"Hello?" Veil answers the phone. "Ozzie! What's up? Did you find out anything else? We're not having much luck over here."

"No, nothing new," replies Oswald. "But I was thinking, since I'm also building some new defenses for the Chantry, how the heck can one of my bots stop a 5000 year old vampire? Much less 20 of them. I was hoping, if you and Nettle aren't busy, to come down to the warehouse and maybe we can come up with some actual weapons against this guy. I have one idea, but it's... tricky. Besides, you haven't seen the latest additions to the greenhouse. I'll have some pizza ready."
The last sentence, you can almost see the biggest shit-eating grin spreading across Ozzie's face, and you know he's got something up his sleeve for you two.

'Oh boy,' Veil thinks to herself. "Right, I'll see if I can talk Nettle out of her plans to hang out with Alec and we'll be over soon."

Veil hangs up the phone and walks across the library to Nettle. "Hey, Ozzie wants some help in the lab with his robots. Will you come?"

Nettle looks up from the book containing information on Vampiric Disciplines with an elated look on her face. "I'm learning so much about the powers this golden-boy must have! I can't wait to tell you and Ozzie-- I know it will help!" Nettle pauses for a moment. "Go to Ozzie's right now?" A slow and mischievious smile spreads across Nettle's face. "I would LOVE to! Speaking of that-- VEIL! Ozzie has some sort of women or something over there! But be careful, because if you mention them, he gets really mean-looking! I've never seen him look that mad!" Nettle shakes her head, still grinning. "However...with two of us there, he should be distracted enough that I might be able to slip away for a quick peak..." Nettle lets the suggestion hang in the air as she stands, tucking the book under her arm. "Should I bring this with us?"

Veil shakes her head. "You know, you're going to get yourself in trouble one of these days! Oswald is entitled to his privacy. You wouldn't like people butting into your business, would you? He obviously doesn't want to talk to you about it, so don't push it. The last thing we need is to alienate him so he doesn't want to help us. His inventions might be what keep that Vampire away!"

Veil picks up her purse and pulls out two cloves, handing one to Nettle. "Don't look so glum.. I'm trying not to lecture!" Veil grins. "Just try to respect his privacy while we're over there, alright? You do want to be invited back again!"

Nettle looks at Veil for a moment with a small frown on her face and her forehead knitted. She takes the clove, pulls out a lighter from her bag, and lights the cigarette, inhaling deeply. "I'll take that into consideration-- you made some good points." Nettle says in an almost-resigned way, slinging her bag back over her shoulder. "I guess we'll be taking your car?" Nettle keeps the Vampire-book clutched to her chest and follows Veil out to her car.

The trip to Oswald's laboratory is pretty quiet as Nettle finishes skimming through the book-- murmuring choice passages aloud to herself and trying to form strategies based on what she's read. When they arrive, the women get out of the car, and Nettle leads Veil over to the elevators-- scanning the land for a pile of rags. "Buzz?" she calls. "You here?"

"I'm here Ms. Nettles," comes a reply as a grizzled old man peers out from his rags. "All the more better seeing you today. You come to see the Ozzman? Or come to see my pretty face?"

Veil chuckles and arches an eyebrow. "And who might you be?"

"Another pretty lady?" asks Buzz. "Man, you wouldn't think Ozzman is a stud. Heh, I'm just an average ordinary wolf bum. Friends call me Buzz, but my real name is Buzz. Pleased ta meet ya..."

"The pleasure is mine, Buzz. I'm Veil. Oswald is expecting us.." Veil says, offering her hand to Buzz and shaking it. "Can you show us the way, or should we go in ourselves?"

"Just go in, I ain't a doorman. I just stays here cause Ozz gots the cool stuff. He's a good dude." Buzz eyes Nettle a bit. "He may be odd, and do some strange things, but just remember, he's a good dude. You go pryin' in his affairs, could get your nose bit off. Just a warning Net's. He seemed pretty cheesed off when last you came round."

