Chronicle Three: Chaos Factor

It is fall of 1996. With the debacle involving Graysh over, Martin gone to England to find his family, and Dylan left to protect his child, Sebastian is left feeling worse than he was before his last series of adventures. However, he begins to find his focus when Achmed Bashir (of the Ahl-i-Batin) asks him to find the last of the Bunyip, a lone survivor of a nearly extinct Garou tribe. Just as he begins to prepare for this mission, another orphan shows up at the mansion: Rayne. After a terse stand-off, the cabal decides to accept her as one of them. Soon there after, with no other leads to follow, Sebastian decides to acquiesce to Chip and Rayne, who want to visit a farm outside of town that they mysteriously found a flyer to (for a hayride). Rayne suggests that they should look for the Bunyip there, thinking the two might be tied together somehow.

What Rayne, Sebastian, and Chip find is a farm full of Verbena mages, known as the Crombey family. The eldest shows them what he calls the life tree; apparently it has the ability to create seeds for nodes: an invaluable treasure. However, while they are being shown around, they are suddenly attacked by Black Spiral Dancers. The Wrym-servants are relentless and brutal and the battle is hard fought; the mages manage to fend them off, but not before the man's wife and one of his sons are killed. His youngest son and daughter live.

However, the night is not over yet. A dark villain known as Samuel Haight shows up. He is much more powerful than all of the surviving mages combined. Striding past them all, he destroys the lifetree, takes a seed, and then disappears, before any of them can stop him. To further compound things, they find out that the youngest child was a Nephandi, a traitor, who led Haight and his people there. For the child there is no recourse, on this all the mages agree. Sadly, the father kills him. They apologize to the man, but he knows that they did the best they could. He does know of a girl who might have been the Bunyip, though. A young girl stayed with them for awhile, but had since left, saying she was headed towards Mexico City.

 

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While the others were fighting Haight, Dylan's kid was kidnapped, so he rejoins the team, under the auspice of them helping him; both Dylan and Sebastian believe the events with Haight, the Bunyip, and his child, might somehow be related. Rayne, Chip, Dylan, and Sebastian decide to fly to Mexico City and investigate. Half way there, their plane is hijacked by terrorists. The takeover begins as Sebastian is in the bathroom. While a terrorist is banging on his door, he thrusts it open and takes him out with a single Do punch under his chin. At that, Chip jumps up with his sword (which has the ability to shrink down to a necklace charm) and Dylan and Rayne pull out their guns (they had used Correspondence to get them past the metal detectors).

A firefight ensues, with Dylan and Rayne shooting the terrorists, while Chip hews another down and Sebastian takes out another with his bare hands. The leader of the terrorists does kill one innocent and then retreats into the cockpit, killing both pilots. He's obviously a Black Spiral, because he runs out in a twisted crinos form, tears open the rear door, and jumps out. The mages can't stop him, but Chip is able to close the door. Dylan and Sebastian land the plane with a little help from Entropy and the luck they can surround themselves with. Dylan and Rayne want to run out with the ther passengers, and not be seen, relying on their high levels of arcane to disappear into the masses. However, Chip has no arcane, so Sebastian agrees to stay with him. Those two calm the passengers as best they can, while the other two slip away. Of course, this detains them in Houston awhile, but it gets Chip and Sebastian's name out for the first time, with plenty of good publicity.

Chip and Sebastian are detained for a while, but are finally released by the authorities. They check into a hotel, to wait for Dylan and Rayne to show up. But into their hotel comes another mage. They don't know who he is or what he wants. Nervous, they both pull guns on him and he doesn't take it well. They usher him in, but he won't tell Chip or Sebastian his name or submit to a search. Sebastian puts his gun away to compromise, but the mage won't back down. In the end it is like two goats butting heads, but Chip and Sebastian are not going to back down first. When he turns to go, they warn him not to, but he ignores them and then Chip shoots him only to watch him teleport away.

