Back to GatefoldIssue #2 by John Cheese
October 2017 |
Sydney Airport, Sydney, Australia
Carmen Sanders walked through immigration, coy and confident, her stance and appearance reeking of superiority. As the most trusted aide of the President of the United States, her job involved relations with the rest of the world, but every meeting with Carmen made it clear that, if you weren’t American, then you were inferior to even the vilest person from the USA. In fact her opposite number in the Democrat party during the recent elections called her the living face of Xenophobia, something that Carmen publicly rallied against, but secretly was pleased about. Reaching the desk where prohibited goods were to be declared, Carmen already had a nasty comment prepared for the lean brunette working the counter, sweat dripping down her brow. What she hadn’t prepared for was the small Springer Spaniel heading towards, its tail wagging as it pawed at her feet.
“Excuse me Miss, can you come over here.” The dog handler asked politely. “We need to check your carry on for illicit substances.”
“Do you know who I am?” Carmen spat as she stood defiant, the woman stepping out from behind her counter. “Touch me and I’ll make sure your country is buried in so much debt that Zimbabwe will look affluent compared to this fetid little island!”
“Miss, you were singled out by one of our drug dogs?” The brunette woman asked, her local accent making Carmen’s ire rise. It was disgusting that these fools spoke the same language as her, let alone breathed the same air. “We can either search here, or in one of the interview rooms.”
“Neither, I am not carrying anything illegal, let alone drugs!” Carmen sneered, as she spied the woman’s name tag. “I am going to sue you for harassment Miriam once you find nothing!”
“Interview room it is.” Miriam sighed as she led Carmen to the nearest interview room. As soon as they walked through the door it became clear that they were no longer in a small brick room with nothing but a table and three chairs, two of which were occupied by two women, one who was dressed in a funeral shawl, and another, more disturbingly, who looked and was dressed identically to Carmen.
“What is this!” Carmen snapped. “I’m an American, you can’t do this to me!!”
“Great so I’m playing the proverbial ugly American.” The ‘fake Carmen’ sighed as she relieved the real Carmen of her bag and looked inside and removed a round sphere and handed it to the woman in the shawl.
“Who the fuck are you!!” Carmen spat.
“Nobody you need to know.” The woman in grey wheezed, her voice sounding like wind breathing through a rusty window, black sparks arching between her fingers. “Turn and become a new woman.” She ordered as the lightning climbed up Carmen’s body, causing her head to droop.
“What persona have you given her Hannigan?” Miriam asked.
“Syrian refugee seeking asylum in Malta, that should set her right after the spell runs its course.” The woman in the shawl stated. “Are you ready for your part Scorpion?”
“I am.” Miriam replied. “I have the new person ready once my shift ends, How about you Flintlock? Did you study the footage and files on your cover?”
“Of course, now let me reach my hotel. I’m tired and quite frankly already fed up with this backwards country.” The ‘fake Carmen’ replied, her comments getting a faint smile and a nod from Silver Scorpion, as she led her out of the room and back into the airport. Seconds later Hannigan teleported away, leaving the real Carmen alone in the hut. Stirring slightly she looked around the place she now called home, it wasn’t much, but she was thankful for the safety from ISIS that this place was provided for her after years of uncertainty.
# # # # #
The Hanged Man Pub, Sydney
The Hanged Man was a dive, Zawadi had been in enough to know it before they had even reached the premises, unlike Stone who had never been in a place like this in her entire life. Both women where dressed in smart casual wear, which would have blended in with the crowd anywhere else, but not here, the clientele where all dressed in costumes making their job a lot harder. The man they were looking for was an old colleague of Flintlock, one Philip Sands AKA Outback, should have been a big enough clue that the Hanged Man was a super villain bar.
“What does this guy look like?” Stone whispered to Zawadi.
“No idea, let’s go to the bar, see what we can…” Zawadi replied, only to stop as a teenager dressed in a blue bodysuit with white accents swaggered up to them, an array of boomerangs attached to his back.
