ic Lights, Camera, Action! (IC)

[Exaccus]

Turning away almost immediately from his convosation with doctor marley a little abruptly even as he in turn moves to intercept the trio as they arrive.

 

"I see....Fascinating..." Deoxy says to himself as the the dire portents are relayed to him, gently gripping his chin between his thumb and the side of his left index finger as he turns over this new information "It might be those things...or perhaps our foe is boring holes into these dimensions and leaving them weakening the barriers to breaking point and causing...merges, causing them to spill into each other...quite impressive over all considering the radio-shack technology he has at his disposal..."

 

Nodding his head as he listens to miracle girls concerns about returning safely "Indeed, it would be foolish to enter this place without a means to leave, though it should be a simple matter of finding the right frequency as our quarry has finding a point of overlap and simply...filtering back through?" he says, hoping that this explanation will suffice.

[Sophistemon]

@Avenger Assembled, @Exaccus, & @Heritage

The projectionist raises a hand to gather attention. "Here," he says. "Let me show you; I've got the time-codes written down." He leaps into a computer chair and inserts one of the DVDs -- the one starring Rhekgar -- into a disc-drive, keying up the movie and locating the proper frame. There, half-hidden in the crowd, is the clown: white face, tattered clothes, ratty sign, and all. "I've never seen this before in my life," explains the man. "And I've seen this movie, man, it must be a thousand times. It's like a yearly tradition for me to watch it around my birthday." He ejects the disc, inserts another, and keys in his second appearance. "He shows up like this in every movie. Same clown, same sign... when he has a sign, that is. Sometimes he's more beat up, sometimes less, but he's always there." He turns to face the assembled heroes. "I mean, is that the creepiest thing in the world, or what?"

 

@Blarghy

Chalmers sucks air through his teeth in a sort of auditory shrug. "Hell if I know, Warne; last I heard the two girls were watching movies and the brainiac was tinkering down in the labs. Somebody might have sent me a text with a progress report or something but I can't work this damn thing to save my life. I miss memos. Heck, if we went back to the beeper system that would be something but now I have to figure out these cockamamie smart-phones and I'm completely out of my element. Oh, speaking of which, here comes a digital warrant. That'll get you in her apartment without any lawyers breathing down your neck." Warne can hear the Colonel typing away, sending an email attachment. "So far as I'm concerned, you can handle this alone. You're the psychic juggernaut, right? If you can't get answers out of one nerdy shut-in, I'll have to reconsider your usefulness." There's humor in his voice, but it's hidden behind several feet of granite. Warne can probably empathize. "Find out if Brown knows anything, or if she knows anyone who does know anything, and we can count this particular loose end tied off."

Edited October 10, 2016 by Sophistemon

[Blarghy]

How was that for motivational speaking?  Caught between compliments and warnings of competency, Agent Warne had very well deliver. 

 

"Yes sir.  I'm on it.  I'll report in when I have something." 

 

He hung up and thumbed through the icons on his smartphone for the warrant, skimmed it, and then brought up his GPS.  Time to go make a new friend.

[Heritage]

Casey leaned in to peer at the monitor. "It's definitely creepy, but somehow..." She sighed and shook her head. "I don't know, I just don't think he's a bad guy. I mean look at him; he's all banged up, he's looking out at us with his sad little sign- " She stopped suddenly as a thought popped into her head.

 

"He's looking out at us; he's aware that we're out here, watching him." She looked at the others. "Does that mean we can communicate with him? What if we held up our own signs, asking him questions; do you think we'd see responses if we played the movies back again?"

[Sophistemon]

@Avenger Assembled, @Exaccus, @Heritage:

Doctor Marley lifted a hand to her face and stroked the chin. "I suppose that's... possible," she concluded. "I mean, this is Freedom City; the improbable happens here every day, so something like this might actually be downright likely." She stalked off, lab coat flapping behind her in a decidedly cape-like fashion and returned with a large, rolling whiteboard. She erased the scrawling formulae of a frantically squawking physicist who protested that he was this close to a unified field theory before she handed a thick, chisel-tip marker to Miracle Girl. "Her you go," she chirped, smiling. "Give it a shot, hon; no harm done if it doesn't work."

