AAA

AAA is a text novella set in the Elsaverse, that was released on an episodic manner in conjunction with Darkness Falls first season's episodes, as both stories are intertwined and share a climax scene, complementing each other. The first chapter was released on March 17, 2018, as an HTML text short story available for all of Tora Productions' patrons before going public on March 31; after ten monthly releases, the last chapter came out for patrons on December 15, 2018, just a couple of weeks after DF first season's completion. Both titles were publicly released together on January 15, 2019, and are currently available in the Elsaverse Omnibus Vol.1 that was released on August 5, 2021.

AAA ties up several loose ends in the saga and explains some apparently random situations seen in previous games, greatly contributing to the worldbuilding. The story follows in the steps of the "Triple A", a group of three childhood friends with powers who decide to use theirs for a greater good, from the moment they find themselves involved in the riot mentioned in Redemption for Jessika (2016). AAA covers those 5 weeks that go from that incident to the events depicted in RfJ and Finding Miranda (2016), before showing some Darkness Falls cases from a different perspective, up to the three women's crucial intervention at the end of DF first season. The novella is narrated in the third person, shifting continuously from one character's POV to another's, and makes a convenient use of flashbacks to build those characters' personalities, motivations and relationships since their school days.

Premise
Alexis, Amanda, and Anastasia have been inseparable since they were kids, but their bulletproof friendship is not the only special thing they share: every one of them has a distinct, unnatural ability they have never told to anyone else out of themselves. But, when these three women realize they are not the only ones with a power, they reach to a conclussion: to help their friend Jessica out, they'll need to become the heroes no one should ever know about. And, in this fight against evil, their superskills may not be the most powerful weapon at their disposal: their kindness, their love, and their mutual and constant support; their friendship, in short, will reveal as the key factor for the win.

Ch1: Inseparable
Alexis, Amanda and Anastasia, three inseparable friends, are excitedly waiting for the Mayhem's concert to start. In a lenghty flashback, Alexis recalls how their friendship began: when they were on sixth grade, and she was still a newcomer in Sangrive. Her innate ability to read people's emotions and intentions was opening the doors of social acceptance for her, as she was a star player on the school's softball team; while Amanda and Anastasia were just two lonely freaks everyone messed with. But, one day, Alexis could feel how she was an idol for them, not because of her sporting skills, but because of her kindness towards people like them. Alexis gave herself a chance to got to know them better, and learnt that Amanda was an incredibly talented writer, and that the extremely shy Anastasia was a brilliant student. But, most importantly, they were real friends, kind and supportive. Alexis quickly decided that her place was among those freaks that only her and a couple of other girls, Jessica Springfield and Sarah, seemed to care about. Now, back at Mayhem's concert, as soon as their friend Jessica starts to sing, they notice something is off: she's singing in anger, and people in the stadium is getting angry too. Having unnatural powers themselves, they quickly realize Jess might have one too, and they start to act: Anastasia tries to blend into the people to reach the sound mixer station and shut Jess' mic off, while Alexis, reading people's emotions and looking for the most furious ones, guides Amanda so that she could telepathically put happy stories in their heads to calm them down and stop the riot. Thanks to their combined efforts, soon the situation is over; hadn't it been for them, way more than 5 people would have died in that concert.

Ch2: Aftermath
As they leave the concert venue, Alexis, who's usually the strongest of the three friends, seems to be the most affected by the recent events: she can feel people's emotions just by looking at them, and, until that evening, she had never felt anyone dying before. Now she's blaming herself for not having been able to do more to save those people, even though her friends try to convince her that they couldn't have done anything else. After agreeing that the Jess they know would never have done that on purpose, had she known she had that power, the three friends wonder what could have led her to sing in such an angry way, and Alexis claims that she has seen Jessica's boyfriend, Charles in the audience: he's the only person whose feelings Alexis is unable to read, and he should have been at the backstage, not in the audience, which makes her suspicious of him. Then they start joking about becoming superheroines to catch him, using their powers, and the dire mood seems to improve a little. Anastasia leaves her friends at the house where Amanda and Alexis live together, and then heads to a heavily guarded mansion where she stealthily sneaks in, evidencing that she has a power to go unnoticed by others, to the point of becoming effectively invisible to them. She makes her way to Mayor Joey Bertradino's bed, and they make love in the dark as two furtive lovers, with Anastasia using the sex encounter to try and evade from the incidents at the concert. Afterwards, it's revealed that they are actually a married couple.

