ic Shark Week: Flying Sharks? (IC)

[Airon]

Still hovering near the ensnared shark, Saiph’s face got a bit worried “Boy, did we even manage to dent it? They should make bridges out of that stuff, not museum models!†he scratched his head and felt the energy on his hands fizzling on his skin Unless… let’s try this!

The words of his physics teacher danced around in his head “a laser - Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation †they had seen in the lab a laser cutting through diamond. And a stimulated emission of radiation was just about the extension of his powers.

Ok, so if I charge my left hand thusly it could act as a gain medium his left hand assumed a crystalline quality now I push in a focused light beam from my right hand – let’s make it blue, for Obi-Wan… and I have… yes! he let out a scream of excitement “We have a functioning laser, ladies and gentleman. Thank you Ms. Clark!†he chuckled never thought I'd say that.

The concentrated blue beam pulsed out of his hand in short-ranged bursts; Saiph lifted himself above the shark’s head and then flew down towards its tail, the hand down close to the synthetic spine, the blue beam cutting through it “And if that doesn’t rattle your bones, I don’t know what would!†he said while breathing heavily - that move tired him considerably.

[Raveled]

GM

The skeletal shark strained at its bonds, growling deep in its nonexistent chest. As the teens reacted and bombarded it with blows, it stood fast against them -- until Saiph let loose a dazzling blast of cosmic energy! The skeleton did indeed shiver down its length and grow still for a moment, almost like whatever the hero had done had disturbed the connection between the skeleton and the malign intelligence controlling it.

[Scuffles]

Kristin blinked as Morgan bolted for the door. Huh? Where the hell is he going?

Heraldo and Saiph were hammering away on the creature however and it was still trapped by the wires wrapped tightly around it and anchored to the wall. She stood her ground and planted, squaring her shoulders towards the Megalodon as green light flowed off her in sheets. The telekinetic energy gathered tightly then lashed out at the trapped foe with rib rattling force that nonetheless failed to even crack a 'bone'.

I can dent plate steel like that, what the heck is this thing made of? Must be some kind of magic making it move around. I bet that's what Morgan went after!

[Quinn]

Glow's theory was right on the money, as she soon found out - Morgan tore around the corner, yanking the backpack off of him and pulling his coat and costume out with almost indecent haste. With expertise borne of experience, he dropped his pea coat, pulled the shirt with his emblem over his head, yanked the runed slacks up over his jeans, and shoved his arms through the rune coat's sleeves. Bandanna tied around the face, hood up, kick the coat and backpack out of sight behind a handy display, only a few seconds total. A new personal record, but he was a bit busy to pay attention. Crow then raked his eyes over the runes covering his sleeves, searching for something...something...

Hah! Knew there'd be one!

Big grin under the bandanna. Crow spun on his heel and slammed his palms together, reappearing back in the main hall right beside Kristin. Morgan's eyes smiled over the bandanna, and he spread his palms wide, starting to chant (honestly making it up on the fly, but he had to say something);

"Ah...begone, ye spirit! Avaunt! You have no hold in this place! Your time is done! The living do not suffer the dead to pass!" Damnit, Nick made this look so much easier!

A rune smoked and burned by his elbow, and Morgan slammed his left boot on the ground - a circle of runes floated up from the tiles and began to encircle the teen; he continued chanting things he'd heard at Parkhurst, as ethereal energies lashed from the circle towards the skeletal shark.

"Begone!"

[Raveled]

GM

The energy of Crow's spell flew up from him and wrapped around the megalodon skeleton, outlining it in a shimmering, opalescent aura. The energy turned angry red almost immediately and concentrated around the jaw, then split and clung to several teeth. The monster shark let out a low, keening moan that downshifted past the audible range, shaking the heroes' bones. There was a moment of terrible stillness; a sound that defied description; the young heroes saw a form float away from the skeleton, a form that twisted impossibly and was gone even as their brains tried to make sense of it; and it was done. The shark skeleton was again just a skeleton, hanging in the air. At least for a moment, then it was a shark skeleton plummeting through the air and crashing on the ground. The room was filled with plaster dust as the replica bones broke and the display shattered.

