Lady Seraphina

TENEBRAE: The Rebellion of Shadows (Ladies Only)

Phantasm

Cloud Gate
Loop, Tenebrae
Time: Late Morning
@Estylwen

Myriad tapped her fingers on her chin, looking at Gloria appraisingly. “Ah, so they really did cancel that class.”

She skipped down the steps of the Gate, Gloria following after. Their strange costumes garnered more than a few stares from people walking by but no one said anything, no doubt assuming it was for some kind of street performance.

Myriad turned back to Gloria, looking up at her from three stairs below. "You're my friend, I know that. As for us and the Valkyries, there's old history." She turned back, shrugging. "But I wasn't a Knight then. Nowadays, it's doubtful the two interact much. You may well be the first interaction we’ve had in, um.” Myriad counted the number out individually on her fingers till she had a full hand before saying. “Wow, in five years.”

Gloria took a step back, up one stair. She didn't really have 'friends'. She had people who watched her back and she watched there's. Even that hadn't come easy to her. It had been a long time since she'd been able to just stroll up to someone and say 'you seem nice, let's be friends'. To have Myriad do it so casually when they'd spent less than a day together surprised her.

She didn't know how to deal with that so she pushed it away, focusing on what Myriad had said about the Shadow Knights and the Valkyries. "I don't suppose you know what happened to the old queen, the one Lady Hel had an agreement with. Arc just said she was 'no longer fit for duty'."

There was a very long and uncomfortable pause as Myriad's eyes shifted away from Gloria. "She uh, fell into a coma." She forced a smile, trying to laugh it off. "But I mean, it's better to talk about people's good times, not their bad, right? It's what she would've wanted."

Gloria nodded. Myriad clearly didn't like dwelling on bad things. Meanwhile it felt like that's all Gloria ever did.

"Thanks." She wasn't sure how much that helped her but it was something.

She walked past Myriad and when she was a few step down she turned around. She lowered her hood, unclipped her mask and pulled out the hair tie holding her braid in place. Her blonde hair fell down around her shoulders in a frizzy mass that she knew was going to be a pain to run a brush through later.

She looked up at Myriad so they could see each other's eyes. "My friends call me Katey. I'll see you around."

"Katey," she mumbled, eyes turning up thoughtfully.

With a small pull, she tugged her own mask to the side, revealing large eyes and a slender nose, but what grabbed Gloria's attention where Myriad's eyes. They were... four dimensional was the only way that Gloria could describe it. A tesseract shape that twisted in on itself over and over and over again even as she knew that it wasn't moving in the slightest. Gloria looked at them more closely trying to get a beat on exactly what they were.

As she continued to stare, Myriad scrunched her eyes shut, a smile on her face.

"Sure, Katey. Friendship names are cool. Tell you mine after your mission, 'kay?" she said.

She slid the mask back over her eyes, clipping it into place under the wreath of flaming hair.

"Alright," Gloria said "Till then."

"Good luck, my friend."

Lady Hel

Love Street
Lincoln Park, Tenebrae
Time: Late Morning
@Blizz

Oshus smiled. "Yeah. Homesickness. You could say that. Old town’s a piece of work, but she’s our piece of work. Well, yours, I guess. You get it, anyway, I’m getting old. People retire when they’re old, dunno how much I got left in me. Being out there so long and not here very long, it’ll make you realize where you went ain’t much far from where y’came from."

Hel nodded. That's what she'd wanted to hear. That he'd returned out of a fondness for his roots, not to stir up trouble. She'd keep an eye on him just to make sure he wasn't feeding what she wanted but trust came a little easier to her with him than it did with almost anyone else. "Long as that's all you're looking for then the city's here for you. This place is a lot safer for us than it was back in the day but that saftey's still fragile. Stay as long you like, just don't make waves."

He smiled. "Guess I couldn’t stay away from the place’s charm for another twenty..." As he ignored the subtle threat in her final words. He knocked back his drink and turned his stool to face her. "Say, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about Fade, would you?"

It was Hel's turn to smile. "I wish I did. Her skill set is unmatched. She'd make a fearsome Valkyrie. But true to her name, she faded away after what happened to Fenrix."

They talked for nearly an hour, recalling old memories, shared victories, shared failures, but mostly shared misery. It had been a very long time since Hel had had a real conversation with someone on equal footing to her. She did appreciate the comfort of it, even if she would never admit as much out loud.

”Well Sweetness. It’s been a pleasure talkin’ with ya, funny enough, but I’ve got other reunions worth seeing to.” He slipped a twenty into his empty glass and got up to leave. He was talking Sunrider. Though Hel supposed she called herself Ellie these days. Hel had approached her once or twice about joining the Valkyries but she refused. She was ashamed of what they'd had to do when they were younger and she thought punching jewellery store robbers and car jackers in the face would somehow atone for it. She was playing at being a superhero. It was a shame, her talents could be used for so much more.

”Grab me sometime, I’ll be in town a while. We can catch up some more anytime." Oshus said as he was walking towards the door. Then as though a sudden thought hit him he turned back towards her. "While you’re not busy, might wanna put those Shade Knights on a leash. Shade Knights... Shadow Knights, the guys in the dopey lookin’ hoods. The kook with the scar thought he was gonna spook me. I guess you know who I’m talking about, if you don’t, I don’t.” Hel's eyes widened every so slightly but her expression remained neutral. When she didn't respond he shrugged. ”Tell your girls I said hey."

Hel nodded and watched him walk away.

Shadow Knights... They were a band of tech thieves with some very unsavoury connections to metahuman hunter and trafficker groups. She'd driven them out of the city years ago. Not that she was foolish enough to think she'd disbanded their entire operation, but she'd gone to war with them and in the end they'd reached an armistice. Tenebrae belonged to Hel, the knights weren't welcome in this city. If they'd returned... well, that would be the end of their uneasy truce. She would need to deal with that.

Hel stood up, and placed a crisp hundred dollar bill on the bar. "That's for you darling." she said before strolling out the door.

When she returned to her car one of her entourage said. "My lady, you were dropped a line while you were inside. Siobhan wants to talk to you. She's..." Hel cut the woman off.

"One of Phantasm's playmates. I know. I'll take the call in back."

The woman nodded. "Very good Miss."

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

I remember making a cringy character on here years ago when I was a wee-little baby. I would love to see this RP up and running again!

@DesperatePerson

You're not the only one. Rereading my old posts I remember how staggeringly bad I was at writing back then.

TENEBRAE: The Rebellion of Shadows (Ladies Only)

Phantasm

Location: Unknown, Tenebrae
Time: Late Morning
@Estylwen

Gloria's eyes flicked back and forth between Myriad and Arc, checking to see if either of them had noticed her toss the tracking chip through the portal. Surprisingly both had looked back at the banner; apparently none the wiser.

Myriad shrugged. "Mmm, I dunno. It was Mr. Chronos' idea."

Almost as if summoned by the mention of his name, the steel double doors Chronos had vanished through swung open. Standing on the other side was Chronos, but the thing that really drew her eye was the elaborate triple decker cake he carried in his arms. His IV stand dragged along behind him, one of the wheels squeaking. He held the tube of it in his teeth to prevent the force ripping the needle out of his arm.

Even through her mask Gloria could see Myriad's eyes grow to the size of dish plates. "Oh my god, sir." She rushed forward to take the cake from Chronos as he looked like he was barely managing to balance it. "If you wanted to impress a lady, you know chocolates wo—"

Chronos gave her a scathing look and she trailed off. Gloria wouldn't have called the look in Chronos' eye anger but it seemed as though Myriad had crossed a line with such an innocent turn of phrase. She wondered if maybe Chronos had lost someone if the suggestion that he was trying to impress a woman was so distasteful to him.

Myriad backed it up, sounding, for the first time since Gloria had met her, unsure. "I'm uh, sure Phantasm will love it. Right, partner?"

She glanced at Gloria, looking for support but not being entirely sure of the dynamic playing out in front of her Gloria instead just shrugged.

