Disclaimer: Don't own Incredibles, don't own Aberrant. Pixar/Disney/Brad Bird owns the former. White Wolf still owns the latter (but that will change when I win the mega-millions...yeah, I know...I'm dreaming). CTV is owned by...well...CTV.

Author's Notes: Okay, just another short update. Sorry. As usual, thanks to everyone for sticking around with me on this. As usual, feedback and comments are welcome. Not much here. No real fighting...sorry. And I'll level with you, the Aftermath arc won't have much in the way of fighting, but don't worry...we'll see some violence soon.

"It was...it was...a demon, a black demon. He killed the angels...one by one..."

"All I know is the power went out, and everyone's electronics went ape-shit, then something happened downtown. People we're freaking out, running. I thought I saw some monstrous creature fighting some fucker in black armor, but ran for cover when buildings started falling around me..."

"It was Geryon...the Teragen...he was there. He did this..."

"Yeah, Geryon was here, but he was fighting some dude in black armor who had these funky blue energy things on his arms..."

"What fight? I was too busy trying to get out of a car accident caused by all the signals going out. Then the quake hit."

"My...my daughter. She was at the Utopia building when the quake hit..."

-Excerpts of multiple interviews conducted by CTV reporter Ted Richards

"I don't know, Gregory Paladino. Do you think it's safe to check out a dangerous area with the son of the man who killed your father?"

Greg was momentarily speechless as his brain processed what he just heard. At first, he thought he heard wrong, but that still didn't keep the icy tone out of his voice when he finally recovered enough to speak. "Excuse me?"

"It wasn't that hard to figure out," said David Flynn, shrugging away the implied threat in Greg's voice. "After all, the NSA was very thorough in providing me the files on all the media and medical personnel coming down here from LA. Not to mention the fact that you were following me around without Richards, constantly shooting footage around camp, but you kept following me. Then there's the added bonus of my mind being linked to the 'net and able to access anything. When your name popped up, it was only a few minutes of cross-checking with various databases and getting a detailed history on you. I won't bore you with the details but let's start with the basics. Gregory Paladino, age 27, father Simon Paladino aka "Gazerbeam". You have two half siblings, Lydia, age 22, and Brian, age 20, both are in college. I could go on, but I have other things to do other than dig further."

"You went too far already," Greg snapped.

"You're right," Flynn replied. "It's none of my business, but when one of the kids of the supers my biological father murdered shows up, it's only logical I do some research. Don't get me wrong, I figure there are some people, like you, who hate me for who I am and would love to get some payback. However, there are far more powerful people out there who hate me for what I am and would have me killed for it." He then smiled at Greg. "Shit, they'd probably have done it by now if it weren't for the fact that I have some contingency plans in place in case they did have me taken out."

Greg was about to retaliate with a snide remark, but held back as he realized what David was saying.

More powerful people? This kid sounds paranoid…although, I would be too if I was a hyper-intelligent young CEO who seems to be at odds with Utopia. I wonder what he meant by 'contingency plans'.

He mentally shuddered at that thought. "So what do you want from me, Flynn?" he asked. "A confrontation or something, maybe a chance to somehow make amends?"

Flynn shook his head. "No, nothing like that. I'm not going to apologize for something I didn't do, but I figure someone will eventually try to make me atone for the proverbial 'sins of the father'. Someone already tried that a few days ago, even though, unlike you, they didn't lose any family members." He smiled again, gesturing to the fading black eye. "Then again, unlike you, that particular little shit is an egotistical drama queen. And while I'd love to settle the score with him, I have real problems to contend with. This disaster and Utopia are my primary concerns."

"So what do you want from me?" Greg asked again.

"The same thing I asked the Parrs," Flynn said. "A truce, preferably a permanent one, that's all. Like I said before, I'm not my biological father and I have other things to deal with. The last thing I want is an angry super coming after me out of some sick and twisted sense of vengeance."

"What makes you think I have powers?"

Flynn smirked at him. "Just call it a hunch. You and your siblings might not be registered with Utopia or the NSA, but that could just be smart judgment on your part."

"And you're threatening to reveal my secret to the world if I don't agree to this 'truce'."

Flynn shook his head. "No, nothing of the sort and, to be honest, I don't care if you have powers or not. All I want is to go about my business and not worry about someone like you gunning for me."