Nettle looks at Buzz with wide eyes. "He was?? What did he say??" Nettle pushes the button to summon the elevator up to their level.

"All I knows is it's got to do with those kids of his. Cute little buggers. Don't know much more than that."
As Buzz talks on, the elevator doors open with a tiny ding.

Nettle's eyes open impossibly wide, and her mouth falls open. "Kids???" she stumbles forward and gets into the elevator with Veil, not really paying attention to what she's doing or where she's going now. She absent-mindedly pushes the button to the bottom floor, and then weakly leans her side against the wall and stares at Veil.
"Did you hear that?? He has KIDS! He didn't mention anything about a wife-- that could be why he's so secretive about them! Maybe he got a woman pregnant, and she just dumped the kids on him and took-off, or something!" Nettle thinks for a second. "The plants said that they were women-- ah-ha!" Nettle laughs. "So THAT'S what Ozzie meant! He said they weren't women, and I totally went off on the wrong tangeant! They aren't women...yet! Just little girls! I think Sarah even said something about them being small like her, but I just spaced it!" Nettle laughs delightedly. "I think Ozzie will be relieved to let us meet them once he sees that we won't judge him!" Nettle smiles and folds her arms, impatient for the elevator to finally reach the bottom.

Veil inwardly groans. "Or they could be little robotic children, or bug bots, or who knows..this is Ozzie we're talking about! Somehow I can't see him fathering multitudes of children on some woman who would later abandon them to his care." Now her mind starts to race, trying to think of what on earth Oswald has been doing to keep occupied these past two years.

"Now just remember, don't pester him about it! You heard how angry he got before. Lets just work on these anti-vampire robots, and if he wants to tell us he can, but if not, no sneaking around!!" Veil gives Nettle a stern look, somehow not believing that Nettle will take her words to heart.

As the elevator finally reaches their destination and opens, Veil looks around with wide eyed wonder at the laboratory.

Nettle doesn't answer, but keeps a meek and compliant look on her face as she's being reprimanded. When the elevator doors open, she pokes her head out and looks both ways. When she's certain that there are no bugs waiting in ambush, she steps out of the elevator and presses her back against the wall. "OSWALD!!" she shrieks, hoping he's nearby in case the bugs think she and Veil are intruders.

Nettle's yell echos back to her. The lab, for the first time you've seen it, is deathly quiet. None of the usual robotic insects that fly around are seen. Even the regular insects, in their monstrous farms, are quiet.

Veil looks around uncertainly, then immediately casts out her senses, seeking Life amidst this quiet laboratory.

Your senses pick up all the insects (all several trillion) as well as all of the plants in Oswald's greenhouse. You also pick up Oswald himself, in the back and six other people, almost like Nettle, but younger.

Veil's eyes go wide, and she narrows her concentration on the six young girls. She checks again, just to make sure. Then one more time. Are they really...

Veil clamps her hands over her mouth and forces back laughter. Oh sweet Goddess.. She looks over at Nettle, then back into the laboratory. This is crazier than anything she had ever imagined Oswald would have done. What on earth is Nettle going to do about this...

Veil finally gets herself under control, waving off Nettle's frantic, curiosity-laden questions. "I found him, Nettle. You um.. might want to come see this."

Veil shakes her head, wondering what on earth he could be doing with those girls, and leads the way towards where she sensed Oswald and his girls were hiding.

You walk down the huge tanks that compose Oswald's collection of insects. As you walk down, suddenly the insects come to life and scramble around, making an irritating chittering sound. None of the robotic insects are around, but you can hear a faint humming noise, which Nettle recognizes as the sound the machines make as they hover around. Still, you don't see anything around.

Lucky for Veil, Nettle is so terrified of the insects that her fear is preventing her from bombarding Veil with questions at this point! Nettle is walking bent over and huddled against Veil's side. "If you've found him, let's get to him as quickly as possible!! I think I'm going to start screaming in a second!" Nettle whispers in strained voice. "Just take us somewhere safe-- then I'll open my eyes!" she whispers a little louder and more urgently.

