Boogeymen Gaiden: Badlands
Noel didn't like rollercoasters.
He didn't like riding on actual ones (but neither did Raven, so at least he had company on the rare times they went to amusement parks), and he certainly didn't like metaphorical ones. An immediate reply by many would probably have been an inquiry that, if he disliked it so much, why he'd decided to be a superhero, or perhaps more importantly, had STAYED a superhero for so long, but Noel had his own immediate reply; Their definition of rollercoaster and his were drastically different. If Noel's concept of a metaphorical rollercoaster had been made into a literal one, chances were it would have been never been put into production due to too high a risk of cardiac arrest for anyone who rode it.
It was never what you expected either. Even for him. It had started the second the emergency call had come in through the main computer.
Emergency in the current situation he was in. That was the first drop.
Identifying it as Gauntlet's communicator turned it into a sudden smooth road. Gauntlet was in the least amount of risk, considering his situation. He was also generally pretty good with these things…but not perfect. He could have a legit issue or he might just want to bug Noel to take the limit off his 'Titan credit card'.
Then came the fact that if Gauntlet was sending the emergency communicator, then things might be even worse than if one of the others had. They all had strong backup in greater numbers; Gauntlet not so much, in both numbers and strength. A corkscrew.
Several corkscrews; Gauntlet was not set up to handle bad situations at the moment. Was his emergency in relation to his current situation, or what would be an emergency in his normal, wielding a powerful magical artifact situation? Well, only one way to find out.
"Titan Tower. Please give-"
"IT'S ME NNNNNNNNNNNot someone else, Savior!" Gauntlet said.
"…That'll do. What's the situation, Gauntlet?" Savior said. "Are you in immediate danger?"
"Yes…no…maybe…possibly…Savior, it IS February, right?"
"…pardon?"
"It's the month of February! Confirm this, could you?"
"Why do you…never mind." Savior said, the Shimmer flashing over the keypad of the Titans' main computer, set up in their central room. "Yes Gauntlet. According to FOCS 1, the atomic clock which loses a second every thirty MILLION years, it is February. It's…"
"Damn it."
"What's going on? Why does it matter if its February? Is it Julian Day?"
"Who?'
"Calendar Man."
"I wish. You see…"
They had called themselves N.O.W.H.E.R.E, though exactly what that acronym meant, the Titans had never found out. A new force on the market (though Beast Boy had sworn they sounded familiar), the organization had come to the Titans' attention by targeting the younger generation of metahumans, with the usual vague, nefarious plans that most of the Titans had long tuned out. Things, as per usual with the Titans, had not gone as well as planned when they'd raised an objection, and the group had been captured.
It had not been a fun time. N.O.W.H.E.R.E and its leader, a grim-reaper inspired lunatic who called himself Harvest, was obsessed with power and control, and had attempted experiments on some of the captive Titans. The only blessing of the experience was N.O.W.H.E.R.E's refusal to confuse 'experiment' with 'glorified torture', unlike what some super villains would have done…but it wasn't much of one. The experiments had still been damn unpleasant; first, they had attempted to deepen Beast Boy's connection to his animal side by directly connecting him to the Red; the morphogenetic field that connected all animal life. All it had done was turn his green skin and fur red and make him more aggressive. Starfire's body had been studied to see if they could reverse-engineer the enhancements that the alien Psions had given her a decade ago, only to discover her chrysalis phase had long ago rendered such things impossible. Raven's mind had been used as a testing device for psychics N.O.W.H.E.R.E had in its service, the visiting Offspring had had tissues samples taken to see if his insanely malleable body conditions, a gift from his father Patrick O'Brian, could be replicated, and the also visiting Miss Martian (aka Megan Morse) had also had tissue samples taken from her, as well as low-grade exposure to various heat sources as they tried to puzzle out just how her severe biological aversion to fire worked. And Gauntlet…
All they'd wanted him to do was put on another piece of Old One tech. Compared to the other experiments, that had seemed simple, and Gauntlet had done it without a second thought. A thought he really should have spared, as N.O.W.H.E.R.E had wanted it back. And hadn't been knowledgeable enough about the technology to know it was damaged and hence had bonded to Gauntlet at a deeper level than he had expected. And N.O.W.H.E.R.E were very insistent in their demands.
In the end, Gauntlet had gotten the second piece off, with Raven's help, in the middle of the Titans' inevitable counter-attack. The process had been taxing, but mostly painless. The taxing part, however, had more than made up for it; Gauntlet had been left feeling tired and weak, the abilities of his artefact so muted that Gauntlet had had trouble picking up a cup with ist energies immediately afterward. A call from Pangloss had basically told Gauntlet to sleep it off, but after a few days of rest, the Titan had recovered enough to feel antsy and confined. Not wanting to return to heroing, and not in the mood for going home to Uberton, Gauntlet had requested vacation time. It had been granted, and he'd gone off with Megan via one of the T-Ships, the martian also engaging in a slow recovery from her ordeal that nevertheless did not require bed rest.
The rest of the Titans had also recovered, resuming the eternal heroism vigil. New circumstances, of course, had come up; they always did. At the moment, said circumstances involved Raven heading off with Beast Boy (no longer red and glad of it) to deal with a Doom Patrol mission, and Adam Strange showing up to the tower and asking for Starfire's aid in a Rann-Tamaran issue, an issue that had taken Robin and the rest of the Titans with them. Savior, by drawing of lots, had been left as the only core Titan to hold down the fort back home. Things had been relatively quiet since then.
Leave it to the world to throw trouble at him from where he least expected it.
Then again, with his history, he really should have expected that in the first place. When the rollercoaster went for a loop, it went all the way.
"So, just to make sure I have all this straight, you took Megan to New Orleans, okay fine…but you took her during Mardi Gras…was this because…you wanted to show her…not so much humanity at its worst, but at its most…uninhibited?"
"…No. This is sorta embarrassing, but I totally forgot what time of year it was. I just wanted to show off jazz and good seafood." Gauntlet said.
"…we did get some time lost with N.O.W.H.E.R.E. So what did you get instead?"
"Well, I got to make some awkward explanations. She got beads, mostly." Gauntlet said. "And I finally did get that jazz, and some crawdads."
"This was before you decided to go on this swamp tour you went on today."
"Big Bubba's Bayou Boogaloo, man. Biggest gator farm in the US. How could I turn THAT down?"
"You could have gone in the daytime."
"Open 24 hours. It fit the schedule, okay!?"
"…Oh Lord above, you people go to Mardi Gras and look at alligators…" Came a sudden new voice.
Noel wasn't surprised to hear it; in fact he was surprised it had taken so long, as Alaryce Gallagher, Titan maid/titanic pain in the ass half the time stood in the doorway, picking at her teeth with a toothpick. Noel was technically the only Titan on duty, as Ryce was not an official member of the team; she was sort of a live-in friend with reserve member tendencies. She didn't even have a code name, when all came down to it. "You'd probably go to Amsterdam for the architecture. I live with nuns."
"Your assessment of our lack of healthy deviance is noted, Alaryce. Get over here, Gauntlet called in on the emergency line." Savior said, gesturing for the reedy blonde to come sit down in front of the computer with him.
"Would it kill you lot to say please every so often?"
"Ryce, please get over here." Noel repeated.
"So what's the matter…the inbred swamp people make off with Megan?" Ryce said, sitting down and putting on a headset.
"Not precisely. So, Gauntlet, you realized things were a bit off when you realized the host of the tour knew less about the swamp than you did."
"Right. I mean, come on! He kept calling them crocs!"
"How dastardly. I can see why you needed my help, Savior." Ryce said.