"If I were 'gunning' for you, Flynn," Greg said with an answering smirk of his own, "we wouldn't be having this conversation and you'd be ashes right now."

There were a couple moments of awkward silence as both men stared each other down until, unexpectedly, they both began to laugh.

"Okay," Flynn said as he shook his head again. "I guess we've done the cock swinging part."

"Yeah, we did."

"So, are we cool?" Flynn asked offering his hand.

"No," Greg replied, but he still shook Flynn's hand, "but I'm not gunning for you. However, I don't trust you, Flynn. It's obvious you've got some sort of agenda."

"Of course I do," Flynn chuckled. "But it could be argued that everyone has an agenda...even you. Now, you might want to wake up your co-worker over there and let her know we'll be meeting up with Lavielle."

Greg watched the young man get up and leave, then returned his attention back to the footage he was editing. However, after a couple minutes, he shut down his laptop and pushed it aside, thinking about the conversation he just had. He was expecting a confrontation with Flynn, but this wasn't how he had imagined it. Instead of a potentially violent showdown, it was a simple conversation and, as much as Greg hated to admit it, David Flynn made a very convincing argument.

However, that simply brought up more questions.

As far as Flynn is concerned, I'm not the enemy, that much is obvious. In fact he seems more hostile towards Utopia than me. It's almost as if he knows something...but what could it be?

After a few seconds he shook his head and gave up. He could worry about conspiracy theories later. Right now, he had to wake up Maria and find Ted, they had a job to do.

The seven of them stood there at the makeshift helipad that was set up on the outskirts of the camp, watching as the three SH-60 Sea Hawks landed in front of them. Two of craft were painted in the blue and gold color scheme of Project Utopia, but the third craft they escorted, in contrast, was black with blue and gold trim. Unlike its escorts, the third craft also sported the logo of The Aeon Foundation instead of Project Utopia.

As the craft landed and powered down, Greg found himself mentally comparing the three choppers that brought David Flynn and his crew to those belonging to the Utopia group. Yes, all the craft were military-grade craft, but the CH-47s that Flynn brought down were obviously meant to be "workhorses" and to perform rescue and salvage operations. The Sea Hawks bringing the Utopia contingent down could also perform the same tasks, but they were not configured for it.

They're configured for more than just escort duty, and the heavy weapons make it obvious they are not here for a rescue effort. This is about power and intimidation. At least Flynn and his crew came here to help; this group is here to send a message to Flynn.

He glanced at the others to see their reactions and if Lavielle's attempt at intimidation was working. Ted stood there, his face was calm and collected as usual whenever he was reporting a story, though, after working with him for so long, Greg could tell there was some disgust there. Ted disliked it when authority figures went out of their way to try to project their power on others and he tended to ask his more biting questions when that happened.

Let's hope Lavielle keeps it simple, because this already doesn't look good.

He took a moment to study the other five people; David Flynn, Jake Peters, Penny Sefton, Damon Best, and a ten foot tall rock-like creature wearing goggles and a headset named Larry. Peters and Sefton flanked Flynn while Larry and Best stood a few feet away from them discussing something being displayed on a data-pad being held by Larry. None of them looked impressed or intimidated by the blatant display of power from the Utopia group. In fact, Greg saw Flynn's lips form into a smirk. Larry and Best were only giving the craft the slightest amount of attention, but that didn't seem too surprising to Greg; the two were engineers and were more concerned with setting up/repairing equipment and focusing on aid efforts.

Larry shocked Greg and Ted when he came out of the cargo hold of one of Sefton's craft, but it wasn't the rock-like creature's scary appearance, it was the techno-babble that started coming out of his mouth that caught them off guard. Within minutes of his arrival, Larry and Damon Best were already in conversation and coordinating efforts to set up the medical facility and the camp. Within a couple hours, the place was up and running and he and Damon were making regular trips to the city to assist with the rescue effort. Greg had heard it mentioned among some of the SST staff that Larry could "power down" to a human form, but hadn't fully recovered from being assaulted by the Utopia group that had attempted to storm SST a month ago.

