Weaving a web

Down at HER nightclub, Weaver waited impatiently for her eldest sister to finally arrive fashionably late. It wasn't even like she had to physically travel or anything, between her traveling through the darkness and Charlotte just CREATING PORTALS, there was no excuse for why she should be wasting her time. The darkened VIP room suddenly lit up with the familiar reddish glow from the air splitting open, out stepping the overly dressed and self-assured form of her sister. "Speak quickly, I could be at home online right now," Weaver said simply, sitting up in her seat. If you thought she was sitting ON anything you would be wrong.

"What no hello? No how are you? No 'thanks for helping make my shadow ninjas because I can't be bothered to learn any magic on my own?'" Her sister shot back icily, cringing her nose slightly as she looked around at the room.

"So I guess you DON'T need to talk then," Weaver retorted, the shadows already opening to let her in.

"Wait wait! This is important! You've heard about DOMA arriving right?" Her sister said frantic. Weaver simply blinked at her and silently conveyed that 'do you think I honestly watch TV?' "It's The Department Of Metahuman Affairs. A government funded and enacted OFFICIAL group to crackdown on metahuman activity," she explained anyway.

"And?" Weaver asked boredly.

"Well this could be a good thing for us. Because you know who they've targetted first? The titans!" Charlotte answered with a wide grin beneath her mask. That did actually sound good, considering she tried to kidnap Robin to weaken the titans without a leader. Sucked about The Hive 5 though- not that they warranted too much sympathy since they failed the job she gave them. "But I was thinking- what if they don't just stop there? No matter what part of the world you come from, people always desire more power. I am worried that they won't stop there and go after ANY metahumans," her sister continued seriously.

Weaver blinked at her and immediately picked up on what she was implying. "You mean Ally, Sol and Daniella?" Weaver voiced what she was thinking about, atleast for her personally.

"Yes! Sol doesn't make a point of hiding his existence, and he DID help fight that giant skeleton that's caused all of this in the first place. Though he's literallly done nothing else, they could still go after him if they wanted. And Ally will slip up! If not her, than either of her two strays will become a liability sooner or later," her sister said crossing her arms, biting on one of her fingers. It had been awhile since she had been so... nervous. Weaver's sister hated showing anything but confidence and that she was totally in control of the situation.

"Sol could maybe be persuaded to leave... Daniella is his only anchor here and would be the difficult one. And Ally is stubborn..." Weaver sighed.

"But like with Daniella, if we can convince the other two- she would fold. Because it's only a matter of time, the problems I worry about excluded, Ally is going to mess up somehow. We need a fallback option for when the worst comes to bare, we need to be prepared for... hostilities," she stated as if she was now saying what she wanted to talk to her about.

"I will see who I can pull over here. We can't be too overt about it though. We should be fine for now as long as word about our 'oni' makes our enemies hesitate," Weaver assured her. If she was so worried, she'd probably want to use Cerberus. Weaver was loathe to use such expensive investments for what was currently just a scare.

"See that you do. I will meanwhile continue to focus on seeing what I can do to ensure that this is nothing but beneficial for us. The current mayor no doubt will be under pressure once DOMA gets dug in. No doubt I'll be questioned what I think about the events and I need to decide which side of the fence I'm on. On the one hand I can suport DOMA for whatever benefit that would give me. Or I can stir the crowd up against DOMA for the treatment of their 'heroes.' If I wasn't in the thick of it, I'd be comfortablea at home with a glass of wine and love every moment of the drama~" she giggled haughtily. Weaver rolled her eyes as the two parted ways. Weaver slipped through into the darkness, making a mental checklist of what she would need for this "fallback." She'd need more men, ones who she could rely on. Guns would be relatively simple once DOMA got entrenched, they'd be practically delivering them for her. She was still not sure about using her Cerberus. Much time, money and... effort went into them, and she didn't know how soon she'd be able to pull them away from their current engagements abroad. Maybe she should put the word in sooner rather than later to get around that issue...

Sometime after the incident with DOMA...

Weaver was on her way to the "assigned" meeting place for what was in her mind, a great asset to have for what was going to happen soon. She was however disappointed that only the one cell was coming for now- also releived because she only had so much money on hand, and all three cells would be very expensive. In her mind one was already pushing it for the level of threat DOMA posed. That wouldn't really matter once her sister got her way, and she was more interested in getting payback from ONE person in particular. Through her... "connections" Weaver managed to glean enough information to know Butcher's name, and that she was somehow connected with DOMA. She didn't need or care to know more then that, Butcher had for some reason become a thorn in her side and going after her gang.

