Log:SPZ Attack!

2014/12/11 Cheshire Felicia Forsaken Ghostfist Grimm 1

Something has drawn you (Grimm) out towards Harrisburg this late night. You were up studying when suddenly you felt a cold chill go down your spine, a familiar feeling of the presence of evil in its darkest shades. Through trial and error you were able to finally track it down to the 'Burg. And thus, you find yourself near some of the still extant ruins created by the Devastator months back.

The crumbled and collapsed remains of tenement building stand in front you, tatters of police caution tape trailing in the light wind as clouds scud across the sky obscuring then revealing the fading moon. You hear a faint boom as if something has fallen from within the structure.

Grimm scratches at the back of her head as she observes the crumbling structure, then sticks her hands in her pockets. Despite the evening chill, she's undisturbed by the cold and dressed rather casually after being woken up by a Bad Feeling (tm). Her roommate was still up playing video games and even asked her to come back with some powdered donuts and jaeger, since she was going out in the cold anyway and he wanted to stay warm.

"Freaking Adam," she mutters to herself, then sighs and steps closer to the ruins, trying to pick out any magical of supernatural auras. Her senses extend into the darkness and shadows of the building, feeling it out to see what collapsed inside. Classmates joke that she has eyes in the back of her head, but really, she doesn't need eyes to see. The darkness can't hide things from her.

You can sense a strong supernatural presence (at least as strong as you) in the building as well as an equally potent magical presence (again at least as strong as you) that is actively using Thaumaturgy as well as bursts of Necromancy. There are also three, no, now only two necromantically endowed creatures inside. You cannot sense anything in particular about the two strong presences as each is wrapped in either spiritual or thaumaturgical energy fields. The other two weaker presences are human shaped and sized but oddly fragile to the touch.

There is another dull boom from the building as you are reaching out your senses. You realize that whatever is happening is occurring down in the basement of the building.

Grimm stares down below as she makes out the supernatural shapes. She casts three shadows on the ground as if being hit by three sources of light, even though there's only the moon and a streetlight. Each shadow is moving a bit differently from each other, even though she's still standing still.

(There's a lot going on down there) O o. Grimm worries slightly at the level of power she senses. She's still acclimating to her abilities. She's never faced anything this big or powerful before without a little metahuman assistance. She begins to walk into the building, and as she does, her body darkens and becomes semi-transparent, and black shadowy feathered wings sprout from her back. Looking like some terrible fallen angel, she sinks down through the ground towards the source of the magicks below.

You emerge into a partially collapsed basement where a dark cloaked figure surrounded by whirling silver and blue disks is just incinerating what looks like an old woman from your point of view. The necromantic bolt of energy he lets loose at the elderly woman causes her to moan loudly then collapse into a pile of dust. Another elderly figure is across the room trying to help yet another elderly man dressed in shabby black clothes out from under the heavy metal door that has pinned him to the ground. The pinned gentleman is surrounded by silvery orbs that seem to be the very stuff of souls.

The very room is so suffused with the presence of evil that it is all but impossible to find its source.

The shabbily dressed old man who is pinned under the metal door shouts out in a pained voice, "Stop him, my dear! He's killing my friends!" As he shouts the very stuff of souls leaps from his eyes and strikes the masked and cowled figure.

The cowled and cloaked figure who covers his face with a porcelain mask cries out i

Grimm touches down lightly on the ground, her wings and shadow form fading away to leave plain old Gabrielle standing there. There's a lot of confusing energy she's getting off of everything, but her lips pull back as she detects the use of necromancy. How many people can say they've met a necromancer who was up to anything good? And given that he just turned an elderly woman to ash, the masked figure is the one that gets Grimm's attention first. She raises her hand and dark, swirling energy starts to surround it and build up. "You...just -destroyed- that old lady, necromancer scum!" she gives fair warning in her anger. She stretches her hand out and a dark blast of shadow streaks towards him.

The cowled figure is about to say something when your blast of darkness hits him square on. He is forced back a few meters into a wall which he hits solidly but which does not seem to harm him much. The combination, however, knocks him to the floor.

The cowled figure then shakily rises with a groan and turns his covered gaze to you. "Stay out of this! He will not escape!" he snaps as he flings a hand at you. A ghostly grey beam of light lashes from his eyes to strike at you.

Grimm grits her teeth and gets ready to fling her hand in his direction again. The light hits her stomach and she stiffens and freezes on the spot, her limbs refusing to move.

The old man trying to lift up the metal door off the pinned old man groans in what sounds like pain but manages to lift the door just enough so the pinned gentleman can perhaps wriggle free.

The old man who was pinned manages to work himself free. It seems he was partially keeping the door off himself with a cane he holds in his right hand. He rises to his feet then glares over the cowled and masked figure. "Just go down already, boy!" he says in an acid tone as he jabs his cane in that figure's direction. The silvery 'soul orbs' for lack of abetter term glow brightly as nightlights as a stream of pale silvery soul stuff shoots from the old man.

The cowled figure is hit squarely by the soul stuff and sways under the attack but does not fall. He does, however, moan in pain.

Grimm finds herself paralyzed and caught in a fight between mages. But she's not helpless. Stupid. Power hungry. Mages. The room's overwhelming evil presence makes her think she's just caught between a grudge between a necromancer and some other mage that's up to no good. And right now they're content to kill each other instead of her. So maybe she can help that along.

Grimm fails to craft a vision of the old man's dark wishes.

The old man screeches as you fail to affect his mind. "You witch! Stay out of my head!"

The cowled figure raises a hand and points it at the old man. "I will not let you escape again, Lampigiu!" The same ghostly grey light streams from his eyes towards the old man that paralyzed you.

The old man lets out a cut off growl as the ghostly grey light strikes him and sinks into body. A faint hint of decay and a cold chill follows in its wake. You realize that it did when you were attacked as well. The old man's face is a mask of raw hatred as his eyes dart about.

The other old man turns around from where he stands by Lampigiu. You can easily make out that this is not a living creature given that its feature are the withered flesh of a mummified corpse. The same ghostly silver that Lampigiu's powers uses glow from what was once a man's eye sockets and mouth. A mass of dark dried gore covers it from its slit throat down its shirtfront. It moves towards you with a slow gait, its hands moving as if to grasp you but it will not reach you yet.

Lampigiu shudders then flexes his arms wide. You can almost feel him almost casually breaking the necromantic spell that binds him. "Aleksandr," he purrs in a dark voice, "I never fall to the same trick twice. I will so /enjoy/ bringing you around to my point of view." He lashes out with his cane at the cowled figure as another burst of soul light strikes out the cowled figure.

Just before Lampigiu completes the swinging arc of his cane, the cowled figure fades from sight as silvery-blue light limns the edges of his body. The soul orbs that flashed from Lampigiu impact the wall against which the cowled figure stood then fly back to orbit the old man again. "Faugh" he grumps.