"And when he tried the spooky ghost part of the tour, some of your fellow tour members screwed it up by accurately describing ghost lights for what they were." Savior said, ignoring Ryce.
"Who knew swamp gas actually meant something beyond a bad explanation for UFO's?" Gauntlet said.
"…Aye…alright." Ryce sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "What the hell s'goin' on here? Someone explain in a way a 5-year-old could get, please and thank you."
"Gauntlet went in a boat tour in a swamp with Megan. It was bad. Gauntlet decided not to make waves. Unfortunately, his companions couldn't do the same, and the guide slash boat driver got distracted and ran the boat aground when he was arguing with them. So it sank. Stranding them in the swamp." Noel said.
"…there's a movie like this…'cept s'set in Australia and it ends with a giant alligator eatin' everyone." Ryce said. "…This s'me helping'"
"Funny you should mention alligators. Because while trying to get out of the boat, one of the members of the tour group got attacked by one. He just suffered a gnawed-on foot before Megan intervened with a psychic bolt. Still, injured person." Savior said.
"Can we get to the problem, Savior?" Gauntlet asked.
"Ah, yes. Go ahead."
"That would be the part WHEN WE GOT ATTACKED BY THE GIANT SEVEN FOOT MUTANT HILLBILLY WITH AN AXE!"
"Technically, from your description, I think it was a hatchet." Savior said, having been perusing another computer screen and typing at a separate keypad. Ryce could tell he was taking everything Gauntlet said with complete seriousness, though. He was just multitasking.
"Okay, Rob, if the thing mentions the words squeal or pig? Jus'…lay down and play dead, okay?" Ryce said, cringing and glancing at Noel, wondering what exactly she could possibly do to help in any of this.
"I'm not sure if I should say that's the least of his concerns, but fair enough advice…" Noel muttered.
"This is so not fair. I could be looking at gators." Gauntlet said.
"Trouble waits for no man or gator." Noel said.
"I love how you say that as if the concept of fair s'ever applied to anyone who lives here." Ryce said.
"Just by statistical probability, we should hold out for it." Noel said.
"Yeah, seriously. It's like, haven't we been through enough lately?" Gauntlet said.
"Could be worse. Barry's little time screwup could have completely reordered our lives or something."
"Yeah, don't get me wrong, it's great that he's back and all, but seriously. Even I don't take risks like that!"
Noel was silent.
"I choose to take your silence as agreement."
Noel remained silent, a screen overlaying the one that Gauntlet's vocal pattern and other data (including Gauntlet's vital signs) had been on. Ryce had no idea what she was looking at: it seemed like a mix of green blotches and static.
"Fuck." Savior said, typing rapidly. The screen remained a child's finger-painting. "FUCK."
"I hope that's an acronym for 'Finally under calm konditions'." Gauntlet said.
"Rob, did I just hear you spell conditions with a K?" Megan said in the background.
"I'M UNDER A LOT OF PRESSURE HERE, OKAY?"
"FUCK." Savior said, as if he hadn't heard the exchange.
"You are terrible at bein' reassuring' and helping' your teammates reamin calm, did you know that?" Ryce asked.
"I was hoping that this was just Gauntlet and those people stumbling over a backwoods meta. But…no. Do you know what this is?" Savior said, pointing at the mess. "This is the satellite read of the area."
"We have a satellite?" Ryce said.
"BATMAN has one. Ergo we have one. And it should be able to zoom in until I see the freckles on Megan's nose, because Gauntlet's communication is coming in clear as a bell. Instead, we get a mess. I can tell where they are in a ten mile radius and that's about it. Now, what causes that kind of selective interference AND would involve giant murder-happy hillbillies?"
"Chaos energy?" Ryce suggested.
"…you told me this wasn't going to happen this Halloween, Rob." Megan said.
"IT ISN'T HALLOWEEN! This is Mardi Gras! It makes no sense! It makes no sense!"
"It's not the chaos force." Noel said, rubbing his chin. "At least…I don't think it is. But...might be related. I need more information. Gauntlet, you said you were attacked by this hillbilly. What happened?"
"She shot him."
"Megan shot him?"
"No, Marybeth shot him. A girl who was on the tour."
"So you're safe at the moment?"
"I sure hope so."
"…She happened to have a gun?" Noel said, not wanting to spoil the mood.
"No. She came on the tour because she was looking for her father and brother."
"So she has some idea what's going on?"
"Yes. She says there's something from this area, some guy called Victor Crowley. Technically Shawn, that's our croc-as-gator guide, knew about him too, but he crashed the boat."
"STOP TALKING LIKE I DO THAT EVERY NIGHT!" A voice Noel presumed was Shawn yelled in the background.
"Is she still there?" Savior said.
"Not like there's anywhere else we could go."
"Hand me over to her. I need the whole story." Savior said, looking at Ryce. "Alaryce, I need you to search our files for a Victor Crowley. Check our files, the combined superhuman files, Raven's personal files, and the Internet. You know the vocal commands you'd need to narrow down the search. Get to it. Please."
"Jawohl, herr kommandant."
"Your German is atrocious. Then again, so's this situation. Gauntlet?"
"Handing it over." Gauntlet said. After a few seconds, a new female voice spoke.
"Hello?"
"Hello. This is Savior of the Titans. You are Marybeth?"
"…Savior?'
"YES." Savior said, trying to keep his voice calm.
"…that's kind of preten-"
"YES. I KNOW. POINT, PLEASE." Savior said, even as the Shimmer pulled out his wallet and shoved a fifty-dollar bill into Ryce's nearest pocket.
"Why Savior, is that the Shimmer in my pocket or are you jus' happy to see me back?" The maid teased dryly, before taking the bill and straightening it. "I don't even need the money. The look on your face when you have to pay up though…Best bet I ever mad'." The maid commented.
Noel ignored Ryce's gloating. Again, he was not thrilled by the new twist on the rollercoaster, that being Marybeth's voice. She sounded strong enough…but it was a fragile strength, the strength of someone who was desperately trying to hold it together in an impossible situation and losing ground due to nothing more than lack of experience. If she was holding up best, then considering the rest…
Noel debated whether or not to tell Gauntlet that, and figured he'd save it. For now, information.
"This Crowley. There's a story?"
"They say he was born deformed, a monster. His father kept him locked away in his house…what?" Marybeth said, before Savior heard the muffled sound of a conversation being semi-blanked by a hand over the communicator. "Shawn says his boss, Reverend Zombie-"
"REVEREND ZOMBIE?" Noel and Gauntlet said at the exact same time and in almost the exact same incredulous tone.
"Uh…Reverend Zombie? Yeah I got nothin'." Ryce chimed in before going back to work.
"You work for a guy called Reverend ZOMBIE?" Noel said.
"Hey, with this economy, who cares what their names are? Besides, he runs a haunted swamp tour!" Shawn said.
"I thought he ran a gator farm."
"It's a bad economy! He does both!"
"At the same time?"
"No, that was…I was trying to save money!"
"Save me." Noel murmured.
"Me first!" Gauntlet said. "…Also Megan!" Noel has a suspicion a brief glare had been involved there.
"Anyway…he tells me Victor's dad, his wife was dying of cancer. They had a nurse, and Victor started seeing her behind his wife's back."
"I don't like where this is going…" Noel murmured again, rubbing his forehead.
"Damn it, I knew I should've gone with Met to…what was it again? Oh, that's right, a hell dimension." Ryce muttered.
"This is all very interesting, but I'm not sure how that ties in to the haunted midnight gator swamp tour." Gauntlet said.