So they stood there as they watched the Aeon/Utopia contingent disembark from their craft. Armed personnel stepped out of the two escort choppers and took up positions in front of their craft. A couple minutes later, the Aeon chopper's cargo door opened and Phillipa Lavielle stepped out, flanked by Saxon, the current acting leader of T2M Europe and the nova known as Stalwart. Greg thought he heard a snarl and looked over to see Larry starting to move forward, but being held back by Best.

"Easy man," he heard Best say. "It's obvious they picked him to goad you into doing something stupid."

"I wonder what that's about," Ted said. Apparently, he was also studying the rest of the group.

"Beats me,"Greg replied, "but I'm thinking Lavielle selected those two as her guards because we pissed off Saxon when we arrived and I'm guessing Stalwart has a history with Flynn's group."

"Well, this is going to definitely get interesting," Ted said as he resumed his 'cold and professional' look. "Keep recording, let's hope we don't get end up in the middle of a firefight. We don't need the ratings that badly."

Behind Lavielle and her guards, N!Channel reporter Erin Reid and MSNBC reporter William Brenner stepped out of the craft along with their camera crew. Greg couldn't help smirking.

It figures, get the two most sycophantic networks to come out and put a positive spin on this disaster.

He managed to hide his own disgust because he had seen how some of the Utopia friendly media were trying to marginalize or play down what Flynn and the crew of Camp Makeshift had accomplished. On the other hand, he couldn't blame them for trying since all the reports coming from Ted and the other unaffiliated network reporters shot most of the pro-Utopia stories down. It was kind of funny, in a way, to see the Utopia-biased reporters broadcast their stories and then have to modify or retract them minutes after news from Camp Makeshift came out, especially the interviews with some of the refugees. Even now, as Lavielle and her crew approached, Greg was wondering how the Utopia media was going to spin it.

I can see the headlines now on the 'net. "Hot blonde socialite/aristocratic leader of organization meets leader of renegade faction". Damn…I have gotten pessimistic.

David was only vaguely aware of his surroundings. His primary focus was on Phillipa Lavielle, director of the Aeon Foundation. He knew they would eventually meet, it was inevitable, but he hadn't expected it to happen this way. He knew most of the general public saw a beautiful woman who headed one of the most powerful organizations in the world, but that was what she permitted them to see. However, David knew the truth about her. He had known since the events of Redfield when he had linked to Aeon's network, forcing them to wipe out the entire town to prevent the breach.

And I'm certain she knows a lot about me since Aeon originally funded Pine's scientific endeavors.

Then he saw the reporters and the two novas following Lavielle fall back. Lavielle continued several steps further then stopped about half-way between her group and David's. She smiled and nodded, but David understood what she was doing. This was confirmed when he glanced at the CTV news crew who were suddenly having problems with their equipment.

She's calling me out, wants to talk out of earshot of the cameras. Might as well hear what she has to say.

"Stay here," he said to Jake and the others. "Apparently she wants to talk."

"You think she can be trusted?" Jake asked.

David shook his head. "No," he replied, "but she's not stupid either, so I doubt she'll try anything. She wants to talk out of range of the cameras' audio. Just keep an eye on her nova friends and don't do anything to give her media suck-ups something to use, okay?"

He then stepped forward and made his way to where Lavielle stood, stopping a few feet in front of her. "Director Lavielle," he said, nodding his head once in acknowledgment.

The blond woman smiled at him, but he noticed there was no warmth in her eyes, just a cold and calculating predator sizing up a possible kill. "Mr. Flynn, we finally meet. I take it you're using your ability to interfere with the equipment of my media personnel?"

David allowed himself a tiny smile, gesturing at the tiny cross pendant Lavielle was wearing. "Just like you're wearing a device to scramble any footage my people might try to record. You do know that I can shut it down, right?"

"Why don't you?"

"Because I wanted to hear what you have to say," David said. "You know; the usual rhetoric and veiled threats…that sort of thing."

Lavielle laughed, but David didn't find any warmth in that. "Oh my," she chuckled, "subtlety really isn't your strong suit, is it?"

"Not really," David replied. "I prefer to get right to the heart of the matter, especially when dealing with an enemy."

"We don't have to be enemies, David," Lavielle said. She almost sounded concerned, but David knew it was false sympathy. "If we had only known that Pine was conducting his own genetic experiments, we would have intervened. We never realized he was THAT brilliant."

