1.
	Dr. Paine looks around.  "Who the hell said that?!  That the 
first stimulus he's responded to since we found him!"
	Kao-liang doesn't bother answering, having dug out a pack of 
oversized cards and flicked through them, finally selecting one and 
putting the rest aside on the bar.  His expression turns inward and 
contemplative as he regards the card for a good 5 minutes, then adds it 
to the discard pile, and replaces it in his pocket.  Flowing gracefully 
to his feet, he walks over to the door, and opens it on the inside of a 
small shadowy lean-to, with a window opposite showing a hilly moor on a 
dark, rainy afternoon.  The glimpse is a short one, as Rhiannon quickly 
slips in and Kao-liang lets the door close as soon as she does.  She's 
the same painfully skinny figure with a sharp-edged triangular face that 
most of the pub's patrons remember, although her long brown hair is 
sleep-tousled and matted, she's wearing a plain brown shirt with buttons 
in the wrong holes over an old pair of jeans, and barefoot, and carrying 
a beautiful fire-red blossom with a yellow center and glossy green leaves 
in her left hand.  Her face held expressionless, but her void-black eyes 
burning with some unnamed emotion, she looks at the various Garrets, 
confirms that Kao-liang wasn't playing a prank on her, then takes a deep, 
albeit unnecessary, breath and walks over to the one on the stretcher.  
Another shocked intake of breath once she sees the Garret on the 
stretcher more clearly, and she freezes for a moment before bending over 
and placing the Fleur-de-Feu on his chest, then her hand drifts over and 
carefully touches an undamaged part of his face, stroking his face lightly.
 	In Welsh, her voice breaking slightly at the end even though her 
face remains expressionless, "Cariad, you need to make a choice as to 
what you want to do."
	Dr Paine looks down at her monitor.  "Whatever you're doing, keep 
doing it.  He's responding." Rhiannon doesn't appear to hear, being 
frighteningly focused on the figure in front of her.  Kao-liang fades 
discreetly into the background. Dr Paine seems to recognize that look, 
and busies herself with other equipment.
 	KAWK!
	A largish crow with shiny black feathers glides in through one of 
the open windows and perches on one of the supports holding Garret's head 
steady. It looks at Rhiannon out of one beady eye.
	KAWK!
	A soft Welsh, "Well, it's a more hopeful sign than a raven over 
the chamber door," her expression cracking a bit to reveal something 
rather frightening in its alien strength of passion, though she quickly 
regains her self-possession.  Her face resumes its mask, the sharp-boned, 
alien features of her face standing out in higher relief than possible 
with human.   Calmly, she sits on the edge of the stretcher, one set of 
long slender fingers still absently stroking Garret's face.  She meets 
the dark eyes of the crow with her own Abyss-reflecting ones, all the 
darker for the contrast with her skin, as translucently pale white with a 
faint bluish cast as the finest moonstone, and essays a questioning 
thought towards the crow.
	The crow silently holds her gaze, and flaps its wings perfunctorily.

2.
	Rowan hangs up the phone and puts a hand on Garret's shoulder,  
"Wha's goin' on, brother-mine?" she murmurs.
	"A struggle." says Running Bear firmly.  "It is sung in the old 
songs that when a man refuses to die, he must fight death itself to 
return to the living."
 	"Runnin' Bear.  I know wha' happened, if'n only roughly.  Ye say 
th' Phoenix has flown.  Was th' bindin' thread cut?"
	He shakes his head slowly.  "I know what you are thinking, 
wolfsister. And I tell you, you cannot do this.  The Dead lands are not 
to be walked by most of the changing Breed. There is, I think, only one 
person who can reach him now."
	"Who?!?!" she asks, a growl beginnning to echo through her 
voice.  It's clear that she isn't going to attack Running  Bear, but that 
the frustration is really getting to her.  "Who can help him then, where 
I canno' go?"  Suddenly, all the energy and frustration seems to drop 
away, and her eyes cease to glow.  Shoulders slump in near-defeat, as she 
asks on a whisper, "Who?"
	Running Bear permits himself a slight smile as Rhiannon walks 
into the pub.  "That one.  Now is the critical junction, Wolfsister.  He 
will either decide to leave us and go on into the darkness, or he will 
return and aid us correcting his error."

3.
	Purred, "Care for a drink, stranger?"
	"Um." The Professor looks over at Captain Corven, notes with 
relief that he's occupied, and turns back to Kao-Liang.  "Well...that's, 
er, very kind...I mean, I'm awfully busy...um.  But I don't see...that, 
um, one drink could hurt."
	He pours some plum brandy in his glass, then tops off his own.  
Looking over the glass at VA Garret through his long eyelashes as he 
sips, he says casually, "I'm Kao-liang, and I met your currently dead 
twin through my sire, in case you're curious.  And because I'm curious, 
mind explaining what your equations are showing?  It looks like you're 
the one who knows the most about it, after all," he finishes, with a 
devastatingly charming smile directed straight at VA Garret.
	VA Garret looks down at the table, flustered.  "Oh.  Uh.  Um.  I, 
uh Kao-Liang?  That's...a very unusual name.  Um, what does it mean...if 
it isn't a rude question." 
	"A brew made from millet in the Middle Kingdom, which is the 
world's worst wine and also the best paint remover in existence," he 
supplies the answer politely, a smile lurking in his eyes.
	He looks up in surprise, and rolls the name around on his tongue. 
"Kao-Liang...wu-well, uh, it's a very, uh, strange thing to be named 
after.  Did you, uh, pick it out yourself, or is it a nickname?" 
	"Picked it all by myself - the great advantage of leaving home is 
that you can introduce yourself by whatever name you want to be called, 
and no one can naysay it."
	"I...uh, I think it's very nice..."  He looks down again, as if 
aware of how lame that spounds. He sneaks a look up at Kao-Liang's face, 
smiles, and drops his eyes again, down to his computer screen. "Oh!  
You...you asked about my, my equations.  Well, uh, I'm trying to uh, to 
uh, make myself useful by trying to make a mathe-mathematical model for 
the Chronohedron, so that, I, uh, can calculate it's projected, um, 
growth.  It's...it's really quite fascinating, it, uh, exists in four 
dimensions intead of, uh, three, and it's a very...complex shape."
	He points to an extremely complex mutisided figure displayed on 
the screen.  Parts of it seem to blur at the edges into bizzare fractal 
shapes. In a way, it's actually very pretty, like a blossoming flower.
	Kao-liang puts his glass down and leans over the display, 
watching it.  "I assume you've tried modeling it as a simple 
input-output, and also as a problem in disorganized complexity?  Does its 
behavior reflect either of those options, in being predictable, or have 
you started looking to see if it is a problem in organized complexity, 
where the interrelations are more important than the variations?" He 
breaks off, then apologizes with a charming rueful smile towards Garret.  
"Sorry for explaining things you already know about modeling.  I've spent 
far too much time lately translating manuals from techiel into something 
resembling English. Anyway, any idea on what is likely to happen as it 
continues growing?" 
	"It's...uh, it's hard to say.  More, more like disorganized 
complexity, although at some, uh, points it seems to defy analysis 
completely, I, uh, suspect because I can only...uh, represent it in three 
dimensions as opposed to four.  It...it seems to wish to retain the most 
simple geometric shape it can, but it keeps growing, so it needs more and 
more sides to be a perfect figure.  I think, uh, each of us represents a 
side, a place where the anomaly touches, uh, another universe."
	"It's..it's very pretty, isn't it?" he asks, looking at the 
screen and absently pushing up his glasses.  "It...it reminds me of a 
poem by Emily Dickinson for...for some reason.  I think it went, "There's 
a certain
slant of light,/winter afternoons-/ that opresses, like the heft/ of 
cathedral tunes-" Pretty, but frightening.  I-"
	He turns to Kao-Liang to say something else, then shyly looks 
away and seems to shrink.  "Um, I'm sorry, I'm blabbing on, and I'm 
probably, um, boring you.  I'm...I'm really not very interesting."  
	"Sooth, 'tis refreshing to hear a mage claim to be uninteresting, 
considering the egos of quite a few.   And athyras with an ear for poetry 
are often quite good at systems analysis - which is an interest of mine 
as well." 
	"A-athyras?  I-I *am* unintertesting, really.  I live a very 
boring life... I don't even see that many HIT Marks...which is, um, fine 
with me. I just...I just want to pursue my theories and, uh, continue my 
studies. Read poetry." He looks down at the table.  "F-find someone to 
read poetry to." He sneaks a look up at Kao-Liang.
	Kao-liang smiles slowly. "Although I've been accused of not being 
able to see the computer for the chips.  It doesn't mean that I've given 
up trying though.  If you don't find *me* boring and uninteresting, 
perhaps you could explain your models and how it fits the observed 
phenomena?"
	PG seems so enchanted with Kao-Liang's smile he forgets he was 
asked a question for several minutes.  "Oh!  Uh, my models...well, most 
of the d-data was supplied by M-mister Edison.  I'm not all that familiar 
with temporal theory, so I extrapolated, uh, the underlying structure 
mathematically from, uh, areas of high-to-low pattern order.  It's...it's 
really just a b-best guess about what the thing looks like.  I've...i've 
calculated it's rate of growth from earlier data given to me by the 
Captain...it's increased by 40% since...since then...are you sure I'm not 
boring you?"