"His wife found out just before she died, and she cursed her husband and the woman he was cheating with. Victor was born as a result of the curse, huge and deformed. It killed his mother, and Victor's dad had no choice but to raise him, alone and isolated."
"And let him drown in Crystal Lake?" Gauntlet asked.
"He was abusive?" Savior said, his inquiry far more serious.
"No. Despite the situation, Victor's dad grew to love his son, and they lived quietly in the back woods of this county." Marybeth said, having taken the communicator back. "But despite keeping to themselves, that wasn't enough for some. One Halloween, a group of teenagers snuck out to the house. They tried to prank Victor, but they accidentally set his house on fire. Victor's dad tried to save him, but the fire had warped the door and gotten it stuck in the frame. Victor's dad grabbed a hatchet to chop it down…but Victor, in a panic, was pressed up right against the door. Victor's dad cut through the door and accidentally hit Victor right in the face. It killed him."
"That would explain the scar." Megan said in the background.
"That explains far too many things. Most bad." Savior murmured.
"Most bad? Most? What in there wasn't bad?" Ryce said.
"Yeah! So, we're up against a swamp zombie?" Gauntlet said.
"…Marybeth, anything else? What happened to Victor's father?"
"Well, the kids were never prosecuted. Victor's dad basically withdrew completely and lived another decade in misery over what he'd done before he died. And then…well, the story of Victor Crowley began. That he haunted these swamps. Killed anyone who went into it. My dad and brother dismissed it as a legend…but these lands are officially closed off by New Orleans."
"Yeah…I kinda ignored that." Shawn said in the background.
"WHAT?" Gauntlet said.
"Hey! It was a stupid story! I thought it was a stupid story! Who'd believe that kind of shit?" Shawn yelled, an argument starting in the background that Noel tuned out.
"…Gauntlet, if Crowley comes back, trip the Darwin Candidate known as Shawn when you all run away." Ryce said.
"Tempting, but I'd lose my hero union card."
"Ah, but you'd gain a new one for chlorinatin' the gene pool!"
"Marybeth…this area. Does it have…unexplained murders? Disappearances?" Savior continued.
"…yeah." Marybeth, her voice very small and quiet. "Going back since before I was born."
"The police have never done anything?"
"Their stance is it's a story. That they just ran away, or drowned, or…something else." Marybeth said. "But my daddy and brother knew swamps like the back of their hand, and they wouldn't leave me. Not alone." Marybeth said.
"Noel?" Ryce said. The white-haired Titan looked at her."…I got nothing', Noel. No files, no meta files, no Raven files…nada. Tried callin' dad even…but uh…" Ryce sighed, eyes wincing shut in embarrassment. "He's watching Days of our Lives and told me to piss off."
"Quite frankly I'd rather have Gauntlet murdered repeatedly than ever accept any help from that jackhole." Savior said.
"…put someone else on the line, please." Gauntlet complained.
"Joke, Gauntlet. Gallows humour. Am I that bad at it? Now you see why I leave the quipping to you and Gar." Savior said. "So, you have NOTHING?"
"No."
"Not even on the Internet? Nothing mentioned on a website, somewhere on a forum, a tweet, nothing?"
"Not wi' the restrictions you gave me."
"…mother of fuck." Savior said. "Ryce, I need you to go to Raven's room. I need several books from there. Her Tomb of Curses and Hexes, her Grimoire of Spirits, and the Malignous Endurus. And bring me her book of Translocation while you're there. We need it yesterday! Go, please!"
"…you're about as magical as a urinal puck. How are those supposed to help?" Ryce asked, her tone dry. The fact that she was already making her way to fetch them saved Noel the trouble of stabbing his finger to where he wanted her to go; instead he turned his attention back to the computer screen.
"Sooooooooooo this sounds an awful lot like 'you're on your own, kid.'"
"Like hell." Savior said. "I might be hundreds of miles from you with my teleporting girlfriend in another dimension and the rest of the team in outer space, but we have options."
"Good, glad I was wrong." Gauntlet said. "What sort of options?"
"I haven't figured that part out yet."
"Noel, this is why Robin doesn't let you visit the kids in the cancer ward."
"Look! I have books! Books you can't possibly do anything with…enjoy." Ryce said, dumping the pile of tomes unto the console before him. More Shimmer strands seized them up, Savior paging through the books while he looked at the screen.
"So….plan?" Gauntlet said.
"…Gauntlet. Our Halloween experiences, with the manifested entities wearing flesh suits. We theorized it was some kind of malevolence force seeping into our world. What's the part there we don't think about?"
"Why does it only happen to us?"
"Close. Try again."
"What causes it?"
"Why the hell do you all STAY here for Halloween?" Ryce grumbled.
"We're old and boring. Again, close Rob. The fact that it can get in in the first place. The Halloween incidents, they required an outside key…but that suggests that there's an aspect of our reality that is basically like a door. So if our existence is like a door…what if there are doors that are drafty and let cold air leak through?"
"So this isn't the full manifestation then. That's…oddly not the slightest bit comforting."
"I don't think this is the chaos force we've experienced. It was too…hungry. It wouldn't be content to just stay in the swamp. This is something else. Rob, have you ever heard of a genius loci?"
"Like Demonreach?" Ryce asked, drawing silence from the emergency line and a blank look from Savior. She sighed and turned back to the console, dropping her head. "Geek s'goin' to be quiet now."
"Nope." Rob continued as if Ryce had not chimed in.
"It's a place that's got a life or mind of its own. A house, a country, a world…remember Beast Boy's stories about Danny the Street?"
"You mean the ones that made you drug test him?"
"May have been a little premature there. In any case, Danny was a good example. A living street. That's what a genius loci is, something that's alive that shouldn't be. So, what would cause something to live when it shouldn't?"
"Outside forces."
"Right. So, in a way, our horror manifestations are genius loci too. They animated creatures of light and film." Noel said. "Now…let's say we take that concept, and the idea that our reality is like a door. Let's say something is leaking out from beyond into a part of our world. Now as you should know, from Raven if not from a bunch of other shit, emotions can have literal power. Energy. They can leave an imprint on the physical world. It's often suggested traditional haunting have a lot to do with that theory."
"A father's grief and guilt would definitely be emotional." Megan said.
"Ah yes, Megan. I need you to try and do something for me. To confirm." Savior said. "I need you to try and mind read the area."
"The area, Savior?"
"Yes. Not the living creatures in it, the area itself. I'm not expecting you to hear anything coherent, but I need you to tell me if you hear ANYTHING. At all."
"I'll try."
"Please do." Savior said. "Gauntlet, you've never heard of Victor Crowley, right?"
"Correctamundo."
"Understandable. It seems to be a local legend."
"Yeah."
"Except you got attacked by it."
"Yeah. Your point?"
"Gauntlet, what happened with that attack?"
"Uh, okay. So one of our group got attacked by an alligator."
"Isn't THAT a dark coincidence." Savior said, in a tone that indicated he thought it was anything but.
"You think he can control alligators?"
"Yes and no. Continue."
"Okay, so we were carrying the guy, not easy because he's not the youngest or smallest guy, and our powers are coming back but not at full strength yet, so no one's in a good mood. Then we find an abandoned house."
"Crowley's?"
"According to Marybeth. See, Shawn actually mentioned it…"
"Forget Shawn. What happened?"
"Well, some of us thought it was a possible source for help. But Marybeth starts yelling, and before I can get the story out of her, I hear a scream and this ten foot Ozark reject comes running out the front door."
"Was he literally ten feet tall?"
"…maybe not. But damn, Savior, I think I came up to his lower chest at best. He's fucking huge."
"So he tried to kill you."
"Grabbed our wounded, guy's name is Jim, tried to hack him to pieces. I manifested the gauntlet as best I could and hit him."
