The setting African sun glints red and amber off the large golden statue of Atlas holding up the world in the gardens of Addis Ababa. In the background, U2 begins the first few powerful chords of "Where the Streets Have No Name" and the crowd cheers loudly.

Slightly outside the crowd sitting in the amphitheatre at the center of the garden, a ring of reporters, cameramen and media types snap countless photos and video clips. Underscoring the sights and sounds, a play by play commentary buzzes on, aimed at all four corners of a world glued to their screens.

"... by special guest performer U2 at this spectacular event in the beautiful gardens of Addis Ababa..."

"... to honor and celebrate the induction of the newest members of...

"... the most highly televised event since..."

"... a media ploy in the wake of the death of Jennifer Landers..."

"... where several new members of Team Tomorrow will be officially inducted into its prestigious ranks..."

Back stage, awaiting the end of the performance and their unveiling to the world, several novas pace back and forth uncomfortably...

Richter 10 stood there comicaly scratching at his rocky head. "You think they reinforced the stage right? I'd hate to fall through or hurt somebody if the staging gave way."

At a little over 6' tall and over 600 pounds it was a legitimate concern for Richter 10. Being made of stone may have it's advantages but it certainly had it's drawbacks.

"They had better or we'll all look like fools, that's for sure." X says as he's looks over the crowd, from behind the massive stone man.


"I think it's best you come out there last my man."

Elena bites her lip when the crowd cheers, trying nervously to catch glimpses of the audience, and half-whimpering when she does see the quantity of people gathered.

"Why'd they have to make such a big deal of this..." she mutters in her native Spanish, before turning to Richter and giving the rock man a small, nervous smile that admittedly fails to be very reassuring, before switching back to English, "I'm sure they'll have thought of everything... nobody wants to mess something like this up."

As the song continues into its extended ending, a stout stage manager wearing all black and a set of wireless headphones comes in with a clipboard. Her name tag, shaped like the Utopia emblem, says Mawane. She speaks frankly and which is a welcome change from the great many who speak with hushed and awed voices to you. Mawane is a clearly a stage manager first and a cowed baseline second.

"Alright... everyone is ready right? You guys are on in... hey where are Joshua and Kyle? Youve got about 5 min so I hope they didnt go far. Anyhow, slight change of plans. Cestus Pax ended up being able to come and is going to give your introduction himself, rather than Splash. He said to let you know."

Alice smoothes down the front of her dark outfit, looking calm and collected. Those who are particularly observant can see that her fingers shake, and can hear a slight nervous quiver in her voice as she says, "They pay people a lot of money to make sure that things go smoothly, Elena. I'm sure it will be fine."

She gives the pretty woman a quick smile before checking in the mirror to make sure that she still looks good. Her pale foundation is still covering things; her colored hair is hanging properly. She's as ready as she'll ever be... until she hears that Pax will introduce them.

Pax! Wow! Dark Mind is temporarily floored by that revelation, but she quickly hides it back under her carefully-crafted jaded demeanor. Still, deep inside, her little fan-girl is squealing with joy...

A rumbled "Hmm" eminates from Richter 10's stoney chest. Turning to X he says, "Agreed I would hate to cause a problem."

With news of Pax's surprise appearance he mutters, "It looks like they are pulling all the stops. For us, hopefully we won't let them down."

"Yeah your right there big man, this is gonna be one hellva show. Those people out there are gonna go crazy when they see Pax," X replies with touch of nervousness on his voice.

"You ladies ready for this?"

Joshua North calmly and assuredly walks up to the group of his colleagues.

Jshua was looking as impressive as ever for the teams unveiling. Standing over 6 feet tall with well groomed blond hair and intense blue eyes. He was impeccably dressed in Eufiber that mimicked the latest style from Milan. He gave off a majestic and commanding air.

"Please, excuse me for being late," he says mirthfully as he joins the others. "and you're right X. When they see Pax their gonna so crazy they won't notice a thing we do."

There was no resentment in his voice. Joshua understood the need to distract the audience. He had given enough lectures as a professor that he had learned a thing or two about showmanship.

Siggy waits calmly, eyes closed and arms folded, until they are called out. He's trying to maintain his calm, since nothing in his long life has prepared him to step onto a stage in front of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of live viewers. Despite his relaxed pose, he seems tense.

In concession to the African heat, he's dressed in a loose-fitting sand-colored suit, over a pale blue shirt. His anima banner is 'off' at the moment, and he's just the average really tall, kinda old, big-shouldered bald dude.

