Jack looks at his glowing arm with a sense of detachment.

"This would be surreal..."

When they finally arrive at a safe destination he turns to the others asking.
"So what now? One at a time, or did you want me to try and pour juice back on the fire?"

Tom says,

"I'm, ah, light enough that I could go with someone else who's light. One of the women probably." Tom pauses in thought,

"Actually, if I make one of the women light then we'd probably be light enough that both of us could go with the other one. I think my mass quarters when I do this."

"That would save two trips."

Tom starts over,

"OK, let's phrase that a different way."

Jack stops glowing, and Cherub walks over to Grey Goo. Tom reaches out and unless Grey prevents him he attunes her and she's starts to glow.

"I'll bet us two and our Mystery woman combined are still under the weight limit. And please no one ask me where the mass went because I've never understood the answer. Somewhere."

Again, assuming Grey allowed attunement she and Tom fly slowly over to Nos and the Mystery woman.

"You've got your ways, son.", Callums dad poured himself and his son a glass of whiskey.

"I must be one of the luckiest bastards west of NY. I haven't answered the phone yet and didn't open that letter over there.", he nodded at the dinner table. "I already know what it says..."

"Never thought to eulogize my best friends this soon...", he sighed before he regained his composure.

"Every one is still pretty much in the dark about what happened. All major governments have immediately sent there condolescence and offered help where possible. PU is still recovering from that Bahrain incident. Looks like the world has turned upside down ever since. It's on all news channels, here let me show you.", Callums dad turned on the TV and set it to N!-Prime Novanews.

The screen showed a reporter standing at the edge of the crater interviewing a police officer. What caught Callums and his dads eyes instantly was the news feed on the screen with the pictures of Nosferatu, Grey and Cherub along with a very precise description of Callum, Sean and Jack. It describes the aforementioned suspects as the terrorists responsible for the devastation of Manhattan.

As of now it's not clear how the Novas are connected to eachother, but most likely the presence of two Teragenmember (Nova Vigilance) put the whole group squarely in that corner.

Why Cherub is part of that conspiracy is unknown, but PU has provided some inside material on Cherubs doubtful loyalty to PU and the reasons why he never made it into T2M.

The three unknown Novas are currently under suspect of being the heads of the operation.

Callums dad turned the TV off and looked at his son incredulous. "You are in trouble indeed, son...", his voice was a mixture of disbelieve, surpressed anger and surprise.

Gray offers no resistance to the plan of action, standing still as Cherub moves her over.

"What about Callum?" she asks. "Did anyone see where he went?"

Sean said, "No idea about Callum, one minute he was there then he was just gone. I'm guessing he can teleport too. For now let me try and see if I can take the three light weights at once." He will attempt to attune the two who have had their mass reduced first, if that is successful he will try the unconscious woman as well. If he can only get the two he will teleport them otherwise he will take all three and save some juice.

Once down in the subways, Nos will lower the woman to the ground. He had a hard time not looking at her soft and succulent flesh, and the blood that pumped underneath. Someone would have to relinquish some of their blood soon.

"Take the others out of here first." He said before turning to the dormed Fool. "You should probably change back. Right now, we need The Fool to help get people out of here."

Nosferatu wondered if he should stay behind. He could travel through the sewers and hunt. After he'd fed, he could have the others come back. He had to think about it. They were in a dangerous place. Getting caught would do no-one any good.

"Son of a ..." Malcolm cut off as he saw the look on his dad's face. "I didn't do this! Come on I wasn't willing to take a fall that would have made me a couple hundred grand richer, what the hell could persuade me to blow up New York? And if I had, would I be here? Would I have brought Molly? No, Dad, you know that. I'm being framed."

Malcolm slumped back into the couch and rubbed at his face, "Christ, how the hell did I get into this?" He sat there for a while not saying anything more.

"Son, I believe you but this is bigger than me, I don't know what kind of help I can give you."

"Mostly I need you to take care of Molly. I don't want John to get caught up in this and I think my identity in Scotland has gone bad so I need to lay low for a bit and figure this out. If you can do that I won't have to worry ... as much anyway." Malcolm looks at his dad, a look of newfound respect in his eyes, "I can't even begin to think about how you did what you did with Mom and me at home, but thanks."

Callum stands up and downs the whiskey before heasding off to the computer to check on a couple of things.

In a matter of mere seconds the whole group is teleported one by one with the help of Cherub and Sean reducing the number of jumps to an absolute minimum.

While each one of you slowly acclimates to the new and much more comfortable surrounding, Sean immediately checks his security systems. To his relief everything seems to be ok and so far no one has tried to infiltrate his appartment in Paris. Offering some drinks to the others Sean excuses himself to tend to some personal stuff he wanted to check on before sharing with the others. (PM to Fox)

In the meantime you turn on the TV and check the official news feeds on the current situation.

The screen showes a reporter standing at the edge of the crater interviewing a police officer. What catches your eyes instantly is the news feed on the screen with the pictures of Nosferatu, Grey and Cherub along with a very precise description of Callum, Sean and Jack. It describes the aforementioned suspects as the terrorists responsible for the devastation of Manhattan.