4.
	There is a noise outside. It sounds vaguely like a "!fooP". The 
door opens, and a dark-haired figure in overalls pushes her way in, 
grumbling to herself. "...not a bloody errand-boy, after all..." Gabby 
looks up. She takes a minute to survey the changes, searching for 
something to say. She sees Paddy, and quickly ducks back outside to 
dispose of her cigarette. 
	"Oh Christ, smoke up in here, one more cancer stick won't harm 
anyone here....  That much."
 	She looks at him, all-business. "That's hardly the point, sir." 
Returning, she heads over in the direction of Astarial. "Hi. What 
happened to Garret?"
	"He's passed on to the next world, next life...  to the sorrow 
o'us all..." Paddy says mournfully.
 	She rolls her eyes. "Thank you, Mister Helpful. I -know- about 
the attack. And if he'd passed on, I wouldn't be here, and they-" waves 
at the cluster of mages fiddling over the body, "wouldn't be working. I 
came for details, like who -they- are..." waves at the Other Garrets, 
"and what the end is going to be. Who found the body?" 
	Astarial looks up at her. "Hello! Most delighted to see you 
again, quite so soon. All has been well since our last meeting, I trust?"
	"Soon? Yes, things have been well - until this."
 	"Garret? Well, as you can see we seem to have rather a lot of 
them. As I understand it so far, ours seems to have been attacked and 
badly injured in some sort of factional conflict - I didn't get all the 
details."
	"Problems within the Tradition. Still going on, which is why none 
of his friends have made it here to help..."
	"...and did some rather impressive Time magic to deal with his attacker."
	"Time? He used time magick?"
	"It seems to have gone rather wrong, and ended up bringing a lot 
of copies of him from other realities here." He gestures around at the 
multitude of Garri.
	"Other realities. And now they can't get back? Or what?" She 
touches her ear. "Gegi says hi, by the way."
 	"That's about it, except for a lot of hysterical assuming that 
he's actually dead, which, if you ask me, is a terribly premature 
assumption."
	"He's not dead," she smiles with determination. "We simply won't 
allow it to be so."
	"Still, some of us are trying to get in touch with his - 
apparently remaining - consciousness, and see if we can find out rather 
more." He indicates the group around the stretcher.
	"Ah." She sighs. "I guess there's really nothing I can do, then."
	
5.
	Martin looks puzzled. "You yourself said we shouldn't try to 
bring him back. Our Garret dies, whether we stop the anomaly or not, 
isn't that so?"
	"Nothing is certain.  There is what we *should* do, what we *can* 
do, and what we *will* do.  There is what *should* happen, what *can* 
happen, and what *will* happen."
	"But still, he either lives and isn't happy about it, or he dies."
	Running Bear throws up his hands.  "Man, your thought is like one 
path from which there are no branches.  Do, or do not.  Be, or be not.  
On or off, left or right.  the spirits decree some things, but above all, 
man may leave any path he chooses and walk another." 
	"So there _is_ a third option? Or are you talking on a purely 
philosophical level?"
	"There is always a choice.  He has not yet decided to let go.  
All is possible." He hesitates, looking at the crow, which has perched on 
part of the metal frame.  "He, too has certain choices to make."
	Martin thinks for a little while. "Okay, how about this: We 
compress time where his spirit is, and dilate it along the link. That way 
he can live the rest of this life here, then the link is broken and the 
effect ends, so that however many years pass for us, only a moment does 
wherever his spirit is supposed to be. thus the cycle remains uninterrupted."
	He frowns.  "I do not know.  Perhaps it is best to let this man 
choose the manner of his life or death, for it is his, above all else."
	"Yes, well. At the moment, both of those choices seem to carry 
some pretty dire consequences."
	"The Great Spirit has ordered the universe such that all choices 
have consequences."
	"I say we do everything we can to revive him. If it's his fate to 
die now, he'll be too far gone for us to bring him back, won't he?"
	"Let him pass on, for Christ's sake!" says Paddy. "Garret will 
return another day, at another time...  His soul has passed, his body is 
dead.  Let him pass....."