"And?"
"…he felt it, at least."
"And you?"
"…You know that proverbial truck made out of smaller trucks? Well, add another truck." Gauntlet said. "Felt like I punched a metal wall."
"And do you think this was related entirely to your weakened state?"
"…no. I think even at full strength, he'd just have gone back further. I still would have felt like I was punching a bear. A bear with armor. Possibly bearing arms as well. Also, the bear is made of bricks. So forget the bear."
"Right. So what happened?"
"Well, I tried to help Jim, but Crowley was back up like nothing, tried to get me with his axe…Megan stepped in. She tried to grapple him…"
"Was she wounded?"
"No, she tried to disarm him, it worked…but…"
Gauntlet trailed off, the muffled sound of a background conversation muted by a covering hand crossing Noel's ears for several seconds before he returned.
"Megan will tell you herself."
"You all right, Megan?" Noel asked, when Gauntlet had handed the communicator over.
"Yes, but…grappling with him was a bad idea."
"It would be in any situation."
"Yes, but Noel…my body's still recovering, but it's more flexible than a human's. The cellular bones are…looser. He grabbed me by the arm and…I am fairly certain if I didn't have additional cellular malleability, he would have pulled my arm right out of my socket. Gauntlet or any of the others wouldn't have had a chance. He'd have ripped them apart like tissue paper."
"So, superhuman strength. Not unexpected. Megan, what did you hear?"
"The land?"
"Yeah."
"…I'm not sure if I'm doing it right…but I think I heard buzzing."
Savior was quiet.
"You're quiet. That bodes poorly." Gauntlet said, having retrieved the communicator.
"…what I think we're dealing with, the source…it would never be found in a populated area. There's too many people there, too many emotions. It'd get diluted down to nothing. So it happens in isolated places, places where few people live. When you're trying to search for the 'thoughts' of such a place, you get one of three results. You don't hear anything, which means nothing has imprinted on the outside essence. If something positive has imprinted on it, you're supposed to hear humming. If something NEGATIVE happens, like say, a father losing his son and mourning in impotent isolation for a decade…"
"I never thought the distinction between a buzz and a hum would be a life or death distinction." Gauntlet muttered.
"I'm sorry, Rob. I wish I could tell you this is just some crazy backwoods metahuman…but it's not. It's a situation similar to our Halloween messes. Instead of a malignant force being drawn to our world, it's an otherworldly force leaking into that's been imprinted with negative emotions. The swamp you're in is cursed. It's literally 'Badlands'. Stalked by what's known, among other terms, as an Übelgeist."
"It isn't even Halloween! That's just…wait, where are you getting this info from?"
"You think Raven just let those Halloween incidents happen and forgot about them? She researched them. Looked at every possibility. I helped. Retained some stuff, because in our line of work, just because a bad situation we'd endured doesn't match ones that have been recorded, that doesn't mean we're immune to ones that have been recorded."
"Ah. See, I've always been confused about how canonical those were."
"What?" Savior said.
"What?" Gauntlet repeated back.
"Isn't this hard enough without having to replaster that wall?" Ryce said.
"…dadddddyyyyyyy-!"
The cry echoed in the background of Gauntlet's communication window, the sound causing the sound detecting screen to rapidly jag up and down, like the program found it offensive.
"…Did I just hear-?" Savior said.
"Yeah. I heard it too. I also heard it just before Crowley came running out of the house and attacked me, Jim, and Megan." Gauntlet said.
"I assume Megan was saved by Marybeth shooting him."
"Yeah."
"Did he die?"
"I don't know, I was kind of busy trying to make sure I ran away in the most brave and convincing manner possible. He fell down, at least. Noel, what the hell is an uberguber? And how do I give it teeth so I can punch them out?"
"…technically, it means 'ill spirit'. By definition it applies to any kind of malevolent ghost…but this…this situation…"
"DADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDY-!" Came the cry again.
"Which direction is that coming from?"
"I don't know!"
"If you'd both SHUT IT, I could maybe tell you." Ryce snapped, edging close, her left eye beginning to glow.
"Just in case, Rob, hold up the communicator too! Wait, first…Rob. How many people are there, not including you and Megan?"
"Uh…there's seven. Marybeth, Jim, Shawn…"
"I don't need their names. Gauntlet, you need to follow this order, above all else. You have to keep them from running away, but if one or more of them gets away anyway, you have to consider them dead."
"I'm going to ignore that and pretend I'm a superhero. Kay? Kay. Discussion's over. Great meeting, everyone. Let's do lunch."
"I didn't say abandon anyone, Gauntlet. If someone runs away, you look for them. But if someone runs away, they're most likely already dead. You're up against something that's been tainted by negative energies and now exists to create more of the same. Like say, through violent murder. And your friends are normal humans with normal lives. In this abnormal situation, you may as well be trying to herd cats. You need to be brutally realistic here, hero. Because where you are will use it against you otherwise." Noel said. "You damn well keep them safe, but if one or more of them panics and runs off screaming…"
"Then we'll go after them."
"And I know how you'll find them. That is, DEAD." Noel said. "There's nothing here making people act stupid on purpose, Gauntlet. Just good old fashioned primal fear. Fight, flight, or freeze. Only you can do the first, and none all of them might be smart enough to do the third."
"So, a Thursday. Gotcha. Now how do I hurt an Uberguest?"
"I assume you can't make the sun come up."
"I left it in my other pants."
"Wait, what?" Ryce said.
"I'm under pressure, okay!? They can't all be gold!"
"What about runnin' water?" Ryce said.
"Swamps are based on stagnant pools. Likely nothing fast enough. Gauntlet, do you have any salt? Or something made of iron?"
"Um, how about no?"
"…fire…fire in wet, cursed swamp…no…" Noel muttered. "Gauntlet-"
"DADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDY-!" Came the howl.
"I held it up when I heard that, Noel! Hurry, he sounds like he's right on top of us!"
"I can't pinpoint it…it read as coming from everywhere…"
"Because it IS." Ryce snapped again.
"OH SHIT!"
Noel remembered the first time he'd heard such an inhuman roar. It had been made by one of Trigon's demons, and even in the heat of combat, he'd felt like someone had grabbed his whole spine in a grip of ice.
That had been then. Now, the horrific noise just made him jerk back a bit before he immediately began typing. Ryce's recoil was somewhat stronger, but to be fair, she probably hadn't been expecting it.
"GAUNTLET! GO FOR THE HEAD, THE THROAT! CUT, DON'T BLUDGEON! YOU'RE NOT FACING A HUMAN BEING!"
"EAT SWORD! OR JAGGEDY TRIANGLE, IT WILL DOOOOOOOOO-!" Gauntlet yelled, and then the communication channel dissolved into screams, roars, and yells.
"Ryce. I need other things. I need you to go to Raven's room, there's a box in her bedside drawer filled with chalk, you need to bring me one of those pieces of chalk. Then, go into her dark green valise and look for a small case marked 'Eviros'. Bring me a vial from that case. Then you need to go to Robin's room, the code to his battle chest is 10-1-14-5-20, get two of the red vials on the left side of the case. Finally, go down to the infirmary, go into the main fridge, get the blood bag marked GR-11, that should be the latest one, get it or whatever one's the last one!" Noel said, clearly trying to keep calm.
"Rob?! Are you alright?" Ryce seemed to be ignoring his commands for the moment.
"ALARYCE, NOW!"
With clear reluctance, the small teen bolted from the room, scuttling down the hall.
