Rule by Grathryn
6165. If a strange house appears out of nowhere or you get a 'new mansion' from a competition you didn't enter, call the local authorities, don't investigate it yourself.
6165a. What do you mean Jones and the Z- and W- classes found one near Coventry and went inside? - Collingwood
6165b. Of course they did, at least they have supernatural abilities, nobody else does. - Glenn
6165c. Yeah, bout that mansion, Commander? It was haunted up the wazoo. Lots of nasty spooks in there, it's clear now, should stay that way as well - Zephyr
With as much supernatural and magical mess as shipgirls encountered or created on a daily basis, it should have been no surprise to anyone that sooner or later the supernatural would start actively looking for them, something that had resulted in several explosions and spooked some of the girls, so the supernatural started being subtle, it thought.
The first reports of shipgirls winning various mansions had been met with shock, and in some cases joy, at least until those mansions were found ruined. Akebono was still cursing on the shipgirl occupied forums, calling everything from her clothes to the mansion to her commander 'shitty', not that it was a surprise to anyone that knew the girl. That Shigure, Myoukou, Shiranui, Chitoise, Imuya and Goya from Japan, Iowa, Intrepid and what seemed like half the Fletchers from the States and both Ark Royal and Hood from Britain were all swearing blind that they had the same thing happen to them was enough that the joint admiralty was wary of seeing any more of those particular notices.
So, when one spring day, when Emma Davies, the shipgirl HMS Wizard found a letter in the mail box for what was affectionately called 'the Ranch' or 'the Farm', where she lived with the other girls that made up the Wilders, the young looking redhead did the sensible thing and called Commander Glenn followed by Megan Jones, the twin sister to Sally Jones, HMS Zephyr about it.
Lauren frowned as she read over the notice Emma had brought in, both her nieces, Emma, Susan Wright or HMS Minotaur and Angela Kilburn, the incarnation of Devonport itself. The notice itself was fairly standard, congratulating the recipient on winning a mansion in a competition along with pictures of the presumed mansion and an address, nothing out of the ordinary, except for the spate of similar notices being sent to shipgirls.
"You're sure this is another one of those notices, Wizard?" Lauren asked.
Emma nodded. "Yes, ma'am," she replied, fiddling with a moon shaped stress ball. "The magazine it's from is something that doesn't exist in the UK, at least not that I could find on a quick search, it has my ship name, which while not hidden, especially around here, isn't something I'd use for a competition and it's an address near Coventry, over two hundred miles north of here." She shifted slightly. "Why would I attempt to get a mansion that far away? It's not like I've got any reason to go there normally." She shrugged. "If anywhere, I would have gone for here since this is where I live, or York, where my parents live."
Taking the notice from her aunt, Megan frowned at it. "It looks pretty close to the scans from the ones that Iowa, Shigure and the others received, but that could be that it's a form notice or a standard template," she said, turning it over. "Still, I don't like that it came essentially out of nowhere." Reaching under her blouse, she gripped the medallion that allowed her to transform, feeling it heat against her hand as her eyes started to glow blue. A few moments later, she placed the notice on the desk, looked up at her aunt and nodded. "It's definitely supernatural," she said, the glow fading from her eyes, "Probably the same sort or source as the ones that have the admiralty in a kerfuffle."
Lauren nodded slowly, frowning in thought. "As much as the admirals are adamant about nobody else getting involved in one of these, we need someone that can evaluate what is going on and hopefully prevent it from happening again." She shifted her attention to her computer, tapping out a few commands on it and reading the results. "Megan, I know you're a Karas, so the most in tune with the supernatural, is Ly listening in?" she asked her niece, getting a nod. "I'm going to need you to go, but we need to know if you can."
There was the sound of air being let out of a balloon before a younger girl with light blue hair faded into existence, pulling a Cheshire Cat in bringing certain parts through out of sync with the rest. "I'm sure, Laure, that I told you and Kenny more than once that while I've been more focused on Plymouth, technically I cover represent everything in the area west of the Gloucester/Southampton line, including both Dartmoor and Exmoor." She gave an amused snort. "Even got some of the Cotswolds and New Forest in there, and with the mess the abyssals are making, I'll probably need some people under Megan to cover the areas." The yurine shrugged, reaching up to adjust her flat cap. "There's a reason why Megan could fight abyssals without taking much from me, at least the weaker ones for now, if she needs to be able to work in the Midlands, she'll be able to. Unlike certain others, I don't see a point to limiting my reach or hers with threats of this calibre around."
Lauren nodded, not bothered by the fact the yurine had appeared right in her office. "That's one thing then… Emma, you're going to have to go, if this is for you, we're going to need you there." She frowned thoughtfully. "Susan, can you and Blake act as 'caretakers' for the girls?" she asked, getting a nod from the woman. "Thank you, Megan's going to be the lead on this one once you reach the mansion, but if you can watch them outside. I also want Sally and Helen with you for backup, particularly since Sally knows a bit more about supernatural than anyone beyond her sister."
She gave her nieces a look. "Before you go, I'm opening the vault, if it is supernatural; I'd rather that you have something you can use to fight them without demolishing everything in sight." She got nods from both girls.
"So," Sally said, looking up at the five storey mansion in front of them, one with blacked out windows and iron gates. "Creepy mansion with no records in the local town hall and this spot was empty up until a few days ago, if that doesn't scream haunted, I don't know what does."