Moments later, a balding figure in a cardigan and trousers rose from the floor boards and surveyed the damage. Jesse Perry, formerly the crimefighter Ghostman and evidently still in full possession of his superpowers, made a face and nodded slowly. "Well, at least you kids move fast. Would have been nice if you hadn't destroyed a museum piece, of course. Don't worry, we'll cover for your absence earlier." His gaze fell on Kirsten and he frowned. "And you, miss, should be in costume! Have to protect your identity, remember?" He shook his head curtly and fell through the floor. "Mr. Hawke and I will keep the authorities out for a little while longer, but get ready for them!"

[Scuffles]

Kristin recoiled away from Morgan with a startled "eep!" as he appeared right next to her, then rounded on him with her fist clenched. She caught herself before throwing the punch however, then watched the display of magical might with amazement as the older student wrenched whatever had possessed the replica Megalodon clear out of its borrowed body.

Did he say "The living do not suffer the dead to pass"? That totally doesn't sound like magic to me...

The crash of the skeleton falling to the ground was loud and unpleasant, but it was also a massive relief. A light Telekinetic push caused a bit of a breeze inside the building as Kristin wafted the worst of the dust and fine floating debris towards the doorway.

"Nice job guys," she started to say, then halted as Mr. Perry floated up through the floor. Still on a bit of an adrenaline rush, she planted her hands on her hips as she listened to what he had to say.

"Destroyed a Museum piece? It started it!" she retorted, then glanced down at her clothes as she received a minor lecture about not being in costume. "One of my schoolmates was being chewed on by a gigantic flying skeleton shark! I wasn't about to run off to get changed and leave him to get bitten in half!"

Mr. Perry it seemed wasn't in the mood to argue, but Kristin had to have the last say, calling "I'm not sorry!" after him as he floated back through the floor. "I guess I had better go change now though," she finished with a shrug as she looked around at her costumed friends. "Back in a minute!"

[Ari]

Subito had honestly not realized Glow was out of costume before Perry pointed it out. Of course, he could transform instantly, something few of his teammates could. Shrugging to himself he muttered "Eh, not like all of us can change as easily as me. And she did something after all"

Descending to earth he glanced at the others and quietly adjusted his hat, asking the group as a whole "So..should we assign someone to be our general voice, or speak for ourselves? Not like any of us will want to give anything away, but not everyone likes talking with whole buncha people at once"

He felt distantly annoyed at his performance against the shark, having not managed to even attract its attention or dent it or much anything. "Might as well ha' stood and gaped" he muttered inaudibly, looking over at the direction of the approaching human sounds he could hear.

[Quinn]

Crow shook his head, quickly striding over to inspect the collapsed skeleton. The spirit that had left was...odd. Wrong. Disturbing. Many other words he didn't have adequate descriptions for. Mental note, check Parkhurst library later. The ghostly professor was met with twin raised eyebrows, along with a distinctly repressed urge to ask a whole boatload of questions. Second mental note. Never try to be sneaky around Mr. Perry.

He straightened after a full check, and looked towards the approaching voices. A grimace. The teen hero snapped his fingers, and the six knives and prodigious amount of wire just vanished into thin air. At Subito's question, he shook his head. "Not me. Gotta avoid public exposure. Whole persona thing. Be out of sight."

His body rippled. A light mist coated Morgan for a moment, before he simply...faded. And then where there were four students, there were now three. A somewhat amused voice came from the air. "Man, I love this thing."

[Airon]

Saiph, unlike Luke Perrin, didn’t really sweat – but he looked nonetheless very tired. He landed gently among the debris, an eye still very fix on the damn model laying on the floor – he was in the corner of the room when Morgan had worked his spell and didn’t really get what happened.