 

@Blarghy:

The trip across town was uneventful, and Agent Warne arrived at Brown's apartment complex a short time later. It was a tall building that somehow managed to look squat, like the middle-school librarian everyone remembers from when they were twelve years old. You know, the one that never seemed to age no matter how many years she spent attempting, with agonizing futility, to teach a bunch of screaming brats how to understand the Dewey Decimal System. Adept entered, flashed his badge at the disinterested security guard, and made his way to the third floor. Brown's door was closed, and there was a sign hanging from the knob that read DO NOT DISTURB in bright red letters.

[Blarghy]

"You're just in for all kinds of disappointment today, Brown," Warne said softly to himself.  He put his ear to the door to listen for any sounds inside, then double-checked his digital warrant.  With it ready on his phone in one hand and his badge in the other, he knocked wordlessly.  Sometimes they opened the door at just a knock, so he often tried that first anyway.  Announcing his affiliations occasionally made people run, for some odd reason.  Sure, he was on the third floor, but that hardly stopped everyone in Freedom City. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Aquaria was mostly silent as they made their way back to the screen, snatching up a marker of her own on their way out of the laboratory. Something seemed to have spooked the gregarious Deep One, who even kept the faceplate of her suit opaque as she and Miracle Girl wrote their respective messages. For her part, Aquaria kept her message simple, writing on a white tablet. RUOK? Her handwriting was wobbly and irregular, looking more like giant inky squiggles than letters, but was legible enough despite all that. "You go first," she croaked to Miracle Girl, keeping the heroine between her and the screen as they let the projectionist put on another film. She ate again, scooping up handfuls of meat as she did so, compulsively shoving the raw protein inside her gigantic mouth. 

[Heritage]

Casey nodded as she picked up the dry erase marker, trying to think of what to write for her first message. She decided to keep it simple, so she could write good and big on the board; she used big, black sans serif letters, all in caps:

 

WHO ARE YOU?

 

HOW CAN WE HELP?

 

"Okay, here we go." She wheeled the whiteboard in front of the monitor, then pulled it back a few feet so the camera lens could fit the whole message. She turned to the protectionist. "Play the same scene at normal speed; then we wait a minute or two, rewind the movie, and then play it again, looking for any changes this time around."

[Sophistemon]

@Avenger Assembled, @Exaccus, @Heritage:

The projectionist did as he was instructed. Humming to himself, he returned to his booth and restarted the movie, playing the first incidence of the clown at standard speed. After giving the strange figure enough time to 'see' what they were trying to show him, he rewound the DVD and played the scene again. It didn't take long to notice a difference. Where once the clown had been hiding in the background, now he was standing up front and center. This close to the camera, the damage that he'd taken while traveling through the films was more apparent -- it was mostly cosmetic. While his hair was mussed and his clothes torn, he bore no signs of injury. While the action went on around him, with the film's standard participants seemingly ignoring his presence there, he held out his sign. It had apparently been reversed, presumably to provide a fresh writing surface. The text was smaller now, to allow more of it. HEY THERE FELLAS, it said. I'M PUNCHLINE. The 'U' in 'Punchline' had two large, googly eyes scrawled above it to make a smiley-face. Beneath that sentence was another, this one a question instead of a statement: IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?

 

@Blarghy:

When Adept put his ear to the door, he heard the sound of running water -- a steady, flowing hiss that was only just barely audible. Beyond that, there was nothing. He knocked, showing a surprising amount of courtesy, and was moderately albeit stoically surprised to see the door give in beneath his fist and swing half-open. The hissing sound grew louder with the barrier between them, and Agent Warne began to get the strange feeling that it wasn't water at all. From where he was standing, he could see that the entrance led into the apartment's kitchen. There was a refrigerator to his immediate right, with a stove and sink along the wall beyond it. The kitchen was empty, with no one to be seen, and the sink was dry. A privacy wall protected the area to the left from view; he assumed that was the living room, where an entrance to the bedroom and bathroom could be found, and he was largely correct in that assumption.