At the news that Pratima will no longer be introducing them, and that Pax will be their presenter, he looks annoyed.

Mawane, eagle eyed, frowns and presses her headphone reciever. She talks brusquely but clearly "Ok, found Joshua... someone get Jack and get somebody to find Kyle asap! No... you know, hes probably in the control room... I dont care... no we arent going to
"stall" anyone... Yes, I know Pax will make a long speech but... LOOK, GET HIM NOW"

After clicking her headset off she smiles lopsidedly

"Sorry, over staffed and under brained... might be a few moments"

Richter sighs and looks around uselessly for a chair. "You would think that they could have planned this better so that we aren't wasting time standing around twiddling our thumbs."

"That would simply be too easy, Richter"

Joshua had taken up a postion leaning against a wall. "And if you're really worried about breaking the stage maybe you should dorm down," he said thoughfully, "After all, the public loves when a Nova looks like an average person. They say it's comforting."

"I think some people are *less* comforted by the idea that we can look exactly like them, and walk among them unseen. It would be easier for some if we were obviously inhuman aliens and not their own children..."

Siggy is still leaning against the wall, arms crossed, but he's opened his eyes, apparently to stare at Jameson's hands for a moment before he speaks to Joshua.

"Yeah well all this sitting around has me a little ansy now ladies and gents. We've got a chance here to really make a good first impression so let's give the crowd something spectacular when we walk out." X muses to his teammates, as he walks around the stage.

"It doesn't matter what we look like, they're still gonna love us just for being what we are, and I for one am gonna love just as much as them!"

"I hope that's the case", Joshua replied, "I suppose I have less faith in mass-media than you do."

"How do you think this will play out?", he asked after a brief pause, "Do you think we'll need to answer questions or just stand around looking heroic."

"At least it's easy for you guys to look suitably impressive," Elena says, looking at Xavier and Joshua, "I'm going to look like some random baseline girl got lost and wandered up on stage." She sighs, and then an even worse thought seems to dawn on her. "They wouldn't ask us to make a speech or anything, would they?"

"I doubt that they'll have you make speeches. Utopia's PR department would have prepped you all if that were going to happen"

Smiling at Elena he continued, "And don't worry about trying to look impressive. Folks will see you and think 'why, that could be my daughter' or 'She's want I'd like to be if I were a Nova'. An everyday person who just happens to have superpowers. Like I said earlier, 'Normality can be reassuring'.

"I've already got mine ready just in case they ask, but I foresee us just standing around with smiles on our face and waving to the crowd." X chimes in clearly disappointed.

Jack walks in from a different part of backstage to catch some of the comments.

Jack says,

"What, weren't you prepped?"

"Well, of course I was prepped", Joshua replied exasperatedly.

"Are we getting paid to smile?" Dark Mind queries distastefully, pushing aside the curtian a bare inch. It gives her enough room to see out, but not so much that the audience can see her. "I don't recall that in the contract."

Jack gives an easy, but practiced, smile and responds,

"Yep. '...and duties otherwised specified...', something I don't recall exactly about '...interacting in a favorible way with the public...' and then female action figures without a smile don't normally sell well."

"I figure they got you three ways."

Elena sighs, sounding unusually exasperated, "If people today don't smile unless they're paid specifically for it, the world's become a sadder place than I thought," she's tense, almost, and very uncharacteristically, snappy, proof that nerves are getting to her as much as to anyone else, probably more than to anyone else. "You really shouldn't keep that open, you know," she adds, referring to the curtain Alice is holding.

"It's just nerves, I'm not used to the limelight yet. Besides I enjoy my ananymity too much." He says the last with as much of a smile as can be managed with a stone face.

"Elena's right", Joshua continued, "You should at least appear like you're happy to be here. Utopia, therefore, all Nova's will be judged by the image that we put forth. I don't like the shallowness of it either, but I accept it and live up to the responsibility."

He added, "When you have the power we do teenage rebellion attitudes and moodieness can't be tolerated."

"It's not a matter of whether I'm happy or not," Dark Mind says, letting the curtain inch shut. Glancing at Joshua, she calmly adds, "And it's not a matter of 'teenage rebellion or moodiness.' I am what I am, and one of those things is direct. Smiling for money is fine, but saying I'm petulant because I am expressing dismay at the concept means that you don't understand me."

She graces Joshua and Elena both with a smile, friendly and open. "I like to smile," she says, "but I also like to have something real to smile about. Like the chance of having new friends and teammates."