“G’day ladies, you’re a little old, but Boomerang will give ya a spin.” The kid stated. “And when you spin with Boomerang ya always come back, because ole Boomer is the best there is at what he does, and what he does is always bonza.“
“A little old?” Stone asked. “I’m thirty one.”
“Yeah, as I said old.” Boomerang snorted. “Maybe send your granddaughters my way.”
“Ignore him.” Zawadi told Stone. “We’re not looking for him and he’s not even the real Boomerang if the intel Ana provided right. From what I hear Fred Myers is dead, and by that I mean properly dead, not the kind where you come back a few issues later.”
“Did you say Myers?” A voice asked as a lanky man dressed in overalls holding a hooked bo-staff and a pair of shears muscled his way past ‘Kid Boomerang’ to loom over the two women.
“I think they did.” A second man added, this one dressed in a set of ballistic armour and bandana as he levelled a pair of wrist gauntlets at Stone whilst a number of the other patrons gathered round them. “Myers is the reason nobody takes our country seriously, and you dared to bring back his memory. Time to teach these Sheila’s a lesson!” He added as he fired a salvo of flachettes from his gauntlets causing Stone and Zawadi to scatter to avoid being hit. Rolling to her feet, Zawadi found herself being targeted by a woman that was part lizard, her talons leaking venom as she slashed towards her.
“I’ll swallow you whole!” The woman hissed, as Zawadi picked up a few pool balls from her the table behind her and threw them at her attacker, one of them lodging in the reptiles open mouth. Seconds later the woman was on the ground choking as she tried to dislodge the obstruction. Turning to face her next attacker, the man armed with a five foot long machete, she saw Stone fire an energy net at Kid Boomerang, the energy field pinning him to the wall.
“Looks like we’re fighting an entire bar now.” Stone sighed, as she dodged under a swing from the man armed with the bo-staff.
“If that’s the case then Outback has to be here somewhere.” Zawadi replied as she disarmed her opponent of his oversized weapon, before performing a leg sweep and flooring him.
“You won’t be talking to anyone if Mr Crook has his way!” The man with the staff sneered as the figure in the ballistic armour fired a salvo of darts into Stone’s back at point blank range, the paralytic toxin causing her target to collapse. “Nice Taipan, now I’ll finish her, let’s see how she looks without a head.” He added as he bent down over her, his shears open ready for an execution strike. Closing them he looked down in surprise as Stone’s body flickered and exploded into a shower of photons.
“What in bloody hell!!” Taipan spat as Zawadi stomped on a shadowy pair of hands emerging from the floor in an attempt to trip her.
“Solid Light Hologram.” Zawadi replied, as the hands retracted and the energy net holding Kid Boomerang dissipated, the villain throwing a pair of razor edged projectiles at the middle aged huntress, the later going wide unlike the second that sliced her cheek open.
“Now you’re fighting alone against all of us!” Mr Crook sneered as the remaining villains encircled Zawadi. Besides Boomerang, Crook and Taipan, there was a giant of a man whose skin seemed to be formed of shifting red sand and a hooded woman with body armour and a beetle like mask, both of whom had been biding their time, ready to strike.
“Maybe, but I think I can take you.” Zawadi replied coolly. “Not that I need to.” She added as the hooded woman opened fire, a photon blast catching Taipan in the chest and sending him spinning.
“Who the bloody hell is this Sheila!!” Boomerang spat, as Zawadi took advantage of the chaos and elbow slammed Mr Crook in the face, the blow sending him reeling, before turning on Boomerang, her hand grabbing him as he reached for one of his signature projectiles. “No not the Shatterang!” He yelled, seconds before the projectile exploded, the concussive force sending him flopping to the floor, burns running down his hands from the point that the explosion have emanated from.