Megan nodded as she looked up at the building. "Kinda reminds me of the Luigi's Mansion game, the one on the GameCube," she commented, "what with the whole competition wins out of nowhere and mansions like that." She looked over at Helen and Emma. "Okay, so since we didn't have enough gear for all six of us to go in, initial game plan is that the four of us go in as a group and stick together as much as possible." She gave the other two destroyer girls a look. "Worst case, try to stick with the two of us and be ready for spooks to appear from any angle. Susan and Blake are going to act as control for us, but we might wind up without comms inside."
The pair nodded, quickly checking their Great War period pistols. "We sure these will work on ghosts?" Emma asked as she loaded her pistol.
"They worked on zombies, but I've no idea on ghosts," Sally replied. "Hopefully though, they have been blessed and the bullets are a mix of silver nitrate and rock salt, which are common things to off supernatural."
Megan gave her sister an arch look before turning to the Wilders. "What my sister means is they should forcibly disperse a ghost if they work, since ghosts are generally dead beings… well, killing them is kinda out of the question." She shrugged, pulling her amulet from around her neck. "The ofudas we found should forcibly exorcise some of them, and it's possible some will be things we can interact with due to us being what we are." Focusing for a moment, her amulet glowed before reforming into a Colt 1911 handgun.
Sharing a look between them, the quartet advanced towards the door.
Shoving the door shut, Megan snorted, shaking her head. "Well, we're not going in there, though how in the blue hells did they manage to link to the Tennessee Derby?"
"Creepy supernatural space bending bullshit apparently," Emma replied, blinking her eyes clear. "I mean, seriously, we get split up from Sally and Helen, wind up in a passage filled with doors that go nowhere and everywhere, and there's no way in hell that a three hundred foot long corridor fits in a thirty foot wide mansion without some serious space bending bullshit."
"Well, I suppose it's better than that funky arse sanatorium where the inmates had broken out and were apparently trying to break their skulls," Megan muttered, moving to another door and opening it, breathing a sigh of relief on finding this one led somewhere useful, namely some sort of library. "Okay, maybe now we can find something useful," she muttered, stepping into the room with Emma, only for the door to slam shut behind them and some sort of headless, horned humanoid in green underwear to jump out of the ground at them with a shriek.
Both girls snapped their pistols up, putting several rounds into the creature, dropping it just as quickly as it had appeared.
The next spirit went down just as quickly when it tried to jump scare Megan from behind.
"Well, this is getting annoying," Megan muttered, dropping the clip from her pistol and replacing it. "Anything useful amongst that lot?" she asked.
"Nothing so far, well, apart from a map," Emma replied, holding up a roll of parchment. "We should be able to co-ordinate with the others a bit better if they're in the same area at least."
Nodding as she made her way over, Megan checked her phone. While the GPS was off, they could still contact the other girls on them oddly enough.
Ignoring the insane laughter of the spirit or whatever the hell it was in front of her, Megan pushed herself back to her feet, bracing them as she felt her weight shift. In all honesty, she was exhausted, particularly given how many creepy rooms and spirits they had to clear, some of them repeatedly.
"Hah, I have succeeded! Where others failed, I have brought shipgirls to their knees before me! Where such as they belong," the voice sent claws of ice down her spine as the thing… she wasn't sure what it was apart from supernatural, continued to laugh. "Oh ho, what's this? Some little girl still thinks she can challenge me in my own domain?"
Gritting her teeth, Megan glanced at her friends, all three of whom were pinned to the ground by something before looking back at the spectre. "Think?" she asked, holding her hand out. "I don't think, arse wipe, I know," she continued, her pistol shifting back into its amulet form and leaping to her hand.
The eye opened as soon as it was in her grip, unleashing a blazing golden light, a moment later golden feathers appeared from the air, floating down to settle on Megan and transforming into blue, raven themed armour.
The creature waved a hand, sending a wave of ghosts at Megan. "Bah, a simple crow won't be any more effective than the shipgirls," it growled menacingly.
"Talk is cheap," Megan snarled in response, using her sword to slice every ghost that came at her in twain.
Disappearing for a moment, she reappeared right in front of the spectre, sword already blurring in a powerful slash to remove its arm.
Hopping away as it howled in pain, bringing down some of the ceiling, she landed and focused. Shadows burst out of her body as the area went white, a blood red moon rising and growing to full.
The shadows burst into full form, an enormous raven covering the ground with Megan at the centre just before she blitzed forwards, slashing repeatedly as she reached the spectre.
Leaping away as it howled in pain, she sheathed her blade, turning her back on the being as it burst into particles of light.
"Yeah, bout that mansion, Commander?" asked Sally, leaning against the side of the mansion. "It was haunted up the wazoo. Lots of nasty spooks in there, it's clear now, should stay that way as well."
Megan snorted softly, looking up from where she was getting checked over by Susan. "It bloody well better stay clear," she grumbled, "Took us several days' worth of time to get to that git of a spectre, much less anything else."
Sally nodded as she hung up the phone, slipping it into her pocket. "Well, the RNPs can sort the mess out now, we're to head back to Devonport and report in." She looked up at the place. "Apparently things are considered bad enough that it's an official ruling by the Joint Admiralty Board, no shipgirl or member of the navy is to go into one of these again." She shrugged and stretched. "Can't say I'm surprised, damned magnets or whatever it was, it feels like my hull's cracked in more than a few places."
Old rule of mine finally written up. Just so you're aware:
Lauren = Commander Lauren Glenn
Megan = Megan Jones
Sally = Sally Jones/HMS Zephyr
Susan = Susan Wright/HMS Minotaur
Blake = Blake Raikes/HMS Blake
Emma = Emma Davies/HMS Wizard
Helen = Helen Kerr/HMS Kempenfelt
