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Derrick spent the rest of the night and most of the morning sleeping at the Omaha VA chantry. He actually detested the fact that he needed to sleep; it was a waste of time. When he was totally immersed in the Web, he could put it off for a long time. When he was offline, he usually used his magic to stay awake as long as he could, consuming large quantities of caffeine along the way. Eventually it would catch up with him though and he'd be out for a while.
After waking and scamming some more coffee, he found his palmtop and jacked in. One of the Sons of Ether, a group of Tradition Mages that were considered Mad Scientists by most people, had come up with a neural interface based on of all things, Firewire. On a rare drunk binge with a few of his buddies, Derrick actually agreed to be a "test" subject and had a data jack implanted behind his right ear. Using this was somewhere between his VR rig and total immersion.
He didn't normally do this in front of others, hard wiring himself to a computer, because it freaked out the sleepers and exposed him to Paradox. Here in the Chantry it was not a problem.
He did a scan of the Garage in Seattle. If the attack on him last night was planned, the place might be compromised. The exterior looked fine. As he sent his sensors inside, he found JYD asleep in his usual spot. Kicking in another small rote, Derrick brought his icon up on the Big Screen TV across from JYD.
"Yo J!" he shouted, stirring the Bone Gnawer from his sleep, which was pretty much all the bag of bones did. You'd think he was a cat!
Looking around, JYD saw Derrick on the screen and yipped at him. That reminded Derrick that he still needed to work on that wolf-speak to English translation filter.
"Did anything unusual happen last night?" A quick bark and a shake of his head "no".
"Well, keep your eyes open. I was jumped last night and I don't know if it was random or if I was a target. I'll be back this evening." Another short bark and a nod. JYD then got up to begin a patrol of the place, and probably to go water the fire hydrant.
Derrick now turned his attention back to the Bat Cave. He wanted to make sure that no one was sniffing around it. Launching a series of traces and checking his log files, he couldn't find any evidence that someone other then him had been there. Feeling safer with this info, Derrick took out his palmtop and uploaded himself to the Digital Web, in front of the entrance to the Bat Cave.
He purposely created it so that not even he could port right into the cave. That would open too many holes. It might be possible for one of the other Elites to spoof his IDs and fake things out. It was EXTREAMLY difficult, but not impossible given time and CPU power.
Checking his tell-tales once more and finding them intact, he entered his construct. His first order of business was to check on all the search bots he launched and the backups. All had finned normally and produced results. His indexing of what he scammed from the Council of Watchers was complete. It was as he was going over the topic index that something clicked. The Order of Hermes.
The OH was one of the Tradition mage orders. They thought of themselves as the "ruling" order, but the other Traditions didn't think of it that way. They were scholars for the most part, real Merlin types. Also probably the most active opponents of the Technocracy besides the VA's. In the references that mentioned them in the Watchers data, the two groups appeared to be in conflict with one another. Interesting. "Who can I go to with this?" Derrick asked himself.
He decided to expand that to all of the paranormal and supernatural texts he had access to, including all of the Order of Hermes data that was online and cross reference anything about them and the Watchers. He then launched another search bot to find more. He's get a face to face with someone in the Order later.
Now it was time for some more caffeine and to begin pouring through his email. Most of it was standard; correspondence with some VA friends of his, and even a few sleepers he had contact with. One or two inquiries about the bands availability. He was in the middle of replying to one when one of his systems beeped.
Switching over, he found one of the older flags he had set up got a hit. It was checking for signs of Pentex activity in South America. Pentex was a corrupter of everything belonging to the Wyld and the main enemy of his Garou compatriots. So he was always on the lookout for activity related to the conglomerate. The South American rain forests were a prime target for Pentex. The pack had only recently returned from Brazil, fighting incursions into the Rain Forest there.
Now it looked like they were up to the same tricks. Red Moon had shut down one operation, and now a Pentex subsidiary (they always used subsidiaries) was clear cutting again. Slash and burn. It looked like they brought muscle this time, the Brazilian Army. This will get Conn and Krieg's back up. He needed to phone in.
Well "phone" was not exactly the way it worked. The pack was electronically out of contact. Not that they ever were really in contact, Derrick still couldn't get any of them to carry cell phones. Fortunately Derrick had other methods available. In addition to being a Master of Correspondence (teleport capability, not writing letters), he was also an adept in the Mind sphere.
So while he actually did use a cell phone on his end, the call came to Hope as a tingle in her mind.
"Is that you Derrick?"
"Hi Hope! Everyone naked and howling at the moon yet?"
"Ha! You're going to have to come up with better lines to see me naked Derrick, what's up?
"Just wanted to let you know that your friends in Brazil are at it again. Talk it over with the Pack and let me know what you decide. I'm in if you decide to go."
"Damn. Okay, but I think I know which way this will go. Sunnydale will have to wait. Start making travel plans. I'd like to bring Oz with us, but that means we won't be able to leave until tomorrow at the earliest. We'll leave from here; you get yourself and your gear down there. Don't use the same place. Let me know where to rendezvous as soon as you can."
"10-4. You might want to ask for some extra help. I think we taught them a lesson last time and they might be ready for us."
"I'm sure there will be some volunteers. Later."
"Later."
