Where the hip is happenin

By the time Bella and Aaron arrive the party was in full swing loud music and even louder chatter was coming from inside There were several people in the yard who stopped shotgunning beers to stare at the flying motorcycle.

  Bella settled them to the earth in front of the beer guzzlers, and said lightly "We're here!  So.  Where to begin?"

Aaron stepped off the motorcycle. "C'mon lets head inside." He led her indoors stopping briefly to give daps to a couple people. Indoors the music and chatter was even more evident the house being packed with people more than they're were seats for.

  Bella followed him inside, looking around and listening with great interest.  She didn't pick up any drinks yet, or anything, but she sure was listening!

Aaron led Bella through the party generally mingling and seeing what was up. Introducing her to more than a few people. That was Until Bella heard a voice from behind her. "Hey hot stuff, why don't you ditch the loser? Everyone knows Aaron's gonna end up in prison or some dead end job in a convenience store."

  Bella looked back over her shoulder at the speaker, and said "I don't work that way.  Aaron's my friend, so deal with me sticking with him.  If you can't take that, get lost."

"You'd be better off with friends with futures Ones like this'll just bring ya down. C'mon I'll show you a good time." Aaron stepped in between them at tis point. "The lady said no." "Back off loser why don't you go back to the wrong side of the tracks." "How about you go back to sucking down jizz filled protein shakes?" WIth that the jock screwed up his face and rage swing ing at Aaron. Aaron however was prepared and caught the fist and pulled sending the guy flying into a wall.

  Bella smiled at Aaron, and told him quietly "You're sweet.  I really do like that.  And I mean it.  I came here with you, and we'll leave together.  Erica's going to have kittens, but you can drive me home, and I'll  face the Wrath of Dads myself."

He turned to the jock on the ground. "That's how we do things, 'on the wrong side of the tracks." He turned to Bella with a smile. "It was no big. So what do you want to do?"

  Bella smiled, and said "Dance with me some more?  I enjoy dancing with you . . . "

He smiled and led her over to the stereo and mock dance floor around it where there were others already dancing. The stereo began to play "I got a feeling' by the black eyed peas.

  Bella wrapped her arms around him, letting him lead the dance as she did, and she smiled as she held him close to dance.  She said softly "I really DO like this."

He smiled at her this one with a twinge of, regret? "Me too.I so hope you don't get grounded for eternity for showing up at home on my bike. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't see you again."

  Bella smiled, and said "How do you ground someone who can skip in time and sneak out the door?"

"I"m not certain but I don't think that would stop them from trying. Most groundings go on the 'trust the kid has enough respect for the parent enough not to try and sneak out' principal anyway."

  Bella grinned, and said "Yeah, well, I never said it WORKED well for them to try that!!"

HE shrugged. "Most parents find it doesn't work that well.You get grounded a lot?"

  Bella admitted "No.  But I had really understanding parents.  The incarnations of them here . . . really aren't sure how to BE parents, since they're like, a year older than I am . . ."

"Yeah, thats gotta lead to some, difficulties." He looked around the party noticing the jock he had thrown lurking with a few of his buddies. "You want to head some where, quieter? I got a place I could show you."
This message was last updated by the player at 04:42, Mon 16 Apr 2012.

  Bella smiled, and said "I like that idea.  Most of the places I go when I want peace and quiet are .  . .. REALLY inaccessible."

Outside, on the sidewalk, away from the teenage revelry that was happening, a small, temporal distortion opened up. Invisible to the naked eye, but anyone who could sense auras, power signatures, or even someone who got a bit too close could feel the sheer power. Almost as if appearing out of thin air, a figure burst forward in a silent explosion, calmly talking, though no one was around to hear. Her stance suggested she was in a battle, locked in a grapple between life and death.

The instance Vaan couldn't feel the hand gripping her wrist, nor her hand repelling her opponents, she stopped, eyes wide behind the visor of her helmet. Glancing around, her surroundings were dark, a stark contrast to where she was previously. While her helmet compensated to help her adjust to the darkness, it began collapsing in sections, revealing a young, Asian woman's face. Young enough to be considered a party-goer, in fact.

As her visor split in the middle and settled into it's resting place at the nape of her neck with the rest of her helmet, Vaan grimaced. This place. There was no looming menace, no tower in the sky that seemed to wish death upon you every time you went outside.

"Where...am I?" Vaan asked herself, walking towards the nearest house. It was bright, filled with light, and there were a lot of people. She would find answers. Hell, she was menacing enough to look like she was a gangster, what with the trench-coat that hid multiple weapons, and not just knives or handguns. Darts, shuriken, even phials of liquid. It would give her an edge.

Aaron nodded and took Bella by the hand leading her outside towards his motorcycle.

