"Quite a view indeed," I replied. In a gentlemanly manner, I offered Motley my arm as we crossed the beach toward the luncheon, lest she lose her footing. With that giant cartoon robot running loose, I didn't want to take any chances on her getting trampled underfoot. From across the beach, I saw Backjack sprinting directly towards me, his face like a wildman's as his legs pistoned in the sand.

"Jesus Christ!" he shouted frantically at me, pointing to Connor, who was now flying about just offshore. "It's fucking Megatron! I thought he was kidding!"

"Calm down," The Gnostic instructed him coolly. "While his nova form is certainly startling, I don't think it's worth losing your head."

"You don't understand," Backjack retorted. He looked shit scared, as if he'd rather be anywhere else on earth but here. I had never in my life seen Backjack shit scared. I began to wonder if I should be scared too. "Megatron hates me, man! I just know he's about ready to start pounding on me!"

I glanced toward the water and saw Connor jetting about in a non-threatening way. He appeared to be showing his moves to some fans.

"I really don't think he's got revenge on his mind right now," I pointed out.

Apparently Backjack was not impressed by the way The Gnostic and I failed to become alarmed. Without another word he ran farther down the beach, away from the gathering.

"He'll be back," The Gnostic said with a chuckle as we watched our normally truculent friend hoon away as if a demon were chasing him.

The barbecue smelled delicious.

"Do you like barbecue?" I inquired of Motley. I hoped she'd not been unsettled by Backjack's outburst.

Missy, Autumn, and Evan walked together to the main body of the party. Despite her stunning beauty, Autumn's more-human form intimidated Missy much less than her icy form had, and she began to calm down.

I wonder what it's like for all of this to seem routine? she wondered. To this point in her life, "party" had meant a chaste gathering of relatives in someone's back yard or a furtive high school debauch in a basement or a corn field with a keg and a turntable. After meeting so many novas, she imagined that such festivities would quickly lose their appeal. (Keggers had never been her idea of a good time, but enough of her friends enjoyed them that she had no choice but to go along if she wanted to be social. Such is the way of teen life in Iowa.)

"The barbecue smells delicious," Missy observed to both Autumn and Evan, unintentionally echoing King Felix' thoughts from a moment earlier*. As they waited their turn behind an extremely colorful teenaged nova and her nondescript nova friend, Missy looked around at the gathering. She'd never seen so many nova luminaries in one place, and her attention hardly knew where to settle, since so many of them were inhumanly attractive or charismatic.

"How many people here do you know?" she asked. She glanced from Autumn to Evan and back again, indicating the question was for both of them.


(* It's almost as if they have the same writer or something!)

Gabriel was even more beautiful up close. Divine savored the image and noted every detail. It was as if time had stopped, and she had an eternity to examine the image. Freezing an image was a little benefit she receved her eruption. So far, he had not seen her, and was speaking with several other nova females. One Divine recognized as Alessa Neri, and the other Caramel Bath. Both women were extremely beautiful, and Katelee knew that they were competition for Gabriel's attention.

Divine walks up to the group speaking with Gabriel and introduces herself to the three of them. She holds out her hand for Gabriel to shake, and with a bright smile says: "Hi, I'm Katelee, you must be Gabriel Law."

Aftef introducing herself to Gabe, she does the same with Alessit and Caramel.

Divine's introduction was Hero's cue to take a step back and then vacate the scene. She was too beautiful for him and he felt the fool for thinking otherwise. He must always be hiding behind his mask and she lived in the limelight.

Hero walked over to the table and put his food down. From there, it was just a short trip over to the wood line and the long walk home.

Daniel turned and shook the hand of the stranger as his mind raced to come up with a name.
"That would be me", he answered, "and you would be Troy Campbell. How is the Utopian thing working out for you."
Rumor had it that Troy was heterosexual and in a relationship with Catalyst from the West Coast. He wasn't sure what he could do for the resilient nova, but he didn't mind helping out if he could. Troy seemed like 'good people'.
"What can I do for you?"

