Log:The Madness of David Flyte

The Madness of David Flyte 2019/09/23 Ghostfist Swarmer Grimm Porter 1



It's early evening in Old Town and all is quiet fo the inititiated. While in her office, Ghostfist senses it before things have a chance to happen. A swell of qliphothic power expanding from the library not far from the offices of Justice Investigations.

Ghostfist was, for a change of pace, closing up shop early in Justice Investigations. She had a plan for an alcoholic root beer fresh from her fridge and a hot bath before curling up to read from some of her family's diaries for the night. Really, she did.

Instead, Ghostfist finds herself locking up the converted townhouse with the proximity biometrics. She's still pulling on her Helligator Skin Coat with one hand, the other hand holding onto a briefcase that presumably conceals her compound bow. Frankie growls to herself as she sprints through the streets of Old Town toward the source of the qliophothic explosion?

The magical explosion is sensed before an actual explosion as Ghostfist arrives near the bottom of the steps fo the library.

Dark, inky, slimy tentacles burst forth from windows, cracking the window frames as they do. Lights in the area begin to flicker, and as broken glass rains down on the pavement and walkways, calls light up the police dispatch and auto-alerts ping off HeroNet.

Blok is on his way to the Library to peruse the Life Sciences/Medical section. He has just exited the MagLev when he sees the lights flickering and dark tentacles waving from the windows of the very building he was headed for.

"... Balls," growls Ghostfist as she stares up the front stairs of the library. One arm comes up to shield her face against the spray of debris and broken glass. She slowly lowers the arm as the explosion dies away into the night, its aftermath now presenting its own problems for the huntress.

Awoken from her first ever nap in a human shape, Maybri Mason feels the wrongness flowing in despite having no specific understanding about the wrongness. Just that it is wrongness. She can hear it, and it does not make sense. It sounds sticky. And oppressive. Out the window from the currently unoccupied little apartment she found, does she fly, as Swarmer, moving toward the wrongness and consulting The Swarm from a fair distance as to what is seen. By the time she arrives, she has obtained a pretty good visual from several different viewing angles. The tiny pixie gets near enough to Ghostfist and produces a megaphone, her tiny voice audible only because of that: "You there, Giant! What transpires here?"

Porter exits the Library. Yes, the Library. People still use them! Really! Because books are way more durable than qPids in the hands of preschoolers, less susceptible to viruses, don't contain potential links to inappropriate places, etc. Thus he does not exit alone, but accompanied by a large bag filled with picturebooks of princess, ponies, castles, fairies and other things not at all inspired by the ren faire.

Ghostfist's eyes widen in surprise and horror as Swarmer unleashes a megaphone upon her ears. The huntress whirls, wrenching the silver-edged blade of Monsterbane from its sheath at her hip. Narrowing her intense hazel eyes upon Swarmer, Ghostfist snarls for several moments before she slowly sheathes the blade again.

Frankie snarls in disdain before she reaches up to tie her raven hair back into a tight ponytail. She looks over at Swarmer again after she calms down and frowns ever so slightly at the pixie.

No sooner has Porter walked out, not noticing the tendrils before, another tendril bursts through the door after him, at risk of swatting him.

Porter finally notices that something is going on. Maybe? He looks up from one of the books (which he was most assuredly only reading to pre-screen!) and blinks as he notices Ghostfist and her WTFery. "Oh, hey. What's going on?"

Porter gets his question answered for him by the helpful tentacle that swats him in the back. "Ahhh! He travels a few meters over Ghostfist to land in a trashcan across the street. One recently filled with bags of expired marshmallows. He then process to climb his way out of the can and stand up. At least now he sees the Library's new appendages. "What the heck happened?!"

Ghostfist rolls her eyes at Porter's words while she turns around to face the library again. This is not how she saw this evening going. Not even in the top 50 ways she thought tonight was going to go. It takes a few seconds for Frankie's brain to spool up to speed for the nonsense in front of her.

Lifting her briefcase, Frankie thumbs a button that launches the majority of the briefcase to the ground. Her compound bow unfolds from the collapsed position it was held in and Frankie lifts her bow so that she can draw the bowstring back. Pale, light blue light ignites across the compound bow's rune-engraved surface before even the tensed bowstring ignites with mystical power.

