12783/All That Glitters is Slime

All That Glitters is Slime
Date of Scene:	14 September 2022
Location:	Brooklyn, USA
Synopsis:	Sera and Harley chase down a lucrative bounty. It's inside a ghost that's causing traffic havok. Or is that Sera and Harley causing the havok? The Scarlet Witch, nearby, joins in the chase and once in the sewers they get to the bottom of things.
Cast of Characters:	Sera, Harley Quinn, Wanda Maximoff

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Sera has posed:
Sara thrusts out her hand, finger pointed at the yellow spectral being flying wildly between the cars on a busy Brooklyn street. "STOP THAT GHOST!" As if anyone of the normal human persuasion was going to casually lend a hand. Glowing magical wings burst from her back and she starts chasing after the ghost over car roof tops.

Walkie-Talkies may be out dated technology but they are also cheap technology. Who needs fancy shmancy ear pieces with cryptography when you can press a big hefty button, << "WHACKERDOODLES I'M on 4th GHOST IN SIGHT!" >> she calls out to her partner. The ghost careens through a taxi cab smashing its rear and then front windscreens eliciting a scream of surprise from the passenger and driver.

Harley Quinn has posed:
How many BENJAMINS are Harley's feelings worth?

Because yes, she had been BETRAYED by her old bounty hunter partner right after they were getting started in the biz! So there had been a lot of 'Nuh-Uh, won't help ya!' because the clownette had her PRIDE. And she wouldn't just betray her PRINCIPLES like that--- Ooooh, that's a lot of Benjies...

"Oh, you crazy bastard, I am in!"

And so it was that Harley found herself in the thick of it. Going after a ghost? What the ... "Shouldn't we have brought our ghostbusters gear?!" She is running after it, then she pointing to the ghost when she sees it briefly. "Stop in the name of the LAW."

Yep, because ghosts are very reasonable.

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
Everyone recommending the tiniest breakfast restaurant warns about showing up early before the hipster queue is six deep. Fern & Harlow fits the bill for Millennial authenticity, with all of six tables, local everything, and waiters who act like coffee sommeliers and gatekeepers to the delights of frittatas. Maybe it's worth the wait and maybe not, but even Wanda has to stand in line. Oh, she could get around that by shaking a little influence but that hardly counts. So she stands in front of a charming storefront barely a person wide, chalked signs out front and gold trim in abundance, waiting for life to happen.

Trust her to feel an inkling and turn, no longer scrolling idly through Depop. Stop that ghost is a loud enough shout to do the rest, especially when the waiting couple in front of her don't move. "Save my spot," she warns.

They'll close up the gap as soon as she moves. That's a peril she has to face before stepping out behind a boxy Kia Soul, head tilting. Traces of red light tease over her eyes for a moment, a blink and miss it experience. Really!

"Why are you running?" The question doesn't care about language, it's twisted by reality to be understood. The woman with her hands in her pockets steps out to the street, but not into it. She doesn't trust being flattened. A look up spots wings, a flash of them, and then right back to anyone chasing the haunt.

Sera has posed:
Sera side steps from one car to the other and then her wings beat taking her up on to the top of a school bus. Her foot falls echoing as the children clamber to the sides to see the action in.. action. She catches sight of Harley closing in and the ghost turns superhumanly down an alley way and cuts through to the next street over.

<< "GHOST HAS..." >> Harley's close enough she just points and shouts, "THAT WAY!" Her wings beat again and she pulls her turn quickly. Her curve isn't quite tight enough as she scrapes along the side of the alley wall before she rights herself and then runs out in to the oncoming traffic on the next street over.

Sera gets hit by a car and goes flying back. She rolls and bounces along the road until she comes to a stop against the next car along. "Ouch...," she says and stumbles back up just in time to see the ghost rushing down the street in the opposite direction.

The yellow specter was certainly not expecting to hear a voice in its mind, not one that it could understand at least. It responds with a thought: ~~BECAUSE CHASED!~~

Harley Quinn has posed:
"Wings are fuckin' unfair.." The clownette complains at the misery of it all and she having to use her FEET to get mobile. Why couldn't Ivy had just given her wings, like that redbull comercial, instead of this freakin' super strength! So inconsiderate of her friend!