Mikita had no idea what she meant by 'show'. Were people going to walk around and brag about what they could do, like they were 'showing off'. It was at thims moment that he realized that as an univited guest who happened to acquire an invite, that he lacked the necessary information. He tried his best to understand what she was speaking about

"I will go to the show" Dustbin finally responded. "Will everyone be a part of it?"

(Double botch on Intelligence + Academics (culture) roll)

"Hey. You were dating Lina, right?"

Troy didn't smile, and he felt weird not doing so. This was no time to smile. "I saw her a few days back. What the hell happened between you two, and that other girl? Dark Spiral?" Troy hoped that Ravenshire had already heard about the fight, or this would be the most awkward beach meeting yet.

Gabriel stood and greeted this new lovely vision that introduced herself.

"Hi, I'm Katelee, you must be Gabriel Law." She said.

"Indeed I am." Gabriel kissed the back of her palm lightly. "We were just discussing music, you are welcome to join us." With a gesture he motioned next to Alessa, although there was still ample room on his side. With a smile ha sat back down gently rubbing Kara's back when he was situated.

"You feeling a little better now?" He asked her with a tone genuine concern.

If it had been in his nature to pale and blanch, Ravenshire would have. Instead, he chose his words carefully and remained calm but stern.

"Is Lina okay?"
Daniel took a deep breath then added,
"Lina and I used to be together. Dark Spiral ruined our relationship. She attacked Lina's brother Zach, putting him in the hospital and he may have lost his sight for life. It was the second time she's put me in the hospital."
"Anyway, how was Lina when you last saw her? Did she need any help?"

"I enjoy music alot." Divine said with a coy smile. And then her expression changed as if she had forgotten something, but suddenly remembered. In all her excitement, she had forgotten about her fellow traveller, Hero. "Oh my, where are my manners, I want to introduce you to"... Divine looked over her shoulder and around her and didn't see Hero.

"Will you excuse me please, I seemed to have lost someone." It was not that she was interested in Hero, but for her to completely abandon him would be rude. Besides, he proved himself to be useful, and that was something that Divine valued.

She didn't see him. Since there were lots of other people around, she would have to move to the fringes to find him. After a minute of searching, her enhanced perception saw a masked figure duck into a nearby tree-line. It took only a brief time for her to locate him.

"Hero, where are you going?" Divine asked, slightly confused. "I was going to introduce you to Gabe and the others."

“None.” Autumn answered, her tone suddenly becoming sarcastic and spiteful. “I’ve been half dead in a hospital for eight months. Thanks to my idiot sister, who is proof mind you, that she is so worthless that she managed screwed up an eruption.”

Pensively she crossed her arms, holding each forearm instead of tucking away her hands, which did nothing but place her bust on further display. “But I certainly came here intent on meeting new people, so…”

She froze (figuratively).

“Puh… Puh… Pew..” She stammered out, fixed on something like a deer caught in on coming headlights. “Th-that’s Gabriel Law. THE Gabriel Law…” Realizing she was staring she composed herself and got a grip. “I expected someone… you know, taller. He’s really not all that cute…” She lied and was a bit reluctant to take any more steps in the direction of the handsome nova, but she was hungry and her nova metabolism demanded payment, in full. “C’mon, let’s get some food.”

As the trio continued towards the food every other step was punctuated with a question. “Is he looking?” “Does my hair look okay?”

He lingered around the edge of the woods, unsure about taking those final steps toward leaving. Her voice surprised him.

"I thought you would rather be hanging around the other beautiful people without me hanging around," he spoke honestly.
"Seriously, I'm not one to ever be seen without my mask and ... you and I are from different worlds. I don't belong here."

He sighed and turned fully to face Divine.
"You belong among the lights and glitter ... and the power. That's not me and I would rather see you happy than be a drag on your good time. Its better that I go."

No, but everyone is welcome to watch at my home. Alessa sang the music for the show and I'm one of the actors in it." He sets down on the now-visible sandbar and sighs.

"Alot of blood Sweat and power went into teach episode, some more than others. I hope that it does well." He rubs his right torso with his left hand, remembering the pain of several episodes, and just how far he'd gone, willingly for everyone.