You spot the cowled figure re-materializing a handful of meters behind Lampigiu. He is used pure Thaumaturgy for that spell but no gestures or incantations.

Grimm remains frozen in place, her eyes locked on the dead thing reaching out for her. She tries to will her body into motion, to reel back, to scream curses at it, but she can do none of those.

Grimm starts to feel the warmth of life return as her limbs start to obey her commands again. Seeing the dead creature stalking closer, flickers into darkness and reappears a few meters back. Then she draws back her hand, fingers splayed and crooked like claws. Whatever it is, it isn't a man anymore. Her shadow stretches out towards the mummified thing, and as she slashes her hand, the shadow slashes with solid claws.

The large shadowy claws rip through the dried, withered zombie with a spray of dust and cracked dry skin, cutting it apart with oddly clean cuts. The zombie crumples apart and falls to the ground. One less supernatural and evil signature in the room, hopefully. Grimm is tight lipped, hoping the creature finds peace. And that it was dead when Lampigiu turned him into the living dead. "Necromancers," she spits the words as a curse.

Lampigiu looks over at you with a scowl. "Silence, mindbender. How I despise such as you. Your souls never taste sweet." He flicks his cane at you and a single soul orb flies out at you.

The soul orb strikes you squarely in the head and you feel it sinking into you. You can hear Lampigiu's voice in your head. It says 'Just stand still like a good little girl.'

You almost find yourself overwhelmed by the alien soul within you but you resist it. You felt the touch of Lamplighter's mind/soul as it grip the soul it attacked you with. He is utterly evil.

Grimm hears Lampigiu's voice in her head, and manages to not be compelled to obey. It's bad enough to be able to physically feel these necromancers. Worse to have one in her head. She forces a smirk. "And you call -me- mindbender? I think you'll find I'm so much more than that." Her powers are still new to her, but she has managed a few tricks so far. "I'm not just some pathetic mindbender." She takes a step towards Lampigiu, her countenance becoming shadowed as dark energy rises off of her. She casts more shadows than she should given the lighting, and they act and move in ways that do not match her own movement. One does. The second twitches. The third is hunched and beastly looking. "I'm the reason men fear the night. I am the Conduit of the Dark. And the darkness that dwells in your soul falls within MY domain." Her eyes cloud to solid black.

Given your other senses that Lamplighter hesitates for a moment then you hear his voice out of the darkness. "Oh child, I was here before the darkness. And your soul shines so very brightly to me even now."

Grimm thinks. o O (He...wasn't even scared. I've seen hardened criminals wet themselves when I've done that! He's seriously evil!)

The cowled figure says "Chyort!" as Lampigiu is cloaked in darkness. "And just how. Argh! Never mind!" The cowled figure sounds frustrated but not angry. He gestures with both hands in a dramatic fashion. Once again you smell a faint hint of decay and cold chill runs through the air. You see a ghostly cowled figure materialize then darts into the darkness. It was carrying what looked like a scythe.

A dark chuckle comes from the darkness. "So close, Aleksandr, but not close enough!" You can sense that Lampigiu was simply missed by the figure you could barely feel. And it felt like Death.

You feel Lampigiu turn sideways to the two of you outside the darkness. HE shakes his head as he says, "You shall both become my salve you know. Such are your fates." He does not gesture with his cane but you sense a multitude of soul orbs bursting out of him. The stolen souls fly about the room.

The cowled figure cries out again as a soul orb strikes him but remains on his feet. With a groan, Grim realizes her darkness is failing to impede Lampigiu's ability to hurt her. Them. He wants to enslave her and the cowled figure? Perhaps for now, the enemy of her enemy is her friend? She holds out her hand to the darkness surrounding Lampigiu and draws it off of him. The inky shadows move as if being sucked towards her hand, condensing and swirling before firing out in a dark blast of shadow at Lampigiu. "I've had plenty of people try to enslave me. You won't find it so easy." Endurance set to 28.

Lampigiu is knocked backwards by the dark blast of shadow his arms wheeling to keep his balance. He seems surprised then angered by this turn of events but only slightly damaged by it. His shabby clothing is rent in places by the force of the attack but he is still conscious and hale. "You witch! Not just a mindbender eh?"

The old man called Lampigiu by the cowled figure gestures with his cane at Grimm. "I hope you enjoy pain and despair as much as I do, witch." A stream of soul light shoots from the old man's hand and down the cane at Grimm.

Grimm experiences pain the likes of which she's never felt before. With an agonized cry, she crumples and falls forward, curling up on the ground as hopeless despair and pain fill her.

"No!" shouts out the cowled figure. He starts to take a step towards Lampigiu then instead fades from sight with that blue limning effect and reappears between the old man and yourself. "Just die, monster!" he shouts as that same scythe wielding figure appears, darts forward, and strikes at Lampigiu.

This time the scythe wielding and yes skeletal figure strikes true. Its scythe seems to pass effortlessly through the old man who cries out as his very body seems to age and wither from the scythe's touch. The cold chill and the faint hint of decay are stronger now.

The scythe wielding figure fades from sight as soon as it strikes by the by.

The old man called Lampigiu by the cowled figure gestures with his cane at Grimm. "I hope you enjoy pain and despair as much as I do, witch." A stream of soul light shoots from the old man's hand and down the cane at Grimm.

Grimm experiences pain the likes of which she's never felt before. With an agonized cry, she crumples and falls forward, curling up on the ground as hopeless despair and pain fill her.

"No!" shouts out the cowled figure. He starts to take a step towards Lampigiu then instead fades from sight with that blue limning effect and reappears between the old man and yourself. "Just die, monster!" he shouts as that same scythe wielding figure appears, darts forward, and strikes at Lampigiu.

This time the scythe wielding and yes skeletal figure strikes true. Its scythe seems to pass effortlessly through the old man who cries out as his very body seems to age and wither from the scythe's touch. The cold chill and the faint hint of decay are stronger now. The scythe wielding figure fades from sight as soon as it strikes by the by.

Lampigiu reaches out a hand to wall near himself as if for support as he muses, "I wonder if it is worth the trouble to take your souls. Perhaps I should just kill you." He lashes out with his cane which you notice is topped by a silver skull design. A single soul orb flies out at the cowled figure. Which misses the masked man to Lampigiu's obvious surprise.

Grimm pushes up to her feet shakily as she gets a second wind, the pain starting to fade. "You pathetic...nasty..." her fingers spread as if brandishing claws, and her shadow grows some very wicked looking talons and begins to alter to look more like a monster than a young college student. "...sick little man!" Her voice raises in anger as her shadow lashes out...at the cane.