Shit. He really didn't like South America. It was a 3rd world country, which meant low-tech to him. Oh there were ways around that. Power was not really an issue and Derrick had a portable satellite uplink that let him stay connected. Getting into the Digital Web would not be a problem either, there were access nodes in Rio and other major cities in SA. It was just the general down-levelness of the place that bugged him.
Gear. The pack preferred to fight with their "Natural" assets, but Derrick had a feeling they'd need more then that. Just because they didn't like guns, it didn't mean they didn't know how to use them. Right now all they had on hand were some small arms stuff. Conn and Krieg had the Dessert Eagles they were so fond of, and the rest of them had various 9mm's.
Fortunately there were plenty of places to get more bigger and better weapons as long as you had the money, which Derrick did. Next stop, LA.
Oz and the rest of the pack awoke shortly after dawn. It was indeed raining, but only a light mist. Apparently this was a typical winter day in the Pacific Northwest. After breakfast Oz met up with Grandmother again. Today his lessons were about some of the gifts that a Garou could learn from various spirits, and some other rites and rituals.
After lunch, Grandmother decided it was time to explain to Oz the concept of Rage.
"Garou are supernatural beings. The gifts and rites I described to you would be called Magic by most humans. Most magic requires a power source, and the source we Garou make use of is called Gnosis. It's derived from the energy given off from living beings. We can produce our own Gnosis, but we can also absorb it from other sources. The best place to do so it right here, in a Caern. Caerns are always built where there is a source of Gnosis, what a human mage would call an intersection of Way lines or Node. You'll learn how to access it from the spirits."
"But a Garou's true power lies in his Rage. Our rage is what powers our transformation between the 5 forms a Garou is capable of; the human or Homid form, the caveman or glabro form, the werewolf battle form called Crinos, the Dire Wolf or Hispo form and finally the full wolf or lupus form. All have their advantages and disadvantages."
"A Garou who cannot control his Rage cannot transform. In the short time I've known you Oz I find you to be a level headed young man. I've seen no sign of Rage within you. But I'd be willing to bet you've felt it before. Not enough to make the change, but you could feel it lying beneath the surface."
Oz nodded in confirmation. He'd felt that before on several occasions. Most recently with Veruca.
"Our rage is also what fuels us in battle. I know I've told you that the Ahrouns are the warriors of the Garou tribes, but in fact ALL Garou are considered warriors. It's just that the Ahrouns are closer to their rage then the other auspices. It is a fine line to walk. Rage must still be controlled by reason. If you allow it to consume you, you can go into a frenzy. In a frenzied state the difference between friend and foe disappears. Everything you see is a target. And Oz, most of the time when you back down from the frenzy, you have no recollection of what happened."
The light bulbs suddenly kicked in for Oz. Buffy had told him that after he killed Veruca, he went after Willow too. Buffy had to tranquilize him.
"I can see the understanding in your face Oz. We believe we know why you only transform during the full moon. You are susceptible to the "collective reality" as the Mages call it. Humans believe that werewolves change turning the full moon, therefore that becomes reality for you. The problem is because you have no conscious control over your change; when you transform you go into frenzy, burning with Rage. When your Rage is spent you return to your normal Homid form, physically exhausted. When you wake you have no recollection of what happened during your frenzy."
"How do I learn to control it Grandmother?" Oz pleaded. He didn't want to risk anyone's life again.
"That is difficult to answer Oz. It's different for all of us. To most of us it comes easy. For others such as your self it takes some trial and error. Our hope is you will discover your particular way when we send you on your journey."
Before she could continue, Conn and Hope approached the pair of them.
"Something has come up Oz. Pentex has restarted an operation we shut down a few months ago. The pack is going down to Brazil to stop it again. Derrick thinks they'll be ready for us this time. It could be quite a fight. We'd like you to come along with us, but it's up to you."
Brazil? He'd hoped to be going back to Sunnydale, to at least let everyone know he was OK. He'd left some stuff behind too. But he was sort of in a groove now. His new found family had him jazzed up. There was still much for him to learn, and he wanted Red Moon to teach him. He'd call one of his friends in Sunnydale to have him back his stuff up. He didn't want to bother the Scoobies with it.
"Okay, cool. What about the Rite of Passage though?"
All three looked at Grandmother.
"We'll begin tonight at sundown. You will be sent into the Spirit world Oz. I can't guarantee you will complete your quest tonight, but it's more then possible. And I'd rather you did not leave until you do."
Again he nodded. All three accepted Grandmother's pronouncement without argument.
"Enough for today. Go and eat something Oz and then find yourself a quiet place to sit for a while. If you know anything about meditation, this would be a good time to use it and prepare yourself for your Quest."
Oz did as she asked. Grabbing some more stew, he ate quickly. Leaving the glen, he went to a stream he'd noticed on his mornings walk. Sitting there he contemplated the day's events and how the last few days had altered the course of his life. Until a few days ago his ultimate ambition was a record deal. Now he had some kind of Destiny to fulfill, just like Buffy. He could try to walk away from it, but he'd seen what happened when Buffy tried to do that. It didn't work. And he didn't want to. Having some kind of higher purpose in life pleased him.
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TBC - Trip The Light Fantastic