Return of the Merchant (10) : Investigation for the curious meteor impact may yield few results for the civilian scientists of Destiny City--but they don’t have the keen eye and aura sensing ability of their local powered warriors. Cloaked by a mysterious device that emits a unique energy signature, the impact site of the meteor is hidden inside a strange, watery bubble that spans easily a hundred feet in all directions around it. This strange shield seems to reflect light, making it appear as though there is nothing inside--but, if you look for long enough, you can make out shapes and movement. You cannot pass through the barrier, nor can sounds or light. If you attempt to walk through it, you simply pass through the other side, as if you’d walked in a straight line. That might be peculiar on its own--except, there’s a sign posted where the energy signature is strongest. Painted in fancy, iridescent ink, elegantly scrawled, the sign reads ‘Temporarily Closed for Business.’ Beneath that is a painting of a wispy, floating little orb. Text below the picture reads, ‘WANTED. Will reward handsomely.’

The shop may be closed for tonight, but tomorrow is a different story. It might be worth comping back if you can find one of those wisps.

If nothing else, Narcissus felt like he could at least rest assured that he wouldn't be the only one out doing investigations. Just a few nights prior, he had seen more members of his court in the span of a few minutes than he had ever met in the past year. He knew others were out and about from all factions, so it was unreasonable to believe that he would be the only one scouting out what that meteor had really been about.

No matter what the news said about 'finding nothing,' Narcissus could feel something in the air that hadn't been there before the impact. If he could tell something was off even with his diminutive abilities, surely others could too.

To be honest, there was probably nothing he could do to fend off any space creatures if it turned out that meteor was a source of trouble. And if the White Moon or Negaverse happened to show up to fight off any threats, Narcissus would probably do little more than serve as a source of offense... It had happened that they'd all set aside their differences to take out common opponents before, but they didn't know if this aura was an opponent, this time.

The pulsing waves that couldn't be identified as Order or Chaos did somehow feel vaguely familiar and nonthreatening...

Rationally, it would be better for him to just go home and go to bed and let the other powered players in the city get a handle on this. If he was only going to be in the way and serve no purpose, then he shouldn't put himself in the way.

But he had to. Narcissus had never been able to just do nothing when his abilities allowed him to do something. Now was no exception. He could sense what was out there, so he had to find its source. Just to see for himself that it wasn't doing any damage beyond the impact and power outages that had already been caused. He could call backup if it happened the situation was well out of his hand.

For now, he followed the beckoning aura and became acutely aware that the closer he came, the further away any other potentially helpful auras seemed to be.

So no one was around, apparently... No one had come to investigate. At least, not at this moment.

Narcissus drew so near to the source that he could practically feel it buzzing against his own, like an actual sensation. But what he saw was not something he immediately found threatening. Maybe this hadn't been where the meteor had fallen, after all? There was no sign of any destruction. Just that feeling of an aura, and a large, shadowy bubble that completely dwarfed him.

Was it evil?

Narcissus stepped forward cautiously, scouring the area for any sign of danger or damage, but there was none. The bubble, an almost watery and shadowy looking thing, was all that was around. It looked almost like a mirror, reflective and gleaming in the dim starlight, but- If he squinted, there was something inside! Should he be concerned about that?

Narcissus stepped around, eyeing the bubble up and down, until his gaze landed on a sign, and something bizarre and familiar struck him about that too, even though he couldn't place why.

"'Wanted?'" He read quietly to himself. With a picture of something that he didn't know what was. But even more importantly than that: "'Closed for business.'" It was a shop. No, not a shop, the shop. Narcissus had been here before. He'd felt that aura and probably even seen that script. So the Merchant was back in town, and apparently looking to do business again.

[WC: 620]