Cherub replies,

"Something is about right. And not just to you, we've been comparing notes while you were unconscious. All of us are missing time. What day do you think this is?"

"You said I was out for about one hour - so it should be saturday.", Nadine could tell from Cherubs face that the truth wasn't close to this.

"I'm willing to cooperate but you need to tell me what has happened to me. I... I... I...", suddenly Nadine got a blank look in her face and her eyes simply stared into infinity.

"What we see now is just a dim reflection in a mirror - then we shall see face to face"

Nadine's voice resonated through the whole apartement coming virtually from everywhere. Shaking her head she resumed her sentence normally as if nothing had happened.

"I demand an explanation!"

{At the Opnet Cafe with Gray and Nosferatu}

One of the monitors comes to life.

Synner here. I think you are innocent. Do you want help?

At the other end of the connection, Payton waited expectantly. It had been a crazy 12 hours with everyone wanting and sharing all kinds of information. What no one had was the how and why of what went down in New York City. The world was pretty sure they had the who of it all, but Payton was working overtime to change at least the Aberrant's perception and acceptance of that belief. Hell, they were a conspiracy cell after all. Why accept the general spin on the biggest catastrophe of the century?

Cherub said,

"Interesting... Saturday for you too. You really are one of us."

He focuses and says,

"At the moment we have more questions than answers, but it would appear all trails lead back to Newton. What is clear is you didn't just erupt survive by erupting on the spot. If you had then you wouldn't be missing time. Whatever happened to us happened to you too."

Cherub fiddles with his PDA and hands it over saying,

"Here. Read this, it's a letter to the editor that I wrote while you were out, it goes over most of what's happened from my point of view."

Tom pauses and waits for her to read it.

Malcolm took a slow step back, "My what a lovely singing voice you must have," he mutters. Malcolm waits as Tom hands her his letter wondering how she would reat to the information within and wondering if the parasitic nova was now in control or if Nadine was still dominant. I hope Grey and Nos have better luck than we are right now.

"You must be kidding me... that's... that's absurd. I didn't do this... I didn't kill these people. It wasn't me! This must be a set up, we must tell them. I'm not responsible for the deaths of these people. I've got friends living in Manhattan.", Nadine's emotion went through the complete spectrum of panic and despair.

"Synner?" Nosferatu said with alarm. "How did you find us here?" Nosfertu's rank withing Omega allowed him access to certain operative's names. Synner was one of them. "We can use any help you can give us."

Nosferatu logged back into the Terat forum in search of Synapse. He needed some questions answered, and to ask him to send a communicade to media outlets.

The connection went dead. A moment later, before curiousity or panic could set in, a portal opened up in the room and a young man in his mid twenties stepped through. He was wearing a green tie-dyed t-shirt over an olive long sleeved shirt, urban camoflauge pants and black sneakers.

"I can do this, sir. Anywhere around the globe we need to go."

Payton looks around the room for a moment.
"We need to get with the others and then we can talk."

Gray relaxed a bit when she realized he was the one Nosferatu had contacted just now. The sharp point her hand had fused into shimmered and resolved back into fingers.

"We'll have to get the coordinates. They've moved by now."

She looks at Nos. "Be sure to tell them who we've got with us...they may not want us to bring him without some kind of proof."

Cherub snorted and replied,

"Yeah, I know exactly how you feel. You're right. It was a setup, and you aren't responsible. But the only ones who are going to believe you are us."

"I think Newton halted time on us, that's why we're missing days. One of his crew must be a temporal manip. He researched the heck out of us, maybe he even sent a threat out to the world in our name. Then he did his thing and teleported his scapegoats to the site."

"The world has already had some time to buy into this and they have. If they're willing to believe a Utopian Healer is involved then the rest of you are easy. If we survive turning ourselves in, and I don't think we would, We'd be asking the political types to admit they don't know jack and they've still got a group of city smashers out there."

"They won't do it. They'll sacrifice us, no matter what the truth is. We have to stay free and pool our resources if we're going to have even a chance of dragging the truth to light."

Meanwhile Jack had been quietly laying out a spread of cards, occasionally furrowing his brow in consternation. Anyone paying any attention to him will see that he lays them down in three parrallel tracks.

He then shuffles the deck thoroughly and lays a second spread. Those watching would notice the same cards come up twice...a mathamatical improbability.

Finally he looks up.

"Uncanny," he begins, adressing Cherub.

"The path on the left represents what will happen if we report back into the company. The right hand path, the path of self determination, represents the likely outcome of going rogue. The former leads to pain..likely punishment. Lies. Deciet. Illusion. Given our fragmented memories this doesn't surprise me.

"The latter is an uncertain pathway. The most uncertain in fact. We will be hunted it is for certain, harried perhaps beyond our ability to adapt and there will be death. Of whom I cannot say."

"Now here is the Middle path, in which I asked the outcome of pursuing and possibly allying ourselves with Newton. The path of the Magi leads to the most freedom that I can forsee. There is still the uncertainty of the Tower crumbling but beyond it leads directly to the Rising Star. Still we must be cautious in our dealings with him. His own hubris could very well lead him astray and if we are not careful he could take us down with him. We must retain our own focus."

"I do not believe Newton is the one responsible for our current dilemma, though he is no doubt involved. I am also wary of our Company right now, and rightly so. There may have been a coup, which might explain why our tech has been malfunctioning. Possibly Proteus, for when I inquired, the same spread came up as for the Company. It is possible they are one and the same."

"Still, I should report back in to Proteus remotely and see if they might have some information that would be useful to us."

Jack smiles at Nadine, and his mouth seems just a little too wide.

"Never fear miss, for fear is the mind-killer."