"Were there other people in there, Porter?"

Swarmer flits over to the flying giant to ensure he has not sustained injury, and it appears he has not. She turns to face the tendril mass, calling forth a legion of bugs to sting and assault with venomous bites and generally provide a nuisance.

The tendril doesn't seem aware of the Swarm's stings.

"Take heed giants! The Swarm is unable to discourage the invasion of ick!" Swarmer informs via megaphone.

The tendril that smacked Porter is filling most of the library door. It sways slowly before smacking down on the ground and trying to inch out further. The top of the doorframe starts to crack and plaster rains down. There's still enough room to risk squeezing by. People inside are starting to scream.

"Yeah. A few. Not sure how many exactly." Porter calls in answer to Frankie's question, then adds, "Crap." He already asked her what was going on, so guess they'll just have to worry about that later. Not that complete and total ignorance of the situation has ever stopped him from trying before.

Blok sees that the tentacles are smacking people around and leaps into action, literally.

Swarmer fails to correctly direct the Swarm which ends up further not being effective upon the mass or Blok.

Even though his skin is hard enough to block the stingers, the venom seeps through and he sways, not quite losing his balance.

Porter starts running across the street to, and then past the others. "C'mon, we need to get inside and get them out!"

Beyond the door, Porter sees the double auditorium doors are the source of the tendrils waving about. The doors have cracked open, the frames busted wider. It's like they're trying to escape.

"Well this is just a good ol' fashioned cluster, isn't it?"

Ghostfist mutters to herself as she watches everyone sprint/spring into action at the front door. Her hazel eyes scan across the outside of the library's epic and aged edifice. She rolls her eyes ever so slightly as that pale, light blue light faintly limns her own body instead of merely her compound bow. Breathing slowly and deeply, Ghostfist reaches deep inside of herself and taps into the connection to Predator before she takes two blind steps backward and to the side.

Balancing on the ball of one foot, Ghostfist simply kicks upward and backward. A pulse of that faint blue light swirls where her feet had been in contact with the ground as she sails impossibly upward and backward to land on the edge of the building across the street from the library. Standing in stark defiance of gravity, Ghostfist opens her eyes as the faint, pale blue light fades from her eyes and from the fringes of her body. Lifting her bow, Ghostfist offers her trademark predatory smile as she sinks into the role she was born to play.

The tentacle outside sweeps out towards Blok. Within, the tentacles seem to ignore Porter. But then some boneless appendage stretches out from the side of one and winds its way towards Porter. A terrible, jagged-toothed maw forms and tries to latch onto Porter like a leech.

Porter is spared as those jaws get held open by the warding arrow's barrier.

Ghostfist's hazel eyes faintly blaze with pale blue light as she scans the Library. She spies the leech mouth forming in Porter's path and tightens her grip on her bowstring, forcing an arrow to coalesce from a pulse of green-blue light. With a faint shift of her weight, Ghostfist unleashes the mystical arrow and lets it fly through the midst of THE SWAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMM and past untold tentacles to explode into a block of mystical force that lodges itself inside of the toothy maw lunging toward Porter.

Blok shoves his way through the main Library door, and sees the tentacles trying to escape from the Auditorium. Not seeing anyone in immediate danger (aside from Porter), he grabs at one of the tentacles and squeezes.

The tendril gets squeezes. There are no bones, and the thing is slippery, but a screeching sound of scraping metal and gutteral sounds issues out from somewhere in the auditorium.

Swarmer argues with the swarm a while internally, causing it to stand down but still not do what she is trying to get it to do right now! She flits inside the place on her own in a huff.

Once inside, Swarmer manages to get 7m within the stage, where a bookish middle aged man in a tweed jacket stands. He's smiling like a madman.

At the foot of the stage, kneeling within a red glowing arcane circle, Grimm is held by chains of energy that are connected to the glowing elditch script. Between her and the man, a growing black portal is growing, and another tentacle slides through. Somewhere in the depths of that portal, a terrible abyssal maw yawns.