"Bullshit. You knew he was brilliant, you just didn't think he was brilliant enough to hide it from you. You also would have probably taken his research, killed him, and then had your own people working on it."

Lavielle stared at him for a couple seconds in dead silence, and then nodded. "You have a point," she admitted, "something like you would have been considered dangerous, but still. He managed to genetically engineer a nova on his first attempt which even you have to admit was impressive."

David answered with a cold look of his own. "Unlike the line of failures they went through before they got you?" he asked.

The Aeon Director's eyes narrowed to slits at that revelation. "Well, well…you really managed to get that far." Though there was a hint of amusement when she spoke, David could also sense the venom in her voice. "Tell me, little one, what do you know?"

"I know that Project Kronos was merely the first stage of a plan," David said, ignoring the woman's patronizing tone. "I also know that you would have proceeded to the next stage if Galatea hadn't exploded." He smiled at her again, noticing that his remark actually made her rear back slightly, telling him that he had hit a nerve. "That must have sucked," he continued, "Project Phoenix derailed by a 'freak accident'."

"A temporary setback," Phillipa said after taking a moment to recover. "And you seem to know a lot about Project Phoenix."

"I know enough."

"Then why don't you come forward with what you know and expose us?"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" David said. "Young mega-genius comes forward with a wild claim about a clandestine attempt to try and take over and reshape the world. If I did that, it would cause a lot of chaos and you guys would waste no time in eliminating me and then you would have your media drones put up a bunch of BS about how I was mentally unstable. Chances are, if you did it quick enough, you might convince a majority of the public of that and then pick off those who didn't buy it. I don't know…maybe you would create some sort of emergency, cause some disaster in an area where most of those people were located." His smiled again at her. "And then you would come in, perform some rescue or aid effort, but I'm sure there would be few survivors."

For the first time in their conversation, Lavielle's eyes registered emotion. Though only for a moment, a flash of anger could be seen in her eyes and David knew his comment hit home. "You have a very vivid imagination, Mr. Flynn," she finally said.

"Not really," David said, his smile getting bigger. "You were willing to kill an entire town of six-thousand innocent people and sacrifice most of your employees in that facility located there, just to get rid of me." Then he shrugged. "What's a few thousand more?"

"And do you really think you can stop us?"

He simply shrugged in response to her question.

After a couple more moments of silence and staring each other down, Phillipa Lavielle nodded her head, reached up, and thumbed the small cross shaped pendant she wore. "Very well," she said. "You will be allowed to go into Zone Red, but those support teams must be with you at all times."

David nodded as well and mentally stopped the jamming on the Utopia media personnel. "Fine," he said. He turned to walk away, but stopped to look over his shoulder. "Just one question Director Lavielle."

"Yes?"

"What did happen to the Americas cell of T2M?"

"That, Mr. Flynn, is classified."

David smiled and shook his head as he rejoined his crew. "Of course it is," he said, "of course it is."

Greg silently cursed as the digitized haze that was his camera feed suddenly cleared up. He must have said something out loud because Ted leaned over to whisper to him.

"Problem?"

"Not anymore," Greg said as he focused in on Flynn who was now returning from his little talk with Lavielle. "There was something jamming my gear and screwing up my visuals."

Ted didn't seem too surprised. "You weren't the only one. The Utopia crew on the other side looked like they were having difficulties as well. It does kind of suck though, I'm sure that conversation would have made for some interesting news.

From what I saw, I'm not sure I want to know the whole conversation, Greg thought. What Ted didn't know is that Greg was a nova, a second-generation nova. And like his father, Greg did possess certain abilities. The heat-vision, the X-ray vision, and the night vision were great, but he always liked his telescopic vision the best. Greg also learned how to read lips a few years back which worked well with his natural born abilities. While he didn't get a clear enough look at David Flynn's face, he got a good look at Lavielle's. What he read frightened the hell out of him.

Don't know what Flynn said, but just her side of the conversation alone scares the shit out of me. What the fuck is "Phoenix"? And what's so important about it?

"Okay, people," Greg heard Flynn say, bringing him back to the present, "we got our marching orders. Sefton, I need you and Best up in the air in one of the Chinooks. Larry, go with them in case they need the extra muscle or some 'MacGuyver' work on the equipment."

