ic Let the Bodies Hit the Ground

[Nerdzul]

21 hours ago, Avenger Assembled said:

HI know him, he is my friend. He can be very big! And toothed! Much bigger than the killer."

 

Luke chuckled when Aquaria mentioned his abilities in her own way. He resisted the impulse to make a very juvenile joke about the sentence (a task that, given his age, took all of his willpower) and instead replied with an "Yeah... pretty big indeed." He nodded, while ruffling the hair on the back of his neck. 

 

He lowered his voice however shortly thereafter.  "I dunno about other dimensions, or times..." Although, he had learned that it was not actually impossible for a villain to hide in another time altogether.  "But... do you see anything out of the ordinary?" He asked. "I well... I don't exactly, but there is someone with very special craving here... I mean... Flesh and Blood..." He couldn't pinpoint them exactly, for now. But perhaps he could try following the scent. "They are in the crowd, but not close to us, I think... Might escape if everyone scatters away."

 

"Plus there was a strange woman, staring at the scene, a few minutes ago. Maybe she was just curious, but she vanished when I went toward her..." 

 

"Woah woah woah." Luke rubbed his eyes after Diamondlight display, having adapted to the darkness, the shift, was dazzling to say the least.

 

 

[Supercape]

DIamondlight

 

"Sorry" said August, turning down the light a little more. It was no more like a lazy summer evening, still silver-blue but muted. "Bad habit. I need to work on my sunrise, eh?"

 

The boy had a real knack for knowing stuff though. 

 

"How did you sense all that?" he asked. Telepathy? Magic? "No, tell me another time. RIght now its a damn good lead. A woman at the scene, eh? What was she like? Beautiful?"

 

He gave Luke a wink. 

 

What was the point of adolescent boys if not to tease, after all?

 

And Luke said something else. Someone with a craving for flesh and blood, in the crowd. True, they didn't want the crowd to scatter, not yet. 

 

"If you can follow a scent, then lead on. Sounds like you are the man for the job!"

[Nerdzul]

"No problem man..." Luke rubbed his eyes as reality went back in focus. He... needed to be ready for stuff like that. Yep. Lesson learned. 

 

"It's a kind of magic." He grinned.  

"Dunno... felt like crazy to me and  you don't f..." He did not finish the sentence, but well... 

 

"It's... well there are two of them I think. I can try to track one, which one you think? Flesh or Blood?" Not exactly an exciting prospect either way. 

 

"I think they are roughly ...." He went on describing where he expected their quarry to be. "Can you guys cut their way out? As I go sniffing around?" Unfortunately, even if Aquaria herself had enhanced senses, as far as he knew. There was no real way for him to properly communicate the peculiar scent of hunger. "Unless you can read my mind or something?" He wondered out loud. You never know with supers, right? Especially when dealing with frog-fish lovecraftian aliens...

 

"Oh and... Can you like... hide me out with some like... light shenanigan as I try to get them?"

 

When it was all settled, the young man darted back into the crowd, following the source of the scent. 

Edited September 11, 2023 by Nerdzul

[Supercape]

Diamondlight

 

"Light Shennanigans?"

 

Maybe? August could create light, not eliminate it. He could even bend it around his own body-but his own body was different. A body charged up with Daka energy. He couldn't make someone else invisible. As far as he knew. Maybe... if he bust his brain and blood doing it. 

 

"Can't hide you. Not exactly..."

 

A copy of Nightscale appeared next to him. Then another, then another. In a moment, Luke was surrounded by a half dozen exact copied of Nightscale. 

 

"But maybe some camouflage?" said August. "At least if anyone takes pot shots at you, it won't be you they shoot at. I mean, hopefully. Bit of a gamble, but if I recall, you like the throw of the dice?"

 

It was the best he could do. It certainly loaded the dice in Luke's favour. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Sea Devil needed only a moment to process Luke's idea before she acted on it; acted on it as she might a message from the gods themselves. Trusting her fellow hero to do his work, she went into her dance.

 

"BEHOLD!" she bellowed in a deep, resonant voice loud enough that it caused a trace of feedback as it sounded both through her helmet and her armor's speakers.

 

"ATTENTION EVERYONE" she added loudly, hopping up and down she stood, casual leaps that took her above everyone's head. "PAY ATTENTION TO ME!," she added, making a distinctly moist sound when she landed.

 

"Everyone hold very still!" Her speaking voice still carried great force.  "THERE IS A THING! A THING YOU CANNOT SEE!" She snorted and snuffed again, "A THING THAT COULD GOBBLE YOU UP. AN INVISIBLE THING FROM...THE TREES! HOLD VERY STILL AROUND THE TREES UNTIL IT IS GONE!"She pointed at them with her trident, waving it around for emphasis.