Edited October 23, 2016 by Sophistemon

[Blarghy]

Well, now that he had an open door and a clear view of (most of) the apartment, Warne decided to just make full use of his warrant.  He complied with tradition, at least, and called out, "AEGIS!  Gabriela Brown, show yourself!"  By the second word, he was striding quickly inside.  He glanced to the right, dismissed it (which he hoped as an afterthought wasn't a mistake; just because he couldn't see anyone didn't necessarily eliminate the possibility.  This was Freedom City), and took long steps around the privacy wall.  Perhaps he was in for some mild embarrassment if his target was in the shower, but it'd hardly be the first time.  In that case, she at least probably wouldn't have a weapon.  ...Not that she may need one, if she can simply throw me into a parallel dimension, he recalled darkly.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I can't watch him in there!" boomed Sea Devil, making up her mind at the sight of the trapped Punchline. Perhaps he was a hideous monster, looking more like a corpse than a living being, but Surfacers saw _her_ as a monster and they'd still come to her aid. "We have to help him! Miracle Girl, follow me!" And so, after screwing her courage to the sticking place, she crouched low on the ground and leaped straight for the screen, propelling herself forward with muscles designed (by Dagon and Hydra's crooked designs) to powering a human-sized body through the oceanic depths that should have been her home. 

[Sophistemon]

@Avenger Assembled, @Exaccus, @Heritage:

On screen, Punchline's eyes widened into wide, bright yellow pools as Sea Devil dove towards him, her powerful legs propelling her through the air with great speed. In the split second before she made impact, the camera panned hard to the right, following after the heroes of the film as they made their way to adventure. When Aquaria hit, she didn't feel as though she was striking the wall behind the screen. Rather, the surface was soft and malleable, like rubber that was perceptibly hardening even as she bounced off and landed harmlessly on her bottom in the aisle. The screen above her rippled, jelly-like, before finally settling back as it should be, as imposingly adamant as ever it was before.

 

@Blarghy:

His announcement unheeded, Adept strode into the apartment and took in his surroundings before making his way around the privacy wall, to the living room. Gabby Brown was a movie-buff, that much was sure. The walls were papered over with old posters from movies made predominantly in the 1970s and 80s, with very few from other decades. She seemed to have a preference for fantasies flicks, action films, and horror movies. Hanged in a place of honor above the large, flat-screen television were posters from the three original films now being remade by the targeted studios. Below them, the television hissed static at max volume; this was the source of the sound he'd been hearing.

Edited October 26, 2016 by Sophistemon

[Blarghy]

"...Hm," he decided, about a number of things in the room.  Warne would definitely be returning to those posters, to photograph them for evidence at the very least (how coincidental, to have all three).  The television...worried him.  In light of what the good doctor and Steiner had said, was this a portal to the other realm, and could Brown return through it at any moment?  He hesitated to shut it off, in case that trapped her inside, and thus deprived him of the opportunity to catch and interrogate this suspect.  On the other hand, he needed to quickly search the rest of the apartment, and this background noise might prevent him from hearing her emerge back through the screen--or simply sneak up on him from behind with a mundane pistol or kitchen knife.

 

He settled for pressing the Mute button.  From there, Warne hastened to check the bedroom and bath. 

[Heritage]

Casey was stunned into silence by the sight of Aquaria bouncing off the screen; clearly some very weird stuff was going on! She went over to check on the unfortunate Deep One.

 

"Are you okay? I guess we don't get in that way. Here, let me help you up."

 

Once she knew Aquaria was okay, she went back to work. Grabbing the whiteboard eraser and marker, she created a new message in a flash, then signalled the protectionist to repeat the process. Then she turned to Doctor Deoxy and gently placed a hand on his shoulder as she guided him next to the whiteboard.

 

"Um, Doctor, could you stand right here please, sir? Thank you."

 

The sign featured a large arrow pointing right at the good doctor, and said:

 

HI, I'M MIRACLE GIRL!

WE HAVE A DOCTOR RIGHT HERE,

AND HE'S REALLY SMART.