This didn't make any sense to her as to why an alleged "government agent" was going after what was more well known as an oriental gang. Part of being annonymous was that it was hard to establish concrete evidence against them, and her ninjas only LOOKED human from a casual glance. They couldn't be captured and in the failed police steakout before, there wasn't a body to interrogate later either. Essentially, SOMEONE was using DOMA's being here for their own gain and she had atleast two guesses who. She was more sure of one of them than the other, as The Skulls didn't strike her as the overly sneaky and craft types.

That would be a matter to deal with in time, once she was positive who to set her sights on- this cell of Cerberus would help with that among other things. Weaver emerged from the darkness, did her usua; scan of the perimeter with some of her ninjas- though it was unlikely that this would be a trap, she had made sure to instill some kind of "employee loyality" within them. She couldn't think of anything that would also be worth more than the assistance she offered them now that they were treated as a "rogue" mercenary group.

Once she was content that all was as it should be, she waited for only a short time as an unremarkable delivery truck pulled up and found itself a parking spot, Weaver checked to make sure that they were on time- time was money and she didn't like it when hers was wasted, as some of her men found out the hard way. The driver would hop out and go around to the back as she approached, unlocking the sliding door and tossing it up before stepping out of the way. THREE sets of red, mechanical eyes clicked to life and turned in unison to look at her. She always wondered how they managed to slip their equipment through without detection but had never thought to actually ask. "Approach and identify yourselves," Weaver commanded firmly, the closest set of eyes turning as their owner rose to to their feet.

Weaver was already short compared to many people. So it came as no surprise that the first figure that came out towered over her. Combined with the fact the figure was clad head to toe in some kind of articulated power armor, the difference was even more evident. After the first the second one followed suit, and then the third until all three armored bulks stood before her. "Cerberus Tactical Squad idenfitication: Cerberus Hunter Extermination Pack. Personel Identification: CHEP-1 Spartae Hellhound."

"CHEP-2 Spartae Wolfhound."

"CHEP-3 Spartae Bloodhound." Each figure said in turn as Weaver glanced at the armaments they clutched in one hand. They each had a CHIMERA "weapons platform." It was a very experimental weapon that was intended to serve as a versatile "jack of all trades" role and enable conventional infantry to switch between different firing modes, different munitions, and fill whatever role was required during engagements. The first and most prudent downside to this was weight, and maintenance. Not counting the other equipment or munitions, a CHIMERA simply weighed too much for most soldiers to carry for long periods of time and were relegated to fixed defensive structures like manned turrets. Maintenance was also a complication as it took a certain know how to keep their inner workings working as intended, and such knowledge was far between.

The weapon in the end was deemed too unwieldy to see usage in all but the most desperate of hands and so was unavailable to the market at large. Their armor met a similar fate, and would have remained so if Weaver had not taken her "father's" initial design and improved upon it. Armor was never out of style as the saying went, and for every new weapon there was soon to be a counter-measure. This suit of power armor suffered more on the side of "too heavy" than the CHIMERA, and a procedure intended to cybernetically bond the armor with the wearer had been proposed but thus far had been deemed too dangerous to implement. Her Cerberus however had gone through and survived the procedure, and combined with her Shadoweave were the only ones to have fully functional sets of armor. Unlike her usual Shadoweave creations, the armors' were bound on the molecular level with her Shadoweave to alleviate the weight and "bonding" process for the wearer. Because the Weave was beneath the surface of the base materials, it didn't suffer from light. It was currently for all intents and purposes, a nearly perfect union.

"Requesting mission parameters," the first figure inquired, bringing Weaver out of her patting herself on the back so to speak.

"Primary objective: removal of DOMA's threat to my interests. Secondary objective: Undermin the efforts of any conspirators colluding with them within the city. Teritary objective: Eliminate the primary conspirator, and an additional target I shall indicate for you should I be unable to myself," Weaver replied simply, tightening her jaw from behind her mask. She didn't know how long either of those would take, and it would get expensive quickly to have even one cell of Cerberus around for too long. After she spoke, the three exchanged looks silently between eachother before the first one looked back at Weaver.

"Desired method for completing objectives?" The first one asked simply.

"Discreetly if possible," Weaver replied back. She tried not to feel too proud of this, she didn't want to end up like her sister- but she was not hating the result of her investments.

"Requesting data on primary conspirator and other teritary target," the third one asked. Weaver pulled out a photo of Butchr one of her operatives managed to get and held it out for them. The third one took a moment to look at it as if memorizing it before handing it over to the next one in line, repeating the process two more times before the photo was handed back to Weaver.

"Identity of primary conspirator is not definitive at this time. Are there any questions before we proceed further?" Weaver said firmly once they were done.