Myriad looked a little dejected but turned back to Chronos, asking in the slightly pleading tone of a kid unsure if they're in trouble "Is it too much?"

Arc interjected, pressing his hand to his forehead in frustration. "Why are you asking him when the answer is obvious?"

"I dunno, maybe this time he'll explain himself." she shot back.

"You know he hasn't for a very, very long time."

Myriad put her hands out, shaking them excitedly. "Oh, but where's your sense of adventure?"

Chronos loudly cleared his throat, interrupting the developing squabble between them. They turned sharply to look at him. He rubbed his throat in a manner that Gloria would almost have described as self-conscious before he spoke.

"She's one of us."

Gloria cocked her head to the side staring at him. She'd been toying with the theory that he wasn't able to speak, whether because he was deaf or nonverbal. Evidently she wasn't the only one surprised that he actually spoke. Both Arc and Myriad stared at him slack-jaw before Myriad elbowed Arc in the stomach, murmuring. "Forgot how nice he sounded."

"Huh," Gloria said from behind her mask. "I was beginning to think I'd have to brush up on my sign language for you."

Ignoring her Arc shook his head at what Chronos had claimed. "She's a Valkyrie, Chronos."

Chronos looked at him pointedly, almost as if Arc had made his point for him.

Arc pressed the bridge of his nose, eyes screwed shut. "Chronos. That agreement was disbanded with the new king."

Gloria has the distinct impression that she was listening to half a conversation. Maybe the three of them were very good at reading each other. When a crew worked together long enough they generally learned how to communicate in as few words as needed. But another part of her wondered if maybe that was Chronos' specialty, if he was a telepath.

The thought did not appeal to her. She didn't like the idea of other people rooting around in her head.

Myriad put her hand on Arc's shoulder. "Relax, Chronos is just fond of the old queen. I don't blame him. She was a beautiful leader until she, ahm, had to..."

A dense silence settled over the room. Each of them looked pained, the kind of look one gets when a dead loved one unexpectedly crops up in conversation.

Gloria was the one to break the silence. "I suppose this is one of those times when I'm supposed to let the subject drop?" she paused. "Yeah well, I've never been very good at that. So who's this queen and why isn't she on the throne anymore? Where'd this 'new king' of yours come from?"

She felt safe enough asking questions. The most they'd glean from it was that details didn't slip by her notice. If they'd been surveilling her for this job for as long as it seemed, they'd already know that she paid close attention to all the angles.

Myriad smiled teasingly. “What, you mean they don't teach that in Valkyrie class anymore?” Arc gave her a warning look, and she shrugged nonchalantly. “What? She has a right to know. Besides, you explain it better than me.”

Arc rubbed his temples. “You're a constant pain in my side, you know?”

He turned his silver eyes on Gloria, leaning forward. “Alright. Phantasm, you'll like this story. The queen, Chronos and I were causing some problems for you people. Many clashes led up to a fateful day. Against the black of night, Hel and the Queen with their small armies faced off in a battle that caused the city a year’s worth of construction. I'm not sure how, but we withdrew as the dawn broke, and she told us ‘If you see a Valkyrie, consider them as family.'

“King Astra changed that when he took charge, but, Chronos, well,“ Arc glanced at Chronos, he seemed to be choosing his words very carefully. “He has always been most dutiful towards her.”

Chronos cleared his throat again, closing his eyes and turning away. Arc and Myriad shared a worried glance before Myriad’s eyes darted around desperately, and she found the sparklers. When Chronos took them from her, the only noticeable change she saw was the mist in his eyes as he stabbed the cake. The click of a zippo, and a fizzle of party lights filled the room.

Arc folded his arms as he stood beside Phantasm, watching the sparks fall like comets. His voice was hushed, eyeing Chronos. “As for the King, he stepped up because he needed to when she was no longer fit for duty. Where he came from before that is anyone's guess.”

Myriad silently let the black matter curl around her arm and suddenly there were two sparklers in her hands. Gloria wasn't entirely sure if they'd been materialized by the black goop, transported from another location, or simply hidden up Myriad's sleeve for dramatic effect. Chronos slowly took them from her, his face was set in a hard line as he pressed them into the top of the cake. If the prospect of him impressing a woman was such a sore subject, she imagined she'd just found out who he'd lost that made it so.

The heavy atmosphere of the moment seemed to burn away as Chronos flicked out a zippo, lighting both sparklers in one fluid motion. They started to fizzle, throwing dancing sparks into the air as the magnesium burned.

Myriad rearranged her face into a smile. "You're right, Mr. Chronos. We're here to celebrate our new collaborator, not make her cry," she laughed, eyes peering jokingly at Gloria.

And there was that feeling again that Gloria had of hearing half a conversation. Maybe it was just that the other three had context for the subject that she didn't, or maybe Chronos had told her not to speak of it telepathically. Time would tell. It didn't quite explain his name though. Arc, she was positive, created lightning. Myriad's power seemed so multifaceted that it was impossible to quantify, which made her name fitting. So what did the Greek version of Father Time have to do with Chronos' abilities?

He pressed a slice of the chocolate cake into her hand and seeing it up close she realized it was homemade. It looked moist and delicious and she stared at it for a solid ten seconds.

She knew what Lady Hel, what Quinn, even what her parents would have said about eating food from strangers but she glanced at the rest of them, Myriad was enthusiastically gulping down her slice cake like it was more liquid than solid. If they wanted to kill her they had all the fire power they needed to do it right here. Besides which, they needed her for this mission of there's. There was no reason the cake wouldn't be safe.

She reached up a hand, pushing her hood back and touched the clip at the top of her mask. With a click it split away from her face and she placed it in her bag. She still struck a nice figure in her leather clothes and ragged cloak but she looked more human without the mask.

She sliced a section of the cake off neatly with a fork and pressed it to her mouth. It was delicious. Just as moist as it had looked, it almost seemed to melt on her tongue.

Her eyes flicked down away from the others. She hadn't really had birthdays growing up. Not since she was very young, not since Cassandra has been born. No one had made her cake, hung banners for her, none of that stuff that kids were supposed to get. She knew this was all phoney. These people weren't her friends, at best they were her employers and depending on how Lady Hel reacted, they could easily become her enemies. But still, it was nice to sit around and eat cake that had been made just for her.

While Myriad inhaled her cake, Gloria ate hers neatly, piece by piece. As much as she might look rough and tumble, she'd grown up in a nice household, one where table manners were reinforced. It was a habit she hadn't really shaken.

After she was sure that at least one of them had finished enough cake that they wouldn't have their mouths full she said "So," the question phrased as casually as possible. "What'd Eos mean by the chemicals in your fancy snorkel 'activating'. What exactly does 'unsafe' mean?"

Arc's silver eyes flicked from his cake which he seemed to be enjoying very begrudgingly to Gloria. He put his boots up on the table and set his plate to one side. "Chlorine gas." Gloria eyes widened. "It's a by-product of the compound. That kind of stuff will cause acute pneumonitis, which means medical attention."

"Thanks Arc, I do know what chlorine gas is. I am a little more than just a pretty face." She also knew it was really easy to generate the stuff by mixing all the cleaning chemicals under the sink together in a vat but that was a story for another time.

Myriad giggled, wrinkling her nose. "Geez, even I wouldn't want to snorkel with that."

Arc gave a condescending grunt. "The device is safe if used properly."

Gloria smirked. "Easy for you to say, you aren't the one that has to wear it."

"Actually, you'd be surprised," Arc said. "There have been many devices that have blown up in my face, and it's always from misuse." He turned to Myriad. "It's at least safer than most everything you do."

She smiled. "Still mad?"

"That's certainly a way to put it."

"Well. Cool people like me have a 'get out of jail free card'. And ya wanna know what qualifies as 'cool' nowadays? Getting phased through by hers truly." She gestured at Gloria, gracefully deflecting Arc's annoyance and swooning theatrically, "Ah, like the electrifying touch of a Tesla globe."

A subtle smile tugged at the corners of Gloria's lips. Myriad really was quite endearing.

