Picking up the Trash (IC)

[alderwitch]

"Two minutes," Phantom provided their ETA and snapped the phone shut. She turned to extend one black gloved hand to Stesha, "I'm sorry. My method of travel is less pleasant than most people but it won't take long."

It would take no effort to deposit them both in the Lair's control room. She knew the layout well enough at this point. It did mean, however, a brief stopover in the void.

[Electra]

"Um, all right," Stesha agreed, putting her hand in Taylor's. "Is it going to hurt?" she asked. She still wanted to meet the scarab and hear the end to the imp mystery, but the idea of whatever the Phantom considered an unpleasant journey had her a little nervous. Still, she was a hero, and heroes didn't balk... much... at a little discomfort.

[alderwitch]

"It won't hurt" Phantom promised quietly before Stesha found herself sucked into a black endless void. Eldritch lightning crackled silently accross her field of vision. There was no sensation of Phantom's hand and no sound in the silence. It ended abruptly as it began, leaving them both standing before the Scarab.

[N/A]

The room Phantom and Fleur materialized into reminded them vaguely of the bridge of the Enterprise on Star Trek. The walls were lined with viewscreens small and gigantic alike, and computer consoles in all shapes and sizes. The center of the room was dominated by a large counter, curved in a half-circle, also lined with consoles and chairs. The counter faced a massive floor-to-ceiling monitor on the wall in front of it. The screen showed one large image, and a dozen smaller ones along the perimeter. Most appeared to be news broadcasts from all around the world or web browser windows, but they could also make out the occasional piece of surveillance camera footage.

The door leading into the command center was open behind them. Through it, they could see the great hall. In stark contrast to the futuristic workstations, the hall appeared to be sand-colored stone, etched and painted with ancient pictographs. It looked by all accounts as if they were standing inside one of the great pyramids of Egypt. Lotus-style pillars lined the chamber, which was filled with a staggering array of relics from every culture and time period of the last 5,000 years. The collection of weapons, armor, scrolls, paintings, sculptures, statues, jewels and jewelry would give new meaning to the term "priceless," were any of it ever to see the light of day.

A figure clad head-to-toe in gleaming armor of crimson and gold sat in the center chair at the main console. She spun around to face the pair, stood up, and floated a couple of inches above the ground. Her massive cape billowed and fluttered behind her, buoyed by some unseen wind.

"I am The Scarab. Welcome to my Lair. How can I be of assistance?"

[Electra]

Stesha's eyes were already wide after the short trip through the void, but she lost no time in goggling at the setup of the lair, and at the Scarab herself. This was pretty much the way she'd always pictured a superhero's headquarter's as being, sort of like a cross between the Pentagon, Star Trek, and a museum. "Wow..." she murmured, before focusing her attention on their host. She didn't think any of that impressive armor came from a costume shop, either. "Ah, hello," she said politely, firmly resisting the urge to duck behind Phantom's voluminous cloak. "I'm Fleur de Joie. I caught one of Phantom's imps, and we were hoping you could tell us what it's doing here."

[alderwitch]

"I questioned the little monster but it wasn't the most useful of conversations." The dry tone came from Phantom. "I've had a few run-ins with them. Irritating but a little too easy to subdue. Too easy. I keep blasting them back to hell before I can get my hands on one of them. Fluer, fortunately, is less violent than I am. I doubt you'd even need the holding cell with all of us here but I can drop the beastie off there if you'd like. I had a feeling your methods of information gathering might turn up something more than mine."

[N/A]

The Scarab nodded. "I see. Very well. Yes, I would prefer you release your charge into one of the holding cells. Better safe than sorry." She floated back over to the main console, sat down, and typed in a few commands. "Go ahead and teleport into Cell A. Then I will engage the nullification field." The main viewscreen shifted to a view of a large hollow cylinder, surrounded by solid rock on all sides. She turned to Fleur. "Please, feel free to sit down." She turned back to the screen. "The cells are accessible by teleportal only. It is more secure that way. I should be able to read the imp's mind from here."

[alderwitch]

Phantom nodded and vanished out of existance, only to reappear down in one of the holding cells. She went to pull the imp out of her cloak and unfortunately grabbed it by one leg instead of the neck like she intended. Phantom wasn't quite fast enough on jerking her hand out of the way. Instead it sank tiny fangs into the flesh of her hand. Shaking it off, she eyed the thing with accute dislike and teleported back up to Scarab's control room.

When she popped back in, she was cursing under her breath in a mix of languages and peeling the glove off quickly. The imp's bite had left an almost dainty bite mark on her hand except for the black ichor it had injected into the wounds. Phantom plopped into one chair and pulled a rag from within her cloak that she used to soak out the poison. Fortunately for her, things like poison had little effect on her these days. It still made her want to blast the imp into its component parts. At this point, Phantom was starting to develop a complex about the damn things.

[Electra]

"Here, let me help..." Stesha hurried over, rather grateful to have something to do besides stand around and stare at everything. Digging into her bag, she rummaged around and pulled out a seed, cupping it in her hands till it grew into an aloe plant with one long leaf and several tiny ones. She broke open the big leaf and smeared it over the bite mark, leaving a cool and somewhat slimy tingle on Taylor's hand. "Aloe is good for little wounds like that. It helps it heal faster."

