ic Head West

[Supercape]

GM

 

"By Mohammed's Beard, I will not do what you say!" he started, as his spinal cord did the work. 

 

Then, his frontal cortex hit the override switch as it did the more complicated work of balancing risks and rewards and listened carefully to his amygdala which was busy pumping out adrenaline. 

 

"Very well, I shall do ask you ask!" he added, trying to look noble and dignified in the face of all evidence to the contrary. 

 

"Please do not fire at my brain!" he whispered as an afterthought, although one would imagine it was not an exceptionally large target. 

 

"What do you want me to say?"

[Tiffany Korta]

 

The Scarab III

It was difficult to keep in character when her bluff had been so successful, but somehow she managed. Without looking away she talked to the cowardly Doctor.

 

"You know this area better than me, where would be a good place for us to meet you Cousin, keep in mind he probably will try and betray us?" she hoped that this thug didn't speak English, but it wouldn't be a disaster if he knew the plan.

 

<"Keep cooperating and things won't get messy for both of us."> it didn't hurt to keep the thug on his toes.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Errr...."

 

The cogs of his mind clanked and lumbered painfully. They sounded like they needed oiling, but, alas, there was no oil for stupidity. 

 

"Farouk is pretty smart" he explained, although this was a relative statement clearly - indicating that Farouk was of average intelligence or therabouts. 

 

"If its a meet like that, he prefers it in public. Like the market in Cairo" he explained. 

 

"There is one, tomorrow midday" agreed the Doctor, nodding. He clearly preferred the suggestion of safety this would give. 

 

"Very busy" added the Thug. "And nice sweet tea! Just like my grandmother used to make!" he added, the memory soothing the anxiety of his current situation. 

 

"I can suggest that?"

[Tiffany Korta]

 

The Scarab III

It was on the whole not the best place to meet up, with so many exits and people around it could get very messy very quickly. But it also gave her time to perfect her device so she could use her sonic cannon if trouble started and his overconfidence could be something that could be used to there advantage.

 

<"Then the market is shall be! Doctor Misi shall be there to handle the meeting, and I'll be close by if you boss thinks to try anything funny!">

 

She turned to the Doctor and put her finger on her lips to stop whatever cowardly babbling he was about to launch into, she wasn't planning on being that far away from where it was all going down.

[Supercape]

GM

 

And so...

 

At the Market of Cairo, in the midday heat...

 

It was filthy, it was hot. It was filthy hot, and the heat was filthy. Both heat and filty were compounded by the heavy clothing the Scarab wore, her equipment nestled underneath. 

 

Misi was sweating profusely, and smoking to calm his nerves. Or at least in attempt to calm his nerves. 

 

"This is crazy!" he hissed under his breath at the Scarab. "Farouk isn't going to come. And if he does, he will slit my throat just by looking at me" he complained, not at all happy with his predicament. 

 

"Oh! Lamentations! By Allah, this was not how it was meant to go. Surely I am being punished for my sins!" he moaned. 

 

[Tiffany Korta]

 

The Scarab III

In most places wearing the same, or at least a similar, disguise. but in the market, there were at least a dozen women (as far as she could tell) wearing similar clothes.

 

"Don't worry Doctor he'll want to find out how you blocked the Daka crystal. Then maybe he'll kill you..." she couldn't help by teasing him a little "Don't worry before he can do that I'll be there to help. At least this time my sonic cannon will work alongside the jammer."

 

She spent all night working on making them work happily alongside each other, what with flight she was running on determination and Turkish coffee right now.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Farouk was a thin man, like a snake, full of veins and spring loaded muscles, bald as you like, with deep brown eyes that looked like they might pop out of his head. He was dressed lightly for the heat, as where his two thug friends, stronger and stupider. 

 

In such heat, in such crowds, they had come without any Daka-weaponry. It was hard to conceal anything in this heat. Perhaps theyhad conventional pistols or knives under their robes, but the Daka-weapons were simply to bulky to lug around incognito.

