This Concludes Our Broadcast Day [IC]

[shojikitsune]

Oracle placed her phone in her pocket and stretched, "I can move at the speed of thought, naturally. Experts at Clairemont tell me it's really teleportation, no matter what I call it. As long as I know where I am going, or have a reasonable route to follow." Her eyes narrowed a bit, as she remembered the foul wave of toxic emotions that had lead her here. 

"I mean, it's really easy if there's a strong mental or emotional issue at the other end, but that's just for accuracy purposes."

She checked the address with Omar, and then got contact information from him so they could touch base with him once the other studio was safe.

"Omar, I have two requests. first, keep that segment off the air while we are gone, and second, start brainstorming what other stations are very similar to this one and WTSR, to narrow down future possible targets. We need to be able to get ahead of whomever this is. Can you do that for us, and call me if you get anything?"

Oracle is ready to go.

 

[trollthumper]

"Uh, I can try," Omar said, turning his attention to the console. "I'm not sure if this thing's targeting our market share or just going for everyone listening to the radio, but... I'll see what I can do."

"You're doing more than enough as is," Cannonade said. "Just a shame that we need even more." He turned to Oracle and Caradoc. "All right, so, Caradoc, you said you managed to smash out the electronics to make sure this thing couldn't broadcast. And Oracle, you were able to knock out whatever effects this thing still had going. I can get there fast; you can get there faster. It might be best if you two lead - best I can do is grapple someone if they start freaking out." 

When the heroes eventually arrived, they found a small office park on the edge of Ashton. The WTSR logo was on the sign at the front of the complex, and only one office had the lights on this late at night. From the outside, things still appeared peaceful. But Oracle could feel the fear and the sorrow plucking at the corners of her mind - many signatures, none of them at the precipice of death, but some with the tenor that might make that sound appealing. And the signal, still pushing against her mind...

Inside, there was none of the chaos of the other station. No blood. No broken glass. The secretary was sitting in her chair, looking out at the lobby. It was only as the two grew close that they could see the tears that were drying on her face, and the twitching indicative of REM sleep. From the other rooms, the two could hear weeping and strange cries. 

Edited August 30, 2015 by trollthumper

[Avenger Assembled]

Caradoc took one look at the others and kicked in the door to the other rooms, his sword blazing with crackling white energy as he entered the bedeviled station like an avenging angel of righteousness. He could feel guilt for the pride in the moment later. "We have come for your liberation!" he called, false bravado in his voice when he considered the grim situation. But if his words could be heard by others, awkward though they might have been, perhaps that would be enough. It would have to be. "Oracle!" he added swiftly, "is there the same psychic turmoil here? Or are you able to counter its effects?" He was keeping an eye out for further technological terrors himself, ready to give them a swift and decisive destruction should they show their faces. 

[shojikitsune]

Oracle took a deep breath, the by now familiar saffron aura spiraling out away from her as she began radiating Calm once more. "This place is different. So much grief, so much sadness; nowhere near the rage that was present at the first scene. Go on ahead. I will join you once I have purged the building of this emotional pollution. We do not need to move with the same haste as last time, for these people are too miserable to commit the acts that fear drove people to in the last place."

She walked lightly over the shattered doors with a polite "Thank you" to Caradoc, who opened them for her so chivalrously. (If he were telepathic, he would have heard her mentally giggling at the whole image.) Once she walked  to where she estimates the center of the building is, the sphere of positive emotions moving with her as she calmly walks to the estimated center of the building, and Pushed hard with her will to force the despair and ennui to dissipate.

[trollthumper]

Once more, Oracle opened herself to the tide of grief that ran through the station. She could feel it pour over her as if she'd dived into the abyssal depths - crushing, overwhelming, dark and lightless. But she had her shield, and she was ready to lash out with it. Her will pushed back against the wave of sorrow, slowly but surely forcing it out of the station. She could feel - and then see - the secretary come to, the tears drying on her face as her sadness was pushed away. She could feel the relief pass over the station as her will served as a balm. And as it did, she could feel something move out of the station. It wasn't like before, when the signal died as her will met it; this felt like some central consciousness was in retreat. 

A few seconds later, Cannonade touched down in the lot and walked inside. He didn't know what he'd been expecting - he'd been dreading something that made the first station look like an elementary school's haunted house - but it seemed like the matter was well in hand, especially given how he felt like he was in a much better mood the second he crossed the threshold. "Good job calming things down," he said. "We got any sign of the bastards who keep doing this?" 

[shojikitsune]

"We are closer than it likes - I sense a mind..."

She blinks and focuses, looking towards the far entrance of the lobby and an exit to the far side of the building, "We're right behind them. I will teleport ahead and relay directions. Cannonade, follow me and we'll try to delay them. Caradoc, disable the machinery and follow. This is an acceptable plan?"