  Bella walked with Aaron, and she told him softly "I do like your motorcycle, but it's not half as cool as the man riding it."

Aaron smiled. "Its a proven fact. Chicks dig bikes." As the tough looking chick approached the house his right hand went inside his jacket eyeing her a bit warily but otherwise still heading towards the bike.

Vaan picked her way up the walkway. She watched as two teenagers walked outside. She gave them a once-over, her normal hazel eye-color changing to a distinct glowing teal. She was curious. Subconsciously buttoning up her trench-coat like she had done so many times before, she stopped as they made their way towards her.

"Excuse me?" She directed at the two, her grimace becoming a mask of passivity. There was no way to avoid giving herself away. She wasn't sure what happened, but it was a hazard. "What city is this? What's today's date?" She prepared herself to bolt or fight, though she gave no outward signal of it.

  Bella laughed, and said "Well, I like motorcycles, anyway.  But I do dig YOU too."  She waved to the other girl, a casual 'hello' wave, and slid onto the back of the bike with him.

Aaron was about to answer something flippant when the girl approached with her strange questions. "Ummm. Weston. 2010....."

Vaan winced as if she had been hit. 2010? She gets into a fight with easily the strongest of the Guard and gets sent back 40 years? She wasn't sure if she felt relieved or regretful. Where she was originally from was nothing if not hell on earth, but she was used to it. Something to survive against, fight for.

"You mean......2050....Wait...Mastermind...The Resistance..." She said, her voice toneless as her expression went blank, the weight of the news stunning her. She had no idea what to think.

  Bella tilted her head, and asked "You timelost?"

The woman was right, and Vaan gave a simple nod. Just giving a name to what she was experiencing helped out, if only a bit. "2050, finally found a way onto the Emperors flying fortress. Got held up by an Elite Red Guard, fought him until....this happened," she said, her tone unwavering as she began looking around, getting her bearings.

"Red guard? Emperor?" He looked to Bella, "You have any idea what she's talking about?"

  Bella shook her head, and said softly "Different timeline.  Further ahead than my . . . final numbers indicate."

If Vaan had heard, she made no indication. Forty years before. a good twenty before she was born, to parents that had no claim on her life. Almost unbidden, a section of her helmet snaked it's way up her neck until part of her visor rested across her left eye. As the visor began to make calculations, she sighed.

"Can you...help? This is disorienting, and..." she said, then added, "I'm Vaan. Vaan Tanaka."

  Bella frowned, and said "I don't think I could get you back when you're from.  Too much of a jump.  Too many years."  And thought Not to mention a leap ahead of when I'm from.

"Aaron Borneo. Umm not certain what if anything we CAN do to help." He looked over his shoulder at Bella trying to gauge her intentions.

  Bella considered, then asked "Who might you want to look for?  Aunt Meg's sorta got a full house, but she could help, maybe?"

Vaan shook her head. She couldn't go back. She was stranded here. There was no way she could go back, even if it were possible. The assault was one time. Everyone knew there would be losses. She was the fastest, quite possibly the deadliest fighter when the battle began. And she was destroyed in a matter of what seemed like minutes.

"I understand," she said, the visor scanning the two, then muttered, "Stranded..."

While there was no way she could network with a wireless database that won't be created for another twenty or thirty years, her Tech kept High Priority Targets on file. Almost instantly, her visor targeted Bella with a red-triangular marker, pulling up her face and file.

Bella Masters, daughter of Fluid and Emperor Excelsior." She said, her voice taking on an Edge. They posed no threat, so Vaan was not going to attack, but now she was suspecting one.

Then Bella mentioned her Megs. "You wouldn't....No. Megaira Kattakara. We were going to save her." She said hurriedly. She put a foot forward, her tone suddenly deadly serious, "Take me to her. Now."

  Bella frowned, and said "Save Aunt Megs from what?  A good night's sleep?  She's at her apartment.  Well, she was earlier.  Lemme mindworm her . . ."  She paused a moment, sending Megaira a message through the mindworm net.

"Emperor Excelsior?" He said with a look at Bella. "Your royalty?"

  Bella answered "Not that *I* know of.  Daughter to a successful author, yes, but not a member of royalty as far as I know.  But the temporal lines are different.  She's from a different course than I am, and she's from a date further ahead.  I'm from like, 2032 or so?  Pardon my math, it occasionally sucks."

At Hornet's quip, Vaan's reply was to press a button just below her ear, to which her Visor reversed the image, showing a three dimensional, rotating likeness of Bella, though her style was different. She looked slightly younger. Additionally, what sounded like Hunter's voice spoke: "Bella Masters. Generally Sympathetic to the Resistance cause. Shows no interest in her either fathers work, and God help us if she does."

