Exile on Main Street

[Dracos]

"Why?  Well, I seem to have two friends on the run from some secret cult organization with a hell of resources living in my house.  Seems to make more than enough reasoning.  And for why I think they weren't legit?  A) I'm not a terrorist.  B)There isn't a swat team in the world that would break into my house while we were still awake with batons and tazers.  It's not their style.  SWAT teams aren't called out for that kind of stuff.  And they'd at least go "This is the police" when breaking into a private home.  Either way, I'd likely react the same way to anyone who takes a battering ram to my door and starts beating on my friends with combat batons.  As I said, I have a temper in that regard."

Dracos

[Bjorn]

Bjorn shrugs.  "You have noticed this country has turned into a police state, right?  Anyways, moot point, as it turns out.  Keep going."

[Huitzil]

"Damn, you guys have been busy," Paul remarks dryly. "Anyway, you headed for the mountains, then what?"

[Dracos]

"True.  Anyhow, we swung south through the mountains, tossing off some false trails with the help of Ayame and a few trackable devices.  Hoping to drop them off the trail and get headed over to SF to see what the fuck was going on over there.  Sometime during this, just after we starting swinging west, Ayame grabbed both me and Rez while we were asleep into some sort of magical dream temple.  Toga party style.  We met shade there who well...was being a complete fucknut.  Anyhow, Ayame wanted to take Rez as her guardian.  Apparently the God Apollo, for lack of really a better term, had left a flame of power in her care to be given to guardians of the Oracle in times of need.  She gave it to Rez, which well, you guys have seen his arm at all yet?.  The one he keeps gloved?  It's gold.  Solid gold.  Pretty tough too.  Can do some handy stuff as well, like hide things.  He also is now apparently a crack shot with the bow in more ways than one from what I've seen.  Anyhow, from there we picked up some equipment, non-parishable food that I wish I'd remembered before now, first aid kits, some protective jackets, stuff like that.  We kept driving over to SF and eventually got there without too much further trouble.  Ayame had setup a safehouse here but vanished a little after we got here, destroying her tracks.  Someone had leaked to the Seventh Cabal about her and she had to run from them.  How that works, I have no idea.  Either way, that was why Rez was in such a ruckus to find Manos  in there, or rather old Rasputin."

Dracos paused, "Seems like we're all caught up in a myth practically.  Oracles from Greece.  Wizards from Russia.  Pyrokinentists and mad doctors who somehow can dodge a sword by standing still by sheer luck."

"Anyhow, we sent Gin to try and scout around the building while Rez was going to figure out the hacking program Ayame had given him earlier and I was looking for a place to just be a stronghold while we were there.  Turns out I ran smack into a damn trap.  Pax Arcana had taken over the first motel I checked and blocked me in, wanting to talk.  They wanted the workshop taken out and we wanted you out of there.  They offered a temporary alliance which I accepted not really having a better plan at that point.  Shouldn't have, but even though it was obviously a trap, I figured it's a trap that we'd have more hidden cards to pull with Rez' new tricks and that we'd at least be in a good position to get you out, which worked...somewhat.  Anyhow, the woman, Pat-something or other, was a a human teleporter.  Got all of us together and flung us rather quickly into the place.  Faster than I'd expected.  I was going to be the distraction, which...worked better and worse than I'd hoped, but I've already told you that and knew my neck was on the line first anyway."

Dracos drank the rest of his root beer as he caught his breath a bit.  "I think you know how it went from there Bjorn."

Dracos

[Rezantis]

Everyone in the kitchen hears the shower turn on, promptly followed by some muffled swearing.

[Bjorn]

Bjorn contemplates this for a moment.  "None of you," he pronounces, "can tell stories worth shit.   Okay.  Let me sum up.  Tell me what I'm missing.

"Somehow, Rez gets sent an AI that he calls Ayama, but which is apparently the Delphi Oracle.  Sidenote: What the fuck?  Rez seeks refuge in your house, I presume for reasons related to the AI.  So does Ginrai, because of Shade's dreams.  A SWAT team raids your house.  Do you know who?  Then you Thelma and Louise across the country to bust me out of the Workshop.  Again, why? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it, but I don't know you from jack or shit."

Holding up a hand to forestall interruptions, he continues, "You have a dream where Rez becomes the guardian of the Oracle of Delphi, which is presumably why he can shoot fire arrows.  Okay.  Then we get into Manos, and Rasputin, and Pax Arcana, and the Seven Kobolds, and I don't follow any of it.  Who the hell are all these people?"