6.
	The crow silently holds her gaze, and flaps its wings 
perfunctorily. Running Bear drifts over.  "Amongst the People, the crow 
is a bird of magic, a being so strong he can live on death itself."
	The crow breaks eye-contact briefly, and flaps into the air, 
landing on Running Bear's shoulder.  It continues to look at Rhiannon. 
"We stand at a juncture-point.  The descisions of the next few moments 
carry the thread of destiny inside them, as the chain of necklace holds 
together beads."
	As Captian corven watches Astarial, Martin, Frederic, and Shane 
hunched over Garret's unconscious/dead form, there's a knock at the door. 
Captain Corven looks around, and seeing Paddy on the phone and everyone 
else otherwise occupied, he shrugs and strolls gracefully to the door, 
pulling it open with a sweeping bow.
	"Welcome to..." he stops dead in his tracks as a corpse falls 
through the open doorway to land on the floor with a *thump*.
	She was a woman, youngish, with curly dark hair, plain features, 
and a rather large nose.  Her eyes are wide open, and a look of dismay is 
stamped clearly on her face.  The hafts of several knives protrude from 
her back.  Her left arm is wrapped tightly around a cannister of film, 
and as she strikes the floor, her right hand opens and a luminous green 
stone rolls across the floor, coming to rest not far away from the table 
where Professor Corven and Kao-Liang are (flirting)*ahem* talking.
	Professor Corven looks down at the stone.  "What is-"
	A slender blonde woman steps through the front door, a billyclub 
in her hand.  She's familiar to anyone who was watching the hologram of 
Garret's death.  As she looks at Captain Corven, her expression changes 
from quiet wariness to amazement, then to anger.  Captain Corven, his 
attention still focused on the corpse, reacts way to late to block her as 
she flips the club up and smashes him right across the right temple.  He 
hits the floor like a ton of bricks.  "You," she says calmly, "are 
supposed to be dead."
	Cybernetic Garret swivels.  A siren sounds from somewhere inside 
him. "DANGER!  HOSTILE REALITY DEVIANTS APPROACHING!"
	Professor Corven sqeaks in distress and dives under the table, 
taking his laptop with him, and trying to get Kao-Liang to do the same.
	Running Bear remains near Rhiannon.  Taking some brightly colored 
sand from his pouch, he throws it up into the air with a war-whoop.  His 
outline wavers, shifts, and suddenly a huge black bear stands in his 
place.  
	Three men wearing dark clothing and leather jackets cluster in 
the doorway behind her.  "Get the stone," she says calmly, removing a .44 
magnum from her coat.  "And kill anything that looks like him," she 
indicates Captain Corven.
	The men spread out, all holding weaponry, looking at the patrons 
warily. Cybernetic Garret swivels to face them.  "ENGAGING MANUAL BATTLE 
MODE" it says, and strides smoothly forward, locking it's mechanical hand 
around the neck of one of the toughs, lifting him easily into the air.  
With a smooth, oiled mnovement, he casually flings the first one at the 
other two, sending them all down in a confused jumble of arms and legs. 
"RECOMMENDATION:  RECOVER AND SAFEGUARD STONE." it says as it starts 
moving forward to engage the blonde woman.
	Professor Corven, from his vantage point under the table, looks 
at the stone, and back at the blonde.  He visibly screws up his courage, 
and makes a dash for the stone.  His hand has just closed around it when 
one of the toughs on the floor manages to raise his gun and pull the 
trigger, right before Running Bear's Jaws close on his arm.  He screams, 
and the gun goes off several times as Running Bear forces his arm up 
towards the ceiling.
	The first bullet takes Professor Corven right in the kneecap, and 
sends him sprawling, which is fortunate, because the second and third 
whizz right through the air where he was standing.  He retains his hold 
on the stone and doubles up in agony on the floor, his eyes wide in pain 
and terror.
	From a fairly unimportant corner, a large and fluffy red cat 
streaks across the floor to Professor Corven, pokes its face into his 
hand, and then bolts out of the Pub carrying something in its mouth.
	"Get that cat!!" screeches the blonde as it streaks between her 
legs and out the door.  "Dammit!" She starts backing away from the 
cyborg, not willing to turn and make a run for it, but not wanting to 
stand and fight it, either.
	The cat turns to watch her for a moment, before weaving through 
traffic to the opposite side of the street and beginning to scale a wall. 
Anyone who didn't know better might have thought the cat was smirking at her.
	Cursing, she turns her attention back the hulking cyborg 
advancing on her, squeezing off several shots that ricochet off its metal 
exterior.

7.
	 "It's...uh, it's hard to say.  More, more like disorganized 
complexity, although at some, uh, points it seems to defy analysis 
completely, I, uh, suspect because I can only...uh, represent it in three 
dimensions as opposed to four.  It...it seems to wish to retain the most 
simple geometric shape it can, but it keeps growing, so it needs more and 
more sides to be a perfect figure.  I think, uh, each of us represents a 
side, a place where the anomaly touches, uh, another universe."
	Surprised, "A singular instance of disorganized complexity, and 
it's possible to model it?  I knew that statistics were developed to deal 
with what happens to a system given a large enough set of such things, 
but I didn't know that it was possible to focus on the individual 
behavior of one of the components with any degree of accuracy."  Thinking 
a bit, "Do you know the reason it's forming a polyhedron instead of a 
circle?"  And slowly, "And is your concern for when the anomaly hits a 
universe where, for some reason, you were never born in the first place, 
and so loses what stability it has?"
	He blushes a bit.  "I've...uh, been mapping disorganized 
complexities for...uh, quite some time.  I-I had to invent a new 
mathematical modelling system, of course.  It's...it's quite useful. I've 
been, um, meaning to write a paper on it...I-I just never seem to have 
time..." He pushes up his glasses absently and turns to the screen.  "Oh, 
the polyhedral shape?  Um, I'm not entirely sure...uh, my current theory 
is temporal pressure on the outside of the shape that, uh, forces it into 
such a configuration."
	"You'd think that temporal pressure on the outside would force it 
into the multi-dimensional equivalent of a sphere though, wouldn't you?  
And if you guys are the boundaries on the outside, then what's inside 
that's forcing the growth?  Tried looking at that?"
	He nods vigorously.  "Yes, there, uh, there *is* something 
inside... you can tell from the irregularities in, uh, the facings.  
I'm...I'm not quite sure why it isn't a sphere.   Maybe the other 
universes exert uneven pressure.... uh, like a soap-bubble, is normally 
round, uh, for instance, but a soap bubble in the center of a cluster may 
be, uh, square or polyhedral, uh, depending on how many other...soap 
bubbles are acting on it."
	He looks up at Kao-Liang, all seriousness.  "I-I don't think it 
*can* touch a universe where there isn't..uh, one of us.  I...I think 
it's like a selective, uh, chemical reaction...it can only interact with, 
um, a
universe that contains a compatible, uh, 'signature', if you will... a 
universe that has one of us in it."
	 "Well, then," he muses.  "If that's the case, have you thought 
about changing your signature to something that it can't recognize?  If 
it needs a signature to interact with a shadow, then if none of the 
shadows have the requisite signature, would it disappear?  How precise 
does this signature need to be, and what does it consist of?"
	His eyes fly open.  "Brilliant!!!  That's-why that's..." he seems 
to be working himself into a state of high excitement.  "Yes, yes...we, 
we would just need some...some equipment from the ship..." He tries to 
calm himself.  "You're, you're absolutely right, if-if we can 
just...change the signature...isolate it and obscure it...the anomaly 
might just," he waves his arms excitedly,"cease to exist!"