Troy paused. Wait. She was telling the truth.. Troy didn't know what he should say. I help kick your not-crazy.. well.. less crazy ex-girlfriends ass in order to protect your more crazy exgirlfriends ass. That wouldn't cut it.

"I'm not so sure. Listen.. " Troy told the story of what happened in Chicago, starting with Dark Spiral and Catalyst showing up out of the blue, to everyone disbelieving Lina, to Lina barely able to walk away while Dark Spiral left fine. "To be fair, Lina really shouldn't have tried busting her up like that." He added at the end to try and rationalize his actions further, hoping Ravenshire wouldn't kick his ass.

"My Next CD? It comes out on January, I'm having some trouble composing songs lately, but it's just a bit of a road block! I will get through or around it sooner or later." Alessa put one of the perkiest smiles any person could muster and and continiued "I have been trying to gather insipration from other Novas, Novox songs, Te'rr songs and from going on Vacations...by the way, never listed to Te'rr while eating something... so far nothing, but I have something already tought up for a song. You should ask me for tickets whenever you want a pair, the Record Company goes insane when Novas want to go to my concerts."

Alessa shone like a sun, as more and more people got near the table to talk to Gabriel obviously.

Karrie almost laughed, but she all too clearly remembered Mikita's serious tone when he said, 'demon.' Somehow, laughing at the crazy nova seemed like a bad idea. "Actually, Mikita, the show is Conner's show, and I'm a fan of the giant robot genre. So I'm real excited, but I think that some of the people down there are more interested in meeting other novas. Oh, and getting laid." The last was said as Karrie glanced toward the picnic table of people around Gabe Law. Everytime she looked over there, she saw another person. Geez, but those girls are all worked up! He's just some incredibly handsome, rich rock star! He'd be great in bed, but it's not like you can talk to him.

Anger ... relief ... confusion ...
Ravenshire went through all these as Troy laid out his tale. Lina was still alive. He could care less about Dark Spiral's health, save that she wasn't dead. It took him a moment to focus back in on the Troy standing before him. He shook his hand and looked him square in the eye.
"Thank you for bring this information to me. Lina disappeared a few weeks ago and I've had no word."
Daniel looks over to the surf and mutters,
"Chicago ... crap."
Once more, he thanks Troy and begins heading toward the parking lot at a quick walk.
What the hell has she gotten herself into and what can I do.

Kara glanced up as Divine sat down, feeling a touch of wariness as yet another woman began circling Gabe like a shark in the water. She found it all very tiring, and wondered how he could deal with it so calmly. Maybe he was immune by now.

Still, she smiled and nodded at Divine, noted with irritation that the woman didn't even ask for her name. Ya know, ya could just drop ta yer hands an' knees an' sniff at his crotch. Ah'm sure tha'd be just as subtle, honey. An' far more amusin' for us...

She almost laughed when Gabe was so solictious of her. "No, sugar, I'm doin' ok, though," she told him, smiling. "There's just a lot of people around."

"I'm Kara," she said to Divine, smiling politely, working to keep her accent out of her voice. "I think I've seen you on the boards, at the forum, right?" But her question was lost as the woman got up and hurried away, looking for the friend she'd lost.

After Alessa answered her question, Kara said, "You're listening to Te'rr for inspiration? Isn't Te'rr a bit...awful?"

"We are at a party." Divine said with a smile. "There is no need to be a stick in the mud. So I'm beautiful and you wear a mask. It doesn't mean that we can't hang out".

Divine put her arm into his and turned him in the direction of the beach. She was not going to let him get away that easy. "Let me introduce you to the others, and we can hang out with them for awile."

"If you want to leave then, I won't stop you." she finished, and then with a wink: "But if you do, we can't go swimming"

Hero looks longingly off through the woods. He struggled with the words once more. He was always like this around her.
"I'll go back with you, but I think its a mistake."
He looks toward her and smiles behind his mask.
"You have a habit of making me feel I should do things I don't think I should be doing."
After that last complaint, Hero follows along with Divine back toward the gathering of breath-taking novas.
"Hello everyone," Hero says boldly to the three. "I'm known as Hero. Its a pleasure to meet all of you."

