8451/Grave encounter

Grave encounter
Date of Scene:	27 October 2021
Location:	Gotham Cemetery
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	Satana Hellstrom, Johnny Storm

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Satana Hellstrom has posed:
The ritual had gone well, deep under the Gotham Cemetery. From one mausoleum, one dedicated to the Hellstrom family, located deep in the heart of the winding paths, a line of people emerged.

They were an unusual mix, from the best of the well-heeled to the lowest of the homeless. Coming out singly, in pairs, or in one case in a small group of four, obviously-related, they didn't interact much. But their steps were synchronized, subconsciously or consciously, as if they were marching.

They made their way to waiting limousines, to parked Toyotas and Fords, or just wended their way on foot away from the cemetery. Two AM left them unnoticed by anybody on the ground.

Up in the air, though, shortly before their departure, there had been a strange atmospheric phenomenon: clouds moving upward in a widening shaft, like something invisible had punched a hole into them. The kind of thing that might attract the attention of someone flying by ... and, too, a finger pointing back to the source.

The last person to leave pauses at the entry to the mausoleum, watching the string of people leaving with a broad smile. Sated, now, hungers placated, she watched her cultists leave with predatory interest.

"Soon..." she murmured. "Soon I will have what you give me."

Johnny Storm has posed:
Dispatched out to Gotham was Johnny Storm, out to take some reading or another for one of Reed's various experiments. The Graveeyard having been identified as a high probability of being a good spot to place the sensor.

So, it's perhaps a surprise to those about when the man-shaped fireball comes descending towards the Cemetary from on high, like some sort of sentient comet. His trajectory slows as he takes stock of the scene departing, and he lingers in the sky above for a few moments before making his final descent and landing in the cemetary, flames dissipating shortly after.

"Gotham sure is weird.."

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
Flaming human coming from the sky. And it's not angelic flames.

"Dammit, Father!" Satana mutters to herself. "Why tonight of all nights?"

Of course she knew the answer. Marduk Kurios, when not embroiled in the machinations of Hell, would probably object to her subversion of his Church of the Dark Father, orienting them to her service. And now, possibly, he's sent someone to 'correct' her.

Already she starts to draw from the cemetery's powerful death magics to prepare for the upcoming battle.

For their part, the stragglers exiting the mausoleum, imaginations stretched to the breaking point by what they'd witnessed in the ritual performed tonight--a ritual that involved Satana feeding from a cultist and then immolating the body to fine ash--assume very wrong things about Johnny and start to flee in a panic.

Warily Satana waits for Johnny to land.

"How does this play out?" she asks him aloud after he lands. "Bluster and provocation? Or do I send you screaming back to Daddy? I'm ready for either."

Johnny Storm has posed:
In his hand, Johnny carries some device, a sphere that looks like it is home to several protrusions of one form or another, yet to be deployed.

The approach of Satana to where he lands draws some attention, notably the manner of dress the be-horned woman wears, brow lifting ever so slightly. "Well.. I haven't been sent screaming back to daddy in quite some time, so perhaps we should start with Bluster and provocation first, hmmn?"

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
The equipment in his hands recategorizes Johnny in Satana's eyes. From potential enemy to potential patsy. (How complimentary!) An embarrassed grin that passes for real spreads over her face.

"Oh! I'm so terribly sorry. I thought you were someone else."

Yes. It sounds very lame. And her face shows that chagrinned look of someone who knows that it's lame. She's very good with her masks after all.

The magics still gather, however. Flaming man? Could still be trouble. If it's not needed she'll find some other use for it.

She finishes locking the mausoleum before turning back to Johnny. "Family tradition. Every year at midnight we have ... dinner, of sorts? ... with the ancestral remains. It sounds dreadfully morbid I know!"

She approaches Johnny with the grace (and demeanour) of a cat stalking prey. "I'm Satana Hellstrom." Her hand waves behind her up to the name across the crossbeam. "Head of the living members of the family, since my brother has decided to ignore our lifestyle."