HOW DO WE GET TO YOU?

 

Then she stood on the other side of the board, drew an arrow pointing at herself, and turned to face the screen and smiled,  like it was Picture Day at Claremont.

[Sophistemon]

@Avenger Assembled, @Exaccus, @Heritage:

The projectionist didn't even have to be told what to do anymore. After seeing what had just happened, he was totally invested with figuring everything out with the rest of them. He dutifully repeated their previous actions, eager to see things progress. When the clown reappeared on screen, his hangdog features had been replaced with a wide, white grin and eyes sparkling with ferocious excitement. He was right up to the camera; almost too close, giving some of their fear, and he held a new sign made from what looked like a torn piece of off-white fabric. SEEN YOU ON TV!, it said. Beneath that, the letters were smaller, cramped, and more numerous. SCREEN GOT SOFT! it read. KEEP IT SOFT? PULL ME THRU? DOC TRY UHF! CHANNEL 51?

 

@Blarghy:

The bathroom was empty, and a mess. The medicine cabinet had been opened and it contents roughly gone through, so that bottles and squeezable tubes littered the sink and floor. The bedroom was just as messy, with clothes strewn about over the unmade bed, and a half-packed suitcase was laying discarded and overturned in the corner. There was a television mount installed on one wall, but the machine itself had been pulled loose and thrown down. The screen was cracked, and the power cable coiled around it like a thin black tail. On a side-table, Agent Warne saw that a picture frame had been given a place of reverence. The frame had the word DAD embossed on top, and the photograph it contained showed a man smiling warmly as he stood beside the enormous, musclebound actor that had played Rhekgar the Red in the 80s.

[Blarghy]

"Ohhh, that's not good," Adept said softly to the photo.  He took a picture of it with his phone, then returned to the living room to do the same to all three posters on the wall, individually, with a group shot from further back.  AEGIS now officially had a suspect with motive.

 

Perhaps it was surprising that he wasn't in more of a rush; the state of the apartment would imply to many people that Brown had been robbed or attacked.  Warne instead suspected that she ran--probably right into that static-buzzing TV.  The unfinished suitcase made him think that she already knew AEGIS was onto her, even before he arrived.  Had she seen him approaching the building?  Was she spying through any security cameras as he made his way up the stairs?  No matter the reason, Brown wasn't here now, so without a solid lead to follow, he might as well take his time. 

 

His next pass through the apartment was very thorough.  Warne picked the place apart with an investigator's methodical care.  No ransacking here--he returned everything to its original place, touched as little as he had to, and continued to take pictures along the way.  He searched cabinets and corners, nooks and crannies.  He examined the labels on every item from that medicine cabinet.  Of special note were any electronics that might have retrievable data; those, he collected for evidence, if any could be found.  No detail was too small and nothing went overlooked; whatever secrets this place hid away, Adept was determined to find them. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Sea Devil bounced to her feet, closely considering this situation. Igniting her twin energy tridents, she drove them into the sides of the screen near (but not directly in front of) Punchline's face and began to pull in either direction. The verdigris blades guttered and sparked as they made contact with the surface of the screen, Aquaria pulling the two 'sides' apart as if she was trying to part a particularly tough patch of water. When she spoke again, her booming grunt bespoke the tremendous effort she was undertaking inside her armor. "Miracle Girl - grab him. Together!" As she spoke, the front of her helmet snapped open, revealing the amphibious face inside. 

[Sophistemon]

@Avenger Assembled, @Exaccus, @Heritage:

Punchline gawped and leaped to one side immediately before Sea Devil's tridents made contact with the screen, and with something behind, beneath, and beyond the screen. If Sea Devil had a bucket list and 'Piercing the Veil Between Worlds' was written somewhere on it, she could now count herself lucky enough to cross it off. The barrier gave way before her onslaught and Aquaria felt herself fall forward, propelled by her own inhuman strength. It was a bizarrely fluid feeling, not entirely unpleasant, as she was enveloped by the rubbery substrate of the multiverse and conveyed into another plane of existence. She found herself thrown through mid-air and landing on her hands and knees in the middle of a dark, damp room. The grating beneath her was old, corroded, and the walls around her were draped in cables, vents, monochrome monitors and bits of other 'used future' machinery. There were footsteps to her right, and when she looked up she saw the clown staring down at her with bright, slightly luminescent yellow eyes. He held out a hand and spoke. "Well," he said. "That's one way to get yourself in movies." His grin widened, and when he threw back his head and laughed the sound of it echoed from the walls. He looked back down at Sea Devil and the smile faded. "But seriously," he pouted. "Now we're both trapped."

