2013.09.27 - The One You Don't See Coming

The cold in Gotham starts early. It's been hanging around at various extremes for over a month now. The wind is chill in a way that goes right through one's body this evening. The colors of the trees as their leaves turn to those of autumn are bright and beautiful in most places, but much like at the forest preserve in Manchester, there are some sections where the trees have lost their leafy coats completely. These areas are where more bodies have been found. Human and animal, the killings are no longer isolated along the river west of the preserve nor in the preserve itself. A woman named Rain actually saw the thing responsible, and was chased by it.

Though it could not complete the hunt, it knows the smell of her magic. And now, an invisible monster roams the woods of North Gotham, trying to find that scent again. The trail of bodies is fairly simple to follow. People are aware of the numerous deaths -- even more than are regularly reported in this city of crime. So many each day, all by the same array of methdos: claw and tooth and blade and acid and more. Many on the police force are at this point assuming this is either some gang of depraved murderers who are killing their way across the land without any real long-term plan, or something out of their jurisdiction (read: paranormal). Some think it might be some kind of lab experiment gone awry. A mutation from a result of pollution. Something like that. It would make more sense than something superstitious like MAGIC. Oh-hohoho. It is to laugh.

A police car heading down one of the less well-travelled roads into the forest, mountains, hills, and other wilderness around richy-rich land -- within a few miles of Wayne Manor though not necessarily within proximity to it -- is going to check out a noise disturbance. Someone reported escaped zoo animals out here. Wolves, tigers, and so on. Animal control has not been called yet incase this is a prank call or something.

In the dark of the night, the headlights of the car sweep the road as the officer at the wheel takes the turns and looks around -- listening for any of the howls and roars that were purportedly heard.

The lights fall over something large that seems to form out of the darkness. Something with a mish-mash of a hundred different animal traits, human faces, arms, legs, mouths, horns, claws, antlers, and more. The officer yells out a swear word and spins the wheel while slamming on the brakes.

The nightmare lifts one of its appendages, seemingly a series of bear paws overlapping and linking together into an arm composed entirely of multiple grizzly bear limbs. It slams its paw into the vehicle and sends it flying through the air, and into the forest. It's bigger than it was when it hunted Rain. Bigger, and meaner, and with even more traits available to it.

It lets out a chorus of howls and roars and screams and screeches that echoes for miles.

Of course he's heard about the maulings and deaths. It's hard not to hear, even for someone with his heightened senses. However, until now, The Vision has had zero luck in tracking down any kind of lead. He knows no real details, is completely unable to tell rumor from fact, and has limited knowledge of the paranormal and supernatural. Limited, here meaning absolutely zero.

But now... Now there's reports of what appears to be an entire zoo on the loose, and it's no conincidence that Vision was hovering just behind the police car, following it to it's destination. When the nightmare creature sent the vehicle hurtling into the forest, the Synthezoid dives. Reaching out, he only just manages to grab hold of the rear bumper slowing it's decent until, with an almighty wrenching, the bumper comes loose and the car resumes it's plummet. Again the Vision acts, and again he's only just in time, phasing straight through the car so he can turn, regain his tangibility, and catch the front in outstretched arms, once again slowing the vehicle. It's not enough to gently set the car down, but as the front slams into the ground and buries the android in the earth, the airbags activate and the Vision quickly phases back up to the surface where he yanks the driver's side door free from it's hinges and bends down.

"Are you okay, Officers?"

Rain just had to be magically delicious. It's not that she's the strongest magic user in Gotham. Just the one it bumped into. Or that she's probably easier to catch. Like that antelope in the nature documentaries who is chillin'. Then WHAM, lions! Freaking lions.

Still. Rain works during the day. The nights however, are entirely her own. She's decided to check out these rumors and killings. When did she become an occult detective? Still, Rain loves animals and does seem to give a flying rat's patoot what happens here. She will take her broomstick to the zoo, carefully landing somewhere safe and not so visible. Though, is anywhere really safe? She feels sick, deep within. And uneasy.

Rain is so magically delicious, a roaming portal tries to eat her the second she lands.

Not quite. The purple-white spatial tear does appear very close to the witch, but it definitely does not try to eat her. Menace her a bit, maybe. The shape of a familiar girl with black and purple hair and a beat-up leather jacket slips through.

"--oh, hey! Dude, I landed pretty close." Amy takes a step back to give Rain some personal space. The portal swallows itself. "Soooo. I'm Amy. We met when Constantine got eaten by demons?"