"I can see it! Fly ovah and ...." *crash* There goes a Sera flying and bouncing off cars. Ow. Harley grimaces and looks around ...., and her eyes rest squarely on Wanda. Some familiarity there. Redhead, regal. "Haven't I seen you befoouh?!" Harley *DOES* have a Wanda action figure at home after all. "Ghost! Causing havoc!" and yes, this is pretty much Harley Quinn with the pigtails, hair painted in blue and red. Skimpy-ass outfit and sturdy boots. Baseball bat on a leather strap to her back.

She moves -past- Wanda and into the restaurant she was coming out of, streaking through the tiny place. It's clear she wants to take a shortcut through the buildings and go out the back to cut the ghost off!

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
Well, the chase is fairly evident. The woman has wings, the lady with the two-tone hair, and a string of cursing drivers speaks to the ludicrous nature of the situation. Trying to restore the peace might not be so easy. So much for a nice breakfast with the crème brûlée French toast everyone raves about. "Come here, you're going to cause an accident!" comes out of her mouth about the time that Sera gets struck by a vehicle, and she doesn't really think so much as act.

Running out into the road, she leaves Harley to deal with the ghost in favour of helping Sera. "See if you can calm it down. Ma'am, are you all right?"

It doesn't help that a boxy sedan has to swerve almost into parked traffic for another silly person in the road, but she isn't one to flinch at tanks or traffic, whipping her hand out to cushion the vehicle's careen around them so it doesn't rip a door off.

Sera has posed:
Sera blinks at the stranger checking if she's okay. Dressed in form fitting white clothes that looks vaguely Asgardian and glowing white wings burning in the air she nods her head, "I've hurt myself worse." She picks up her walkie-talkie from the road. Yes, real professional. << "DON'T LOSE IT HARLS!" >>

She gives Wanda a playful little wink and kicks a leg in to it and starts to run again; her wings beating to speed her up and get her back in to the chase << "WHAT IS ... What is ghostbusters gear?" >> She clicks the receiver button then remembers the magic words and brings it back to her mouth << "OVER" >>

Sera may have lived on Earth for a few years now but that doesn't mean she's caught up with every cultural cornerstone. Certainly the all important Fast and Furious series. That was essential. The ghost spreads its arms and lets out a beastly roar which chills the hearts of the onlookers. Several cars crash in to the ones ahead of them as people stare, transfixed in horror.

Sera takes to the car rooftops again. Hey, they're already smashed up what's a few foot prints on top of that. The ghost takes a sudden pause, turns and then shoots down in to the road. Sera blinks and catches up to the spot as a manhole cover goes shooting up in to the air. She catches it in her hands and then looks down at the hole in the road the ghost has disappeared down in to.

"Crap... why'd it have to go in to the sewers. I hate the sewers." She catches her breath and then looks at Harley having caught up with her fancy shortcut. "First in the sewers says huh?"

Harley Quinn has posed:
"Excuse me." "Passing through..." "What is it with these tight corridors!" "Ack!" "Ooooh, this is one damn nice croissant..."

The various stages of Harley running through that tiny restaurant. Which ends with her crashing back out onto the street as she opens the backdoor of the place. And all the while she is thinking about that redhead... She knows a few. Batgirl, April and uh ..., that other Batgirl? Or is it Batwoman?

<< Hol' up! That's Wanda Maximoff! >> She finally places that redhead she just saw out the restaurant. << The Avenger! >> because Harley doesn't even know how much Sera knows about anything. Not after she questions on what ghostbuster gear is. Clearly there will need to be an intervention. SOON. It may involve late night movie watching of the 80s.

<< Get her to help! But she ain't touchin' my benjies!" She needs those to repair her taco truck, you see?

<< Did you just say sewers? >>

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
Glowing white clothes don't make a difference, Wanda still asks after Sera's health. Because a quick one over doesn't hint at all medical conditions, but they can't do a proper diagnosis in the middle of the road. "Pain attracts the wrong things, especially if you're chasing something like a spirit." Her tone is slightly worried, one that becomes radically shifted when Sera runs and Harley's mayhem disturbs the restaurant. All eight feet of it, by the sounds of it. Clanging and noise is dimly audible, pursued by the clatter of her feet against the cement. Dimly audible beyond Sera's ramshackle run, she sprints after and careens into the skinny alley. The ghost probably has had better days, its aura of fear building and harming others.