[Nerdzul]

Laughter escaped Luke's lips as Sea Devil did her very best in distracting the crowd. Yep. No one was gonna miss that.

 

"Thank you man." Luke smiled enthusiastically as he saw the image surround him. He darted toward the source of the unnatural craving, blood. Yeah... Let's start with that. 

[Spacefurry]

GM

 

All

 

Between Diamondlight’s light copies and Sea Devil’s display no one notices the real Nightscale as he begins to follow the ‘scents of desire’. Even Detectives Pascal and Ramsey are surprised, but being the professionals they are they quickly recover.

“Hey, which way did the kid go?”

 

 Nightscale

 

Initially the twin ‘scents’ for flesh and blood follow near parallel trails when they begin to deviate from each other. While both seem to head deeper into the park, the flesh trail follows the sparsely lit paved park path. The blood trail though leads down a dirt path into darkening greenery that looks like foot and bike use has created.

[Nerdzul]

Luke followed the trails until they split. "Damn..." This would make things way harder wouldn't it. Whatever, he had no way of splitting up himself, but he could try and communicate with his fellow heroes. Unfortunately he hadn't thought about getting a communicator or something, but that didn't mean that he could not try.

 

He closed his eyes, concentrating on the position of his Aquaria and Diamondlight, conjuring an illusion of his voice.

 

"They split up. Going after blood guy, dirt path down the way. Flesh fellow is gonna through that paved path..." He reported, shaping his illusion to include faint arrow pointing toward the position of his quarries, hopefully, visible enough for the two veteran heroes to see, but still going unnoticed to the people he was pursuing.

 

Now, admittedly, going alone in an off-beaten path at night in a park, trailing a monster, wasn't perhaps the smartest of plans, but well... He didn't have a better one, for now.

[Supercape]

Diamondlight

 

"Flesh? Blood? Hard to pick..." said August, his force field still shimmering with light. 

 

"But Blood seems the more seems more important. I'll take that path, for what its worth."

 

Flesh and Blood? Had a poetic ring to it. He would rather not lose either, but blood had something gory about it, something sinister. Maybe he had just watched on to many slasher pictures. He really shouldn't - they were awful pieces of art. But it was like a hamburger. Sometimes you just had to enjoy something even if it wasn't the best. Sometimes not being the best was what made it enjoyable. 

 

"But I am not sure we should split up. Whatever we are dealing with... chews people up. It's going to be dangerous. I know we are all capable of holding our own against a few street thugs. But... we don't know who or what is down those paths."

 

"Whatever we decide, we better decide it quick. Blood for me..."

 

And so decided, he set off on a brisk stroll down blood lane...

[Avenger Assembled]

Sea Devil considered her options quickly - and soon began hopping after Diamondlight. Her instinct was always to stay with the group, which made following someone else easy enough. And truth be told, while Diamondlight seemed a pleasant enough Surfacer, she had little doubt that he was far less ferocious than either herself or her dragon friend, and probably far more vulnerable to his flesh being rent, blood being drunk, and otherwise becoming the prey of whatever formidable beast was hereabouts. I don't want the hunter to gobble him up; that would be terrible! So instead she followed the other hero, senses keen for any sign of their prey, nostrils audibly snuffling after any scent of blood as they went. "Don't worry," she added in a low rumble for Diamondlight's benefit, "we will protect you from the bad murderer!" 

[Supercape]

Diamondlight

 

August raised his eyebrows. 

 

"Ah yes. The bad murderer... thankyou. I... ah... wonderer if there is any other type of murderer? Murder is, I think, usually bad and always illegal. Unless you have a different perspective?"

 

It was a needle, and August knew it. But Sea Devil looked like a bit of a, well, devil, and he couldn't help be fascinated by the creatures psychology. It felt alien, to say the least. And he would feel a lot safer he understood the creatures motivations, ethics. Sure, Sea Devil would protect from the bad murderer, but things could get a lot more complicated in the real world. What exactly would that mean. 

 

He suspected Sea Devil was one of those moral battering rams - they kept things simple even if they were complicated. 

 

But sometimes one needed a moral battering ram. They got things done. 

 

"But any protection is gratefully recieved!" he added with a smile. 

[Nerdzul]

Blood it is then. Luke nodded and preceded the two fellow heroes toward the dirt path, he tried his best to stay quiet, but he could not avoid chuckling faintly at Aquaria's offer of protection. 

 

Come on where are you? 