She hopes so, because she can feel the hostile will moving away... and she has just belted orders at two far more experienced superheros. She'll face palm later, when there's time.

[trollthumper]

"You'd know more about this than I would," Cannonade said. "Let's go find this bastard." He followed Oracle as the young psychic raced out the back. The radio station's back entrance ran through to a back corridor, something like a cross between covered parking and an alleyway. It was dark, with just a few cars dotting the landscape - and as Oracle pushed towards the signal, she realized it was coming from behind one of the further cars. 

Cannonade noticed where she was looking. "We'll do it pincer style," he whispered to her. "You left, me right." He pulled around, sneaking up as much as he could. He soon noticed there was a figure crouching behind the vehicle - skinny jeans, combat boots, long hair, but maybe male. Whoever the person was, they didn't seem to notice him. He tried sneaking forward, to see if he could get into position to bumrush the potential psychic while they seemed occupied.

The head snapped up instantly. The figure was male, the face contorted... and the eyes white, as if rolled into the back of the head. The mouth opened, and squealing static erupted into the night. Cannonade felt cold fingers running down his spine, but he managed to keep his feet planted.

"All right. Time to go off the air."

[shojikitsune]

Oracle focused on her emotion-inhibiting powers. Usually she instilled emotions in others, so maybe she could affect the other psychic too. She teleported with a blatant flash to the opposite side of the vehicle from Cannonade. If stealth was a word, Oracle didn't seem to understand its application. She prepares for both mental and physical combat possibilities, as her protective empathy should be able to shield them from emotional attacks, placing her in a support role. If the person attacked more directly, she had solutions available for that as well. A shimmering force field of amber light surrounded the girl, and dust and small bits of debris rose around her in a wind that affected her hair and dress - but nothing else in the parking lot. This is also placed her at the alleyway exit, while Cannonade was in a good position to prevent a return to the radio station

Perhaps her light show was deliberate, as she would rather the psychic try dealing with her than spot Cannonade and the likely approach of Caradoc as a threat.

Edited September 24, 2015 by shojikitsune
Flow, and stuff.

[Avenger Assembled]

Caradoc advanced on the enemy mentalist, swinging his mighty blade around his head and in front of him, its mystic blade gleaming with awesome power! It was a flashy, attention-getting maneuver, the sort that spoke of skill and prowess with the blade, that promised a deadly duel of broadsword against psychic powers. Then, without further ceremony, he smashed the flat of the blade directly into the creature's face, then against its left knee. Caradoc wasn't interested in duels, just in fast, deadly manuevers that took down the enemy as quickly as possible. "Don't let it enter your minds!" he called to the others. "Strike it down before it can ensnare you!" 

[shojikitsune]

"There is more at work here."

Oracle narrowed the sphere of emotional control - it seemed she possesses exceptional focus when it comes to matters like this. The two heroes with her would be affected, though it's unlikely positive emotions will hinder them. Hope, weaponized. Is it irony or sarcasm? In any case, she must affect all three of the struggling individuals. It was like a protective shield for Caradoc and Cannonade.

"I fear the presence is possessive of this person. They may be controlled. let us not injure them unduly. Something *feels* odd..."

She will move closer, keeping the pressure on, and making sure she protects the others.

"But be careful," she deadpans with a self-depreciating tone. "I *have* been wrong before."

[trollthumper]

"All right," said Cannonade. "Keep it out of your head. Keep it from getting into your head. Think I know a good way to do that." He could feel the sense of unease, the kind of thing that made the night seem all that darker. The possessed individual looked like they might be 100, soaking wet; he definitely had the advantage there. But the mental arena... he didn't want to try to fight there. Which was why he had to keep the guy from concentrating. He dived forward, hands outstretched, ready to grab the shoulder in one and the waist in another, turning it from a struggle of minds to a struggle of muscle. 

But the entity must have sensed him preparing to make the move. With unnatural grace, the body pivoted out of the way of Cannonade, leaving him to thud into the car. "Okay," he said, trying to get his bearings, "easier said than done." 

[shojikitsune]

Oracle took a deep breath and her eyes widened impossibly. Her saffron sphere of emotional projection collapsed as the Damage screeched around her. At first it looked as though her sensitive mind had taken a brutal pounding, as she went down on one knee and caught herself on her outstretched hands. Then she looked up at the Shrieker. Her eyes were blazing with the power that she'd once broadcast, now focused into a pair of seething yellow suns. A whirlwind swirled around her again as her saffron aura reappeared, and tiny bits of debris lifted into the air. With the first indication that she was loosing her patience, she let out a yell of anger as her eyes locked with the Shrieker's.