The grim tiding hits her like a wave, and she snaps her fingers, the streetwear replaced by a scarlet top and leggings. No cloak; too hot! "Containing it will mean it's scared and angry. Has this ghost done anything to deserve me calling it?"

Her eyes aren't glowing yet, and that gives Harley or Sera time to run, clock her, or explain this is the ghost of Richard II, come to eat the souls of good little Englishmen. She curls her fingertips, reaching through the extended senses of her magic to feel the ghost's location. Helpful if she has to change its density.

Sera has posed:
Sera stares at Harley, talking in to the walkie-talkie right next to her. "You didn't say over," she says. Harley insisted they have to say over. "You're meant to say over," so now Sera is insisting they have to say over. "Otherwise how do we know if the other person is over."

Sera waves to Wanda, Avenger, and thus: "FRIEND OF THOR. I TOO AM A FRIEND OF THOR! ONE MIGHT SAY GOOD FRIEND IF ONE WERE TO BE IN THE MOOD TO COMPARE FRIENDNESS QUANTITY WITH THOR." She glances at Harley and nods looking for encouragement. She's nailing this surely. "PRAY TELL WILL YOU HELP US CATCH THIS MENACING GHOST WHICH STANDS BETWEEN ME AND MY RENT PAYMENT?" Not just Harley's benjies at stake here.

Not that she needs to be yelling. "You were meant to say huh," she states flatly to Harley. Then glowers. She's the first one to say huh. "Crap." Fell for her own trick. She's not good at this.

She says, "You convince her. She's wearing one of your colors." Very sound logic there. She pinches her nose with her fingers and then drops down the manhole in to the sewers with a splash. "Ugh. It smells so bad."

Harley Quinn has posed:
"Nyeehehehe.." Harley lets out a wicked little laugh when Sera falls for the OLDEST trick evah! And now she will have to be the first going into those sewers. Harley certainly doesn't mind because she still has a croissant in hand she is devouring. Her other hand is holding one other. A spare? Or maybe it's to buy someone's help!

"What do you say, Ms. Wanda? Want to join a pair of plucky bounty hunters in gettin' this ghost? And ...." she looks at Sera, "I am not suwah what happened for it to be runnin', but theah's a bounty on it..." she looks at Sera, "It stole something...?" she doesn't really remember the details.

"Oh, and have a croissant. Your choice of restaurant was .., chefskiss!" She will hand the extra croissant over to Wanda if she accepts it.

"Can you see anythin' down theah?!" she asks of Sera.

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
"Wh-- thank you. That's very kind of you." Do you eat food given to you by a clownette? Do you come from a culture that frowns on turning down hospitality? Wanda's not Cu Chulainn but boy she feels like it, accepting the croissant and leaving it to hover beside her idly because she needs both her hands. "A ghost has a bounty and it stole something? We can hear its side of the story then."

Being in full witched out ensemble she is not, missing the crown and the spooky bits, but definitely noticeable. That means phones are out, taking photos of her and the angel and the famously disruptive Gotham Siren. With caution, she holds out her hand and shapes a spiral of energy into a glowing red symbol. It effectively acts like an annoying chime that someone hasn't worn their seatbelt, but only to ghosts, and more like "C'mere. Come here. You know you wanna come here."

This may or may not work. But the point remains, as she shapes her craft carefully. "I'd like to avoid entering a confined tunnel with a spirit, if that's fine with you," she whispers to Harley. The road to sewers is paved with good intentions; her magic might not work.

Sera has posed:
With the light shining down through the manhole in to the sewer she can see somethings. The steady flow of effluence between her boots. She frowns at that. But also yellow slime dripping from the tiled ceiling top. The spirit in question is pacing back and forth ahead in an open catchment area. It looks agitated, no doubt because of the spell Wanda has crafted to annoy it.

"Yeah. I can see the jerk. He looks like he's hyperventilating... do ghosts breath?" She's pretty sure they don't. With sloshing she advances forward. The tips of her wings brush against the sewer walls scraping off gobs of yellow slime.

"Hey. Ghostface. You're in possession of Mrs Reiners necklace," she informs the ghost. It continues to circle and pace about seemingly panting. << "Hey. It's.. it's being weird.." >> crackles the radio on Harley's belt << "Over" >>. "Please poop the necklace at once." But the ghost doesn't seem like it's listening to humanoid voices right now.