 

Admittedly, this would have been an ideal beginning of an horror movie wouldn't it? A fellow running alone through an off-beaten path in park, a murderer on the loose. While himself, he was far from defenseless, the teenage dragon still realized that he was feeling at least a bit on edge as he followed his quarry...

[Spacefurry]

GM

 

It didn’t take long for Diamondlight, Sea Devil and the duo of detectives to catch up to the branching paths.

 

With Diamondlight’s aura they could easily see the shape of Nightscale further up ahead. The teenage hero was trying somewhat to be quiet, and he was doing an adequate job of it. In the darkness beyond Diamondlight’s effect little stirred. Detectives Pascal and Ramsey follow the trio, watching the moving shadows as they go.

 

The foliage grew closer together and the trees are older and larger. The smell of ‘blood desire’ Nightscale was following begins to intensify. Growing thicker, like a miasma to his supernatural sense.

 

The thicket of trees and brush hid the trail they followed from the rest of the park. After a little walking it opened up some to form a small pocket of smaller brush. Leaves and sticks littered the are in a thick layer. It seemed though, that even here one could escape trash and litter though, jnas some could be seen scattered around.

 

To one side Sea Devil and Nightscale spot a glint of something metal among the brush. Diamondlight’s aura shifts as he passes it unnoticed, the shadows retreat and the two can see the body of a medium sized dog laying lifeless tucked into the brush, half covered in leaves and pine needles.

Dried blood mats the short fur around its throat. The wound that caused it was small and vicious, but not as ‘intense’ as the one’s seen on the other two human victims. It is doesn’t look very old, maybe a few hours tops.

 

Nightscale notices something else as he looks around. Something about the area seems almost familiar. In his minds eye the small clearing is replaced but an alleyway and it clicks. The way the leafs and trash gathered. Someone is using this spot to hide away.

[Avenger Assembled]

Sea Devil squatted down by the dead dog, resting her trident on the ground next to her with a thump. There was so much she could have said. In her time she had killed and eaten dogs, feral, furred creatures that ventured too close to the water and found that there were things with far more teeth than them out there. That was before she had come to the Surface, and before she and Jessie had adopted Baxter. They'd had him for more than ten years now, a long time in the life of a dog. He didn't run and play as much as he once did, but he was probably asleep at Jessie's feet right now, giving her the emotional and physical comfort that nothing else could. In a few years he would be dead too, just like this dog. Just like almost everyone else. "Good boy," she croaked softly, tracing her armored three-fingered hand over the dog's fur. 

 

When she rose to her feet, she struck her trident against her armored chest once, twice, three times. "Are you here?" she bellowed suddenly. "Are you here? Come! Come and see!" If it was here, anywhere in the Park, she knew the thing would hear her. 

[Nerdzul]

Luke winced as he saw the carcass that much likely used to be someone else beloved pet.

 

Poor guy... There was little they could do about that though, except catch the killer of course. This was old though... hours perhaps, weird... He would have expected their quarry to have killed to sate their thirst for blood on the way maybe, but not hours before. There was... Something else.

 

Then it got him.

 

There was something important around here. Perhaps the creature lair or something, besides, all of the clearing seemed... Well... too neatly organized. Like if the trash that littered it had been there on purpose. 

 

"Found you..." He muttered. Now hopefully they still had the element of surpr-- 

On 10/7/2023 at 2:00 AM, Avenger Assembled said:

"Are you here? Come! Come and see!"

 

-ise... Luke's heart skipped a beat. Well, perhaps they would have to do without it. Although... Maybe the killer will be to focused on Aquaria to care about him. Plus, honestly speaking, they must have been expecting them anyway. 

 

Oh well... Luke walked in the clearing, his senses on high alert and walked toward the place where he suspected there was something hidden under the foliage and trash and began inspecting it more thoroughly. 

 

"I think they might be hidden down here..." He sent another message to Diamondlight and Aquaria.

 

 

 

[Supercape]

Diamondlight

 

"A dog..."

 

He wouldn't class himself as a dog-lover (he was more of a cat guy. They looked sleek and designed) but he wasn't a dog-hater either. Seeing the fur, matted with blood, and the finality of death was unpalatable. 

 

What are we dealing with? What kind of predator? What do the want? Meat? Death? Is this the work of a animal instinct, or something with a higher, malign, purpose?

 

He turned in response to Luke's warning, dispelling the illusions. The multiple copied of Luke dissapeared in the blink of an eye. If there was to be a fight, August wanted that light-energy for something more fiery. 

 

"Careful.." he muttered, on alert. "Could just be a rabbit..."

 

But it wasn't likely to be a rabbit. 

