Summary:The Black Panther and Mari encounter … a ghost? Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
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Vixen is hunting in the disaster zone. For a number of things, really, but the thing she's looking for most is fluttering just ahead and above of her.
A glowing spirit crow that only manifest when the dark skinned woman draws near to the Zone. It's leading her. Through the streets strewn with debris, round corners, further in.
There's a flitting shadow out of the ocrner of her eye. When she looks up, the Black Panther is perched atop one of the ruined walls so common in this part of town. He does make that look easy but she knows it's quite a feat of balance. Whomever the Panther is he's very practiced at such things.
"Vixen. I was not expecting to see you tonight. What are you doing here if I may ask?"
He drops down and begins to approach, noting the crow above. "The air here is disturbed tonight. Something wakens that should be left to sleep, but I do not know what."
"Weren't you? I did mention that I would be coming in her to follow this … " Vixen raises her chin to the bird she's following. "I just didn't say when or wasn't exact on when I would." The dark skinned woman stops to look at the Panther, dark eyes skimming over that suit he wears.
"Do you know where?" that's the follow up question to his own statement. "If you wish to run with me while I follow this, maybe we can deal with two birds with one stone."
"You did of course but…" The Panther-clad man gestures. Yes, exactly, she hadn't mentioned a timetable and he had not thought it would be quite so soon, clearly. "The last time you said the bird was an omen. What do you think it is foretelling this time?"
Another amulet perhaps? Panther knows that she recovered one though presumably not all the details of what it is, unless T'Challa has told him. Which seems possible.
"Somewhere in this area. I think I will accompany you. There will be safety in numbers and even for the likes of us I do not think that is to be underrated this night."
"So." He takes a breath and lets it out. "Where are we going, Vixen?"
"Are you going to chide me for not asking you to come with me?" The Vixen teases as they start moving again. "Your friend took me to talk to the Dead and find out what has been forgotten about the Zambesi Totems. I think, from what I know now, it is either a totem bearer or another totem itself. Though, I can't be sure till we get there, Black Panther."
"Where are we going? Whereever the bird leads …" The crow had been circling while they stopped and begins to lead them onward when she starts moving again.
After a shortwhile, they're come to broken down wall that was a facade of a building. Now, it looks like it had weathered a full on attack and all that's left standing is its skeleton.
The bird flies over that, leading them into the rubble beyond.
"Whatever the case, it seems to WANT you to follow it." The Panther notes as they begin to move. He keeps one eye on the crow and the other on the building they're approaching. He had not been able to localize what he felt but just as they're getting up there he feels it a lot more strongly.
And then both he and Mari see what looks like a young woman go into that building.
"Where did she come from?" He murmurs. "Did you see that, Vixen?"
"I know it does. It's rather insistent each time I come in here." Mari answers, stepping up to the broken wall rather nimbly, watching the crow as it circles in tighter circles now. "I think we're get——"
Mari stops just as she's about to step over the wall, peering at the space where the woman disappeared. "I … did Panther. I did. She wasn't there a moment ago. And now she's not anymore…"
The dark skinned woman looks over her shoulder and then back into the building. "I have to follow …" and she's off, stepping over the broken down wall into the remains of the building.
The Black Panther stares for a couple of seconds at the spot where the girl was. It looks like he's just dumbfounded but in reality he's looking for the woman with his optics. She's not there though. After a moment he turns to follow Vixen.
As he clears the wall behind her both hear a ghostly laugh, a woman's laugh, coming from seemingly all around them. Panther looks up and around and then shakes his head. "I do not see anyone."
Naturally he doesn't. It's more creepy that way.
"Of course you don't…" Mari murmurs as she turns around looking the crow that flew in her. The sides of the building are mostly crumbled away, though there's enough brickwork to cast shadows. Floors above are collapsed or sagging and the ground is just one mess of rubble.
"Where is that coming from …" The bird seems to be circling tightly in a section near the back corner. The lighting over there is very poor but with his optics, Panther might be able to make out a foot, or is at hand, sticking out of the rubble. What he might also notice is that the collapsed ceiling above there seems … recent.
"Over there." The Panther points and he starts to move but then stops and holds his hand out to signal Mari. "Wait. No. That section of roof has collapsed recently and it took someone with it." He wants to go up and check to see if the unfortunate victim might still be alive, but another laugh and the sound of something running rapidly in the darkness off to their left makes him cautious. He still doesn't see anything.
"I do not know. Perhaps this place is… what is the word you would use? Haunted." Haunted or someone is playing a really nasty trick. Still, the Panther isn't seeing any evidence of tech…
"What do you think, Vixen. Is there a way to get to that without exposure to another collapse?"
Mari starts to move in that direction, carefully of course, but stops when The Panther speaks. "I can fly there, you know that - hover just off the ground and move slowly, I shouldn't disturb anything though … you've got a good sense of balance, it seems. What about using that exposed piece of wall? You could balance on it and get close enough and not have to go very near the ceiling at all…"
He could do that and as he's thinking, Mari turns in a circle trying to trace that laugh, touching the pendant at her neck. "My pendant is warming again …" she says quietly. After another brief moment, the silhouette of brown bear stands behind her, her nose twitches as she turns again. "I'm not smelling anything, Black Panther, there's no one here as far as I can tell."
Maybe it is haunted.
"And yet there is indisputably something watching us…" The feline hero begins moving carefully toward the pile of rubble again. Of the two of them he can take the hits better. She saw what happened when Jake slammed him into the ground repeatedly. It had charged up his suit somehow.
The first thing he does is feel the hand, well, the wrist. No. No pulse. "Alright. I am going to try to move this rubble."
As he does the remaining bits of roof and wall above begin to shed dust and plaster rather ominously, but they do not fall. Not yet, at any rate.
