Healing the First Klaive

It's off to Minnesota to find the sept that can help fix the First Klaive. While Sonya, never one to let a loose end flap in the breeze, sics researchers on the Shinjuku Corp., Aila grabs Ambrose to come along with them. It was his doing that got the Klaive into this bizarre situation, after all. He's hunting up information on Shinjuku Corp, himself, since he suspects it of Technocratic if not Nephandic ties.

The caern they want is at a campground, except that when they arrive there's no sign of it. Sonya can't even find any local spirits to ask for information. Aila snags a wraith named Derek and agrees to do him two favors for his information. He tells her that vampires from Minneapolis came down, evicted the werewolves, and took the caern. "Took the caern?" Aila repeats in shock. Yep, he replies. They brought in some mages with weird blood symbols who sucked up all the energy and left with it. The Garou migrated out to Washington state. This was only about a week ago.

So they catch a plane to Seattle. Ambrose warns them that Seattle is a New World Order stronghold, and indeed, when they arrive two MiBs with a sign saying "Quintrell" are waiting at the airport with a limo. They offer him a ride, but he turns it down vehemently. The MiBs shrug it off, handing the Garou a map to the campground they want. "Is it an evil map?" Aila asks. "It's a normal map," one of the MiBs tells her. "Our interests converge once again."

Feeling miffed, Ambrose prods them for something to call the MiB who keeps following him around. No dice, of course. They won't even hand him a random number he can use. "He does seem awfully fond of Ambrose," Aila says, to which a MiB replies, "Tillingtast seems awfully fond of Ambrose."
"That's low!" Aila accuses.

"If you ever need us, just dial 0," the MiB says in farewell.
"What if I just want an operator?" Ambrose asks.
"Who says we're not all operators?" the MiB answers.
Ambrose says, "I hate you," and stalks off muttering about spoons and the Matrix.
"Oh, there is a spoon, Dr. Quintrell," the MiB says.
"There's a spoon if I damn well say there's a spoon," Ambrose grouses.

To get to the campground, they have to drive through a conspiracy theorists' convention. "Oh, the Virtual Adepts are in town!" Ambrose says when he sees them. "You know, a lot of these people are right." Turns out, this is also prime sasquatch country. The Garou mess with him on this, explaining with deliberate vagueness that Sasquatch is actually Wendigo when he's not eating people. Olesya finally has pity on the mage and tells him the story about how Sasquatch lost his mind after the Croatan died and became the frozen Wendigo. Ambrose sums it all up: "I might get to see a sasquatch? Cool!"

A cabin has been rented in Ambrose's name at the campground, using his credit card. He dials 0: "Now you're just being jackasses!" The place is totally wired; it'd do credit to a luxury penthouse. Naturally, the cameras are watching them, so Ambrose takes the opportunity to aim sarcastic comments at them.

The Garou at the caern think they can help, and invite the pack to stay for the night. Ambrose plaintively asks if he can stay, too. He explains to the Garou his theory that the NWO actually arranges for these conspiracy conventions to be held in places like Seattle so the Technocracy can monitor them and discredit them among the general populace. He figures that's what the Technocrats want out of them: a convenient incident to make everybody look stupid and paranoid.

Turns out he's wrong. He's awakened around 3 AM by a group of people tromping through the forest hunting for Bigfoots. Bigfeet? At any rate, he indulges his curiosity and follows, along with Aila, who isn't about to let the hapless mage wander off on his lonesome. The troupe of Bigfoot hunters seems oddly displaced in time or space or something; Ambrose can't touch them. At first he assumes they got lost in 'etherspace,' until Aila accidentally wanders through whatever breach they've managed to wrap around them. He can still see her, but she can't see him. He pokes her to get her attention, but while she feels it, she still doesn't spot him. So not the spirit world, then, or the Garou wouldn't be lost or confused.

