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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 2884133" data-attributes="member: 63">Session Twelve, Part ThreeA new Bureau agent – a dull-faced blonde man named Michael – casually manages a computer display of pertinent information as he presents the story of the attack.“The attack began in the early evening in Savannah, timed terribly if you had actually wanted to defeat the Bureau, but almost perfectly if you wanted to lure away as many agents as possible from offices in the U.S., Australia, and China.”Terry keeps glancing at Scarpedin during the presentation. It’s irritating, but now he can’t stop trying to figure out what actors people look like. Michael looks kind of like David Duchovny, and has the same sort of voice. Having grown up listening to Mulder explain all manner of impossible things as if they were real, Terry finds it easy to believe the bizarre evidence from Michael’s presentation.“We have little doubt that the attack was orchestrated by whoever severed the connection between Terra and Gaia. Whoever that person was is either on Terra and thus out of range of our divinations, or he has some extensive magical defenses. Out of the world of people who don’t like the Bureau, there are thousands of possible suspects, but we have a few problems in our investigation.“First, we lack mobility. The anti-Bureau cells tend to hide on Gaia, but now we’re stuck with 18th century methods of travel. We dispatched a few agents by sailing ship to England last week, but even with magical aid they won’t get there until late November.“Second, we have no idea how this was accomplished. No magic that is currently understood by our experts could cause such a complete severance of the two worlds. That leaves more ancient and occult magic – things even the magi think are myths. This means even if we do find out what caused this, we have an uphill battle because we don’t know how it happened, and our enemies do.“Third, the evidence is contradictory. We interrogated the prisoners we took from the assault, and used a few less savory methods with those who did not survive-”“Michael,” the Chief warns.Michael nods. Terry guesses even some of the Bureau agents don’t fully approve of their Chief.“From their reports,” Michael says, “there’s little consistency regarding who hired them. Some believed they were working with a Knights of the Round contingent. Some were mercenaries from former Soviet nations who entered the country via teleportation keys, who believed they would be attacking a government military research facility. We had a master martial artist from Gaian Taiwan leading a group of sorcerous disciples. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern. A group of unseelie fey actually claimed they were trying to break a prisoner from the 1800s out of our prison.”Robert perks up slightly at the last piece regarding the prison, but then he relaxes quickly.John sighs loudly. “Are you really this incompetent?”Michael, who had missed the earlier head-butting of Robert and the Chief, looks at John and waits for him to continue.John drops his face in his hands for a second, then looks up.“Russian terrorists teleported into the country? An army amassed outside your main headquarters and you didn’t see it coming? I mean, do you do any intelligence gathering before the fact? How do you keep someone from just teleporting in and kidnapping the president?”Scarpedin chuckles. “Hey Robot, you wanna kidnap the president?”“What?” Robert says. He glances at Scarpedin. “Of course not, that’s crazy.” Then he mouths ‘We’ll talk later,’ and gives a faint smile.Jenny says, “You can’t teleport into D.C. The Masonic designers of the city made sure it was in a particularly non-magical part of the country, and the layout of buildings and streets reinforces that.”Ian clears his throat. “Can we, maybe, get back to business? I feel kinda weird being the one to say this, but I am getting paid to do a job.”“Yeah,” Robert laughs lazily. “That’s cool. Go on Michael. Tell us more about how incompetent you are.”Michael shrugs and continues. “The person or group who orchestrated this is familiar with our techniques, and they went out of their way to avoid leaving a trail. Divinations are always spotty when you don’t have a direct connection with the target, but now that your group has arrived, we have a new route we can take.”Nathan says, “I’m rather good with divinations myself. I’m a psychic, and I have visions.”The Chief shakes his head at Jenny. “You really brought a wonderful group to me, didn’t you?”“Pardon me,” Nathan says, “but you do seem to have an awful lot of problems with my companions and me. I was simply trying to ask what method you planned to use.”Michael answers before any more anger can develop.“A séance.”Michael looks at Terry, and slowly everyone looks at him too. Then a moment afterward, Bonnie turns, appearing a little out of it.Terry laughs. “With me? Can’t you just ask me, since I’m here?”“More directly,” Michael says, “we’d be trying to find out, through your spirit, who wanted to kill you. By contacting your essence and using you as a sort of filter for the divination, we’ll get a better sense of who was behind it.”There’s a moment of quiet, and then Jenny says, “Terry, I should warn you, it’ll dredge up things you might not want to think about. But I have a sense you want to know the answers, don’t you?”“Yes,” Terry says.The projector fizzles for a moment, and the lights in the room flicker. Only then does Terry realize how fervent his answer had been. He calms himself down, and the lights go back to normal.“I think Casper’s pissed,” Ian says.Terry looks away in embarrassment. He’s just in time to catch a nervous, disapproving look the Chief gives to Jenny.* * *The room is positively crowded now, with two extra diviners, the ten people Terry brought along, the Chief, and Michael. Robert has taken off the bracelet and put it in the waters of a scrying bowl. Terry feels a little less tangible, not that he was in the first place. He knows that his friends have an itchy trigger-finger now, and that they expect the Bureau to try to steal the bracelet he’s bonded to.Terry remembers an old story his teacher taught him. At the end of the war between King Arthur and Mordred, the two armies gathered for a chance at a truce. The knights on both sides were told that if they saw any of the opposing force draw a sword, they were to attack, and tensions on both sides were very high. Still, Arthur and Mordred were slowly making progress toward some sort of peace, but then one of Arthur’s knights spotted an asp in the field slithering toward the king.He knew that if he did not kill the asp, it would bite the king and slay him, so he drew his sword to cut off the serpent’s head. Mordred’s knights saw this, thought it was an attack, and they drew their swords in turn. And so the final battle began at Camlann, in which Arthur and Mordred perished.“You guys keep cool,” he says, “okay?”“Like Fonzie,” Nathan says.The diviners begin their spell, and Terry tries to empty his mind as he was told to do. Still, thoughts creep in, and true to Jenny’s word, they’re not things he wants to think about.“Aagh!” screams Nathan, flailing with an arm and knocking the bowl with the divination focus off the table.Terry snaps out of the memory and the spell is ended. As he comes to his senses, he sees Nathan slumped on the table, shaking a bit. It’s like the times he has had a vision, but much much worse.“Get him under control!” the Chief says.“Don’t touch him,” John says, standing up and dropping a hand to the small of his back, where his gun is.Michael reaches into his coat and begins to pull out a sword hilt, and Ulwelf’s hands are moving as if to cast a spell.“Wait!” Terry shouts. “Stop!”“I’m cool,” Nathan says weakly. “Very Fonzie, given the circumstances.”Bonnie says, “What the hell just happened?”Aside from Wiji-wiji, she’s the only person who doesn’t seem tense. She gets out of her chair and picks up Terry’s bracelet where it had fallen on the floor, and then she pats Nathan on the back.“Wake up,” she says. “Ye spoiled our party.”John relaxes a little. “Nathan, did you have a vision?”“Yes.” Nathan nods casually, shaking his head to clear it. “Nothing major, though. Just the end of the world and all.”</blockquote>

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