The Shadows Below the Cities(Closed, Dan)

It always happened, sooner or later. This ravaging hunger. A craving for more power. A near insatiable lust. Vexus had documented that these have been arising less and less in the recent years, but each one returns more viscous that the last. With her already vast strength and influence, it always was increasingly difficult to become more of what she already is.
She had brought her technological prowess to the peak of what this reality would allow, and now seeks to further hew knowledge in the magical realm. Elena Had sent contractors, her own experiments, and random heroes hired from her own anonymous board postings in her tower in NYC. Since she personally had no meta human ability, scientific augmentation, or magical spell that allowed her to sense or detect any kind of magical output. It had honestly been months in her search for new and powerful magical information, and the only thing significant that had turned up were the dead bodies of some of the ones she sent searching. Even with extensive number crunching there was no pattern to the disappearances to the goons she had microchipped.

Vexus moved forward to what she was good at. Technology. She recorded different levels of her own magical output on a multitude of different wavelengths to basically customize her own magical detection frequency. With this she was able to scan first the entirety of New York from her headquarters to try and detect any magical output that at least was in the same ballpark as her own. Her initial scans produces no results. There were of course plenty of metahumans who had shown up on the lower level scans, but nothing that grabbed the attention of Elena Vexus.
the scans continued for weeks until an anomaly blipped on her radar. It was a very broad area, so not only did she send out henchmen with tracking devices installed in their nervous systems, she boosted the power of her scans with her own energy. This allowed her to narrow down the area of what she discovered was a dimensional disturbance. The area was still large, but it was much more manageable. More of her ‘employees’ were sent to this more specific area, and the new results were quite perplexing. They were being detected in a shop in New York in one moment, and then quickly following their death pinged them in Japan. This very much caught the attention of Elena Vexus. It was clear that this was the dimensional disturbance she had detected, but for something to be sustained over such a distance and concealed so incredibly well… This was the sort of information Vexus was after.

”General, I’ll be departing here shortly. Please ensure all emergency protocols are in place. I’ll be investigating alone.”
Her robotic guard gave a bow, and went off to do as she instructed.

She had instructed that she was going alone, but she had an armored Escalade roam the area with her instead of transporting herself. They circled a couple of blocks, rather suspiciously, waiting for her device to ping the location of some her dead henchmen.
”Stop.”
The car screeched to a halt. Three large men in black suite, sunglasses and earpieces exited the SUV. One opened the door and Elena Vexus was delicately helped out. Her red bottom heels made a gentle click as they made contact with the pavement. She lowered her mirrored sunglasses slightly to view the building she was in front of. It appeared as just an average store front, but the sign did say closed despite it being the middle of the afternoon on a weekday. Vexus readjusted her sunglasses and signaled to one of her henchmen towards the door. She crossed her arms as she watched from a distance. The large man tied the door, but it appeared to be locked. He then gave a powerful few knocks and waited a moment. There was no answer. He repeated, then in a very loud and powerful voice spoke.

”Miss Elena Vexus requests and audience with the owner of this establishment. Please make yourself seen, or we will be entering by force. Thank you for your compliance.”

The front of the building begged for attention.

That’s the best way to put it; begged. Though otherwise a nondescript brick building in the heart of New York's historic 7th Avenue, The Spider Web stood out from the other buildings on the street. A wrought iron sign hung above the door, advertising the shop, while long display windows held curios of different kinds; all claimed to be historic or magical in some way, such as an ancient greek cup said to contain the spirit of Alexander. Honestly, it had the vibe of a haunted house, the way they played up the artifacts, but it was honestly well done, all the placards made of silver and the objects meticulously cleaned every day. The door even had an inscription, detailing the leader of the places various achievements.

The knock echoed throughout the building, the threat seeming to fall on empty air, but a moment later the intricately-carved door swung inwards despite no one seeming to open it. The inside could not be more different from the gaudy exterior; subtle and understated, artifacts sat on wooden shelves, each one more ancient and mysterious than the next; right by the entrance the head of a women with crystals for eyes seemed to watch the men as they enter, while a low-hanging chandelier burned with flames, despite candles nor any sign of ignition being seen. As they cleared the doorway, the door slammed shut behind them, the tell-tale sign of a lock sliding into place echoing through the crowded halls of the antique shop.