As of now it's not clear how the Novas are connected to eachother, but most likely the presence of two Teragenmember (Nova Vigilance) put the whole group squarely in that corner.

Why Cherub is part of that conspiracy is unknown, but PU has provided some inside material on Cherubs doubtful loyalty to PU and the reasons why he never made it into T2M.

The three unknown Novas are currently under suspect of being the heads of the operation.

Nosferatu stares at the TV and shakes his head in disbelief. "Why would the powers that be, seek to blame us? Furthermore, what is to be gained by starting a war with the Teragen? They clearly wish to place blame on that group."

Nosferatu looked around the room at the others, noting similar looks on their face. They too were probably asking themselves similar questions.

Hunger, once again, twists itself into his stomach. A wave of throbbing weakness passes from the core of his body to the extremities. Unlike a few days before, he felt that he had to feed, lest he weaken and die. Nosferatu hoped that Paris would prove to be a fertile hunting ground.

Cherub says,

"They didn't and they don't. I'm sure the guy who fingered us is the same one who blew up the city, who is the same one with Fong. That's why he didn't kill us, we were more useful as a scape goat. He also gets to get the world to investigate us and maybe flush out whoever pulls our strings."

"Unclear whether he blew up the city accidentally or deliberately... and let's try to turn the tables on him with this. I think it's time for Cherub to write a letter to the editor, no, make that 50 editors, with our side of the story."

After checking that the woman is still out, Tom gets out his PDA and starts working on it.

"Are you going to identify Newton?" Gray asks Cherub mildly. She herself betrays no obvious reaction to the news, nor of what she thinks of it.

Tom replies,

"I'm going to write it up as though I'd never read his file. So physical description... but I don't think anyone mentioned his name and I don't want to make it look like I know more than I should."

Knowing the urgency of the matter Sean relayed Callums messages to the TV screen minimizing the Newsreport to a quarter of the screens size.

"Can someone make contact with Callum? I can't cover that right now, got some important stuff to clear with DeVries first." said Sean.

The messages of Callum appear random at first but with OC-Training in basic encryption methods you find out that he is trying to relay a call via an OpNet Account to appoint a meeting. After a few minutes Callum rejoins apparently teleporting to your position under his own power.

On the Sofa lies the unconscious and still naked body of the woman you suppose is the Singularity.

Tom finished his typing and passed his document around. He said,

"Right now we're the most hunted people on the planet, this is an attempt to share some of the spot light with Newton. Editorial changes are invited." (OOC: Probably in the OOC thread).

Glancing at the naked woman Tom's eyes lingered on her curves then he pulled a blanket over her. He says,

"Do we have a fingerprint kit around here? Or female clothes? I think finding out who she is and staying on good terms is a priority."

Malcolm saw the reply post, noting that the GPS coordinates for their location had been hidden between the post ID# on the message board and the odd mathimatical question that had been posed. Quick reference to a map had revealed that they were in Paris. He called up images of the interior of the apartment from the last time it was on sale/for rent and printed a couple out.

He walked back out to the living room, where he noticed that Molly was awake and that his father was reading to her. He smiled, and hoped that he could be half the father for her that his own had been for him. "Molly, I've got to go, can you stay here with grampy and bo good?"

Molly looked up at her father and smiled, nodding, "Yes Daddy. Where you goin?"

"I have to help some people. Freinds of mine that are being ... bullied. I'll be back as soon as I can." Molly took it at face value and went back to the colorful pictures in the book.

His father, understanding the statement with a statement nodded, his face grim with worry. "Be careful, and good luck."

Malcolm nodded and went to the backyard and into the dense copse of trees, dark with shade from the afternoon sun. Grasping quantum once more he looked at the printed photos of the apartment and in a split second the trees and manicured lawn were replaced with coats and a vacuum cleaner. Irritated he dormed down once more and opened the closet door.

Once he finished on the opnet he moved into the kitchen and checked the pantry. Luckily it was fully stocked. He paid his friend who technically owned the place to keep the kitchen stocked for when he showed up. It was a double win for the friend, he got paid and he took the old groceries home to his family when he replaced them with fresh stuff.

"If anyone is hungry, help yourself." He fixed a very large sub style sandwich on a long loaf of fresh french bread. He didn't offer any of it to the others though, when he was done he took the sandwich to the living room and sat in his most comfortable chair to eat and watch what was transpiring on the news.

Tom frowns and says,

"I'm not hungry. I should be, but I'm not." He looks around and says, "And I'm not the only one who changed either."

Tom focuses on Jack and asks, "So what happened to you? You're dormed down, is that a new thing?"

Malcolm wanders out of the coat closet and finds himself in the lving room. Quickly taking stock he notes that the Fool appears to be missing and there are two new people, one of which appears to be a mostly naked woman. "Umm hey guys, what's up? Who are the new folks?"

Gray looks over and nods.

"Callum, meet The Fool's new face. And this lady may have been the glowing blue one that showed up right before we were...before we found ourselves here. We're hoping she might have answers once she wakes up."