Elena looks at Dark Mind a moment, and then looks down slightly, almost ashamedly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound condescending or anything, but..." her voice trails off a moment there, and when it comes back it's still nervous and apologetic, but it carries the force of strongly held principles behind it, almost turning it into a sort of impromptu speech, "but there's a lot of people out there, and a lot more watching us, alone or in company, in their homes or wherever, that really believe, or want to believe, that we're happy being what we are and where we are, that good-natured and selfless heroes do exist, instead of people working for a fat paycheck at the end of the month. And if we walk out there smiling and waving like there's no place we'd rather be, those people will feel that we're smiling at each one of them, and they'll have a little refill of hope, so that they can go back to their normal lives the next day slightly more relaxed, more cheerful, because they know that something good is happening somewhere, that everything will turn out okay in the end. If all I need to do to manage that is to put on one smile, it hardly needs to be fake, because I'll have more than enough reasons to be smiling."

It almost seems that she realizes what she's said after finishing, and she suddenly becomes very interested in something in the opposite direction from the other novas, and starts to walk off, blushing.

After Elena's words from the heart, Siggy smiles wistfully. "Ah, to be so young again. On the one hand, I fear that you do not live in the same world that I do, and yet on the other hand, I'd pay real money to spend some time in that world..."

Looking at Alice, he adds, "As for 'teenaged rebellion and moodiness,' while the rest of us old farts are content to take the world as it is, warts and all, only those young enough, naive enough, stubborn enough to tilt at windmills and rebel against the 'way things have always been' have any chance of making a *better* world."

"*I'm* certainly not here for money. Any Nova can make more than T2M members get paid in product endorsements alone. The world has changed so much in my lifetime that it's all-but-unrecognizeable," he looks almost lost for a second as his own words remind him how much the world has changed around him, "I want to be *part* of that change, and not just standing by watching it happen..."

Kyle Aarons hustles in from stage right trailed by two staffers and an attractive young woman. His neon irises throb a deep purple as he says a few short words to the staffers and the woman then gives her a brief and casual kiss on the lips.
He makes his way to center stage dressed in the "standard issue" T2M Eufiber. Taking stock of his new companions he's caught rather off-guard by the casual appearance of the rest of the team.

"Sorry I'm running late, Long story. Aren't we supposed to be in uniform for this?"

"Hey the gangs all here. Glad everyone finally made it here. I thought that Mawane was going to have a panic attack if everyone didn't show" as X looks around at Jack and Kyle.

"Nice outfit you got there Kyle"

Siggy cricks his neck and adjusts his sleeves, observing sardonically, "The dress code appears to be relaxed for Team Tomorrow. After all, if 'Skew' can get away with wearing tattered blue jeans, doc martens and a leather vest covered with metal spikes, I'm sure I can get away with dressing like a grown-up."

Jack nods and says,
“I agree with that… but that’s easy to say when you’ve already made enough money so you can afford that choice. On the other hand, well, 8 digits.”

Jack shifts his eufiber to the T2M white and blue 'standard' with gold trim.

"Dress to success. And I'd rather have fan boys look for the uniform so I can take it off and be somewhat casual."

Richter looks whistfully at Jack and Kyle in their Eufiber, "I'm going to have to request some of that stuff. I can't seem to figure out how to attune stuff, and frankly ending battles naked because your clothes can't take a beating is starting to get old."

Richter puts his thumbs in the waistline of his pants and adjusts them below his bare chest. Luckily he has the chisled look down pat, and so he easily gets away with only pants and some rugged boots when in nova form.

"Ah, Pax's uniform has become the standad. I'm sure he'll be flattered." he looks thoughtful for a second, "Probably a safe compromise choice, I'm not sure I have the legs to pull off Ragnarockettes fishnets..." he adds dryly.

He closes his eyes for a moment and listens to Bono holding a note. "I was expecting a single introductory song. It sounds like he's going more for an impromptu concert..."

"I'm not big into the uniform thing either, I rather pefer just to keep it simple wherever I go." X chuckles.

"But I do like the way those uniforms look on the ladies that's for sure."

"Tight clothing leaves nothing to the imagination. In a looser outfit, a woman's body *moves* when she walks. Sometimes a suggestion can be more powerful than a direct statement..."

Mawane, stalking around the room and jabbing the headset again, stops in her tracks when she looks at the group together.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, you are about to make your first public appearance to the ENTIRE WORLD. You have 5 min to get into a uniform... NOW..."

She stops again and puts up a hand to stifle protests, listening intently into her headset.

"Ok, the band is finishing and the announcer is going to cue..."