About 2 months ago.
Ray walked towards the infirmary and stuck his head inside, peeking left and right as if looking for someone.
"Ayyy Ray, looking for Diana?"
A male doctor walked over to Ray while waving towards him.
"Hehehe how'd you guess?"
"My guy, everyone is talking about how you're trying to get together with Diana!"
The doctor then leaned forward slightly, his voice quieting down into a whisper.
"I personally think you got a good shot at this! She talks about you almost everyday, and blushes whenever someone teases her about you!"
"Hehe, thanks. I hope so too."
Ray looked slightly embarrassed as he scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.
Diana was a female doctor Ray pretended to like so that he had a reason to stay in the infirmary and it's vicinity. That is because right underneath the infirmary was an archive underground that held files that Ray was interested in.
Ray had first discovered this when he was sensing his surroundings after having just woken up. At first he didn't think much of it, but after finding out that there was an archive located underneath the infirmary from some people he wanted to try and 'read' through.
And he used his "attraction" for Diana as an excuse to hang out in the infirmary and slowly 'read' through the archives. He hadn't found too much relevant or useful information, but with the classified nature of things he was sure he would find something sooner or later.
And this time he sat down at the mostly empty infirmary to talk to Clement, a doctor and colleague of Diana, about random things. Though mostly about Diana.
"Hahaha, actually it's really funny! Whenever she hears your name she..."
Ray extended his Shadow Sense underground, through the ground and towards the archives. Whether or not there are lights turned on down there was all up to luck. If there were lights Ray would stay long, if the lights were turned in Ray would leave quickly so he could do something more productive.
And today the lights were... There!
Ray felt various books, files and papers down there. He concentrated on a random one he hadn't gone through yet and began to 'read' it.
And soon fragments of its contents began to flow into Ray's mind through the shadows.
'Danger', 'Space', 'Outer', 'Aberration', 'Herald'...
Ray's eyebrows raised I'm exclaim, his expression turning to shock for a moment.
"...hmm? Are you that excited to know about her three sizes?"
"Ahh–? What? Uhh hmm yeah?"
"Ahh well yes, any man would be! So I heard that they are..."
Ray began to focus on the knowledge passing into his head. The pages seemed go be filled with information about Aberrants, people with similar powers to Steam Cannon, and Aberrations– the ones who give those powers.
'Aberrations are... Terrifying!'
Ray slowly began to sort through the information in his head.
'Abberations are creatures from outside this world, or atleast something similar. They grant power to people in exchange for their loyalty, forming a cult of sorts? And then... These people are then permanently corrupted, being termed as Aberrants! So that's what they are!'
'Hmm Feyd's past self must've really hated these things, to make his new self attack the first aberrant he sees on first sight.'
'Aberrants proclaim that Aberrations are the original Gods of this world, and that Jimmy and his children usurped their divine positions.'
Ray felt extremely shocked by this information. Whether the Aberrants were telling the truth or not didn't matter much, the matter simply involving Gods and outer entities made Ray feel a slight tinge of fear.
Not only that Ray had also fought Steam Cannon, an Aberrant! Now that he knew what an Aberrant was, Ray was no longer dissatisfied with almost losing the fight. In fact he was surprised that they even lived!
The feats and abilities of Aberrants documented there were beyond anything Ray or Feyd could've handled.
'We were unlucky to fight an Aberrant, but lucky to have fought only a weak one.'
More informative was given, describing the unhinged and maniacal behavior of most of the Aberrants. The strongest or most compatible ones were even called 'Heralds', beings who could fight even the highest brass if the military one on one.
'Aberrations hmm... There's 7 of them!? And it seems like they are all related to...'
All Aberrants worshiped one of 7 Aberrations, though they were all believed to be almighty and as important as the Aberration they served.
Each one had vastly differing appearances, atleast according to vague witnesses and descriptions, and abilities. Each one was also associated with a different colour of sorts along with an aspect.