"You mean that Mech here has his own show?" Mikita asked from behind his scarfed face. "I would like to watch it. Will he perform tonight?"

Mikita was not too familiar with her use of the word 'laid'. He had heard it used when describing hens and the act of lying down. Something told him that it had another, less provincial term. When he saw Karrie look longingly at an unbelievably handsome nova, at a table by the cooking fire, he could guess what it was. For him to get 'laid', he would have to take it. He did not possess such beauty.

The more he looked at the beautiful man, the more jealous he became. Why were the spirits mocking him by throwing such beauty in front of his disfigured face? In the days before the Colonial Powers, one would gain their enemies power by consuming them. He wondered if consuming such a beautiful creature, would allow him to posess that beauty for himself?

Akaisha smiles and shrugs, “I’ve always been a bit of a bookworm. When I wasn’t studying, I was organizing events through SITE with my university. That really took up a lot of my time but it was worth it. I would love to travel more and see the world but I’ve never been able to do that. I’m just out of college anyway. I’m not really picky with food. I’ve always figured I was lucky enough to get food when there’s so many that don’t, so I shouldn’t be too particular.”

She shrugs and looks back at the water, watching the events going on, “Not too interesting really. If I hadn’t erupted, I’d be pretty boring.”

"Oh yes! Te'rr is a horrible noise that people insist on calling a music genre, but I listen to it because it shares something with my music that nothing else shares." Alessa looked right at Kara's sunglassed eyes and winked. "Let's just say I like to add an extra spice to my music."

Stopping herself from eating her 5th rib, Alessa craned her neck sligthly as she tried to watch all over the beach and into the Paparazis. "Seems this gathering attracted more people than Connor expected, I count 12 people and I'm sure I'm missing some." Waving a bit towards Connor and Coyote on their flight, Alessa got up from her seat, the power that Gabriel Law held over her weaning over time the more she spent with him and realized he was like any billionaire rockstar. (:p)

"I wonder, do Novas get cramped up for swimming after recently eating?"

Extra spice? Who is she, Emeril? Kara was aware of Novox, but she didn't really listen to it much. She wasn't an audio woman, really, as if that wasn't apparent. Still, it would be rude to mention this to the woman whose career was music. "That makes sense," Kara lied, nodding and smiling politely.

She watched Divine walk back, leading a young man in a mask. What the hell is this? she wondered, feeling a smile set itself into place. "Hi, Hero," she said after he'd identified himself. "I'm Kara. It's good to meet you, too." She pointed to her companions and said, "This is Alessa, a singer, and Gabe Law, a...nother singer as well as so many other things. So... I have to ask - do you do what your name suggests? Or do you do something else?"

Looking at this woman it was hard not to be tongue-tied. If all nova women were to look this way, Hero knew it would take a lot of will-building exercises to face the future. Still, she was speaking to him and he felt compelled to answer. First, he nodded to the other two novas then turned to face her.
I should have ran away when I noticed Divine coming after me.
"It would be most accurate to say, Ms. Caramel, that I try. I find people that need help and I try to help them as best I can. Usually my assistance is of a physical nature."
Hero swallowed hard.
"I'm just starting out in this, but I've had a few successes. I am confident I will get better at what I want to be in time. Does that answer your question adequately?"

Was she mocking him? Many people did. How bad would that be, to have all these wealthy and powerful people belittle what he wanted to do? Did having money so readily at their disposal make them immune to the suffering of those who want without. They all, Divine included, didn't look like they had missed a meal in a long, long time.
If they mock me he decided, it won't be so bad. No worse than standing in a dumpster and looking up at the glowing towers of glass.