[Dracos]

"Yeah, sorry.  Story telling isn't my forte.  Being violent and critical is.  One by one...  No, I have no fucking clue with the Oracle of Delphi and how the heck that happened.  It was a random guess that just happened to bear fruit.  The swat team was a collection team for the Seventh Cabal, at least according to Ayame.  I think she's fairly trustworthy on that call.  Similar to the team that probably picked you up, no?"

"Why'd we come to rescue you?  Well, quite simply I do that kinda stuff for those I count as friends.  A bit nutty that way.  But more specifically, the guys who kidnapped you were the guys who were after us.  So going and checking out their apparent stronghold and busting you out both aided the larger goal of hampering them and figuring out just who the fuck these buggers were.  Charging straight in and busting you out wasn't really the original plan but you were the only lead we had on them.  It was either go and help you out or keep checking out grimy ancient libraries.  One of those had a meriteous chance of success, and it wasn't the one with the books."

"Okay...  Manos is Rasputin and is their version of Ayame.  Another digital being.  We heard of him first when Ayame vanished following Shade being caught and leaking out everything under the sun to them including where she was.  The Seventh Cabal is the guys behind the Workshop you were in.  They ran it and control it.  It's one of two secret societies both centered around Rome currently in the middle of a power struggle.  What for?  I have no clue.  But I know they are all but openly in warfare right now and probably have been for a while.  The other group is Pax Arcana.  These guys are the ones that apparently dropped Ayame on our front door and have been trying to catch us alongside the Seventh Cabal the entire damn time.  I don't know much more about either group other than supposition."

Dracos

[Rezantis]

The shower turned off about a minute ago, and Rez appears at the door to the kitchen.

He looks clean, he looks soggy, and he looks not much happier than he did last night.

"Who the hell used all the hot water?!"

[Dracos]

"Gin did.   Anyhow, bitch, sit down.  Think you prolly want to join in as well."

Dracos

[Rezantis]

"Eh, I have work to do.  What's going on?"

[Bjorn]

"Dracos just finished telling me what you guys have been up to.  Guess it's my turn now."

Bjorn leans against the counter, crosses his arms, and frown at the floor, considering.  "Okay.  I think I told Drac a partial version of the beginning of all this, but when I was driving back from work, I ran into -- literally -- Ashnod."  Glancing at Paul, Bjorn explains, "Ashnod is a pyrokinetic.  Really strong one.  The one who blew up San Francisco, in fact, but that's much later on."

Scratching his head in thought, he continues.  "Ashnod tried to set me on fire, then, but it didn't take, thanks to this  -- I think."  He hefts the wrist with its bracelet.  "I'm not sure, now, how much of it is me and how much of it is this thing.  Anyways, I saw Ashnod get recaptured by some secret agents.  And that would have been about the end of it, except that a couple of days later, Jessica Taylor -- the telepath I tried to capture in the Workshop, remember? -- shows up on my doorstep.  She says that she's with the Workshop, which she says is out to isolate the really dangerous metahumans from society, for the betterment of all.  She also explains that the Forge is now after me, because they picked up on my powers, and they want me.  She offers me a position with the Workshop, and protection, and I take it.  But on our way down here, we get jumped by some thugs, and captured."

Bjorn shrugs.  "And, when it comes down to it, that's pretty much it.  When I woke up, I was in the Workshop, and it wasn't half so nice as she had made it out to be."  The thought gives him a rather twisted smile.  "I learned a bit more about my powers, then, especially the anti-telepathy stuff, and fucking up a doctor's experiment got the bracelet permanently stuck on me.  Other than that, I was just gunning to get out."

[Rezantis]

"Fun, fun, fun."

Rez turns to head back into the TV room.

"Actually, Drac, you think you might be able to help me out with this?"

[Dracos]

"Um...well, I'll give it a look.  Practice in a bit Bjorn?"  Dracos asks as he heads over to see what Rez wants.

Dracos

[Rezantis]

Rez sits back down on the couch, in front of his laptop.

"Need to crack this box, preferably before the end of the week.  You any good at encryption, or just coding?"

[Dracos]

"If you want the theory of encryption, I can spit it out.  If you want me to hack that box, I am well, not the most skilled in such matters.  I can do some encoding, just not my area really."

Dracos