Chronos seemed to stifle a laugh, causing Arc to grimace in annoyance. "Come on, man. Who's side are you on?" It seemed like he was often on the outs with these two, but in a friendly way, almost like family. At least how family was supposed to be.

They chatted for a few minutes as everyone finished their cake. Meaningless barbs and jokes mostly. When the cake was gone Arc nodded towards the briefcase Eos had given her. "I'll, uh, give you a call when the mission is ready to start."

She nodded. "Right."

Myriad gave an exaggerated pout, but Arc held up his hand before she could speak. "No, Myriad. I'm sure Phantasm wants to be back home, and you have a lot of work to do before tonight. Plus, you and I have to talk on this whole 'leaving without consent' thing."

Myriad's pout turned into a wide grin, "Sir, I can happily inform you that won't be changing anytime soon."

Chronos stifled another laugh. Arc rolled his eyes, gesturing to Myriad with a loose hand. "Alright, alright."

Myriad nodded. "Yes, sir."

Gloria stood her ground, not joining the leaving party quite yet. "A question before I go Arc, what was that stuff you let loose at Haven? Two of my girls breathed it in. Do I need to be worried about them, is there something that need be done for them, or is it too late for them and I should skip to the vengeance fuelled making you dead now?"

Arc stared at her appraisingly for several seconds, she guessed deciding how much to tell her. Then he lifted a gloved hand. Just as it had back at Haven, the cloth around his fingers tips blurred ever so slightly and then began to dissolve. She reflexively sucked in and held a breath but rather than scattering as it had the night before the dust flowed down his hand, collected in his palm. It looked like ash or fine dust.

“This is what they breathed in, and it's processed like any foreign contaminant in the body. It will be flushed from their system after twenty-four hours.”

He gave the dust a small shuffle in his hand. “In short, yes, they’re fine.”

She noticed how he very deliberately didn't tell her what the dust did, only that it didn't stay in the body.

Myriad nudged Gloria with her elbow, breaking the appraising stare she had locked onto Arc. "What do you think? Wanna head out?"

Gloria nodded. "I'd say its time, but this was fun." Myriad held out her hand, the black ball was already in her hand, and she shot it behind them, opening a gateway. Rays of sunlight slipped through the grey sky, painting the mirror of Cloud Gate.

Gloria paused for a second waiting to see if Myriad was planning on accompanying her or was simply opening the door the way she has for Eos. When Myriad didn't make any move towards the portal Gloria said "Would you mind stepping out with me? There's something I'd like to ask you." she glanced between Chronos and Arc. "In private. Don't worry boys, she'll be back in a couple of minutes."

Myriad chortled. “Of course I'm going with you. What kind of host would I be if it were otherwise?”

She turned around, humming from the other side of the gateway, "Though I don't know who's the host today. Is the one who serves cake the actual host? Or is the friend the host?" Her voice sounded strange coming from an open space and echoing into an enclosed room.

Myriad shrugged at her own question, waiting for Gloria to follow her through the portal. Just before she left the underground compound, she looked back towards Arc. She motioned to his neck at the places where he'd been burned by her cocktail.

"I'd try some alovera on that stuff. Works wonders." She said with a sly smile before she disappeared through the portal.

On the other side, after Myriad had collapsed the gate back into the black ball Gloria spoke. "What's your group, the Shadow Knights', relation to the Valkyries? Chronos spoke like they're friends but I've never heard anyone back home mention you before. These people, they're like family to me. I appreciate the money but I'd like to know that this isn't going to blow back on them."

Lady Hel

Love Street
Lincoln Park, Tenebrae
Time: Late Morning
@Blizz

The bartender, a pretty girl in her early twenties set a Vesper Martini on the bar by Hel's hand. It was nice to go somewhere they knew your order. "On the house, ma'am," she said dutifully, avoiding looking Hel in the eye. Her voice was steady but flat, the way people who are trying not to panic sound. Hel couldn't blame the poor girl.

She dipped her pinkie into the drink and for an uncomfortable beat she looked at her nailpolish. When it remained the same effervescent black she sucked the alcohol off her finger and picked up the glass. "Thank you so much Miss Hallett."

She took a sip from the drink and turned her attention back to Rainsinger. He nodded at her in return.

”Mmm. It’s been a while, Helasdottir. Hasn’t it?” She hadn't heard that name in a long time. A nickname he'd given here the few times they'd worked together so long ago. He said it in vaguely European accent, calm and seemingly unconcerned with the aura she brought with her. He had for as long as she'd known him been cool, verging on indifferent. She hadn't expected that to have changed. ”You sound... different. New cover?” He said with a joking smile.

She smiled back, hers much less warm, more like the grin of a shark. "Ah, you're right. I had almost forgotten. I suppose back in the day I sounded a little less proper. In my line of work the illusion of class overcomes many difficulties. After all, perception is everything."

As she said the word perception, the darkest shadows in the room seemed to open unblinking red eyes, their bloodshot gazes staring at Rainsinger. In the blink of an eye they were gone, so briefly visible that Rain might question if he'd seen them at all, at least he might if he didn't know who he was sitting next to. No one else reacted to the sight, they were for his enjoyment along.

She took another sip of her drink before continuing. "Word was, you managed to burn yourself to death."

”You sound surprised. You know me better than that-“ His tone was coy, almost snarky. She'd frightened men who spoke like that to her to death before. He was different, there was a certain amount of irreverence she could tolerate from such an old friend, but only so much. ”You don’t think I’d die in a fire, do you? That guy? Even if old Sparky wanted to trap me for real, you think he’d hold a candle to me? Know what, don’t answer that.” He downed half of his drink in one breath; ever the sailor.

"No," she agreed. "I didn't really believe you'd died, even when I had people swearing to me that nothing could have gotten out of that fire alive. I figured you'd gone, I figured you wouldn't come back. It might have been wiser if you had stayed away."

”Anyway, what I just heard, something rough’s goin’ on around here. Never changes, I guess. How’s the gang doing? You ever take over for Jörm while I was out, or did someone take the man’s seat after he died?”

She smiled. "I'm not sure I'd call it a gang at this point. Back then we were what, a half dozen rogues. Huddled together in abandoned warehouses to keep the rain off. Taking whatever jobs were available and working with whoever we had to to make sure we didn't starve. Most of use were scared kids. It's not like that anymore. The Valkyries are part of this city, woven into fabric of it. This is my city. It's a safe place for us and ours. At least, safer than it was when we were at its mercy. But I do wonder, what are you doing here after so many years? Homesickness finally catch up with you?"

TENEBRAE: The Rebellion of Shadows (Ladies Only)

Phantasm

Location: Unknown, Tenebrae
Time: Late Morning
@Estylwen

Eos smiled at the suggestion. "Your powers are unique, Miss Phantasm. Although I admire your idea, what I have in mind is much more simple."

Eos gestured with his hands, drawing out her route as he explained. "The submarine will drop you off at a chasm half a mile off the lab. From there, you will travel due north for ten minutes through solid rock, and phase into the lab's basement. The control room will be nearby, and you will let the submarine into the loading bay and continue onward with the mission."

Eos smiled, gesturing with his hands apologetically. "I know I've made it sound easy,"

He really hadn't. Ten minutes through solid rock was not a light ask. When she phased whole body like that, she could only take as much air as was in her lungs with her. Even with a lot of practice and some choice breathing drills she'd only ever been able to hold her breath for three minutes before she started to pass out. Moving in a straight line was also not as simple as it sounded. It was difficult to maintain a straight course with no sound or sight to guide her.

"That might be a problem. I don't really fancy suffocating."

Eos nodded. "That's what the device provided to you is for. It will make your entrance much easier. The device mimics your frequency, so it's one less thing to worry about while wading through solid rock. The granules in the disks act as a set of super lungs, giving you a compound that dissolved into oxygen over a span of time. One breath equals five minutes, the second breath equals four, while the third breath equals two. A fourth breath and the chemicals in the device begin to activate, causing it to be unsafe."

"There's one problem solved. What about navigation?"

