Whatever Walked There, Walked Alone [IC]

[trollthumper]

Nick charged into the apartment right behind Fusion, taking care to avoid Gossamer's hair as it swept across the floor. Gossamer's hair quickly swept over the form of the cameraman, who was lying prone at the far end of the apartment. Nick followed the golden tresses to the cameraman. One look was enough to tell him what he needed to know.

"He's still alive," he said. "He's probably just out cold. Whatever the hell that was, it just knocked him out."

"Poltergeist activity?" Jennifer asked.

"Probably," Nick said. "What the hell happened here? Why would this ghost be waking up now?"

"To be honest? We don't know." Jennifer pulled a folder out of her jacket. "We dug up records from the newspapers. There's nothing horribly traumatic that happened here, at least that anyone knows about. There were a few missing person cases. One was just a case of a girl running away to LA to be an actress. The other one was a murder, but the crime scene was determined to have been halfway across town."

"That doesn't rule it out. Ghost could still be drawn to here as a place of comfort. All alone, it's lashing out at everything around it." Nick looked up to the ceiling. "That's the problem, though -- it feels like it's flitting in and out. Like it's found some hiding place, and it doesn't want to leave."

[Heritage]

Gossamer quickly followed the others, catching up with her own hair (sadly, not for the first time), which returned to its normal length.

"That doesn't rule it out. Ghost could still be drawn to here as a place of comfort. All alone, it's lashing out at everything around it." Nick looked up to the ceiling. "That's the problem, though -- it feels like it's flitting in and out. Like it's found some hiding place, and it doesn't want to leave."

"His camera is missing," the blonde heroine announced. "Which to be honest makes me suspect a very living entity grabbed him; would a ghost want to get rid of evidence of itself?" She then waved a deferential hand in Nick's direction. "Not that I speak with the voice of authority on the subject."

[Avenger Assembled]

"We need to stay together," said Fusion with a quiet, otherworldly assurance. Clinging to the ceiling with long black tentacles, she looked like something undead herself as she kept a firm grip on the shadows. "Stay together, and keep records as long as you can." She reached into her costume and fished around for a few moments before coming out with a disposable camera. "It's a crap camera," she admitted ruefully, "but it'll take pictures. This was supposed to be for our victory party afterwards, and it will be...once we get these guys. How'd the murder victim die?" she asked Nick C suddenly.

[trollthumper]

Nick looked to Jessica for the answer. "Strangulation," she said. "The victim was apparently negligent on a few loans to the wrong people, so they took him around to a quiet place in The Fens and went to work."

"That'd certainly match poltergeist activity," Nick said. "Violent ends mean violent rests. But they don't usually sleep in this long."

"But it's possible?"

"Oh, yeah, it's possible. It's just usually very loud and unsubtle. And I don't mean that in the sense that this here's been a masterpiece of subtlety; I mean there's usually a patina of undeath everywhere the poltergeist touches. And the more powerful it gets --"

Even under the makeup, it was clear that Nick was starting to blanch. "We may want to get the hell out of here. Now."

"What? Why?"

"Because the more powerful a poltergeist gets... the more it leeches into its surroundings. The more it becomes a part of the place it's in. This ghost hasn't been sleeping. It's been working on its camouflage. We're not looking for a ghost. We're inside a ghost."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Hm." Fusion didn't hesitate at the necromancer's words. She snapped tentacles against the walls to build up momentum, pulled herself tight, then 'cracked the whip', driving her black-clad form forward feet-first and crumbling the wall, striking again and again with devastating punches that knocked away chunks of drywall and concrete, ripping open a hole in the wall big enough for people to pass through easily. Snapping her tentacles out to hold the crumbling gap in place, she turned to the others and waved, "C'mon! Civilians first!"

[Heritage]

It was truly impressive to see Fusion at work; for a moment, Gossamer wandered if she was holding back more than she should. Was she too busy being civilized to use her own powers effecively? The moment quickly past as more pressing issues faced them all.

"C'mon! Civilians first!"

"By all mean yes! Between the two of us, we should have no problem getting everyone out!"

She quickly move to stand on the other side of the hole from the tentacled troubleshooter, and formed several long thick ropes of hair that flopped outside, down towards the street.

