The Imagination Latibule: Moon Knight - The Rise of the Moon

Chapter 7

Neither Harrow nor his phoney police cronies accompanied you as you left their company and wandered towards the large building they motioned towards. Whatever those scales on Harrow's arm had told you, it was enough for him to trust you. Shame there wasn't a hope in hell of you trusting him. 

You walked into the building -- a large hall filled with people, some settled down to eat and others watching a film. All who's forearms were bare bore the mark of the scales, and they watched you as you wandered through, making no effort to conceal their interest. 

You didn't plan on staying, but you had to help Steven. And Marc. You care for both of them, even though Marc was still a stranger to you. So you wandered into what seemed like the storage rooms of the building, much like the ones you had at the museum, and climbed several flights of stairs until you were looking over the entire hall. You patted your pocket; the scarab was still there. Hidden, for now.

You watched as Harrow led Steven into the building. They looked to just be talking, but you worried that it would take a more violent turn and decided you needed to arm yourself with something. Retracing your steps, you opened the doors you'd seen along the corridor, searching for something mildly representing a weapon, until you opened one door to see a girl, not much older than you. The two of you locked eyes and she went to grab the knife on her belt but you put your hands up in surrender.

"Please don't," you said quickly. Please don't? Yeah, because that would surely work. "I'm just trying to rescue my friend. I'm gonna go now," you said. "I'll just..." you trailed off, pulling the door too, but the girl stuck her foot in the door. 

"You came here with Marc, right?" she asked, and you frowned. No one knew about Marc except, you and...

"Layla?" you breathed and she nodded. She pulled the door back open for you and shut it once you were in. 

"You're the girl on the end of the phone." 

"y/n," you said, "hi. I'm a friend of Steven's." 

"Steven?" Layla said. "What the hell is going on? Is Steven the latest fake identity for him? I figured he was using a coded message when we spoke on the phone."

"He wasn't," you said, "it's a long story of which we both know half, and... How did you find us?" 

"I tracked his phone. I thought you wanted me to do that when you turned it on." 

"No, I -- we didn't know who the phone belonged to."

"It belongs to Marc." 

"I know that now," you said. "Listen, Harrow's got Ste-- Marc, out there, and if we have any chance of saving him, we both need to know the full story." 

Layla nodded, and kicked over a crate for you to sit on.

"Tell me everything." 

***

"Holy shit," you said. "Egyptian Gods, superhero suit."

"Holy shit," Layla said. "Gift shop employee... Steven?" 

The two of you sat back on your respective crates, absorbing the information you'd shared with each other. Layla was Marc's old mission buddy, and the two of them had stayed in contact whilst searching for the scarab. But then Marc had gone radio silent, you both assumed because Harrow was on his tail and he wanted to protect her. Rightly so, Harrow was a dick. 

"No wonder his scales don't balance," Layla said in reference to the moving tattoo on Harrows arm, one you learnt used Ammit's power to judge people and kill those who would perhaps exhibit evil in the future. "It must be difficult having all those voices inside one head. He never told me."