“That trick may have worked on him!” The red skinned giant hissed. “But the Red Centre is more than a match for the two of…urp!” He stopped as the hooded woman slammed her first into his chest and looked up at him for a few seconds, before removing her hand from within his sand form. “I’ll crush you first lady, that was…urp.” He froze, literally as ice formed on his skin and frozen water leaked out of where his attacker had struck.
“Freon Grenade.” The hooded woman announced with a bored tone. “I’m guessing that he is Outback.” She added as she flicked up her visor and pulled her hood back to reveal the face of the real Rosetta Stone.
“Look’s like.” Zawadi replied as they advanced on the seated criminal, a trio of pint glasses filled with larger sitting in-front of him.
“And you must be Rachel’s friends.” The seated man dressed in stereotypical bush ranger gear stated, his long auburn locks and beard giving him a rather shaggy look. “I appreciated the show, most of those blokes sit around waiting for the heroes to come down so they can test their luck. When they do, they find that their luck is shite, and come back here drinking it off until they get ready for another beating. Not a real merc or crim among them truth be told, well except Taipan, but he’s too cocky for his own good.”
“You seem to know a lot about these ‘crims’ Mr Sands, but we are looking for some that will be new to the city.” Zawadi asked as she slipped pictures of Ghost Maker, ‘Cuda and Laserworks in-front of their contact. “Two of them are Americans, but this one,” She stopped as she pointed at Ghost Maker, “is a Russian.”
“Lots of blokes with shady pasts here at the moment.” Sands sighed. “Then again most of them are snakes in office, not rowdy boys hitting the street.”
“Would you keep an ear open for us?” Stone asked, as she removed a metal cases containing a wad of notes from her belt. “In fact, ladies, gentlemen if you would all keep your ears open we would appreciate it.” She added, as she walked over to the bar, the burly tattooed woman behind the counter glaring at her, only for her expression to change when another wad of Australian dollars was produced. “For their bar tab, you’ll also find the number to contact us. Should any of them provide decent information then we’ll pay both you and whoever brings it to us handsomely.”
“Your friend likes to flash the cash around a bit.” Sands told Zawadi. “Rachel must be doing alright if she’s with you. That’s good I don’t want her falling back on old habits.”
“Old habits?” Zawadi asked.
“Seductress for hire to use a nice turn of phrase to describe it.” Sands answered sadly. “Girl had hormone problems. Guys like the Red Skull, Slug and Norman Osborne to name but a few used to hire her to seduce capes. She would jump anyone for even a low price and it always led to her getting hurt. I hated it when she went off on her own, begged her to stop. In the end that’s why we dissolved the Wanderers, we just couldn’t cope with the trouble Rachel brought on us.”
“I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Zawadi replied as she headed to the door, followed by Stone, albeit at a fair distance behind her. “She’s not the one I’m worrying about.”
# # # # #
Safe House, Curl-Curl, Sydney, Australia
“This is an interesting set up.” Stone stated as she walked past the micro hologram of Ana Sablinova standing in the centre of the garage space. “You say that Symkaria has safe houses like this in major cities around the world?”
“Yes, although you’ll understand why I won’t disclose any of the other locations.” Ana replied as she looked over to the rack of weaponry that Zawadi was inspecting. “I assume your meeting with Mr Sands was productive.”
“Well Stone flashed her assets around, hopefully it will give us some leads on this trio of assassins.” Zawadi told her. “We talked with Scorpion, she’s already joined the throng of anti-austerity protestors outside the hotel where the world leaders are staying, and we are just helping Hannigan set up for her tracking spell.”
“Augmented with VR tracking and real-time geographical updates of course.” Stone added, as Hannigan glided over to a circle laser-cut into the floor and placed a number of snake skins and gourds round the perimeter. Walking down to join her, Stone placed four holographic projectors around the corners of the circle, before powering them up to produce a map of the city hovering over the circle.