[trollthumper]

The camera man looked for the strange "cables" over to Jennifer. "Oh, like this is the weirdest thing we've done," she said.

"That's the spirit," Nick said. He grabbed hold of one of the ropes and slowly made his way down. Jennifer and the camera man soon followed, and when they were out, Fusion and Gossamer were out of the building.

"Well, what next? An exorcism?"

"I guess so," Nick said. "Might be difficult. A poltergeist like that's settled deep. Means --"

There was a groan of settling mortar and bending steel. Nick looked up to see the hole Fusion had punched in the wall slowly reforming behind them. Within a few seconds, it was still its old dilapidated self, but it looked whole and somewhat sturdy again.

"Means a lot of work, I'm guessing."

"To say the least," Nick said. He furrowed his brow. "One thing I don't get; why did it want the camera?"

"It can keep it, for all I care. My boss'll take it out of my hide, but when he sees the footage --" Jennifer's eyes crossed over to the street, where she finally noticed. "Wait a minute... where the hell is the van?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"This isn't right," said Fusion, her voice serious as she studied the marks left behind by the departing van. "They took off fast, and without even stopping to clean up their equipment." The tip of one lashing tentacle curled around a broken piece of expensive electronics, toying with it pensively. "Come on. We've got to find where they went!" And with that, the tentacled titan was off, whipping her suckered limbs from light pole to wall as she swung her way in the direction of the disappeared van!

[trollthumper]

As Fusion patrolled the streets, she found the evidence of a van careening perilously through the night. Dented lamp posts, skid marks on sidewalks, newspaper kiosks broken from their moorings and lying on their sides. As she did, she noticed other eccentricities in the night -- street lights flickering as if fighting to stay lit, and cracks forming in the sidewalk under her feet. She finally caught up to it four blocks down -- it was speeding forward with little regard for the small traffic on the road, shaking back and forth.

----

Meanwhile...

Nick Cimitiere clutched his head. "Something's here," he said.

"Could you be a little more specific?" said Jessica, who was somewhat taxed by the evening's events.

"That'd require me to know what it is," he said. "But it feels something like --" His jaw dropped open. "Oh, no."

"What? What is it?"

"It's like I said in there -- after a while, a poltergeist starts to leech into its surroundings, become a part of the building it haunts."

"And?"

"And for decades, that building's been isolated from the rest of Freedom. No gas. No electricity. No water. All sympathetic connections cut." He looked back up to the wall they'd emerged from. "But then someone brings in a camera with a remote connection..."

"You can't be serious."

"Wish I wasn't. But this... god, I don't even think it can be called a ghost anymore. Whatever it is... it's trying to possess Freedom City."

[Heritage]

"And for decades, that building's been isolated from the rest of Freedom. No gas. No electricity. No water. All sympathetic connections cut." He looked back up to the wall they'd emerged from. "But then someone brings in a camera with a remote connection..."

"You can't be serious."

"Wish I wasn't. But this... god, I don't even think it can be called a ghost anymore. Whatever it is... it's trying to possess Freedom City."

This was all a bit too much for Gossamer; she tried to wrap her head around the concept of a psychokinetic entity capable of 'possessing' an entire building, but if she'd learned nothing else from living in Freedom City all these years, it was that few things were truly impossible.

"So assuming your hypothesis is correct, what do we need to do to sever this connection and prevent the rather terrifying scenraio you've just proposed?"

[trollthumper]

"As far as I see it," Nick said, "we've got two options. The thing in the building's set up a relay system -- from the camera, to the news van, to the station, to Freedom City. So, we've got two options: Fusion finds the news van -- which is likely possessed in its own way -- and smashes it up. Or..." Nick looked back to the building, which looked darker than ever.

"...we go back in and find that damn camera."

[Avenger Assembled]

Joan Collier was many things, but she was the last person to attribute spectral activity to what seemed like a panicky van driver. She didn't remember anyone being in the van, but evidently someone was, or else how would it be driving? Swinging her way through the lightpoles overhanging the street, never minding the sidewalk below, Fusion hmmed. Something strange is happening here. I wonder if the driver's a latent psychic, or if some of that mental energy rubbed off on the van. Still, there was only one logical thing to do here: Fusion took a flying leap and hurled herself right through the van's front windshield, lashing her tentacles around her head to protect herself at the last second.

