Disclaimer: Aberrant, owned by White Wolf. The Incredibles, owned by Pixar. Again, wish I owned the rights to one, and I know that I would NEVER be able to afford the other even if I won the Mega Millions.

Author's Notes: Okay, this also was a salvage job. Like the other chapter, I had to reconstruct lost material. Rubypaladin, if you're still around, e-mail me (or better yet, message me on yahoo messenger if you can). Oh, and for the record, Mesmerella is a character created by Mark Waid for The Incredibles comic book series. I hope you people aren't pissed at how I used the character throughout this arc in the last couple stories.

You know, I used to read a lot of comic books when I was a little kid. It was pure escapism for a six year old trying to get away from the gloomy existence that made up my childhood. Then Galatea happened and BOOM! All these super-powered beings, dubbed "novas", happened and those comics pretty much faded from existence. After all, fantasy is just fantasy, but pales in comparison to real life, especially when what was mostly confined to the realm of fiction is now a major reality. Oh sure, they still make comics these days, but most of them are based on novas who are real beings in the world. Although, Marvel is still around and really hasn't changed much, except for their writing which has drastically improved (or maybe their writers backed off the cocaine...or increased the dosage).

Sadly, DC didn't do well and pretty much went tits up after Galatea, the final nail in their coffin being the debut of Team Tomorrow. After all, who wants to read fictional accounts of Superman and the Justice League when you can just turn on the television, or log onto the local news media outlet, and see live footage of some Team Tomorrow group in action? Sadly, all that's left of the DC universe is a show on the WB network about a young man with extraordinary powers growing up in a town called Smallville.

Marvel's universe could almost be seen as a cautionary warning about where our world might be headed (with the mutant analogue being compared to the novas of our world). Of course, the writers at Marvel have to watch themselves lest they piss off the wrong people and they too could find themselves out of business.

But going back to the "good old days"…I do miss those days of escapism when I would read those old DC comics. In that world, it was easy to tell who the good guys and bad guys were, what was right from wrong, and the line between good and evil was clearly defined.

Sadly…the real world isn't like that. Most of our so called "superheroes" are corporate sell-outs on some level and have product endorsement deals. In the comics, Superman actually cared about the world. In our world, Caestus Pax cares only about his action figure sales and the fact that he gets to beat the shit out of people and collects a fucking paycheck for it.

And what's even worse than that is that there are novas out there being paid by some shady government types to do really bad things. Nothing says "bad guy" more than doing some really nasty shit, but being able to sleep with a clean conscience because these psychotic nutjobs can say they were just following orders for whatever fucking cause they're working for.

At least the mercenary nova elites are honest about it…they'll proudly tell you they're only doing it for the money.

-Excerpt from Henry "The Duke" Rollo's new book, "It's All a Freakin' Conspiracy and I Love It!"

Aberdeen Pavilion

Lansdowne Park

Ottawa, Ontario

Greg entered the building and closed the door behind him before he looked around the now empty facility. The last time he was here was a year ago, he was with Ted and Maria watching a crazy hockey game (well, he was watching the game while Ted and Maria were going at it like wild rabbits a couple rows behind him in the upper "nosebleed" section). The building had been closed down for the last two months for renovation and was rumored to be sold to Project Utopia as a possible new base of operations for a Canadian based cell of Team Tomorrow.

He went through another door that lead to the arena section of the building and started to make his way down some steps. He was about halfway to the arena floor when he stopped for a moment to look around the dimly lit area.

Nobody here…or at least that's what they want me to think.

He closed his eyes for a moment and concentrated before opening them again. When he re-opened his eyes, he smiled as he spotted multiple heat signatures lurking in the shadows at the end of the arena floor; those dozen people were no doubt there to back the three other heat signatures standing in the middle of the arena.

"Okay," he said out loud, "I'm here."

Almost immediately, he felt a sharp pain in his head, confirming that the bitch he wanted to meet was definitely here.

"Come down to the arena floor and we can get this over with," the woman ordered.