Edited October 29, 2016 by Sophistemon

[Heritage]

"No!" cried Miracle Girl as Sea Devil got sucked into the screen. "Now they're both stuck in there!"

 

Biting down on her thumb, Casey desperately tried to think of another way to bring them out, but then she recalled Punchline's last message.

 

"Wait a minute! I can broadcast and receive radio frequencies, including UHF! Let me see if I can contact them in real time; I'll start at four hundred megahertz and work my way up to eight hundred megahertz. I think that's where the TV channels are, if I remember my Radio Merit Patch training."

 

And with that, she began to alter her vocal frequency by increments of five megahertz; to anyone on this side of the screen, she appeared to be just mouthing words. But to anyone listening on the UHF band, her voice came through loud and clear.

 

"Testing, one, two, three. This is Miracle Girl broadcasting at [insert frequency]. Do you copy, over."

Edited October 29, 2016 by Heritage

[Avenger Assembled]

It might have been an intimidating situation for most new heroes - but Aquaria Innsmouth had seen many strange things in her time on the Surface, and even before that she had spent her life worshiping the dark gods that swam in the waters between universes. She knelt, her knees bending backwards, and made a sound that to Punchline sounded like the deep bass bellowing of a very large frog. What she was actually saying was "Dagon and Hydra - thank you for guiding me across your waters. Help me now guide this Surfacer to where he belongs." When she rose, she took the clown's hand, gripping it in her three-fingered hands in the Surface fashion. "We will find our way out," she reassured him, her voice a bass, inhuman croak. "The others are still watching," she said, turning back to where Miracle Girl would be 'looking for them.' "Do you hear that? I can hear her but I have no way to sing."

[Blarghy]

By the time he finished, Warne wasn't sure he had any new answers, but maybe these clues could lead to some, once analyzed.  He lifted the cell phone only with his mind to avoid tampering with any fingerprints, placed it in an evidence bag, and pocketed it.  Next he took his own phone and called Chalmers.

 

"Colonel.  I've searched Brown's apartment; she isn't here, but I cannot be sure of whether she left voluntarily.  The front door was partly open, and the apartment is in a rough state, but she seems to have been packing a suitcase, which she left behind.  She may have been abducted in the process of fleeing from someone, perhaps the armored kidnapper we're looking for, or she might be the kidnapper.  I found numerous indications that she was a fan of all three films, with personal connections to the original actor for ' Rhekgar the Red,' and the television was on when I entered.  It only shows static, but if our culprit works through electronic devices, then it's possible she saw me coming and bolted. 

 

"I also found insulin stored in the apartment.  She left it behind, wherever she went.  If she fled through the TV, she could come back and retrieve it, or simply go find her medication elsewhere, but if she's been captured by the real villain, then she may soon be in serious trouble.  Lastly, I retrieved her cell phone.  I'll bring it back to headquarters for a full analysis, along with the photos I've taken.  Do you have further orders before I head back?"

