Somewhere in the back room, by the massage table, a single snowflake flutters down from nowhere.
It hits the ground and evaporates into a thick fog, blanketing the floor in an opaque slowdancing swirl. Daphne ascends from the white, as if climbing stairs. Once Dani exits with her, the fog fades to nothing.
”Thank you for coming with. I was… careless,” she admits, indignant angst sharpening her tone. Fortunately, mind-reading Dani can plainly see Daphne is only angry at herself, and her gratitude is sincere.
Bryn was really expectant to hear Archa's story and is clearly disappointed by the interruption.
"This is not a bawdy house and we are not soiled doves!" Bryn adds to Archa's reply, just in case the people outside were interested in that.
While she notices Daphne and Dan'i returning, she looks at Archa, wondering if she will start her tale now.
Bryn's announcement causes some confused silence and then a round of low mumbling. After a minute it becomes clear that the men have moved on and peace descends once more, broken only by a steady dripping from the back room which speaks to a leaky pipe.
Then Dani's phone buzzes with a text message - from *lightbulb**moon*.
Not sure what you did but you owe me for repairs.
It reads.
It'll take a while, so go out of town and visit your Mom in the meantime? Maybe take a boat and find a good Captain to go over the lake with?
”Thank you for coming with. I was… careless,” she admits, indignant angst sharpening her tone. Fortunately, mind-reading Dani can plainly see Daphne is only angry at herself, and her gratitude is sincere.
"No trouble at all, dear," Dan'i replies, drawing in the girl for a quick hug. "I should have noticed the cameras as well. I'll claim being distracted by a rare beauty and leave it at that." She chuckles and leans in to place a kiss on the top of Daphne's head. "So shall we see how business has been since we left?" she jests as she releases the girl to head towards the front room.
As they return to the others, she pulls out her phone and looks down at it and the message displayed there. A perplexed expression crosses her face as she shows it to the others.
"I guess he wasn't too happy about the cameras either, but I don't understand the rest," she says.
”Is visiting your Mom the sort of thing we can all do?” Daphne asks, not exactly sure where ‘Mom’ exactly is.
Is the boat akin to the River Styx ferry
"I'm not sure what he's trying to say there, and my mother is a wonderful person in her own way, but I don't know if taking everyone on a visit home would be a good idea," Dan'i says, looking around at the others. "My family is ... let's just say that my culture is a lot different than yours and leave it at that."
Daphne gives the message another read. ”I believe he is unaware of my meeting on camera… or at the very least, would text me on that. The repairs seems more about the building, and the road.
“If we need to stay further away from the mess, the Snow Globe can move us nearly anywhere in the city.” Remembering the mission, she asks, ”What of our ten-o’clock?”
Not knowing how to read, Bryn doesn't pay much attention to the message. While she stays silent, letting the girls talk about something that was probably not of her business, she does pay close attention.
"Let's do what we need to do," Archa says, feeling a bit out of her depth at the moment. But that's part of being a hero--bravely pushing on when you're not sure what you're supposed to be doing!
"I might be able to arrange ... something ... that would fool someone into thinking that a regular stone ball was Bryn," she says after thinking about it for a few minutes. "Give me a moment."
She heads off back to the room she's claimed as her own. A few minutes later and there's a ... change ... in the air. Whether it's a change in the pressure, temperature, or simply a general unease, it lasts for almost a half hour before suddenly everything returns to normal.
Dan'i returns from the back room with a smile on her face. Holding up her hand, she displays a keychain charm in the form of 'Hello Kitty'. At the questioning glances, she shrugs. "It's designed to prevent someone else from stealing your keys," she says by way of explanation. She gestures to Daphne to hold out her hand. When the girl offers a single one, Dan'i shakes her head. "No, both hands." When the second joins the first, Dan'i gently lowers the small plastic charm into her outstretched hands and then carefully lets go of it.
As Dan'i releases it, Daphne feels the mass and weight of the small token increase drastically. While the size and shape never change, the plastic idol is now easily measured in the hundreds of pounds.
"If we put that inside a rock, do you think that will fool anyone?" she asks.
”I think this can work… now we just need a hollow rock, so I might form a snowglobe inside it.”
Bryn is a bit away from the others and angry for their attempts to convince her to enter some sort magical globe. She is holding a large piece of rock that she had sensed and dug up from the alley close to their hiding place.