Harley Quinn has posed:
"Well, according to GhostBusters 2 I think Vigo did. BUT, might just had been bad acting!" Really. Asking a clownette what she knows about ghosts? You get the movie treatment!

It's when Wanda promotes diplomacy that Harley grins. "Oooh! I like it... But that means..." and she looks down at the sewer. "We gonna have to go down theah..." oh, the sacrifices she does for her benjies! And she jumps down.., splash around her boots.

<< We are on our way. Over! >> then she points at the ghost and looks over to Wanda. "It looks like I am sometimes, talking with my friends..." the imaginary ones? "Hey, buddy! We are the real ones! Can you sorta give us that necklace back? We have a nice witch heah that can help you!"

Not too sure about calling the Scarlet Witch 'nice' but hey, the Ghost doesn't have to know!

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
The sacrifices an Avenger makes usually involve 'no sleep' and 'no family life.' Sewers are a step down from the big asks, but they don't become any more pleasant. Brooklyn's sewers date from a long time ago and they're not flushed out with orange-scented cleaner.

The Scarlet Witch can't just pinch her nose and hop down. She tries not to make a face when descending, her hair floating a little from the chime spell hanging in the air. <<We've been trying to contact you about your stolen necklace.>> That might be a better message, but mostly it just repeats the 'pay attention to me' bleat over and over. Good thing no one else really has to hear that.

Getting into the sewer means quietly proceeding behind Harley and Sera, because it /is/ their case. Stealing money from working women isn't really her job. "Does it speak English? Here, I have...." Only by cheating does she have magnetic chalk, and something she can provide to Harley. It's blue. "Maybe you could write on the wall what he should do? Or what you want?"

Sera has posed:
The ghost snaps its attention to Wanda as she approaches, looking past Sera and Harley. Its 'panting' seems to cease immediately and its form begins to grow becoming more and more translucent until it disappears. The wind in the tunnels seems to pick up as the light darkens to almost black.

"What'd you do?," Sera asks Wanda, "I don't think it liked it, whatever it was." Her lips part and she sings a lullingly beautiful tune and light begins to glow from around her, enough to cut through the darkness and dimly illuminate the sewers.

Sera turns this way and that and frowns. The sewer tunnels seem to be stretching off in to the distance. "Yeah I really don't think it liked whatever it is you just did. Okay, no more misses nice angel," she declares.

Her voice begins to sing again and she summons holy fire. It erupts from Harley's baseball bat, glowing white flames, and a similar alighted sword appears in Sera's left hand. "Oh I get it. You wear red and you're a witch. Scarlet Witch. That makes good sense. Good naming. I'm Sera. This is Harley. And this ghostie stole a necklace from a rich woman who is paying us handsomely to return it to her."

Harley Quinn has posed:
Oooh, chalk! Harley is going to start writing but then the ghost just disappears. "Well, that's just rude.." but then she gets a glowing baseball bat and that makes things better.

"Did you tell him anything?" This she asks to the Scarlet Witch. "Maybe the necklace is very significant to it... You know, from all I have seen ghosts don't just manifest like that, they gotta have a anchor, or something meaningful to them... Could the necklace belong to them?" she now asking both Sera and Wanda now.

"I don't wanna just whack at it! What if the necklace didn't belong to the rich woman originally but instead to this ghost?" beat, "Well, when it was alive that is."

The clownette with a heart!

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
"It sounded better than red woman or red sorceress," Wanda murmurs thinly as the lights drop. Not that sewers are ever particularly bright, but she lifts her palm to feel for the disturbances. Or it might seem that way as she shifts her fingers, taking advantage of the thick atmosphere. "I found a piece of chalk, that's all. Maybe it fears written communication." Not by the sounds of it, but you never know. "I have only made it difficult for it to flee. It's hard to ignore. However, have you considered the ghost is bound to the necklace? Sentimental items tend to be. Who is the spirit?"

The music may be over soon but it's rather pretty all the same to recall. Peaceful, and quite elegant. "You use song craft for your spell work? Very clever, rather uncommon. And as you say, ma'am," Harley there, "we might be holding its anchor. They defend their anchors strongly. Someone who had it might have been abusing it through the anchor. I won't just attack it without just cause."