“So… you turned it off?†he asked Morgan, but noticed with a bit of surprise he wasn’t there anymore where the…? Kristin was running away too – professor Perry just lectured her apparently. He looked at Subito, who looked just as perplexed as he did. “Man, good job there. I don’t know how you do it, but your little rousing speeches always help. Well, not really, since we barely dented the thing.†he shrugged “but at least we didn’t get hurt. Nor did anybody else. That’s something I guess.â€

He looked around, trying to think of what could happen next. “So, was it an animatronic robot? A dimensional prankster? Please, please tell me there’s no magic involved… not again, not after that idiot at the movie theatre…â€

[Scuffles]

Kristin emerged from a handy janitors closet as Glow, dressed in her form fitting blue and yellow Claremont jumpsuit, complete with comfortable blue ankle-high boots and a mask to hide her features. Her bag and the clothes that she had been wearing over the suit were stashed in the very same closet. Gotta remember to grab that once we're done here..

She jogged back over to Saiph and Heraldo and gave them a slightly quizzical look when she noticed that Morgan was nowhere to be seen. "We seem to be missing someone?" she asked. "Gee I don't know, I leave you boys alone for two minutes and you're already losing each other. What's up with that?"

She glanced at the pile of busted bones and plaster that was the remains of the shark skeleton. "So when people turn up to ask do we actually have the faintest idea why an inanimate set of replica shark bones just tried to kill a bunch of school kids? Because, you know, people are probably going to want to know about that."

[Ari]

"Search me" grumbled El Heraldo "I think he's checking up on the thing that was possessing the shark or whatever, and he can make himself invisible which I guess he did so he could work in peace" he looked over at Luke "Thanks, but now we have a new problem, mainly lots of questions that'll be pretty hard to answer without giving us all away. You want to help with the talking thing?" he looked over at Glow "Cool costume, you want to risk talking to the press, or do you wanna sit it out in case it turns into another 'Terror etc..' thing?" he checked over his flag for any unsightly rents or snags "I got no issues they might want to bring up, and I don't think Luke does either, so we're pretty well set if you don't want to get involved"

[Raveled]

GM

As the teens stood over the shattered remains of the shark skeleton, the doors banged open and police officers in their blue uniforms flooded through, weapons at the ready. As soon as they realized the heroes had contained the situation they put their weapons away and moved to secure the scene, instead.

The tour guide followed the police in, and her face fell when she saw the shattered remains of the exhibit. "Oh, no!" She glanced back up at the three (visible) heroes. "I mean, I'm sure you did what you had to do but..." Her eyes fell back to the broken plaster bones. "I hope Mr. Hayden isn't too put off."

[Scuffles]

"I'd just as soon stay away from the media and police on this one," Kristin chuckled as the police stormed into the building, her telekinetic barrier flaring back into place just in case someone got trigger-happy. "Even if that Jackson jerk isn't here it never seems to end well. You boys are up. Try not to say anything silly!"

She left Saiph and Heraldo to fend off any questions and prowled restlessly around the room, pausing to look around the area where the replica skeleton had originally been moored. She didn't really know what she was looking for, but clearly there had been plenty of damage done when the monster tore free.

Why is everyone so worried about the stupid thing being all broken and busted? They weren't even real bones! Plaster can't cost all that much surely? Just make a new one and get on with it people! And tie it down better this time so it doesn't try and chew on people!

[Quinn]

Near where Glow stood, a tiny bit of dust was kicked up from an invisible boot. Crow kneeled down by the teeth of the skeletal creature, noting with some displeasure the inscribed runes on six of the numerous teeth; fortunately, he knew where to look from where the energies of the exorcism and the spirit had collided. It was also fortunate the heroes had attracted the press and police's attention; nobody noted two teeth disappearing from the ground and into an invisible pocket.

The teen straightened, narrowly missing bonking his head on the top of the skull. Looking at the others made him somewhat thoughtful, but there wasn't much of a decision to make. The heroes he emulated relied on mystique and criminal superstition; the old Crow might have chased fame and leapt right in front of those cameras, but now...

A small breeze was kicked up around the bones, whistling through what was left of the skeleton's intact ribcage. Shortly thereafter, a Morgan Crowe in full civvies appeared in the crush of Claremont students that had been chivvied away from the hall, zipping up his Hello Kitty backpack. The teen kept his gloves on, though; just shoving his hands into his pockets when he was done.