[trollthumper]

Fusion landed in the news van, and as the glass cleared away, it quickly became clear who was in charge. The driver and the technicians all lay unconscious on the floor of the van. And yet, there was clearly a feed going out to the main station... even if it didn't seem to make the most sense. Images of draining pools, broken railroad tracks, and bloody shears filled the banks. As Fusion leaned in to inspect them, the image cut to black. Soon, type appeared on the screen:

NOT FOR YOU

The words vanished just as fast, and new ones filled the screen:

GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT

Fusion felt something trying to lift her up...

[Heritage]

"...we go back in and find that damn camera."

Estelle sighed, and shook her head with a morbid chuckle. "I was afraid your were going to say that. Fair enough, let's get to it."

She marched back towards the front door, her hair arrayed into a serious of angry looking tendrils, giving her the appearance of a golden spider rearing back to strike. She watched for even the slightest movement, her blue eyes darting to and fro as she approached the sinister structure.

[trollthumper]

The hair under Fusion's hood began to stand on end as the static in the van rose. She could see electricity sparking off the console... but the build-up was slow, slow enough that she was able to get behind cover before the bolt tore through the open windshield.

----

Back at the apartments...

Nick ran for the doors. "What the hell am I supposed to do?" yelled Jessica. "Stand here?"

"You could try holy ground," Nick said. "Just get out of here! If it extends outward, it may go for the camera on your jacket!" He arrived at the doors, only to find the ghost had already worked its magic; what had once been rickety and rotted now seemed harder than a bank vault. "It wants to lock us out," he said as ectoplasm congealed around his fists. "Fortunately, I've got just the key." He drove a fist with the rough smoothness of pumice and the weight of a sledgehammer into the wooden door. The door practically dissolved under the blow, splintering and falling to the ground in pieces.

"Guess they don't make 'em like they used to." He stepped over the threshold. "Your move."

[Avenger Assembled]

What the hell!?! "Time we see how fast you can really go!" Fusion's tentacles lashed out as she gathered up the comatose people, wrapping them all up in their own limb, the octopoid portions of her brain giving her perfect coordination as she swept them into her grip. "I see you buy American," she hissed at the invisible driver. "Mistake!" Joan was a little nervous, but she knew the only way she was going to stop this thing was fast and hard! This should work. And I can catch it if it breaks...She drove her free tentacle down through the rear of the van, grabbed the rear axle, and pulled!

[trollthumper]

The axle snapped under her, causing the van to skid to a stop. The van erupted into chaos as the screens turned on and off, and a barrage of distorted voices poured out of the mixing boards:

"Hurt me hurt you hurt me hurt you..."

Fusion felt the static building in the van once again, and was caught off guard as a focused surge struck her right in the small of her back.

[Heritage]

"Guess they don't make 'em like they used to." He stepped over the threshold. "Your move."

Estelle stepped through the remains of the doorway, her many tendrils darting this way and that at the slightest movement in the air. "I actually need something to hit to be very useful at this point; let's see if our not-so-friendly poltergeist will be accomidating."

[Avenger Assembled]

Fusion left the jerk in the van to his own devices. Instead she catapulted upwards, punching out the van's roof as she went, and carrying the civilians with her. "It's all right people!" she called, abandoning her usual faux-alien hissing in the crisis. "I can handle this!" When she'd removed all the injured journalists, placing them neatly by the side of the road out of the path of traffic, she jumped to the van. "Listen, you psychic impression or whatever you are, I've dealt with versions of you people that'll turn your hair green! And this is how I dealt with them!" She still remembered that bizarre encounter she'd had in Japan with that psychic echo left behind by the dead teenager. She picked up the van in her limbs and began tearing it to shreds, driving the chunks of steel and glass she tore loose into the asphalt to pin them in place. "I'll pull you apart like an Otaku-bot!"

[trollthumper]

At home...

"Something to hit?" Nick extended his senses outward, and felt how he thought a fly might feel on the rim of a spider's web. "Should be easy of us. Like I said, the poltergeist's worked itself into the very structure of this building, and seems to be making the leap from there to the rest of the city. But... that means its power is in this building. In its bones and its blood. And..." He raised one talon to the air, plucking at it like a guitar string. "...in its nervous system."

