Summary:Mari returns home late and finds someone tossing her place Log Info:Storyteller: {$storyteller} |
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Mari's home is her refuge. After being in the Disaster Zone and hunting for Rivera, she's retreated to that refuge to unwind. Unwinding means putting music on,changing into yoga pants and a loose top, pouring a glass of wine and standing on her balcony to look out over the city.
She's got a bit to think on and this helps.
When Mari opens the door, she'll find her apartment in a bit of disarray. Things have been overturned, gone through, and shuffled. If that's not enough to put Mari on alert, there's a noise from her bedroom.
Whoever is ransacking her place is currently in her bedroom, going through her things. When Mari arrives there, it's the figure of a woman, dressed in a black and white body suit. She wears a mask made of what appears to be pure gold. She turns to face Mari, and there's surprise - but not at her appearance.
"I should have known you would be wearing it. I want that totem." comes the curt words from Madame Masque as she takes out her pistol and aims it towards the woman. "If you'd please."
The disarray is disappointing and Mari alerts her head of security before she even enters the apartment. There'll be a McCabe security detail in about fifteen minutes.
"Might I help you?" the ex-model asks of the body suited visitor. "Fans normally ask for my underwear when I'm on the cat walk." beat "If you like them so much, take them all." She really doesn't need this tonight.
The 'request' for the foxheaded pendant gets a laugh from Mari. "Better people have tried and failed. If you leave now, you can keep the knickers and you won't get your ass kicked. That's my last offer though. There's a bottle of wine in the fridge with my name on it."
The pistol cinches it though. A glowing silhouette of a Rhino appears behind her, soon joined by a hunting cat.
As she starts to summon the creatures, Masque fires. It's not a pistol round, though, it's a tranq dart. Apparently, she's looking to pierce what she knows is going to be a thicker hide and slow down Mari. Someone's been doing their research.
"Better, perhaps. But not faster." Masque responds, leaping backwards beyond the bed with surprising agility than what Mari may have been expecting. As she lands on her feet, she's going into a combat stance, striking out at the woman with a flurry of kicks and punches.
She can try. Mari's been fighting poachers since her teens and Masque is not the first one to try that.
As the woman shoots, the ex-model moves backwards from the room, pulling the door partially closed to act as a shield. It also means she's not where Masque expects her to be. "Good stance. You could use a refresher course though." Mari taunts, pulling the door to a little more as she speeds across the lounge to the kitchen.
There's a large cast iron pan hanging from a rack. It's this that Mari takes along with a couple of steak knives. Those aren't well balanced but she's practice with them before.
She just needs to hold out till her security detail gets her. Which is why she's using the features of her apartment as protection.
Coming through the door to the other side, Masque smirks. "You are soft from dealing with the street rats." she taunts in return. "You have no use for the power you possess. You should let those that know how to use it do so."
The pistol is fired again, but where she fired is where she expected Mari to be - she didn't expect Mari to go all Masterchef on her. That's not in her totems.
Which leaves her vulnerable for just a moment to Mari to get a surprise attack in on her.
—-
It's a funny thing about the pendant. People think *it* contains the power for what Mari does. That's an … image… the ex-model has cultivated. Does it? It *looks* that way. Still she's not giving that up. Again.
"Soft gets me all the right cuddles…" She laughs at the woman "looks like you could use one about now. Been a while has it? Maybe you should try being softer you might find you like it."
The tranq dart whizzes by and embeds in the wall, Mari noting where it is for later. With Masque vulnerable, a steak knife is thrown, not overly well but well enough that it should hit Masque with the point. If it penetrates the leather - all well and good. Mari is just trying to get Masque off kilter. Poke her anger - angry people make dumb mistakes.
Mari's moving again. Circling the woman, as she starts to lead her to her balcony. "Why do you want it? Do you need something to take people's attention off that hideous costume?"
Ten minutes - her security team will be here.
—-
Mari will sense it as she gets closer to Masque - there's no sweat - none of that blood rush or pounding heart. It's almost as if it's a lifeless shell attacking her. Or something else.
"Compared to the outfit that's more fitting the Obsidian Club that you wear?" comes the remark from Masque as she finds herself being moved back to the balcony - that is until she actually grabs the couch and hefts it to throw at Mari, trying to use the confined space to pin the totem bearer down.
She's got tactics and skills - but she's not human. Which means Mari doesn't have to hold back.
"Honey, have you *tried* to get out of those outfits and look remotely becoming? I've got far better outfits suited to that. You should sign up for my Saturday morning wardrobe class, it will do you wonders."
The couch comes flying towards her. Mari ducks out of the way, even as she winces internally - she liked that couch.
SMASH
That's the sliding glass door shattering. She's going to need a glazier. So much for a restful night.
As she ducks, the spirit caller takes a chance and spins into Madam Masque, using the frypan as a club to bash her face. That's a hit like a truck.