The Shadowy claws slice through thin air by the cane as Lamplighter jerks his cane back from their arc. Grimm purses her lips and sways a little on the spot. She hasn't got much fight left in her, but she's not about to let this man steal anymore souls tonight.

The cowled figure doesn't look behind himself as Grimm changes but is surprised it seemed by the claws that lach out at Lampigiu's cane by the way his body shies slightly out of the way. He raises his hand in a familiar becoming gesture and summons back the skeletal scythe wielding figure which darts at Lampigiu again slashing with its weapon.

The chill is felt once again as is the dry scent of decay as the scythe once gain slices through Lampigiu. The old man seems prepared for it this time as he just hisses as his exposes skin shrivels a bit more.

"How many more times do you need to kill me to absolve your guilt, Aleksandr? Will it truly cleanse the blood from your soul? I think not," says the old man. "I shall hunt you down later, child. And to reap your soul, witch." As Lampigiu laughs in a mocking way, he fades from sight and from Grimm's special touch.

Grimm can sense that he still here but not in the flesh in any way. You 'feel' as he walks towards then through the wall of basement nearest him. He is pure unadulterated evil in a human shape.

Grimm bristles as she sense the evil man leave. "That way," she murmurs weakly as she points towards the wall she feels Lampigiu walk through, before she stumbles a few feet back and slumps against a wall, trying to recover from the fight.

The cowled figure nods shallowly as it takes several deep breaths. You may notice a slight trembling of the man's gloved hands as he says in a European accented RP accent, "I have no way to follow him right now." After a beat, he asks, "Are you injured?" as he continues to look at the wall you pointed at.

"...and I don't have the strength to go after him..." Grimm pants. She doesn't see the trembling so much as feel it with her shadow senses. "I'll...be fine. Just a headache now. And tired," she gulps in some air. "You?" she eventually asks, still not sure what to make of the cowled figure. But at least he's not as bad as that other guy. And she's not about to start a fight when she has no fight left in her.

The cowled figure wanders over to the reamins of the soul infused zombie that Grimm struck down. "I am fine, thank you," he murmurs in a somewhat detached tone. He waves his hands in a complicated gesture and several translucent figures appear. They are smaller than knee high and dressed in old style Eastern European clothing. He murmurs something to them in what may be Russian? German? and the figures begin to scurry about the basement gathering up human bones and remains from it. When he cast this spell, you could smell the scent of Nature as a healthy green light glowed on his hands.

The glowing blue and silver disks that are orbiting the cowled figure fade from sight at this time as well.

Grimm straightens up as she gets some of her energy back. But her head is still splitting from what Lampigiu did to her mind. "So who -was- that? And who...or what...exactly are you, Aleksandr?" She calls Harlequin by the name Lamplighter used for him.

And enter Evelyn, who has taken this opportunity to drive into Harrisburg in her late model sedan. It's not sporty, it's not super economical, it's affordable. She found herself taking turns as she studied the address on her GPS. She drove past it twice, since.. the system isn't really updated compared to how things might have changed. Finally, she pulls over to the curb and steps out of the car. She is determined to find the place she seeks... and is conveniently the tenements where the action has already taken place earlier. She's trying to find one troubled teen who's case was place on her desk this morning.

This particular tenement was heavily damaged by the attack of the Devastator over a year ago and looks abandoned now. But anyone passing by may hear some voices coming from the basement inside. Acoustics are so strange sometimes.

Walking up the steps, Evelyn finds the right apartment number and knocks respectfully, not overly loud, but not soft enough that whomever inside can simply pretend to not have noticed. She's a patient person.. at times. She -is- incredibly driven though, and it might be her history that led to her getting this case. Everyone at the office knows that her whitebread American self knows an awful lot about Japanese culture and such.

The door to the apartment creaks open under Evelyn's knock. The apartment beyond like all the apartments in this building looks abandoned.

"Konichi-wa." says Evelyn, assuming the person answering the door is Japanese. "Ms. Nakamura?" she adds.

Harlequin glances over at you fully for the first time. His porcelain mask hides his features completely save for his eyes that are behind dark lenses. He murmurs, "Aleksandr is who I once was, mam'selle, Harlequin is who I am now." He bows in a gallant manner, "And thank you for you help against Lampigiu. As to what he is? He is a monster in human form."

Grimm watches the little spirits doing helpful work, seeming thoughtful for a moment. She looks down at her shadow curiously, then looks to Harlequin. "You're welcome," she says carefully, still seeming uncertain about him. "Sorry for assaulting you earlier. So much evil concentrated in one spot...I couldn't tell which of you was the source." But now that it's gone with Lamplighter, she has a clearer picture of what happened. "He seemed like a piece of work." She restrains a shudder.

"Yes Ms. Nakamura. I was looking for.." Evelyn seems momentarily distracted. But she shakes her head, "Sorry, I was hoping you could help me find Eddie." The woman slams the door in Evelyn's face without a word and Evelyn herself just sighs, "It's gonna be one of those cases. Right." she mutters to herself before she eases her way down the stairs a bit.. trying to listen in. She heard the word -assault-... that's an important word.

Harlequin watches as the domovoi gather up the remains of eight or so people from the various parts basement. Most of them are in, well, withered fragments, but there are two who are intact. One is the intact but withered husk of a man dressed as Catholic priest and the other is the recent corpse of a late teen boy in the remains of a local street gangs outfit. Both show signs of obvious torture.

"Yes," the cowled figure grates out. "He is a piece of work." He shudders for a moment then turns and slams his fist into wall. One can hear something crack. Bone or brick one or the other.

Grimm frowns as she looks at all the body fragments, and the two whole bodies. Her finger's twitch. Her shadow is much more telling, as it seems to rage while Grimm doesn't, visibly. The two are not in sync. "Tell me about this monster," she says in a thick growl, sneering at the term monster. It seems too good a word for someone this depraved. "What did he do to these people? Why?" her voice is edged with anger, then tempered with grief.

Well, she can always explain it away easily enough. Evelyn heads down towards the basement. She's not just gonna like wander on inside but... she shrugs and leans against the wall... listening in sneaky-like.

Harlequin removes his left hand from where it rested against the wall after he hit it. He then carefully cradles it in his right hand as he grates out in terse tone, "He was, is, I have no idea any longer, professional interrogation specialist. A torturer for hire. And it appears much more. How blind was I?" This last seems to be rhetorical. "He killed them and took their souls. I could see their faces in those...orbs. I thought he was just one type of monster." In a much softer voice, "What is he?" Felicia enters from MagLev System.

Silently snorting in her head, Evelyn thinks. . o o O O (Interrogation specialist. I bet I could teach this guy a thing or two...)