In truth, Savior didn't know which one of them had it worse; Ryce, who couldn't listen to the attack, or him, who had to while trying to draw sense from it all. By the time all the noise finally slowed down to what sounded like basic movements, Savior had nearly peeled some metal off the computer front with his fingernails.
"Gauntlet? Are you okay?" Savior said, finally chancing re-establishing contact.
"That was not fun."
"Did you deal with Crowley?"
"I found a big-ass rock and smashed him in the face was it. If there was any justice, that would be the end of it. Instead, I'm pretty sure I just gave him an excuse to zero in on me."
"The people?"
"Alive, for now. Wasn't like herding cats; more like herding goats. Cooperative, but terrified and they spook easily."
"I'd hate to see the kind of person who wouldn't spoke easily in a situation like this."
"Savior, can I ask you a question?"
"What?"
"Okay, so this land is cursed, right?"
"Yes."
"So that's why our communication channel is clear, but you just get garbage on the satellite."
"Yes."
"And why Crowley's voice seemed to come from everywhere."
"Yes."
"And why an alligator bit Jim out of nowhere."
"Most likely, yes."
"And why Marybeth knows the legend of Victor Crowley, but you couldn't find anything."
"…Yes. By itself, it's just a local story. You don't see us looking for hook-handed murderers or people who have snuck inside houses to make calls to said house's phone, after all. But you're being attacked by it. That makes it real. There is NO way you could keep it up this long if this was a prank, not to mention this is far too mean spirited for you."
"Right. I'd be calling from my hotel room or something if it were a prank. No reason to actually go out INTO the swamp."
"So think about it. NOTHING. Nothing in the police files. Nothing on the internet. No mention in a forum, a blog post, nothing. Nothing in metahuman or supernatural case files. Based on what you've seen, that likely means that Crowley's been killing for who knows how long, yet the story has NEVER spread, and the police have essentially ignored it. Well, not ignored it, I think. They've both dismissed it and yet likely have believed it, deep down. Except believing it is too scary, so they make excuses. The area literally makes people delusional and ignorant so more people go onto it to die, while keeping the information contained to the area it infects."
"…wait. In all this chaos I forgot…didn't Shawn mention that this area was technically cordoned off?" Megan said. Noel heard Shawn shout what sounded like 'I DIDN'T KNOW!', likely in regards to Crowley, but he ignored it.
"…Yeah. Yeah, it was." Gauntlet said.
"…so they knew enough to try and seal the place. Yet they act like anyone who disappeared in here just disappeared. And locals, despite having a story of a murderous revenant for so long, mixed with things like the place being officially sealed off, still come onto the land. It's like the sirens of old, luring sailors to their deaths in the water despite all their desires to the contrary." Noel mused.
"Except I think the Sirens were better looking than that…thing." Gauntlet said. "So, all this stupid shit. That's what makes an Uggamugga?"
"…no. An Übelgeist would have some of these things, but all, to this degree…"
"You SURE it's not the Halloween force?"
"No, that was purposely malicious. This is…"
"Not an Uglymugly?"
"…TECHNICALLY, no. This is an Übelgeist. This scale, though…"
"Oh right. I forgot my question. So, this Gruberfleis, the way he died and the bad stuff imprinting on the outside leaking force is why he's so big and strong and won't die and shit…"
"Yes." Savior said, his tone grim.
"Then why does he have a BELT SANDER?"
That had been a drop in the rollercoaster Noel had not seen coming.
"…beg pardon?"
"That last attack? He tried to kill us with a belt sander! Was trying to use it on…never mind where and how! HOW DOES THE EVIL SUPERGHOST HAVE A BELT SANDER?"
"…..I have absolutely no fucking idea." Savior said. "…that is the most ridiculous thing I've heard….I think in the past ten days."
"I'd say the past four days…I heard Adam explainin' to you the other day his plan to bargain with some ancient gods to ensure anyone and everyone who isn't him no longer remembers what I look like naked." Ryce said, heading back in with a cardboard box that she placed down in front of Noel. "Belt Sander ghost definitely wins over that, though. You alright, Rob?"
"My last weird thing was…belt sander. Right. Gotta focus. Yeah, Ryce. Noel, plan?"
"Noel, I hate to interrupt your yakkin', I know how much you like talking during trouble…but an Übelgeist seems too weak to be doin' all this."
"My thoughts exactly. Under normal circumstances." Savior said, removing a dark green vial from the box and unstopping it. "Ryce, spit in this."
"Beg pardon?"
"Just do it, please."
"If this turns freaky, I'm telling Rae." Ryce said, doing as asked, Noel grabbing back the vial and stopping it back up.
"This turned freaky ten miles back! I keep hearing this is a overghost and yet isn't an overghost. What gives, Noel?"
"…an Übelgeist is a tormented, angry spirit. This, with all the shit we reviewed…Gauntlet, remember the Lord of the Rings?"
"…it's a long series, Noel. You're going to have to narrow it down."
"Remember Tom Bombadil?"
"Yeeeeeees?"
"When I first read the books, Bombadil struck me as an artefact of Tolkien's long writing process…"
"GET TO THE POINT."
"Bombadil lives in the Old Forest. The Old Forest is a dangerous, DANGEROUS place. Do you recall Tolkien's suggestion that powerful magical beings imprint their nature on their homes? The Balrog turned the Mines into a hellhole, Sauron cursed Mirkwood, Sarumon turned the area around his Tower into an industrial nightmare…and Bombadil lives in the Old Forest. Where every tree is literally a monster, a huorn, the hobbits can literally sense the hatred within every one of them. Where graves of ancient kings lay, infested with evil spirits, the barrow-wights. Yet Bombadil, a goofy, friendly…goof, banishes these evils with a song. He's unaffected by the One Ring when he puts it on. And despite claiming to have lived in the Old Forest since before the hobbits settled the Shire, no hobbit has ever heard of him. Merry knows the whole history of the area and has gone into the Old Forest many times, yet he's never heard of him. ELROND, THOUSANDS OF YEARS OLD, THE GREATEST LORE MASTER OF THE THIRD AGE, has no idea who Bombadil is. This strange jolly, friendly man, living in a forest seething with darkness and malevolence, who no one has ever met before. Tolkien's official explanation is that all ages must have their enigmas and Bombadil is one, but does he sound like an ENIGMA to you?"
"I DON'T FOLLOW YOUR NERD TRIVIA. JUST SPELL IT OUT." Ryce snapped.
"She's got a point, Noel. Unless it turns out that Tolkien was a kickass paranormal investigator in his spare time, I'm not sure I see the relevance to our current situation."
"Elrond had never heard of Tom Bombadil…but he suggests another being that he might be. A being known as Iarwain Ben-Adar. 'Oldest and Fatherless'. An Übelgeist created and tied to an area that does this…much like Bombadil in his forest, there seems to be so much worse below an already strange, and in this case, dangerous surface. That's what I think you've encountered, Rob. A personal theory, of something beyond an Übelgeist. Iarwain Ben-Adar. That's what Crowley is now. In other words, it would be better for it to be a ghost-thing, because the other option, to me, seems like we'd be skipping out of Tolkien territory and knocking on Lovecraft's door."
"…I think your shining prospects as a motivation speaker have just crashed and burned, Noel." Ryce said.
"I don't sugarcoat."
"Okay Rob, this is what you should remember: I've met a few Lovecraftian horrors. They're whiny pussies. We'll get you out."
"Way to go, Noel, another short point made long. So is theory hour done? I honestly don't hear anything in there that sounds like a strategy."
"Kept you distracted, didn't it? Don't worry. I have a plan now." Savior said, as he began typing at the computer. "The connection we have between ourselves still seems clear, I'm going to try and send you a symbol on your commu-"
"DDDADDDDDDYYYYYY-!" The voice howled in Rob's background.