 

"Could be our monster..."

 

Maybe the type of monster that walked on two legs and carried a meat cleaver. 

 

 

[Spacefurry]

GM

 

Sea Devil’s cries of challenge echo around the small clearing, sending birds scattering from nearby branches. The two detectives swept their weapons around.

Tension hung in the air for several long seconds. Detective Ramsey stepped over to the dog’s remains and crouched to examine it himself. Small metal tags were splashed with old red. The wound on its throat was clear, but not as big and nasty as the last human victim.

Detective Pascal frowned.

“We’ll have animal control recover the remains once we secure the area. They’ll notify the owner.”

He said calmly but he obviously couldn’t look at it for too long either.

 

Just as it seems nothing is to come of it…

 

The scent for the ‘desire for blood’ swells and thickens to Nightscale’s nose…

 

Diamondlight can feel a disturbance in the light nearby, light something is bending it…

 

Subtle vibrations through the ground reach Sea Devil as her tremorsense warn her of something’s approach…

 

All three can sense the general direction. For those that can smell it, the scent of blood drifts in on the breeze. A moment later the sound of movement in the brush attracts even the detectives and the duo bring their weapons up.

“FCPD! Come out with your hands were we can see them!”

Pascal yells.

 

A patch of space across the clearing seems to shift, a moment later it shimmers and a ragged young woman stands just inside the clearing.

Nightscale recognizes her as the homeless looking woman he saw earlier.

Her narrowed gaze slides over each of them and something heavy presses down on their will.

[Supercape]

Diamondlight

 

In a flash, August brought out a flash of light. The illusions dropped, and he focussed the energy into a gleaming sabre of white light springing from his hand. 

 

Something was crunching against him. He didn't know what, but he felt it, like a vice squeezing his eyeballs. And he would bet his last cent the woman was behind it. Her gaze was like a drill. 

 

Entering his chest. Entering his heart. Entering his brain. 

 

"Enough!" he said, gritting his teeth and taking a forced step forward. 

 

What was it? Psychic? Magic? Horrors from another dimension?

 

Whatever it was, it felt alien. And malign. Or was that just his assumption? 

 

"Drop it, lady, whatever it is..." he said, trying to maintain his gaze on her. 

 

It wasn't his best line, but it would have to do. It was all he could say through clenched teeth. 

[Nerdzul]

"I knew it." Nightscale had little time to ravel in the satisfaction of finding the culprit, as soon as his eyes crossed with the strange woman, a shiver ran down his spine. At first, he only thought that he had been unnerved by the situation, they were tracking a killer after all, but in truth, it was his mind coming under assault. He fought the impulse to freeze in fear, clenched his jaw and struggled against the attack. 

"Not easily scared. My bad." There was a cocky grin on his lips, although, honestly, it was more for show, a display to mask a moment of weakness. 

 

"Stay back!" He shouted as he realized that the officers had reached them, now sure he had no love for the police, but that didn't mean that he wanted them in the crossfire against a supernatural entity. His eyes were now glowing as he turned to the woman. 

 

"Sorry miss, you are not going anywhere..." He lounged quickly, unnatural energy flowing in his muscles and spectral wings propelling him to close the distance between them. He tackled the woman, trying to trap her under his weight.

[Avenger Assembled]

Aquaria's heart pounded wildly as she felt the terrible pressure against her mind, the linked gaze of shark and Atlantean and Jessie's disappointment bearing down on her. She struck her trident against the ground and her helmet snapped open, revealing a broad, froggy face with wet green skin, huge staring yellow goggle eyes, and teeth - such teeth in a mouth that looked big enough to bite off a man's head. Deep One, invader, savage. When she spoke it wasn't in the voice of the machine she used inside the armor, it was in her own wet tongue, a deep, rumbling throb of a voice that boomed in bass: "I WILL - NEVER - BE CAGED AGAIN!" 

 

She struck the ground, again and again, and suddenly the very ground opened up beneath them. The effect was like the irising of a lens but made from the curled tentacles of a gigantic squid, a lens that opened up to reveal a great staring eye that they all plunged towards at alarming speed - 

 

Before suddenly they were elsewhere, not too far away; behind a copse of trees so close they could still hear the fight between Luke and the homeless woman as Aquaria slumped against her trident, breathing audibly in a low bass rumble.

[Supercape]

Diamondlight

 

And in a puddle of muddle and mud. 

 

There go my shoes, and my pants. 

 

But August didn't have time to worry about spoilt suits and footwear. First, he had to orientate himself. The portal had was horrific, but teleportation, he was used to. 

 

In a zip of light, he was back in the fight. 