Completely mystified as to Nettle's reaction to Oswald's lab, she leads the way quickly to Oswald, putting an arm around Nettle's shoulders and sending out soothing mental energy to calm her down.

You finally reach Oswald in what, to Nettle, seems like an eternity. Oswald seems to sitting like the proverbial Buddha, suspended about a foor of the ground... and glowing! His eyes are closed and he seems to be meditating, chanting "Cumbaya my bugs, cumbaya."

Veil stands quietly in front of Oswald, a big smile breaking out on her face and she looks over at Nettle and the grin gets bigger.

Nettle quickly straightens up-- smoothing down her clothes-- and shakes her hair back before Oswald can open his eyes and see her looking freaked-out again. She turns to Veil and whispers. "If his bugs hadn't tried to kill me the first time I came here, I probably wouldn't have this reaction." Nettle clears her throat and turn to Oswald. "Ozzie...we're heeeere!" she says in a sing-song Carol-Anne-from-Poltergeist-like voice.

Oswald's eyes open with a start, but he still is floating. "Oh, you're here. Sorry about anything with the... ummm, hold on," he says as he struggles to stand up while levitating. "Okay, down. Down. DOWN!" he yells and falls flat on his ass. "Still need to work the bugs outta those damn nanobots." He dusts himself, then looks at the two of you. "Well, okay, your here. You find anything new yet?"

Nettle smiles excitedly and holds out the book she's been reading intently. "Yes I have! It sounds like this Golden-skinned man is most-likely a vampire called a "La Sombre." They use shadows as their weapons. In fact, listen to this!" Nettle flips through the book until she gets to the section on Obtenebration, and begins to read out loud about each level of this discipline until she finishes the 5th level. "I'm not 100% sure, but I'm thinking that if we can flood the chantry with some kind of light that works the same as sunlight, we can do some extra damage to this guy-- they seem especially prone to light. Or if that's not possible, we can at least flood the place with so much light that there won't be any shadows for him to work with! It sounds like they might be able to create shadows, but we should at least make his job as uncomfortable and difficult as possible!" Nettle closes the book with a thwap, and smiles triumphantly at Oswald.

Oswald nods, "I was thinking of something similar. As you can tell, I haven't quite worked it out. I was thinking, with the vampire, if we actually surround him with nanobots which have the capability of throwing out bright light, or even sunlight, he'd be really screwed. I still haven't figured it out, as you could see, I was just glowing, but I think it's doable."

Nettle nods excitedly. "That would be great if you could figure out those nano-bots!" she says, pronouncing the word carefully. "I'm quite experienced with the realm of Forces, so if I can be of any assistance, I would love to help!" Nettle's eyes shine enthusiastically.

"Great," exclaims Oswald. "I was sorta building a bunch of my regular stuff, just stronger, faster, tougher, you know, the whole 6 Million Dollar Man bit, but I remember the last time I thought that would work, and it didn't. Course, how would you be able to work with something microscopic?"

Veil answers, "No problem, with the proper knowledge of Correspondence, a microscope isn't needed so size really isn't an issue. You just kind of zoom into what you're looking at..." she trails off, trying to decide if she should let herself be distracted by the task at hand, or if she should bring up the other residents of the lab.

Veil glances once over at Nettle, then back to Oswald. Right. Coming to a decision, she sends a mental message to Oswald. "So, umm.. what's with the mini Nettles running around???"

Nettle starts out being interested in Veil's explanation, but then she gets a little distracted as the description gets more technical, and begins gazing around the lab. Now she's finally able to remember what Veil said to her when they first entered the lab, and she looks back at Veil again. "Veil-- what was it you couldn't wait for me to see, anyway? A levitating Oswald?" Nettle raises an eyebrow with a bemused expression on her face.

Oswald suddenly looks like he just saw a ghost. "How did you-" he begins to say at Veil but can't finish the sentence. Dropping his head, like a marionette that's lost it's strings, he continues, "it's a long story." Just as he says this, a childish giggle comes from behind some doors next to the lab. Strangely familiar sounds to Nettle when she was younger.