"No," the first one responded simply. Weaver nodded, signaled for her driver to take off before signalling her ninjas over. Weaver couldn't bring them all with her at once but with her ninjas she could, and it was so much easier to move around the city undetected through the shadows than it was by truck. Weaver felt much safer knowing that she had backup from back home, and further backup with her Cerberus Pack in tow. Now she just needed to put them to work...

Shortly after the incident within the sewers...

Diana emerged from the Shadow Web shaking, not with fear but anger. Her mind started racing trying to determine where everything started to go poorly. The Original Commander, Nomad had been sent away as far as her information had said. She didn't have any more information on him than he did the current one. Was that it? Who was the guy with the scythe? And why did he have two sets of thoughts? It reminded her of Rapture for a moment- she briefly considered the possibility that this wasn't a coincidence. No, that couldn't be right. These two were the only reason for the ambush not going off without a hitch as planned. As far as she knew, she ahd injured both of them and killed a few of their agents. But she also lost one of her cerberus. She also lost some ninja, and a bunch of her own men had become injured. This all stemmed back to her lack of knowledge regarding these two unknowns.

She pulled out her phone and quickly started to text a couple of numbers. Hopefully her sister woudn't be busy now that she had become mayor- and hopefully Ally was sober. It was time that they got together and talked about this. She wasn't happy about admitting she wanted help- but she didn't want to waste resources more. And she wasn't quite as proud or arrogant as Charlotte. Diana pulled out her phone again after a couple pings came back to her, both of her sisters were available. Good. Diana texted them back that they needed to talk, and where to meet up. Once they would be on their way, she too would slip into the shadow web to meet up with them.


"Please make this quickly Diana. I finally found some time to myself since I became mayor, and I need my ME time," Charlotte stated with irritation. As spoiled as ever.

"What's wrong Annie?" Ally questioned with concern. Diana wasn't very sociable, even toward her own so the fact she got in touch with THEM was already a red flag for something being wrong.

"Charlotte, one of the Cerberus Operatives I brought in was killed. They have personnel we were not aware of. A ninja, and some kind of spellcaster with a scythe," Diana said flatly, having some time to cool off on the way. Charlotte's eyes widened slightly at the news of a Cerberus Operative going down. Not that Charlotte truly understood what that meant, outside the fact that this was literally the first and only time an operative had been killed. "My attempt to fight back in response to their murdering my men didn't go quite as planned because of these two unknown elements," she added frowning.

"I see... so? What is it you're trying to get out of us this time?" Charlotte asked with a more serious tone of voice. She knew Diana only came to them when she needed something, as few and far between as those times were.

"Specifically, I want DOMA to burn to the ground... but getting out of my business will suffice after the instigator that killed my men is taken care of," Diana replied with slowly simmering anger. It was one thing to arrest her people under trumped up charges- it was another to kill them. The only time that she at any way ordered for someone's death was precisely because someone started off by killing her men. As long as that person remained alive, she would continue killing DOMA if they got in her way.

"Well, I trust you have already been looking into legal ways to get them out of Jump City. I've also started to look into it after getting into City Hall, and with the discontent over DOMA coming in waving their guns around, it shouldn't be too hard to garner enough support to take legal action. But that's not what you want right now is it?" Charlotte guessed correctly, her smug 'know-it-all' attitude pissing Diana off more.

"Until I learn more about these two, I want tangible help from the both of you. Espcially you Ally," Diana said rounding on Ally who had been quiet up until then. "You said you wanted to help any way you can. But ever since you took in more people you've completely abandoned us," Diana added.

"T-that's not true! It's just complicated right now. You know how I like to help people and yeah- I did it without thinking! But I'm trying my best to keep a low profile! Which is what you both wanted me to do anyway!" Ally responded hotly, not out of anger but frustration. "And you also know how I don't want to be responsible for people's deaths!" She added.

"I'm not asking you to kill anyone- as much it pisses me off to say that. I'm asking you for help in general. Several of my men were seriously injured because at the time we were only expecting normal soldiers. Not people with magic powers who can destroy the physical body of my Revenant!" Diana said with forced calm. She loved Ally, she was genuinely one of the few people Diana would consider as family but she would not put up with excuses right now.

"Wait- they killed The Biker? You didn't mention that a moment ago..." Charlotte cut in.

"Yes. The Ninja's powers apparently were divine in nature, and the other one had a scythe that The Biker was actively avoiding. We both know that shouldn't be- he's NEVER tried to dodge attacks before now," Diana replied. "Also, word of my shadow ninjas' weakness to light has come to a point where DOMA agents keep lights on their weapons- the scythe user even had some kind of weird lantern. At this rate I will either have to just abandon Jump City to save time and resources, or look for alternatives," Diana continued seriously. She was never one to stick around if the going was too tough for too long. It was a waste of time and energy to fight against the current. There were other ways to get around a problem than straight through it.