Grimm shivers, and her shadow follows suit. Strike that, reverse it. Because the observent will notice that in fact, her shadow proceeds her in the motion, and her body does the following. "Torturer for hire sounds bad enough. This...," she almost spits out the word and has to restrain her anger, "...is on a whole other level." She's no stranger to being fooled or blinded. She stares at the wall Lampigiu disappeared through, but she can't find any or feel any trace of where he went. "I haven't seen much to be able to say. Except I definitely don't know what he is." She raises an eyebrow and looks to Harlequin. You and him have a past, it seems. You've killed him before? Did I hear right?" She walks over to the withered body of the undead teen, shaking her head as her shadow falls across it. What good is all this power for if she doesn't use it? "If you need help stopping this guy, I'm all in."

Harlequin moves back to where the domovoi stand vigil over the bodies. The masked man kneels down next to the remains as he says, "I thought I had. I left him to die rather than..." His voice trails off as he looks at the teenager's body. After a moment, he says in a detached, almost clinical tone, "I can probably find out who the priest and the ganger are. The others...perhaps there is identification somewhere down here."

It's the moment that stealing souls was mentioned. At that moment... Evelyn's thoughts turned dark with images of what she would want to do to such a person. Stealing the life essence is just... the worst of the worst, and so she's caught up in her own little reverie of that when Grimm picks up on the sheer malevolence in those thoughts. But.. she's still listening too.

Strangely enough there seem to ordinances in Colonial Bay, and probably most other cities that forbid the riding of mountain bikes over rooftops. In Harrisburg by contrast no such restrictions apply which may in part explain the rather unusual sight of a soaring mountain bike arcing gracefully through the evening sky to the roof of a sister structure. On impact it becomes clear that one of the other things Harrisburg lacks are building inspectors and Felicia and her bike vanish from sight to crash through the rooftop and begin a steady progress from rotten floor to rotten floor in a succession of loud crashing thumping bumps each of which carries quite well through the structure as a whole.

Grimm perks her head up and looks around as her sense tingle. "There's something...evil nearby. It's subtle--" and then a motorcycle crashes through the building. Maybe not so subtle. Then again, Grimm can't really tell where the evil is coming from. Just that it's somewhere nearby.

And then there's the crashing sound from above, which distracts Evelyn from her dark thoughts. . o o O O (What the flying crap?!) she thinks as she starts sneaking back -out- of the stairwell, upstairs.

Grimm perks her head up and looks around as her sense tingle. "There's something...evil nearby. It's subtle--" and then a mountain bike crashes through the building. Maybe not so subtle. Then again, Grimm can't really tell where the evil is coming from. Just that it's somewhere nearby.

Cheshire, who had been wandering the rooftops, watches the bike with curiosity. She flips over to the roof and peers down the resulting hole.

Harlequin's head jerks up at the sound of the crashing from above. In an instant, silver and blue orbs flash into existence around him as he all but leaps to his feet.

By pure happenstance, Felicia and her mountain bike end up in the now even more trashed lobby of the building. The hole extends up at a slight angle through the fourth story and up to the roof of the building.

The slender form of Felicia tumbles and and bounces from floor to floor gaining speed and energy. At each new floor her increased momentum punches through the next, accumulate=ing a field of shattered plaster and splintered/rotten wood until finally she lands quite firmly on the tiled floor of the building's entrance hall some twelve stories down. Amid the cloud of dust and plaster its difficult to make out much detail but the telltale sound of falling bike against flesh rises from the opening a fraction of a second later.

"First floor, baby clothes, perfume, and men's jewelry..." says Evelyn as she gets to the first floor just in time for that final crash. "I think you might have a flat tire there." she adds as she leans against a nearby support beam. She's far too well dressed, in just normal casuals... that are clean at least, than most folks who live here might be... plus, she's got an oddly impish grin on her face when she notices that the girl who just arrived seems... far less injured than most folks might be.

Cheshire drops lightly down the hole, using her parasol to slow her descent. Smiles. Curtsies. Headtilts.

Harlequin bows slightly to the domovoi and murmurs something in Russian(?) to the spirits. They, in turn, return the bow and fade from sight. As the spirits fade, Harlequin turns to Grimm, hesitates, then asks, "My apologies, mam'selle, I've forgot your name. But could you see what happened up there?" He glances at the remains. "I do not wish them to be disturbed again."

Sensing evil is afoot, but not knowing where, Grimm follows her...ears. And looks up at the basement ceiling even if she doesn't need to physically look to feel what's going on up above. "A bicycle?" she asks as she feels it out through the shadows. She just nods absently at Harlequin's request. "The name's Grimm." She doesn't feel comfortable being on a first name basis just yet. Last names will do. Her form darkens and becomes semi transparent as she turns into pure shadow, and what looks like the outline of black feathered wings sprout from her black. With a breezeless beat of her shadow wings, she floats up and through the ceiling. In the lobby, she rises up from the floor like a dark spectre.

You can see a near skeletal woman Japanese woman with long tangled hair looking down from the hole in the second floor. Her gaze is oddly intense as she takes in the scene below.

From amid the cloud of plaster and dust Felicia sits up and waves the air clean. Shaking her head small bits of rubble and plaster sprinkle lightly either side. One hand absently rises to pluck free a splinter of wood embedded between two ribs and tosses it aside. "My bike!!!" Leaping to her feet she grabs a handle bar and lifts the tangled knot of twisted metal upright. It is a bike no more. Looking up she notices company. "Oh hey..." Then Cheshire. "Hey!" and finally Grimm. "HEY!!! You guys a group or something?"

Cheshire looks between the dark spectre, the bicyclist and the social work. Curtsies and smiles again for a good measure.

"Uh.. well that's not quite what I expected." mutters Evelyn. She inclines her head.. clearly unafraid. Which is odd for a civilian. But then she lets her training kick in, and she puts on a good act of lifting hands defensively and backing away. "Uh.. well hey kid.. maybe you should back away from the black and shadowy demon thing, eh?" she asks towards Felicia.

Felicia finally notices the immobile figure gazing down from the second floor. "Is she with you?" She tosses the ruins of the bike to one side with obvious regret. "Or is she what the guidebooks call 'local colour'?" Her voice is soft with no sign that the cloud of dust or the splinter-sized hole in her ribs is causing her much in the way of inconvenience.

The dark spectre's, or angel's, wings fade out and Grimm hovers there, darkness swirling about her in strange patterns. Parasol, bike, splinters, and something wicked this way comes, stronger than the previous presence she felt. "Not a group.

Hold...that....thought...." she says in a tone of dread and distracted warning as she looks all about them. "They're coming..."

A door slams in the building and one can hear footsteps coming down the stairs from above.

Cheshire peers upward curiously.

A group of figures dressed in dusty clothing are coming down the stairs from the second floor. Probably over a half dozen of them: men, women, even a child. One man is dressed in the colors of the Harrisburg Watch. Each of them is withered and mummified looking with pale silvery light glowing in their eye sockets and mouths. Faint groans come form the ones whose throats have not been cut.

