ic Demonization (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

April 2017 

Claremont 

 

Growing up in what he now knew to be a small, closed community made it difficult for Riley to talk to strangers - and he tended to solve difficult problems by careful consideration. So it was that he'd earned a reputation for hanging around the quad staring at people and places before approaching them, which in all honesty hadn't done much to make him any friends outside of the small circle that centered around the people who'd fought Mr. Archer, exposed a cybernetic infiltration of Claremont, and kicked the ass of some of the top students of the school. They didn't have a name for themselves. Everyone already knew who they were. 

 

Considering his options carefully from the tree branch that he'd taken his lunch on, Riley finally decided to bite the bullet. Jumping down from his perch, he executed a neat little roll before walking up to the young woman just finishing her lunch outside, chattering little monkey in tow. "Hey, Sanderson!" He pitched his voice loud, so she knew he was coming. Even when he didn't mean to be, he was quiet - and Raina didn't like being snuck up on. He could appreciate that. "Gotta thing. You gotta minute?" He looked presentable enough, with nothing deadlier than a hatchet on his jean-clad hip, and a tablet from several years ago in his hand. 

[Electra]

Raina gave Riley a skeptical look that didn't divert much of her attention from her chocolate ice cream cone. On her shoulder, Merlin gave him an identical skeptical look, though his cone appeared to be filled with salad mix. In her wedge heels Raina hit a solid six feet in height, giving her a significant tactical advantage when it came to looking down on people. "What do you need?" she asked Riley, failing to keep the suspicion entirely out of her voice. 

[Avenger Assembled]

"I gotta magic problem," said Riley, his tone that of someone trying to keep a serious matter light. He glanced around half-furtively for a moment, in a style that wasn't too unfamiliar from how he talked to most people. He extended the tablet up to Raina - of all the boys in school, she had maybe the biggest height advantage over the wiry archer. "If I show you a magic ritual site, can you see any of the, uh, magic stuff that happened there? Or do you have to actually be there to work your mojo?" From what Raina could see at first glance, the picture on the tablet was of some sort of high pagan summoning circle - burn marks on a concrete warehouse floor in somewhat familiar arcane symbols. 

[Electra]

Looking interested despite herself, Raina handed Merlin her ice cream cone and took the tablet from Riley. "I can maybe get a read on what some of the symbols are for, but to get a real good taste, I have to actually be there," she told him, already studying the picture. She took her time with it, zooming in here and there, pursing her lips over some of the symbols, and one time holding the tablet up for a quick consult with her familiar. "It's a summoning circle," she informed Riley. "It looks like somebody was trying to call up one of the spirits under the earth. I can't tell from the picture whether they succeeded or not, or what they might have managed to conjure up. What's this for?" 

[Avenger Assembled]

"The other Riley has a friend." Riley put his hands together under his chin, looking down at the picture. "Her name is Rhonda. He met her through the LGBT Club at his school. I think he wants her to be his girlfriend but he's too scared to ask her out, he-" He bit his lip, changing the topic as he moved from picture to picture in the tablet, showing what looked like the aftermath of a small super-battle inside an old warehouse, or maybe a firestorm. "She's real into magic - nothing like you, but she's got tons of books and stuff." He turned the 'page' again, showing an image of the other Riley (who Raina had seen a couple of times, a rounder, happier version of her schoolmate) in the company of a young, dark-skinned woman with long, thick braids. "Riley said Rhonda was talking about some kind of magic that could help her, you know, fix herself up. A couple of nights later, they found her in a warehouse by her house, just about bleeding out, with some kind of monster in there with her. If Seven and Bowman hadn't been there, damn thing'd have finished the job." 

[Electra]

Raina frowned at the tablet, obviously trying to make it show her the scene in more detail than the low-rent machine wanted to cough up. Merlin hissed at her irritably, and with a moment's juggling, Raina ended up with the ice cream cones and Merlin with the tablet. He seemed to have considerably more success, with Raina watching over his shoulder and licking her drippy ice cream. "What do you mean, fix herself up?" Raina asked Riley without changing her focus. "Money, sex appeal, a looooove potion? No, lemme see the burn patterns," she told Merlin, who chittered in annoyance. "I know it's not a DSLR, but it's not a pinhole camera either, right?" The monkey huffed. "These pictures aren't gonna be enough." 

[Avenger Assembled]

"She was talking about giving herself a vagina instead of a dick," said Riley with emphasis, half-daring Raina to say anything from the look in his eye. When nothing was immediately forthcoming, he said, "and maybe she did. Trans people are people too, right?" He drummed his fingers on the table for a moment. "But I dunno, that's too easy - silly trans girl does something stupid, gets herself hurt, happens all the time, right?" He frowned. "If that did happen, I want Riley and Rhonda's mom and dad to hear about it from me, not from some fancy hero-type. And if it didn't, I wanna find out who did it. You wanna come see? It's not far to Greenbank from here." 

