what she said.  They didn't pry too deep, since they had likely suspects already and, if Phantasm wasn't lying, they'd have plenty of physical evidence to prosecute.  The description of the problem nova was forwarded to the T2M base in accordance with co-policing agreements.  All in all, the cops didn't seem eager to take up much of her time or ask too much of her.

After that, it was just a matter of putting the rest of the fire out and waiting for help to arrive.

-

Gale

With little difficulty, Gale demolished the door with a cacophonous pop.  Those on the other side of the door were knocked from their seats, and chairs and tables overturned.  The half assembled assault rifle fell to the ground, made inoperable by the impact.  So far so good.

One of the two she had heard looked up, and her eyes filled with reverence and astonishment.  In moments, some instruction ground deep into her thoughts rescued her from awe.  "No! ... no you're trying to trick me!"  A woman charged Gale with her bare hands, colliding with the shield of dense air.  "Demon!  Help!  Anyone!  It's escaping!"  She swung violently with balled up fists.

The other voice she'd heard belonged to a young man.  He was dumbstruck.  Totally unable to process what he was seeing.  He stumbled back to the outer edge of the room, what looked like a classroom or lounge in a school or other public building.  Boxes covered most of the surfaces and the back wall, and from the look of things Gale guessed that some contained candles and some contained supplies for surviving Armageddon.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:30, Thu 24 Feb 2011.

Baselines. All right, then she wouldn't have to pull out more powers.  She wasn't worried about the woman attacking her.  The shield would prevent both from being injured.  She didn't have time to investigate what else was going on here.  The woman's shouting was sure to bring the demon nova back if she didn't hurry.  With a leap away from her would-be baseline attacker, she made a beeline for the exit.  Still a bit off balance, she knocked one of the boxes she passed to the floor, scattering its contents.

Quentin always hated blind warping. Maps weren't always updated when construction occurred, and most had an inherent inaccuracy anyway. Almost precisely 3.65 minutes after Phantasm recieved the text a blue ripple in space spread out to open into one of his distinctive wormholes - in the middle of the street. Quentin rapidly collapsed the portal and lifted off into the air to avoid being hit by a car or sending its occupants halfway around the world.

He looked around to get his bearings, unsure from the brief message what he should be expecting. "Phantasm?!" he called aloud.

Phantasm saw the portal iris open.  Just in case the nearby fire didn't alert Gravitas to where she was at, she yelled his name loud enough that his enhanced senses might faintly pick it up.  Then she texted him to move a block east and south of his current location.

Quentin drifted off in the direction of the fire, making a series of assumptions he felt were pretty safe. When his phone vibrated a moment later, the message confirmed his target location. He flew in from above, surveying the situation as he went. If Gale had been captured, that implied that a nova was at work. It would probably take a highly organized and trained group of baselines to take down a flier like Gale, so 'nova' seemed the more likely cause.

Still, it'd be best to get the story more directly.

Phantasm waived Gravitas down as she moved away from the crowd.  When he landed, she gave him the details of the situation, and rapidly went over every pertinent fact she had come across relating to the offending nova, the cultists, and the events of the evening.

"...So, that's all I've got.  I'm not exactly an idiot, but there's only so much I can do with the facts at hand.  I was hoping that maybe your brain might be able to link it all together and spit out an answer.  And I was sort of hoping that someone that still had connections in Utopia might look up info on this nova in their see if anything matches, but I haven't gotten any reply on it from Frostburn yet.  Not sure what kind of pull you've got these days..."