"I don't think I have enough control to create a hollow shape exactly like your magic globe and that silly cat thing, but I can certainly form it around them."
Daphne considers this.
”Okay… so the rock will have the right look and the right weight. The snow globe is unseen.. Dani can spy from within, and I can teleport us out.
“With the globe contained in solid rock, the enemy won’t know we were ever there.”
Daphne wants to test her ability to teleport while the globe is encased in rock before setting the trap. If successful, she suggests Archa stay with Bryn, ”And Dani and I can spend the night in the globe, in case the enemy comes early or thinks to scout in the early morning, suspecting a trap.”
What exactly happens during the night between Daphne and Dani is fated to remain forever a mystery but the next morning Archa places the heavy rock in the planter as instructed - although getting to it through the ruined apartment is something of a challenge.
About five minutes before ten a soft whirring can be heard and a large drone maneuvers up to the window. It extends a grabbing arm and seizes the rock, although its motors whine in protest at the action. With it secure the drone turns and heads deeper into the city.
Inside the snow globe everything remains quiet, although Dani (with Daphne's help) can detect the minds of the people below. After a while even those minds fade and she can't find anything to detect.
As the pair finally take the risk and teleport out of the snow globe they find themselves in a small warehouse. The drone has deposited the rock on a small table and deposited itself in a rack with four or five other identical drones.
Most of the warehouse is filled with crates, drones and a larger robot which has a number of different arms with various tools. Clearly this is someone's workshop although the only access seems to be a skylight some fifteen feet above - suggesting that the robot must be remotely controlled somehow.
On the upside nothing is moving so you can probably explore safely. On the downside there's probably going to be cameras, or something similar.
The Crass Crown does not wish to be on camera again.
She makes a quick assessment to see what else is important besides cameras.
As Daphne searches for cameras, Dan'i closes her eyes and stretches out her mind. Seeking indicators of other people close by, she searches this way and that for stray thoughts that would give away any nearby watchers.
Daphne shoots off a number of icy glares, freezing the four cameras she spots in the corners of the room before the pair of heroines set to work searching the place.
The search turns up a number of high end tools, from an angle grinder and circular saw right down to some precision microtools, but nothing that identifies an individual. Searching the crates is more helpful. Most of them are uninteresting, but one, hidden inside another larger crate, holds a steel box marked 'highly dangerous'. It is locked and tightly sealed with no obvious way of opening it.
It's the only thing of interest but the moment Daphne picks it up the robot in the corner whirrs to life and a song blares out of hidden speakers.
She takes my hand and leads me in
It is not over
She sets the mood so I begin
And I walk over
She speaks the word to make me grin
Can I please have her
We grab a hold to brace the end
This is what I am speaking of
"Put that down." The robot says, the voice heavily synthesised. "I don't know how you got in, but if you want my help you're going to get out, immediately, and leaving all of my property."
Daphne says, ”I had no intent to steal.”
She puts down the thing she was apparently not supposed to pick up.
“Are you the one who left the note on Zyrian’s door?” She doesn’t see the harm in name-dropping, now that Zyrian has skipped town.
"He wanted my help to find Fragment." The robot says. "I told him to get me the orb from that convoy. Interesting show that. Now, take the orb and put in on the lid of that box you were so keen on. Then you can leave. I'll send you the information you need once you've gone."
With a groan an old door swings open, half obscured by one of the shelving units. The unrelieved darkness of Sable City spills in from outside.
When the orb is placed on the box a muffled voice speaks, apparently from inside it.
"That's not Bryn. Hey you, let me out! We had a deal, damnit! I'm not going to be your f%@#ing slave any longer!"
:: Dani, is that voice another robot or a living person? ::
Once confirmed there is not a living person here, Daphne asks, ”Who exactly am I talking to? There are two voices.”
"You came here without any idea of what you were actually doing?" The metallic voice seems somewhat incredulous. "Wow, you're pretty but you sure are dumb. Don't worry heroine, I have enough brains for us both."
The robot wiggles a little and then stills once more. "My name isn't important, I heard about your friend looking for Fragment and I can help you find him. Once you leave."
Daphne’s not about to argue with someone who calls her stupid. He’s made it clear he’s no ally. He has a secret.
And that secret is a slave.
”If I’m to count on you for help, why the hurry to show me the door? Did you not know ditzy blondes are curious? Alice of Wonderland, the Princess Bride, career-hopping Barbie, Lisa Simpson, Tinkerbelle?” She walks closer to the box with each name-dropping.