"Rest assured, we've done our homework. There's a light on the device that acts as a compass, so as long as the rock around you is thin enough, you won't lose your way. It will allow you to navigate solid objects with ease, and only requires the disks to be replaced after use."

The device didn't sound entirely foolproof and she wondered precisely how they'd managed to test it. Did they have another meta like her somewhere they were running experiments on? Or was this just based on research and her dip through a mile of rock was going to be the test drive. Neither option really appealed to her but she didn't say anything, not yet.

Eos gave a nod, and Myriad was at his side, black matter pooled in her hand. He turned to face Gloria. "The Shadow Knights will answer any further questions you have, however, I do have to inform you that time is of the essence. The operation begins tonight if you choose to accept."

He held out a closed slip of paper to her, she took it and unfolded it. On the inside was a dollar amount that made her eyes widen. "Compensation will be made to cover the quick turn-around time, it will be wired to an account of your choosing after the mission is complete."

The amount they were willing to pay for this chip they wanted stolen worried her a great deal. Not that she was opposed to taking the money but people who were willing to pay that kind of cash for something, generally weren't planning anything good.

His business with her apparently concluded, he turned back to his colleague.

"Myriad, if you please."

She tossed her black ball to the right, it flattened into a large disk, forming another portal. The other side was pandemonium. It looked like a lab, white floors and a vaulted ceiling, but the entire place was doused in red as flashing warning lights blared and alarms shook the air. People ran all over the place, scientists in lab coats dropping materials as they rushed to wherever they were supposed to be. Gloria craned her head and just managed to get a glimpse of a door. It looked more ornate then the rest, made of fine oak. There was a plaque on it that read 'Dr. Alexander Kaj, Head Scientist'. There was darker writing that was smaller and less embossed under the name. Gloria thought it might be the name of the facility but she wasn't close enough to read it.

Eos, looked at the unfolding scene before him but rather than distressed he simply looked tired. He pressed the bridge of his nose, shaking his head, like this was an ordinary day at the office. He glanced back at her. "Ma'am, please enjoy the party." He politely inclined his head.

He entered the portal nonchalantly, walking past the doors and down the curving hallway. Myriad held the gate open, barely hiding the grin on her face at the sight of the chaos. Slowly, the gate began to close.

Gloria had a sudden moment of panic. It felt like a golden opportunity was slipping by with every inch the portal shrunk. Every nerve in her body screamed at her to make a dive for it. But there were too many variables. It looked like a place that studied metas and that more than likely meant weapons that were effective against metas. She didn't exactly blend in with her current attire. She had no desire to be running through the building dodging death rays.

Instead she pointed to the 'Happy Birthday' banner and said "Isn't that a little bit much? It's not my birthday."

When Arc and Myriad's eyes flicked over to see what she was pointing at she acted. She drew in a deep breath and let the GPS tracking disk she'd stuffed into her bra fall through her clothes. She caught it with her outstretched hand and tossed it at the portal. It whistled through the gap just before the portal winked out of existence.

It seemed more than likely that she'd be leaving here alive and if the GSP disk worked then Quinn would already have this location, and if this place was shielded then it wasn't doing her any good here anyways. If she was lucky Quinn would have both places of importance marked on a map. If she wasn't... well it wasn't like that was any less information than she already had.

Lady Hel

Love Street
Lincoln Park, Tenebrae
Time: Late Morning
@Blizz

A black sedan pulled up on the street in front of Haven. A woman in a neat black suit got out of the front and opened the back door for the woman inside.

She was striking, high cheekbones and sharp features. Her bone-white skin and silver eyes contrasted against the black of her hair and clothes. Despite wearing head to toe leather in an outfit that wouldn't have been out of place in a biker bar she somehow looked far too classy for the neighborhood she was in.

She exited the car in a fluid movement and turned to her driver. "You and the girls can wait outside. If this goes poorly, you'll know." She spoke with an English accent that wouldn't have been out of place on the grounds of Oxford or Cambridge. It was a little more posh than the dialect she'd been born with, a little less 'street' than the one she'd used twenty years ago when the man inside had known her but she found it added something to her facade.

The building in front of her was 'Love Street', colloquially known to the meta community as Haven. It was a quaint little place that didn't have a problem with serving meta clientele or hiring meta employees and so it had become something of a sanctuary for her people who unfortunately still felt the grinding foot of movements like the Humanists and the persecution of groups like the Hunters.

A few of the Valkyries had had an eventful time at Haven the night before. As she'd heard, there had been fire involved. She'd sent one of her lieutenants to smooth over any hurt feelings with the proprietor. Meta bar fights happened from time to time but it was still prudent to make sure he was compensated when one of hers was responsible. Haven was important to the meta community, it wouldn't do to have it shut down.

When her lieutenant reported back about a familiar face dropping by Haven for a drink she knew she had to see to it in person. Linus Malden hadn't set foot in Tenebrae in decades. Some sources of hers claimed he died in a warehouse fire, others that he'd escaped into the sea never to return. She hadn't really concerned herself with which it was. The important thing had been that he was gone; until now.

He was dangerous, an Omega Class metahuman. For all her tricks, he even outclassed her in terms of raw power. Maybe he was just passing through, if so she had no reason to bother him. But an Omega Class metahuman could by themself disrupt the delicate balance she'd been building in this city for so long. She'd be remiss if she didn't check in on him.

As she strode towards the entrance to the bar, people walking down the street instinctively took a step back from her, allowing her space to pass without breaking her step.

As she entered, the shadows in her presence seemed to grow just a little bit darker, the lights casting just a little less light. Not enough to inconvenience anyone but enough to signal her arrival.

He was sitting on a bar stool, ordering a drink. She sat down next to him, her back to the bar, bracing herself on her elbows as she lounged on the stool.

"Hello Oshus." she said, uttering a nickname she'd given him when they were much younger. When she was too young and inexperienced to realize that the Greek Titan of the Sea was 'Oceanus'.

"Word was, you managed to burn yourself to death."

TENEBRAE: The Rebellion of Shadows (Ladies Only)

Phantasm

Location: Unknown, Tenebrae
Time: Late Morning
@Estylwen

Myriad skipped down the grated walkway gleefully, hands behind her back and she spun in an easy movement to face Gloria, continuing to walk backwards. Gloria winced at the echoing sound of every footstep. Yeah, she'd had one too many last night.

Still she watched Myriad sashay down the hall. She was... fun. There was an ease to the way she moved and the way she talked, that belayed the heavy situation she was involved in.

Gloria was almost envious. She'd had to learn to look after herself at a very young age. She'd never really gotten the time for 'fun'. Not that she didn't enjoy herself but she was always guarded even when she was cutting lose, always on watch for an attack. She could never truly just let everything fall away the way Myriad seemed to be able to.

But then, the woman in front of her had joined an organization called 'The Shadow Knights'. Who know how much of what Gloria was seeing was the real Myriad.

"Aren't you curious where you are? What these are?" She said with a laugh.

Gloria would have been lying is she said she wasn't. Lining both sides of the walkway were the large tubes Gloria had glimpsed from the portal. On closer inspection, they contained what looked like rays of light, suspended in clear liquid. It was like looking at an optical illusion. The more Gloria tried to pin down a shape in the containers the more twisted they seemed to become. Some vanished all together if she stared at them too long.

"Honestly, I figured those were the kinds of questions no one would want to answer."

Myriad put her hand on one of the tubes and turned it so Gloria could see the interior. The liquid inside was an violent electric green and seemed to be boiling angrily. "Do you know where meta abilities come from? There are lots of theories out there, sure, but has anyone actually told you?" she asked.

"I suppose you're going to tell me you make them here?"

Myriad's grin grew wider. "No silly, we collect them. Each one of these vessels contains a meta's abilities, directly as a manifestation shining off their soul. You know," her hands made a circle, fingers wiggling behind it in a pantomime of a sunset, "like a sun, and the sunlight coming off? That's what these are."