“We are ready to commence.” Hannigan grimly stated, as she knelt down in a gap of the snake-skin ringing the circle. “Lords of the Loa I beseech you, harken to my request and take this humble offering as payment to my requests.” She stated as she removed a bag of wine-gums from the folds of her clothing and poured the sweets onto the floor. “Hunt down my enemies and reveal their locations to me. Now come and let justice be done!” She yelled as dark mist spiralled out from the centre of the circle, smoke running up and down the streets of the map above it, and pooling like a dark eddy over the bay of the city.
“Looks like it’s working.” Zawadi commented. Seconds later a shadowy figure loomed out of the darkness and spread its hands across the map before closing them, the city collapsing and the occult items exploding around the circle. “Or not. What happened?”
“I…I think a demon tried to hijack the spell.” Hannigan stated, as she scrapped up a slither of burnt viper skin off the floor. “I have some more ingredient so we can try again, although I may have to substitute the skin of a Fea’s Viper for a Cascavel, it has lesser magical properties but it should work if I know more about your technology Stone.”
“Uh.” Stone stammered. “I’d rather keep my secrets to myself, I’ve had some problems when sharing my inventions in the past.” She added, as she removed the charred remains of the hologram projectors from the corner of the circle and walked out of the garage.
“Did I miss something?” Ana asked.
“Maybe.” Zawadi replied. “I’m going to hit the streets, see if I can shake a location from the local thugs and villains again. While Ghost Maker is a professional, Laserworks and ‘Cuda are less subtle, there should be a trail for me to follow if I look hard enough.” She added, as she lifted the door to the garage and headed towards the city streets. Passing the homeless man dressed in rages sitting on the corner, she didn’t notice him watching her progress, nor the tiny radio transmitter concealed under the layer of cent coins in the bottom of his bowl.
“This is Cordin, T’Chaka’s last order is in effect.” The man stated, as he slipped a clawed gauntlet over his hand. “Assemble the Dogs of War, the Hatut Zeraze are on the hunt once again, the thief of Wakanda has been found and will be brought to justice, as do all who cross Wakanda.”
Carmen Sanders walked through immigration, coy and confident, her stance and appearance reeking of superiority. As the most trusted aide of the President of the United States, her job involved relations with the rest of the world, but every meeting with Carmen made it clear that, if you weren’t American, then you were inferior to even the vilest person from the USA. In fact her opposite number in the Democrat party during the recent elections called her the living face of Xenophobia, something that Carmen publicly rallied against, but secretly was pleased about. Reaching the desk where prohibited goods were to be declared, Carmen already had a nasty comment prepared for the lean brunette working the counter, sweat dripping down her brow. What she hadn’t prepared for was the small Springer Spaniel heading towards, its tail wagging as it pawed at her feet.
“Excuse me Miss, can you come over here.” The dog handler asked politely. “We need to check your carry on for illicit substances.”
“Do you know who I am?” Carmen spat as she stood defiant, the woman stepping out from behind her counter. “Touch me and I’ll make sure your country is buried in so much debt that Zimbabwe will look affluent compared to this fetid little island!”
“Miss, you were singled out by one of our drug dogs?” The brunette woman asked, her local accent making Carmen’s ire rise. It was disgusting that these fools spoke the same language as her, let alone breathed the same air. “We can either search here, or in one of the interview rooms.”
“Neither, I am not carrying anything illegal, let alone drugs!” Carmen sneered, as she spied the woman’s name tag. “I am going to sue you for harassment Miriam once you find nothing!”
“Interview room it is.” Miriam sighed as she led Carmen to the nearest interview room. As soon as they walked through the door it became clear that they were no longer in a small brick room with nothing but a table and three chairs, two of which were occupied by two women, one who was dressed in a funeral shawl, and another, more disturbingly, who looked and was dressed identically to Carmen.
“What is this!” Carmen snapped. “I’m an American, you can’t do this to me!!”
