Extrication

[Halbarad]

"You'd have to ask him about that yourself," Tim answers, nodding towards Daniel.

[Carthrat]

"What, really- geezus," blinks Tom. "That's really stretching it.

Um. Some cosmic force is drawing us together, it seems."

[Ebiris]

"What the hell were those things?" Daniel asks generally. "I mean, if the Forge are engineering shock troops, you'd think they'd have a better way to control them. And if they're not engineered, what are the odds of there being two of them?"

As to Tim and Tom's conversation, he shakes his head. "Rat? That's just beyond ridiculous. I might care more about the coincidence, but the other weird shit takes precedence right now."

Fuck... I can't believe I actually shot at someone... or what used to be someone. What the fuck where those things?! Psychic men in black were bad enough... shit, I just want to forget this crap.

[Carthrat]

"Maybe some outside group broke the restraints," muses Tom. "Maybe those two were the first iterations. Maybe they were planted by some other group, and Forge wanted them... with disastrous results.

And I'm not going to pin down the fact that we know each other as 'coincidence'. I've half a mind to get online and poke around."

[Ebiris]

Daniel snorts. "Oh. You going to poke your head into void and ask 'Hey! Any of you guys got psychic powers or noticed strange men in black hanging around?'"

He shakes his head. "This whole thing is a series of coincidences - especially what happened just now at our supposed 'brief stopover', but unless it turns out that Nabiki has made us psychic by the power of The Internet, I'm pretty much past caring. Weird shit is now the norm, it seems."

[Carthrat]

"That's one fucking long string of coincidences," replies Tom, shaking his head. "Something is suspect. Who knows? Some higher power probably has it in for us, and I'm not sure I mean that figuratively anymore.

As for poking around, well.. it'll be something to do. It's not like I'll be too obvious about it."

[Ebiris]

"Hmm," Daniel decides to play along. If nothing else, it'll help him unwind after this latest homicidal adventure. "Right, so it'll be like 'Hey guys, have you noticed that black is like, making a comeback in fashion lately?' or maybe you could ask 'If you could have any superpower, what would it be?' and look to see if anyone gives a knowing chuckle or something?"

He sighs. It's not really helping. "Forget it," he apologises. "Anyway, you're probably right about the higher power bit, if all that talk about anchors is right." He shrugs, "Maybe we're being subconsciously manipulated to go to certain places. There's no way to know for sure, though. And I don't want to start second guessing myself. Things are bad enough as it is."

[Carthrat]

"Maybe," replies Tom, musing. "Man, I hate being in the dark. I'd just like to.. do something myself, y'know? Not based on 'coincidence' or any such crap. Feels like we've been blindfolded and dragged along, so far."

[Brian]

"Tell me about it," Jim says dryly.  "We've been running around fighting terrorists with super-powers for a few years now, but haven't really encountered anything like this before.  And now that everything's happening, it's all happening at once."

"We meet some new allies, and just happen to run into what you're looking for on the way to more ... this kind of reminds me of how things were when Brian called us up to the observatory.  Kept us out of the valley when it was nuked.  None of us expected to run into the others there, and when we were trying to figure out why he called us there...."

"Boom," Walker supplies helpfully.

"Then we started getting powers," Carlos says with a frown.  "Except ... Sean killed Nick, and then it felt like things were somehow ... derailed.  Are we now getting back on track?"

"I don't know," Sterling says, shaking his head.  "But it's probably a good thing we've got you guys on our side.  I know one thing for sure, and that's that we were able to at least screw up the Forge a little bit.  I don't know who this kid is, but if the Forge wants her dead, I'm happy to spite them and make sure she lives."

Kyle smiles wanly.  "I can explain some of it, but don't know the full story," he offers.  "But ... you're all being drawn together and guided by a spell that was started years ago, and until recently, faltered."

This garners silence from the other members of Bigfire.

[Ebiris]

"Well there we go," Daniel shrugs with a sardonic smile. "Anyway, I'm all ears," he says, waiting for Kyle to explain more about this spell.

[Halbarad]

"Yeah, a little more information would be a big plus at this point. The coincidences... well, it's more than a little wild that so many would pop up at once."

[Brian]

"Someone tried to set things in motion so that people would be assembled -- people who knew one-another but had the requisite skills and personalities required for the task -- that way, they could be swiftly assembled into a force that could take on the Enemy that lives outside of what can be known," Kyle says.

"Oh, we're fighting Elder Gods," Jim says.  "That's encouraging."

"I don't know who it was, only that Pandora says that because of what must be done, coincidence generally will fail around us.  Coincidence is a tool to convince humanity that odd things can happen and be unremarkable.  The truth of the matter is that you are now remarkable people with remarkable skills -- the rules that control the rest of humanity do not neccesarily apply to you."

"So we're Awakened, and fighting the Elder Gods?" Sterling asks sceptically.  "My powers over time seem to be lacking."

"I'm not sure what you mean by that," Kyle says, "but what it essentially boils down to is that for better or worse, the unusual is now the norm.  Reality is moving in such a way that those who do not adhere to it will be rejected by it.  Unless they can reshape the world to allow such things to exist."

He frowns at this.  "I don't know why someone would try and involve you in this, but my guess is that it started with a common point -- the sacrifice.  In order to kick something like this off, someone has to die, and it can't be the person who's trying to set things in motion."

[Halbarad]

"You said the common point was a sacrifice? Does that mean that someone HAS died to bring all this about, or that someone WILL die?"

[Ebiris]

"That Brian guy you mentioned?" Daniel guesses, glancing at the assembled Bigfire group.

[Brian]

"Brian's not just dead -- he got nuked," David says grimly.  "But it could have been that, I guess.  Now, since he told us to go to that mountain top, was he part of it, or did someone else send us those letters?  It doesn't really matter unless we can ask a dead man questions."

Kyle shrugs.  "Pandora doesn't know where whoever it was is, except, if he's alive, it's not on Earth, and he doesn't dream," he offers.  "But in order for things to come this far, someone must have already died."