Dylan finds the other two, but Rayne apparently had to go away and do something, telling Dylan to move on without her. After their last encounter, Chip and Sebastian are a little nervous, so they agree to keep moving. They just need to pick up some of Dylan's things at the place he stayed the previous night. Unortunately, he was unwittingly staying with a group of Nephandi. When he returns, they kidnap him, baiting the others. As they are trying to rescue him, the other mage (from the hotel) comes up, guns out. Obviously he's not one of the Nephandi or at least it appears that way. Sebastian tries to reconcile with him, but he won't listen and his guns are leveled at Sebastian. Duvalier turns and shoots him, just as the Nephandi come around the corner. They shoot him too and he teleports away again, just before death. As the Nephandi come in the building, Chip and Sebastian cut them down. Then they find Dylan and jet. However, before leaving, they find a note implicating the stage performer David Copperfield in the attempted kidnapping.

 

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Chip and Sebastian go to investigate Copperfield, while Dylan recouperates from his injuires. They sneak in and find him on stage. They talk briefly, but realizing who they really are, he bolts. Chip tackles him while the security rushes in. Sebastian jumps over the stage and kicks David. After that, he is unconscious and all they have to do is run, when a Garou walks out. The incoming security is freaked and takes off. Somehow, Sebastian talks her out of her rage and she changes into her homid form. They all go to another room to talk. They learn that she is the Bunyip. She's traveling with David to San Francisco. Chip and Sebastian agree to go too. David is a Mage, but he doesn't want to be involved in politics. Sebastian offers him a place with them, but he politely refuses. The decide to sneak away from Houston with his group and then go to Mexico City from San Francisco. They hope Rayne will find them by then.

One night, Dylan has a dream about a magick weapon that he feels is important. Deciding it might be somewhat real, he, Chip and Sebastian search San Francisco, looking for it. They find the street that Dylan dreamt about, and find a mystickal doorway cut into the brick walls of one of the buildings. They realize that only Dylan can open this door; in fact, it looks like a normal wall until he walks by it. So he opens it for Chip and Sebastian, keeping it open. They go through.

Inside is a beautiful natureland. Yet it is not only not an Umbral universe, but it has no umbral universe. They find out later, that they were in Arcadia, home of the Changelings, or the Fae. It is these people that tell the mages that Chip's avatar once lived in the legendary King Arthur. They also reveal that Dylan's father was a fae.

They don't like Sebastian for something called "inherent banality," which they see in him. Banal refers to not believing in them, which apparently traps them in the mages' world. Sebastian tries to explain that it is the Technocratic paradigm which does this, not his, that they are his enemies too, yet they seem to not actually be able to like him. They all partake in a great banquet, enjoying a feast made in dreams. They invite the Mages to stay, but they all feel that they need to go, forgetting about the weapon that they once searched for. Realizing their mistake, they resolve to head towards Mexico City. Nicole, the Bunyip, decides to stay with David. Time passes differently in Arcadia, and the magi learn that their afternoon become a month.

 

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Meeting Rayne in Mexico City at the Best Western just outside the city, Dylan, Chip, and Sebastian are also surprised to find Thomas, the Son of Ether (that Chip and Sebastian had first met when they found each other at an underground Streetfighting championship, where he was controlling a robot in the tourney). They all go into Chip and Sebastian's room to talk. That is when they hear explosions. They go outside to check it out. All they can see is rioting and chaos. Thomas suggests that he can turn his talking car into a dirigible. Sebastian informs the rest of the group of this idea and they go up (using Forces to warp light around it, making it invisible). They can see Technomancers flying above the city also, trying to discern what is happening. The Mages then all combine their powers to eavesdrop on them. They can vaguely hear that they are looking for who did it, suspecting Garou terrorists. They then combine their powers to look for Dylan's kid, finding her briefly, noticing that she's with German-speakers before being cut off.

They head in the general direction they spotted Dylan's child and find a building, of which they can sense she is in the basement. Despite Sebastian's warnings that they should have some kind of preparation, Dylan and Rayne rush off. Apparently, they encounter a vampire, which they kill. Sebastian starts to have a bad feeling, remembering Krayvis' warning that Mexico City is a Sabbat stronghold.

