October 17, 2015:
Jericho has information to impart to Ozymandias… and Zee has information to share as well
New York
Characters
NPCs: None.
Mentions:
Plot:
Mood Music: None.
Fade In…
It took Jericho some time to dig through the personnel files on Shayera Hol, Diana Prince and Caitlyn Fairchild. It's not the sort of thing you can set up a process to datamine. For the most part it wasn't helpful to their present predicament. Interesting for getting into their heads but not real useful for locating them.
Until he ran across one reference in Hol's file. One very interesting one. It'd be ideal to tell Kate this but she's not available and that being the case the other long time veteran member in on this would be ideal. That'd be the one named 'Ozymandias.'
Quite separately, Zee had been in contact. Telling him there'd been an incident in New York. So he'll send off the same information to her he had to Ozymandias. Namely that he's at a cafe in Downtown Metropolis and he'd be happy to meet them.
Zee's kind of beat. That was a hard battle and if it hadn't been for Fenris helping her out, she might still be in the 'tender embrace' of Mephisto. Arriving nearby, via teleport, the teen mage walks into the cafe and, without ordering anything, sits at the table with Jericho. "No K'nert today, Jericho?"
Ozymandias has been traveling back and forth from New York to Metropolis for a few days now, and just happens to be in Metropolis, when he is contacted by Jericho. After swinging through the city, he descends in front of the cafe via his grappling hook. His descent to the street surprises a customer, but Ozymandias eases his fears by opening the door for him.
Ozymandias walks into the cafe and walks over to Jericho. He dips his head towards Zatanna too, a little bit surprise in seeing her here.
"He's about. Just hiding." Which is often the best kind of thing for K'nert to do in public. He nods to Zee and then to Morien as he comes in. "Ozymandias, hello. Have you met Zatanna?" She does look beat. He'll ask about that in a minute. "I've news regarding Hawkgirl." Who went missing. Zee might know the name. And might be familiar with the footage of them vanishing.
That's what Zee had expected to hear about K'nert and she acknowledges Jericho's comment with a small nod, as she looks at Ozymandias… she's not met this persona. "Hello Ozymandias, please call me Zee." the teen mage smiles before looking back to Jericho "So she is missing?" She's aware of the woman, and seen the media… "I had hoped that she escaped from whatever that was."
"Good news, I hope. The odds of a positive outcome lessens with each hour that they are gone." Ozymandias turns his attention to Zatanna as he smiles behind his mask at seeing Zatanna again. He still has her autograph in his photo album next to Houdini's. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Zatanna." Ozymandias turns back to Jericho. "Is this your ally you were talking about?"
"I think it's good news." Jericho murmurs. "While I was going through Shayera's file I came across a reference to Valmora. I'm lead to believe that it has sensors that can find her, no matter the distance. They led her here… from a great distance. Unfortunately it's at something called 'The Watchtower'. Wherever that is, someone should go get it. If it can find her, that's one problem down. Then we'll just have to figure out how to get there."
Zee gets a nod in answer to her question.
Zee smiles back to Ozymandias and listens quietly, Jericho knows that he can count of her help. It's Ozymandias' question that gets a puzzled look "Well, I am an ally … but he hasn't spoken to me about this." she pauses "I asked to meet him, to discuss other business." She looks tired… and Jericho will know that's from using her powers too much.
"I let Kate know about it. She should be able to find it at the Watchtower." Ozymandias sits down in his chair and crosses his arms in front of him. "I guess we can always trying going the same way that they did. My main concern is the getting back.
"We'd have to get them to open it again first. I can, in theory, get us back from just about anywhere, as can the woman who joined with me, Illyana." Well, that's the theory anyway. Jericho knows well enough that there are things that can prevent stepping disks from opening. Not many things but they do exist.
"It's an option, at any rate. But first we have to get to them. Now…"
Jericho turns his eyes on Zee. "What happened to you Zee?"
Zee's had a bit of experience with Apokolypse… not a lot though and she shakes her head at Ozymandias and Jericho "I really wouldn't recommend it. If you've other methods, try them first." She's sure between the magic users she's knows, they could likely get people back … but… it's risky.
"Another … demon." she answers for Jericho and then she clarifies "I answered a Titans call for a B&E at the Metro Museum. Initially it looked pretty mundane but I detected something magical controlling / connecting the thieves… so I followed the link." Now she shifts a little, perhaps uncomfortably, it's not like she really did anything wrong - but … "and nearly got caught by Mephisto…." she wonders if either of them know that name.
Mephisto, like with Faust?" Ozymandias tilts his head towards his right shoulder as he looks back from Zatanna to Jericho. It is doesn't take him to figure out that she is describing something or someone with that name. "Is it a being using the name of Faust, or was Faust inspire by this being? I guess it matters not, except the prior means the being is very old."