Ch3: Steps
AAA third chapter takes place about a week and a half after the riot at Mayhem's concert. Alexis is still feeling down, and Anastasia and Amanda try to cheer her up by taking her out to dance. They go to a club, and Amanda feels immediately infatuated by DJ Serena Beatz; her friends try to convince her to make a move on the attractive DJ, but then they receive a call for help from Sarah: she was getting drunk with Jessica in a bar, and now needs help getting her roommate home. Of course, they quickly forget about the DJ and run to help their friends, who are in the bar across the street from their home, where Marc will find Jessica some weeks later. When she sees Jess in such a bad state and learns that the singer feels guilty about the riot, Alexis seems to regain her usual strength, especially when Sarah confirms that Charles caused Jessica's anger by breaking up with her right before the concert. After leaving the apartment, Alexis, Amanda and Anastasia discuss the situation and come to the conclussion that Charles may have a power too, or at least some kind of immunity to them, and did everything on purpose. Remembering the conversation they had in the car after the concert, when they joked about becoming heroes, the three friends convince themselves to use use their own powers to help the police catch Charles, but without exposing themselves too much.

Ch4: Paths
The chapter starts by showing how Alexis uses her powers to get better deals for her company, as she senses how open to negotiations are their potential partners, and how much money are they actually willing to pay; in this particular case, her boss is so happy with the results that he announces a 10K bonus for her. Alexis then talks to an IT guy from her company, asking for some tips about how to find Charles in the concert's available footage. Her co-worker recommends a hacker named "JohnHax", but she'd have to contact him online, which won't allow Alexis to use her power. They exchange some messages and, as soon as he learns that Alexis wants to help Jessica Springfield, the hacker says he'll do the work for free, even though Alexis was secretly willing to pay him her promised bonus. That same day, the three friends go to an institution that helps abused women, looking for some advice on what to do for her friend Jessica. They are surprised to meet Serena, the DJ from the club they visited some days ago, who works there as a lawyer. With Amanda totally out of words, both nervous and mesmerized by Serena's presence, Alexis uses her power to confirm that Serena is attracted to women; using hers, Anastasia learns that Serena has read at least one of Amanda's published novels. And, using that info, they manage to get Serena interested in her friend, who was very insecure about her chances with her new crush.

Ch5: Training Part I
The fifth chapter takes place on a Friday, two weeks and a couple of days after the concert. Alexis and Amanda are training their powers at home, with Alexis reading her friend's emotions to try and dodge the tennis balls Amanda is throwing at her from a close range. Anastasia arrives with some news on another matter: she had asked her husband, the Mayor Joey Bertradino, to give her a list of the best detectives in town, and has learned that two of them, Nathaniel Blake and Frank Smith, are going to a restaurant that evening. Anastasia has made a reservation on that same place, and she wants to go with Alexis to assess them and decide whether they can be trusted to investigate Charles; however, when they arrive, one of those detectives seems clearly drugged, and the two women hesitate about getting them involved.

Ch6: Training Part II
While Alexis and Anastasia are assessing the detectives, Amanda goes on her first date with Serena. She still feels insecure, as she thinks she's too fat, but Serena assures that she likes her curvy body quite a lot; then, Serena confesses that she's only looking for a casual fling, as her heart belongs to her office partner, Paul. This is not a problem for Amanda, who is more than happy to engage in a purely physical relationship with Serena; besides, she is also in love with someone else who would never be able to reciprocate her feelings, as Alexis is straight. Both women enjoy their mutual company immensely, and they end up enjoying a steamy sex session at Serena's apartment.

Ch7: Joan
Two weeks later, Amanda and Serena are still as passionate as the first day, much for Alexis slight discomfort, as her bedroom is next to Amanda's and she can hear them going at it on and on; however, she's mostly happy for her friend. Then, the hacker she hired to find some images of Charles at Mayhem's concert, John, contacts her to announce that he has finally found something. Up to that moment, all his efforts had been unsuccessful, as if someone was deliberately deleting any trace of Charles' presence at the concert. Gratefully, Alexis offers to pay him for his services, but the hacker refuses, claiming that he accepted to do the job for free because one of his friends is a Mayhem fan. Alexis then offers that she could introduce that friend to Jessica and Sarah, and the hacker accepts, telling Alexis that a girl named Joan will contact her later. When Alexis finally meets Joan in person, she realizes that this young skatergirl is actually her hacker John. She offers her the money again, mentioning the amount for the first time, but Joan still refuses to get paid, as she promised to work for free. Later, while the young woman plays the drums with her idol, Sarah, at the recording studio in Sarah's and Jessica's apartment, Alexis phones a lawyer to create a trust fund for Joan, without her knowing, setting it up with those ten thousand dollars she planned to pay the hacker.

