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[h2]Phantasm[/h2]
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[u][url=https://goo.gl/maps/rCVuusY6QE7jrdXt7]Cloud Gate[/url][/u]
[i]Loop, Tenebrae[/i]
[@Lady Seraphina], [@Estylwen]

Gloria and her squad woke around noon the following day. Gloria's loft often served as something between a hang out and a home base. They woke groggily, paying for the night of partying they'd enjoyed. Unfortunately Gloria knew that they, or rather she, didn't have the time to let her hang over fade. Now that the day had come she needed to deal with the problems she'd been perfectly happy to ignore the night before.

"Sonya, Siobhan, see if you can get in touch with Lady Hel." Helena Kristansen was the leader of the Valkyries. She'd been moving in gang circles for the last twenty years. If anyone would about a new player in town, it would be her. "Let her know what happened last night and ask if she knows anything about these [i]'Shadow Knights'[/i]. They're either new in town, or they're very old. Either way, they're going to be trouble." she paused. "Don't go as far as to mentioning that I'm meeting with them. I don't want her getting the wrong impression, not till I know something solid."

Then she turned to Jinny and Quinn. "If you're up for it I would like some backup. Someone to follow behind discretely. Maybe even pull me out of danger if things go south."

"Why do they get to go on the fun mission?" Sonya asked sulkily.

"Cause they didn't breath in who knows what from an unknown meta last night."

Sonya lapsed into silence.

"I actually have a theory regarding that. I think the dust was particalized metal which would greatly increase the damage 'Arc' was able to do with his storm powers to those that had breathed it in. With any luck, it should work itself out of your systems in a couple of days." said Quinn.

Gloria nodded. "Let's hope that's all it is. But in the meantime, best not to risk it."

"What about that?" Quinn asked, nodding down at the briefcase that Gloria had dumped drunkenly by the door the night before. "If you gave me a couple hours I could probably work out what it does." Quinn was good like that. She could spot complex patterns in systems. Give her a pocket watch and just from the sound she could know that it was seventeen seconds slow and losing another second every hour. It didn't really help in a fight but it did make her one hell of a mechanic.

Gloria looked down at it. She was curious. She was really curious about what the device was. The Shadow Knights had decided it was a good fit for her based on observations from a distance. Given their choice of power matching over diplomatic when they'd chosen someone to approach her she suspected that meant it did something to boost her abilities.

Still they didn't have an unlimited amount of time and Gloria preferred to have someone watching her back.

"I think we leave it alone for now. I don't know what I'm walking into, I'd like you close by."

Quinn nodded with a smile, took something out of her pocket and tossed it to Gloria. "I think you'll be wanting that then." With a well practiced hand Gloria snatched it out of the air. It was a plastic disk about the size of a poker chip but twice as thick. "GPS. Hope you don't need it but I don't wanna risk losing sight of you."

Gloria mirrored her grin and stuffed the disk into her bra. "We best be headed out then."

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Gloria had expected to have to wait for the Shadow Knight's representative but as she pulled her bike up to the Loop, it became obvious that they'd been waiting for her in the open for awhile. On the steps across from the Cloud Gate sculpture sat a performer, strumming a steady tune on a jet-black acoustic guitar. If not for her encounter last night, Gloria would have written off the dark hood she wore and the colourful face mask as a costume to help draw attention to her performance. Except that the woman's outfit was also marked with the crescent symbol she'd seen and despite the personal touches it still looked very much like how Arc had dressed. Her hair was wild and red, accented by the colours woven into her mask and Gloria thought idly that she was pretty.

The guitar case on the ground, littered with coins seemed to indicate she'd been waiting patiently most of the morning. Her eyes flickered past the tourists and though she nodded at each one that tossed a coin to her, it was clear from the slightly predatory glint in her eyes that she was searching for someone specific.

Gloria strode towards her. She wasn't wearing her Phantasm outfit, at least not completely. Her mask and cloak were stuffed into a bag hanging over one shoulder. Without them she looked more like a biker than a grim reaper but she was just as capable of kicking someone's ass.

As she approached, the woman's eyes fixed on her but she didn't stop playing. When Gloria got closer she recognized the song. It was an old folk tune, one of a collection that her little sister Cassie used to like. She leaned on the stair railing next to the musician and added her voice to the instrumental.