"Still sending it." Noel said, his typing speeding up. "Maybe you should see if you can get all your friends to climb a tree or something. Get them out of the way."
"R-right. Okay people! Get to the high ground, and by the high ground, I mean those trees!"
"Jim will need help. Do that." Savior said, as he finished his inputs and hit SEND. "Okay Rob, when you have a moment…please tell me you got this."
There was just rushing, grunting, crying, and complaining as background noise for a good twenty seconds.
"Okay, they're all in trees as best I can manage it…what's this? A hand holding antlers in a circle?"
"More or less. Good, I didn't want to have to describe it. Okay Rob. I need you to draw that on the nearest, biggest tree you have."
"With what?"
"Your own blood."
"I swear to God, if YOU'RE the one pranking me…"
"I got your emergency blood supply out of the medical fridge here. I'm going to use it and the symbol you draw as a link for a teleportation spell."
"Okay, suspicions lessened."
"Wait, didn't Ryce say Savior was about as magical as a urinal cake?" Megan said.
"HER ASSESSMENT IS ERRONEOUS." Savior snarled. "And I wouldn't be risking otherwise for the sake of my pride, Megan."
"Urinal cakes have their uses. Cast away!" Rob said.
"Working on it." Savior said, taking the piece of chalk and using it to draw on the ground, the Shimmer doing that and continuing to page through Raven's boots and attend to computer duties, Noel using his actual hands for the box.
"DADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDY-!"
"Is the symbol done, Rob? If not, break off and hide. Megan too! An Übelgeist probably isn't smart enough to smear it. I think." Noel said. "Now the hard part. You're going to have to lure Crowley away and put him down again. Then run back. I don't want him lying right next to the symbol and your trees."
"Yeah…put him down…sure."
"Get the ear bud of the communicator in, Rob. I might still need to talk to you, but I don't want to tip him off." Noel said, as he finished the chalk replica of the symbol he'd drawn. "Do you think you're strong enough to rip a chunk out of a tree? You could do that and stake him in the chest or something."
"Hey man, you didn't say nothing' 'bout no vampires!" Rob said, a trace of levity in his tone.
"Well, yeah. Could be worse. Victor could sparkle."
"Hey careful with that joke, it's an antique." Ryce said.
"I'm hiding. Going out of communication." Gauntlet said, more faint sounds of moving emitting from Noel's computer as he tucked away his communicator.
"If you can still hear me, tap on the bud." Noel said. He heard a tap. "All right Robert. I think, with my plan, I can disrupt the ghost enough that you could, at least…blunt its connection to the land? Enough that you could walk out, though with Jim…though better than…"
Savior arched an eyebrow.
"…Gauntlet, wait. You're going about this wrong. Don't hide like you're going to try and ambush him, that won't work. Chances are he's going to lunge out of nowhere and ambush YOU, even you hide, you need to be ready for the attack and-!"
"FUCK-!" Gauntlet yelled, before the communicator's feed was overcome with yelling, roaring, and sounds of combat. Apparently, Noel had tumbled on Victor's chosen method of attack three seconds before he'd done it.
"THE EYES, GAUNTLET! GO FOR THE EYES! OR THE SCAR! Damn it, Ryce, give me Gauntlet's blood." Savior said.
"Aye aye captain." Ryce said.
"And when I've laid it down, cut your finger and drip a few drops on the points I indicate."
"Oka-…wait, what?" Ryce said, trying to keep the worry off her face from the noise Gauntlet's communicator was sending.
"Vital signs, Ryce. Long as these don't spike or flatten…we're good." Savior said. "And I said mix in your blood. You're the one who's being teleported."
"WHAT? ARE YOU CRAZY?!"
"Like a fox."
"You're sending in the MAID who's barely a reserve member?! Who's a bloody IDIOT at the best of times?!"
"I'm sending in the girl with the INTIMATE KNOWLEDGE AND POWERS REGARDING DEATH AND SPIRITS to deal with the EVIL GHOST, whose body is used to constant instant transportation thanks to who she travels with, and who DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO WORK THE MISSION CONTROL FOR THE COMPUTER. And I'm sending her in ARMED. You're the best choice…"
The noise from the computer faded. Ryce's angry incredibility faded away again, her scared eyes turning towards the screen.
"Vital signs. Increased but still going. Might have just dropped the communicator." Noel said, pointing at said signs a second time. "Ryce, if you honestly don't want to take the risk, I'll go. But you have a better chance of arriving, and a better chance of helping Gauntlet. It doesn't really matter if I'm better at punching, because none of my punches might WORK."
"…you are crazier than a shithouse rat."
"If you had a problem with that, we wouldn't be having this conversation." Noel said. "Yes or no, Ryce? I need to draw the symbol."
"…hello?"
"Gauntlet?" Noel said, turning back to the computer, even as the Shimmer carefully opened Rob's blood bag and began outlining the chalk symbol with it. "Are you okay?"
"…Megan…"
"It got Megan?" Noel said, ice stabbing in his gut.
"No, it…it attacked, she jumped on it, there was running and I was trying to make with the down-going…lost them in the woods. Both of them. I don't know where Megan is. Tried to find her…ended up back here."
"…she's fine, Gauntlet. Double-check the sigil I had you draw, I'm almost done here." Noel said.
"Okay. Double checking...done. Going to get Megan. Can't stop me."
"Gauntlet? No. I'm sending in Ryce. You need to be there when she arrives. Even if this goes perfectly, I'm still a practicing amateur. She'll be dazed, and if she's all alone, potentially a sitting duck."
"Please stop talkin' like I'm not here."
"YOU CAN'T STOP ME." Gauntlet snapped.
"ROBERT. Megan is not like the normal people you are trying to protect. She is trained in combat, she has willpower out the wazoo, and even as weak as she is, SHE'S STILL SUPERHUMAN. You need to TRUST IN HER and TRUST ME. But you're right. I can't stop you." Noel said.
"…if she's dead, so help me God."
"Rob?" It was Ryce who cut in, much of the typical edge falling out of her tone, making it much more gentle than Noel was used to hearing from her. "You know what I am and you know I wouldn't lie to you. Megan's s'NOT dead."
"…Ok."
"Have I mentioned what a boon you are sometimes, Ryce?" Noel said, as he finished drawing in the blood on his own sigil and began double-checking it. "Remember, Rob. This isn't like Halloween, Gauntlet. It's similar, but lacking one crucial thing. This situation you're in might be something out of a horror film, but those attacks literally forced us to abide by the rules of horror films. It dampened our powers, twisted our brains, and tried to make us act out preordained roles to fulfill the expectations of the genre. That's not the case here. There is no RULE warping reality that says anyone has to die and will die. There's no EXPECTATIONS here. There's just a very bad situation in the hands of very good people. Megan will be fine. You will be fine. No one dies, AND THE BAD GUY LOSES." Noel hissed through clenched teeth. "…Ryce?"
"…your plan's forgettin' a big thing. The most important part. Unless I get attacked…m'powers don't really work." Ryce said. "Even if I stick m'neck out…with as nasty as that Übelgeist is, it's likely to twist m'head right off before I can fight back."
"…Rob? You hear that part?"
"Yeah, I heard."
"I honestly think Ryce would work in this situation far better than I would. Your choice. Think you can work around that niggle? Or would you rather spend the rest of your vacation carting me around?"
"…send Ryce. If she wants to come."
"…what do you have, Noel? How can you Q me up?" Ryce said.