Ch8: Hiding
It's been more than five weeks since the riot, and the three friends have been hesitating about what to do with the picture they have of Charles actually starting the riot, as detectives Blake and Smith, who they deemed at first as the most suitable detectives to break the case, aren't partners anymore: Smith has been forced to quit the job due to his addictions, and Blake has been investigated by Internal Affairs and is waiting to be assigned a new partner. But then Anastasia learns from her husband, Mayor Bertradino, that a prosecutor wants to charge Jess for causing the riot. Knowing that this accusation will only hurt Jessica even more, the women decide to send the picture to the prosecutor instead. Using her power, Anastasia sneaks unnoticed in the courthouse and leaves an anonymous envelope containing Charles' picture in a pendrive, on the prosecutor's desk; she then follows Marc and is present at the hearing depicted in Redemption for Jessika intro scene, although no one notices her. Afterwards, she goes to her friends' house to train her powers: she wants to see if she would be able to hide someone she was touching from other's sight, and how much background noise would be needed for her to be able to talk to that person without anyone seeing them. A few days later, she goes to spy on Blake and his new partner, Michelle Won: Anastasia is indeed the mysterious figure who is watching them at the end of Darkness Falls second episode. Finally, this chapter shows the bombing at Joey Bertradino's rally from Anastasia's point of view: while they are being evacuated from the stage in the direction of the bomb, she hears Jessica asking people to not go that way, and Anastasia uses her power to make her husband stop before it is too late. Shortly after, Jessica starts to sing, calming the rest of the audience before the bomb explodes.

Ch9: Bomb Track
AAA ninth chapter tells how, using her power to telepathically put stories in people's mind, Amanda reminds Jessica of the first song she ever wrote, back at school; a song about how people is generally good inside. It's likely the same song Jess had sung to Marc in the recording studio in RfJ and that moved Sarah so much, as Jessica sang it for the first time on a very tough day for Sarah, when she was bullied for being a lesbian. This time, the song moves people to help the victims in the first moments right after the explosion. Mayor Bertradino, Alexis, Amanda and Anastasia also spend several hours helping people. At some point, though, detectives Blake and Won show up to interview Jessica and Marc as the key witnesses of the attack; Anastasia uses her power to get a fake press credential for Amanda, who stands near Jess and the detectives during their conversation and manages to put Charles' image in Blake's head, so that the police can link him to the bombing. In Darkness Falls third episode, coincidentally titled "Bomb Track", Amanda is shown in the background in this crucial moment, holding a cam; however, that episode were released before this AAA chapter, so players couldn't know who that girl was.

Ch10: Heroes
In the last chapter, Anastasia finally confesses to her husband that she has a weird power that lets her become practically invisible; after the initial shock, he quickly accepts her beloved wife as she is, supporting her. Then, with Joan's help, the three inseparable friends furtively connect to the Sangrive PD online channel, to keep an eye on the investigation into Charles, that doesn't seem to progress at all. But, one day, Amanda hears of the existence of a murderer who has killed a prostitute in some inexplicable way; the three women realize he must have a power, and they decide to act in order to prevent more killings. Covertly following Blake and Won thanks to her power, Anastasia facilitates the identification of the suspect by stopping the limousine driver who was trying to run away from the detectives after having been threatened. Some hours later, the three of them show up during the clash between the detectives and Brandon Henderson, using their powers to take him down: after he injures Blake, Amanda tries to make the killer think that his arm is too heavy, thus preventing him from throwing the knife at Won; then, Alexis draws his attention, using her power to read Brandon's intentions and dodge the knife he keeps throwing at her again and again, all while Amanda insuflates courage in Alexis' mind to help her relax and focus; finally, an invisible Anastasia walks towards Brandon and knocks him out with a crowbar. The story ends with their promised meeting with Won, some days later: Alexis confirms with her power that Won is willing to help them sincerely, and they tell her everything they know about powers, as well as everything they have done so far to help them stop Charles. Won promises not to turn them in, and they ask her to refer to them as "Triple A" in order to remain anonymous.