 

"Misi! You devil!" hissed Farouk, bumping right up to Misi. The Scarab could see he had pressed a small knife right into Misi's leg, by the femoral artery. 

 

"What did you do to those guns, you snake!?" he demanded. 

 

Misi gulped through his sweat. "Uhhh....." he whispered faintly, looking at the Scarab for support. 

 

[Tiffany Korta]

 

The Scarab III

Kamala stepped forward head down trying to act as humble as she could, even though it wasn't really in her nature.

 

<"Excuse me sir but it wasn't him that did this thing, it was one of those Western Superheroes like they have in America!"> she wasn't sure on his attitude on the decadent West so kept it neutral so not to tip him off one way or another

 

<"They wore one of those fancy armoured suits, maybe this is what stopped your weapons?">

 

She watches everyone carefully, whilst apparently looking downwards, looking for potential trouble that was bound to start soon.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"<What? What? What are you talking about?>" snapped back Farouk, almost stunned by the impertinence of the interruption. 

 

"<YOU! Don't move!>" he shouted at Misi, and nodded to two friends. "<You! And You! Don't let my snivelling cousin get anywhere!>"

 

Misi did not move, but the two strong men did, moving to either side of the scientist and gripping him tightly. 

 

Meanwhile, Farouk marched up to the Scarab. 

 

"<You are just trying to protect him! Pfah! Western Superheroes! I spit on them! They would not come here!>" he retorted, confidently. "<So who are you? And why are you trying to protect this wet prune of a man?" he demanded. 

 

He took a moment to consider. This was Egypt. A muslim country, but not one that was infused with the Wahabi movement. Hijabs were worn, but not often, and not insisted upon. And the market of Cairo was one of the more liberal parts of the country. 

 

A demand such as this, he reasoned, was a necessary risk. 

 

"<Show me your face!>" he demanded. 

[Tiffany Korta]

 

The Scarab III

Even though she was apparently terrible at this deception stuff she knew that he was also trying to trick her, in even the most liberal of Muslim countries there were always a few who chose to wear the niqab. She could even see one or two them in the market crowd.

 

<"Shame on you know that the Prophet, peace be upon him, talked of the modesty of women in public. I might not be able to wear this in a classroom but I'm free to wear it here!"> it might be false bluster but it could buy her a few more minutes before trouble started.

 

<"Maybe you should pay more attention to your scriptures rather than hassling a poor fool over weapons!">

[Supercape]

GM

 

Farouk considered a moment. They were words that did sting, for sure. But he didn't like being stung. He didn't like being ordered around. So

 

"To hell with you!" he grunted, and pushed up against her in the crowd. The Scarab could feel the knife he had pulled on her, poking through her robe. 

 

"I don't give a damn about you, lady. You do what I say now, and show me your face, or I'll put this in your lung and give you a  tension pneumothorax. Not a nice way to go, believe me...."

[Tiffany Korta]

 

The Scarab III

Kamala knew how to deal with this, she'd spent ages practising a variety of martial arts of know possible solutions. Plus she had something that he didn't know about, a force field. She stepped forward until the blade touched the gravimetric force her suit generated.

 

<"You really should have believed me when I told you the story">

 

She raised her hand and pressed it to his face, the gem glowing and the sonic weapon making a very satisfying humming noise.

 

<"And unless you wish to explain your thoughts to Allah I suggest you tell your men to stand down!">

[Supercape]

GM

 

Startled, Farouk took a step back, eyes open, mouth agape. He dropped the knife from stunned hand. The Scarab could hear it clank against the cobbled streets of the market. 

 

"Let him go!" he hissed at his men, who, rather beffudled by the order, still obeyed. 

 

"What do you want?" he muttered to the Scarab. "Why are you here, protecting this cockroach?" he asked with disdain and confusion catching up on his fear. 

 

 

[Tiffany Korta]

 

The Scarab III

She gestured for the Doctor to get behind her, she might not still trust him but hopefully, he'd consider everything that she'd done for him.