The large rock monster groaned and shook his head, sliding his rocky palm across his face. "Aw, man, you just had to go there, didn't you?" His remark got chuckles from the others, including Greg.

Flynn grinned at him. "Yes, I went there. Face it, you're really good at rigging something up if we run into something unexpected and, don't take this the wrong way, it wouldn't be a good idea for you to walk around in your nova form. We'll be going through some unstable terrain and the last thing I want is for you to step on what you think is solid ground and fall through a pane of window glass belonging to a downed sky-scraper. Granted, the fall might not kill you, but it will hurt any of us who might end up falling with you."

"True," Larry said, nodding in agreement.

Then Flynn's smile faded. "It would also be handy to have you up in the air because, if we do run into something, you can jump in when needed."

Larry nodded again and then fell back into conversation with Damon Best as the two of them began to follow Penny Sefton to one of her helicopters.

"Jake, get one of the medical Hummers and a couple of staffers. I'd prefer two, but if they can only spare us one, we'll take it."

Jake Peters frowned at his employer's order. "You're not going with me?"

David Flynn shook his head. "No," he replied, turning his attention to Greg and Ted. "I'll be riding in the lead with them."

"You sure that's wise?"

"Probably not, but I think they'd be really stupid if they were to try taking me out when I'm with a live and embedded news crew." David's grin returned. "The last thing Lavielle wants right now is another incident."

"But you really don't think they'll try something?" This time it was Ted asking the question.

Flynn turned to look at the reporter and chuckled. "Of course they'll try something," he said. "But I doubt they'll do it now, especially when we're beaming it out live."

Phillipa Lavielle watched from the shade of her helicopter as David Flynn gave orders to his crew and had come to the conclusion that she had underestimated him. Her first read on the young man was that he was a pompous and arrogant little punk who would eventually be brought to heel or simply "dealt with" permanently. But now, she knew differently; Flynn's constant belittling of Utopia, his snide comments about Team Tomorrow, his constant goading of Caestus Pax…it was all an act.

The young man she met on the helipad was not an arrogant little punk; he was a young man with an agenda of his own. She could see it in his eyes that he, like Aeon, was playing the long game.

And the fact that he mentioned Project Phoenix tells me that he knows more than we suspected, but he has refused to come forward with what he knows; why?

The reason he gave her sounded like a logical one, but she also knew it to be a lie. Again, that look in his eyes told her that he was playing at something else. For a moment, she had considered arranging an accident or some sort of incident to get rid of this enemy, but she immediately dismissed that idea when it came up. In fact, she regarded David Flynn as a useful tool.

It was a Proteus operative manipulating Utopia personnel and assets that made Flynn actively engage them, forcing them to unleash Buddy Pine.

She smiled as she recalled the high body count Buddy Pine had racked up since escaping from his prison. Slaughtering Mexico City, the crown jewel of Utopia's achievements, was a little extreme, but Phillipa knew that, in the end, it was a small price to pay.

The world needs a monster; a great evil to fear…might as well let Pine fill that roll. And if he can take out his bastard son in the process, that would be even better. Hopefully, Flynn will do enough damage to Proteus before he's killed.

Of course, all that planning did rely on one small, but important, detail: Pine had to succeed in killing Flynn. On the other hand, if Flynn managed to defeat his father, there was another scenario.

Evidence would be released that there was a secret cabal within Utopia and they were responsible for Buddy Pine being alive and unleashed on the world. Thetis and her inner circle would be revealed and removed, allowing me to "reluctantly" appoint a new council to oversee Utopia. I make enough of a public spectacle of it and play like I was uninformed; the sheep out there will believe it. Then I will have the entirety of Aeon and its assets at my disposal.

Her eyes narrowed as she saw Flynn turn in her direction and toss her mock salute.

And then, little puppet, it will be your turn.

James slowly opened his yes and moaned in pain. He wasn't quite sure why, but he had the weirdest dream.

"It lives!" Booth shouted.

Shit, James thought to himself, it wasn't a bad dream.

"Nope," said his counterpart, getting up off the small pile of rubble near the pile James was half-buried in. "Not a bad dream, just a living nightmare, you're still dying, and I'm still here so, despite the pain and agony, you're not dead…yet."