[Sophistemon]

@Avenger Assembled, @Exaccus, @Heritage:

The projectionist worked overtime, constantly rewinding and playing the scene over and over again to give the two super-viewers still in the theater a sense of visual continuity, no matter how disjointed. They saw Punchline speaking a bit to Sea Devil, and the aquatic hero herself could hear his words. "I've been trying for days," he whined, but then sighed and nodded his head. "I guess there's no point in getting all morbid..." He brightened when he realized it was time for introductions. "I'm Punchline!" he crowed, and wrapped the armored woman in a great big squeezing bear-hug. He released her, beaming, and then threw his arms open wide. "Welcome to ISS-1134! There's a monster on board and it's eating people, but it hasn't seemed to notice me yet." His smile faltered. "Actually, nobody has. Can you imagine being a clown without an audience? They ought to slap me on some velvet and hang me from a wall!" He tittered. "I think they know we aren't supposed to be here, so we just don't register, but I've been trying to avoid them anyway." He perked up, suddenly hearing Miracle Girl's voice fade in and out of focus, and then pranced over to the partially eaten corpse of a space marine, who he quickly stripped of radio equipment. "Speaking of morbid," he ribbed. "Those long-distance rates'll kill you!" He activated the radio and began rapidly skipping through the available channels. "Breaker breaker five-one, breaker five-one, do you read?"

 

@Blarghy:

"I have a question," said a voice that definitely wasn't Colonel Chalmers. "Do you like scary movies, Agent Warne?" The phone went dead, and suddenly the apartment was full once more with the sound of fluidly buzzing static.

Edited October 30, 2016 by Sophistemon

[Avenger Assembled]

Aquaria knew of many things that ate Surfacers - some things friendly, others not. She was glad her helmet had stayed close on the way over, she wasn't sure what Punchline would make of her. "We can hear your signal, Miracle Girl," she croaked to the air. "I cannot speak to you." The truth was, her suit's radio probably did have some way of transmitting outwards - she simply did not know how to make it work. But there was no use in dwelling on that. She hopped around as Punchline spoke, trying to get a better feel for this strange vessel upon which they found themselves. It reminded her of some she'd seen out among the sea of stars. "How did you come to be in this dream?" she croaked to Punchline, the voice coming from inside her suit sounding half-synthesized, half-like the booming croak of a great frog. "We seek a criminal who has been in these places." 

[Blarghy]

Warne's mouth and eyes both narrowed.  He held the phone loosely to his ear for a moment more, then slowly replaced it in his pocket.

 

"Yes," he said to the seemingly-empty apartment.  "I do.  I'm particularly fond of the films where an unstoppable monster pursues guilty victims to punish them for crimes they thought they had concealed from the world.  It is a harsh and twisted form of justice, no?  And yet, justice nonetheless.  They evade the traditional courts, only to find that something awful begins to hunt them from the shadows.  Relentless.  Merciless.  It cares not for the distances they cross, nor the hiding places they desperately find, nor whatever defenses they can muster.  On it comes, weathering attacks and ignoring pleas.  By the time the credits roll, these stories always end the same way."

 

His black jacket rustled from an invisible wind.  When Warne tilted his head from side to side to crack his neck, small items around the apartment shuddered.

 

"I present your own question back to you, my new special friend.  Do you like scary movies?  Because you're in one."

[Sophistemon]

@Blarghy:

Adept paced as he speechified and ended his threat in the living room, where he delivered the final lines while staring at the buzzing face of the television. When he finished, the static muted itself as abruptly as it gained volume in the first place. A voice emerges from the screen, but not just the screen. It comes from the surround-sound system, a small stereo on the kitchen counter, a bluetooth speaker in the bathroom, and the two phones that Adept's currently carrying on him. "Ha-ha-hah," laughed the voice of the armored villain. It was a humorless chuckle, devoid of any real mirth. "Very good, Agent Warne. A soliloquy worthy of Pacino himself. It's a shame that your delivery's a Pesci, at best." There was a brief, considering pause. "I take that back; you're too wordy for Pacino." Another laugh, this time scornful and mocking. "I've been watching you, James. I've been watching all of you. I knew you were coming for me before you did." The screen flickered, then showed footage of Miracle Girl, Sea Devil, and Doctor Deoxy standing in a theater-room at the AEGIS base. It flipped rapidly, showing the scene through several different overhead camera angles, before dissolving back into static. "I know your every move the second you make it, Jim. You can't stop me, you can't hide from me... so why not relax, take a seat, and get with the program?" The screen changed again, showing excerpts from an old pre-film cartoon advertisement.

Edited October 31, 2016 by Sophistemon