Jericho himself isn't sure. He knows there are hell lords of course but he doesn't exactly know any of their names. "Another demon mmm? Strong?" At least it's not connected to Limbo. The fact that it nearly caught Zee is concerning. "Did you get a sense that it was coming here or what its plans were?"
"Strong, very." Zee says to Jericho. It's saying something that it nearly caught her, she'd been careful in how she traced it. The Faust question gets a faint smile "I'm not sure, Ozymandias. I know the name, but I haven't had chance to do much research. Doom seemed to know it though…" and Zee doesn't want to have anything to do with Doom… for reasons.
Considering Jericho's next questions, she shudders "I don't know if it's coming here… but it wants to make all the /supers/ its servants." She won't say that it had wanted to keep her as a toy…
"That is a very grandiose plan for anyone. How does it plans to do that?" Ozymandias grinds his teeth a bit as he manuevers the condiments around the table. Ozymandias moves the salt around to one side of the table. "It is powerful to almost catch you, which I assuming by my Mister Trent's statement is not at easy task." Ozymandias moves the pepper next to salt on the table. "He is confident enough to tell everyone of his plans too."
Ozymandis puts the steak sauce, "And let us just assume that he like me he inspired Faust, instead of being inspired by Faust. Ozymandias peers down at the condiments. "All seems to add up to a very powerful being."
"Old, arrogant, powerful." Jericho sighs in agreement. "Servants. Mmm, well that's not a unique ambition. Without details though it's hard to say. Did you say that this was during a museum robbery? Was he connected to it or was it just coincidental?" Jericho knows better than most what kinds of magic can be stored in old things.
Zee smiles a little sheepishly at Ozymandias, watching as he shuffles condiments "Some will say that sometimes it's too easy. I'm sometimes not always … cautious. But in this case, I was. So yes, powerful" and she nods to Jericho "old and arrogant." Something she's familiar with.
"When I checked the scene for any magical interference, I found the thieves were 'linked' in pairs back to a controller… so I followed the link, hoping I could find out more." And she did… "There was a cabal of 6 mages… and then this demon. So I believe he was connected."
Pushing her hair back from her face, Zee shrugs a little "I will need to follow up more, but I believe they were stealing from the Egyptian and Celtic sections."
Beneath his mask, his left eyebrow arches as he become intrigued about Zatanna's encounter. "Do you know what they stole? I might be able to help come up with a hypothesis about what the items might be used for, or at least tell of their importance. It does depend of the age of the items."
Ozymandias says, "Anything else odd about the cabal of mages? Did you speak in a strange language or had strange markings on their bodies or clothes?
For now Jericho will listen. Ozymandias is asking all the right questions. Mostly he's concerned that they might have been gathering spell components. Old things tend to gather power, or so he's heard. Not being a mage himself he doesn't know all the ins and outs but it's definitely the first thing that comes to mind.
Shaking her head at Ozymandias "No, I don't know. But I will find out. I … wasn't really in a state to investigate at the time." She doesn't really have to think about the mages "It really was just the 'feeling' of the mages, I could tell there were six and they were using an ancient, evil magic." Now she shivers as she thinks about what felt next "Mephisto's domain though… I got images of hellfire and pits of flame, I could hear souls screaming in anger and disappointed." swallowing before she continues "And Mephisto himself was all red… "
Looking to Jericho, Zee shrugs again. She'd ask if she could speak to Magik but … she knows the Demon Queen has her hands full. Almost like she's reading his mind though "Whatever they were after… I think they've trying to construct something magical."
"Interesting, if you keep me inform I would love to offer my assistance, or at the very least see how it ends." Ozymandias states calmly, "You almost sound like you are …..Ozymandias waves his hand in the air to dismiss the thought, "Be careful, I have learned that there is more truth to the past than most people believe, and I am pretty sure that you already that evil is more powerful than anyone can imagine. You just need to look at the sky to know that there are only small points of light surrounded by darkness.
Jericho nods. "Morien's one of the more capable warriors I know. If anyone can help you he can. I'll help too as I can but I've got other projects." Ones Zee knows about. With that the hacker rises and K'nert, the little imp, comes skittering out of the shadows to join him. "Anyway, do give my regards and the news to Kate."
With that, and a bow, he'll see himself out.
Maybe it was the shock of the encounter… but Zee hadn't remembered the dream that she had… or visitation. Her eyes widen as Jericho take his leave and she looks to Ozymandias "There's a hero, called Captain Britain… apparently he is here in America. He… might be the one to help us with Mephisto." She looks abashed. "I saw it in a dream."
"Well, let me know if you or this Captain Britain need my help?" Ozymandias bobs his head from shoulder to shoulder as thinks about the things he has to accomplished, "I should be able to assist in a small way. I do try to keep a distance from affair dealing with the magic realm, but it seems that only the past year that I failed repeatedly in that endeavor."