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[x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com]

Wanda and Remy scout out the action but nothing much is happening. Until Wanda spots someone she recognizes, much to her surprise.



Wanda didn't mind rain or most types of water. Even humidity was tolerable to a degree. But the kind of wet they were facing now seemed to seep right into her very bones and she made a note to not make it a habit to come back here on a regular basis. The place was lovely, she'd give it that but certainly not her kind of climate.

Right now, though, she needed to concentrate on the job at hand which was to find out...well. Find out anything useful since they weren't quite sure what was on the up and up.

Remy dropped down beside her, almost silently. The others had been getting used to his bizarre travel in the jungle, using the branches of the canopy in the same way he used rooftops in the city to get around. His spatial awareness opened the entire jungle up to him like a child's playground gym.

"See anything new down dere?" He said softly, crouching down invisibly beside her position.

The only reaction Remy's sudden appearance garnered was a few seconds of rapid blinking, an improvement over the first time he'd done it. "Not within the last few minutes but let me check again..."

Raising the binoculars to her face, Wanda swept over the area again. "No, nothing...wait a minute. There's some movement over there, a new group it looks like."

Remy fished around for his binoculars, bringing them up to train on the group. "Important looking robes too. Get de idea dey might be in charge?"

"They're certainly looking like they own the place."

Turning the binoculars so she could follow the movements, she frowned. "Especially that one, the one who's standing a little bit to the side of them? They seem to be following him. Come on, turn around you..."

She couldn't have been more surprised when he did so, until Wanda got a good look at his face. "You have got to be kidding me."

"What? Fill me in here, chere." Remy had trained on the one that Wanda had mentioned. He was not wearing robes like the rest. Instead, he wore a smart khaki suit, as if he'd been tricked out for a jungle adventure at a shop on 5th Avenue.

"I know him," Wanda hissed, looking incredibly agitated. "Know of him, I should say. He's a highly respected anthropologist, Dr. Peter Alraune. I've been to one or two of his lectures when he came by Cambridge."

"Wait, he's dat guy on television. Remy seen him." He focused in on the man. "What de hell is he doing in de middle of a Selene cult unless... merde. He's de one in charge of dis damn thing, isn't he?"

"He certainly looks like he is." She grimaced. "I always thought he was a bossy so-and-so but this certainly takes the cake. I mean, the man is incredibly highly respected so for him to be here, of all places, and to be involved with Selene..."

This was not a good sign. "I suppose it's good that we have a name."

"Doesn't help us much." Remy sighed. "Been back and forth cross dese ruins. Dere's at least four hundred people working here, maybe more. Natives, what looks like a bunch of tourists, some construction workers... how did dey recruit dis many people without anything getting out 'bout it?"

"A lot of money." Wanda frowned as she lowered the binoculars so she could rub at her eyes. "And you saw the natives reactions to this place. Once you have them here, I can see that it would be very, very difficult to leave even if they wanted to."

"Too many." Remy shook his head. "Dere's way too many for us to break up, unless we want a massive bodycount. What de hell are dey doing down dere?" Remy hissed, frustrated. He'd been crisscrossing the ruins, trying to find a solution and had failed.

"Freaking out because they've lost their mistress?" Wanda guessed and gave a half shrug. "There are a lot of regular people wandering around, not all of them look like they'd kill us in a second. Enough of those still around, though." She was looking more and more aggravated as they talked. "We're stuck between a rock and a hard place right now, Remy."

"No kidding." Remy wiped his face, flicking away the cover of sweat. "We need more information and fast. If we can just let dem sit until we bring down de troops, fine. But if dat's not de case, we need to know now."

"I can watch and follow the good doctor for a while but beyond that, I'm not sure how long we can just let them sit. They do not seem to be in any great hurry which means they still don't know we're here. Plus for us."

"Dat remains to be seen. I'm going to go down and give you boyfriend a good kicking. See if dat jumpstarts dat brain at all." Remy eased back from her spot, crawling on his hands and knees back into the jungle. The second he was under cover, he stood up and lept into the foliage, heading for the camp.

Shaking her head, Wanda went back to keeping an eye Alraune. Now there was a puzzle and it seemed she had a little time, at least, to mull it over.



Meanwhile, Sofia, Amanda and Strange make a discovery of their own. And Sofia does yoga.



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She knew they would be up there, though, she’d deny it if they asked her. In fact, as Sofia made her way up the last of the faint trail, she even went so far as to toss her hair back, pulling an irritated look over her features at recognizing she was to be disturbed. It was a little too easy.

“Am I interrupting?” she asked, eyebrow raised as she adjusted the strap on her bag.

Strange, sitting Indian-style with his back against a tree and his hands folded in his lap, opened his eyes at the sound of Sofia's voice. "Not terribly, no," he said with a polite smile. "It's hard to interrupt nothing and that's precisely what we've gotten so far. Whatever protection this place has, it's certainly powerful."

For her part, Amanda had been sitting and tossing small twigs into the undergrowth, a look of supreme boredom on her face. Just what she was supposed to be doing here, she wasn't sure, but she was starting to think she'd be more useful back in New York, helping with the kidnapping ring. "Had better luck?" she asked hopefully. Sitting in the jungle waiting, with all the creepy crawlies around, wasn't exactly what she'd signed up for.