 

<"He might have his moments but he's been very helpful to my inquiries."> she'd figured now was the time to push her advantage <"You have something that needs to be in better hands, give me the Daka crystal and we'll say no more.">

 

The weapons were disabled and without the crystal, they couldn't do any more harm, and god willing this was enough to set them on a more the straight and narrow.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"I...I...I don't have it!" confessed Farouk. 

 

"We tried to sell the weapons ourselves. Except...something strange happened..."

 

"Here we go! What pile of dung did you trip into this time, Farouk?" sighed Misi, a hint of glee in his mock despair. 

 

Farouk ignored his cousin. "Yasser Sanu happened. An arms dealer. Terrorist, you might say. Except he never was a terrorist, he just dealt with them. But when he took the crystal...something terrible happened to him. He nearly died. But he didn't die. An act of God, he says. Divinely powered, he said. Believes he is an angel of Djinn now. And whatever power these weapons have, Yasser is ten times worse...."

[Tiffany Korta]

The Scarab III

Kamala gave an inward sigh, whenever it looked that it was going well someone threw in another obstacle in her path. And whilst it would have been easy to pass this on to another to solve the problem she was determined to see this to the end.

<"Of cause he is! Then you better tell me where to find him, by now I hope you see how dangerous all this is?"> she looked over at the Doctor and added <"I don't expect you to come along, I'll make sure you compensated as agreed, I suggest you use it to rethink your life.">

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Yasser? You don't want to mess with Yasser!" replied Farouk. "But I'm not going to stop you!"

 

He gave the Scarab an address. It was not right in the centre of Cairo, but it was not on its outskirts, either. Apparently he had taken residence in an old, modest, mansion (built to Caliphate styler rather filthy Colonial, of course!). 

 

"Yasser has basically taken it over. It was, well I suppose is, owned by some wealthy Frenchman and his family. Yasser wanted to reclaim it. He has set up base there, bribed the local police. I don't know what became of the Frenchman...." he said, with a trace of remorce in his tone. 

 

"I'll gladly come along! Lead! and I shall follow. Five miles behind you should be safe, I would say?" suggested Doctor Misi. 

[Tiffany Korta]

 

The Scarab III

With the need for the disguise past she pulled it all off revealing the Scarab costume underneath, pulling down her goggles not that anyone here would identify her. Activating her anti-grav system she began to float a meter or so above the ground.

 

<"Should I give you head start then Doctor? "> she wasn't planning to dwell too long on this, he was dangerous as is without more time to prepare.

 

Kamala briefly considered getting more help from other heroes, but she didn't want to escalate this problem to a pitched battle.

 

<"Choose quickly Doctor, I've literally got to fly!">

[Supercape]

GM

 

The disrobing caused shock and surprise! Not so much for theological reasons (although such an action would be most unusual), but for the magnificent shiny splendour of the simply spectacular Scarab!

 

And she was floating too!

 

"Oooh! I'm scared of flying!" said the doctor. "But then again, I am scared of getting shot or stabbed more!"

 

And so, merely miniscule minutes later...

 

The Scarab and Doctor Misi landed outside the mansion. It was rather old, and rather infirm, but beautful. Caliphate architecture, reasonably (but not well) maintained. Maybe a dozen rooms, A small courtyard, and walls. Two bored looking thugs just inside the courtyard, armed - the Scarab could see even at distance - with Daka weapons. 

 

But here was something interesting that caught her eye. 

 

A fat policeman, a thin man in a suit and sunglasses, and a tall caucasian woman with some peice of electronic equipment in her hand, all arguing about two dozen yards from the mansions entrance....

[Tiffany Korta]

 

The Scarab III

Kamala briefly considered going in alone and showing those watching exactly what she could do, that whats supers tended to do after all. But the sensible part of her told her that she needed more information before she went off half cocked and made more of a mess of the things.

 

<"Let's go meet some new friends shall we?">

 

Approaching in a way to avoiding being noticed by those inside the mansion she set the pair down a short distance down from the arguing pair. She made sure that they were well aware of her arrival, she didn't want more trouble on top of what she'd discovered so far, and waited for their reaction.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The three turned as they spotted the Scarab landing. 