That set off alarm bells in Gloria's head and her eyes darted to the side of the corridor, considering how dense and thick the stone walls might be. There were a lot of test tubes here. If each one represented a metahuman ability... that was a large number of metas, more than Gloria could believe would turn themselves in for such a procedure willingly. Assuming that one could survive having their abilities harvested. That was also a lot of potential leaks for a project that as far as Gloria was aware, had remained completely under the radar.

Was that why she was here? To add one more cylinder to their lab? She wondered vaguely what her power would look like, pickled and put on display.

Her feet shifted, ready to sprint depending on the answer to her next question. "What happens to the metas after they have their powers harvested?" she kept her voice flat, not betraying how the cylinders on either side of them now made her nauseous.

Myriad looked up from the glass she was examining which seemed to contain an aurora borealis. “They’re alive and well," she shrugged "living it up in one of the recovery facilities with cakes and custards all day. I’m a little jealous, myself.” She sighed wistfully and Gloria let her footsteps relax.

It wasn't that she believed it. She was sure that for every one of these glass cylinders there was a metahuman corpse lying in a ditch somewhere. But something in Myriad's voice suggested to Gloria that she believed what she was saying. Whoever did the meta harvesting was higher up the food chain than she was and if her bosses didn't want her to know about it then Gloria felt a certain sense of safety in her being nearby. If they wanted to harvest her powers, they'd have arranged for Myriad not to be a witness.

They walked a few paces down, and Myriad pointed to a tube. "Oh, look at this one. Some of these are really pretty, like that one there." Gloria looked through the glass. It looked like flames burning underwater, turning the fluid it was engulfed in into liquid sunlight. "This is what a fire meta's ability looks like."

Myriad shrugged and they kept walking "Some don't have a visible trait of their meta ability," she pointed to another glass tube that looked for all the world like it was just water. "They might look a little boring. But they're just as important. At least, that's what Eos told me."

Eos would be her boss and from the sound of it, the scientist of the operation.

They stopped in front of the door, and Myriad paused with her hand on the knob. "Hmm, you know," she grinned. "You might get to meet him today."

She held open the door for Gloria who scanned the next room warily, determined not to be taken by surprise. The room was, well the room was bizarre. It looked like another piece of the industrial complex, cement walls and flooring, but it had been decorated like a hastily thrown together birthday party. There was a large 'Happy Birthday' banner along the back wall. In front of it was a portable banquet table, the type that typically decorated the lawns of church picnics. Twelve folding chairs
were placed around the table and balloons and streamers had been scattered haphazardly across its surface.

There were three men in the room, the two facing the door signalled to her that this display was meant for her. One of the three was Arc, half his body still bandaged from their encounter last night. The other looked injured as well with his eyes blackened and an IV inset into his arm. However it was the third that drew Gloria's eyes for despite their injuries both Arc and the black eyed man where standing around him like a protective detail. He was in charge.

He was tall, pearlescent gold scattered through his brown hair and lab coat worn neatly over a dress shirt. He nodded solemnly as they entered the room. "What a pleasure, Phantasm." A stiff silence fell between the group before the man in the lab coat glanced at Gloria's escort. "Myriad." he said promptingly.

"Oh, yes," she said with a sheepish smile "Phantasm, this is Eos. He's uh, well..." she trailed off in the way that people did when they suddenly realized they didn't know how much about a topic they were allowed to talk about. She instead changed the subject. "Beside him is Arc, you've already met," Arc narrowed his eyes at Gloria. "And the other one is Chronos. He likes to be intimidating." She made a face at Chronos. He silently glared back.

Eos politely inclined his head. "Ma'am."

Arc made to turn away from Gloria, refusing to meet her eyes but as he did so, Eos leaned in and whispered something in his ear. Gloria saw the colour to drain from Arc's face. Instead of turning away he faced her straight on and actually bowed his head.

"Please forgive me for disgracing myself in front of you last night. It won't happen again," he said.

A satisfied smile stretched across her face and she was glad they couldn't see it beneath the mask that made her face look like a gaunt skull. She said the most aggravating thing she could think of between two people who both knew the other was incapable of being sincere with them. "I forgive you."

They were playing to her ego. She knew it. The pretty girl sent to fetch her, the tour, Arc's apology. The balloons and the banner were definitely a step too far but she couldn't deny that this tactic was a lot more effective than the brute force one that Arc had attempted the previous night.

The other bodyguard, Chronos, stared at her silently before he turned and pushed his way through the double-swinging side doors, dragging his IV with him, out of sight. She didn't know exactly what to make of him. She hadn't seen enough to even form a hypothesis about his abilities. All she could be certain of was if he could stand next to Arc as a bodyguard then he was dangerous.

Eos turned toward her, a calm expression on his face. "This is for you if you choose to take it, Miss Phantasm of the Valkyries."

In his hands he held out a thin black briefcase. She took it and clicked it open. Inside was a thick file. She skimmed it briefly, identifying blueprints, reports, and layouts within. The thing that caught her eyes was a sketch of a computer chip that looked to be their target.

"I've spoken with your colleagues already to get approval for this two-person mission. The job itself is simple enough, to steal a microchip from a lab here below the coastal reefs of Tenebrae. We have a submarine and a pilot, but our point of entry is blocked."

"You spoke with the Valkyries?" she asked.

This wasn't how Lady Hel did business. Not that she was above contracting out to other groups but she didn't do it like this. She always made sure that the introductions were done on her terms, Gloria suspected to cut down on other gangs trying to poach her best members. Lady Hel was... she was an absolute terror but she took care of her own. Gloria couldn't imagine a scenario in which she'd have sanctioned Arc's attack last night. Not least of all because that had been the girl's downtime. For as demanding and forceful as she often was, Lady Hel let them rest when they needed it. Either the Shadow Knights were dealing with one of Hel's lieutenants who was not playing by the rules, or Eos was lying about having contacted them.

Eos paused, seemingly caught by the detail. "Ah yes, I don't believe you two have met."

Someone with command enough to sanction a mission but not someone she'd met personally. So the Knights weren't dealing with Hel. That left the question of if they knew their contact with dealing behind Hel's back or were under the impression that they had the Lady's blessing. On the off chance it was the former she didn't want to tip to something being wrong.

He smiled softly. "That is unless you want to try that device Arc gave you."

She had been right. It was some kind of amplifier for her powers. If this operation could extract meta abilities, juicing them was probably a pretty easy ask.

"Are you asking me to go in, retrieve this, whatever it is, and get out. Or are you asking me to phase a submarine and its pilot through an obstruction?" Her tone was incredulous but it also carried a hint of a warning of how poor an idea that was.

"My body was built for phasing. Other people's, not so much." She took Myriad's hand to demonstrate. "Solid." she said, showing off the two making contact. Then she took her other hand and passed it through the woman's shoulder. There was a tingle, like the feeling of licking a nine volt battery as their electrical fields interacted but it didn't hurt. "Not solid." she dropped Myriad's hand.

"I can do both at the same time. My body can handle being in multiple quantum states at once. Other people can't. You don't want to know what it looks like when half of a dude phases through the other half." It wasn't actually as easy to do as her carefree tone made it sound. Matter on a fundamental level wanted to stay cohesive. She'd bisected people and objects only by accident or fatigue, at least in her normal state. When her powers had been pushed to their limit on Cypher, ripping things apart had been a hell of a lot easier.

"If you're asking me to phase an entire sub and something goes wrong... well I'll be fine but I can't make any promises for your sub or your pilot."

TENEBRAE: The Rebellion of Shadows (Ladies Only)

Phantasm

Cloud Gate
Loop, Tenebrae
@Lady Seraphina, @Estylwen

Gloria and her squad woke around noon the following day. Gloria's loft often served as something between a hang out and a home base. They woke groggily, paying for the night of partying they'd enjoyed. Unfortunately Gloria knew that they, or rather she, didn't have the time to let her hang over fade. Now that the day had come she needed to deal with the problems she'd been perfectly happy to ignore the night before.