Twin beams of crackling saffron-yellow linked her gaze with that of the hapless Shrieker, throwing shadows into hard relief across the parking lot. There was an almost electric buzz and the entire area tasted faintly of.. lemons? The beam passed right through the Shrieker's head and dissipated against the car behind it. Dozens of separate areas of its brain fired all their neurons uncontrollably under that gaze, turning the brain's own bio-electrical impulses against it and triggering every possible emotion at maximum intensity. As an aside, the car was completely undamaged by the blast, as were the other two heroes trying to grapple the Shrieker.

Edited October 17, 2015 by shojikitsune
typo

[trollthumper]

The burst hit the Shrieker - and the host - full force. The body twisted and contorted, as if caught in a complex ballet move that never stopped. The scream of radio static escaped the host's lips... and was slowly and terribly drowned out by the host's own scream. Oracle could feel the consciousness possessing the entity depart, severed strand by strand from the flesh. It fled into the night, leaving the young man behind. He was on the ground on all fours, breathing rapidly and trying to regain his composure.

Cannonade rushed forward, trying to help the young man up. He thought of asking, "You okay?", but the last thing he wanted this kid to do was waste his breath. He waited, just trying to make sure he wasn't going to pass out. 

The young man shuddered, his breaths growing deeper and the shaking stopping. "Th... thank you," he said. "That was... I don't know. I heard it when I was manning the phones, and then... I was somewhere else."

"Where were you?"

"I was... I dunno. There were stars... all blue. There were all these rocks - no, asteroids - no... broken planets. They were all floating around this... I think it was a black hole, but it was too deep, if that makes sense. And... I'm no astronomer, but... the planets seemed to be spiraling..."

[Avenger Assembled]

Caradoc did not speak or move at their victory, instead planting his sword point-first in the ground, its faint hiss the only sound that came from him as the possessed man told his grim story. He should have spoken to inform his colleagues about what they were dealing with - but instead he pulled his blade free and began seeming to walk away, his footsteps treading on the ground with a solid finality that bespoke his great weight. "This way," he spoke, his voice a sharp growl that was utterly unlike what his temporary allies had heard from him before. "It is still here. I can...feel it. Oracle, can you feel its mind?" 

[shojikitsune]

Oracle stood back up, the yellow light dimming and fading. at least she had broke the connection between the possessing 'thing' and its latest victim. "Yes, though it moves faster when shorn of a host body. We should pursue it, it is going this way."  She will make sure to guide the others as long as she can sense the entity.

 

"if it reaches my limits, i will teleport after it in pursuit. That should keep it from seeking another host." She prepared to intercept the entity again, determined to not let it escape.

[trollthumper]

Oracle and Caradoc gave chase through the city, following the trail of the invisible presence. Oracle's psychic abilities gave her a sense of where the roiling mass of rage, fear, and despair was moving next. And now that the thing was free from any host or device, Caradoc could feel the familiar pulse of the place where all things went to be flensed. Cannonade leapt after them, trying to pay attention to the two because he still had no clear idea what they were pursuing... but he knew he wanted to put an end to it, whatever it was. 

 

The hunt led to a factory building in Greenbank that looked like it was in the process of renovation - probably a desperate attempt to create lofts in the struggling neighborhood. It looked like this loft didn't have many prospective buyers yet, as none of the lights were on. There was one detail that did stand out, however - three satellite dishes, all in the row. Moving up to the window of the nearest loft, Caradoc could see inside. The faint glow of computer monitors cast light on an otherwise darkened room - and the body lying prone in the middle of it, under a cooling pool of blood. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Caradoc stormed into the room without a trace of the tentative, strategizing soul he had been before the most recent encounter with the psionic monster. Here he was all flaming wrath, a knight-errant of the Crusades confronting a sinner, even if he had a rather different interpretation of devil than the men that once wore armor that looked like his had. "Behold! We have come among you," he growled to the room at large, the corpse earning only a single glance from his armored head. "We know what you are, monster of the Terminus." He drove his blade into the ground, making the floor crackle with eldritch energies. "You may run but you will be followed. You may hide but you will be found. Come to me and know my wrath."

[shojikitsune]

Oracle took action from outside, reaching out to the anomalous satellite array as they approached the building. It may be a means of escape for the strange presence that they pursued. Not willing to give it global access via a satellite relay, she reached up with her mind and gripped them with a telekinetic aura. The saffron glow caused the trio of dishes to point downward towards an empty parking lot rather than skywards towards possible freedom.

 

"Cable has more HD programming anyway," she muttered in as cheerful a tone as she could manage, although the joke was almost immediately lost in the grim reality of the situation. With a flash of yellow light, she appeared near Caradoc, seeking the twisted presence with her mind's eye. Only then did she notice the body, and even through the golden aura of her psychic shield she turned a fairly impressive shade of green. "Oh no..."

 

She'd  have sensed it if that poor soul had still been alive, so she averted her eyes and tried to search the room physically as well as psychically.