8.
	A corpse falls through the door. Kao-liang takes a break from 
*ahem* talking, a brief look at the body confirming that, indeed, it sure 
looks dead, followed by a quick survey of the pub seeing if anyone has 
snuck in, looks like they were expecting this, or there are suspicious 
silhouettes behind the window or ominous sounds from behind the door to 
the Cellar.  He checks the front door again, as ....
	A slender blonde woman steps through the front door, a billyclub 
in her hand.  She's familiar to anyone who was watching the hologram of 
Garret's death.  As she looks at Captain Corven, her expression changes 
from quiet wariness to amazement, then to anger.  Captain Corven, his 
attention still focused on the corpse, reacts way to late to block her as 
she flips the club up and smashes him right across the right temple.  He 
hits the floor like a ton of bricks.  "You," she says calmly, "are 
supposed to be dead."
	Gabby fumbles with the receiver in her ear, and mutters something 
like "Damn, the Thanatos caught up with him." Noting the canister that 
the corpse dropped, Gabby leps forward, trying to slip past the huge 
cyborg and grab it...
	Cybernetic Garret swivels.  A siren sounds from somewhere inside 
him. "DANGER!  HOSTILE REALITY DEVIANTS APPROACHING!"
	Professor corven sqeaks in distress and dives under the table, 
taking his laptop with him, and trying to get Kao-Liang to do the same. 
Kao-liang joins him quite willingly, after a brief glance at the canister 
of film, which disappears from sight...
	...just as Gabby's fingers were about to close on it.  "Damn!" 
says the blond woman, apparently assuming that Gabby was responsible.  
She swivels and starts to draw a bead on the nocker...
	KL then does Professor Garret one better as he disappears from 
sight as well. Professor Corven blinks in surprise, apparently assuming 
that Kao-Liang has magicked himself away.  "It figures," he mutters 
absently, watching the general melee, "I always seem to end up scaring 
them away." He then makes his run for the stone.
	The first bullet takes Professor Corven right in the kneecap, and 
sends him sprawling, which is fortuante, because the second and third 
whizz right through the air where he was standing.  He retains his hold 
on the stone and doubles up in agony on the floor, his eyes wide in pain 
and terror.
	From a spot about 10 feet behind the toughs and the blonde, a 
deep synthesized-sounding voice (possibly giving Shane, Frederic, 
Illyana, and anyone else who was around when Plot's HitMarks came to 
visit a sense of deja vu)  "UNIT 4 TO SQUAD:  ALL TARGETED REALITY 
DEVIANTS NOW ACCOUNTED FOR.  CEASE USE OF HOLOGRAM PROJECTOR AND PROCEED 
WITH CLEANSING PATTERN BETA."  Professor Garret vanishes from view.
	The blonde whirls, loosing her bead on Gabby and looking around 
wildly. "What the FUCK!?"
	Terrified but determined, Gabby grabs hold of the unconscious 
Captain  Garret and starts dragging him out of the way. 
	His eyes flutter open.  "Uhhhnnnn..."
	The blonde shoots a murderous look at Gabby, but she's got her 
hands full with cybernetic Garret, who seems determined to squish her 
like a bug. The toughs scramble backward from Running Bear, one of them 
doesn't look like he'll be using his arm anytime soon.  All of them look 
confused as hell. "Retreat!" screams the blonde, ducking around the 
cyborg just in time to avoid a blow that would have turned her into 
jelley.  "Pull back and GET THAT CAT!!!" But there isn't much on anywhere 
to go.  Cybernetic Garret has cut them off from the front door, and 
Running Bear blocks the way to the back.    
	Both now invisible, Kao-liang clamps one hand around Garret's 
thigh. Professor Corven utters a muffled yelp as Kao-Liang's other hand 
covers his mouth.  One hand convulsively grasps his shirtfront, and the 
other opens to reaveal...a green stone.  His eyes are the stark, 
terrified eyes of an animal caught in a trap.  Kao-liang can feel him 
shaking.
	 Still keeping one hand firmly over the thigh and the other over 
Garret's mouth, the strength in his grip considerably at odds with the 
appearance of his slender and attenuated frame, he leans down, and in a 
voice pitched to be only barely audible even at Garret's ears, says, "Try 
to be quiet - it would be fleaking difficult to keep the "not-here" 
working if you don't.  And you're bleeding too much for grabbing you and 
running to work all that well - it doesn't take a genius to figure out 
that aiming at the end of a moving trail of blood might work, after all."
	Garret looks up at Kao-Liang, dazed and uncomprehending.  He 
looks as though he's shellshocked. Kao-liang gives him a sensous, 
thorough kiss (no fangs) that betrays a considerable amount of 
experience, to see if that shocks him back to his senses. "Mpfff!" he 
says in surprise, his hand tightening on the green stone until his 
knuckles turn white.  Although he's surprised at first, he suddenly 
kisses back enthusiastically.  As Kao-Liang breaks the kiss, the 
Professor just looks at him, his face and eyes as transparent as glass, 
revealing fear, pain, surprise, lust, and flat amazement, that all 
finally blend into an expression of exaltation.
	"Wow." he says, in a very, very tiny voice.

9.
	As things in Garret's mind come to a head, the spinning vortex 
around Martin slows and dissolves. He tears the headpiece off and looks 
at Rhiannon apologetically. He seems about to say something when tabula 
rasa barrels past him, heading straight for the Fracas.... With a shrug, 
the older mage produces a spanner and hefts it experimentally, before 
charging straight at the thugs, trying to draw their fire.	
	Rhiannon blinks dazedly for a brief second, as the crow dumps her 
out of the mindscape, then she hears the second shot and lots of 
experience in  self-preservation takes over, as she dives for the nearest 
piece of cover.
	Which the blonde catches out of the corner of her eye.  "It's 
HER!" She screams at the others. "The vampire witch!!  GET HER!" One of 
the toughs aims a halfhearted shot in her direction, but he's clearly 
more concerned with Running Bear and the rest of the pub.
	A sharp series of *tink*s, four of them actually, herald Lady 
May's remote arrival on the counter's top. It stares at the blonde woman 
and hails her, its voice surprisingly louder than usual. "Hey! Blondie! 
Remember me?"
	She spins.  Her eyes widen.  "Oh, great."
	The cat's eyes shine in a brighter shade of green. "Would the 
harlot have tagged along for the ride?"
	She seems about to reply, when Rhiannon says a phrase that twists 
and turns and escapes from the minds of almost everyone before it can be 
comprehended or remembered, though the expression on the blonde's face 
indicates that she alone might have understood more than the other 
patrons of the place. The blonde's gun drops to the floor from limp 
fingers, her eyes going glassy and unfocused.  "Hurrr..." she says, 
sitting down suddenly, her head lolling.
	"Rhiannon, you're no fun." Lady May's remote jumps down to the 
floor and walks up to the still form of the blonde, and prods her leg 
with a forepaw. No response.  At all. "Well, what do we do, now?"
	Dodging a stray shot, Martin manages to get close enough to bring 
the spanner smashing down on a thug's arm, making him yelp and drop his 
weapon.  He traws back for a punch, but just then, Tabula gets their 
attention by holding a gun to their leader's head. As one, they all drop 
their weapons...and smile.  There's a pulse and ripple of life magick, 
and one by one, they drop to the floor, stone-dead.
	Snapping out of his concentration, Frederic quickly tries to 
assess the situation, then starts to push Garrett's stretcher out of the 
lines of fire. It's light, and easy to move.  Dr Paine follows 
cautiously, lugging a piece of equipment behind her and looking worriedly 
at the place where Kao-Liang and the Professor vanished. Seeing that the 
blonde is out of commission, at least for now, and that the thugs are now 
ex-thugs, Frederic turns to the doctor. "He's not dead, or not yet. I 
have to go now, but you have to arrange him off the stretcher, because if 
the rift closes, you guys may very well vanish back back to where you 
come from." He pauses. "Well, maybe we also should tend to his wounds 
with materials that don't risk to be whishked away from here, or at least 
have an efficient healer attending him."
	Karieta turns a slightly amused face towards Frederick.  "I 
realize I may not have an M.D., but I think I can stumble along if they 
do indeed disappear. And as traumatic as the injuries are, I am more 
concerned with his spirit."
	"If we get him back, he's got to have something to come back to," 
says the doctor emphatically.  "Tissue regeneration is almost complete." 
She stoops and loosens the supports holding Garret's head in place, and 
locks a flashing light on the metal covering on his face, which hisses, 
splits, and comes apart in her hands.  His face and neck look completely 
normal.
	"Kaaah!" says the crow, circling down from the rafters to land on 
Rhiannon's shoulder.  "Kaaah!"  She provides an arm for it to walk down, 
then stares at the crow, falling into another trance.