 

He would have liked to have closed his eyes, but he didn't need his eyes to see, not anymore. His entire being was one giant eyeball, metaphorically speaking. He couldn't shut down his awareness. 

 

"How illuminating..." he said, as he let forth a giant flash of light that made the park shine like a sun...

 

 

[Spacefurry]

GM

 

The weight of the woman’s will pressed down on everyone, only some more than others. Detective Pascal seemed to completely freeze up under the mental attack. Detective Ramsey shouted something in a sharp tone, but it was lost in the ruckus as Nightscale closed the distance and tackled the homeless woman. The two falling to the ground in the struggle.

 

Suddenly, Sea Devil’s cry of rage cut through the ruckus and the ground seemed to open up and swallow her, dragging Diamondlight and Detective Pascal along with her.

The trio found themselves unceremoniously dumped just outside the trees of the hidden path. Sea Devil’s portal dropping them at the edge of a small pond half hidden in the brush. It was just large enough to soak Diamondlight before the well dressed hero disappeared in a flash of light.

For his part, Pascal dropped to a knee and gasped.

“What was that?”

He managed to mutter before struggling back to his feet and looking around.

“Ramsey? Shit!”

He cursed when he realized they had been separated. He looked back at Sea Devil.

“Are you okay?”

He asked the armored hero.

 

******

 

In the clearing, Diamondlight returns just in time to see Detective Ramsey hesitating. Her weapon pointed at the ground as she watches the two struggling.

 

Suddenly the clearing is lit up like small sun for an instant.

Detective Ramsey curses as she unsuccessfully tries to cover her eyes from it. The woman hisses as she looks away and shuts her eyes against the flash.

 

******

 

Beyond the trees Detective Pascal and Sea Devil are bombarded by slices of light cutting through the trees. Their intensity catching the officer and hero.

Detective Pascal raises an arm against the flash but not fast enough.

 

******

 

Nightscale struggles with the woman on the ground, easily grappling her. Almost too easily.

Blinding light fills the clearing and the woman hisses and flinches.

Then, with a snarl she lunges in Nightscale’s grip and sinks long teeth deep into the boy’s bicep. Blood pouring across her lips, running  down her chin and his arm as he can feel her trying to literally drink his blood.

[Avenger Assembled]

Sea Devil closed her eyes and let the darkness take her. "Stay here," she rumbled in a voice deep like a summer storm. It was too dark for Surfacers to see - too dark for her to see, for that matter. But her suit's sensors sang in her round ears, and so too did the sounds of the park, the wild melee, the calling voices, and the hiss and snarl of their enemy. It was dark. But not so dark as it was at the bottom of the ocean, where her people ruled. 

 

With a bellow she leapt high in the air, her armor kicking to life with a sound like rushing waters, crashing feet-first to the ground just behind the blood-drinker as she attacked Nightscale. Having eaten flesh of man and beast, Aquaria had no particular horror of a cannibal - instead of fear, she felt the righteous fury of a warrior. I bet this is the one who killed the dog! She came up behind the woman and caught her around the neck with her trident, jerking her backwards and bouncing her head off a cavernous skull designed to absorb the blows of an outraged whale. It didn't hurt Aquaria a bit - but the woman went down almost immediately. 

[Spacefurry]

GM

 

“Wha-“

Was all Detective Ramsey managed before Sea Devil was already moving. The Deep One’s howl of rage echoed through the trees and out into the park. Branches snapped as the watery hero propelled herself through them in a single powerful leap.

The ground shook a little as armored rage landed behind the grappling pair. Sea Devil’s trident easily wrenched the woman’s head off Nightscale’s arm, leaving bleeding bite wounds in her wake. The sound of the woman’s indignant outrage was cut off by the crack of her head connecting with a solid helmet.

The woman fell to the ground limply, but very much still breathing as the blood around her mouth slowly began to run down her cheek to drip on the dirt.

[Supercape]

Diamondlight

 

August pulled himself back from anger. Was he livid, excited, or scared? There was the rapid breathing, the hammering heart, the pulse in his neck. Excitement, adrenaline. 

 

Addiction. 

 

He forced his face into poker like stillness, and started ambling up to Aquaria and the fallen woman. Who was she? What was she?

 

Why was she?

 

Why had she been out for blood, and what was with that paralytic gaze?

 

He straightened his clothes, and kept the shining forcefield around his body at full strength. There was more to this than met the eye, he would wager. 

 

And he liked a wager. 

 

"Nice shot," he said to Aquaria as he studied the limp body. He wasn't quite bold enough to touch her, lest there be some booby trap. "Do you know who she was?"