"Sonya, Siobhan, see if you can get in touch with Lady Hel." Helena Kristansen was the leader of the Valkyries. She'd been moving in gang circles for the last twenty years. If anyone would about a new player in town, it would be her. "Let her know what happened last night and ask if she knows anything about these 'Shadow Knights'. They're either new in town, or they're very old. Either way, they're going to be trouble." she paused. "Don't go as far as to mentioning that I'm meeting with them. I don't want her getting the wrong impression, not till I know something solid."

Then she turned to Jinny and Quinn. "If you're up for it I would like some backup. Someone to follow behind discretely. Maybe even pull me out of danger if things go south."

"Why do they get to go on the fun mission?" Sonya asked sulkily.

"Cause they didn't breath in who knows what from an unknown meta last night."

Sonya lapsed into silence.

"I actually have a theory regarding that. I think the dust was particalized metal which would greatly increase the damage 'Arc' was able to do with his storm powers to those that had breathed it in. With any luck, it should work itself out of your systems in a couple of days." said Quinn.

Gloria nodded. "Let's hope that's all it is. But in the meantime, best not to risk it."

"What about that?" Quinn asked, nodding down at the briefcase that Gloria had dumped drunkenly by the door the night before. "If you gave me a couple hours I could probably work out what it does." Quinn was good like that. She could spot complex patterns in systems. Give her a pocket watch and just from the sound she could know that it was seventeen seconds slow and losing another second every hour. It didn't really help in a fight but it did make her one hell of a mechanic.

Gloria looked down at it. She was curious. She was really curious about what the device was. The Shadow Knights had decided it was a good fit for her based on observations from a distance. Given their choice of power matching over diplomatic when they'd chosen someone to approach her she suspected that meant it did something to boost her abilities.

Still they didn't have an unlimited amount of time and Gloria preferred to have someone watching her back.

"I think we leave it alone for now. I don't know what I'm walking into, I'd like you close by."

Quinn nodded with a smile, took something out of her pocket and tossed it to Gloria. "I think you'll be wanting that then." With a well practiced hand Gloria snatched it out of the air. It was a plastic disk about the size of a poker chip but twice as thick. "GPS. Hope you don't need it but I don't wanna risk losing sight of you."

Gloria mirrored her grin and stuffed the disk into her bra. "We best be headed out then."

* * * * *

Gloria had expected to have to wait for the Shadow Knight's representative but as she pulled her bike up to the Loop, it became obvious that they'd been waiting for her in the open for awhile. On the steps across from the Cloud Gate sculpture sat a performer, strumming a steady tune on a jet-black acoustic guitar. If not for her encounter last night, Gloria would have written off the dark hood she wore and the colourful face mask as a costume to help draw attention to her performance. Except that the woman's outfit was also marked with the crescent symbol she'd seen and despite the personal touches it still looked very much like how Arc had dressed. Her hair was wild and red, accented by the colours woven into her mask and Gloria thought idly that she was pretty.

The guitar case on the ground, littered with coins seemed to indicate she'd been waiting patiently most of the morning. Her eyes flickered past the tourists and though she nodded at each one that tossed a coin to her, it was clear from the slightly predatory glint in her eyes that she was searching for someone specific.

Gloria strode towards her. She wasn't wearing her Phantasm outfit, at least not completely. Her mask and cloak were stuffed into a bag hanging over one shoulder. Without them she looked more like a biker than a grim reaper but she was just as capable of kicking someone's ass.

As she approached, the woman's eyes fixed on her but she didn't stop playing. When Gloria got closer she recognized the song. It was an old folk tune, one of a collection that her little sister Cassie used to like. She leaned on the stair railing next to the musician and added her voice to the instrumental.

"Three things do not anger or you will not live for long,
A wolf with cubs, a man with power, or a woman's sense of wrong..."

She smiled slyly at the woman. "If that's a warning, it's a bit on the nose. But then" she gestured at the woman's ensemble. "So is this."

The woman matched her grin. "If heaven had a voice, you'd be the only one singing, partner."

Her hand slid into her guitar, the surface once having the consistency of reflective acrylic now rippled like standing water. When she pulled it out she was holding a small, woven bouquet of flowers. Pink and coral roses, and hyacinth, rimmed with fern. She held them out to Gloria, winking. "A token of my gratitude, though they fail to capture the beauty I see before me. That's the only thing that needs a warning."

Gloria was not entirely successful in suppressing a bashful smile. The woman was certainly a flirt but she hadn't forgotten why they were there.

"I don't take candy from strangers."

The woman shrugged taking no apparent offence to the gift's rejection and the bouquet disappeared back within the depths of the guitar.

The audience, who'd for the most part had not taken in the interaction between the two girls seemed surprised when she clapped the guitar case shut with a snap. "Alright, folks. I gotta run. Y'all enjoy yourselves."

Throwing the case's strap over her head, she ascended the stairs to the top of the platform, and motioned for Gloria to follower her. She still held the black guitar in one hand but she offered the other to Gloria in a handshake. "Name's Myriad, by the way. Myriad Eex. I'm probably the most playful bunch outta the Knights, lucky for us."

Like she'd refused the bouquet, Gloria pointedly refused the outstretched hand. "I'd introduce myself but I rather suspect you already know my name, probably more than one of them."

They stood under the massive, mirrored bean, their own reflections warped under the city skyline. Myriad took a step forward, and Gloria watched as her guitar melted. It curled into a orb in her hands, the same shade of black that the instrument had been. She tossed the small ball into the centre of the concrete, where it bounced once and sprung into a large, crackling black arch. It was a gateway. On the other side was a much less welcoming location compared to the brightly lit public square. It looked industrial, a plant or a lab. There were florescent lights casting an unflattering glow over the hall, a long grilled railing, and what appeared to be glowing tubes filled with clear liquid on either side. At the end of the hall, a metal door was inset into the concrete.

"After you," she said, grinning wide. Her head tilted as she studied Gloria closely. "You can hold my hand if you like."

Myriad inextricably reminded Gloria of the Cheshire Cat and she felt like she was about to stumble down the rabbit hole.

This was a bad idea. Going to a second location was a poor decision at a party, it was no safer with a shadowy organization. But, she thought, doing the calculus of risk assessment in her head, portal metas were rare and their range was usually limited. At the most, she expected the other side of this portal was still somewhere in the city. With any luck that would mean Quinn could get a signal from Gloria's GPS from within. Hopefully that meant she and Jinny could still provide backup but even if they were cut off it could provide them with a location for whatever this place was.

Wordlessly, Gloria stepped through the portal. The other side was even less inviting than it had appeared. The place was cold, the metal grate and the concrete walls uninviting. She didn't like the place any better now that she was actually there. She took comfort in the fact that the structure didn't look like it had been built recently. While Gloria had encountered places where electrified insulation had been baked into the walls, it was a security precaution that effected her, or people like her specifically. This didn't look like a place that had been designed to be meta proof, if it came down to it she felt confident she could lunge sideways through the wall. Of course she didn't know how thick it was or what was on the other side but then that was a worst case scenario option for a reason.

She glanced back at Myriad. "I feel a little under dressed." She pulled her mask out of her bag and clicked it onto her face, then, with a flourish she removed her cloak and in one swift move donned it, pulling the hood up. She would not admit to anyone how many times she'd had to practice doing that in the mirror before it looked as seamlessly cool as it did.

As Gloria donned her new attire, Myriad stepped through the portal behind her. She held a hand to her face in a playful 'oh my' expression which quickly morphed into a grin. "My, I'm starstruck," she chuckled. She reached toward the gateway behind them, and the black substance pooled in her hand before curling up her arm, solidifying. They were now sealed in.

"Where to?" Gloria asked.

TENEBRAE: The Rebellion of Shadows (Ladies Only)

Phantasm

Love Street
Lincoln Park, Tenebrae
@Estylwen

The bottle rocketed towards Arc hard and fast. Gloria had a practiced hand with a bottle. It came from far too many bar fights. She was gratified to see panic glimmer brightly in Arc's eyes. After the waterfall of condescension that had been flowing out of his mouth since the moment she sat down next to him, seeing him off guard, seeing the realization that he wasn't as prepared to deal with her as he'd thought was more satisfying to her than knocking him on his ass would have been. No doubt she'd get to that, but this was enough for now.