Greg did as he was told; he really didn't want to get this close, but it was the only chance he was going to get at taking the woman out. Not only that, he wanted answers and he hoped she was arrogant (and stupid) enough to tell him.

Of course, if she tells me anything, it means she'll probably kill me. Hell, let's be real about this, she and her crew ARE going to try to kill me regardless of what I do. I just hope Chang's crew is up for this.

He made his way out onto the arena floor and could see Carol Hill aka Mesmerella standing there, flanked by two men in expensive custom tailored suits. Once again, Greg felt a sharp pain in his head and it took all his effort not to wince or flinch openly. "Show me what you have," the woman ordered.

Greg pulled out a flash-drive and held it up. "Everything I have is on this drive," he said. "There are no other copies."

For a moment, nobody moved, then the woman moved forward a few steps and Greg could see that she was wearing a leather bodysuit and black duster, a far cry from her emergency worker uniform that she was wearing in Mexico City or the off-the-rack skirt and blouse she wore at the CTV building before the studio blew up. "Give it to me," she commanded as she extended her hand. Once again, Greg could feel the pain in his head, this time along with a slight compulsion to willingly give her the drive.

"So, are we done here?" he asked. He was attempting to sound like he was nervous, though it really wasn't too hard to pretend; he really was nervous and hoping he didn't screw this up.

Mesmerella took the drive and put it in her pocket; then she smiled at him. "Not quite," she replied. The sharp pain stabbed through his brain again as she said, "I want you to stay right there."

This time, he couldn't hide his pain and winced. For a second, he actually wanted to just stand there…knowing full well the pain would go away, but he also knew that wasn't an option. He did that, he was as good as dead.

"Oh good," the woman chuckled, "you are trying to resist. Rita did too, at first, but she was relatively easy to break. And Ted…he was just clueless, then again, he never questioned Rita's judgment since he was truly in love with her…such a tragic ending for a cute couple." She then smirked at him. "And you," she said as she pulled a pistol out of her coat and held it out to him, "I'm afraid your ending will be just as tragic." She nodded at him, looking him straight in the eyes. "Now, take the pistol in my hand."

Greg did what he was told and he felt the pain fade.

"Point it at your head."

Greg raised the pistol and pointed it at his head and the pain was now completely gone.

"And pull the trigger."

For a second, the pain was replaced by compulsion and sense of pleasure. Pulling the trigger, he knew, would bring ultimate bliss…at least that's what he would have been thinking if he wasn't pissed off at the fact that this bitch killed two of his closest friends and put another in the hospital.

His eyes suddenly flashed a bright blue for a moment, not unlike a flash bulb. A split second later, there was a pop, and the smell of seared flesh filled the air as the woman suddenly screamed and brought her hands to her now flash-burned eyes. Faster than the two thugs could react, Greg's arm moved and he pulled the trigger. The bullet nailed the first thug in the middle of the head while he focused his attention on thug number two who was pulling out a weapon of his own.

This time, Greg cut loose with a full optic blast which incinerated the man's arm right at the shoulder. He ignored Mesmerella who was now on her knees, screaming in agony as she clutched her face. Instead, he was focusing on the dozen men who were now rushing his position and opening fire on him. He started running the other way, figuring he could take cover in the arena seats. He winced as a bullet grazed his left shoulder, but kept running.

He saw a couple more gunmen appearing out of the shadows ahead of him. He emptied the magazine on the pistol as he fired at them. One of the men took most of the shots in the face-plate of his helmet and chest, the other one took cover and returned fire, forcing Greg to dive behind some seats.

Fuck, Greg thought, I could really use that backup right now, old man.

A click a few feet away made him turn and look up to see one of the men in body-armor pointing an assault rifle at him. Greg knew the man could pull the trigger before he could summon another optic blast.

There was a deafening roar and the gunman suddenly went flying across the arena before coming to a bone-crunching landing in some seats on the other side of the arena.

"Mr. Paladino." Greg looked up to see a twenty something Asian man in blue jeans and a leather jacket approaching him. "I do believe you were expecting us."