 

"I'd do what he says," she said in an icy calm voice while gesturing towards the fuming knight. "While you're still able to make the choice."

[trollthumper]

Cannonade caught up just in time to see Oracle go into the apartment. He charged in soon after, taking a swift look around the room - with his eyes first landing on the corpse. Before he could say anything, the tint of the monitors changed as the dull vibration of speakers flaring to life filled the room. The faint notes of a brass band whispered forth from the darkness; Cannonade had his hand over his ears - as much as his helmet could allow - until he realized that it sounded... normal. Even Oracle could feel it - there was nothing riding this song, nothing that might drive a person to despair. 

 

Caradoc felt it first, however, just as the song started to clip. The notes stretched and distorted, going from something normal, if faint, to a discordant wreck of slow moans and loud howls. The darkness of the room twitched, pouring into itself. Somewhere, from between the notes, ushered a voice that seemed to be carved in silence. 

 

"You have come. Come to hear the song at the end of all things. Come to hear the music of shattered spheres." The shadows coiled into a cloak that bulged and writhed, dripping down the floor. Hanging where the face should have been was a cracked porcelain mask, running with red tears. 

 

"Doom has many songs to sing," said the Wrackhand. "Soon, you shall be make clean and filled with the hymns of the hollow."

[shojikitsune]

Oracle's gaze hardened as she stared down the masked apparition. "Blah blah blah.... I'd say something profound, but youo aren't going to be standing to hear it all."

 

If looks could kill - well, hers probably can, as her eyes once again deliver that brutal saffron gaze attack, seeking to overwhelm the creature from the onset.

[Avenger Assembled]

Caradoc stepped forward and sliced the spectral fiend across the midsection with his blade, the energy sword shrieking like a damned soul as it cut the entropic ghost across the chest, sending a spray of ichor into the air. "It does not live," he spoke to Oracle in a voice that sounded nothing at all like the shining knight he appeared to be, "nor has it ever. Strike it down with all of your fury!" 

[shojikitsune]

The young psychic let loose with an almost feral growl, as everything in the room around her rattled and shifted slightly save the body of the deceased and the heavier pieces of furniture. Chairs rolled away from her, and light objects were swept off the desk. Her saffron aura pulsed with a surge of psychokinetic energy.

 

"You would enter MY mind? That was a Bad idea...'"

 

She extended one hand as she spoke, pointing her palm at the stunned Wrackhand. It found itself silhouetted in yellow light and buffeted by nigh-irresistible strength in an telekinetic attempt to seize it.

 

Oracle then made a crushing motion with her outstretched hand, the same sort of gesture she used to casually redirect an entire bank of satellite dishes. The saffron glow around the creature attempted to mirror her gesture and crush the offending thing with a force usually reserved for dead-lifting locomotives.

[Avenger Assembled]

When the creature was bound, Caradoc stepped past Oracle and impaled it directly through the midsection, snapping the hilt of his glowing blue sword out as the blade bit deep into the wretched thing's foul flesh. But as Oracle watched, the energy visible inside the beast was not the glowing blue light of Caradoc's personal weapon, but rather a hideous flickering mass of writhing black tentacles that seemed to creep out into the creature like a lightning storm from Hell itself. "I can match you," Caradoc growled mechanically at the beast, "and keep your foul taint from burning this place. You will leave behind no ghost, Wrackhand."

[trollthumper]

"Nothing remains." The Wrackhand's voice no longer came from its body, instead echoing out in discordant tones from the various speakers in the room. "Nothing ever remains forever." The spectral entity lolled in Oracle's telekinetic grip, clearly trying to martial its strength after both the rebuff from the psychic's mind and the wounds from Caradoc's pike. "Everything comes to us in time, to the furthest depths of creation, where all things drown in the tides of the ineffable--"

 

"Heard it," said Cannonade. "Doesn't sound any more impressive." He tried to maintain a stony face as he drove his fist into the thing's ectoplasmic form. Dealing with matters of the Terminus was never encouraging, and even if these assholes sounded pretentious, he knew what they represented. Oblivion - not the soft, gentle kind, but the great cosmic garbage disposal. Dealing with this kind of thing made him feel like he was nothing and might inevitably crumble in the Terminus set its full attentions on the world again.

 

So he just had to take what joy he could in making its soldiers hurt. 

 

[shojikitsune]

Oracle's telekinetic aura surged, continuing to crush the Wrackhand with visible bands of force, Even if it's not the most efficient technique, she can hold it immobile until the two more experienced heroes flatten it.

 

"Whatever this thing is made of, it's like trying to crush coal into diamond. I may not be hurting it, but I can certainly hold it for you guys. Do be dears, the both of you, and 'smite it verily' again. Thanks!"

 

Now, if she could just find a way to shut it up...

Edited January 7, 2016 by shojikitsune
reasons.