10.
	As Kao-Liang breaks the kiss, the Professor just looks at him, 
his face and eyes as transparent as glass, revealing fear, pain, 
surprise, lust, and flat amazement, that all finally blend into an 
expression of exaltation. "Wow." he says, in a very, very tiny voice.
	KL gives the professor a wicked lazy smile in return, (could the 
canines be slightly longer than they were before?) looking at him through 
his long eyelashes, which do a very nice job of hiding the calculating 
glint in them.
	Professor Corven continues to look at him as though he's a god 
who's just descended in a chariot of fire.  He doesn't even look as 
though he's paying attention to how much pain he's in.
	Since the toughs have now obligingly dropped dead, he drops the 
Cloak in return, and quite calmly turns his head and asks, "Dr. Paine?  
If you have a moment, I think Garret here could use some help." 
	Dr Paine grabs a small medical bag from under the stretcher and 
hurries over.  Running Bear shifts, wavers, and return to human shape, 
and follows her.  They kneel down on either side of him.
	"You're going to be fine," Dr. Paine reassures him, pulling some 
sort of high tech device that looks a little like a turkey baster from 
her bag.
	Running Bear frowns and pulls the tortoseshell rattles off his 
belt. He begins shaking them over the wound.
	"What is it?" asks Dr Paine.
	"These man have witched their bullets with sickness and pain.  
This wound will be difficult to heal, and will fester within an hour if 
we do not prevent it."
	"Great.  There's still some juice left in my Sonic Suture.  Can 
you handle the spell or whatever it is?"
	Running Bear nods and bends over the Professor again.  He shakes 
his rattle aggressively at the wound.  "Hear me, pain-spirits!  Hear me, 
sickness!  I am Running Bear!  My teacher was Heart-Of-The-Mountain, and 
I walk with the spirits!  By She-Who-Made-All, I command you to go from 
here into the blackness!  Depart!" He repeats this three times, all the 
while shaking his rattle in a steady rythm.  Finally, he leans back and 
nods to the doctor, who lunges in and points her device at his mangled 
knee.  (To KL)"Hold him steady, if he moves, the bone may reknit wrong, 
and I don't have enough power to try this again.  And it's going to hurt."
	For a minute nothing happens, and then, slowly, the flesh begins 
to shudder and seal, without even a scar.  The Professor muffles a scream 
in Kao-Liang's shirt. Kao-liang watches with interest, firmly keeping 
Garret's leg from moving with one hand, supporting him gently around the 
back with the other arm, and keeping his thoughts from showing on his 
face with the ease of long practice.  
	Running Bear appraises him out of half-lidded eyes.
	He takes a look at Running Bear - "Maybe you'd like to see if 
there are any pain-spirits attached to the blonde, as well?  And maybe 
check with the other mages to see if it's possible to set up a ward to 
prevent her from doing magic?  Right now, I'd say she isn't going to be 
able to stop you for the next hour at least, unless you're willing to 
shake Rhi out of her trance enough for her to give the answer to the 
riddle.  And it might be nice to find out exactly what she was after, and 
if anyone else from her side knew where she was going and if she was 
expecting backup - stuff like that which might be difficult to find out 
if as soon as she's aware again of what's going on, she drops dead like 
the others."
	Running Bear nods shortly and stands.  "I will put her soul to 
sleep." He strides across the room, kneels down next to her, and begins 
chanting something in the same dialectical mishmash.
	The Doctor leans back.  "I don't recommend walking on it for a 
while, but you should be all right." (To KL) "That was quick thinking.  
If you hadn't applied some pressure, he might have bled to death."
	A rueful, charming smile, with a slight shrug, "Well, then I 
would never find out what sounds like a rather interesting theory, or 
what was so important about the gem he went after - and I have *far* too 
much curiousity, not to mention finding him," for someone who's listening 
intently to him, the next word might have the hint of a purr to it, 
"interesting."  
	The doctor raises an eyebrow, then shakes her head and collects 
her things.  Running Bear returns, looking at Kao-Linag, not a flicker of 
emotion showing on his face.  The professor continues to look up at him 
worshipfully.  "It was worth it." he says in a small voice.
	Running Bear looks down at him.  Was that a glimmer of amusement 
on his face?  Maybe not.  He twirls his rattles, clips them to his belt 
and stands. "Be careful," he says to Professor Corven.
	"Huh?" says the professor.
	"Your leg.  Be careful."  Kao-Liang might get the distinct 
impression that he's not, in fact, referring to the professor's leg.


11.	
	Rowan, who shifted to hispo when the blonde walked in, creeps 
across the floor toward Gabby and Cap'n Garret.  She shifts back to 
homid, shaking her head. "I'm goin' ta regret shiftin' like tha'... 
'though if'n tha' blonde bitch keeps 't up, 't may be a moot point."  She 
motions Gabby to grab one shoulder, while she grabs the other.  "Behind 
th' bar wi' him.  There's ice back there too, so ye can ice 'is head."
	After a few minutes, his eyelids flutter open.  "Uhnnnn..." he 
says, looking up at Gabby, who is holding the icepack. He swallows and 
says distinctly, "Miss, I hate to be a bother, but could you force the 
room to stop spinning?  I have a horrid headache."
	"You have quite a bump on your head. You probably shouldn't 
move," she cautions him.
	A moment later, his eyes seem to focus somewhat better, and he 
actually seems to *see* Gabby.  His eyes widen. She starts to cover a 
pointed ear with a hand not holding the ice, worried that her nature has 
somehow upset him, in his condition. 
	"My goodness...if getting hit on the head means I'm assigned such 
a lovely nurse, I shall have to manage it more often." 
	She blinks, her hand slowly falling away.
	"I don't believe we've met, I'm Captain Corven, of the 
Experimental Timeship Etherjammer, and *you* must be the most enchanting 
creature I have set eyes on in quite some time.  May I have the pleasure 
of your name?"
	 "I'm Gabrielle," she says softly.
	"Gabrielle..." he says slowly, as if tasting it.  "A name for 
angels," he says, taking her hand and kissing it, and not letting go of 
it afterwards.
	He tries to sit up, gets dizzy, and falls back again.  "Well, it 
appears I am at your mercy, Gabrielle."  He flashes her a charming smile.
	 "I told you you shouldn't move," she says, a smile lurking about 
her face.
	He smiles.  It's *very* charming.  "So you did.  In future, I 
will have to listen more carefully to you. Tell me, do you believe in 
love at first sight?"
	 "Not from someone who's just suffered a concussion!" she says 
teasingly. What he said earlier finally registers... "Experimental 
timeship? Is that how all of you got here?"
	"Oh no," he says vaguely, still looking up at Gabrielle in 
rapture.  "There's a small time anomaly...caused by the death of this 
universe's version of me. What happened, anyway? I remember a corpse..." 
	"Right. Um, the body fell through the door, holding on to a can 
of film, and then a blonde woman who was probably one of Voormas' 
Thanatos stepped in and hit you. She was surprised to see all of you 
because she thought they'd killed him - Garret - and sent in her goons to 
try and finish it. She yelled something about a stone - I think the cat 
got it, and got away, I'm not sure. I tried to get the film, but it 
vanished right before I could grab it. She would have shot me, but there 
were too many people going after her, so Rowan and I grabbed you and 
pulled you back here."
	He smiles again.  "If this is the result of a concussion, I hope 
that I never recover.   Since I seem to be immobilized for the present, 
why don't you tell me about you, hmm?"
	"I - there's not much to tell, really. I'm an artist, I work for 
a company that makes magickal gadgets, with a Tremere and a Son of Ether..."