Veil puts a hand on Nettle's arm and tries to smile reassuringly. Oswald can feel from the mental link that Veil is battling with amusement over the sight of six identical Nettle children, worry at how Nettle will react, and concern that Oswald has been playing around with cloning.

"Perhaps you'd better tell Nettle about it, before your little girls come out and surprise her. I don't know how well she will handle the shock..." Veil suggests through the mindlink, then shuts it down.

Oswald nods. "Nettle, I have... have a confession to make. Remember the first time you came here, and I had said that things were kind of wierd with Justice and me. Well, we all know she left, and, it hit me pretty hard. Real hard. What I did afterwards, I would never have done normally. I just wasn't thinking, and, all I wanted was someone to have around and, well, I noticed I had some of your... skin, and... I kinda cloned you."

Nettle's head immediately turns to face the area where the laughter is coming from, and her brow furrows. Then when Oswald begins his explanation, Nettle's eyes fix on him intently, and then grow larger and larger until she's standing there looking stunned as he finishes. As Nettle tries to put her thoughts together, she glances at Veil with a look of incredulity, and then looks back at Oswald. Finally she swallows and tries to speak. "Ozzie...show them to me..." she says in a hoarse voice. She stands stiffly and looks like she's still in shock.

As Nettle finishes asking to see the children, the doors open with a loud crash and out runs a little girl, an exact look-a-like of Nettle at age six. Five other faces appear, exactly alike.
The child runs up to Oswald, arms wide open and gives him a big hug.
"Daddy," she yells. "When are we gonna play?"
Oswald picks up the girl, and his face is beaming with pride. "Soon Holly, soon."
"I'm not Holly," the girl replies. "I'm Lily."
"So you are hon."
The little girl looks at both Nettle and Veil with curiousity, then finally, settles her eyes on Nettle, all big with wonder.
"Is that mommy," she asks.

At the little girl's question, Nettle claps a hand across her own mouth and closes her eyes as the tears start falling and she cries. She can't quite explain to herself exactly why she's crying-- maybe it's because she's wanted a baby for so long and the little clone recognized that she could be her "mother"...maybe it's because she was an only child, and all these little versions of herself have each other and look so happy-- and Oswald seems genuinely affectionate with them.
Nettle thinks about the little girls' names...all flower or plant-names...and suddenly gives a loud sobbing laugh and opens her teary eyes, smiling down at Lily.
"When I was a little girl, my name was Iris!" Nettle laughs again, wipes her tears, and then squats down in front of Lily. She reaches out and touches Lily's face gently, then touches her hair, then takes her shoulders and smiles at her. "Now that I'm a grown-up, I'm called Nettle." Nettle thinks hard for a moment as she continues to smile at Lily. "I'm your big sister! Your mommy lives in Idaho--" Nettle holds back a loud laugh as she imagines the look on her mom's face when she finds out she has 6 more daughters, all identical to Nettle! And her DAD'S face!! Nettle tries to surpress a grimace, and then focuses on Lily again.
"But this is your daddy--" Nettle turns and motions to Oswald, "-- and he loves you very much." Nettle moves her hands down to hold Lily's hands, and then looks over Lily's shoulder at the other little clones. "Will you introduce me to the rest of...our sisters?" she asks in a soft voice.

Veil lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding, and watches Nettle with eyes that are beginning to tear up.

The little girl looks at Nettle. "Your not Iris," she says with a frown. "That's Iris over there," she continues, pointing at one of the toddlers as they come out of their hiding places to run to Oswald. "That's Holly, that's Ivy, that's Rose, and that's Violet."

Oswald looks at Nettle concerned. "Are you okay Nettle," he asks. "I...I know I shouldn't have done it, but, I was lonely at the time. But as you can see, I haven't done anything totally crazy. As Sarah said, they're the ones that take care of the gardens."