In the moment before the bottle struck him she saw the shadow of a plan in his eyes as they flicked towards her friends. The Valkyrie's table hadn't been directly in the path of her throw but it wouldn't take much of a redirection to send it spiralling towards them. In that moment her mind ran over a dozen contingencies, the fire extinguisher, a stack of towels behind the bar she could use to smother the flames, the first aid kit under the bar. Even as these thoughts occurred to her she saw Quinn and Jinny moving to push their table sideways, forming a barricade to deflect the attack. She smiled, it wouldn't keep them completely safe but it would deflect the brunt of the flaming alcohol, they'd escape third degree burns. Quinn had always been good at calculating the consequences of Gloria's rash decisions and on more than one occasion, saving her from those consequences.

Then something strange happened. Arc's hand shot out but instead of deflecting the incoming firebomb, he caught it. The glass exploded in his hand, a combination of the stress fractures in the glass and sparks from his own lightning.

The patrons who had been content to watch the unfolding fight now retreated from the flames with panicked shouts.

Arc meanwhile was engulfed in flames. He remained motionless, his eyes were bent on Gloria through the fire and she could see the silver diamonds in his eyes shining with anger.

Far too slowly and calmly for his current predicament Arc produced a small, grey orb, from somewhere in his clothes which he tossed onto the ground. Flame retardant foam erupted from it, covering him and the area around him in white extinguisher goo. It choked the flames for oxygen which promptly died. Smoke curled off Arc's body and he wiped a hand over his face, clearing his eyes of the goo.

This would have been the time to strike, he was off guard and partially blinded. But she didn't. Something was wrong with how he'd reacted to her attack and she wanted to see what he'd do next, why he'd taken the hit so directly like that.

"Do you have any idea how much damage that could have done to literally anyone else?! Huh?" he shouted, gesturing to the room, "If anyone else got hit with that, what would have happened?" He couldn't have been badly injured. His condescension was back.

Arc pressed the bridge of his nose, as if collecting himself. There it was again. He simply stopped. It was almost like he was redirecting from what he wanted to do to what he had to do.

He gestured towards the briefcase. "381. That’s the code. The gift is yours. You managed to hit me and have completed your first mission."

Gloria walked through the bar as if it weren't there and inclined her head towards him, flashing him a winning, almost predatory smile that didn't quite reflect the possibilities that were spinning inside her mind. "Thank you so much for your time. Unless there was anything else..." she let the silence hang in the air for a moment before she pointed to the door with a motion of dismissal. "Go."

Once Arc was gone she grinned sheepishly at Haven's bouncer. It wasn't the first time a meta fight had broken out in the bar, it wouldn't be the last, but no one ever appreciated the people that started it.

Now among just her friends and strangers that weren't concerned with her one way or the other beyond annoyance that she'd interrupted their night out, Gloria let her hard shell drop somewhat. She grabbed the briefcase from the counter and slumped into the booth Quinn had gotten for them. She helped Jinny pull the table back onto its feet with a grunt and placed the briefcase on top of it.

"Two minutes and fifty eight seconds," said Quinn with a wry smile. "You said you'd only be a minute, it's enough to make a girl think something might have happened."

Gloria punched her in the arm playfully. She couldn't help but smile.

"So, what'd he leave?" Sonya asked, looking at the sleek black briefcase.

"I guess we should find out." Gloria punched in the three digit code he'd give her and popped the briefcase open. The interior was just as fancy as the outside. It was lined with foam, the kind used to insulate delicate equipment for transport. In the centre of the foam cut out was a small, black tube with a mouthpiece. She picked it up and shook it lightly. She could hear what sounded like sand rattling around inside. She put it back, not sure exactly what it was. The only other thing in the briefcase was a letter. The envelope was hard stock and it was sealed with an old fashioned wax seal with a vaguely medieval looking black symbol stamped into it. Gloria cracked it open and found inside a folded card of similarly heavy stock. It had a very simple message written on the interior in a very precise cursive hand.

Cloud Gate, The Loop.

It was an invitation to meet them again if their first meeting had caught her interest. She hoped it would be with someone slightly less abrasive than Arc.

"What does it say?" Sonya asked again.

"It's an invite, I assume to a job."

"Walker, I don't think Hel would be exactly thrilled with us contracting out to other groups."

"I know Sonya, I know. It's just..."

"What?"

"He took a dive at the end. He said I'd win the fight if I could 'lay him flat'. He was really anal about his word choice. Then, he let himself get hit and after that he called the fight. That didn't feel like a win, that felt like a forfeit."

"Why would he do that?"

"A guy with that much testosterone poisoning resisting the urge to try and beat me into the ground after I disrespected him... I don't know. It just seems... wrong."

"Would you like my two cents?" Asked Quinn.

Gloria smiled. "Always."

"He, or more likely whoever he works for, needs you for something. They need you far more than they want you to know. That guy knew it, he knew if he overpowered you or even if the power gap between you was close, you might lose interest. After all, you don't like being told what to do and I don't think you'd like working with a guy who had the potential to make you listen to him. But they evidently sent him because he controls electricity, he's someone who can't be dominated by your abilities. Unfortunately for them, he doesn't know how to take a dive in a way that feels satisfying to his opponent."

"What are you going to do now?" Asked Siobhan who had been silent up to that point.

Gloria sighed, "Now, I'm going to go store this," she clicked the briefcase shut "on my bike and then I'm going to have a night on the town with my girls somewhere 'Shadow Knights' won't come looking for us."

When she returned, her jacket was missing, revealing a more club friendly top and she'd taken her hair out of the braid. She'd run a brush through it a few times while she was outside so it looked somewhat neat but it still held a flattering if tousled curl from being bound so tightly.

When Quinn saw her return in much more relaxed attire she smiled. "We need to find you a dance floor."

Gloria smiled, "I was thinking we head to Valhalla." It was a Valkyrie owned club which contrary to the name was not actually much more than a fancy night club. The gang didn't center any major operations there but the Norse theme of a lot of the Valkyrie's code words had definitely sent the police spinning in circles around the place on more than once occasion.

It was almost four in the morning before they stumbled back to Gloria's loft, drunk and laughing, to get some rest.

TENEBRAE: The Rebellion of Shadows (Ladies Only)

Phantasm

Love Street
Lincoln Park, Tenebrae
@Estylwen

He made a tsk-tsk sound with his tongue that reeked of condescension. His credibility with her had not started out high and it was swiftly plummeting. "Making me repeat myself on our first day. I’ll forgive you, but it’ll cost you the first move."

Arc held up his hands. The black cloth that coated his arms vibrated ever so slightly. It had a similar appearance to the very slight blur that surrounded Gloria's form when she phased. She only really noticed it because she was so used to see her own body go in and out of focus in a similar manner.

"The win conditions are to 'lay me out flat', though at this point it's unlikely that you'll even touch me."

He was apparently quite literal in his words. That worried her. On the surface, the win condition should have been easy. Gloria was no stranger to taking on guys twice her size and knocking their feet out from under them was rarely a challenge. But the confidence and bluster that Arc exuded suggested he possessed some information unknown to her which would complicate the task. Presumably, what she was missing was information about his own meta ability.

He could simply be extremely sturdy, a power that granted such excessive athleticism that it was nearly impossible to make him lose his footing. But his proclamation that she wouldn't even be able to touch him suggested something completely different. It implied some kind of area of effect ability, control over wind or sometime similar which would make approaching him a challenge. The most likely option, considering the construction of the briefcase, was the simplest one. He had electrical powers, a perfect foil to her own. It wasn't the only foil but it was the easiest one to observe from a distance. After all, his name was 'Arc'.

As soon as this thought had passed through her head, Arc's gloves began to disintegrate. Like some bizarre parody of an hourglass counting down time, the black cloth from his fingertips to his shoulders tumbled into the air as a cloud of fine dust. He threw his now bare hands outward, scattering the tiny, reflective particles into the room in a haze.