[Electra]

Raina just stared at Riley during his little diatribe, as though she had no idea what he was saying beyond the first sentence and didn't really care that much. She finished the visible portion of her ice cream and began nibbling on the cone. "Body alteration is risky stuff," she commented when he finally wound down. "Even skilled practitioners are iffy about it, and it sounds like your friend's-friend was no more than a wannabe. Even a benign spirit might have given it the old college try and just done a really terrible job of it. They should've done a body-swap instead, those are easier and reversible, too. Get to take some other equipment out for a test-drive, anyway, right?" she suggested, in what appeared to be a sincere attempt to be helpful for once. "If you think it'll help to know what happened, I'll take a look." 

[Avenger Assembled]

Sneaking out after classes was something Raina and Riley both had a great deal of familiarity with, albeit usually not in each other's company. Paradoxically, it was usually easier to sneak away from Claremont in pairs rather than solo even when going on clandestine adventures - the school's security evidently thinking that two young heroes going out on patrol were more reliable than one going off to do who knew what. Woodsman rendezvoused with Sparkler on the streets of Bayview, his motorcycle retrieved from storage at the school. "C'mon, hop on," he suggested, "Blends in better if there's some weird magic stuff goin' on there, right?" 

[Electra]

Raina gave Riley and his motorcycle a look so skeptical, it made her previous consideration of him look positively fatuous. "You want me to get on that thing?" she repeated dubiously. The chirrup from inside her backpack was slightly muffled, but it seemed Merlin agreed with her unease about the situation. "It looks like you put it together yourself from a kit. They didn't have, like, highway safety standards or crash tests where you're from, right?" She took one step closer to the motorcycle, but seemed no more inclined to board. "Have you even got helmets?" 

[Avenger Assembled]

"Learned to drive it from Midnight and Wander," replied Woodsman, "and the helmets are over'ere." He produced two of them from the other side of the bike, both black, and tossed one Raina's way. "Not crazy, not gonna ride a motorcycle without a helmet." He patted the bike's handlebars. "Fixed it up myself, if that's whatcha mean. aSome rich guy traded up for last year's model, so I spent all last summer fixing it up. C'mon, Sanderson, I carry four, five hand grenades in my bag half the time. If I was gonna die of bad workmanship, 's gonna be a long time ago." He didn't mention that he took Robin for rides on the thing all the time - Robin and Raina could both take big hits, but Robin was usually...more willing to do it. 

[Electra]

The squawk of alarm from Raina's bag was more pronounced this time, and fit well with the expression on Raina's face. "And telling me that you're carrying live hand grenades in your bag is supposed to make me feel safer about riding with you?" she asked acerbically. "This is such a bad idea." She put on the helmet, then pulled a feather from her pocket and ran it through her fingers while humming under her breath. It was a ritual Riley had seen before, Raina invoking her magic-powered flight. When she settled herself on the motorcycle's pillion seat, her weight and balance was so minimal that it was almost like riding alone, except for her long frame pressed up against Riley's back. "If you crash this thing, I will haunt you in the afterlife," she promised. 

[Avenger Assembled]

For a moment, Riley wondered if Raina's spell would make the whole bike fly - which even in a serious moment Riley had to admit would be pretty awesome. He deflated just a hair, at least until he revved the engine and felt better about it. "I'll be the one buildin' a crossbow out of the pitchfork," he said with a smirk before he headed them off into the orange light of dusk. "Hope Merlin's gotta helmet in there." Despite Raina's worries, Woodsman didn't try anything fancy on the road - he wasn't averse to trying some tricks, but not with a weird passenger behind him who didn't weigh as much as a normal person. He wasn't much in the mood for conversation - and based on his usual experience with her, Raina probably wasn't either. He took her past the Boardwalk and along the Mona-Glenn Bridge, navigating the city as if he'd been born to a live Freedom instead of a dead one. 

 

Woodsman left the bike in an alley in Greenbank, taking a moment to chain it to a railing guarding a sunken window. This was a particularly old part of the district, the warehouses around them were made of brick rather than concrete, and they could smell the river nearby. The warehouse had police tape on it, even the windows a story above them, but that sort of thing wasn't really an obstacle to the two heroes. Raina could smell the clean scent of last night's heavy rain - and a faint scent of sulfur that she wasn't smelling with her nose. 