The first one that made contact with the world and the one who Steam Cannon most likely worshiped was the Aberration of Pride, symbolized by the colour gold.
It's appearance was described to be a dark purple mass that had an endless spiral of eyes going inwards, their sclera golden and pupils void black.
It didn't go in depth about the Aberration but it did give a few precautions and general guidelines and abilities for Aberrants and their activities.
'Seems like most Aberrants are vulnerable to mental attacks that are not connected to the will... The will? What does it mean by will? Willpower or the consciousness, or...?'
'Whatever, but it seems that doing such an attack might cause them to go crazy, due to their already fragile mental states. This could lead to an easier opponent or stronger, crazier one.'
More pieces of infornation flowed into Ray's head: 'Do not accept any offers or things from Aberrants.', 'Do not have in depth conversations with Aberrants.', 'Do not...'
'So their purple energy is called 'Aberration' energy... And the differently coloures bits mixed in is the influence and power of the Aberration they are under.'
'Aberration energy is tenaciously unyielding, difficult to harm, extremely volatile and harmful, constantly attempting to corrupt normal things and people.'
Ray quickly finished 'reading' through and began to read neighboring files and books. None of them were as important, mostly just some local case files instead. Actually, the management of the archive really is quite terrible, with many different kinds of information strewn together randomly in different places.
After an hour or two Ray finished his 'reading' and conversation with the doctor, who looked visibly happy to have had someone to talk to during his work time, and left.
Ray went outside of the city and found Feyd training in a hidden clearing alone. He seemed to be contemplating something. Burn marks and ash covered the clearing.
"Hey! Watcha thinking about"
"Same old same old. Just the matter about my gift."
"Alright. I just found some JUICY files, wanna hear?"
"Hmm not now, not really in the mood. How's your training been going?"
Feyd seemed quite exhausted at the moment. He had been training for a few hours straight and was only now taking a break.
"Hmm it's fine. I think so I'm getting better at shadow Manipulation faster than my Psychic powers, but I'll shift my focus soon enough."
"Oh alright."
Ray sat beside Feyd and made small talk with him before eventually forgetting to tell Feud about the Aberrants or Aberrations. Instead they ended up talking the entire time.
"So that's that's happened."
"I'm surprised I forgot to tell you for so long."
In the present, Ray finished recounting his first major find. Other important matters weren't things he wanted to delve too deep into, nor were they interesting enough to mention to Feyd.
"I had also planned on talking to Steam Cannon, but he was taken away by the time I found a way to sneak inside his containment unit."
"Then does all of that mean my past self wanted me to try and... Fight against the Aberrations?"
"Seems like it. And not only that, your past self must've hated them enough to program an override inside you to attack an Aberrant the moment you sense one."
"Sigh... I'm not sure I really want to fight them but... According to what you said those things might be out to destroy the world or something. Might as well clear those weeds when I come across them."
"Mhmm, good point. On that note I also have something else I wanna bring up."
"Alright."
"Jace might just be an Aberrant..."
Feyd's expression twisted slightly, shock lining his facial features.
"Wait how...?"
"A few times when I went through his office I felt an energy similar to Steam Cannon in his drawer. I later found out it was a crystal or metal or rock of some kind, the same thing Steam Cannon had."
"I personally probed him a few times and when visiting his office or even physically sneaking in Jace slipped up a few times, letting me see him interacting with the thing with a strange look in his eyes. Also isn't Jace just kinda... Weird? Like what sane person would behave like him?"
Feyd took in all of Ray's words carefully before slowly nodding his head.
"In that case... We have to try and do something about this! You've probably thought of some kind of plan now haven't you?"
Ray nodded proudly with a slightly smug smile, "Ofcourse I have. However executing the plan requires some prep work. We should also confirm 100% that Jace is an Aberrant and not just some weird guy."
"You're right, don't want to falsely convict the guy."
"Alright then, here's the plan. First of all, you go to his office one of these days and..."