“Great so I’m playing the proverbial ugly American.” The ‘fake Carmen’ sighed as she relieved the real Carmen of her bag and looked inside and removed a round sphere and handed it to the woman in the shawl.
“Who the fuck are you!!” Carmen spat.
“Nobody you need to know.” The woman in grey wheezed, her voice sounding like wind breathing through a rusty window, black sparks arching between her fingers. “Turn and become a new woman.” She ordered as the lightning climbed up Carmen’s body, causing her head to droop.
“What persona have you given her Hannigan?” Miriam asked.
“Syrian refugee seeking asylum in Malta, that should set her right after the spell runs its course.” The woman in the shawl stated. “Are you ready for your part Scorpion?”
“I am.” Miriam replied. “I have the new person ready once my shift ends, How about you Flintlock? Did you study the footage and files on your cover?”
“Of course, now let me reach my hotel. I’m tired and quite frankly already fed up with this backwards country.” The ‘fake Carmen’ replied, her comments getting a faint smile and a nod from Silver Scorpion, as she led her out of the room and back into the airport. Seconds later Hannigan teleported away, leaving the real Carmen alone in the hut. Stirring slightly she looked around the place she now called home, it wasn’t much, but she was thankful for the safety from ISIS that this place was provided for her after years of uncertainty.
# # # # #
The Hanged Man Pub, Sydney
The Hanged Man was a dive, Zawadi had been in enough to know it before they had even reached the premises, unlike Stone who had never been in a place like this in her entire life. Both women where dressed in smart casual wear, which would have blended in with the crowd anywhere else, but not here, the clientele where all dressed in costumes making their job a lot harder. The man they were looking for was an old colleague of Flintlock, one Philip Sands AKA Outback, should have been a big enough clue that the Hanged Man was a super villain bar.
“What does this guy look like?” Stone whispered to Zawadi.
“No idea, let’s go to the bar, see what we can…” Zawadi replied, only to stop as a teenager dressed in a blue bodysuit with white accents swaggered up to them, an array of boomerangs attached to his back.
“G’day ladies, you’re a little old, but Boomerang will give ya a spin.” The kid stated. “And when you spin with Boomerang ya always come back, because ole Boomer is the best there is at what he does, and what he does is always bonza.“
“A little old?” Stone asked. “I’m thirty one.”
“Yeah, as I said old.” Boomerang snorted. “Maybe send your granddaughters my way.”
“Ignore him.” Zawadi told Stone. “We’re not looking for him and he’s not even the real Boomerang if the intel Ana provided right. From what I hear Fred Myers is dead, and by that I mean properly dead, not the kind where you come back a few issues later.”
“Did you say Myers?” A voice asked as a lanky man dressed in overalls holding a hooked bo-staff and a pair of shears muscled his way past ‘Kid Boomerang’ to loom over the two women.
“I think they did.” A second man added, this one dressed in a set of ballistic armour and bandana as he levelled a pair of wrist gauntlets at Stone whilst a number of the other patrons gathered round them. “Myers is the reason nobody takes our country seriously, and you dared to bring back his memory. Time to teach these Sheila’s a lesson!” He added as he fired a salvo of flachettes from his gauntlets causing Stone and Zawadi to scatter to avoid being hit. Rolling to her feet, Zawadi found herself being targeted by a woman that was part lizard, her talons leaking venom as she slashed towards her.
“I’ll swallow you whole!” The woman hissed, as Zawadi picked up a few pool balls from her the table behind her and threw them at her attacker, one of them lodging in the reptiles open mouth. Seconds later the woman was on the ground choking as she tried to dislodge the obstruction. Turning to face her next attacker, the man armed with a five foot long machete, she saw Stone fire an energy net at Kid Boomerang, the energy field pinning him to the wall.
“Looks like we’re fighting an entire bar now.” Stone sighed, as she dodged under a swing from the man armed with the bo-staff.
