Now he was certain: this was definitely some sort of punishment.
God, she’s making him feel so old. Marc has no idea what song she’s referring to, but he at least manages to refrain from mentioning how confused he really is. It’s a good thing Jake isn’t listening in, too. The alter already calls him an old man, half the time. If he hears about how lost Marc is while discussing some Flo Rida song—which, what the hell kind of name even is that?—Marc will never hear the end of it. Instead of actually responding with words—like a normal, human person, Steven chides—he grunts in return, deeming that to be good enough.
He’s once again struck by how friggin’ tiny she is when she plants herself in front of him, hand outstretched. I’m Ms. Marvel, she says. Cool to meet you, she says. She’s just a kid, thinks Marc for the thousandth time. Reluctantly, he takes her little hand in his own, dwarfing it, and shakes, holding on for a moment too long, when his eyes land on her bracelet.
‘It’s a bangle.’
He sighs, feeling a headache coming on already. Whatever it was called, the thing had some sort of inscription on it, the language looking somewhat similar to Arabic. Urdu, if Marc had to guess, though he couldn’t read what it said. Regardless, the sight of it sets Steven off, has him practically bouncing around in their skull with excitement, absolutely certain they were looking at some sort of artifact. ‘Just look at it, Marc!’ Oh, he’s looking, alright.
Releasing her, he starts digging around the room, picking through piles of stuff in the hopes that he’ll find something worthwhile. Something useful to the case. Any sort of lead at all, at this point. “Knock yourself out. S’long as you don’t set something off that erases the entire hard drive.” If she couldn’t figure it out, he’d bring it with him back to the Mission. See if Reese or Soldier could get anything off of it.
Moving to a large bookshelf against one of the walls, he scans the titles written on their spines. Something is here, he can feel it. He tugs at a few of the spines, tilting the books towards him, though nothing happens. Yet. With any luck, there’ll be some sort of secret room with all the evidence he needs hidden behind it all. “So what’s with the bangle?” he asks, taking a step back to take in the bookshelf as a whole. He’s not trying to make conversation. He’s just asking so that Steven will shut up about it, already. “The writing…Urdu, right?”
instead of arguing for her competence , for the first time in this whole interaction kamala opts to simply give him a thumbs up . she figures that she’s given him enough grief ( for now ) .
❝ huh ? oh , this thing ! ❞ eyes glance down at her bangle with a mix of surprise and fondness . the bangle itself holds many memories , stories untold , and mystery that even kamala herself doesn’t know . it’s been a partial key in the investigation not only of herself , but the one involving these disappearances . the coincidence of that is so odd that she and bruno have theorized it may not be one at all ; though still , they’ve been unable to figure any plausible theories as to what it has to do with any of this . her typing pauses , one hand subconsciously wringing her wrist as she looks it over .
❝ good eye – we think so , but … i’m kinda better at speaking urdu than reading it ; first gen american stuff , y’know ? it belonged to my grandma . actually , it’s kinda funny that you mention it , though . ❞ the girl muses , fingers brushing the intricate details adorning the metal bangle .
❝ remember how i said the dormant gene was randomly triggered ? ❞ the memories following the first time kamala had worn it play in her mind like a cliché cartoon recap . truthfully she’s a little hesitant to recount the tale to him entirely ; incredulity of those events aside , moon knight has already shown he’s wary of her credibility . some element leaking out of a bangle and causing an egg form around doesn’t particularly sound realistic even if it’s the truth . focus becomes split between the conversation and the laptop – she doesn’t wait for him to respond . ❝ well , when i put it on for the first time , the bangle glowed this really pretty purple and pink and blue and then this mist started coming out of it ! ❞
one hand lifts to wiggle fingers in the air as if to mimic the very movement of the aforementioned ; it quickly returns back to the laptop to properly resume her task . regardless , she continues , ❝ at first i thought it was an isolated event . like some weird super dust , but uh … when me and my friend snooped . we found that there was some trace of whatever element the mist was in EVERY disappearance . i don’t know how my bangle factors into all this , but we think that alchemax discovered the gene and has been – wait . ❞
almost like on tv , kamala pauses at the climax of their theory and story . eyes become glued to the screen and suddenly , with tongue stuck out , she digs a hand into a hidden pocket to retrieve an iron man usb . she quickly plugs it into the laptop and begins to type even faster . there are a number of files that seem to be encrypted on the lone memory of the device rather than a cloud , thankfully . it’s with that stroke of luck kamala’s able to run the decryption program that she and bruno collaborated on . even with their brilliance and the strength of the processor , it still goes slow . one by one certain documents become available to her .
there’s not much of an abundance of information on it , which is as she’d suspected but not what she HOPED . at least now they have access to medical documents with minimum notes of people already in their custody . it makes her heart DROP seeing each photo ; the victims range wildly from middle schoolers to the elderly . kamala’s nose scrunches before looking back at the bright white figure roaming the room . she blinks , ❝ sorry . uh , i found some profiles of the people missing … what was i saying ? ❞