12.
	He tries to calm himself.  "You're, you're absolutely right, 
if-if we can just...change the signature...isolate it and obscure 
it...the anomaly might just," he waves his arms excitedly,"cease to 
exist! Mr Edison!  Mr Edison!  Can you, uh, recognize temporal signatures?"
	Edison, preparing to do another timescan, hears, jumps over the 
rail and makes his way to the table. "Yes? Temporal signatures? I suppose 
so... Of what? The different Garrets?"
	"Uh, yes!  Yes, can you, isolate the signatures?  Identify each 
one, then set up some sort of, uh, field to obscure them, or perhaps 
change the signatures themselves?"
	 "Um.. Yes, I don't see why not. That would... cause the anomaly 
to lose its grip on each one... but how do you propose to stop it from 
simply grabbing another Garret from the nearest universe along?"
	"I'm...I'm not sure yet.  But, uh, this may be a feasible 
idea...we just need to think it through.  Maybe...instead of altering 
ours, we could... uh... set up some sort of, er, barrier around the 
anomaly, something that would, um, keep it from interacting with any 
universe with the requisite signature... then, it, uh, couldn't get any 
larger!"
	 "Of course! That might work, we'd have to set up the field in 
time rather than space, so I may need Fred's help. But It's theoretically 
possible, at least."
	He nods vigorously.  "We should begin as quickly as possible."
	Martin glances at his watch, and winces. "Well, whatever we're 
going to do, it had better be soon. There's less than five minutes to the 
next shift!"
	The Professor winces.  "We...we may not have enough time to stop 
the next shift, but we should get started, um, anyway.  May I help with 
your scan? Maybe we can, uh, modify some of your equipment."
	 "Right, let's get to work." He pulls out a notepad and sketches 
a rough timeline on it. "From what I can tell, the anomaly has spawned a 
whole slew of alternative wavefronts around this one. Assuming they 
propogate in both directions, we'll need one field generator for the 
past, and one for the future. We'll need to position them in the no-time 
interval between the current Planck and the next and previous ones along. 
When the anomaly can no longer access Garrets in the preceding or 
following wavefronts, it should cease to expand, and perhaps even begin 
to contract, if it's nature precludes a static state."
	Professor Corven looks over the diagram.  "How do we, uh, keep 
the anomaly from collapsing under...it's own stress?  Once, uh, it can no 
longer grow, it will, uh, begin to collapse in on itself.  Can we, uh, 
build in an, um, safeguard to let it collapse, but slowly, uh, so that it 
can dwindle rather than, uh eplode?"	
	"Right, we'd better send a probe inside it, then. If we can get a 
look at the interior we might be able to set some kind of field up there 
to balance the pressures," Martin says, fiddling with his scanning device.
	Professor Corven cranes his neck to watch.  "It's, uh, hollow.  I 
wonder what's inside..."
	"From what I can see, all the cobblies are in the future, spread 
out over the next second or so. We'll still have to seal the past off, to 
stop it from propogating a whole new slew of wavefronts when it can no 
longer access the future ones, but it does simplify things a little. Hang 
on, i'll just check that there aren't any further in the past..."
	He nods.  "Do you, uh, have a field-generator handy?  I-I could 
start modifying it, if, uh, that's all right.  When, um, the Captain is 
feeling better, he...can help."
	The scanner's display is filled with a grainy, monochrome image 
of the pub, with the events of the last few minutes being played out in 
reverse. Martin does a double take when it reaches the fight scene, as 
the can of film appears. He quickly begins the scene running fowards 
again, and watches the can drop to the floor and vanish. He glances 
across the floor, looking for it, then gets down on his knees and begins 
to feel for the object. "Did anyone see where that reel of film went? We 
have to find it!"
	The professor obligingly squats.  "Uh, why?  What is it?"
	The cyborg Garret buzzes and whirrs. "Object not located on 
scan.  Not within fifty meters.  Current location: unknown."
	Unable to resist this straight line, Kao-liang hands a canister 
of film, that wasn't in his hand a minute ago, to the professor with a 
bow, "Happy anniversary - and hope you like the present."
	He looks down at it, torn between surprise and laughter.  
"You...you had it all the time?  Don't you, uh, think it's a bit, uh, 
early for our anniversary?"