“If that’s the case then Outback has to be here somewhere.” Zawadi replied as she disarmed her opponent of his oversized weapon, before performing a leg sweep and flooring him.
“You won’t be talking to anyone if Mr Crook has his way!” The man with the staff sneered as the figure in the ballistic armour fired a salvo of darts into Stone’s back at point blank range, the paralytic toxin causing her target to collapse. “Nice Taipan, now I’ll finish her, let’s see how she looks without a head.” He added as he bent down over her, his shears open ready for an execution strike. Closing them he looked down in surprise as Stone’s body flickered and exploded into a shower of photons.
“What in bloody hell!!” Taipan spat as Zawadi stomped on a shadowy pair of hands emerging from the floor in an attempt to trip her.
“Solid Light Hologram.” Zawadi replied, as the hands retracted and the energy net holding Kid Boomerang dissipated, the villain throwing a pair of razor edged projectiles at the middle aged huntress, the later going wide unlike the second that sliced her cheek open.
“Now you’re fighting alone against all of us!” Mr Crook sneered as the remaining villains encircled Zawadi. Besides Boomerang, Crook and Taipan, there was a giant of a man whose skin seemed to be formed of shifting red sand and a hooded woman with body armour and a beetle like mask, both of whom had been biding their time, ready to strike.
“Maybe, but I think I can take you.” Zawadi replied coolly. “Not that I need to.” She added as the hooded woman opened fire, a photon blast catching Taipan in the chest and sending him spinning.
“Who the bloody hell is this Sheila!!” Boomerang spat, as Zawadi took advantage of the chaos and elbow slammed Mr Crook in the face, the blow sending him reeling, before turning on Boomerang, her hand grabbing him as he reached for one of his signature projectiles. “No not the Shatterang!” He yelled, seconds before the projectile exploded, the concussive force sending him flopping to the floor, burns running down his hands from the point that the explosion have emanated from.
“That trick may have worked on him!” The red skinned giant hissed. “But the Red Centre is more than a match for the two of…urp!” He stopped as the hooded woman slammed her first into his chest and looked up at him for a few seconds, before removing her hand from within his sand form. “I’ll crush you first lady, that was…urp.” He froze, literally as ice formed on his skin and frozen water leaked out of where his attacker had struck.
“Freon Grenade.” The hooded woman announced with a bored tone. “I’m guessing that he is Outback.” She added as she flicked up her visor and pulled her hood back to reveal the face of the real Rosetta Stone.
“Look’s like.” Zawadi replied as they advanced on the seated criminal, a trio of pint glasses filled with larger sitting in-front of him.
“And you must be Rachel’s friends.” The seated man dressed in stereotypical bush ranger gear stated, his long auburn locks and beard giving him a rather shaggy look. “I appreciated the show, most of those blokes sit around waiting for the heroes to come down so they can test their luck. When they do, they find that their luck is shite, and come back here drinking it off until they get ready for another beating. Not a real merc or crim among them truth be told, well except Taipan, but he’s too cocky for his own good.”
“You seem to know a lot about these ‘crims’ Mr Sands, but we are looking for some that will be new to the city.” Zawadi asked as she slipped pictures of Ghost Maker, ‘Cuda and Laserworks in-front of their contact. “Two of them are Americans, but this one,” She stopped as she pointed at Ghost Maker, “is a Russian.”
“Lots of blokes with shady pasts here at the moment.” Sands sighed. “Then again most of them are snakes in office, not rowdy boys hitting the street.”
“Would you keep an ear open for us?” Stone asked, as she removed a metal cases containing a wad of notes from her belt. “In fact, ladies, gentlemen if you would all keep your ears open we would appreciate it.” She added, as she walked over to the bar, the burly tattooed woman behind the counter glaring at her, only for her expression to change when another wad of Australian dollars was produced. “For their bar tab, you’ll also find the number to contact us. Should any of them provide decent information then we’ll pay both you and whoever brings it to us handsomely.”