Characters
In addition to the three main protagonists, a bunch of other Elsaverse characters make an appearance in AAA. For a full profile on them, please check their respective character wiki page.

Main Characters

 * Alexis is a blonde and attractive woman who has the power to read people's emotions just by looking at them, to the point of even being able to anticipate their most inminent moves. Apparently, she only got to Sangrive when she was about 12 years old, but she already had this particular ability that, later on, became an actual power. Thanks to that skill, she happened to be a good hitter for her new school's softball team, and the 'cool' people were starting to accept her; however, when she learnt why she was a hero for Amanda and Anastasia, she chose to stay with those 'freaks' who were real friends. Amanda and Anastasia still consider her a hero due to her kindness and bravery, and she has always been the little group's rock, in part thanks to her power, that lets her know when one of her friends need some special support. However, Alexis was the most affected by the violent riot at Mayhem's concert, as she felt for the first time how a boy died while she was reading his emotions: despite her friends' support, she only regains her usual strength when she focus on chasing Charles as the culprit of hurting Jessica and causing the riot. She then starts to train her power to be ready for a physical confrontation, which ends up being quite useful when a new threat, Brandon Henderson, shows up, and she can put that training into practice to dodge his knife. On her daily life, and also thanks to her power, she can drive negotiations towards the best possible outcome, as she detects her counterparts red lines; in her personal life, however, being able to know that almost everybody is hot for her seems like an extra burden. Also, while communicating with the hacker she hires to look for Charles' pictures, she realizes that she's relying maybe a bit too much on her power to understand basic conversations, as she feels unable to notice basic hints and intentions in written exchanges.


 * Amanda Reid is a curvy redhead with curly hair, and a published science-fiction writer. She always had a knack for writing compelling stories, and this skill became a power that lets her put stories in people's minds, directly from hers, although she she can only address to one person at a time, and doesn't know nor controls how those stories are actually perceived by people. In AAA, besides some other minor situations, she uses her power to calm down angry people at Mayhem's concert, to remind Jessica about her own story in order to encourage her to keep singing after the bombing, and then to make Detective Blake think on Charles while Jessica was talking to his partner as a witness. She also tries to train her skill to somehow control other people's mind by convincing them that they are feeling a particular sensation, like tireness: this ends up being useful in the final confrontation against Brandon Henderson, although she can't make this effect last. Fortunately, Alexis was also there to save her, and Amanda tried to encourage her friend by putting in her mind the first story Alexis read from her, in which she explained why Alexis was her hero. Back on those elementary school days, she was close friends with Anastasia, and they were bullyied by other classmates until Alexis came into their lifes and stood up for them. Amanda never felt attracted to any boy, and she later realized she was, in fact, gay. Her school friend Sarah was her first romantic partner, already in her college days; even though their relationship didn't last, at least they kept their friendship intact. Actually, Amanda is deeply in love with her friend Alexis, who is perfectly aware of her feelings but can't reciprocate, as she is straight; for that reason, Amanda doesn't mind to engage in non-binding relationships with other girls, although her body-consciousness refrains her a bit. However, in AAA she manages to interest Serena enough to start a casual relationship with her, thanks to her writing skills, her wits, and her curvy figure.


 * Anastasia Bertradino is a slim and pretty brunette, incredibly intelligent, and totally unable to draw attention to herself; she's been an almost pathological shy girl since forever, and even today she's not ready for her own husband to see her naked. Fortunately for her, she has two good friends that helped her to start a relationship with her crush, Joey Bertradino, and they ended up marrying. When she was a kid, and was stressed enough, she was able to hide behind her long hair and blend into the background to go unnoticed; later on, this trait became a power that lets her become invisible to others, although she's only tricking their perception so that they don't consciously register her, and the effect is broken if she makes too much noise. In AAA, she uses her power extensively: to cut Jessica's mic off during the riot, to sneak in her own house and into her husband's arms, to spy on Blake and his partners, to sneak in the courthouse to leave Charles' image on the prosecutor's desk, to make her husband stop when they were being dragged towards the bomb, to trip the limo driver so that Blake and Won could interviewed him, and to stand next to Brandon Henderson and knock him out. Amazed by his composure during the bombing, she finally ends up confessing her power to her husband.