Johnny Storm has posed:
Many of these things could be easily within Johnny's considerable breadth of experience, scantily dressed demon women stalking him like prey among them. However, something does cause him pause, as well as a few rapid-fire blinks of his eyes, while much of the remainder of the explanation for the strange gathering is left ignored, or at least tabled for the moment. He simply asks...

"You mistook me for someone else?"

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"Yes," Satana said. "I thought you might be one of my father's servants. He gets a bit irritated by me."

The warm, low-toned chuckle is contrived to send thrills down the human spine.

"And now I can see I'm going to have to explain myself more," she says, attaching this to a fetching giggle. "But perhaps I should let you do ..."

She gestures to the machine in Johnny's hand.

"... whatever it was you came to do first."

Johnny Storm has posed:
"It's rare I'm mistaken for the one being sent by the father!" Johnny says with a laugh, "You must have had a bit of an isolated upbringing then, haven't you? Not from around here?"

Johnny glances down at the device in his hands, "Ahh this? some sort of spectro-magnoscanifier or something, I can't recall exactly.. but it was meant to take some sort of readings here.."

He pauses though, flashing a charming, well practiced smile of his back at the giggling succubus, "But I'm being rude, I'm Johnny, Johnny Storm."

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"Satana, as I said," the demoness says, stepping into the "radiant heat" zone for human bodies: that distance where each is aware of the presence of the other by ambient body heat. She puts her hand out for a shake ... or kiss? Carefully held at and ambivalent angle so either would fit.

"And ... yes, I was brought up ... elsewhere." The accent is flawless West Coast American with a bit of East Coast creeping into it.

The scent is cinnamon, musk, and something leaving a ghostly impression in the background of Reed's lab.

"Can I take a look?" she wonders, peering at the device, using that as an excuse to hold Johnny's upper arm for support as she bends down to look.

Johnny Storm has posed:
Body heat is one of those interesting concepts when it comes to Johnny Storm, for obvious reasons, the furnace of his body burning hotter than your average man, a delight for cats in winter, no doubt.

He takes the hand offered, and with a wry little grin does indeed plant his lips to it, despite the strangeness of their coming across one another. "If you'd like I suppose there's no harm in that, hmmn?" he asks, giving a curious look over Satana, and not just her choice of clothes. The device however, is offered out.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
The device activates as it goes into Satana's hand, without her turning it on. She looks it over as it starts to spew gibberish over its screen, blink rapidly in random patterns, and makes periodic strange noises like white noise meeting a sneeze. It then stabilizes into its normal operating mode as she gives it thoughtful regard.

"Interesting. This is very advanced. It would take me a while to figure out."

Says the bimbo wearing an outfit that would make a streetwalker go, "Hon, PUH-LEAZE!" and make a goth chick say "Whoah, I like skulls but, DUDE!" A person you'd not expect to understand one of Reed's machines, in short.

She hands it back to Johnny.

"You didn't make it, though." Not a question. "What is your speciality? You ... feel ... like a motorcycle stunt driver, but the only one of those I know who catches on fire is ... well ... not you."

Johnny Storm has posed:
"You really don't know who I am, do you?" Johnny asks, accepting back the device when it's handed back, "I've quite a lot of specialty's I suppose, it's hard to list just one..."

Johnny's eyes perhaps noting once again the choice of Attire Satana wears with a hint of a grin before nodding his head slightly, "I'm an engineer, but I didn't make this no. I'm a driver and pilot, and socialite extroirdanaire, I've fought a who's who of villainous threats across the multiverse and saved the Earth more times than I can remember."

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"Oh...!" The penny appears to drop. "You're the ... Human Lantern? Human Flamethrower? Something like that! A celebrity!"

Satana's demeanour changes yet again.

"I'm terribly sorry. It never even dawned on me that you're a real person I might actually meet. You always existed in the realm of the mythical like Santa Claus or a politician that isn't on the take."

There's a wry twist to her mouth as she says that. And a LOT more interest in her eyes.