More shots and gunfire throughout the arena could be heard. Greg turned and saw the other gunmen firing at random targets. Something seemed to slither out of the shadows and grab one of the gunmen screaming off in the darkness. A sickening crunch could be heard and then both halves of the gunman were thrown out of the shadows as an ominous black mist began to drift across the arena floor.

The man talking to Greg tossed him a tiny plastic bag which he caught and realized were a pair of ear-plugs. "You might want to wear those," the man said with a grin. Then he turned and screamed, unleashing a sonic wave at a couple gunmen moving on their position.

Greg did as he was told and watched as the sonic blasting nova literally blasted one man into a wall and shattered his bones. Movement out of the corner of his eye caused Greg to turn and instinctively unleash another heat blast that ripped through another gunman, coring him.

An inhuman roar erupted from one of the remaining gunmen and Greg watched as the man's uniform and body-armor shattered as he increased in size. A couple seconds later, a fifteen foot tall lizard like creature stood in the middle the mist covered floor. "You think you can take me!" the monster screamed, effortlessly shrugging or breaking off the shadowy tendrils trying to grab him as he started to stalk his way towards Greg and the Asian man.

Greg and the other man glanced at each other for a moment, grinned, and then turned to reface the lizard. Each man unleashed their full power at the monster, igniting the arena floor and blowing debris in all directions.

However, five seconds later, after the smoke cleared, the creature was still coming toward them and it appeared he was getting larger as he approached. "That all you got?" the reptilian nova laughed.

"Okay, this is so not good," Greg said.

"No shit," said his new friend.

"Now would be a good time to run, wouldn't it?"

"Um…yeah."

Both men bolted as the monster ripped a chunk out of the arena floor and threw it at them. "Run, you little shits!" it laughed. "Eating you two will be bonus for this job."

"Okay, that's enough."

The creature turned around to see a tall woman with short dark hair wearing an overcoat and floating in the air. "Oh…cool…a babe appetizer," the monster chuckled.

Greg risked looking down at the scene and saw the mysterious woman floating there and acting like she was just minding her own business. He was about to warn her, but he also noticed the shadowy mist had hurriedly oozed it's way off the arena floor as if it knew what was coming. He shivered slightly as the black mist suddenly began to appear around him before moving a few feet away and forming into a shape. A second later, he was looking at a blond girl in her late teens or early twenties dressed like a goth and holding her hand out to him.

"Hiya," she girl cheerfully said. "I'm Emily, mind if I stay up here with you? I don't think I want to be down there right now."

"Um, what about her?" Greg asked, pointing to the other woman down in the arena facing down the approaching creature.

Emily shrugged. "Oh, Sophie? I think she's about to get a new pair of boots," she said. "Hmm, that is if there's enough left of him."

Back in on the arena floor, the woman called Sophie sighed and shook her head. "You only have one chance, my friend," she told the monster. "Walk away."

The creature snorted in amusement. "I don't think so, lady. My orders are to leave no loose ends. I'm not sure what Paladino paid you, but –"

"Wrong choice," Sophie said, cutting him off as she raised her right arm. The air seemed to glow and ripple around her for a moment, then a brilliant blast of energized plasma exploded outward from her, literally ripping away at the monster's skin before disintegrating it, along with the muscle tissue and bone. A few seconds later, the lower torso and the monstrous nova's legs were the only remains left standing before dropping to the ground a few seconds later.

The woman known as Sophie gently lowered herself to the ground and began to walk over to the side of the arena floor while Greg followed Emily and the Asian man to the floor. "The name's Hahn," the Asian man said as he extended his hand to Greg who briefly shook it. "I'm Chang's nephew."

"You're part of Heaven's Thunder?"

Hahn chuckled softly and shook his head. "Not anymore, though I am still on good terms with them."

"No offense, but I thought once you were in, you were…you know…in it until the end."

"Yeah, well, my boss likes to think of it as a 'departmental transfer abroad' that works with 'outsiders who share a mutual interest'." Hahn grinned again as they reached the floor. "In other words, it's a nice way to say that I'm a go-between for the Triad and my current employer."