"What can I possibly do with what little time I have to spare?" Charlotte asked curiously, still leaning into that she was busy with her new position.

"Yeah, you're busy- we get it. Right now I need more power. That's the short end of it if I'm going to stay in Jump. I don't trust that any amount of support from the locals will change that- if they could it'd cost me more than I want to spend. If I learn how to create my shadow ninja, I could do so on my own without having to rely on you so much. In addition... you're in contact with the otherside of our family. NO! I am not asking for HIS help- but I know I would have to go through him to get to that lich. So... I want you to ask for me," Diana explained, referring to a friend of the family so to speak. She had only met him literally once, and it was for some kind of "examination." He was actually pretty cool about the whole thing, and reminded her of her Castlevania games.

"I'll see what I can do. The old bag of bones shouldn't be too busy- what with being immortal and all under father's care. What about Ally? You want her to just run around beating up DOMA?" Charlotte asked in good humor.

"I can be more helpful than just that! Just as long as I don't have to kill anyone!" Ally whined.

"I just want to know I can trust you to help me Ally," Diana said sincerely. She hated coming to her sisters for help. It kind of made her feel helpless. That she couldn't rely on her own power to get any where and that someone else dictated her path.

"You know I want to help you Annie. B-but what about Taz? What's gonna happen to him if something happens to me? Or this leads back to my apartment?" Ally asked distraught. She sounded sincere, and while it was completely her fault for getting into this situation, it still didn't make Diana any happier. Now if it was Charlotte...

"Neither of us are in a position to really make promises right now. I just got into City Hall and can do more good for us if I stay there," Charlotte said with a sigh.

"As long as he won't cause any trouble... I'll think of something. But we'll get to that if we have to later," Diana said trying to steer the conversation back to Ally deciding.

Ally was quiet for a moment as she fidgeted. You could almost actually see her mentally trying to weigh all the pros and cons, which was quite the sight since she rarely thought too long about other things."Fine! As long as I don't have to kill anyone... I'll do it. Just, tell me how I can help," Ally finally conceded.

"Cool... if you can manage, try to keep an open schedule for alittle while. I have a lot to think about and plan for the future. But I'll keep in touch," Diana replied. Her business with them was done, so everyone could go home now. She wouldn't be able to sleep though. She was still on edge about the entire thing. Part of her wondered if it was really worth staying in Jump City at all, or if she should just go back to Japan and stay in familiarity. Sure it'd hurt her pride because it'd feel like she was running away- but it was better to cut your losses before you lost everything- right? She'd settle down infront of her TV and put on a game to try and relax, her Spooky Steve emerging out of the ceiling and greeting her. She could go for a dr. pepper about now...

Shortly after the "winter" get together with the trio and Taz...

Diana would during the day be informed that her "guest" that she had asked Charlotte to get in touch with would be ready to meet her this evening to talk business. This unfortunately meant that she'd have to go out of her way into her sister's "territory" due to her sister insisting that someone such as this didn't deserve to wait in the slums for her to eventually get around to seeing him. If she didn't know any better, she'd think her sister was trying to piss her off but tried to get done with her day to day responsibilities as timely as she could- which still took longer than she wanted due to her decisions potentially having lasting effects for her various business ventures. Once all of that was said and done, she double checked with her sister and was told to just stop off at her place the normal person way. She wasn't fond of going through the front doors, a lot could go wrong.

But she grit her teeth and endured it, the'd met before like this one other time under the guise of the mayor talking to the heiress of an over seas business empire about potential business proposals. Which they did, and now Vigilance was slowly phasing out The MRO. So Diana went through the trite and true movements, being driven up to the clearly "important person lives here" estate in the Upper Town district. Diana winced and mentally grumbled at how needlessly expensive and wasteful all of this was, also noting the mesh of her sister's private security and her own Vigilance Security making their rounds. Once she arrived, Diana was led inside by one of her sister's butlers- another thing which always made Diana's wallet cry out of sympathy. Just clean the place yourself- save money, but then again that'd be quite the task with a place this large.

She was eventually led to a large lounge-like area, overhearing her sister as the butler left her to wander in on her own before going back to his own tasks. "Yes, it is almost too easy these days. Oh, there you are Diana. Welcome! You kept us waiting for awhile, and Lord Ambrose was toying the idea of looking for you," Charlotte greeted her, gesturing to a skeletal and dapper looking gentleman opposite her on the sofa. She had a glass of most likely wine in her hand, and despite the second glass, Ambrose wasn't partaking.