All six mini-Nettles are either climbing around Oswald or trying to hug Nettle and Veil and generally having a blast, laughing at everything. The mechanical insects have also come out, and seem to be dancing with/ around the children.

Nettle closes her eyes for a moment, suddenly feeling very overwhelmed. She takes a moment to center herself, and then opens her eyes and smiles shakily up at Oswald. "I understand why you did it...they seem happy...I don't know, I'm suddenly feeling a little overcome. I'm used to there being only one of me, and now I don't feel so...well, special anymore."
She lets out an 'oomph!' and laughs, startled, as one of the clones jumps on her back. She reaches behind and holds the little girl securely on her back, and then stands.
"Obviously they haven't been alive for six years, so they must be growing at an accelerated rate. What are you going to do when they get to be...well...adults? Keep them in here all the time?"
The other clones start clammering around Nettle, wanting their turns at piggy-back, and Nettle raises her eyebrows at Oswald.

"Well, they were just accelerated to 6 years old, and now, they'll age like a normal person. Plus I do get out with them from time to time, it's just... not a lot of people can accept the idea of a single dad with sextuplits. Bit of a tricky subject with most people."
Oswald looks down at one hugging his leg. "Come on hon," he says, picking her up and holding her. "So, that's about it. Now, if I can only get someone to act as mom. Hmmm, maybe if I clone..." he trails off, then smiles at Nettle. "Nah, I've done enough of that."

Nettle gives Oswald a disapproving look. "'Act as mom??'" she exclaims. "What exactly does that mean? Raising the girls and..." Nettle smirks, "...special priveledges with 'dad?'" Nettle gets a weird look on her face. "Would that make her my step-...no, no, nevermind, I'm not even going to think about it." Nettle waves a free hand in front of her face, and then brings it back behind her to hold the little girl's leg again, bouncing her a little to make her laugh.
Nettle looks at the group of little girls, and a slow smile suddenly spreads across her face. "Ozzie...you know what I'd like to do? I'd like to go out with all six little girls and take them to Chuck-E-Cheese, or something, and see all the stares we get! Everyone would obviously assume I was the mom! To make it even better, Veil and Alec should come along! The little girls will be calling you 'daddy,' but you'll be with Veil, and I'll tell them to call me 'mommy,' and I'll obviously be with Alec, hahahaha! What will people think?" Nettle laughs, suddenly looking much more cheerful.

Oswald gets a big grin on his face. "It's a date," he laughs. Then he becomes a bit more serious. "Course, this ain't helping with you-know-what."

"Right. Well, lets get to work on these.. what exactly did you need us to do?" Veil looks curiously at all the hovering robotic bugs. "I mean, how are we going to get sunlight into them? I've never worked with machines before.." she sounds a bit doubtful.

"Not those," mentions Oswald. "Let me show you." He walks over to a large typewriter/TV/vacumn invention from Hell and, while holding the child, turns it on. It takes a few minutes for the screen to come on, and you see hundreds of scurrying metalic fleas jumping everywhere on the screen. "These are the nanobots I was working on. Their microscopic, but they have a lamp source which sorta works," as he talks, he gets the unearthly glow again. "It's not very strong as you noticed, but, if I can somehow amplify it and maybe, ultraviolet light, I'm guessing that'll hurt a vampire. Well, I say I'm guessing cause I saw it in a movie and it cooked this fat vampire."
At the sound of the word vampire, the little girls scurry around a bit afraid, and sorta hide behind Oswald, Nettle, and Veil. "Oops, said the V-word. It's okay girls. No baddies around."

"Have you had trouble with any...leeches.. before?" Veil asks, curious about the childrens' reaction to the word. Turning back to the big vacuum-microscope thing, she studies the insects. "How will we control when they emit the ultra violet rays? Or will they do it all the time?"

"Nah," replies Oswald. "These little kiddies," he continues, staring at them crossly. "They were very naughty and stayed up past their bedtimes." The little girls look a little ashamed, but they each have a mischievious grin showing. "And they decided to watch 'Blood Brides of Dracula.' So now, there scared of you know who."

