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[h2]Phantasm[/h2]
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[u][url=https://goo.gl/maps/FpH6B4XGad6hC8ic6]Love Street[/url][/u]
[i]Lincoln Park, Tenebrae[/i]
[@Estylwen]

The bottle rocketed towards Arc hard and fast. Gloria had a practiced hand with a bottle. It came from far too many bar fights. She was gratified to see panic glimmer brightly in Arc's eyes. After the waterfall of condescension that had been flowing out of his mouth since the moment she sat down next to him, seeing him off guard, seeing the realization that he wasn't as prepared to deal with her as he'd thought was more satisfying to her than knocking him on his ass would have been. No doubt she'd get to that, but this was enough for now. 

In the moment before the bottle struck him she saw the shadow of a plan in his eyes as they flicked towards her friends. The Valkyrie's table hadn't been directly in the path of her throw but it wouldn't take much of a redirection to send it spiralling towards them. In that moment her mind ran over a dozen contingencies, the fire extinguisher, a stack of towels behind the bar she could use to smother the flames, the first aid kit under the bar. Even as these thoughts occurred to her she saw Quinn and Jinny moving to push their table sideways, forming a barricade to deflect the attack. She smiled, it wouldn't keep them completely safe but it would deflect the brunt of the flaming alcohol, they'd escape third degree burns. Quinn had always been good at calculating the consequences of Gloria's rash decisions and on more than one occasion, saving her from those consequences.

Then something strange happened. Arc's hand shot out but instead of deflecting the incoming firebomb, he caught it. The glass exploded in his hand, a combination of the stress fractures in the glass and sparks from his own lightning.

The patrons who had been content to watch the unfolding fight now retreated from the flames with panicked shouts.

Arc meanwhile was engulfed in flames. He remained motionless, his eyes were bent on Gloria through the fire and she could see the silver diamonds in his eyes shining with anger.

Far too slowly and calmly for his current predicament Arc produced a small, grey orb, from somewhere in his clothes which he tossed onto the ground. Flame retardant foam erupted from it, covering him and the area around him in white extinguisher goo. It choked the flames for oxygen which promptly died. Smoke curled off Arc's body and he wiped a hand over his face, clearing his eyes of the goo.

This would have been the time to strike, he was off guard and partially blinded. But she didn't. Something was wrong with how he'd reacted to her attack and she wanted to see what he'd do next, why he'd taken the hit so directly like that.

"Do you have any idea how much damage that could have done to literally anyone else?! Huh?" he shouted, gesturing to the room, "If anyone else got hit with that, what would have happened?" He couldn't have been badly injured. His condescension was back.

Arc pressed the bridge of his nose, as if collecting himself. There it was again. He simply stopped. It was almost like he was redirecting from what he [i]wanted[/i] to do to what he [i]had[/i] to do.

He gestured towards the briefcase. "381. That’s the code. The gift is yours. You managed to hit me and have completed your first mission."

Gloria walked through the bar as if it weren't there and inclined her head towards him, flashing him a winning, almost predatory smile that didn't quite reflect the possibilities that were spinning inside her mind. "Thank you so much for your time. Unless there was anything else..." she let the silence hang in the air for a moment before she pointed to the door with a motion of dismissal. "Go."

Once Arc was gone she grinned sheepishly at Haven's bouncer. It wasn't the first time a meta fight had broken out in the bar, it wouldn't be the last, but no one ever appreciated the people that started it.

Now among just her friends and strangers that weren't concerned with her one way or the other beyond annoyance that she'd interrupted their night out, Gloria let her hard shell drop somewhat. She grabbed the briefcase from the counter and slumped into the booth Quinn had gotten for them. She helped Jinny pull the table back onto its feet with a grunt and placed the briefcase on top of it.

"Two minutes and fifty eight seconds," said Quinn with a wry smile. "You said you'd only be a minute, it's enough to make a girl think something might have happened."

Gloria punched her in the arm playfully. She couldn't help but smile.

"So, what'd he leave?" Sonya asked, looking at the sleek black briefcase.

"I guess we should find out." Gloria punched in the three digit code he'd give her and popped the briefcase open. The interior was just as fancy as the outside. It was lined with foam, the kind used to insulate delicate equipment for transport. In the centre of the foam cut out was a small, black tube with a mouthpiece. She picked it up and shook it lightly. She could hear what sounded like sand rattling around inside. She put it back, not sure exactly what it was. The only other thing in the briefcase was a letter. The envelope was hard stock and it was sealed with an old fashioned wax seal with a vaguely medieval looking black symbol stamped into it. Gloria cracked it open and found inside a folded card of similarly heavy stock. It had a very simple message written on the interior in a very precise cursive hand. 

[i]Cloud Gate, The Loop.[/i]

It was an invitation to meet them again if their first meeting had caught her interest. She hoped it would be with someone slightly less abrasive than Arc.

"What does it say?" Sonya asked again.

"It's an invite, I assume to a job."

"Walker, I don't think Hel would be exactly thrilled with us contracting out to other groups."

"I know Sonya, I know. It's just..."

"What?"

"He took a dive at the end. He said I'd win the fight if I could [i]'lay him flat'[/i]. He was really anal about his word choice. Then, he let himself get hit and after that he called the fight. That didn't feel like a win, that felt like a forfeit."

"Why would he do that?"

"A guy with that much testosterone poisoning resisting the urge to try and beat me into the ground after I disrespected him... I don't know. It just seems... wrong."

"Would you like my two cents?" Asked Quinn.

Gloria smiled. "Always."

"He, or more likely whoever he works for, needs you for something. They need you far more than they want you to know. That guy knew it, he knew if he overpowered you or even if the power gap between you was close, you might lose interest. After all, you don't like being told what to do and I don't think you'd like working with a guy who had the potential to [i]make[/i] you listen to him. But they evidently sent him because he controls electricity, he's someone who can't be dominated by your abilities. Unfortunately for them, he doesn't know how to take a dive in a way that feels satisfying to his opponent."

"What are you going to do now?" Asked Siobhan who had been silent up to that point.

Gloria sighed, "Now, I'm going to go store this," she clicked the briefcase shut "on my bike and then I'm going to have a night on the town with my girls somewhere [i]'Shadow Knights'[/i] won't come looking for us."

When she returned, her jacket was missing, revealing a more club friendly top and she'd taken her hair out of the braid. She'd run a brush through it a few times while she was outside so it looked somewhat neat but it still held a flattering if tousled curl from being bound so tightly.

When Quinn saw her return in much more relaxed attire she smiled. "We need to find you a dance floor."

Gloria smiled, "I was thinking we head to Valhalla." It was a Valkyrie owned club which contrary to the name was not actually much more than a fancy night club. The gang didn't center any major operations there but the Norse theme of a lot of the Valkyrie's code words had definitely sent the police spinning in circles around the place on more than once occasion.

It was almost four in the morning before they stumbled back to Gloria's loft, drunk and laughing, to get some rest.