Mari hadn't been keeping her distance for fear of hurting the woman - up close, it's easier to try a grab for the pendant.
And that's something Mari simply won't allow.
She spins away, back towards the balcony, drawing Masque that way again.
The whole left side of that golden mask is caved into the woman's face. And she's rocked to the side. On a normal person, it would have broken her pretty little neck.
There's a sickening and mechanical crack as Masque snaps her head back in place. Black ichor - something like oil or lubricant - close to blood but not quite, Mari can smell it. She lunges at Mari as she heads for the balcony, just barely missing the woman.
But was she going for Mari or the totem? Either way, it throws her off-balance, and at the edge of the balcony, perilously close to the edge.
Mari certainly hadn't been going for a lethal blow. All she wanted was to stop or slow the woman. An Android? Or a Cyborg? It doesn't matter right now. Mari had been going to use the balcony as a means of escape.
Call an eagle or owl and drop over the edge to get away. She'd been delaying long enough to let her security detail arrive. Now she's faced with a terrible decision.
Another turn from the scrapper and she shoves Masque, hopefully over the edge.
Masque goes over the edge - and there's a scream as she plummets and slams into the ground. If Mari bothers to look over the edge, the plunge of over 40 stories was more than enough to break the woman. Though she'd need better eyes from where she is to see if it was.. what it was.
The security detail is there within seconds. "Miss McCabe?" comes the call as one of them is using his passkey to get into the apartment, his taser drawn, just in case. Down on the street, another security guard is coming out and getting eyes on the body.
Mari lets out a shaking breath and just stands there, staring over the edge as the body falls. That's how her security detail finds her. She's not unaffected by this at all.
"An intruder. Pull the security footage and quarantine it. She was after my pendant. Not human or at least, not fully human. Get someone downstairs to find the body." Why does she think there won't be a body?
Something smells wrong and it's not just the hydraulic oil.
She starts to shiver as the high of fighting slowly fades. The knives and pan clatter to the ground. She's not unaffected, how could she not be?
"Call NYPD, get a crime scene unit up here. Detective Gibbs is on the other attempts for my collection. The rest will have to wait till that's done." So much relaxing this evening.
"Right." As the security guards leave, it's a few minutes when there's a new noise at her window.
"Vixen." the Bat's voice, gravely as it is, is unmistakable, even if he is perched on the same railing that she had just thrown Masque over. "I heard the report."
So he just happened to come all the way from Staten Island to check on her? No, there's something else. Of course, that could be said for most guys in her line of work.
Mari hasn't moved much. She needs to preserve the scene as it is for the Police. Her working relationship with them is a little more amicable than many. She would *really* like that glass of wine but that's denied her.
The detectives will be here soon. She just has to be patient.
"Batman. I'm sure you did. And it bought you from Staten Island." so yes, he wants something. What is it, she wonders. She's enough in her plate without dealing with Bats.
"What was she after?" Its the first question from Batman's lips. She wanted to get to the meat of it, and he's happy to skip the foreplay for once. It always just gets in the way.
Then he glances down at where the NYPD is arriving to cordon off the area and he grunts. "Ngh. It's not her." he rumbles, mainly to himself.
"What most who come after me directly want. My pendant. She wasn't happy when I declined to give it to her and my frying pan hit her face. She wasn't human, or at least not fully." Mari tries for light and sassy. It comes out exhausted.
Oh good. The police arriving. Maybe she'll get some rest tonight.
"I'm going to regret asking. Not who?"
"She goes by Madame Masque. She's been moving in on the Island." Batman's response comes as he glances aside to the woman. And then he's looking back towards the body on the sidewalk. "Probably a robot duplicate." he says, not really to put Mari's nerves at ease. Just a statement of fact.
"She's had several of them deploy in Staten Island. The mask gives it away. The real one is more ornate than the ones she sends out." Then he frowns. "She may have said she was going for the totem, but it doesn't match her MO. She's a technophile. Usually goes after Stark or Waynetech." The unasked question is in the air - is Mari working on something?
"The real one? The real duplicate or the real person?" Mari looks around her apartment and sighs.
"I'm just peachy keen, thanks. Being attacked in my own apartment does wonders for the soul." The ex-model snarks. "Keeps me on my toes and all that."
She doesn't ask why she came after her. The pendant is an artifact - that's enough for Mari. It makes her target for some types. As to technophile, it was in her latest launch "You read the feeds, I'm sure McCabe is into all sorts of things. That doesn't explain why she was taking a pair of unmentionables as a trophy."
The remark about her unmentionables doesn't draw a response. If she wants witty banter, it'll have to be with someone else.
"I will make sure to make a note of it." Whether or not he's read on her recent advances, he doesn't mention - but it's probably a sure bet that he does. "I will let you know what I find out. In the meantime, you seem more than capable of taking care of yourself."
So with that, he's leaning back on the railing of the penthouse before falling away. The cape opens and he starts to glide before a grapple line gun fires, and Batman is swinging off into the night again.