But they wouldn’t have much time to see the sights, as suddenly silver vines wrapped around them.

Thorns bit into them, causing them to yell,as the vines rapidly encircled them, digging into every inch of their body. Red blood oozed out around the thorns, immediately whisked away by the rivulets inside the vines. But then, as they were lifted clear off the ground, their struggling stopped, because suddenly they were seized by a new desire. Flasks had appeared on the vines, and as they loosened to let their hands free, the goons were possessed by the strongest urge to drink it. And drink it they did, guzzling the golden liquid. Even as the molten liquid began to burn their insides, ripping through them as efficiently as any knife, they guzzled and guzzled until they collapsed to the ground with a metallic clank without so much as a cry of pain.

All but one. One goon remained and was suddenly yanked down to see an individual with glowing hair, like polished strands of silver. He wore a look on his face of anger and contempt for the life of those. Another individual, roughly the size and shape of a bear, hefted the two-now golden men and, in full view of their former ally, began to rip apart their skin, dousing the floor in blood and exposing the golden statue underneath. A crooked finger with long nails tucked underneath the goons chin, whose eyes were wide with fear.

”Tell your boss to come themselves. Barret, escort the man to his car.”

And he walked off, his hair the last thing the goon saw as the giant of a man bodily picked him and threw the goon through the air. The door opened just in time to let him through and the goon went sailing, right through the windows of his van to deliver the message. Haru watched him go through his upper window, for once a serious look on his face.

There was a new player on his turf and he didn’t like it.

The doors opened. Vexus peered slightly over her glasses to see what might be taking place. There was a nicely placed chandelier that she might actually would consider for a piece in one of her hotels. But as soon as her henchmen entered the building, the doors slammed behind them. Locking in a sort of classic sounding fashion. She let out a sign and leaned back against the vehicle she arrived in, expecting this to take a moment…
From the building she could hear some of what was happening. There were screams of pain, strange voices. She saw different flashes of lights from the windows. Maybe a vine or two peak across the antiques on the shelves. The screams continued, and heightened. Vexus looked down on the diamond encrusted watch around her wrist with impatience. She leaned back up off the car and walked to the passenger side door and tugged on the handle. It was locked. And the henchman that had they key was probably experiencing something unspeakable at the moment. She signed again and moved back to the center of the vehicle in front of the door to wait until the theatrics inside of the building completed.

Things got quiet for a second, hopefully signaling that Elena could continue with her errand here. Vexus took a few steps to her left right as she saw the doors of the building open again. One of her men, now bloody beyond recognition, was launched from the darkness of the establishment and through the windows of their SUV. She grabbed the handle of the passenger side door again and with a satisfying beep, the doors unlocked. She smiled and grabbed her phone from the center consul. Her nails clicked as she replied to a text message, and maybe an email. The woman slowly and confidently approached the now closed door, her heels forebodingly clicking against the pavement. Behind her sunglasses, her Celestial Eye came to life, if there were any magical detection devices in place they would pick up a massive surge in magical power as Vexus approached. A strange silvery sand like substance started to fill the air like dust. Behind her, the SUV started to transform into the sand. As Vexus came closer to the door, the vehicle had been completely consumed as well the body and a good portion of the ground it had sat on. She didn’t even look up from her phone as her Technomatter blasted forwards devouring the door and rushing through the shop. It seeped into every room, covering the floor as she walked. Anything that would attack the flowing sand substance would be immediately engulfed by it and converted into the Technomatter. Despite the absolute chaos of this matter whipping through the building, Vexus displayed an effortless pinpoint control of it as the artifacts on the shelves were not so much as touched.

Elena slipped her phone back into her pocket, her Technomatter flowing organically all around her. Having coated the floors, walls, and ceiling around her she was entirely protected. This sand would move to protect her and with a simple thought, it would start eating through everything it was touching. She could turn the whole establishment into dust in a matter of minutes.

”As stated previously, I request an audience with the owner of this establishment. If you do not present yourself now, I will put this entire city block into a sink hole. There will not be survivors.”