"Release that giant immediately and cease your sorcerous summons to the realm of ick!" Swarmer shouts into the megaphone.

The madman on stage is holding an old book, reading from it in some gutteral language.

The man glances up from his reading and halts a moment. "Hah. Hahah. HAHAHAhahahah!" He goes back to reading more feverishly. His skin looks slick and clammy.

Porter hears tiny minimegaphoned yelling inside and walks into the auditorium. Sees the man. Blinks. Sees the portal. Blink. Sees Grimm. Blinks. "Crap!" His reflexive reaction is to try and get to the one in need (don't call her a damsel in distress!)... despite the last time or two he did that, she may have eviscerated him.

Up close now that Porter BLINKFLASHes next to Grimm, he can see Grimm's whole body is tensed. Her teeth are grit and her nose is bleeding. She manages to get out a strangled warning. "Stop...him...reading..."

Ghostfist allows herself a pleased smile as she watches the other heroes disappear entirely from her narrow frame of view. They seem to have moved on toward the deeper portions of the building and the source of the incursion. She lowers her bow and breathes in deeply again, straightening herself out before she crouches "down" against the building. A moment later, Frankie Ghostfist sails out into the open air to cross the street and over to the library rooftop.

Landing on her tip toes, Ghostfist takes two long strides before she tucks and rolls across the rooftop to kill her momentum. Coming to her knees, Ghostfist draws in a deep breath and resolves to improve her acrobatic skills this year. This is getting a little ridiculous now.

Swarmer lands a mass of bugs from the sixty-fifth legion upon the elderly man to distract and sting him a large number of times while at the same time interfering severely with his ability to read through a swarm of stinging insects!

The man starts to swat at his cheek and his hands as bugs fly everywhere, his reading interrupted. Grimm winces and shuts her eyes tight, trying to curl up as best she can while restrained.

The tentacles start to withdraw from the outer library to deal with the nuisances in the auditorium. Three tentacles wave about. Two whip at Swarmer. Another tries to grab Porter.

The fourth tendril tries tugging back in, but is stuck in place.

The insect swarm subsides as Swarmer is hit pretty hard by the tendril, but does not get forced to fly anywhere!

With the doors open, Blok can see Grimm, but doesn't hear her words. And then she and everything else is engulfed in a swarm of bugs.

Blok walks into the auditorium and makes his way around the swarm toward the stage.

David Flyte tries to swat at the swarm with his book, to no avail. "No! No, my Dark Master is so close to consuming this miserable world!" Calling upon this Dark Master, that terrible maw starts drawing closer to the portal. It lets out an ear shattering shriek that works its way into the minds of those who can hear it.

Swarmer falls to the floor, knocked senseless.

Porter nods to Grimm, and isn't about to argue with her assessment. Not even while she's chained up and can't hit him. He knows better. So, fighting his first intincts to free her, he instead focuses on the man and his book. Porter knows all too well how dangerous rading from BOOKS can be. But at least he's smart enough not to try with all those ditracting bugs, or worse, ginormous tentacles lashing around...

A whipping tentacle smacks the book clear out of Flyte's hands, sending it flying across the stage.

Scrambling to her feet, Ghostfist looms in the frame of the skylight so that she can watch the goings on so many meters below her. Things certainly seem to be coming to a head now. Particularly with Porter knocking the grimoire or other mystical tome free of the mystery magician's grip.

Frankie draws her rune-carved compound bow again, holding it steady with one hand while her other hand tests the skylight for fastness. Is it locked? Ghostfist works swiftly to pop the skylight open so that she can lean into frame and draw her bowstring taut. Another arrow materializes between the risers of the bow while her fingers keep it knocked as the pulse black and violet mystical energy subsides.

With a slow, steady exhalation, Ghostfist releases the Exorcistic Arrow at the spellbook in hopes of ruining the tome of eldritch secrets and arcane power. As if that's going to help interrupt the ritual that's already in motion.

Ghostfist releases her arrow from her grasp. It whistles sharply through the air, sizzling past the THE SWAAAAARRRRRRRMMMMM and tentacles and even a portal full of world-ending godhunger before it embeds itself in the book as it spins and slides across the stage. All motion is ended in the split second of impact where the arrow is as truly real as the book itself.