"Cue you up? Oh." Savior said, handing Ryce the dark green vial she'd spat into. "Something this big…we go for primal and big ourselves. Fire. Harms spirits AND physical objects. Now, setting a fire in a wet, murky swamp is one thing, a CURSED swamp another…so we cheat. This is dragonmyrk."
"Was the Y really necessary?" Gauntlet said.
"…HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT?" Noel said.
"Years of practice. You're not the only one Raven's rubbed off on, you know."
"Whatever. What's it do?" Ryce said.
"You pop the cork, it'll spew out in a big green cloud. After that…spit on anything caught or coated in the cloud, and it'll catch fire." Noel said. "Needless to say, don't get it on Gauntlet, or anyone else. Magical fire is magical for a reason. As another fantasy series once said, if you pissed on this stuff once it's caught, your genitals would catch fire."
"It's times like this that I actually miss Control Freak." Gauntlet said.
"Yeah. Whatever happened to him?" Noel oddly mused.
"Noel, right about now? I'M the one telling you stay on topic."
"And the other thing? The thing from Robin's chest you had me get?" Ryce asked.
"…magical fire doesn't work? Use the nastiest shit normals can come up with. White phosphorous." Noel said. He'd assembled the two vials in one of Robin's explosive devices out of Ryce's field of vision, and he handed it over to her with grim gravity. "Rigged this to be a sticky bomb. Three second fuse when it sticks. If you have to use this, you throw it, then you hold your fucking breath and get behind a tree, and when it blows you wait several seconds and then run like hell."
"Okay then. Let's do this thing!" Rob said.
"Hold my breath and run…good instruction for the asthmatic. Wanna take my left arm and ask me to juggle next?"
"No, I need it to drip blood on the sigil. Rob, everyone else is still up in their trees?"
"Yeah."
"No sign of Megan?"
"…no."
"Probably running him in circles. Ryce, please be careful not to-"
"I know what m'doin'." Ryce said, walking around the sigil, her finger dripping drops of blood on the appropriate spots. "Do YOU?"
"As much as any long time analytical observer of circumstances does when other circumstances call on him to replicate the original circumstances."
"Can you EVER talk normal?"
"Not really, no." Savior said, as he put aside all of Raven's other books, keeping one. "Okay Ryce. Bring…oh, you have your jacket already. When did you get that on?"
"I think at some point when you start'd ramblin' about Tolkien." Ryce said, as she stepped into the circle. "Get to it, b'fore I change m'mind."
"Closing the circle." Noel said, and drew the final line in with chalk. "Incoming, Robert. There might be some wind kicked up; make sure Crowley doesn't sneak up on you. It would really suck if I was sending in the maid to save you instead of just assist you."
"You're a fount of comfort, Noel." Rob said.
"I try." Noel said, as he looked down at Raven's grimoire. "Okay, here we go. Kan-Da, Es-trata tatoon hazan sobar…ea-grets…gat-nos…"
Noel felt a familiar humming in his eyeteeth, even as the circle began to pulse.
"Nos-Feratos…Amantos…Kanda…Azeroth…Metrion…!"
"NOEL! I'M NOT CHANGING M'MIND, BUT THIS CONNECTION'S JUS' ONE WAY RI-"
"ZINTHOS!"
Black gloom rose up and consumed Ryce.
A second later, Noel heard a dull thud coming from Gauntlet's communication line.
"What the-AH SON OF A BITCH! DAMN IT!"
Savior heard a loud scream, a scream of agonized dismay, combined with an inhuman bellow, and then the sounds of combat.
"Fuck." Noel said, spinning around.
"YOU PIECE OF-!"
"Gauntlet, keep him away from the tree! Gauntlet!" Noel said.
"FUCK YOU-! NO-"
The crunching noise was so loud that Noel was forced to yank off his headphones. A second later, the communication line went dead.
A second after that, so did Gauntlet's vitals.
"…no." Savior said. "No no no no no no…I did not just send Ryce to her death. I did NOT…"
The flatline just mocked him with its flatness. At least there was no drawn out emergency him.
Noel looked at the sigil. Could he re-draw it…no. Gauntlet would need to make a second one, the first's energies having been exhausted. Otherwise Noel would potentially end up miles away, or fused to a tree, or worse. He'd already send an emergency signal to Raven when this whole thing started; sending more would be pointless if she hadn't gotten the first one. He couldn't just abandon the console and fly there, it would take far too long and he might just make another victim of himself…
So he sat.
And stared.
And stared.
Why had he been cursing the rollercoaster? It was better than this dead calm. This sense of utter helplessness, of futility. How long had Ryce been gone? It seemed like hours, yet it couldn't be any longer than two minutes…
No. He had to follow his own advice. Don't give in to despair. No matter the circumstances. No matter…
"…They have taken the bridge and the second hall." Savior murmured to himself, partly just to keep the silence filled. "We have barred the gates, but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes. Drums…drums in the deep. We cannot get out…a shadow lurks in the dark. We cannot get out…they are coming…"
Another second.
Contact Blood. Zachery. Surely they can do SOMETHING.
Another second.
Go beat down the Candide door and demand another PDEM from Pangloss. Make a slight tweak to the past, change their odds…
Another second.
Go gather an army and storm the gates of hell. It's not like you haven't done it…before…
Noel saw something. He pulled it to the forefront of the computer screen, and when he saw what was on it, he sighed so deeply and sagged back in his chair so hard it nearly fell over. Or have good faith in good people. The trend follows it.
It was another three minutes before the emergency communication beacon lit up. Noel answered it.
"Titan Tower. Report."
"Ten feet…easily ten feet." Ryce wheezed.
"Ryce?"
"Collins, when I get home, I expect a case of beer and edible body paint for me and Met waitin' on my bed and to be left alone for a week, at least, to even BEGIN to make up for this crap you've flung on me. Have it ready when I get home." Ryce said. "In case you're wonderin', this is me sayin' we're alive and I hate you."
"Oh god. I CAN'T KNOW THAT FIRST BIT." Gauntlet groaned in the background.
"…Report and request received." Savior said. "And I will note, I am very glad you remembered to bring your communicator Ryce. Would have made this awkward otherwise."
"What?"
"I knew things had gone…well, not all bad. The satellite feed. The one that was just getting interference. It cleared up." Savior said, looking at the red dots against the dim grey background. "I have you guys located. What happened?"
"Crowley…he threw a torso at me." Gauntlet said in the background.
"A TORSO?"
"Marybeth's brother. His…corpse." Gauntlet said.
"…you couldn't have done anything, Gauntlet. He was dead long before you knew what was going on. You were tasked to protect the people you were with, and you did. What happened then?"
"Well, that was something of a distraction…Crowley attacked me again. Knocked me down. Crushed my communicator in the struggle. He…drooled on me."
"…that's rather unpleasant to contemplate."
"No sher, Shitlock. Ryce popped out, but I missed that part. Fortunately, Megan picked a very good time to come back. She had another big rock, hit him, he went after her. So I rolled over to check on Ryce…"
"Dun quit y'day job, Savior." Ryce grumbled. "I have a half sister who's missin' half her cerebral cortex who could've got me here with LESS delirium…hell, I FEEL like Delirium."
"She also complained about the whole rules around her being attacked to fight back thing. I saw Crowley trying to kill Megan…got crazily inspired. Declared I was betraying the Titans and siding with Crowley, and then choked Ryce for about half a second." Rob said, his voice dull. "REALLY wish I didn't have to do that part, and not just because she hit me."
"Did it work?"
"…aye. Unexpectedly it did. Least I don't have dad breathin' down my neck right now about it like he was doin' last time. Rob, m'serious, DON'T do it again."
"Well, okay, but only if…screw it, I can't be funny right now."