He took a blind swipe in the air, and there was the sound of something snapping like a rubber band -- followed by a deep, bellowing scream. Something flickered in the empty shadows of the building, something that looked like spiderwebs caught in moonlight -- until the duo saw that it was twitching and convulsing.

"There we go! Something to hit!"

---

On the road...

Invisible hands grabbed at Fusion once more, but were unable to find purchase amongst the slippery suit and the waving tentacles. She could see a mass of hands, grasping at her, coming together out of thin air. The cacophony from the mixing board began to coalesce, forming slurred words.

"Llleeettt... meeeee... ouuuuuttttt... llllleeettt... meeee... grrrrooowwww..."

[Heritage]

"There we go! Something to hit!"

Estelle shuddered involuntarily at the sight of the eerie 'entity' as it quivered in the shadows, just at the edge of perception.

Oh, this is going to be rather icky.

Her hair formed into a single thick fibrous appendage some fifteen feet long; with a grunt of effort, she swung it around her head and snapped it forward like a lash, shooting across the intervening space like a golden bolt of lightning.

[Avenger Assembled]

"The only place I'm going to let you out is Hell! And my fists are going to send you there!" And with that, Fusion planted a chunk of Detroit iron in the ground before her as a marker and raised her fists. "Come on! Don't stand up if you aren't prepared to jump up!" When the poltergeist got close, she drew back her limbs and lashed at it in a hurricane of blows! "You think you can scare Freedom City's journalists from telling the truth? Well let me tell you, mister! THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD!"

[trollthumper]

On the road...

Fusion's tentacles cut right through the half-formed entity, ripping apart its ectoplasmic form. It felt like plunging them right into cold pudding. The poltergeist fell apart, and jarring feedback cut through the van. A deep, base voice, clear for once, emerged from the mixing board.

"No. No. No. No." It was slowly rising in pitch and desperation as Fusion felt static building around her once more. "No, no, no, nonononononononoNONONONO --"

The equipment began to spark as the van came to a screeching halt. Whatever windows that were left in the van erupted outwards in a storm of Plexiglass. Through the ruined windshield, Fusion could see street lights -- lights that had flickering before -- exploding into storms of sparks.

And just as soon as the tumult began, it was over.

---

At home...

Gossamer's hair cut right through the bonds of the ectoplasmic nerves. A deep rumbling filled the air, and Nick could feel the building quaking under his boots. The nerves began to snap as beams began to fall from the ruined roof. Ectoplasm began to boil off of the manifestation, turning to mist and shadow. And soon, the building settled, and it was gone.

"Huh," Nick said. "Guess they don't make poltergeists like they used to. You'd think something like that would go for some more dramatics --"

The sound of splitting stone and cracking wood filled the air.

"Like that. I think we may want to leave."

[Heritage]

"Like that. I think we may want to leave."

Estelle nodded firmly as her eyes nervously flicked about the shattering structure. "Yes, it appears our work is done here." She sent a wide lasso of hair towards the psychic, which looped under his arms and effortlessly picked him up and pulled him to her side. A pair of golden cables shot forth to grab anchor points on the door frame of the entrance, which Gossamer hoped would be solid enough for the next few seconds. She didn't wait long enough for Nic to object before putting her plan into action.

"Off we go!"

There was a sudden lurch, and then the two of them were rapidly launched outside as though by a giant slingshot, tumbling to the ground out some fifteen feet clear of the building. The blonde chemsist slowly rose to her feet, rubbing a few tender spots as her animated mane returned to its normal length.

"Sorry about that. Ouch."

[Avenger Assembled]

At that juncture, Fusion dropped down next to the others, a look of triumph visible on her masked face and two chunks of crumbled steel in her spare tentacles. "Okay, I just ripped the guts out of some kind of psychic entity that was possessing the van. It was pretty fierce, but I took it out. The van crew is safe, I made sure the cops were on their way before I came back here. They're just waking up, but I think they'll be all right. What's going on over here?" Fusion's voice was full of the fierce joy of battle, and she crumbled the fragments of the van like paper cups as she talked.