An old man's voice comes out of the tangled haired woman's mouth. "Kill them as I killed you and you may be freed." A thread of dark amusement curdles the words.

Grimm drifts down and sets her feet on the floor, still shadowing and transparent in appearance. "Not a demon. And not with those things," she points at the approaching mummified creatures. "It looks like that b****** Lampigiu attacked more people than we thought..." her eyes flit to the tangled haired woman as she seems to be controlled by the monster she's hunting.

Cheshire hmmms. Speaks without moving her lips. "Zombies? This should be exciting." She smiles.

Felicia blinks as figure after figure shambles into view. For a moment she looks visibly shake and takes a half pace backward before frowning. "Being undead is no excuse for neglecting personal hygiene." She looks from Cheshire to Evelyn to Grimm. "So they're dead dead? It's okay to hit 'em and stuff?"

Grimm nods faintly, her eyes narrowing. "Sadly, dead dead. And I don't know of any way to resurrect the dead. To top it off, they're being controlled and used by a nasty creature that looks like a man. There are eight more remains below."

As she backed away, Evelyn was all about trying to -not- draw a ton of attention to herself. But.. as tomboyish as she is, she still carries a purse. A purse with a couple of the necessities. Such as her mask, and her grapple gun. She's gonna have to do without her cape this time but.. she ducked backwards.. 'fearfully' and then stripped off her blouse, revealing the tanktop-teeshirt thing she wore today. The mask goes on over her face, with the tapered points going upwards over her head. The grapple gun belt is strapped about her waist and she stuffs the blouse into the purse and then discards the purse. That done, she slinks into view in time to see all this unfold and prepare.

Cheshire vanishes and reappears amid the zombies. She rests her parasol on her shoulder and looks them over fearlessly.

Felicia races over to the staircase to unveil a battle strategy of enormous subtlety and complexity as she clubs the nearest with a clenched fist.

Sighing, Evelyn shakes her head. "Seriously." she says, muttering softly. "Zombies are so.. fifty years ago." She flashes her hand down and it comes up with her industrial strength grapnel launcher.. and she absently reaches her other hand for the weighted end that is -fired- by the weapon. She releases the spool to uncoil and draws her left hand out... pulling a few feet of the cable from the spool. Then.. half-locking it, she moves her right hand in a lazy circle, starting to spin the weighted cable a bit at her side. "I hate zombies." she mutters, "I even hate zombie -movies-."

The body of a withered woman dressed who is dressed in a robe with naught underneath crunches underneath Felicia's attack. Her, its entire left arm breaks off completely along with part of it clavicle. The careture seems to not feel any pain from the attack and slowly reaches with its remaining arm for Felicia.

The soul powered zombie also is knocked to the ground.

Grimm frowns and disappears with the sound of an inhaled hiss, then reappears a few meters in the air, hovering. "This is why I hate necromancers. Using innocent people. Turning them into monsters. And making people feel bad about putting them to rest. Or worse, playing on people's good natures to prevent them from fighting back." She starts to become more colorful and solid as she returns to a form of flesh and blood. Her hand, however, charges up with coalescing dark energy. "Dirty trick, Lampigiu." She thrusts her hand forward and a beam of shadowy energy cascades forward. She sweeps her arm to try and catch a wave of the zombies.

The second mummified zombie gets knocked down by the onslaught of dark energy. The third is blasted back and to the right of the stairs, where it hits the walls and slides to the ground with a puff of dust. Bits of skin crack and flake off, and a few withered pieces fall away. Neither is destroyed yet.

SPZ #1 that Felecia knocked down staggers back to its feet and swings it remaining arm at her.

The moment the Zombie begins its move towards Felicia, Evelyn makes her move. She twists around and leaps into the air... the weighted end of her Grapnel line shoots forth and aims to wrap about the body of the zombie a time or two, pinning arms and such.. The plan is to grab the thing and with a twist of the grapnel, to crash it to the floor, smashing its face.

SPZ #2 is smashed down into the floor by the masked woman's actions. (Hey! Where did she come from?) But does not seem any more damaged than before as it tries to break out of the grapple line. Wow, its a lot stronge than it looks.

SPZ #2 also rises back to its feet and moves to attack Felicia as she is closest. SPZ #3 rises back to his, its feet or rather foot and limps drags itself in the direction of the heroes but is still 2m away from Felicia at the end. SPZ #5 turns clumsily on the stairs and swipes at Cheshire as does SPZ #6. SPZ #8 tries to move forward but is blcoked by SPZ# not moving as it raises a large handgun blackened by gore (Probably from its slit throat) and fires at Grimm. And let us not forget SPZ #4, who was probably once an adorable little girl before her own throat was cut, who takes a knife out of its own side and /runs/ down the stairs towards the heroes past the other SPZs.

This former man dressed in dusty work clothes reaches out with both hands and grabs Felicia about the neck. It squeezes with a terrible strength trying to choke her death.

Having her first target restrained, Evelyn says, "No you don't.." as she sees it struggling, and she yanks on the line, tightening it about the target. But then another heads for Felicia. "No!" she calls out, "Leave her alone!" for all she knows, Felicia isn't really a fighter, but she does know that Felicia looks young, and she hates when kids get hurt.

Felicia is clearly not the most agile heroine around and the zombie's withered hands latch powerfully around her throat. Her brow furrows not so much with pain as confusion but after a moment her normal cheerful expression returns.

Cheshire deftly ducks, spins and uses her parasol to deflect the clumsy attacks of the the two Zippos attacking her. She smiles.

SPZ #8, the dead man dressed in the colors of the Harrisburg Watch fires his handgun at Grimm. But misses the floating creature of darkness.

Though grappled by undead Felicia admires the balletic grace, tactical nouse, and supernatural talents of the other heroines.

And finally, SPZ #4, the dead adorable girl, swiftly runs down the stairs brandishing the knife that probably cut her own throat. She runs by Cheshire and Felicia to try to stab Evelyn.

And she probably would have hit most anyone else, but Evelyn manages to nimbly evade her slashes as evelyn continues to restrain SPZ #1.

Harlequin takes Grimm's recovery and hides it.

Cheshire folds her parasol and flips between the two Zippos she blocked and striking at their heads as she does.

Both of the SPZs who attacked Cheshire are pummeled mercilessly about the head and shoulders by the acrobatic wonder. Bits of each of withered bodies are broken off but each still seems to be active.

Felicia grabs the arms of the zombie throttling her - or attempting to - and twists her hips, using them to knock the zombie off its feet and up over and down to whack solidly against the tiled floor.

The SPZ who was trying to strangle the unstrangleable is successfully flips and lands on its back. Nothing falls off it although a small cloud of dust is raised from its clothes and skin.