 

"A superhero, just what we need!" said the policeman, happily. 

 

"A superhero, just what we don't need!" said the tall man in a suit, glumly. 

 

"A superhero, hmmm....." said the woman. 

 

"Abdul Farah, local police chief!" said the fat policeman, saluting and wiping sweat from his brow. "This man here is...!"

 

"Classified!" snapped the tall man, giving the police man a glare. The two of them stared violently at each other. 

 

"Summer Fields. Agent Summer Fields!" said the woman, whose name indeed was Summer Fields. "Working for the United Nations. Ostensibly, with the help of these two. Who, I should remind them, work for the government of Egypt, who in turned signed a declaration of cooperation with our service!"

 

"Hmph" said the tall man and the policeman, distracted from their antagonism by greater vexation. 

 

"That does include the principle that you shall be accompanied by a member of the local intelligence service!" said the tall man. 

 

"Classified!" retorted the Fat policeman smugly. The tall man glowed with rage at being caught out...

[Tiffany Korta]

 

The Scarab III

The good thing about her goggles was that no one could see the raised eyebrow.

 

"Pleased to meet you, Mr Farah, Ms Field and Mr Speak no Evil! I'm The Scarab." she paused to allow the name, and her little joke sink in

 

"My associate and I have been tracking down a stolen piece of Daka crystal, which has bought us here. I have something that might help you stop this man and recover the crystal." now for the important discussion "The crystal is corrupted somehow and needs to be taken where it can be studied safely. I've seen enough of how it harms people to give in on this point!"

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Daka crystal! I knew it!" exclaimed Ms Fields, waving her hand held device excitedly. "We detected very strange readings in Cairo! I have been trying to track them down!"

 

"Daka Crystals? Interesting..." whispered the agent, his mind turning over the possibilities. 

 

"Dont worry about studying it" said Sunny Fields. "We have a location just for these kind of dangerous events. Our branch of the UN is called WEST. The World Exotic Science Taskforce!" she said, proudly and excited. "Just think! I found a corrupted Daka crystal on my first assignment!" she said, wistfully. 

 

"The Egyptian government will of course be delighted to assist the United Nations" said the tall man. "Once we have, ah, of course, ensured that the Daka Crystal is safely quarantined and studied in our laboratories" he ventured. 

 

"Don't try that on me, mister!" retorted Sunny Fields. "You do that, I'll report you straight up the chain!" she said, boldly. "You are breaking the agreement....!"

 

"Why, of course not, we are merely assisting you..." said the agent, although he knew he was losing steam. 

 

"Assist me but letting us do the job. We will contain the crystal and isolate it in UN laboratories" said Sunny, firmly. 

 

"Watch him!" she hissed at the Scarab, making eyes at the agent. 

[Tiffany Korta]

 

The Scarab III

By now she should have realised exactly how they would react at the existence of the Daka crystal, sometimes she thought that the main power of the crystals was to bring out the worse in some people. She gave the agent a sad little look that showed she understood exactly how much she should trust the man.

 

"I tell you what you want the crystal you're welcome to go in there and get it yourself. Or maybe we should go and contract the Dakana embassy, I'm sure they'll be more than happy to assist." she gave a little grin, knowing that either option wasn't going to fly with them.

 

"So how about you leave it to the experts to do their job!"

[Supercape]

GM

 

"But I am an expert!" all three of them retorted, simultaneously and indignatly (and with varying degrees of justification). 

 

Agent Fields however, did arguably have the most justification for that proclamation, and so carried on. "Look, we could certainly do with your help recovering that crystal. And cutting through the legal tape. Its almost as if someone in the police force has been bought off..." she said, snidely, looking at the fat policeman. 

 

"Its dangerous, and it needs to be recovered and contained. Daka crystals are dangerous enough, but a corrupted on could do anything, anytime. Like explode. And that's a pretty mild outcome" she said, ominously. 

 

She pointed her hand sensor at the mansion. 

 

"I can definately detect some very strange energy signatures in their. The trouble is, more than one. Which makes me think some one has harnessed its power..."