The image flickered out. "Dystopic worldview," she explained, "Most of the government is run by the heroes of today. The hero of Earth began a dictatorship, recruiting anyone who had a slivers chance that could stop him. And if he couldn't recruit us, he kidnapped or otherwise killed us."

"He. Took over the world? Your dad does all this?"

  Bella sighed, and said "Well, apparently it's ONE potential future.  See, the future's a funny thing, Aaron.  Here.  We stand on a point.  Time radiates out from THIS point in a fan."  She held up her hand, and it turned into water, and began fanning out in hundreds of tiny 'streams'.  "Time, behind us, is fixed.  Ahead of us, it's fluid.  Every choice, every word.  Every little thing, it makes a new potential future.  They spread out from the NOW.  Like my hand is a fan spreading out now, so too is time.  But sometimes, you can go back.  And if you can, you can change things.  Sometimes.  And sometimes you can't.  And sometimes, they don't stay, and it all just goes . . ."  Her voice grew soft, and her hand 'exploded' outward, then spattered to the ground, running back to her, and her arm, from the elbow down, reformed as the droplets ran up her body and under her clothes.  "Sometimes it goes poof."

"I'm not going to comment on that for fear of sounding like a total idiot. Does it sound like something he'd do though?"

  Bella shrugged, and admitted "I wouldn't have thought so . . ."

  From above, he heard the voice.  "One wouldn't think so, but the people we love can occasionally surprise us.  Bella.  Do I want to know?"  Floating down from above came Megaira, still dressed in jeans and sneakers, with a tank top and a light jacket of denim.  She looked the right age to be partying herself.  She gave Aaron an intense look, inhaling deeply, and then looked at Bella.  One ebony eyebrow went up slowly, and she said to Aaron "I'd like a word with you.  Privately."

"Uhhh Okay?" He stepped off his motorcycle. "Whereabouts?"

  Megaira said "Give me about ten seconds."  She surrounded them both in a sphere of emerald energy, n d shot it skyward.  She said very quietly "I recognize you, Hornet.  And I recognize that you aren't doing anything wrong right now.  I will, however, ask that you respect Bella's wishes in all that you do with her.  She's going to have a very long memory.  I would prefer she have a minimum of bad memories.  Back to earth now."  The sphere fell like the Demon Drop at Cedar Point, making him feel like he'd just left his stomach waaaaay behind, as Megaira stood calmly, and then they landed, gently as a flower petal settling to earth.  She made the sphere pop, and looked to Edge.  "I think you must be the timelost one."

This is bad. She recognized me, is she gonna say anything? This could screw up the whole shebang He was about to say something along the lines of 'I have no idea what your talking about' but by the time he got the I out he dropped like an amusement park ride. He stood there for a moment trying rather badly, not to fall over.

  Bella frowned at Megs, and gave her a shake of her head as she steadied him.  "That's a different first reaction than I've seen.  Aunt Megs is amazing.  She can babysit asleep and with earplugs in, and STILL tell me everywhere I went and what I did!"

He flashed her a smile though this one seemed a tad nervous. "I'm good. Just a little disorienting, she wanted to make sure I was on the level, you being on my motorcycle and all."

  Bella rolled her eyes, and said "Oh good grief.  I can throw CARS like building blocks, what is it that nobody thinks I can fend off Roman hands or Russian Fingers if I have to??"

Vaan openly gaped at Megaira. She was out of her element, in the unknown, and the very person she was prepared to give her life to save was right in front of her, unchanged by time. She was as old as she had been in Vaan's future. Though Vaan only had glimpses.

"...I am," She said, looking as if she were trying to comprehend everything. Then, suddenly, everything was...blurry. She was tired, and her enhancers were wearing off. "I'm Vaan Tanaka, Daughter to Katherine Hanson and Aaron Tanaka, Lieutenant of the Resistance against Emperor Exelsior and his Red Guard. I was sent to rescue you...until I died." She said, though she sounded like she were almost half-asleep, the words sounding like she had recited them hundreds of times, the inflections making the phrase sounding like an insult..

"Or...I thought I had..." Vaan began to feel very weak at the knees.

In reply to Bella Masters (msg #53):

He shrugged. "COmes with being a parent I guess. You uhh still want to get out of here or do you want to stay with your aunt?"

  Meg caught her lightly in her arms, and said softly "You aren't dead.  Just lost in your past.  Here, come with me."  She lifted them both into the air, and they disappeared into the darkness.

------->> NAD's HQ

  Bella grinned, and said "Let's go.  Aunt Megs is busy, so let's get out of here before she asks questions!"

HE smiled getting on the motorcycle and starting it before taking it off.

>>TO CLIFFS OF WESTON>>