Violet electricity starts to surge over the book while black flames sizzle into existence. The nimbus of corruscating magical force fades away, leaving behind very real flames that turn the book into a pile of worthless ash within seconds.

"Nooo! The book!" Flyte wails.

The reaction from the tentacles is immediate. The creature beyond starts drawing back, and with a terrible screeching, the tentacles thrash about wildly at anyone in the room. Chairs, stage, pixies, Grimmlies, Flytes, and heroes.

Flyte is slammed across the stage, landing somewhere backstage and down some steps, breaking a few bones most likely.

Swarmer lies unmoving as she skitters into a rubble pile near where she was.

Grimm is struck by one of the tendrils hard enough to knock her out. She slumps to the ground, kept from skidding away too far by the mystic chains. But once she's out, the portal starts to contract.

Porter would've preferred to protect Grimm, but is swatted and knocked away from her. Since he wasn't chained up.

After a few seconds of wild thrashing and thwarted hellscreams from the creature, the portal snaps shut. On tendrils. The appendages are severed and collapse to the ground, suddenly turning into black, smoking goo.

For a pixie, Swarmer's injuries are surprisingly superficial. Bumps and bruises, but nothing that would require time to mend. She rapidly comes to her senses with minimal application of Blok's touch, making chiming sounds.

Ghostfist comes walking down the ceiling and walls of the auditorium. She eventually leaps down to the stage proper and crouches over Gabrielle's prone form, pursing her lips slightly as she regards her younger friend. Nodding to Blok, Ghostfist traces a path around the ritual space in comparative silence.

After a few circles around the ritual space, Ghostfist draws Monsterbane from its sheath again. Quickly and efficiently, Ghostfist cuts into the runes and sigils underpinning the chains which bind Gabrielle Grimm. Within seconds of Ghostfist standing up again, the chains explode outward in a spray of semi-insubstantial mystical "stuff" that fades over the course of time. Sheathing her Bowie knife again, Ghostfist turns toward Grimm and cocks an eyebrow.

"You alive over there, Gabrielle?"

Flyte wakes up in pain, but alive.

The circle itself begins to fade once Frankie's work is done. Stung, beaten, and drained of her powers, Gabrielle mutters weakly, "...I wanna go back to the Bahamas..."

Blok gives first aid to Flyte

Swarmer flits over to where Gabrielle is, flitting around her general location. "Is this bahamas a location within the city? The Swarm can bring you to it I am not familiar with it!" she speaks via megaphone.

Flyte howls as Blok tries to set bones or lend aid. "My spleen!"

"Yeah, yeah. You've got a hot boyfriend and a private beach bungalo," replies Frankie to Grimm, "We get it. You're super lucky."

While Blok finally gets around to performing first-aid on Flyte, Ghostfist makes her way over toward her former apprentice. She pauses as Swarmer starts speaking through the megaphone again. Both of her hands come up so that she can cover her ears against the megaphonening.

Grimm reaches up and grabs Frankie's helligator coat lapel. "Take me to the nut house. They finally got to me." She blinks up at Frankie and looks away guiltily at the boyfriend comment and private bungalo. "Er, no, no, I just went with a friend..."

"As you wish!" Swarmer declares, focusing on the Swarm again but ending up getting into another mental argument with the force that has no specific voice. Bugs kind of hang around in the area doing nothing effective.

"Just relax, Pixie," grunts Ghostfist to Swarmer. She stoops over and collects Grimm from the stage floor. Assuming that Grimm doesn't protest too much, Frankie sort of slings the Duchess of Darkness across her shoulders in a fireman's carry.

"I'll take her to the hospital to recover. You guys got this mess and the cops?"

Frankie looks around at Blok and Swarmer and... Wasn't there someone else? Ghostfist looks a little puzzled for a moment before mentally shrugging it off. As long as Porter isn't here to get them all arrested by accident.

Grimm tries to protest feebly, but she thinks the pixie with the minimegaphone is a delusion, so she surrenders to Frankie.

Porter is buried somewhere under goo, knowing his luck.

Next: Log:Faire Firsts