Gloria reacted instinctively. She sucked in a clean breath before the particles reached her and then phased, falling backwards through the bar stool she had been sitting on and through the bar itself. In the moment before she lost sight of the interior of the building she saw Quinn suck in her own breath and lunge across the table to cover Jinny's mouth and nose with a bar napkin.

That's my girl. She thought with a smile as she tumbled backwards.

Gloria fell through the bar into blackness, her hands outstretched behind her head. The moment they were through the bar, they became solid again and when they touched the cold floor behind the bar, she pushed off, launching herself into her feet. In all honesty it was more of an acrobatic party trick than a combat maneuver but she used whatever tools she had.

She stood up behind the bar, keeping Arc in her view as her eyes scanned the bar for something she expected to be there.

He was still in gloating mode. He was so sure that he had her entirely figured out. "Freedom. Control. These two things were the world to me before I met him. Now? They come as easy as rain on a stormy day. You should consider yourself lucky, he’s offering the same to you. His vision of the future puts you and I at the height of success, no longer dogged around and put down, hiding like street rats." His head inclined toward her. "All he is asking is cooperation to usher in that future."

Gloria barely heard what he was saying. As he spoke she grabbed a rag from the bar and nonchalantly wrapped it around one of the newly opened bottles of a Bacardi 151, a high proof rum, before she poured herself a shot. She inclined it towards him and downed it in one move, casual as could be. Rum was definitely not her drink of choice and it burned as it slid down her throat. She usually preferred an electric green shot which tasted like green apple candy but in this instance the important thing was a high alcohol content.

As she was downing the shot, her thumb slid through the rum bottle where she popped the pouring spout out from the inside. In the same movement, the rag she'd picked up the bottle with phased through the glass, half poking out the top of the bottle somewhat unevenly as cracks started to form in the glass from the imprecise phase job. At the same time with her other hand Gloria snatched up a disposable lighter the bartender on shift kept behind the bar and set the rag alight.

In less than three seconds, in what was clearly a very practiced procedure, Gloria was holding a lit molotov cocktail. She knew she had only a few seconds before the cracked bottle ruptured from the heat and the damaged Gloria had done when she'd phased the rag through it. Without pausing to think, she lobbed the firebomb at Arc with all the force she could muster, ready to duck if he displayed an ability to redirect it back towards her. Though she rather suspected it would explode midair if he tried. It might even explode midair before it actually reached him but whether it struck him or not, the flaming alcohol would be something he would have to deal with.

In the moment that the bottle was airborne Gloria felt the hair on her arms stand on end, like she'd just brushed a static charged fleece over her skin. A piece of the speech Arc had given which she had mostly tuned out while she prepared the cocktail filtered back into her brain. 'They come as easy as rain on a stormy day.' He had weather control abilities. He commanded wind, rain, and most unfortunately of all, lightning. A storm was coming.

TENEBRAE: The Rebellion of Shadows (Ladies Only)

Phantasm

Love Street
Lincoln Park, Tenebrae
@Estylwen

Gloria watched the man take a long, slow sip of his drink. He was in the driver's seat of this conversation and he evidently knew it, was savouring it even. Clearly satisfied that he'd made her wait long enough to make a point of who was in charge, the man set his drink down and turned to look at her; no, not look, stare. He scanned her up and down, taking in every inch. She didn't like the look in his eyes, he was sizing her up, looking for a way to bring her down.

“I’ll be honest, the gift is bait. I just wanted to see you with my own eyes.”

His voice was deep but it had a bite to it. Like someone used to cracking the whip on those below him. He wasn't sizing her up like an opponent, he was sizing her up like a mouse to be batted around. Gloria didn't like being played with.

“The boss has taken an interest in you and asked me to invite you." he continued "But I have high standards for him, and I have to know what’s worth his time, and what isn’t.”

He slid the briefcase he had resting on the bar a foot over so that it rested in front of her. "If you pass, you get to keep what’s in this," he said, patting the case's sleek leather, "as well as handsome pay for a few contract jobs, easily three times more than what they’re paying you." He gestured toward Gloria's squad behind them.

Gloria's eyes flicked sideways, first to the briefcase and then to the Valkyries. Jinny, Sonia, and Siobhán were talking and laughing loudly over their first round of drinks but Quinn sat slightly apart from them in the wraparound booth, staring at the strange man Gloria was conversing with.

Gloria's eyes only lost focus on the man for a second. The more he spoke, the more like a threat he sounded and Gloria wasn't going to let a him blindside her.

"And if you don’t pass, well... I guess we’ll see when we get there." He said, lounging back on the elevated bar chair.

The offer wasn't entirely unwelcome, Gloria was certainly interested in the money, but there was something she valued just a little bit more, her freedom. She had an understanding with Lady Hel about the kinds of things that she would and wouldn't do. Admittedly it wasn't an exhaustive list but Hel knew that Gloria didn't do hits, she didn't hurt kids, and she didn't hurt parents in front of their kids. Not that she hadn't killed people. There had definitely been jobs she did where people ended up dead because of her actions, sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly. But Gloria didn't take jobs were someone being dead was the end goal.

Of course she wasn't stupid. She knew that just because she refused to do a job, that didn't mean the job wasn't getting done, but her hands were clean of it. This stance had probably cost her chances at promotion and at a larger cut but Gloria valued the ability to say "No" more than she did riches. The proposition that this crescent wearing stranger was spouting was sounding more and more like a "get in line or disappear" kind of operation.

"And does what you've seen so far make you think I'm worth his time?" she asked. The question was nonchalant but there was a bite in her voice, indicating that she considered this spectacle to be a waste of her own time.

The man reached his hand up and pulled his hood off his head. Underneath his hair was black and wiry, pointed in a dozen different directions. It gave off an unkempt look that was purposeful in how accidental it was trying to be. Without the hood casting shadows over his face Gloria could see a silver diamond shape dominating the iris of each of his eyes and a tattoo of a blazing sun on the side of his neck. His face was obscured with a domino mask from within which his diamond eyes glinted. In one swift motion he stood, swept the bar stool around him, and slid it neatly under the bar; giving himself room to maneuver. Gloria recognized it before he said anything, it was a battle stance.

His next words only confirmed what she could already tell was coming. "Phantasm, your first job is to duel me. If you can lay me out flat, you get the reward of it. And if you need motivation, I can provide it if you simply deny me. Any questions?"

Gloria gave a one eighth turn toward the bar. It was enough that it looked like she was disregarding him as a threat but still allowed her to watch him closely in her peripheral vision.

"You know, it's not really a gift if it comes with strings attached, it's a bribe. And in this case, it seems more like a gambling pot."

Gloria put her hand on the briefcase, she felt her skin tingle with a kind of soft vibration and as she touched her fingers to the leather, they sunk through its surface as if it wasn't there, like it was made of water. It may not have compared to the euphoria that she'd experienced when on Cypher but there was something comforting about that feeling of moving through solid matter. It was like slipping into a warm bath. Her hand hadn't even sunk an inch into the case however when she felt a sharp jolt and she yanked her hand back instinctively. She wasn't a stranger to the feeling of an electric shock. High voltage currents were one of the few things that stopped her abilities in their tracks and she wasn't keen to experience what would happen if she kept pushing, not again.

Gloria turned her chair to fully face the stranger. She leaned back against the edge of the bar in a posture that suggested she didn't really care about what was going on. "You really have done your research Mr...?" she let the question hang in the air for a fraction of a second.

"The name's Arc," he supplied "Right Hand of the Shadow Knights.”

She continued as though she hadn't heard him. "What are the win conditions? I assume your 'boss'" she said the word like it was a laughable title "doesn't want your head on a pike as proof that I'm 'worth his time'. So at what point have I won? First blood? When I knock you to the floor? Or should I make you scream for your daddy?"

TENEBRAE: The Rebellion of Shadows (Ladies Only)

@Estylwen Will the briefcase open if Gloria tries the latches? If she attempts to phase through it, is the inner layer electrified? If the answer to either one of those is no then what's in the briefcase?