[Raveled]

GM

It took some time for the police to finish questioning the teen heroes, and by that time the reporters and news crews were filtering in. Glow, Saiph, and El Heraldo were mobbed with questions and cameras demanding to know what had happened and who was responsible. The Claremont students, however, were able to make a much quieter withdrawal, back to the bus, which had at some point drawn up directly in front of the aquarium. As the students filed back on, Leeroy Hawk singled Morgan Crowe out of the crowd and put a heavy hand on the young man's shoulder, pulling him aside. "And what," he asked quietly, giving the man a knowing look, "did Crow find out back there?"

[Quinn]

Morgan checked to either side, then reached into an interior pocket of his pea coat. In front of the professor he held out one of the two teeth he'd collected, the rune blackened and seared into the white plaster. His expression was grim.

"Abuse of power, for one. Summoning and binding rune. Took an exorcism to clear it out, and the spirit got away."

The teen gave the professor a simultaneous knowing look, and jerked his head towards the city.

"Crow knows some folks who know a lot more magic than him; was going to take it to them. Then bring a report to the Headmaster, see if that spirit can be tracked back to whoever did it."

[Airon]

“More magic. Of course.†Luke rubbed his temples – he definitely wasn’t used to the yammering questions of the press, and he hated having to keep a low profile and a secret identity.

“You know, things were so much easier in space.†he said to Kristin and Subito “No press, for once. And no darn magic! I went†he bit his tongue “ok, we went against astrobattleship, sun-eaters, living pulsars… I thought I had a pretty wide experience. And yet, here in Freedom, it seems every other lunatic is Gandalf!â€

He took a longsip from his can of iced tea – then he stopped mid-drink, a horrible thought coming into his mind. He didn’t know Subito that well “You… your powers aren’t magical, are they? ‘Cause you know, I’ve nothing against you.†he was starting to blush awkwardly “nor against Morgan or other magicians… it’s just frustrating for me, I’m just so out of my element; I have no idea how that thing works.â€

[Ari]

Subito was still slightly reeling from the endless waves of questions thrown his, Glow' and Saiph's ways by the reporters and police. He at least had been comfortable with the volume of the exchange, which had been only a little below his accustomed conversation level. On the other hand he was frustrated at how few of the questions had to do with the situation, and how many were extrapolations of the scene based on shaky evidence, if grounded at all. As a result he was shorter with Saiph than he might have otherwise been.

"The power isn't mine, I ask for and receive it from the national spirit of Puerto Rico. It isn't 'magic', for it is not me exercising my will over the material or spiritual world using magical energies" he glanced irritably at the cosmic-powered teen "Besides, magic is only as mysterious as you let it be, there's like a gazillion books that tell you all about what magic does and how it works in the school library, and there is no shortage of junior witches and magically-gifted students to ask"

He looked about the room "No sense hanging about, I think we should head out and get back into our normal stuff"

[Scuffles]

Glow managed to avoid the worst of the questions by wandering around the scene of the battle then standing behind Heraldo and Saiph with her arms folded across her chest. She was pleased that for once there wasn't a particularly annoying reporter blaming her for everything.

"Now now, no need to get snarky!" she chuckled as the pair managed to extract themselves. "There really isn't trouble with the magic-types all that often, mostly they're no worse than anyone else. I guess we've just managed to run into a few of the bad ones together. I think you're right though, we should see if we can get out of here and get back to the group.

"I guess the field trip is over," she sighed. "Shame, I was kinda looking forward to it too!"

[Raveled]

GM

Leeroy raised a conspiratorial eyebrow. He didn't have much training in magic, but he could make the proper conversion to a bomb or the like. "An evil spirit, huhn? Certainly sounds like someone has something against the aquarium." He narrowed his eyes and gave the student a hard look. "Of course, if I tell the Headmaster you're dealing with the situation, you're also going to be responsible for the other students. Understood?"

---

Inside the aquarium, the reporters had taken all the photographs they were inclined to, and most were filing out or setting up for a quick recording. The tour guide from earlier fought her way through the press to where the teen heroes were standing in a knot. "Excuse me," she said. "I'm Madeline Burke, I'm with the aquarium. Um... Can you tell me exactly what happened here?" She wrung her hands, clearly out of her depth. "It's just, Mr. Hayden was so looking forward to the exhibit, and now he may never get to see it!"