“The guys in last year's robes have rock lust and there’s a voodoo ritual coming up right quick,” Sofia replied in a bored tone, pulling her yoga matt from it’s netting carrier and throwing it out over the grass. “Is that the sort of thing we’re looking for?”

The effect on the two magic users was electric. Amanda's slouch straightened, her face becoming animated and Strange leaned forward eagerly. "Yes, that's precisely the sort of thing we're looking for. This ritual, did you get any details?"

Smoothing down a few errant wrinkles in the mat, Sofia allowed the curtain of her hair to hide the tiny, proud smile that was threatening to emerge, before straightening. “Goodie me, then. It’s probably happening tomorrow. A sacrifice of some kind that is supposed to, and this is where it gets too Outer Limits for my liking, renew their hold on the people.”

Amanda frowned, glancing at Strange. "Sacrifice to renew a hold... sounds like someone's planning to juice up whatever it is they've replaced Selene's power with, yeah?"

Her former tutor nodded. "Something with this degree of power... it would have to be an artifact of some sort." He thought for a long moment, then asked Sofia. "This... rock lust you mentioned? Anything more specific?"

“That I got less on. There’s only so many hours you can spend in the general sightline of these people, even if very far away, before someone gets suspicious. The constant wind machine following me around probably didn’t help much,” Sofia admitted as she settled down, working on the laces of her hiking boots. “They really like this rock. A lot. Absurdly fond of it to the point where it’s unnatural. I know nothing about this sort of thing, but, totem maybe?”

"There's some options, yes..." Strange made a frustrated noise. "If I had access to my books, I'd be able to narrow this down..."

Meanwhile, Amanda was digging around in her pack. "Someone mentioned books?" she asked with a grin, pulling out her PDA. Strange looked puzzled. "Wonders of modern tech, Doc. I've got a whole bunch of important texts downloaded onto this thing. We're looking at something like the Caritas Objects of Power, aren't we?"

Blinking slowly as she folded her socks, Sofia tucked them into her boots and decided that perhaps now would be an opportune time to practice ignoring people, or maybe settling for selective hearing. Getting to her feet, she dropped her hands to her sides, taking several deep breaths. “The what?” she asked in an oddly peaceful tone, moving out of her mountain pose to stretch up, continuing on her sun salutation.

"A book by a gentleman by the name of Caritas. A very old and very useful book about objects of power and exactly what we need." Strange gave Amanda a proud smile. "It's good to see you continuing your studies."

"Well, I was powerless, not dead. And this is what I do." Amanda's tone was curt, but there was a hint of a pleased blush around her ears. Tapping keys, she brought up the file in question, scrolling through as fast as the PDA would allow. "Rocks, rocks... should I check precious stones too?"

"It would be wise, although something with the kind of power we're talking about here would need to be very large and it wouldn't be likely you'd have a gemstone of the size we're looking at..." Strange leaned over her shoulder until she gave him a Look and he pulled back with an embarrassed cough. "Ms. Mantega-Barret, this ritual... did you get any indication of how soon is 'soon'? It could determine when we should make a move, if at all."

"A book by a gentleman by the name of Caritas. A very old and very useful book about objects of power and exactly what we need." Strange gave Amanda a proud smile. "It's good to see you continuing your studies."

"Well, I was powerless, not dead. And this is what I do." Amanda's tone was curt, but there was a hint of a pleased blush around her ears. Tapping keys, she brought up the file in question, scrolling through as fast as the PDA would allow. "Rocks, rocks... should I check precious stones too?"

“Mm...” Sofia hummed in contemplation, coming up into cobra. She paused there to continue. “Maybe even as soon as tomorrow. Definitely within the next three days. They were using very urgent tones.”

Strange watched her contortions with a bemused expression, flushing bright red as she went up into the cobra move. It tended to highlight her chest a bit. "Ah, thank you, obviously, um, obviously speed is of the essence..." He moved back to Amanda and her PDA, obviously flustered.

"Think I might have a couple of likely suspects here for you, Doc," she said, taking pity on him with an amused grin. Sofia was a nutcase, obviously - who else did yoga in the middle of the jungle on a job? She read out a number of esoteric sounding names, which he wrote down in the small notebook he kept on his person.

"Whatever it is, I think it's pretty obvious we cannot allow this ritual to go ahead. Even putting aside the nature of the sacrifice... and this sort of thing is usually demanding in terms of innocent blood. We cannot let them reinforce their hold on this place, these people." Strange looked grim. "Do you have any of the texts on empowerment rituals on that contraption?"

"A couple," Amanda said, closing the file and searching for another. "Not a lot, since there's only so much space on this thing, but if Remy got phone service I might be able to hook up to something online." She moved over to a fallen stump and sat, ignoring Sofia on her mat. "Should be able to get a general idea of the sort of thing we're looking at, at least."

"General might not be enough, but it might be all we can get." Strange joined her and this time she let him peer over her shoulder at the small screen. "Wait, go back a little... yes, that's the sort of thing we're looking for."

Amanda pulled a face. "Mass virgin sacrifice? What ever happened to killing a chicken and pledging it to your god of choice? Bloody bastards - just when you think you're shut of Selene and her shite, up it pops again, like dandelions."

"If dandelions were pure evil and sucked the life out of everything, then yes, it's an appropriate analogy," Strange murmured absently, reading the details.

"Hey, ask any gardener and they'll tell you that's exactly what they do."


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