Connor felt the familiar twinge and stopped . "Hold on tightly to me both of you. Unless you want to get wet." With that he sped at over a hundred and fifty miles per hour back to the party on the beach, only just making it back to within 200 yards of the site. His feet sent up mounds of sand as they clawed through the beach. Finally, as his form finally began to return to normal, he brought his hands to his shoulders and waited for them to climb on. He let his passengers down from his shoulders even as he shifted and shrank back to his natural form. His eufiber reformed into casual swim trunks and a white t-shirt.

"Well, that happened faster than normal. Sorry about the bumpy ride there at the end. Feel free to rejoin the party, Me I have to get back to the grill. They're bound to have eaten most of the food I left by now."

'Hey, I'm Divine, it is so nice to meet you guys." She said as she shook the other's hands. Speaking to Gabe and Alessa; "I love your music." And smiling at Caramel, she smiled; "Hello."

While Hero made small talk with Caramel, Divine decided that she would try and talk to the musician, Gabe. While Caramel was distracted.

"I hear that you are recently singled..at least that is what the latest tabloids say." Divine was not ryig to be too obvious in her intentions, but more like someone who keeps current on celebrity affairs. He is so hot and rich! If I could get him to want me, I could have everything a girl needs! She wondered, as she tried her best not to undress him with her eyes.

Caduceus almost had to laugh at Autumn's reaction to Mr. Law. Sure, it probably happened a lot, but he still found it somewhat amusing. Turning to Missy,
"I barely knew two of the novas here. Not well enough to call friends, but good enough to call if I was in some trouble."

Looking at the food, Evan's stomach rumbled.
"Food first indeed," he says rubbing his stomach. With a touch of insight,
"Autumn, you could suggest the whole table go swimming afterwards, if you like. Just keep it in the shallows."
Evan figured that Gabe in a swimsuit would be even better for you fellow Utopian and he could sit back on the beach and watch. Caduceus also hoped Missy would be okay with this development, but was unsure about what to say.

Oh dear. A real martyr-altruist, Kara thought, keeping her expression pleasant and polite. "Interesting," she said softly, nodding. "We need more people willing to stop and help their fellow man - or woman. I can't really stop physical problems myself, but I give often to charities. My favorite type, I guess you could call it, are Haitian orphanages. My father was raised in one, a good one, but I remember him telling me some awful stories about children who came there from another facility."

Kara took a sip of the soda sweating in front of her, then turned the conversation to another point of interest to her. "I am curious about your relationship with the police; do you work with them, or is all of this effort outside their purview?"

Karrie whooped happily as they shot back toward the party, grinning broadly. It never occured to her that Conner might lose control or drop them. Instead, she reveled in the joy of the flight.

On the beach, Karrie quickly scrambled down his body, her feet hitting the sand. Her fingers caught his hand for balance, and she was slow to release his hand. I held his hand!

"Thanks for the ride," she said, unaware that she was giving him the Dineh family doe eyes. "It was fun!" She glanced at Mikita to see if he shared in her pleasure but found his expression swaddled under the scarf. "Did you enjoy it, Mikita?" she asked as the three of them started to return to the party.

"No swimming for thirty minutes after eating?" Missy said to Evan with a smile as she piled red onion slices on top of an oversized hamburger patty. She scooped a double helping of barbecue beans onto her plate and stepped aside. "Doctor Evan, I'm from Iowa and even we know that's an old wive's tale!"

Missy glanced at Gabriel Law again. He was still awesome.

"So that's Gabriel Law," she said to Autumn. "I guess he's really cute, for a guy I mean. Do you have a thing for him?"

"My friends?" I asked, then recovered quickly. How awkward! I'd been talking to The Gnostic and Backjack but had not introduced them to Motley. "Good heavens, where are my manners indeed?" I smiled as graciously as I could.

"This is The Gnostic," I said, indicating my arcane friend. He smiled and took her hand for a moment and actually bowed politely. I halfway expected him to kiss her ring as if she were The Pope, but he did not.

"I am most fortunate to meet you," he said graciously. "And I hope that this is the beginning of a prosperous relationship."

"And that," I said pointing down the beach, "Is Backjack. He thinks that Connor wants to stomp on him or something, so he's run off. I'm sure he'll be back soon."

I retrieved two plates and handed one to Motley.