Sera has posed:
The tunnels rumble deeply, like a monster preparing to speak - but no words come. The air softens and there is a pensive feeling in the air. Two children run past them, ghostly apparitions in the darkness. "We're being haunted," Sera states as she circles around the space slowly keeping her back to the tiled walls.

Both Harley and Wanda seem to raise a valid point, "So. An exorcism then?" She nods to Wanda as she recognises the way her magic manifests. Like most magic it feels alien and strange - not from any sorcery schools of Earth that's for sure.

A woman calls out with a distinctly German accent, "Do not run far Bat, Cheli, be safe, stay where we can see you." It is a hushed call. The woman becomes visible, dressed in simple but warm clothing. A man approaches and he looks nervous. From his pocket he takes out a necklace; the very necklace they are chasing. "Ella... Ella Reiner," he says with his heart racing. His anxiousness fills the sewers.

One of the edges of the sewer falls away. There are train tracks and other people milling about. They are speaking hushed German and touches of Hebrew and Yiddish. The man drops to one knee and the woman turns to him. She is youthful and blushes at his advances. "Ella Reiner.. I do not have a ring but this was my mothers." He places the necklace in her hand. "Ella Reiner would you do me the greatest honor of being my wife?"

She opens her mouth to respond when men in uniforms with SS written on their lapels enter the area with guns pointed. "HALT!" They yell. The nazi troops fan out and the people begin to run. Shots are fired, the panic is palpable in the room as the anonymous man drops to the ground. He looks on in fear as Ella Reiner runs in to the darkness with the other fleeing jews.

The space becomes cold, chilly. Sera may not know about world war 2 but she knows war. Her eyes fill with tears and she chokes back a gulp. "Harley. Write with the chalk. Tell it she made it - she must have escaped to America, her descendants still possess the necklace."

Harley Quinn has posed:
"Yea ...., just like when we got that freakin' shadow in the karaoke! You know, I as banned for like a year from going to the Sing Sing bar." Harley. Mistress of exorcisms! "Just cos I blew up the windows with my singin'..."

Harley nods at what they say. Anchors. They are on to something. And that merits investigation. Because not everything is solved with a bat to the face!

Just 99% of things.

The scene they get into isn't something Harley wasn't expecting. She blinks, watching it all unfold. "No!" a swing of her bat to one of those nazi troopers but it's for nothing, it just goes past the vision.. She nods mutely at Sera, for once not having a witty thing to say in return and begins to write on the wall quietly.

<Ella made it here.> another line, <The necklace belongs to her ancestor now.>

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
Harley blowing up windows with singing gets bookmarked. "Sounds like Silver Banshee," Wanda says under her breath. Her eyes narrow when the German woman opens her mouth, and it's something the Transian sorceress understands immediately. Her arms cross in front of her, almost defensive, palms facing downward instead of upright to show no harm. "Jewish," she says, but it's not needed. Blood thickened by sorrows and the sins of the father courses through her veins, same as her twins, and the cultural inheritance of the Roma and a Jewish man's daughter aches.

For that reason alone, she doesn't bring down the sewer in a fit of rage or repressed horror. Too late to stop what was done before she was conceived by a blighted moment of anguish. "Don't hurt him. He's done no wrong." An act of thought unravels her spell from the streetside, leaving the place strangely silent.

It's been a long time since she has to try to speak in Hebrew, but she can manage the basics without cheating. "We are sorry. Here safe is you."

Sera has posed:
"You did good singing," Sera remarks and her sword disappears from her hand. Instead, her finger tips wipe at the tears. The children run past again. The woman calls out again. The man once more walks in anxiously and then pauses as Wanda speaks to him in one of his languages. His eyes turn to the glowing words on the wall.

He looks to the woman and fishes the necklace out of his pocket. It's the real necklace he's holding. He smiles with sadness and nods to the three of them.

With a puff of air, the cold disappears and the light returns. The necklace drops in to the sewage water. Sera picks it up in her hand and looks it over. "I think he has moved on. We have given him peace. He must have been clinging on to this object trying to make sure she made it when he didn't. You will have to tell me about this war - I prefer to know the history of this world that I've adopted."

She nods to Wanda and then walks over and nudges Harley's shoulder with her own. "Let's get out of here. We have a bounty to collect and a story to tell Mrs Reiner." Because she deserves to know what her ancestor witnessed. "Are you okay Scarlet Witch? why don't you come with us - perhaps you could get some closure too by meeting our client."