The bigfoot hunters, on the other hand, definitely do see her. They turn out to be Etherites who are hunting sasquatch to capture and interrogate because they believe them to be evil alien mind-slaves of...um, something. They're not terribly coherent on some points. When she laughs and tries to explain their mistake, the leader dismisses her as an 'ignorant girl.' He gives the date as being the 1960s, and is momentarily alarmed when he sees her cell phone, accusing her of being a Technocracy spy. After she explains a faerie gave it to her, he allows her to come along.

Ambrose follows, growing increasingly confused by these Etherites. When he begins taking readings, he realizes the leader is a Marauder. "Care to help us now, Dr. Quintrell?" asks the MiB, who's suddenly standing behind him. "Nope, got this covered," Ambrose replies cockily. The MiB isn't there when he turns around to look at him.

Tearing off a piece of notebook paper, he writes a note to Aila explaining about the Marauder, and that he's right next to her, and puts it in her pocket. He then pokes her profusely until she checks her pocket, at which point she uses the pack's link with Turtle to rouse the other Garou. They catch up quickly. While she waits, Aila chats with a sasquatch spirit (a number of them have been following this crackpot around, bemused and amused by him), and it obligingly pops her out of the Marauder's little world-bubble.

Ambrose explains poorly about Marauders, which leads to Jonas and Aila wondering if showing this guy a sasquatch might snap him out of his delusion. Seems like it'd be worth a try, so Ambrose grabs some branches and things and proceeds to build a fake bigfoot. He attaches an antenna he uses to tune the construct in to the Marauder's wavelength, and...voila!

"A sasquatch!" the lead Etherite yells, grabbing his gun. "It has the telltale antenna!"

Who knows? Anyway, it works. He pops into reality, his entourage stumbling out in how and reverting to the clothes and appearances they had before they got trapped in the Marauder's delusion. They're pretty disoriented, but they don't have the moment they need to catch up to speed, because Technocracy helicopters immediately descend.

Ambrose warns the pack they're after the Marauder. Scooping up the Marauder and other mages, the pack takes off, shooing mages off into the wood at intervals so they can get away safely while the Garou draw fire. The Technocrats fire off some sort of barrier-gate that unfolds to reveal Void Engineers. When the Garou leap over that, the Technocrats stop chasing them.

The pack is suspicious. They head back to the caern with a feeling that they know what they'll find, and they're right. The Technocrats have put up a barrier around the caern, and there's a MiB (probably the usual guy, but it's hard to tell) waiting with an offer to trade the klaive, which he's holding, for the Marauder. The Garou hesitate, but they can't really risk the klaive. When they ask Ambrose his opinion, he surprises them by agreeing with the Technocrat: Marauder is too dangerous. They might've broken his delusion temporarily, but you don't just unmaraud mages. Thing is, if he handed him over to the Traditions, they'd kill him and possibly gilgul him, but the Technocracy won't do any better and possibly marginally worse.

Aila looks at the MiB. "You've only got one klaive," she comments.

"I could go grab the other one and make you trade two things," he answers. "How fond are you of Ambrose?" Which puts a cold chill down Ambrose's spine, for certain. But however amusing he finds that, the MiB is here on business. Ambrose stands guard over the marauder while the Garou pull aside to discuss the situation. Figuring he already know how this'll end, he busies himself by removing anything from the Marauder's person he thinks the Technocrats shouldn't have, which includes a talisman Bigfoot-hunting gun and a camera.

The Garou realize they don't have much of a choice, either, and agree to hand the guy over. Sonya's sort of planning on mercy-killing the Marauder, but the Technocracy isn't taking chances. The MiB doesn't lower the barrier until after two HITMarks collar the man and take off with him. Then he hands the klaive over and congratulates Ambrose on making the right choice, which as usual ruffles the Etherite's feathers. Just because they can agree that some things are too stupidly dangerous not to deal with, doesn't make them anything alike except in a very basic level of common sense.

The Technocracy packs up and leaves quickly. The sept, of course, didn't notice anything at all, though they're surprised to find the klaive has been moved. The next morning, they do their ritual thing and fix the Klaive, and then the Garou and Dr. Quintrell head back to Chicago.