Nettle's mind is filled with images of peoples' jaws dropping at the sight of 6 little Nettles following 1 big Nettle like so much mother-duck and ducklings, and she laughs excitedly and starts trading off piggy-back rides with each little girl as Veil and Oswald discuss the robots, until all the girls have had a turn. Then when she realizes that they want SECONDS, she gets a better idea.
"Hey my little flower-garden! Your daddy says that you know a lot about all these plants! Come with me! I'll show you MY favorite plant, and you can tell me all about how to make it grow healthy and happy!" Nettle slings another little girl onto her back, and takes the hands of two more, and starts pulling them towards the stained-glass-petals flowers. "Bye Veil! Bye Oswald!" Nettle calls waving, and all the little girls echo her and wave at Veil and Oswald.

Oswald see's Nettle walk with the children to the garden. "Actually," he interrupts her as she heads down. "There's a fun way to go, ain't that right kids." The little Nettles laugh and literally drag big Nettle over to a giant robot caterpiller/rollercoaster like device and hop in. "Come on," they all plead to her to get on.
Oswald chuckles a bit, then goes back to discussing the robots with Veil.

Nettle looks the machine up and down, and then grins big for the girls (while feeling a little wary inside!), and gets on with them. "Don't worry, Ozzie! I've just always been so curious about those flowers, and here are the girls who can finally answer my questions! We'll be back soon!" Nettle calls, and then gives Veil a look that says, "I hope this thing's safe!" and then they're off!

The ride to the gardens start's off okay, going slowly along, through various places in the Lab. It goes up about fifty feet in the air, and looking down, you can see every insect farm Oswald has, he has almost two hundred! Robotic insects buzz by, but don't come near the caterpillar ride.
The ride continues, this time veering off to an area you had never even seen before. In a section that looks like it's never been used before, you come across an old cavern of some sort, with a large lake. The natural phospheresence of the cave light up the lake, making it appear to glow. A few of the mechanical insects fly by, and seem to be feeding fish in the lake. In the distance you hear a waterfall, and, as you get closer, you notice that Oswald, as usual, has some of the oddest things in the world. For some reason, this waterfall is falling... up! The water shimmers as it continues it's way up.
Then, the ride takes you through a small tunnel, and then your in a library. An enormous library, with books and tomes of all shapes and sizes. The shelves must be about thirty feet high and it looks like the room is larger than a football stadium. Looking up, you see what can only be described as a big blotch of red, until you realize that, it's a 3-D image, and it's an image of Ozz and the kids! Finally, after several more strange rooms, including one that is all blue, (and you could swear that the kids, and even you became blue) you arrive at the gardens, allthough from the back way. The kids, throughout the whole trip, seemed more intent on pointing out various things to Nettle than running and jumping around.

As Nettle leaves with the children, Oswald watches them go, then turns back to Veil. "I figured that if we had problems with werewolves," says Oswald. "We could use these with silver. I know Buzz said that there were these guys called... umm, Black Spiral Prancers or something. Anyway, I've been tooling around to get the light idea working, unless there's a better way to take out a vampire. I know garlic won't work. Or holy water."

"That's right... you missed meeting those Black Spirals back in Ireland," Veil looks away from the robots and back at Oswald. "You're very lucky," she says seriously.

"As for the vampires and sunlight, I don't have enough control over Forces to create sunlight out of nowhere. In fact, Nettle knows more about forces than I do, I just never had the time to study up on it," Veil admits.

"Wooden stakes will paralyze a vampire," she offers helpfully. "Umm.. they can heal wounds very quickly unless the wounds were made with something resonating magick, so perhaps we should make sure everyone is carrying a weapon that has been enchanted with Prime. Any other ideas?"

The two start working out their different ideas while Nettle plays with the children. They work far into the night, hoping to come up with something that will protect them from this ancient menace that they know will come after Cara sooner or later.

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