"Where did you run off to?"

Nosferatu went to the kitchen to look in the fridge for something to alleviate his gnawing hunger. After sampling some raw hamburger and uncooked chicken, he knew that they would not satiate his hunger. He sat down at the couch and watched the television. When the sun sets, he rises and opens a window.

"I'm sorry everyone, but I need to get some fresh air." He really needed to feed, but he didn't want the rest to know about it.

Once outside, he takes to the sky and flies to a large park. In the park, he waits in the shadows for his prey. Normally he would seek the followers in his coven. Unfortunately, right now he didn't have the time to make a new coven from which he could freely feed. For the time being, all he needed was blood. Human blood.

Callum shrugs, "I really needed a working bathroom. Wait, what? That's the Fool?" He indicates Jack with a thumb, the astonished look on his face plain as day. "And so that's Fong?"

Gray Goo shakes her head.

"Fong's still in her Chrysalis as far as we know. Newton and his boys evacuated her and themselves through a warp gate just before this lady showed up. We don't even -know- she's the Singularity. I just don't know who else it would be."

"Well crap. Cause my other employers are a bit ticked off as well so I'm up shits creek until we can fix this. I'm guessing that we all fall into that situation. The question now is who can we trust and how do we proceed." Callum takes a seat and tries to figure out what the next best step would be.

Cherub says,

"Proceed? We have to take out Newton and hand his crew over to the authorities. World is going to need a scape goat over this. Best make sure it's not us."

"First step is we find out who this chick is and how powerful she is. If New York was her then we have a different problem with a different solution. If it wasn't her then it was Newton and Fong, so we do our best to put the blame on who it belongs."

Malcolm rolls his eyes, "A wonderful grand scheme but it fails to fill in steps "B" through "Y" on our trip. This isn't like the films, the longer we wait before talking to somebody the worse it will be for us. I'm considering talking to the directive, They can have a teep scan me an verify my story."

Malcolm pinches the bridge of his nose, "Granted they may just shoot on site too ... Fuck, I don't know. We need resources and intelligence that we just cannot get on our own. With Omega out of the picture I think my going to the directive is one of our better options."

"We don't know that Omega is out of the picture," Gray notes.

"The Fool was high in their confidence. He may be able to get more information from their point of view...and determine if our identities were leaked to authorities by Omega, or by Newton."

Tom nods and says,

"Yeah, I know my plan is a little weak on implementation details. I'm hoping some of you can fill some of them in. As for going to the Directive... bad idea."

"It won't matter if they believe you or not. They're publically funded, what's it going to do to their budget when it gets out they could have arrested you but didn't? There will be Presidential orders out there now, are they really going to defy the Prez for you?"

"No matter what they believe, they're better off making an example out of you and proving to the public and everyone else what a group of stand up super-cops they are. And if they don't then it's their collective ass."

Tom says,

"Unless we think Omega did New York the timing doesn't make sense. This mess has the potential of pulling Omega into the spot light, they wouldn't do that. And did you notice how information on the Fool and some others was scarce?"

"Then," Gray says patiently, "why don't we contact Omega?"

"Omega didn't rat us out. Two reasons. One, they know all our identities and likely all of our hidey-holes like this house. If they turned us in they would have given the authorities enough to nail us quickly, while everyone was still furious and calling for blood. Not partial disclosure with only some names. Second, if we are caught we will most certainly be scanned telepathically and interrogated to reveal everything. Omega cannot allow that to happen, it would expose far to much of the organization. At this point the company has two choices, allow us to clear our names, or kill us to avoid risk of exposure. From their perspective it would be best if we can clear ourselves then no one will trip over any of our alternate identities. They can only wait so long before they have to take action. The longer this goes on the greater their risk. If we can't wrap this up in less than a week I think we will have more to worry about than we do now."

"Well that's good, I was starting to think that this was actually going to be kind of easy, buy, you know, pressure just makes it all so exciting." Malcolm shakes his head, clearly exasperated. "We have to do something, talking about our predicament will not solve the root problem. Perhaps we ought to wake up the lady and find out what the hell her part of this is?"

Tom says,

"She's not injured. I think she's out of juice. If she's just the host... oh crap."

"When she wakes up she'll probably go big and glowy again."

(Assuming it is still daylight and Nos is not out preying on some French-person)

"I agree with Sean. Omega was not the reason we are wanted. It is either Newton, or some other player." He lounged languidly on the couch, fiddling with a myriad of rings which graced his fingers. "It could also be that we were simply the first ones at the scene, and would naturally be suspects."

"Regardless, I am going to try and make contact with someone from the Teragen. Both to tell them what is happening to Fong, and to try and get answers."

Gray frowns and plays back her comment to herself. She's pretty sure she wasn't trying to insinuate that Omega was responsible at this time. She was, in fact, suggesting they try to make contact. Maybe they just didn't hear right?

She tries again.

"If we're agreed that Omega is not among those wanting us captured or dead," Gray says more slowly. "Then why don't we try to contact them, and get their aid?"