James growled at him again and made to move towards his phantom counter-part, only to be stopped by the realization that Booth wasn't real and the sharp agonizing pain from the half-healed hole in his chest.

Booth walked back around to James to get a better look at the wound and wince, shaking his head. "Damn, 'mate. That's not looking too good; you might want to see a doctor about that or something."

"It's healing," James hissed.

"Yeah," Booth smirked at him, "I can see that. Just one problem, it's healing more slowly than usual and it's starting to slow down even more." He shook his head again. "That MR-Node of yours got fucked over big time, Jimmy. Between the jolt you got from that Gabriel wanker and the injuries you got falling down here, you're dying."

At the mention of Gabriel's name, images of the fight flashed through James' mind again. And, once again, he experienced the flashes of pain he felt as the quantum surge ripped through his body. But then, he felt something else, something that wasn't there at first, but had started to ignite as he remembered the battle…rage.

"Ah, yes, Gabriel," Booth said. "You remember that wanker, right? The pussy in a shitty piece of cobbled together battle armor that did this to you? Let me guess what you're thinking right now. You're thinking 'Grrr…arrrgh! I'm Geryon, rampaging nova activist! I'm gonna' rip that little piece of shit apart! Fear me! For I am a monster!', right?" He slowly started to walk around the pile of rubble. "Geryon," he continued, "member the Teragen, leader of a small nova vigilante group called 'Nova Vigilance', randomly targeting people who you see threatening the nova community, playing the rampaging monster and trying to strike fear into the baselines…what a fucking joke."

"The cause isn't a fucking joke," James snarled as he started to push away at some of the rubble burying him.

"I didn't say it was," Booth shot back at him, "never believed it was. I was talking about you…about us."

Pain shot through James body again, but he managed to stifle back a pained roar and pull himself out of the pile before dropping to the ground and at Booth's feet. He took a swipe at the man's legs, futile since there really wasn't anyone there, but it did make him feel better for a moment, despite being in pain.

"Look at you," Booth said, looking down the kneeling nova. "Pathetic. The great rampaging Geryon, attempting to pull himself out of a situation in which he's dying, and he decides to waste some of that energy on trying to disembowel an hallucination." He then knelt down to look James straight in the eye and his features softened slightly. "What's sad is that you had a good idea, but you were too lazy to think it all the way through."

"What are you talking about?" James asked, not really wanting to know the answer, but he sure as hell wasn't going to let his baseline self get the satisfaction of having the last word.

"That's part of the problem right there," Booth replied in response to James' thought. "Once you went nova, you decided to just throw your past aside and take up the cause. You stopped being 'James Booth', claiming he was dead and that only 'Geryon' existed. Except, when all is said and done Geryon is just a rampaging nova terrorist with no real goal. The baselines see you as just another rampaging monster, and the other members of the Teragen leadership simply see you as an erratic tool that has its uses."

James glared angrily at his counterpart. As much as he wanted to rip Booth's head off, he had to admit the little shit was right.

"Of course, I'm right," Booth said. "But I'm also not going to say you're wrong on your end either. There are threats to our kind, Jimmy, but let's face facts here; you only went after defenseless little monkeys who really weren't a threat. In fact, all you really did when taking them out was made them martyrs, making us more enemies along the way." He then stood up and stepped back. "Except now, there is a real threat here. This Gabriel…he's nothing like the wankers you faced in the past. You always believed that those who threatened our kind were evil, well...maybe some of them were, but this Gabriel bloke is something far different. What we saw was pure evil. He wasn't out to just kill our kind, he didn't care if his victims were nova or baseline, and he did it just for fun."

Again, James had to admit that Booth had a point, but he wasn't going to let the smirking little bastard know it. Instead, he looked up at where shafts of sunlight could be seen stabbing through a whole several yards above him. He then slowly, and painfully, struggled back to his feet.

"What are you doing?" Booth asked.

"Getting out," James replied, wincing with every step he took towards the cavern wall, leaving his baseline phantom standing there.

"Oh, you think it's that easy, do you?" Booth called out.

"Never said it was," James said as he punched a whole in the wall and used it as a hand-hold to pull himself up. "Never said was," he repeated, punching another hole in the wall with his other hand, ignoring the pain in his chest as he slowly started to make his way up the wall towards the source of the sunlight.