She grabs the box.
”Curiouser and curiouser,” she says as the orb rolls off the box and clunks onto the floor.
Dan'i steps up to Daphne's side.
::I haven't met any of those women, but is this really how we should play the game?:: she sends.
:: Probably not, :: the Crass Crown admits.
"That was unwise." The robot says as turrets spring from the walls and unload into Daphne.
"You with the horns. You can leave." The robot continues. "Or fight and die."
Daphne takes the hits, and takes them, and takes them. She is rattled. She almost loses control.
”You don’t know what I’m capable of. You claim you will help, but you keep a slave, and you’re quick to attack.
“So let’s dance.”
Daphne leaves the box where it is and skates right at the robot! She bashes its metal body with her own impenetrable flesh!
"Oh, I can leave, can I?" Dan'i questions with a laugh. "How magnanimous of you." She turns her mental focus on one of the turrets. "You humans have some really strange customs. Where I'm from? We don't just walk out on our friends."
Concentrating mental energy, she attempts to pull the box towards her. It wobbles, but doesn't move.
Daphne and the robot collide with a crash and bounce away from each other once more.
"That wasn't nice. These things are expensive you know!" The voice declares as the turrets turn their attention to Daphne and fire off another burst of lasers at the Outsider.
The robot plants itself in the doorway, clearly intent on not letting you leave.
Daphne attacks but…
…she is unable to budge the robot! She slips on her own ice bridge, staggers back—
✴️✴️✴️✴️✴️
—and the world is suddenly very different! Cold is white, heat is black, everything else is baby blue.
Wendy called this InfraCyan. She was sixteen when she…
The feeling Daphne has in her body is both subtle and spectacular. No words can describe the stealthy surge. Simply, there is no object she can’t carry. There is no surface she can’t ram her fist through. Her dear nerdy cousin always said she’d be the strongest Hatrix…
”You will regret blocking our exit,” she promises.
Dan'i stumbles back in pain as the lasers burn through her.
"F!+!! That hurts," she snarls. Daphne feels a buzzing in her mind as the outsider's anger radiates out from her. "When we finally meet, I'm going to trap your mind in a barrel of fire-hornets and laugh while you scream."
She attempts to direct some of that anger and frustration into a blast of energy directed at the turrets, but again something is interfering with her concentration.
"Should have run while you had the chance." The robot replies, its voice sounding rather smug. "I usually work on machines but I'm sure we could figure something out."
The lasers continue to focus on Dani - apparently the person on the other end likes watching her hurt.
The dropped crate shakes, as though something inside it is moving.
Attempting to dodge more laser fire, Dan'i drops back behind some of the crates.
Dan'i frantically looks around in an attempt to locate the source of the turrets' power. Spying what she thinks is an electrical junction box, she sends a blast of mental energy towards it.
The Crass Crown says, ”You don’t understand how hard you pushed me. So much so, that I am too grateful to destroy you. I could leave. You think obstruction can contain me, but why exit a door when there are walls and ceilings?”
Daphne flies through the ceiling, puncturing a 10’ x 10’ hole regardless of its material. She flies into a wall from outside! A 10’ x 10’ chunk of wall flies across the room, bashing into things and destroying them! She flies out the opposite wall! Then enters another—the chunk of wall causing more destruction, but narrowly missing a support column.
She leans on one, tapping her fingers against it.
”What fun it would be to rip this column out, and use it to bash that column. Do you wish to fire more of you silly lights, or will you give me the information on Fragment—now—and tell me who you are enslaving?”
Her fingers start to make imprints in the support column as she grips it.
”I suggest you choose your next words carefully.”
As Dani retreats the robot cackles and a thrum of power tells of something significant about to happen. Suddenly Daphne sees a wave blast out from one of the turrets which hits the box Dani is hiding behind and sends it, and her, crashing through the wall and out into the open air beyond. She skids forty or fifty feet across an empty parking lot before crashing into a parked car with a nasty thump.
Then Daphne takes advantage of the robot starting her job and provides a truly spectacular amount of ventilation for the workshop.
"You don't seriously think Fragment is going to meet with you do you?" The robot asks, the voice on the other end clearly shocked. "He's an arms dealer, has to work underground and you couldn't be more obvious if you bloody well tried! There! I've sent his contact info. Now get the hell out!"