"I know quite a few people who can catch fire, you see, so ... it just ... never dawned on me."

Beat.

"I'm one of them in fact."

Johnny Storm has posed:
"The Human Torch indeed! Not the most original of names, but we were young and we didn't really have a lot of folks coming before us to I don't know, take examples from!" Johnny grins a little bit over towards her.

"And I suppose there are a lot who've similar powers now days, aren't there? But yep, it's me in the flesh."

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
Satana backs off to let Johnny work the machine, watching it carefully. Mischief in her very nature has her taking some of the essence she dragged out of the graveyard for possible conflict and using it to mess with the readings. Not knowing what is being measured nor why, all she can really do is make them just be nonsense.

But she's guessing, hoping even, that Johnny won't recognize the results are nonsense. Let that be a surprise for whoever sees them.

"Reverse the polarity. That's what they always say on that show, right?" she asks teasingly.

Johnny Storm has posed:
Sensors and antenna extend from the orb like device and buzzes and whirrs come from it, and it is indeed true that Johnny wouldn't know what was being measured or why, even if Satana wasn't messing with the readings..

Sometimes reversing the polarity works, on and off that show, indeed." He says with a laugh, "Though I don't think this thing has anything to do with magnetic fields or anything.."

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"What will you be doing once you get all your readings?" Satana asks, then, looking at the device in apparently blank incomprehension. (Mostly real blank incomprehension. She'd have to spend a lot of time to tease out what it's doing. But she has ideas...for an early-warning system for Infernals approaching.)

"Do you have to run off...I mean fly, obviously...or can you stay a while?"

Beat.

"It doesn't have to mean here in the graveyard obviously."

Beat.

"Unless that's your thing. I'm easy."

And her posturing is confirming those last two words subliminally.

Johnny Storm has posed:
"Well, I'm not going to do anything with them." Johnny retorts with a slight grin in response to Satana's question, his gaze drifting a little about the graveyard before he turns his attention back towards her.

"But, I didn't have any.. pressing plans. Did you have something in mind you were interested in? Or somewhere in mind, perhaps?"

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"I could invite you to my home," Satana says with a private smile at a private joke, "but I think you might not like it much. There's always the option, I guess, of finding an all-nite diner and talking? But ... you're a public figure. That could get messy. People would take pictures of the pair of us together and I value my privacy. Perhaps ... well ... where do you go when you want to be private? You can fly, so surely you must have a nice nest somewhere that's out of reach of all but the most determined?"

Johnny Storm has posed:
"Well... I don't make it a habit of slipping off to private nests with barely clothed women I meet randomly in the graveyard..." Johnny says, perhaps even with a glimmer of truth in the statement he makes.

"But, if you're wanting to avoid eyes on you, then you're probably right, a diner probably wouldn't do. I suppose I could get a suite at one of the motels here in Gotham..."

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"Motels? In GOTHAM? Every one of them has a hotline to the scum-sucking side of the press!" Satana exclaims with a laugh. "That's a sure-fire way to make sure we're caught on camera and on the front page of every celebrity rag out there!"

She purses her lips a moment, thinking. "I have a Hellfire membership..." This seems to be funny to her in some way. "...and can bring a guest. The Hellfire Club is very protective of guest privacy."

She raises her eyes to Johnny's questioningly.

Johnny Storm has posed:
Johnny Storm laughs a little at that, "Well, I'm a VIP at the club as well, so there's no worry about that. I usually request rooms with balconies so I can come and go as I please more freely, when I stay about. You're not wrong about Gotham though." he agrees with a quirk of his head, "So, if you're that concerned with your privacy, perhaps the Hellfire Club is the ideal destination?"

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"VIP, are we?" Satana muses. "I've wondered about doing that myself, but in the end I do too much work in my laboratory. It's convenient to have my home and lab in the same building."

She smiles at some inner joke again.

"Yes, let us regale each other over something alcoholic at Hellfire and then perhaps, should conversations turn that direction, continue somewhere even more private within the grounds."