Both of Grimm's hands start to swell with dark shadows as her head turns towards the undead Watch member with the gun. She takes in a deep, steadying breath. "Just remember...they're not people anymore," she has to convince herself of this. Suddenly, a large taloned hand made of shadow manifests in front of the eighth soul powered zombie and slashes towards it.

The shadow claws rip through the zombie, tearing its dried withered form mostly to shreds. But it's still moving, despite being very impaired.

Even in a city like Colonial Bay, there are places where strange things happen and no one notices. Harrisburg has a reputation that makes it sound like prime Hunting ground for Ghostfist - and for her prey. The gumshoe WAS just moving along, exploring the depths of Harrisburg's slums for signs of things that go bump in the night, when the sound of Felicia (and her bike) crashing through 12 stories of building caught her attention.

Ghostfist took off running, sprinting at preternatural speeds toward the plume of dust and the sounds of battle coming from the ruined tenement. She skids to a halt outside of the building and casts a glance around, moving slowly towards the sounds of violence coming from the lobby. With any luck there's a busted door or window through which she can enter - if not, well, the gumshoe will keep her ol' Universal Key handy.

The withered little girl pauses for a moment in her attacks on Felicia, her head tilted to one side which causes her cut throat to gape open a bit more, then turns and darts back to attack Felicia.

Which turns out to have been a poor choice as the little undead darling's attacks go very wide for some reason.

The Harrisburg Watch SPZ pushes itself up on one shattered arm to bring its gun to bear on the one who crippled it.

But apparently the loss of part of its head impedes its aiming abilities as the shot comes closer to hitting the arriving Ghostfist than the floating Grimm. *zing*

Cheshire smiles, curtsies. Waits.

SPZ #1 tries to free itself from Evelyn's grapple line. SPZs #2 staggers back to its feet and tries yet again to attack Felicia and SPZ #3 has finally pulled itself close enough to Felicia to attack as well. SPZ #5 and Spz #6 continue their dance with Cheshire while poor SPZ #8 is still trying to get past the Harrisburg Watch SPZ.

Evelyn really has this SPZ #1 all tied up. Poor guy is flopping bout like a fish on the end of a line. An undead moaning fish on a line but well.

Cheshire tries to flip the zombies as they attack her, but one is too fast for her to react to.

SPZ #5 somehow manages to evade the nimble Cheshire but SPZ #6 is grabbed and thrown down on its back. Dust rises from its body and clothes.

SPZ #5 just barely misses hitting Cheshire. This former lady buries her withered hands with the brightly painted nails into the wall instead.

These SPZs are heavily damaged which causes the first to miss Felicia. But the second does something odd. It strikes the ground beneath here and Felicia falls down into the resulting hole. The SPZ stays on this floor however.

The emaciated, stringy haired Japanese lady kneels next to the hole in the ceiling. She suddenly leans over and falls down but catches herself with her hands then lifts her feet as she begins to crawl upside down on the ceiling looking down at you all. "Really now, my children, you are behaving very badly against these invaders. I expect you to do better or none of you go free," comes out of her mouth. The voice is that of an old man.

Eyeing Ms. Nakamura, Forsaken shakes her head. "Speaking of discipline..." she remarks, pressing her fast retract button (using leaping but fun sfx), she is reeled in towards the zombie she has held. She's aiming her foot at its chest and going for broke here....

And, as she impacts, the zombie explodes into an unsanitary burst of dust and bone powder expanding outward from Forsaken's boot. That done, she turns and looks up at Ms. Nakamura.. the coil of her grapple gun whirring as it retracts into its housing. "Let the woman go, and maybe... just maybe, I won't feed you to that one's shadows.." she says, pointing at Grimm.

Ms Nakamura merely gives a hateful gap toothed grin in response.

Cheshire smiles are her current playmates and cartwheels away, passing by the one with a gun, trying to hook the gun with the handle of her parasol as she passes.

The gun-toting SPZ's rigor mortis grip proves too firm for the flipping fem to finagle as she passes.

And as things are progressing, Forsaken stutter-steps over to the hole in the floor, kinda straddling it at one edge as she peeks down briefly to see if the Bike girl is okay after her -second- tumble through floor/ceiling levels. Her hand is poised on the firing stud of her gun though... just waiting for the right moment to put things into motion.

Felicia seems to be OK down in the basement. Seems she landed on someone soft: a cowled figure wearing a porcelain mask.

Eaten by shadows indeed. But these aren't fresh bodies. They're a bit rotten. Grimm eyes Ms. Nakamura with a venomous look. It's not really her that she's eyeing. It's the person controlling her that she's glaring at. "I won't let you use these poor souls as puppets for much longer, Lampigiu," she says with resolve as she hovers in the lobby, She turns her head and casts out her hand, and a wave of darkness shoots out towards some of the soul possessed zombies.

As the dark energy rakes over the zombies, all three are splintered into withered husks of their former former selves. Chunks of torsos and heads are left. One's jaw falls off. Dried up muscle detaches and limbs drop. Most of them fall into something of a heap, but they're still barely functioning with those glowing eyes of their still staring out. One tries to start dragging itself forward by its left arm while the other limbs are too damned to move. Another sits propped up against a wall trying to push itself up with its one good leg. The last falls on its back, kicking up a wave of dust.

Ghostfist presses in tight against the wall as that bullet *SPANG*s off of the door frame beside her. She takes a few seconds to make sure that she wasn't actively targeted before she reaches behind her back to draw a big ol' Bowie knife with silver-limned cutting edges from somewhere under her long coat. The huntress narrows her eyes, peering around the corner into the room again as she takes stock of the situation, spirits lighting up in her field of view as her hazel eyes re-take the lay of the land.

Rounding the corner, Ghostfist keeps her knife held in hand as she enters the lobby proper. She keeps low, her body faintly limned by a gentle blue luminescence for the first few moments - it fades quickly - as she moves into position below Ms. Nakamura. Murmuring words that are almost certainly not English, Ghostfist raises her left hand upward where it starts to glow with that gentle blue light again.

A moment later, she drives her palm down onto the floor in front of her. Energy surges outward into the form of an arcane circle on the floor before a column of light surges upward to connect to the ceiling.

Ms Nakamura's pale brown eyes narrow in irritation for a moment as he head whips side to side. She then says loudly in the old man's coldly mocking tone, "You could learn something from this witch, Aleksandr."

Watching the glowing pillar of force envelop Ms. Nakamura, Forsaken raises a brow. Magic isn't her thing. But.. a quick glance down the hole she is straddling... and she presses the firing stud on her grapple gun... the limpet style head grappling to the floor at Felicia's side... making a handy dandy climbing rope up through the hole. She doesn't say say a word, but if Felicia looks up, she'll merely nod to her and go back to watching the zombehs!