When Nadine has her little outburst, Jack remarks, "Oh my. It looks as if I am not the only one possesed of unseen allies..."

After a few seconds which felt like ages Synapse reappeared on the screen looking contemplative at Nosferatu.

“Can’t make up your mind, bloodsucker? I’m busy, make it short.”

As the dimension of the truth dawned on Nadine she slowly sank to the floor and started to cry, she was obviously in a state of shock and stared into the distance without focusing.

Cherub frowns at Jack's words. They have the ring of truth but Newton not being the big bad here wasn't something that had occured to him, much less allying with him.

Cherub sat on the floor next to her and just hugged her.

"We need to get a move on. Unlike you two, I'm not on top of the Global Most Wanted list and I'm taking a big enough risk just meeting with you," he says calmly. "I'm one of a handful of people around the world that doesn't at least suspect you leveled one of the largest cities on the planet."

"You don't even suspect us?" Gray asks. "Why not?"

Payton tilts his head slightly.
"This isn't the most secure location for having this talk. Hell, I found you two here. How about I lay my cards out once we're with the others?"

Gray shrugs.

"Fine by me. Lets see if they'll tell us where they are with you tagging along."

She goes over to the computer to begin the protocol to reach the others.

(which her player is lame and forgot, so...yay handwave! :))

Malcolm shook his head, "We're all in this together now, like it or not. It's a shame that circumstances are such as they are." He finishes putting his equipment away before saying, "We should consider leaving soon, the longer we wait the more likely the terragen is to track us down."

"I will." Nosferatu says curtly. 'Don't get your bytes in a bind."

"First of all, why is it that you trust uus when few other do?" Nosferatu then held up the data stick with the letter to the editor on it. "I also need you to disseminate this letter to those who need to read it. It explains what happened from our perspective."

To Gray and Sinner: "I think we had better leave before we are discovered. Right now we want to avoid the sunlight of the world at all costs. Much can be seen in the light; mainly us. Retreating to the dark and hidden places of the world will mean safety for us."

“I see”, said Synapse more to himself as he read the letter. “Now – why do I trust you? That’s plain and simple – you guys are NEVER in the world capable of what happened to Manhattan. It is highly likely that you do know who may be responsible for this, else your presence at the epicentre wouldn’t make sense. So if I want to find out what caused this, I make sure to follow your trail. Besides that, Newton is a friend of mine… sort of.”

"Thank you Synapse. It is good to know that at least one person out there has a brain." Nosferatu said as he prepared to turn off the minitor. "Just make sure that the message is disseminated. We want everyone to know that we are as confused and heartbroken as they are." With that he shut down the computer.

"Here are the coordinates." He said to Sinner. "Hopefully the others are already waiting for us when we get there. When we get there Sinner, I have an additional request for you. There are some people I wan't you to transport here. They fullfill certain dietary requirements for me."

"Then when everyone is together, I will give you the set of coordinates, that Synapse gave me, to reach Newton."

Synner nods and reviews the coordinates.
"Nosferatu, once we get together, I'll get right on it. It's on your head if they are a security breach," he adds with a grin.

"Once I open the portal, one of you had better go through first. I'd hate to get shot before I got a word out. Okay, one doorway coming up."
With that, Payton opens a Portal to the remainder of the group.

The Fool gathers up his deck in it;s silken bag and tucks it back into the bundle of Eufiber he has been carrying around since they woke up.

"I agree that we should leave. Now."

Sean herds everyone downstairs to a small van that is still pretty large for Paris streets, and disarms the alarm. "Everyone in. It'll be tight, but better that than sticking around here. Do your best to keep your faces covered as much as possibile." He tosses the keys to the Fool, "You know where we are going, you take the wheel and I'll sit in the back invisible. Try to avoid the streets that are likely to have cameras." After getting as comfortable as possible Sean closes the back hatch behind him.

Jack blinks.

"I do?" he asks surprised. "Where are we going?"

Sean frowns, "Your secret Paris lair, remember? You suggested it." He suspects that knowledge might be the Fool's rather than Jack's, but he hopes that Jack can pull it out.

"Oh..that." he says somewhat nervously. "Its only accesible by teleport, and I am wary of taking other teleporters there since they will then be able to find it....plus I would need to summon The Fool..."

'Well, the only other option is to find a regular hiding place. I'm nearly out of juice and don't want to try porting everyone somewhere else until I've rested. If we have to defend ourselves, I don't want to be defenseless. I thought you had offered earlier."

"Well...I did. But now I am not so sure. I mean, all of this crazyness has me paranoid. But mostly I'm not sure if I want to be him again. What if I can't come back?"

"Jack, I've already had one of my homes compromised, don't have much sympathy for the idea that you might be putting your lair at risk. By delaying you are putting us all at risk, not just a house. I hope you can come back, but can't you just dredge up the location from memory without changing? Even if you can't though, we are running out of time and we need to find someplace to hide out of the sight of others."

"That's not what I meant." Jack offers. "I remember where it is...but it's not accesible without teleport or warp. It is sealed off from its surroundings. To take us there I need to change...and that frightens me..."

He does indeed look distressed.

"There's nowhere else we could go...at least just for now?," he asks hopefully.

While the team is still trying to find a place to hide a Portal opens directly infront of Seans car and out step Nosferatu and Gray shortly followed by Synner. It looks like Jacks pleads had been heard.

------

In the meantime Synapse feeds the OpNet with blinding speed using Cherubs 'Statement'. In a matter of seconds it's virually impossible for any governmental authority to prevent the public to read at least a part of the manifest. All newsbroadcasts are reporting about the content debating its credibility including some polls stating that about 20% of the populace believe you are not guilty, another 20% aren't sure and the rest are divided between you being guilty and you being scapegoats.