"…of course. For that loophole to be closed, Crowley would have to deny Gauntlet's claim…but something like him never could. Brilliant, if not very nice. And if your dad shows up, you can bring up that he's not doing his job, what with the Übelgeist and all." Noel said. "So what happened then?"
"I ran over, got Megan out of harm's way, yelled something about changing my mind about switching sides. Crowley went for the easier target of Ryce, got a tailblade in the neck. Then she blasted him with her arm…"
"That safeguard pays for itself." Noel commented.
"And then she fried him with the dragon muck. We outta contact Guinness, Noel. She could have a claim on distance spitting."
"I…have no idea if I should be complimented or insulted." Ryce said.
"Complimented. That was a highly skilled one-two-three, Ryce. Robin or I couldn't have done it any better ourselves. Well done." Savior said. "So the body's just…lying there? Burning?"
"Yeah."
"…I hate to give you more work guys, but destroy it. Hack it to pieces, drop the phosphorus grenade on it if you have to, SCOUR IT AWAY."
"Really? REALLY?" Gauntlet complained. "I mean, yeah he bled and all but isn't he supposed to be a GHOST?"
"Übelgeist don't follow the rules, Gauntlet. Neither should you."
"I can't wait until the horror stuff goes back to questionable canon…ugh." Gauntlet said, his voice fading as he spoke.
"I say we jus' use the bloody grenade…and by we I mean someone else. Which one was Shawn again?" Ryce said.
"HEY!" Yelled the now-familiar background voice.
"Also, Noel, your owing list just go' even longer."
"I could use a shower." Megan said.
"Can't do that. I can get started on that list, though." Noel said. "You might be hearing the sound of the T-Ship you took there that I just remote-controlled flew to your location right about now. Use it to get out of the swamp. Give Jim our special antibiotics on board, his wound's probably packed with all sorts of nasty shit. Get them to a hospital, make sure they're okay."
"What do you want us to tell 'em? At the hospital."
"Tell the truth. You're superheroes…"
"THEY are. M'unbalanced sociopath who happens to like you people."
"Semantics. In either case, it's not like they'll call you liars to your face. If they have any sense, that is." Noel said. "After that, well…"
Noel called up a new screen and typed.
"I just took off the limits on Gauntlet's credit card access to our funds. No need to come right home. Go have some fun in New Orleans. Indulge. That's an order. Though, Ryce? I'd watch out for anyone who offers you beads. I don't think Met wants to have to go talk with those gods again."
"Aye, but s'cute when he gets jealous…oi. Any of you lot have a cigarette?" Ryce could be heard, calling to the group.
"Sorry, left them in my other pants, along with my patience for this stupid midnight gator haunted swamp ghost tour." Gauntlet said. "Megan, next time I suggest something stupid, don't be so polite, okay?"
"But then I'd ALWAYS be rude to you, Rob." Megan said, her tone light.
"…touché."
"T-Ship should be there in t-minus 30 seconds." Noel said.
"…Noel, you say the satellite cleared up. Which means the curse is gone, or recoiled, or somethin'." Ryce piped back up. It wasn't the response he was expecting.
"Yeah. Seems like it."
"Yeah, I hate to tell you this, but you'd tell me if the situation was reversed. You're an amateur, Noel. That teleporting stuff is tricky. The reason s'curse might be gone…well, might be because, under attack, it found somewhere else t'go."
Noel still hated rollercoasters. And it seemed like, just when this one was done, he'd been locked back in for another go.
"Final report on Crowley situation, as of now." Noel said, sitting with his back to the computer, speaking into a small microphone. "Robert, Megan, and Ryce are at the Oschner Medical Center in New Orleans. They should be okay, as will the survivors they rescued…well, Jim might lose the foot, hard to say, and Marybeth probably is going to need a psychiatrist. All of them will. I am hoping the trauma made sure they were not paying attention to the fact that Rob, Megan, and Ryce broke protocol and kept using my real name throughout the latter part of situation. Will consider bringing this up later.
"This whole situation, to me, shows why the plots of these horror films need to have a set of special rules to follow. When it shows up in what we consider real life, it just sort of…falls apart under any proper planning. To put it one way, it's far easier to be a butcher than a surgeon, and all of us have earned our PH'ds."
Noel paused, looking at the circle. He'd debated smudging it, tearing it up if needed and getting rid of the whole floor. But like Ryce had said, he was an amateur. For all he knew, that would let it out.
If it was even there. If it was, though…Noel had a feeling it would do its best to wait him out. Until he was gone. Then he'd find he was no longer alone.
Maybe.
"…Ryce's final report indicates chance that the negative energies that cursed the area may not have so much dissipated as they translocated somewhere else. I am unable to confirm or deny this possibility, and lacking the proper expertise, it is safest to assume confirmation until I get such expertise to either do likewise or otherwise. I have not cancelled my emergency call to Raven, so she will hopefully get it, sooner or later. I have also sent out vague feeders and missives to attempt to contact Blood, the Shadowpact, and possibly even Constantine…but odds are not high in getting a response back there. Chances are I have to wait for Raven. Which means I probably should not leave this room unless outside circumstances dictate it."
Noel paused again.
"Fortunately, this room is in sight of a kitchen. Less fortunately, I will have to sleep and use the facilities at some point. I am attempting to figure out a solution to this issue."
Another pause.
"It is rather bothersome that dealing with an Übelgeist requires less thinking than this." Noel said, before he turned off the mike and drank from a water bottle. Watching the circle. Always watching.
After a bit, he turned the mike on again.
"Gauntlet expressed understandable dismay at the events of tonight, wondering why such things always happen to our kind. I believe, in cases like this, it is a balancing mechanism. I do not think the world likes blights like this. That the reason we end up in so many situations like this is us being directed towards them, like some sort of immune system. Which simply goes to show the problem with an immune system if it has a mind of its own…which is sort of how autoimmune diseases function, now that I think of it."
Noel paused for a bit. His eyes never left the sigil.
"…the Tom Bombadil theory is one of others about him. Some might question that if Bombadil IS some sort of dark being, who draws evil creatures to him…and I will note that Bombadil's refusal to go past a certain point of his lands may indicate he CAN'T, like he's sealed there…why would he help Frodo and the others? What's in for him? Well, if the One Ring's destroyed…Sauron falls. The other rings become powerless. The elves and Gandalf leave Middle Earth, they have to. Magic fades from existence…possibly taking any barrier laid down to seal something up. If there was a barrier, and everyone who can do anything has to leave…after all, in the book, one of the last things we see Gandalf do is say that he's going to have a talk with Bombadil. Considering how long it's been since he was mentioned…it seems strange this would be mentioned. And Gandalf, in the end, no matter what the conversation was about, still has to leave."
Despite all the lights on in the large central room, the shadows seemed all the deeper.
"Raven and I researched Übelgeists, among other things, to try and understand those Halloween incidents. Ryce herself commented that Crowley seemed too strong to just be one. Our Halloween incidents seemed the same, when Raven and I were studying them. So we theorized. I came up with that theory of a potential something more. Like the book, Iarwain Ben-Adar. Oldest and Fatherless. Based on the theory of Bombadil. Because based ON that theory…when all the magic has faded…Bombadil will be free. He claims he was there before it all started…and perhaps, finally, his time has come…
"This whole thing…was this too simple?
"…I don't know. I guess I'm sitting here, waiting for someone to show up to prove me right or wrong. I hope it's Raven. I really do.
"…there is a shadow in the dark. They are coming. Drums in the deep."
"Rob, I really don't think we can eat crawdads for twenty-four hours straight."
"Well, that isn't what I meant, but…challenge accepted!"
The End