[i]"Three things do not anger or you will not live for long,
A wolf with cubs, a man with power, or a woman's sense of wrong..."[/i]

She smiled slyly at the woman. "If that's a warning, it's a bit on the nose. But then" she gestured at the woman's ensemble. "So is this."

The woman matched her grin. "If heaven had a voice, you'd be the only one singing, partner."

Her hand slid into her guitar, the surface once having the consistency of reflective acrylic now rippled like standing water. When she pulled it out she was holding a small, woven bouquet of flowers. Pink and coral roses, and hyacinth, rimmed with fern. She held them out to Gloria, winking. "A token of my gratitude, though they fail to capture the beauty I see before me. That's the only thing that needs a warning."

Gloria was not entirely successful in suppressing a bashful smile. The woman was certainly a flirt but she hadn't forgotten why they were there.

"I don't take candy from strangers."

The woman shrugged taking no apparent offence to the gift's rejection and the bouquet disappeared back within the depths of the guitar.

The audience, who'd for the most part had not taken in the interaction between the two girls seemed surprised when she clapped the guitar case shut with a snap. "Alright, folks. I gotta run. Y'all enjoy yourselves."

Throwing the case's strap over her head, she ascended the stairs to the top of the platform, and motioned for Gloria to follower her. She still held the black guitar in one hand but she offered the other to Gloria in a handshake. "Name's Myriad, by the way. Myriad Eex. I'm probably the most playful bunch outta the Knights, lucky for us."

Like she'd refused the bouquet, Gloria pointedly refused the outstretched hand. "I'd introduce myself but I rather suspect you already know my name, probably more than one of them."

They stood under the massive, mirrored bean, their own reflections warped under the city skyline. Myriad took a step forward, and Gloria watched as her guitar melted. It curled into a orb in her hands, the same shade of black that the instrument had been. She tossed the small ball into the centre of the concrete, where it bounced once and sprung into a large, crackling black arch. It was a gateway. On the other side was a much less welcoming location compared to the brightly lit public square. It looked industrial, a plant or a lab. There were florescent lights casting an unflattering glow over the hall, a long grilled railing, and what appeared to be glowing tubes filled with clear liquid on either side. At the end of the hall, a metal door was inset into the concrete.

"After you," she said, grinning wide. Her head tilted as she studied Gloria closely. "You can hold my hand if you like."

Myriad inextricably reminded Gloria of the Cheshire Cat and she felt like she was about to stumble down the rabbit hole.

This was a bad idea. Going to a second location was a poor decision at a party, it was no safer with a shadowy organization. But, she thought, doing the calculus of risk assessment in her head, portal metas were rare and their range was usually limited. At the most, she expected the other side of this portal was still somewhere in the city. With any luck that would mean Quinn could get a signal from Gloria's GPS from within. Hopefully that meant she and Jinny could still provide backup but even if they were cut off it could provide them with a location for whatever this place was.

Wordlessly, Gloria stepped through the portal. The other side was even less inviting than it had appeared. The place was cold, the metal grate and the concrete walls uninviting. She didn't like the place any better now that she was actually there. She took comfort in the fact that the structure didn't look like it had been built recently. While Gloria had encountered places where electrified insulation had been baked into the walls, it was a security precaution that effected her, or people like her specifically. This didn't look like a place that had been designed to be meta proof, if it came down to it she felt confident she could lunge sideways through the wall. Of course she didn't know how thick it was or what was on the other side but then that was a worst case scenario option for a reason.

She glanced back at Myriad. "I feel a little under dressed." She pulled her mask out of her bag and clicked it onto her face, then, with a flourish she removed her cloak and in one swift move donned it, pulling the hood up. She would not admit to anyone how many times she'd had to practice doing that in the mirror before it looked as seamlessly cool as it did.

As Gloria donned her new attire, Myriad stepped through the portal behind her. She held a hand to her face in a playful 'oh my' expression which quickly morphed into a grin. "My, I'm starstruck," she chuckled. She reached toward the gateway behind them, and the black substance pooled in her hand before curling up her arm, solidifying. They were now sealed in.

"Where to?" Gloria asked.