13.
	"Too much here is unnatural, and your friend's passing is the 
least of them.  We can take nothing for granted, wolfbrother," says 
Running Bear to Paddy.
	"Then MAKE up yer bloody minds!  Has his soul passed on or not; 
is his Avatar there or not!  If leavin' the body's shell leaves us a 
shell o'Garret, then Let him pass on!!"
	Running Bear simply shrugs and turns back to the Garret on the 
stretcher. "We will know soon."
	Shane heads to the bar and orders a vodka.  Downing the shot in 
one he turns back towards the group attempting to ressurect Garret.  His 
face a mask, "I'm sorry, I can't allow you to do this."
	Martin, having just removed the mindscape headset, shakes his 
head to clear it and looks at Shane curiously. "Do what? I thought we'd 
agreed not to do anything until Garret makes his decision?"
	"His decision doesn't matter."
	One gets the distinct impressioin that were Gabby not supporting 
Captain Corven at the moment, Shane would be slapped. Professor Corven 
looks a bit worried.  Runing Bear turns to face Shane, eyebrows 
uplifted.  "And why not?"
	"You can't cheat death like that.  His choice to come back or not 
isn't important."
	"I have. Are you going to try and kill me, too?" asks Martin.
	"No.  You're alive."
	"In that case, wait until Garret is alive again and we won't have 
a problem, will we?"
	"He isn't allowed to return to life."
	The Garri exchange another look.  "Neither is he allowed to die, 
in his current state." comments Running Bear.
	Martin's fingers begin to flex. "Besides, Frederic, the Professor 
and I only have about half as much chance of safely shutting down the 
anomaly if he dies. I'm not about to be responsible if that happens."
	"He's already dead.  Unless he makes the proper arrangements I 
have to make sure he stays that way.  That Garret has no claim to his 
soul anymore, and his battle with his other half will make no difference 
to that."
	The various Garri exchange glances, except for the cyborg, who 
seems uninterested in the argument.  The Professor looks down at the 
Temporal field Generator he yanked off the Eidolon and is currently 
tinkering with, avoiding Shane's eyes.  Running Bear clears his throat.
	"And you have now become death's footman?  Are you so sure of 
what you say?  What would you have us do, cut off his head and shove a 
stake through his heart?  Some part of him remains.  Are you willing to 
take responsibility for destroying it?  Who is to say whether he is truly 
alive or dead?  Who has conferred this authority on you?" Running Bears 
flicks a glance at Rhiannon, who stands perfectly still at the foot of 
the stretcher, looking into the eyes of the crow.
	"He is already dead," Shane repeats.
	"If that's true, then he will make the proper arrangements or die."
	"No.  People can be brought back without the 'authority' of 
death.  This is what is happening, but it should not."
	Dr. Paine shakes her head.  "Philosophical nonsense aside, I've 
done all I can do here.  Tissue regeneration is complete." She turns and 
undoes the straps holding Garret's body steady and begins disconnecting 
her equipment.  "Well, everything except the left eye, anyway.  For some 
reason the equipment had a problem with it." She finishes quickly and 
straightens.  "Captain, with your permission?"
	He waves his hand.  "Granted."
	She nods and touches the insignia on her jacket.  A whirl of 
rainbow colors washes over her and her odds and ends, and they vanish.

14.
	Gabby glares at Shane from her position behind the bar. "I don't 
think -you- should be involved in this at all. The last time you mucked 
around with his head you drove him into Quiet. Let someone who cares 
handle it." She looks down at Captain Corven and holds up two fingers. 
"How many fingers do you see?"
	"Two," he replies.  "I'm only getting dizzy when I try to move."  
	"You're probably all right, then, I guess. I don't know much 
about healing." Up to Martin - "What's going on in there, anyway?"
 	"From what I can see, he's fighting his dark side for his right 
to life. He's decided that his unfinished business here outweighs the 
need to continue the cycle."
	"So the shadow in the dream was his Shadow, like a wraith!"
 	"It's not certain, he might always change his mind, or fail. But 
we have to repair and protect his body, because he might need it."
	Astarial approaches with an angry look at Shane. "What's going on here?"
	Gabby comments very quickly in Latin, "He's a mage of more than 
negligible ability, finding out what arrangements he thinks should be 
made definitely beats fighting..."
	"Someone must defeat death for him or die in his place," says 
Shane, who, like Gabby, went to a school that insisted on teaching Latin.
	"That," says Running Bear firmly, "Has the stink of prophecy 
about it."
	The Captain looks up at Astarial and winces.  "Please tell me 
that you are, in fact, a strange-looking elf-person."
	"Quite average-looking praeedhel, actually, but that's close 
enough for this reality."
	"A what?  Nevermind, I'm quite pleased enough to hear that I'm 
not hallucinating. Otherwise, I should have to conclude that I *do* have 
a serious concussion."
	"I wouldn't bet against that, in any case."
	"Indeed.  You wouldn't think such a small woman could hit so hard."
	Gabrielle chuckles at that. 
	"I shall certainly never underestimate *you*.  Something tells me 
you've more than enough gumption for ten men." He winks at her. She 
smiles. "Ah, a charming smile.  Lights up your entire face, Gabrielle, if 
you don't mind my saying so."
	She shakes her head, still smiling. "Okay. We have to piece 
together what's been happening. "So help me out here. Garret gets jumped 
in New Orleans by some rogue Thanatos. Somehow or other this creates a 
dimensional rift which starts  pulling in other Garrets, and somehow they 
and the body end up here - not too unreasonable, considering, but why 
didn't they land in the city?  Anyway, they get here, various people 
including Gegi and Max decide that it's not over and try to reach our 
Garret, who's in some sort of in-between state trying to decide whether 
or not to live. So... who's that?" She points to the corpse by the door. 
"Someone else that the nasty Thans didn't like, but someone Garret knew? 
And what's with the stone and the film... and the crow? I thought they 
made that up for the movie..."
	"An excellent summation, Gabrielle," says the Captain.  "We-"
	Running Bear cuts him off.  "The crow is real.  It is a very, 
very old harbinger."
	The Captain looks at him in annoyance.  "We still have a lot of 
unanswered questions.  Like who that dead woman is and what was so 
important about the stone she was carrying."

15.
	Lacking his usual half-amused-at-everything look for once, 
Kao-liang says, "Permit me to prefer situations where you *don't* get 
shot up, okay?"
	The Professor laughs shakily.  "V-very sensible.  The, um, 
problem is, I'm-I'm usually not.  Sensible, that is."
	"I prefer creativity, integrity and competence over sensibility 
any night of the week."
	The professor smiles shyly and looks down at the green stone.  
"Hello.  I wonder why they, uh, wanted this so badly?" He holds it up to 
the light.  Kao-liang can clearly see what looks like a little dancing 
flame in the center.  The professor looks at him enquiringly.  "Do, um, 
you know what this is?"
	He cocks his head, looking like he's *listening* at the same time 
he looks at the stone.  Looking rather interested, "Mind if I touch it?" 
	"N-no, I don't, uh, mind.  Are you sure i-it's a good idea?
	Reaching forward to touch it, his expression already rather 
abstracted, he replies absently, "No."  His fingers touch it briefly, 
then he leaps backwards ten feet, amazingly enough missing anyone or 
anything, his eyes looking rather wild for a moment as he lands in a 
combat crouch.  Sense comes back into his expression, and he straightens 
up slowly, regaining his usual half amused expression and sauntering back 
towards Garret, commenting as he does so, "Ouch.  Definitely not one of 
my more brilliant ideas.  Do you like invoking Shiva-most-Holy while you 
work magic, perchance?"
	"Wow!  C-can all vampires d-do that?  Jump, uh, straight up in 
the air like that?" He frowns.  "I, uh, don't do magick, uh, strictly 
speaking.  I'm...a scientist.  I...I don't even know what, um, 
'shiva-most-holy' *is*." He looks at Kao-liang, bursting with curiosity.  
"What happened?"