[Quinn]

Morgan resisted the urge to pop to a salute, sticking to a relaxed nod. The current plan had been to stop by Parkhurst, scan the tooth for any magical residue or rituals he could track back on, then deliver a report to the headmaster and ask to handle it with the other students; Kristin, Subito, and Luke had worked fast and well in there, he'd have backed them without question after that.

The trick now was how to track back the tooth without bringing the lot of them to Parkhurst...but then, the dimensional room was deep on the interior of the place, and the workshop was in the basement; if he didn't walk them past a window...

The teen tilted his head thoughtfully, and returned his attentions to the teacher.

"Understood, sir. Should we go back to the school before starting the trackback or get started right away?"

[Ari]

The tour guide from earlier fought her way through the press to where the teen heroes were standing in a knot. "Excuse me," she said. "I'm Madeline Burke, I'm with the aquarium. Um... Can you tell me exactly what happened here?" She wrung her hands, clearly out of her depth. "It's just, Mr. Hayden was so looking forward to the exhibit, and now he may never get to see it!"

El Heraldo quickly explained what had happened, not leaving out any details that wouldn't hint at them being students from the recently arrived Claremont troupe, concluding with "...I regret to say I have no explanation for what the possessor might have been; I only know it was some kind of energy-based entity, was in a fury the entire time it dwelt on the replica, and could make terrible roars like the howls of damned things. My comrade, Crow, will no doubt soon have an answer to the larger mysteries about this case"

He had left out what he had done largely because as far as he could tell it wasn't worth telling. He wondered if there were any cameras around this part of the museum, and abruptly felt like some kind of criminal. I wonder if anyone else ever feels that way in this business? he pondered silently.

[Raveled]

GM

Madeline Burke didn't take the news well, staring in shock as El Heraldo described the attack, finally covering her face with her hands. "Oh, my god. Mr. Hayden is going to be furious. He was so specific about how to set up the skeleton..." She wandered away, shaking her head slowly as she started picking through the rubble.

Claremont taught classes in media evasion, to those special students who would benefit from it, and so it was minutes later that Subito, Kristin, and Luke were standing outside, waiting to board the bus. Before they could do so, though, they were intercepted by Jesse Perry, who ushered them all the one side. "Well now," he said, his voice rather sterner than they were used to hearing the English teacher's, "I understand you did quite a job there. So much so that Mr. Crowe would like you to help him with the rest of his investigations." He paused and glanced over at Morgan, who was still talking to Leeroy Hawke. "Unless you think there's another avenue for you to explore?"

[Airon]

Luke scratched his head “Yes, of course.†he muttered as low as possible “Taking a different path from the guy who single-handedly ended the fight against the possessed shark skeleton seems like the smart thing to do.â€

He answered to Mr. Perry “I’m all for seeing this thing to the end, professor. If Morgan thinks I can be of help, I’ll gladly follow his lead – especially since he probably saved the day on his own back there – but could I please know what he found out? I like to know what we’re up against, and I magic, well… it is really not up my alley.†he tried to sound polite but insistent: he was the new kid, but that didn’t mean he was going to run blindly into an unknown enemy if the information was at hand.

[Scuffles]

Back with her classmates at the bus Kristin allowed herself to relax a little, although being pulled aside by Mr. Perry along with Luke and Subito certainly didn't help her nerves. She was however very pleased to find out that Morgan wanted their help to continue investigations into the situation.

The young Australian chewed her bottom lip as she listened to Luke's answer. "Luke's right about the magic Mr Perry. Morgan is obviously more likely to be able to work out something about that kind of thing. I'd definitely like to see what we can do to help him though. A giant shark skeleton coming to life is pretty seriously dangerous and I want to make sure nobody else is in line to get hurt."

"Something else is bothering me too though," she mused. "The lady from the aquarium mentioned a Mr. Hayden who was involved in the creation of the shark-skeleton exhibit with some very specific plans. Do we have any idea who that might be?"