The two somewhat-heftier Designer spirits deftly picked their way through the dank refuse, freshly encouraged by the syphoned Mokole strength. They were not certain of the Rogue's whereabouts, but they knew his usual haunts. The minor realm was one of waste, with hazy atmosphere, dusty ground and scrapipherlings skittering in the shadows. Desolate mounds of refuse made up the shadowy landscape beneath the sickly brown sky. They had not been searching for long before Warp picked up the trail of the corrupted spirit. "It's strong, too," he said. "It must be somewh-"

With a rush and a terminal whaohoumph Warp was cut short as the Rogue ambushed. Dropping from above, the Rogue landed mouth-first on the unsuspecting tracker and in an instant had swallowed him whole. Weft stared in bewildered horror.

The Rogue picked himself up off the ground like a grossly-animated sack of chaff. His form was squat and lumpy, giving him the appearance of some kind of toad on steroids. He was radiating dimly, absorbing the luckless Designer spirit's essence into himself. Weft could clearly see he was outmatched. The Rogue regarded him hungrily with bulging eyes half-closed in bliss. "You, Designer," it gurgled. "You came here to fight me? Ha ha ha!" Weft trembled. The Rogue leaned closer. "You brought power," it murmured approvingly. "Good power. Where did you get it?"

"Warp- Warp got it. The Fabric," Weft stammered.

"You will bring me more," The Rogue hissed.

Max..?

Kate was never entirely clear how her mental communication with her conscripted unwanted soul-brother worked. She had been through enough with him to have a strong working relationship with the wolf, but she had been scarred enough times to know she couldn't trust him. There were plenty of sacred or sensitive Mokole secrets she wished to keep from him for as long as she could. Mental communication was admittedly very convenient, but she couldn't help wondering if it was the same for both of them. For all she knew, what seemed like a telephone line to her could have been an open door in to the private thoughts and images in her mind. She tried to keep her mind guarded when she used it. Kate had an uncomfortable feeling that Max's reaction to her serpentine condition would be somewhat akin to her discovering Max had somehow become a vampire. There was no need to ask questions about that kind of thing- you just dealt with it and mourned the loss of a friend. Garou were less-fairly biased against anything wyrmlike.

What?

I need help.

What else is new? he huffed, unfairly in Kate's opinion. What do you want now?

Nothing much. Could you please call Zach and tell him to come to the Junkyard?

What is it?

Nothing. It's nothing. I just need Zach to come down here.

Why don't you call him?

I... Kate fought to keep images of giant serpents out of her thoughts. My phone is not accessible, she supplied.

What happened?

Could you please hurry? This is urgent.

Fine...

"I don't have a solution, but I am definitely impressed with your problem," Zach remarked later.

"Very funny," Kate hissed. Zach was at a loss.

"You just woke up like this?" He asked.

"Yes," she replied. She paused. "I haven't been able to check my bedroom out, yet," she confessed. Zach allowed himself a little smile.

"I see. Let's start there, then."

As he climbed the stairs, Zach's imagination flicked between the variety of possibilities and nightmares he might find in Kates bedroom. The least of which was not an unaware, sleeping Kate who would leave a very large snake with some questions needing answering. He knocked gently on the door before opening it carefully and letting himself in. Kate followed.

The room was dark, and the bed was empty. Zach pulled back the sheets. An old t-shirt and a pair of shorts were lying under the covers like a chalk outline waiting for a body. He looked at the snake. "You got teleported right out of your pyjamas?"

Kate tried frowning in surprise, but failed, so she tried raising her eye brows and failed again. Failing a third time to shrug, she grunted: "Looks like."

"Can you tell if anyone else has been in this room?"

Kate flicked her tongue again. "Doesn't taste like it."

"Well, then, let's try the Umbra."

It took nearly a full twenty minutes for Kate to slip through the Gauntlet. It was never particularly difficult at the junk yard wallow, it just took her that long to crawl her entire length through.

Zach wondered if she was a true snake or some avatar of a Wyrm. His mnesis knew of some huge snakes, but none this long. It was almost as if someone had just taken her archid form and rolled it out as thin as they could. Could be anything, he thought. If it was some kind of imposter and not actually Kate, they were well prepared attaching Max to the deception so easily. He probably should have considered the possibility sooner, he realized. So many weird things happened to Kate he was becoming complacently accepting. Oh well.

Zach's investigations and thought processes were interrupted by a sudden squealing. Kate had become very animated, and seemed to have wrapped something up in her coils.

"What did you do!?" she snarled in to her midst.

"What are you doing, Kate?" Zach hurried over and peered in to see what she had caught. Reaching the captive was slightly hazardous- there were writhing coils everywhere he tried to place a foot, and the last thing he wanted to do was step on her and piss her off even more. He lurched through the tangles.

"It was trying to hide from us," Kate accused.

In her tightening embrace appeared to be Designer spirit, or some kind of distortion of one. Where normally they had spindly legs and nimble digits, this one had muscular limbs and appeared even to have a spiny, strengthened chitin exoskeleton. The spirit appeared frozen in panic.

"What is your business here?" Zach asked.

Immediately the spirit began gibbering, almost sobbing. "STOP," Kate commanded. She clamped her jaws over the head of her captive. It froze again. Kate inclined her head lightly towards Zach, a 'continue...' gesture.

"What's your name, Spirit?" the mystic tried.

"Weft," the miserable spirit answered.

"Why are you here, Weft?" Zach patiently continued.

"You have to help me!" Weft squeaked. A spirit in need? Hmmmm.

"Maybe we can help each other. How does that sound?" Zach proposed. Weft glanced at the insides of Kate's mouth and gave a little whimper. "Okay, Kate, maybe back off a bit," Zach suggested. Kate withdrew her threat but kept the spirit bound up. "Weft? What do you need?"

Weft began fidgeting again but settled down almost right away. "There's – there's a Rogue out in the Fabric with stolen power. Warp and I were going to Correct the Rogue but... but... the Rogue absorbed Warp and now the Rogue is after me!"

"What do you mean, 'Rogue'?"

Weft struggled for a moment. "A spirit. It-it was Warp's idea. I didn't know what would happen. He said we were helping it... but... we corrupted it..." Weft's voice gave out in a wretched whisper. Zach noticed that the thought of the Rogue appeared to terrify the Designer more than the fact that it was wrapped up in the coils of an extremely angry giant snake. A corrupted Spirit could be trouble but probably not insurmountable.

Weft had wasted no time examining the Fabric of his captor, and was baffled to discover the Pattern was the same that he'd helped thin last night. Clearly Warp had been wrong. "Are- are you looking for your power?" the spirit simpered, glancing between Zach and Kate.

"How did you know that?" Kate demanded. Weft squirmed again.

"The Rogue has it! He wants more! He sent me to get it. I can get it back to you, if you can subdue him..."

"Done!" Kate snapped.

"Kate..." Zach started.

"I will take you too him," Weft said.