Meanwhile, the building is collapsing, and Thomas is the only one that can keep it up. Chip gives him some help. Sebastian then conceives of a way to get the crowd away, so the building won't crush them. He uses Correspondence to throw his voice, using it like a speakerphone and then while he helps Thomas keep the building up, Chip implements Sebastian's threat of tear gas, by causing nausea with Life. The people scatter and they ready to allow the building to fall. Thomas reminds Dylan and Rayne that they are the ones holding up the building, so they jet out and then the others let go, letting the building fall at last.

The Mages continue to help out around the city, fighting HIT Marks and Men In Black, and trying to help keep order. Finally, they encounter Slingshot, a Bonegnawer. He takes them back to his home. There they meet Father Machete, Wanderer, Mother Baggy Pants, and Razorface, the rest of his sept. Already another five of their group have fallen that day. They don't know what is going on. They too have heard rumors of Haight. They suggest that he is coming for a legend, known as the Underbelly of the Wyrm. The magi go off to search under several ancient temples, all possibilites for this place of legend. They find nothing except a few other Sabbat, including an old Malkavian antitribu. After a few pointless battles, they realize that they are on the wrong track.

The cabal goes back to the Bonegnawers' home to rest. In the morning, they try searching the future to see what they can discover. Dylan, Rayne, Chip, and Sebastian all end up having a ten minute long seizure. Thinking it safer, Dylan, Chip and Sebastian try to look back into their past and into their heads, to see what they saw, only end up in a thirty minute seizure. So they go out and try to save the Sleepers of the city again, working with the Bonegnawers. After another fight with Black Spiral Dancers, they start talking to Wanderer who finally admits that she too (like Haight) is a Skindancer. She is taken by the Bonegnawers immediately, only after entering Harano, and telling the magi where they can find Haight.

They go into what conceivably is the Underbelly of the Wrym, and find papers strewn everywhere. They find a set untouched. It tells them of the town of where an ancient Mexican god (who was really a vampire in service to Baal, named Shaitan) was. They go there to anticipate Haight. They cannot find anything out of the ordinary there, though. Although, going over the papers they kept, they find that this vampire wants to sacrifice the entire town for Baal. Kenneth, the Maruader appears briefly. He cannot stay, but tells the magi to destroy Haight. Sebastian then thinks of the idea to look back in time to see what Haight did in the Underbelly, and where he went, and then inch slowly into the future, to see where he will appear. This works. Using Matter, Thomas and Dylan create silver bullets and set Rayne, a sniper, to target him when he arrives. Chip and Sebastian ready the last phase of their plan, to focus their Entropy to find Haight's weakness, to allow Chip in particular to use Dim Mak Melee.

Haight finally arrives in a truck full of men: some Fomori and some Black Spirals. The Spirals change to crinos form, while the Formori spread out. Haight goes to the spot the magi anticipated. Rayne lets loose a shot and hits him. The others then break through Haight's countermagick and find his Entropic weak points. Rayne fires on him again as he runs away and Chip and Sebastian chase him. Dylan fires on the Fomori and Black Spirals with his guns and Thomas opens up with his 'Lightning Cannon' and his robot goes to get the 'Solar Cannon' one of the Fomori has. While the battle rages, Chip and Sebastian corner Haight and begin their assault; The Black Spirals and Fomori fall, underneath the mix of silver and magick, just as The 'Mexican God' appears, and starts helping the magi. However, Graysh suddenly shows up and the two begin to tussle. After the 'God,' Shaitan, wins and runs away, Thomas takes the captured lamp weapon and fries Graysh, although Hitler runs in and grabs him away: Graysh may or may not be dead.

The others join Chip and Sebastain in the cave. Sebastian has noticed that Haight can't defend against multiple magicks well. So they continue their assualt renewed. Sebastian slows Haight, so he can't attack them, while Thomas blasts him with Forces, Dylan and Rayne attack with magick also, and then Chip takes him down in the final blast, cracking his magickal staff and running him through, finishing Haight forever.