Anthology Two Presents

Mysteria
"The Delgado Diamond"
By JP

Victoria sat with her sorority sister, Denise Delgado. They had met at the Plaza for tea, a ritual they had shared since their
prep school days.

Dee was going off about Millennium Man. Victoria hoped that she had never been that vacuous.

"...must be incredible. Did you see how hot he looked in his costume?"

Victoria shrugged. "I don't know. He should come to me. I'll design something that looks better."

"Oh, he looked good in it all right."

Victoria brought her cup to her lips and inhaled the strong minty scent as her friend talked about how hot the hero was and
wondered aloud - ad nauseum - if he was available. She nodded and made polite noises where appropriate - thank goodness for finishing school.

Something said caught Victoria's attention. "What was that, Dee?"

Denise rolled her eyes. "You know how daddy is. He's making too much out of it. These threats are just a cry for attention."

She went on to talk about her expedition to Manhattan for shoe shopping.

With a few pointed questions, Victoria was able to get Denise to tell her about her father's newest acquisition: a flawless
blue-white diamond large enough to rival the Hope diamond in the Smithsonian. Some of the aboriginal groups from South Africa have been making threats.

"But you know how those people are - Daddy paid them for it and now they're pulling this to get more money."

A small frown crossed Victoria's face.

A quick search brought her more about the diamond than she had gotten from Dee. The stone was brought to Antwerp last week - a couple of days afterwards allegations came to light that it had been stolen from the Mantai tribe. Unfortunately, they had nothing but anecdotal evidence due to the nature of their religious beliefs. They wouldn't allow pictures, so the diamond
was never seen by any but the village elders and religious leaders.

Her gut said this was a job for Mysteria.

There was a reason why she hated stake-outs: the unrelenting boredom. She tried to keep her mind busy by thinking about what she needed to do the next day, but being invisible she couldn't take out her organizer to jot down some notes. By the time she was about to give up, she noticed a figure creeping along the rooftops toward the Delgado's penthouse.

Bingo!

Victoria moved on an intercept course.

The intruder was a man wearing a skintight black outfit. The only other color was the red band across his eyes. In his hand, he
carried a runed mahogany staff with an empty socket on top.

From the roof across from the penthouse, the intruder raised the staff and began to chant. Mysteria appeared behind him and
pivoted, kicking the intruder in the back of his knees.

The chanting stopped. In heavily accented English, the intruder spoke. "Who are you?"

"Mysteria. Who are you?"

"M'Banda. I have come to take that which was stolen from us." He raised the staff and it began to glow with a dark loathsome
light.

Not willing to take a chance, Mysteria's hand shot out and she slapped the staff away. The staff clattered to the rooftop and
the dark light began to spread, turning into an amorphous dark form.

"What did you do?" Mysteria snapped, taking a step back.

"The ancestor spirits are free. They must be appeased." His mounting panic was clear in his voice.

"How?"

"The Mother's Tear. We were brought to recover her."

As they talked, the dark form grew and became more tangible. Faces twisted with rage swirled forward in the constantly
shifting form. The darkness grew and took shape into more individual forms.

"And if they don't get it?"

"The ancestors will strike out against the tribe's enemies."

That doesn't sound too bad. "There aren't any enemies around here, right?"

"Our tribe is on the Ivory Coast. Many were taken and brought across the ocean to your country in the slave ships."

"And you brought them here?" She drew her grapnel and readied a piton. "Try to keep them calm. I'll see what I can do."

Mysteria shot across to the penthouse on a zipline and burst through the glass doors that overlooked the balcony. She rolled
to her feet as the guards came running.

"Mr. Delgado. Where is he?"

"Mysteria?!" One of the guards stopped short. The others were better trained. They had their guns aimed at her.

"Where is Mr. Delgado! I need to talk to him about the diamond."

The guard in the back. One of the three with a gun out. "Louie, call the police. Up against the wall, ma'am."

"I don't have time for this." Mysteria turned invisible and had at them. She dove and tumbled toward the guards, kicking and
slapping the guns out of their hands.

"I want to talk to Mr. Delgado. Now! Get him. Otherwise people are going to die."

The sounds of drums and screaming rose from outside. That more than anything Mysteria said got them moving.

The head guard, who Mysteria would later learn was named, Charles brought her deeper into the penthouse. Mr. Delgado was in his study. He was a thin, imperious looking man with a hawkish nose and a distrustful look in his bright blue eyes.

"Why have you broken into my home, young lady?"

She appeared in front of him again. "I don't have time for this, sir. The Delgado diamond. It was stolen from an African tribe."

"They can try to prove that in court. We bought it in good faith."

If she had any doubts that he had known about what had happened with the Mantai tribe, they were gone now. "Mr. Delgado, the city is in danger. Without the diamond, people will die."

He snorted derisively. "How can this be proven?"

The drums grew louder from outside. Even through the thick walls and glass, the roaring of voices could almost be made out.

Mysteria leaned over the desk. "Listen, Mr. Delgado. A swarm of ghosts are massing outside. They are going to attack every
person in this city in revenge for the theft of the diamond."

"Right. Charles, remove her from my office."

Charles tried to sucker punch her, but she danced to the side. She grabbed his arm, twisting and tossing the guard across the
room. "Mr. Delgado, don't make me hurt you. Your diamond are not worth the lives of countless people in this city." She
reached behind the desk and yanked the older man up and over. "Now!"

"T..the safe." He gestured toward the picture of his wife.

She shoved him toward it. "Open it."

His hand shook slightly as he put the diamond in her gloved hand.

She sprinted through the penthouse and flew across the alley to roof of the next building. The ancestor spirits were tangible.
They milled around angrily. As Mysteria approached, one of the spirits struck M'Banda with a ghostly spear.

With a shriek, the man fell to the ground, blood spreading behind him.

"I have the diamond. Leave this place."

The spirit that had struck M'Banda raised his spear. "All the interlopers will die for the indignities that they have visited
upon us."

She wasn't sure how to approach this, but trusted her instincts on this one. "They have returned The Mother's Tear. We want to make peace."

"Never. You will be awash with blood before there is peace." He charged her. She vaulted over him, running toward the staff.

They shouted in a language she couldn't understand, but from their actions it was clearly a call to attack. She feinted to
the left and went invisible. That made it easier to slip through them and jam the diamond into the socket.

There was a flash of light and she was alone on the roof with the injured man.