(OOC: It's no type of proper stone that KL can recognize.  It's song is
wierd, to say the least, it sounds like a choir of people, all singing in
harmony, although he can't make out any words.  The auspex supplies a
vast repository of incredibly vivid images and impressions from hundreds
of thousands of people all at once, it's the emotional equivalent of
standing right next to some really *big* speakers.  One clear impression
emerges, the only one he can make sense of:  Garret, bleeding from his
wrist into a bowl, a carved circle on the floor with a pictogram of a
phoenix in the center.  Flickering candles illuminate dancing green eyes
(he has both of them), and he intones, "I call you, Firewalker,
He-Who-Rises-From-Ash.  I bind the mystery that is yours, so that I may
know you better.  In stone and in blood, quenched in fire, by the will of
Shiva-most-Holy")

	Supporting Garret's weight without any problem, he helps him over 
to a table.  Turning practical, "Well, it is traditional for heros to be 
feasted after a victory, anyway."  Speculatively, "Do you like oysters?"
	"Heroes?  Victory?"  He smiles a slightly self-deprecating 
smile.  "I'm, um, not much of a hero.  I...I don't think I've ever 
actually been, uh, shot before...not that I'm...eager to have it, uh, 
happen again." He frowns.  "Oysters?  Raw or uh, cooked?"
	His black eyes limpid deep pools, he answers with a lazy shrug, 
"Cooked is probably safer.  And cooked would probably get the blood 
stirring as much as raw, one would think."
	He licks his lips, mezmerized into near-speechlessness. "Um.  Are 
oysters good for your, uh, bloodpressure or something?" he asks innocently.
	"So I'm told - at least for humans.  When Paddy gets over here, 
why not try ordering both normal oysters, and also Rocky Mountain Oysters 
as well, just to make sure?" he finishes, a smile on his lips that in 
most circumstances gives approximately half his audience reason for a 
slow, thoughtful look, while the other half of the audience starts 
thinking nasty thoughts towards him as they notice their partners' 
expressions.
	He frowns.  "Never heard of them..." he says faintly, still 
looking into Kl's eyes like a deer pinned by someone's headlights.  

16.
	"Hells, I've been here for all of this and *I'd* guess I don't 
know a *quarter* of what's going on. No-one giving a straight answer, 
everyone rushing off half-cocked in all directions," Astarial gestures at 
the vanishing Eidolon, ".. absolute chaos."
	Running Bear shakes his head, making the little beads woven into 
his hair clack against one another. "There is much happening here that I 
do not understand, and it is much more than a dead man who will not die, 
or a ripple in the dreams of She-Who-Made-All."
	The professor looks up and clears his throat awkwardly.  "Uh...do 
any of, uh, the rest of you...feel as though you're...uh..." He looks 
down, frowning.  "As though you're being used by someone? Manipulated... 
uh, pushed?"
	"For myself, no more than usual. But I suspect that doesn't mean 
anything... under the circumstances," says Astarial.
	The professor continues to frown.  "*I* do...don't the rest of 
you?" he
asks the other Garri.
	"I, too feel the hand of destiny in this," admits Running Bear.
	"Destiny is illogical," admonishes the cyborg. "Coda: 
manipulation of space-time and circumstance would require power level of 
an oracle or greater."
	"And why?" asks the Captain.  "Why do all this?  To what end?"
	"For reasons ineffable, incomprehensible and inscrutable, no 
doubt. That is, after all, what makes them Oracles."
	"Bloody annoying is what I call it." says the captain emphatically.
	Astarial affects a sorrowful look. "This really is the 
worst-planned crisis I've been in recently. I must remember to write and 
complain to the Fates."

17.
	A small electronic alarm comes from Captain Corven's 
wristwatch-device. He looks at the Professor, clearly alarmed.  "Now?" 
The professor scrambles to his feet and runs to his laptop.  "Oh dear." 
he says in a small voice.  "This hurt so badly last time..."
	A booming, metallic voice issues from the Cyborg, loud enough to 
rattle dishes on the shelves. "ATTENTION, ATTENTION: THE RIFT IS ABOUT TO 
DESTABILIZE AGAIN.  PLEASE TAKE COVER.  REMAINING WITHIN TEN FEET OF ANY 
SPACE-TIME INSTANCE OF UNIT DESIGNATE: GARRET CORVEN IS CAUSE FOR EXTREME 
INJURY.  REPEAT: THE RIFT IS
ABOUT TO DE-STABILIZE AGAIN.  ANOTHER SPACE-TIME INSTANCE OF UNIT 
DESIGNATE: GARRET CORVEN IS ABOUT TO ARRIVE.  PLEASE TAKE COVER."       
	"Twenty s-seconds!" barks the proffessor, his face white.
	Captain Corven gently detatches himself from Gabrielle.  "Go.  
Hide under a table, miss Gabrielle."
	"I'm not bloody -hiding-..." But neither does she attempt to 
follow him.
	He throws a tired smile over his shoulder at her, moving off 
towards the professor.  "Hang on, then."
	"F-fifteen seconds!"
	Running Bear moves to meet the others.  All of them look grim.  
"This unit applying partial shutdown," announces the Cyborg.  With a 
click and a whirring noise, the red light in it's cybernetic eye goes 
out, and its metal arm hangs useless at its side.
	"Professor, contact the Eidolon.  Tell them to expect some 
temporal disturbance," says the Captain.
	The professor shakes his head.  "T-too late.  E-eight seconds!"
	"S-seven!"
	The quality of the air in the pub changes, as if a thunderstorm 
is brewing.  The tang of ozone is heavy in the air, and there's a 
tension, like wires stretched taut.
	"F-five!"
	A whitish halo, like St. Elmo's fire, springs into being around 
all the occurences of Garret except the one on the stretcher.  The glow 
bends like arcing electricity in a tesla coil.  Lines of pure white 
energy snake out from each Garret, touching, merging, growing into an 
incredibly complex pattern, like frost on a windowpane.  The professor's 
voice is almost drowned out by a huge noise, like the rushing of wind, 
the beating wings of a flock of birds...
	"Three!"
	"Two!"
	"One!"
	Explosion.  Time shatters like a pane of glass dropped from a 
tenth-story window.  Pub timelines ripple, strain, and hold like levees 
assaulted by breakwater.  Bits and pieces of other times and places surge 
through the gap like a wave.  A unit of confederate soldiers charges 
across the pub, only to be devoured by velociraptors that spring out of a 
jungle that appears and vanishes in the blink of an eye.  A woman dressed 
as a flapper from the nineteen twenties charlestons out of nowhere and is 
abruptly run over by an oceanliner bearing the legend "S.S. Titanic".  A 
hunting party of neanderthals hunches over the remains of a wooly 
mammoth, tearing and grunting, flakes of snow caught in their beards and 
hair.
	And then it's over.
	Pub-time merges and forces the errant bits of other timelines 
back where they came from.  The complex pattern formed by the crossed 
energy lines from the various Garrets grows more complex.  The roar of an 
engine is heard.  
	The motorcycle seems to ride straight out of the center of the 
shape, and there's a squall and a smell of burning rubber as the tall, 
slender rider tries to turn to avoid crashing into the bar...to late.  
The bike topples and skids, grinding his leg against the floor and 
tearing off fabric and the flesh underneath before it leaves him behind, 
sprawled like a broken doll. With a bone-jarring *thud*, it slams into 
the bar, gouging the woodwork.  The smell of gasoline is pungent and heavy.
	The man is wearing a biker's outfit: heavy leather jacket, 
jackboots, leather gautlets with metal spikes and a spiked collar.  His 
head is covered with a shiny black helmet, painted to look like a firery 
bird with spread wings.  Airbrushed onto the back of his jacket is the 
legend: WARLOCKS, with a fist upraised.
	Trying to keep her compusure, Gabby comments, "You know, I think 
this place could really do with hiring a permanent physician."