Diaspora

Lightning flashed. Beneath the boughs of the massive willow, the ground was as dry as indoors. For one instant, the space was vacant; empty of everything except pollen and dust motes. The next instant, the space fairly crackled with power.

Ananse tittered in that annoying, knowing laugh of hers.

'Is this it then?'

Outside of the protective canopy of the willow, the wind picked up. The storm was closing.

Manjack slipped into the relative silence of the space. He nodded to Jengu and gave a silent dap to Jim Crow.

'Wassup, Coyote! How you doin', Ananse?'

N/Dex cleared his throat.

'There are a couple more folks contacted. Give me a few more minutes and I can tell you all why I contacted you.'

Lightning flashed once more much closer.  Shango and Ogun pushed into the space beneath the willow. The smell of leather, metal, and ozone wafted from the two warriors. 

Thunder boomed. The storm was upon them. The wind gusted. 

Big Ajax was here. He walked in crackling with energy. 

Ananse smirked at the same time that Manjack cut his eyes at the shadows. psyqyq arrived in his customary fashion.

'You!' Ajax huffed, 'Who invited him?!?'

Though his espression remained blank and unchanged, psyqyq's air of bored readiness was palpable.

'Why are we here, Dex?'

N/Dex cleared his throat and began to speak. 

'We have all been raised to believe the air of this world... the atmosphere of this planet... is what made us as we are.

'In the interest of thorough research, I have been examining the Diasporan Artificial Intelligence logs.'

psyqyq smiled indulgently and prompted N/Dex to continue. 

'What did you discover, Dex?'

An image coalesced in the air before the collective group. 

'I discovered several lines of binary code embedded in a Comment. It could not have been accidental. None of the AI knew it was there. '

The image shifted to display a set of numbers. 

Ananse asked in a soft, threatening voice, 'And, well? Did you?'

Heads whipped to her and back to N/Dex in confusion. 

'The file says, "Call when you get this,"' N/Dex explained.

'Yes. Yes, I did,' continued N/Dex. 'I was instructed to invite you here.'