[Electra]

As soon as they were off the bike and the coast was clear, Merlin climbed out of Raina's backpack to sit on her shoulder and whisper a piece of his mind into her ear. She hushed him impatiently, looking around and trying to get the scent and taste of the magic in the air. It wasn't very pleasant. "Yeah, something got summoned here, and probably made it all the way, too." Extending one hand, she pulled out her lighter and flicked it to life, then seemed to pour the orange flame into her cupped palm like a liquid. It pooled and then formed into a ball, casting odd flickering shadows on the wall of the warehouse. "In here?" Not really waiting for an answer, she floated over the tape and nudged her way inside, fireball raised high. 

[Avenger Assembled]

The interior of the warehouse still looked like the aftermath of a magical battle - if Dr. Metropolis was planning a visit to help clean up, he was evidently going to wait until after the investigation was over. Sparkler was no tactician - but she knew fire enough to see the scorch marks on the steel beams over her head that must have come from subterranean fire, and the marks below that must have come from above. The actual magic circle was still there, right in the middle of the empty warehouse floor, its inky pattern scuffed by the battle that had taken place here and by someone who knew what they were doing afterwards. Her first guess had been right - a creature from below had been summoned here. But to  know more, she'd have to look deeper. 

 

Woodsman had already joined her by the time she'd reached the warehouse floor, having made his way in quietly through a first-floor window. "Bowman'n'Seven said they came in on patrol, caught the thing at ground level and took it out. Rhonda was here." There was a mark on the floor that might have been a bloodstain, not far from the ritual site. "Tried to look it over, but that demon thing burned the place up pretty good. Can't even pick out most of the footmarks." 

[Electra]

"Well the circle itself is broke all to hell, so to speak," Raina muttered, examining the circle from up close. Rather than kneel on the dirty floor and risk smearing things further, she was stretched out in the air, face-down, a foot from the floor. The fireball was now a ring of floating flame illuminating the area, and if she hadn't been so intent on what she was doing, it would've seemed like she had to be showing off. "But it's not actually a one-person job. The basic circle, yeah, that's Fisher-Price stuff, My First Spirit Summoning, but it's only the top level. C'mere."

 

She beckoned him over impatiently and began pointing to various faint marks on the ground. "There, there, there, there... and there too, I think. Six person circle, good for summoning deep creatures, but whoever did the second walk on the circle added all the extra people. Either Rhonda was apprenticing somebody who fixed up her circle for her but didn't bother to save her from the thing they summoned, or she was a patsy for somebody who wanted us to think she was working on her own. And that's assuming she was the caster at all, and not brought along for munchies. You talked to her yet?" 

[Avenger Assembled]

"I went there." Woodsman scowled beneath his poncho's hood, his dark face in shadow. "She doesn't want to talk to Riley. Any Riley," he said, shaking his head. "Hospital has a guard on her door, but it's not that hard to get in the window if you know what yer doin'. Made sure to put a trap in so nobody'll come in that way after me." He hmmed. "You could probably magic your way in there no problem - unless Seven put up magic traps or something. I dunno what those look like," he admitted. "Wanna try for it? She's at Our Lady 'a Mercy, s'on the way back to Claremont anyway." 

[Electra]

Raina frowned at him. "Why can't we just, like, go there and walk in the door?" she asked. "We're supposed to be superheroes, even if we're trainees, they ought to let us in if we're legit investigating a thing. I mean, I'm practically an expert on magic compared to most of the supposed mages and wizards in this town," she couldn't help but scoff. "Even if she doesn't want to talk to you, maybe she'll talk to me, but this doesn't sound like anything I really feel like risking my neck for, breaking into a hospital. You know what the assholes on the Freedom League would do to me if they caught a bad seed like me breaking in on the victim of a botched demonic summoning?" 

[Avenger Assembled]

"I...huh, I guess we could," said Riley, not too proud to accept what was an excellent suggestion. He scratched his chin thoughtfully, enjoying the definite feeling of whiskery stubble there. "That makes a lot of sense. I never thought of doing that," he admitted. "Yeah, let's head over there and introduce ourselves, I guess. Nice thinking, Sparkler." Once at the bike, he got in front and said, "Hey, uh, question." He gunned the engine for a moment, thinking, as Raina got on behind him, and decided he might as well push it to the limit tonight because things were probably about to get really heavy. "Can you make the whole bike fly there? I was thinking we'd look more like real superheroes if we just fly in there and land it on the helipad or the parking garage or something." 