[N/A]

The Scarab politely ignored Phantom's outburst and instead concentrated her attention on the main viewscreen. Behind her helm, she half-glared, half-squinted at the imp, reaching out with her mind. She visualized an onion. Her first stroke was a brute-force assault, slicing the onion in half. Then, once she had broken it open, she began to gently peel each layer back, one at a time. She felt the imp's weak mental defenses crumble against her power.

She spoke to her companions, but kept staring at the viewscreen. "Its mind lays open before me. What would you like to know?"

[alderwitch]

Phantom leaned forward in her chair, the wound on her hand healing closed as she turned her attention to the little monster that had bedeviled her, "Who's it working for and what's it doing in this plane of existance?"

Her tone was grimly pleased. Hopefully they would have a few more answers than they'd started the evening with. That would more than make it worth the hassle involved. She flicked a glance down and checked the injury. Seeing only unbroken skin, she disposed of the rags and gave Stesha a small smile of thanks before her face hardened once more and turned towards the monitors.

[Electra]

Stesha nodded, smiling back at Taylor, then followed the other hero's gaze towards the monitor. As she watched the interrogation, she folded her hands closed around the spent aloe leaves, wadding them up into a juicy ball that got smaller and smaller, then finally wore away to nothing between her fingers, almost as if she'd absorbed it into her skin. "What was it doing down on the South Side tonight?" she suggested quietly, aware she was out of her depth here.

[N/A]

"I'm afraid there isn't really much to tell. This creature's 'master' has altered its memory many times. Its entire mission in life is to serve as a spy. Specifically, to spy upon you, Phantom. Its only interest in Fleur is her association with you."

"Its 'master' is a truly loathsome individual. He literally keeps these imps blinded and restrained when not using them for surveillance, erases their memories on a regular basis, and summarily executes them when he feels they have failed him. Unfortunately, the imps appear to be created with service to him as their sole purpose in life, and they are so utterly subservient that they feel remorse, rather than indignation, when put to death in this manner. Rehabilitation, if possible, would be very difficult."

"Because of the measures he has taken to conceal himself from them, the only clue we have as to the self-proclaimed master's identity is this voice." The Scarab let a sample echo into the minds of Phantom and Fleur.

[alderwitch]

Phantom leaned forward, steepling her fingers under her chin thoughtfully as she listened to the voice in an attempt to place it. "It's familiar but no one stands out. Thank you, Scarab."

She pulled herself up from the chair in a smooth motion and rested a gloved hand on the gleaming armoured shoulder of the telepath, "The creature is infernal. Even if you could redeem it, it would only be torn apart when it returned to whatever plane of hell it calls home. I'll go deal with the creature. A single blast will discorpreate it."

Phantom teleported back down to the cell block to deal with the imp.

[N/A]

"If it must be put down, then I think I am capable of doing so in a more humane manner. Please, allow me."

The Scarab stopped reading the imp's thoughts and started seizing control of them. Your mind makes it real. She forced it to gradually lose consciousness, as if it was falling asleep. She made the voice of its master ring in its ears. You have not failed me. With your capture, the trap is sprung. Rest now. Offering the doomed creature what little comfort she could, The Scarab then began forcing its brain to literally shut down the body's life processes.

[Electra]

"Isn't there something else you could do with it?" Stesha asked, grimacing. "I know it's not human, and it's not good, but it's alive, and it seems to be sentient... There's got to be something you can do that doesn't mean killing it, doesn't there?" She looked away from the screen when Phantom teleported down to the holding cell, not wanting to see what happened next.

[alderwitch]

Phantom waited for Scarab to put the creature down before she fired off a blast to turn its corpse into sulfurous smoke. That nasty task completed, she teleported back up to Stesha and Scarab. She gave Stesha a rather unappologetic shrug all things considered, "Not and be sure it isn't going to bite someone. There's poison in their fangs. It won't bother me but it could make someone sick. Possibily kill them. And they're more on the level of low-end primate intelligence. We didn't kill it with anything holy. It's essence will trickle back down to hell and be reconstituted into some equally loathsome demon."

[Electra]

Stesha looked more resigned than happy, but she didn't argue. "I guess we didn't learn anything, then," she finally said. "I mean, you still don't know who's sending the imps and why. What if he sends something worse after you next time? There must be a way to find out more about what it is that's trying to have you followed around. Who would have anything to gain from hurting or bothering you?"

[N/A]

The Scarab shook her head and sighed as she turned away from the viewscreen. "I am sorry my abilities could not be of greater help to you. 'The Master' has covered his tracks well. As my powers are not magical in nature, my knowledge of the arcane arts is haphazard at best. However, I do have a rather extensive library here in The Lair, and you can feel free to make use of it." She stood up. "In the meantime, if you require any other aid, feel free to ask." She nodding in acknowledgement to each of the other heroines, then turned away and walked out.