Daphne's phone pings with a notification. She's certainly been sent something. And Dani is already 'the hell' out.
Daphne calmly walks toward the direction Dani was blasted in. ”Sorry, whoever you are that’s talking through the robot. Our one subtle teammate got scared off by your love letter.
“Men, right?”
She walks by a support beam. A tap of her finger causes a momentary, minor quake… but no further damage. She keeps walking.
Outside, she kneels by Dani. ”You. Me. Snowglobe. Tonight.” She offers her hand.
Dani perhaps senses a change. Daphne is suddenly less frigid.
Dan'i accepts Daphne's aid as she climbs up from the pile of rubble she was splayed out on. She grimaces slightly with the effort, but no major injuries are readily apparent.
"What? No table shower?" she questions with a grin. Brushing off some of the dust and inspecting her clothes for damage she asks, "What should I be wearing? You humans are notorious for requiring just the right clothes for the occasion."
Daphne locks eyes with Dani. ”Table shower first.”
She flashes a vision of the skull inside the box that had a voice.
:: If you want to smash the robot to bits, I’m with you. If you want to leave, I believe we have what we’d come for.
Dan'i seems to consider Daphne's suggestion for a moment, her gaze turning back to the building that she'd just been rudely ejected from. But then raising her hands in a dismissive gesture she shakes her head. "Nah. F%!# him. I'm too tired and sore to smash anything. Let's get back home and get cleaned up."
Daphne skates into the air, flying alongside Dani, eyes roaming her body with InfraCyan vision. Does pain emit heat? If so, there should be dark spots where the pain is.
What Dani may notice about Daphne even without the ability to detect thoughts is that Daphne craves her, where before, the very thought of intimacy shut the girl down.
”I want to massage you. I want you to take me. I don’t want to know about the others before me. I don’t feel threatened by them. Take what you know and teach me to please you.”
She doesn’t explain her sharp 180. She isn’t warm and fuzzy about it. She’s confident, curious, ready.
I can feel, she thinks.
While gracefully gliding through the air, Daphne whips out her cell phone.
”Deven, I believe we have the contact we were looking for. The contact who ‘helped’ us is a strange one. He was in a stuffy warehouse. I improved its ventilation, but left his toy soldier intact.
“I suspect we are not on friendly terms.” She will gladly provide details in plain English, if need be.
”Dani and I should arrive within the hour. How are you and Bryn holding up?”
"We're good! Fly safely! We will see you when you get here," Deven says to Daphne over the phone.
After the call ends on a polite and congenial note, Daphne leaps from her air-skating, flips through the air, flies, and enjoys it!
She takes Dani’s hand. :: Can you read my mind?
Of course you can! What I mean is, can you feel the change in me? I’ve been so joyless for so long. I don’t know if this means I can’t get hurt now… ::
:: …but it’s worth it, just to be able to feel! ::
She lets go of Dani’s hand, air-skates, does a Let It Go twirl, and ends in front of the succubus(?), flying backwards, desire in her ice blue eyes…
Dan'i laughs at Daphne's exuberance.
::What changed?:: she sends with a smile as she flies along, keeping pace with the excited woman. ::I mean, I would love to think that it was simply the thought of my company you couldn't resist, but, unlike my mother, my ego isn't that big.::
:: Being invulnerable means feeling nothing[/i]. A kiss… nothing. Those tingles my cousin explained to me when we were fifteen-sixteen… nothing. Butterflies in the stomach before I date… ::[/i]
She grins at Dani.
”I’m feeling that now! I’m not even nervous… I just feel a physical response from my body, and before that robot flustered me, feeling this was impossible!”
"Well, we'll just have to take advantage of that while it lasts. Won't we, Luv?" Dan'i answers, her grin widening.
~~~~
Upon arriving at the shop, Dan'i explains what they discovered at the meeting, including the bit about a skull in a box. "So," she concludes with a hungry glance at Daphne. "Any suggestions? What should we do about it?"
"You've found Mark? Where is he?" She asks, looking around the girls as if expecting they were hiding her friend from her.
Daphne replies, ”We left him there. He did not mention his name, but if this Mark is your friend we absolutely must go back for him.”
Bryn looks a bit surprised with the revelation. "Oh, do talking skulls are a common thing? Mark implied we were both 'one of a kind'..."