[Electra]

"Yeah, sure. Real question's whether you can drive a flying bike." Raina reached into her backpack and pulled out a whole handful of tiny feathers, resting them on her palm a moment before blowing them all over Riley and the motorcycle. Immediately, the two teens and the bike began rising into the air like a slowly escaping parade balloon. "Your motor's not going to be much use up here," she advised him, tongue-in-cheek. "Best think of a wonderful thought." As she spoke, the motorcycle began to accelerate, rising above the rooftops as it achieved greater velocity. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Riley didn't say much on the ride to the hospital, gripping the bike's handlebars tight as they flew through the city skyline, his back tense underneath his poncho and uniform. But when they touched down on the rooftop, Raina caught a real smile on the boy's face as he rolled them to a stop. "Nice," he muttered as he shouldered his bow and pulled down his costume's hood, adjusting the outer poncho a bit to make it clear he was wearing the blue and gold uniform that Claremont students were supposed to wear on the town - one that Freedom City cops had at least learned to tolerate. "See why you fly everywhere," he commented as they headed for the steps down into the building. "Cops prolly saw us comin," he opined, shooting a glance at Raina, who was still not in her Claremont colors. 

[Electra]

Raina blew out a breath. "Fiiiiiine," she muttered. She pulled out her compact and gave herself a quick look, and suddenly she was wearing a blue and gold uniform as well, her hair pinned up in a neat and professional bun, and her heels replaced by boots. She was also, it appeared, another couple inches taller. The backpack had disappeared, but it was surely still where it had been a moment ago, Merlin safely concealed within. "You probably better let me do the talking," she told Riley as they walked to the helipad doors. "If this girl knows your double and doesn't want to talk to you, I don't think she's going to be fooled by your secret identity disguise." 

 

Raina pushed the intercom button next to the door, looking up into the security camera. "Hi, I'm Sparkler and this is Woodsman. We're following up on a victim of a monster attack a couple days ago? Rhonda-" She looked at Riley quickly for the name. "McIntyre. We were hoping to ask her some questions if she's feeling up to it." She gave the camera a winning smile.

[Avenger Assembled]

The two credible-looking superheroes (or at least Sparkler and her associate Woodsman) made it inside the hospital with a small police escort, Woodsman tagging behind and letting Sparkler do the talking with a slightly intimidated, youngishpolice officer who was a few inches shorter than Raina. "Yeah, the League's had us on this one since they brought McIntyre in. Poor kid," he said, shaking his head sympathetically. "Nobody deserves to get torn up like that." The lights in the hospital corridors were brightly lit and the hospital itself was fairly crowded, ratcheting up Woodsman's tension several notches. There was a reason why he'd come in through the window during his last visit.

 

At the door to the secured ward, they met Doctor Barnes, a stocky, middle-aged African-American woman who went over the medical report with the two heroes, Riley once again keeping his distance. He'd heard this one before, after all. "The patient was brought in with deep lacerations of the lower abdomen and upper groin area - injuries like an attack by a large wild animal or metahuman. We've stabilized her condition and she's on the mend - but it's going to take time." Her voice falling quiet, Barnes looked around before confiding to Sparkler, "the lack of family visits doesn't help anything."

 

 

[Electra]

Raina made an appropriately sad face at that; she was doing a surprisingly good job of behaving like a mature superheroine for someone who spent so much of her time being deliberately abrasive. "I'm sorry to hear that. Is she up for receiving visitors right now? We probably won't take too long, I just need to know if she remembers anything about the spell that was going on when she was attacked. And did you notice anything unusual about the wounds, any strange colors or smells, unusual infection setting in? Anything might be a clue." 

[Avenger Assembled]

The doctor's report was unpleasant - there had been a partial disemboweling with several large, curved things heated to what must have been red-hot temperatures. On the plus side, the heat from the claws (which was probably what they were) had cauterized the wounds and kept Rhonda from bleeding to death. Raina had never actually seen a demonic attack, but this sounded like some of the descriptions she'd heard. If nothing else, it sounded like Rhonda was safe enough in the hands of terrestrial, non-magical medicine. 

 

When it came time to see the patient, Woodsman kept a position just outside the door, looking over medical reports that were alien enough but all-too-familiar. He knew what the victims of attack looked like. Surviving could be a challenge in its own right. Escorted inside by Dr. Barnes, Sparkler actually had a chance to meet the patient. In a hospital gown that didn't seem to quite fit right, with a blanket pulled up above her injuries and onto her stomach, Rhonda McIntyre was not a happy woman. She barely looked Sparkler's way as she waited for the doctor to leave, not bothering to turn off the quietly playing meditation music channel. Her thin, elfin features were bruised now from the picture Raina had seen before, with angry purple discoloration all along one side of her face. "You gonna ask me something else?"