"Viiiiiiiiixennnnnnnnnn." The darkness whispers in a sing song way. "Viiiiiiiiiixennnnnnnnnn."
There is no pulse and the skin is cold to the touch. There might even be an odour. "Be careful…." Vixen mutters, feeling entirely out of sorts at the moment. The silhouette of the bear fades to be replaced by the gorilla she prefers when she needs strength.
Slowly The Panther begins to uncover the body, it's not deeply buried but it's dangerous to move too quickly, he can make out features. A woman, dark skinned like Mari, short tightly curled hair, around her neck a leather thong with a circle made of silver, holding a ruby red disc.
"Panther, do you hear that?" The spirit caller says, turning her back for the moment on the catsuited-man trying to find that voice.
"I do…" The Panther says as he slowly pries the disk from the grasp of the corpse. Half a second later the wall starts to come down and the feline hero springs back just in time to avoid a new shower of debris. He has the totem in his hand.
Another laugh sounds in the darkness around them. "Here, kitty kitty…" A womans' voice sing songs. "Are you taking what's mine?"
Still just voices. There's no obvious target.
"Are any of these totems known to be cursed?" He finally asks.
Seems like a reasonable question under the circumstances.
"Panther. Watch out…" Mari takes a step towards the shower of debris, ready to take a hit if necessary but he's clear. She can see the totem in his hand and she swallows "That was one of the bearers wasn't it? I don't suppose there's any signs of why they were here?" Mari can't tell from here that it's a woman.
There's a scrap of fabric in the womans hand, The Panther might be able to get that with the space that he's cleared.
The ceiling above drops dust and grit down, threatening to fall any moment now.
"Not that I know of and not from what M'Kada said but to be honest? I didn't ask …" She hadn't thought to, why would she?
"No, we're taking what is ours …" she says into the gloom.
"We need to go. Now." Panther says but even as he's saying it he moves quickly in toward that scrap of fabic and grabs it. Then he's back again and pushing Vixen toward clear ground. The roof starts to fall again, to the sound of cackling. "Awwww. The kitty and the fox don't want to play. That's funny. You seemed so friendly just a little while ago! This will teach you to take in strays!"
That makes no sense but the Panther isn't looking for sense right now. They can talk about it when they're not in danger of being buried.
"Panther?" Vixen lets the Panther shove her out the building, looking at him in confusion as he does. "What do you know? What strays?"
Mari can only think of one stray that she knows of …. and her face drains "That's … not a ghost, is it?"
She doesn't stop until he lets them, only turning to look back where they were. "Strays, Panther. There's only one stray I've taken in and one that you've been seen with. Gabrielle. Was that … was that …"
No, Mari doesn't know what that was.
"I do not know what that was." The Panther answers more or less honestly when they're finally some distance from both that building and anything that might fall on them. "Some malevolent force. And I cannot say how much we should heed the words it speaks. It may have been insane. Or may have been trying to cause confusion and pain."
Was that a ghost? Privately, the feline hero thinks that likely. But he is not going to say that here. This is yet another thing that requires more investigation.
After a few moments he offers out the totem and that scrap of cloth. "Here. These mean little to me but will likely be significant to you and your other allies."
Mari shivers at the thought of that thing. "I know someone who could probably tell us if that was a ghost. T'Challa. I could bring him here, ask him to look." Would she really do that? Put the Prince in danger? Probably not but she's a little spooked.
When the totem is handed over, Mari takes it reverently. "The Fire Totem. I do not who the bearer was but I would say that was them. I hear no whispering this time, like I did with the Earth totem." Her own pendant glows brightly when the red pendant is bought near.
Mari looks at the pendants for a long moment before looking at the cloth. It's just a scrap, torn from a shirt or similar. There's part of a logo visible. "I wonder if that's who hurt them or if someone tried to save them?"
They may never know, unless someone can raise the spirit to speak to them.
"Perhaps you should do that. Or at least speak to him about it." The Panther affirms. It is a risk but T'Challa seems quite adept at dealing with the dead and he can call on his own ghosts to enforce his will if he needs to. Certainly he seems more able to handle such spirits than the Panther… though that makes sense. How many royal necromancers can there be after all?
"Hold onto it. If it was important to the dead T'Challa may require it. Hopefully you will learn sooner rather than later. Now, what are you going to do with that totem? Do you suppose it really is haunted or cursed? Will that spirit follow you, do you think?"
Maybe not. It hasn't followed them out here.
As far a Mari knows, the Panther is not royal. "I will, of course. He normally asks how my journeys have gone." Mari nods, turning to head back the way that they came. She doesn't want to stay to in here any longer than she needs to. As she moves, the scrap and the pendant are stored in her pouch.
"I will put the totems somewhere safe. I believe there are still two in Africa and one out this way, the US or Europe, it's hard to say. But three together don't bode well and I can't help but feel something is nudging things. I have good reason to believe the Earth Totem wielder is still alive - my job will be to follow them and reunite them with their pendant."
She has a plan at least.
"If it is haunted or cursed, we'll find out soon enough, but I'll need to find a mystic who can help me. I've been hearing rumours of woman down in Harlem that might … help." beat "What are you going to do, Mister I follow bad feelings?"
"I have a place deeper in to examine. I believe there may be further evidence of whatever happened to Gabrielle and whatever or whomever created that lab in the center of the Zone." The one where Gabby's friend was found. If it sounds like the Panther is suggesting these things are linked, he is.
"Are you returning right away, or would you like to join me?"
"I … wanted to get out of here." Mari admits but turns to follow the Panther. "I want to bring Gabrielle down here and speak to some people, see if they can show us where they found her. I'm hoping there's something that might jog her memory or something we can find."
"Which reminds me, the Detective she spoke to found her identity …" Mari will regale the Panther with all the gory details as they move.