“Your friend likes to flash the cash around a bit.” Sands told Zawadi. “Rachel must be doing alright if she’s with you. That’s good I don’t want her falling back on old habits.”
“Old habits?” Zawadi asked.
“Seductress for hire to use a nice turn of phrase to describe it.” Sands answered sadly. “Girl had hormone problems. Guys like the Red Skull, Slug and Norman Osborne to name but a few used to hire her to seduce capes. She would jump anyone for even a low price and it always led to her getting hurt. I hated it when she went off on her own, begged her to stop. In the end that’s why we dissolved the Wanderers, we just couldn’t cope with the trouble Rachel brought on us.”
“I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Zawadi replied as she headed to the door, followed by Stone, albeit at a fair distance behind her. “She’s not the one I’m worrying about.”
# # # # #
Safe House, Curl-Curl, Sydney, Australia
“This is an interesting set up.” Stone stated as she walked past the micro hologram of Ana Sablinova standing in the centre of the garage space. “You say that Symkaria has safe houses like this in major cities around the world?”
“Yes, although you’ll understand why I won’t disclose any of the other locations.” Ana replied as she looked over to the rack of weaponry that Zawadi was inspecting. “I assume your meeting with Mr Sands was productive.”
“Well Stone flashed her assets around, hopefully it will give us some leads on this trio of assassins.” Zawadi told her. “We talked with Scorpion, she’s already joined the throng of anti-austerity protestors outside the hotel where the world leaders are staying, and we are just helping Hannigan set up for her tracking spell.”
“Augmented with VR tracking and real-time geographical updates of course.” Stone added, as Hannigan glided over to a circle laser-cut into the floor and placed a number of snake skins and gourds round the perimeter. Walking down to join her, Stone placed four holographic projectors around the corners of the circle, before powering them up to produce a map of the city hovering over the circle.
“We are ready to commence.” Hannigan grimly stated, as she knelt down in a gap of the snake-skin ringing the circle. “Lords of the Loa I beseech you, harken to my request and take this humble offering as payment to my requests.” She stated as she removed a bag of wine-gums from the folds of her clothing and poured the sweets onto the floor. “Hunt down my enemies and reveal their locations to me. Now come and let justice be done!” She yelled as dark mist spiralled out from the centre of the circle, smoke running up and down the streets of the map above it, and pooling like a dark eddy over the bay of the city.
“Looks like it’s working.” Zawadi commented. Seconds later a shadowy figure loomed out of the darkness and spread its hands across the map before closing them, the city collapsing and the occult items exploding around the circle. “Or not. What happened?”
“I…I think a demon tried to hijack the spell.” Hannigan stated, as she scrapped up a slither of burnt viper skin off the floor. “I have some more ingredient so we can try again, although I may have to substitute the skin of a Fea’s Viper for a Cascavel, it has lesser magical properties but it should work if I know more about your technology Stone.”
“Uh.” Stone stammered. “I’d rather keep my secrets to myself, I’ve had some problems when sharing my inventions in the past.” She added, as she removed the charred remains of the hologram projectors from the corner of the circle and walked out of the garage.
“Did I miss something?” Ana asked.
“Maybe.” Zawadi replied. “I’m going to hit the streets, see if I can shake a location from the local thugs and villains again. While Ghost Maker is a professional, Laserworks and ‘Cuda are less subtle, there should be a trail for me to follow if I look hard enough.” She added, as she lifted the door to the garage and headed towards the city streets. Passing the homeless man dressed in rages sitting on the corner, she didn’t notice him watching her progress, nor the tiny radio transmitter concealed under the layer of cent coins in the bottom of his bowl.
“This is Cordin, T’Chaka’s last order is in effect.” The man stated, as he slipped a clawed gauntlet over his hand. “Assemble the Dogs of War, the Hatut Zeraze are on the hunt once again, the thief of Wakanda has been found and will be brought to justice, as do all who cross Wakanda.”