"And that," Sophie said as they approached her, "would be me. I am Sophie Rousseau."

Greg felt his blood run cold when he heard that name. "Rousseau," he said, "as in…"

"Yes," Sophie chuckled, "as in the daughter of the man once known as Destroyer. And you can relax, Gregory Paladino, I have no intention of following in my father's footsteps." Her expression darkened slightly. "After all, there are people out there who have surpassed him when it comes to trying to take over the world."

"R-Rousseau…we should…" They all turned to see a battered and burned Mesmerella pulling herself out of the debris. "We should have known you would have slithered out of hiding."

Greg looked at the burned out orbs that had once been the woman's eyes and, for a moment, he felt guilt. But it was only a moment and that guilt was nothing compared to the hatred he felt for this bitch. "Oh good," he said, "you survived…I'll have to correct that."

"Go ahead, Mr. Paladino," the woman rasped. "You think killing me ends it, think again! We're just starting with you. You and Robertson were loose ends…with him dead, we've left evidence to incriminate you."

Ice ran through Greg's veins as he realized what she meant. Fuck…they have someone else targeting Lloyd while they went after me.

The tense moment was suddenly broken by Rousseau's soft chuckle. "Oh," she said, "you wouldn't mean the team you sent to kill Robertson at the hospital, do you?"

"Wait, hold on," Greg was lost, "you knew?"

Rousseau smiled at him. "Of course," she replied, "don't tell me you thought you were the only one aware of a conspiracy involving Utopia."

"Well, no…but how did you know about Lloyd?"

"Simple enough, CTV had been one of the major international media outlets that didn't dance to Utopia's tune. They tried to target all of you at once, but things didn't work out like they planned. You and Lloyd survived. It only made sense that while Mesmerella was busy with you, they would send someone to deal with Lloyd."

"Then you contacted my uncle," Hahn continued, picking up where Rousseau left off, "and we knew that they would probably use that opportunity to take out Lloyd, which is why we were a little late showing up."

"Actually, I was already here," Emily piped up, falling backward only to be caught by a shadowy mass that materialized into a cushion made what appeared to be black mist. "Someone had to do recon and set things up."

"It doesn't mean a thing," Mesmerella hissed. "You have no proof…just dead bodies and property damage."

Emily paused for a moment to think about that. "Um…wow…you might be right…hold on a second." She reached into the shadowy mass she was sitting on and pulled out a camera. "These babies are the new Arasaka Digi-pro video camera…installed several of these in various locations along with some cool audio equipment I kind of liberated from…well…you don't need to know." She suddenly stopped and listened for a moment. "Um, bosslady, we got sirens," she said.

Rousseau nodded and smiled. "Indeed." She then looked down at Mesmerella. "I'm very tempted to let Mr. Paladino kill you, Mesmerella, or even do it myself. But I think it's better to let the authorities find you here."

Suddenly, the other woman's face went white as a sheet. "No," she pleaded, "you can't do that…they'll kill me!"

"I know," Rousseau chuckled, "especially when Mr. Paladino comes forward with the footage of you practically confessing your crimes. Granted, you didn't implicate your masters too much, but you are now, as you like to say, a loose end."

Greg was about to say something, but Rousseau grabbed him by the arm. "We must go," she said, "the authorities will be here any minute."

"Um, yeah," Greg said, realizing she did have a point, "but how are we going to get out of here?"

Rousseau smiled again and then nodded at Emily. "Emily, if you would be so kind…"

Emily placed the camera back into the shadowy mass and then stood up. "Alright, Chateau Rousseau, coming right up," she said. Then she glanced at Greg. "Don't freak out, Paladino, but it's going to get real cold for about ten seconds."

"Cold?" Greg was really confused now. "How cold…could…it…possibly…" His voice trailed off as the black mist suddenly seemed for form around him and then, as Emily promised, the temperature dropped well below freezing. "Oh shi-"

And then they vanished as the mist enveloped them before folding into itself and dissipating into nothingness, leaving a bloody and maimed Mesmerella behind to be found by the authorities as they arrived on the scene.