"Some of us actually have to work..." Diana quipped sharply, implying that she had more to do than Charlotte did running a whole city.

"Diana, you haven't changed since the last time I saw you," Ambrose remarked simply in greeting.

"No need to be rude Annie, have a seat," Charlotte narrowed her eyes disdainfully at her.

Diana begrudgingly did so, if for no other reason than because she didn't want to be standing up. "Charlotte tells me you want to learn the arcane arts; is this true?"

"Yes, anything which would let me create more efficient and cheap manpower mostly," Diana replied.

"Hmmm, this would be quite the undertaking. Based on the interesting relationship that your demonic powers has with your sister's magic, it is possible that you have the necessary gift for learning magic. That being said however, it'd still take time," Ambrose said matter of factly. Diana didn't respond but her stone faced expression conveyed enough that she already understood that from the get go. "You've actually caught me at a good time. As it may have been alluded to, I've been quite busy down in hell working for your biological father- he wishes you well," Ambrose continued, the last part sounding rehearsed and mechanical as if he was getting it out of the way to say he did.

Diana wasn't too fond of her actual father, and sometimes she wondered which of her fathers she hated the most- but then she remembered one directly caused the death of her mother, and she barely saw her actual father as it was. She did enjoy the nice little pit of hell her human father was placed for that. "Ah yes, if I may for a moment. Lord Ambrose was telling me about his work. Something about artificial bodies was it?" Charlotte chimed in and asked, knowing Diana wouldn't care enough to.

"In a manner of speaking, this would only concern you Diana for it is also the excuse that I can use to remain up here to tutor you in the arcane. Sparing you the boring details of my personal interests, I've discovered how to create untainted flesh of organic or synthetic nature. Naturally, there are many who are eager to acquire my services or learn my secrets," Ambrose nodded as he explained what it was that he had been working on. Diana frowned slightly and wondered just how much of a bitch people thought she was- accurate, but it gave her some reflecting to do later.

"Which I hope you're holding onto the means of production," Diana deadpanned. Ambrose chuckled.

"That I have, knowledge is power and it is best to hide it whenever possible. The practical use of this would allow more demons to infiltrate the mortal world without the need of... vulnerable hosts. A few though, see it more useful to satisfy their hedonism if you catch my meaning," Ambrose replied with a raspy sigh.

"Aren't the Succubi and Incubi in our service enough for them? Seems like needless steps to me," Charlotte chimed in again thoughtfully. "Besides, the inside is still the same. Just because the outside is naturally human or whatever else, doesn't change what's on the inside," Charlotte added. Diana gave Ambrose a look as she overheard some thoughts which implied that... wasn't entirely the case. He caught her looking but only silently acknowledged her.

"Back to the matter of why that allows me to stay to properly get you started on learning magic. I have some early 'prototypes' which I will need to properly see tested. Your request to learn magic gives me this chance to do that, and I can already think of how to facilitate the ease of collecting what you need to create more... robust servants," Ambrose said explaining how he'd be able to use his project as an excuse to stick around.

"You mean collecting vital essence?" Diana asked curiously, Ambrose nodded.

"In essence, using the currently comatose bodies, succubi or incubi could easily pass through to this side and pose as any regular human," Ambrose suggested, mentally adding that would give him the means to test some of the... hidden features of their minds per the request of her father. "Alternatively, if you need more of an enforcer, I may have some more robust bodies for a stronger demon- fairly sure there's a dumb enough one in that lot," Ambrose added off-handedly.

"I have enough men stupid enough to act as my enforcers. I don't have a readily accessible source of essence," Diana said, making her decision already. With her more unsavory business, it was one field that they hadn't really explored, and that did give her more chances to manipulate things from the shadows. She'd have some of Charlotte's powers at her fingertips, since she was assuming for all intent and purposes, they'd do what she told them to.

"Very good, then I shall make the arrangements. Might take me some time, I already have quite the waiting list of eager demons all vying to get here. I shouldn't have trouble blending in with some glamour magic," Ambrose nodded. "Until then- how's Ally? She's the only one here who I've not seen since I've gotten here," Ambrose asked curiously.

"She's managing, blundering about as always. She's lost some hours from the snow, but she's hanging in there. We've both urged her to look for more work, possibly something that pays more," Charlotte answered.

"She spends a lot of her time down at the bar owned by Charlotte's fire elemental servant," Diana added.

"Sol lives in this city too? Interesting," Ambrose murmured thoughtfully as the rest of the evening continued with the three of them catching up, talking shop and going over some of the other details of his project before going their separate ways for the night...