Cushion or not Felicia has done a lot of falling in her time and pays them little mind. Pulling her knees close against her chest she attempts to kick abruptly into a kipup.

The maneuver is executed briskly and with no little skill, Felicia's sneakered feet bracing against the gritty floor of the basement with a surprising loud rasping noise as she attempts to jump back up through the whole she just came down through, grabbing onto the exposed beam of the floorboards as an impromptu handhold to swing herself up.

Felicia starts as a grapnel thunks into the floor, throwing off her timing as her knees flex and she prepares to leap. Instead she steps onto the grapnel and holds onto the cable.

And.. whirrrr! Felicia retracts the cable and offers Felicia a hand when she reaches the hole, lifting her up to place her on her feet. She looks over the young woman... still not speaking right now. When she decides Felicia is okay, she just nods.

Felicia takes Forsaken's hand and swings back onto the ground floor where she tries to assess the situation, looking for a target. "Thanks for the ride stranger." Lifting one of those eye-catching sneakers she attempts to kick the standing zombie, aiming as best she can for the pelvis.

Felicia's foot rams home at exactly the junction of hip and thigh with a satisfyingly loud crunching noise muffled slightly by a covering of undead flesh. The zombie staggers feebly back into a nearby wall where it's busted leg collapses underneath it and deposits it on its rear.

SPZ #2 moves itself away from the wall if just impacted. It begins to push/drag itself back towards the loose clustering of Ghostfist, Forsaken and Felicia. But it will not reach anyone soon. SPZ #3 takes the opportunity to try to attack Forsaken. Given that both are heavily damages and #3 is prone odds are not in their favor. SPZ #4 (Cute undead little girl with knife) hesitates briefly upon seeing its brethren rendered nearly useless by Grimm's shadow attack but continues up the stairs apparently intent on Cheshire who she will get within striking range of. SPZ #5 and #6 struggle to move up towards Cheshire as well but are too damaged to go more than a few meters and cannot reach her yet. SPZ# 7 has managed to still hold onto its gun which it levels at Grimm. It must really like that gun. And SPZ #8, who is no longer blocked by #7, takes the opportunity to attack Cheshire as well.

SPZ #1 takes the opportunity to enjoy being finally dead.

SPZ #3 comes nowhere close to hitting Forsaken but its fists do thump strongly into the floor. Were it capable it would moan but its throat was cut at some point.

Cheshire parries one SPZ with her closed parasol, then flips it open to block the other.

Cheshire gracefully blocks the attempt by the dusty old man to hits her. Then she easily turns to hold off the little undead girl with the knife. Who surprisingly stops a few meters short of Cheshire and breathes out a stream of dust at the umbrella toting heroine. Cheshire still manages to block the attack bu briefly popping open her brelly.

The Zombie with the gun fires off a shot, and it just stops three inches from Grimm, caught by her dark aura. The flattened bullet hovers for a moment, then drops down and bounces off the lobby tiles with a light clinking sound.

Ms Nakamura laughs mockingly at the failure of the SPZ to harm Grimm it seems.

Felicia says, "Felicia looks at the fallen zombie menacing Forsaken and lifts her knee, attempting to drop point first onto its spine, apparently in hopes of shattering some vertebrae."

As slender as she is Felicia uses all her weight to add force to the dropping knee which impacts with a resounding thump, smacking the crawling zombie against the tiled floor. The desiccated body quivers with the jolt of the impact and then falls still as the heroine returns to her feet.

Seeing that Felicia is handling the one up close, Forsaken nods to herself. She lifts her right hand and fires off the grapnel towards Cheshire's location. It goes... oddly, through all of the targets there and strikes the far wall. "Oh boys." she says, speaking for a rare moment for her... and then presses the retract button and launches herself at the nearest one... trying to aim to topple one or more like tenpins.

The flying Forsaken slams a foot into a zombie, knocking that one back into another. Both of them tumble to the ground, and one of them leaves half of an arm, along with a knife, on the ground... separated from them. The other... falls apart as it slams into the one that lost it's arm.

Grimm raises her hand towards the sixth and seventh zombie she attacked before, and another torrent of shadow blasts at the husks.

*TINK* *TINK*

Ghostfist raps lightly on the glittering magical barrier in front of her with the pommel of her knife. She squints up at Ms. Nakamura as she moves around the barrier a bit, trying to keep it between herself and the zombies. For whatever reason, Ghostfist doesn't seem terribly concerned - maybe it's the proliferation of living dead butt-kicking heroines in the room - as she fixes her gaze on Ms. Nakamura.

"Lampigiu, was it? You feel like explaining yourself, fallen angel?"

Shadows wash over the sixth and seventh zombie as they attempt to shamble. The torrent reduces them mostly to dust and crumbled dried pieces and bone. Grimm's expression twists angrily at having to do such dirty work. There's some solace in that she's granting the victims some form of peace.

Ms Nakamura's face twists into a hideous grimace as she spits out in the old man's voice, "To one of the clay? Hardly." She holds out a hand towards the little girl and three orbs silvery light shoot from its eyes and mouth respectively and up the hole in the ceiling.

The child totters for a moment then crumples like a puppet whose strings have been cut.

Felicia moves across to the zombie with the shattered leg who is flailing in an ungainly fashion as it thrashes across the floor of the ante-room toward her. About three paces from the undead she springs into a smooth leap, spinning over her vertical axis and twisting around the horizontal with the aim of bringing the back of her heel against the back of the undead creature's skull.

Forsaken winces as the tiny figure of the girl collapses inert to the floor and she stoops, easily snatching the body from where it fell. Intent on saving it from further depredations she aims her grapnel straight upward and retracts the line as soon as the grapnel hits pulling herself and her burden out of harm's way.

Though flashy Felicia's spinning Kick is not entirely deflected, the crawling zombie shuddering with the impact as a heel-sized crater is punched into the back of its skull but this does not put it out of action. Her lips compress. "How many times do people need to get killed before they take the hint?"

Grimm rotates slowly in the air as she surveys the damage. Her dark lined eyes drift up to to Ms. Nakamura. "A fallen angel? Is -that- what you are, Lampigiu?" she asks in irritation. She rolls her right wrist with a light crack and looks to the eighth zombie. She stretches out her fingers like someone brandishing their claws. And then her shadows stretch out like a giant clawed monster's hand, swiping at the zombie.

The shadow formed claws ravage the zombie and toss it back into the stairs. What the claws did not rend away, the stairs shatter, leaving the dusty, broken zombie inert and immobile in whatever pieces it landed in.

"The way I see it, Lampigiu, you only have two options right now," replies Ghostfist. A crooked, predatory smile spreads across her lips as she stares up toward Ms. Nakamura through the Spirit Barrier. Her fingers tighten around the hilt of Monsterbane as she regards the possessed woman like a jungle cat sizing up its prey. "You can explain or I can come in there and MAKE you explain."

Felicia's lips curl into a soft grimace as she regards her opponent. "Only one previous owner, only drove it to church on Sundays..." Then her brow furrows. "Lamp-goo? What kind of stupid name is lamp-goo? Michael, Uriel, Gabriel - *they're* angel names. "Lamp-goo sounds like the greasy crud that collects on top of light bulbs in diners."

Ms Nakamura shakes her head as all but one SPZ is destroyed. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, I suppose none of them go free then. Well, they are as weak as any other soul." She smiles widely and coldly then down at the heroes below her. "And thank you for the wonderful show. Such...interesting souls you have. I will so enjoy adding them to my collection." Those who can, feel a surge of spiritual energy fill Ms Nakamura as if something is letting go.

"God damn it," snarls Ghostfist, energy starting to congeal around her fist again. With a rebel yell, Ghostfist drives her fist into the shimmering Spirit Barrier in front of her. "DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE, YOU SICK LITTLE FEATHER DUSTER," she roars, storming through the gaping hole left in the Spirit Barrier. Monsterbane is sheathed again as she glares murderously up at Ms. Nakamura and/or the fallen angel preparing to depart the Japanese woman's body.

Ms Nakamura laughs mockingly for a long moment in that old man's voice then her expression shifts to confusion. To those who can see, Lampigiu is gone. His presence the cold malignity of what he is has fled.

Meanwhile, Ms Nakamura is falling from the ceiling to the floor.

Ghostfist looks less than pleased. She would shake a fist at Lampigiu, but he's gone before she can manage it. Instead, the huntress spreads her legs akimbo and stutter-steps around underneath the falling Ms. Nakamura as her arms come out in catching position. One almost gets the impression that Ghostfist has caught abandoned possession victims like this before.

Grimm watches as Lampigiu's essence flees. "Damn you, no!" she shouts angrily at the escaping Fallen.

It seems that Lampigiu lied. To those who can see it (ie those with Sense Spirit), orbs of light rise from each of the former SPZ with faint outlines of bodies around them. The ghosts all look damaged as if they have been gnawed upon after death but they take a moment to nod to all the heroes present before they turn in a way the mortal eye cannot follow and fade from sight.

Ms Nakamura moans in pain as Ghostfist catches her. If the woman weighs more than 60 pounds, Ghostfist would be amazed. Sadly, frighteningly, the first words out of her mouth which are uttered in Japanese is a plaintive, "Master? Where are you?" She then collapses into unconsciousness.

The last SPZ stops moving as Lampigiu flees as well.

Felicia blinks as her zombie releases a soul that floats heavenward or at least upward. As she follows it's ascent she notices that Frankie has caught the fair maiden so that's yet another tick, all the zombies are giving up the ghost so to speak, and the heroines are all intact, such as remain. Moving over to look down the hole she calls out. "So... you ok?" It would apparently be too much to expect an apology or anything.

From down in the basement comes a faint "Yes" right before a cowled and cloaked figure whose face is covered by a porcelain mask fades into sight beside the hole in the lobby. He steps back from the hole as it creaks alarmingly then mutters in European accented RP English. "The bastard escaped?"

The horrors that were committed here have polluted the spiritual atmosphere of this building. Spiritually speaking this place is now a toxic waste site.

"If you're talking about Lamp-goo I guess so." Felicia's nose wrinkles as she looks up and shrugs. "Not sure I'm at all up to speed on what's going down. I fell through a roof and suddenly there were zombies and someone with a stupid name claiming to be a fallen angel."

Ghostfist squints at Ms. Nakamura when the old woman is unconscious. The huntress may suspect as to the meaning of the words that came out of Nakamura's mouth, even if she doesn't actually understand them. Such is the power of inference from tone and body language. Her gaze immediately shades over toward Harlequin, eyes still narrowed and lips pursed in predatory dissatisfaction.

"He abandoned his pawn. Took a Way out," one can hear the way Ghostfist capitalized 'Way', "The ghosts moved on into the light once he was out of here."

There is a long pause from Ghostfist as she slowly steps out of the Spirit Barrier again, still carrying Ms. Nakamura. Her hazel eyes flicker around the room, features curling up in disgust as the background count starts to roll in in earnest. One can practically sense how badly she wants to take a shower to wash off whatever it is she's feeling.

"So other than being a crash pad, the hell you doing in the basement, boy?"

Upon closer look, Ghostfist and anyone else would realize that Ms Nakamura is not actually that old. Perhaps in her late twenties or early thirties. Just incredibly frail

Felicia nods. "And they say chivalry is dead. I appreciate you breaking my fall like that but totally not needed. I bounce back from pretty much everything." She shrugs. "Anyway, if the party is over I might head I think. I'm Felicia for anyone who missed the introduction thing." She takes up the twisted wreckage of what was formerly her bike. "You all kick butt."

The masked figure looks over at Ghostfist for a moment then nods for some reason as if to himself before he speaks. "I was fighting Lampigiu and losing. Fortunately for me, she came along." He gestures in an open handed manner to Grimm before saying to Felicia, "Harlequin."

The figure's tone has a flat affect to it as if he is exhausted in some way.

"Ghostfist," comments the huntress, glancing sidelong at Grimm. She glances down at the unconscious Nakamura in her arms before looking over at Felicia, "You were pretty badass yourself, kid. Take care of yourself." Her gaze slides back toward Harlequin, examining him thoughtfully for several moments. "You alright?"

Harlequin laughs humorlessly. "No, I've just seen a ghost from my past. It will pass. Heh." He waves a hand around as if encompassing the building as he continues, "I had best make certain to gather any other remains. It would not do to let them lie uneasy here." He twists his hands in a complicated gesture and small but strongly built figures in Eastern European outfits appear. He murmurs to them in some Estern European language and they speed off into the building. A few remain in the lobby to gently gather the bodies they litter it.

A scent of growing plants, clean earth and the musk of animals briefly gust in the room as he gestures.

Rolling her eyes, Ghostfist starts toward the door. Over her shoulder she calls, "When you're ready to talk, you can call me. I'm in the phone book." Although she doesn't sound it, Ghostfist looks impressed by something when she turns away from Harlequin.

Grimm waves to Felicia as she heads off. "You kick some mighty butt, too. And ace landing," she gives a thumbs up, seeming impressed by Felicia's grand entrance earlier.

Harlequin murmurs gently, "I know, Ms Ghostfist. Under Private Investigator." He adds after a moment. "The Harrisburg Clinic is good for emergency care. She is an addict and they can help with that as well." He then turns to kneel by the remains the domovoi are gathering.

"Good. That'll save you some time," comments Ghostfist to Harlequin. The huntress continues on her way, carrying the withered Ms. Nakamura in her arms.