This situation was spreading. And, quite frankly, the police response was incredibly... lack luster. Some reports, some grumbling, some circulated memos about planning and, of course, the assumption that because it was supernatural, someone else would take care of it. That was dangerously irresponsible to think... even if, in this case like this, it was technically correct. The fact that this was spreading from a contained perserve into North GOtham (and human habitation), meant that something had to be done before it became too large of a threat. And SHIELD didn't beleive in letting things devolve to the point where you needed costumed vigilantes to handle it.

The loud screech that can be heard for miles was reported in, and, miles away, in a station underground, an operator viewed the three screens in front of them, intently. There was a pause, a move, a zoom, the detection of a local police car... and then something. SOmething that wasn't right. <<QRF, this is Base. We have possible phenomenon. Transmitting position to you for obervation.

And, in a wooded area a few miles away, there's a few switches that are flicked, a helicopter with the livery of a Gotham news station (even the correct tail numbers, slowly ascends past the tree tops, and keeps just a few scant feet above them, as it heads toward the group within high speed. The sound of it would probably be apparant in just a minute or two to anyone near by.

People who look kind of like ghosts showing up and catching police cars is a bit out of the range of experience for Officer Donahue and his patrol partner, Officer Wachowski. When they dizzily pull themselves out of the airbags and see the android they are understandably startled looking out the side of the car that is now missing a door. "Uhh... Yeah." Donahue replies to the question. "...I think." The screaming roars of the monster back on the street are close enough to be heard plainly, and the heavy impacts of a multitude of feet thundering down the embankment towards the car is just as plain. It's half-way to the car before Donahue is even done answering, and the creature -- like a one-monster stampede -- has numerous eyes wide and staring, catching the light of the police car and glowing in that creepy way one usually only sees animals eyes in photographs and night vision video cameras. Then it just starts to dissolve and fly off in every direction like sand in zero gravity. By the time it reaches the car it passes right through as intangibly as the Vision was moments prior. After covering another several yards, it's gone completely. Invisible and intangible? Teleported? Something else? It's unclear.

But the trail of prints it was leaving, some of them not even prints so much as the impacts of body parts having incidental contact with the ground, also disappear. But there's an energy residue invisible to the human eye and most other forms of detection that may be apparent to Vision. Not on a range he'd normally see much on, and what he sees now is spotty. But it's still glaring, bright red (or weird-spectrum equivalent), and shows everywhere the monster has touched and is touching. A blob of energy is heading away rapidly. A shifting, hideous, unnatural blob that seems to be going south/south-west at a fair clip, just passing through the trees and any other terrain in its path.

The officers seem to be okay for now. But that monster isn't stopping.

Infact, a collection of new protrusions of energy suddenly start forming on its 'back' -- if the thing without an identifiable head, torso, or other body segment even has such -- and shifting, and extending outwards. Moments later, the roars and howls can be heard again as the energy blob turns back into a solid creature. This one with a wide variety of WINGS. Despite its body shape indicating it shouldn't be able to fly, it smashes through several trees and takes off into the air. The scope of the thing is still unclear to those who can't see in the dark. But it's big, and it is now airborne, and the fact it seems to be about the size of an 18-wheel truck means that the helicopter, not to mention the Vision, may both be able to make it out as the ginormous nightmare creature thrashes its way higher and higher, seeming to stay aloft with difficulty due to whipping of its body every which way, as though its various component parts can't agree on what direction to go.

If one can find the noisy, ugly monster with lights, one can track it fairly easily. And finding it is really only a matter of listening to the sounds of hundreds of animals and people crying out together in shared, bestial emotion.

Or being magical and able to detect something clearly supernatural and in the possession of the combined life force of hundreds of beings headed right towards Amusement Mile, and the zoo therein.

Even if one can't sense that, the animals at the zoo can smell it on the air. A tiger looks up in mild disinterest when Rain lands, and some monkeys wake up and start hollering when Amy appears from a portal, but when the powerful scent of all those beasts is carried on the wind, suddenly it seems like the entire zoo goes nuts. All the animals start making whatever noise they can, rattling their cages, running around, and while some may be making threat gestures to the north, many are simply trying to escape in whatever direction they can EXCEPT the north -- even though they actually can't escape at all.

The Vision is already turning his head to look back with very little emotion towards the oncoming storm of raw animalistic rage when Officer Donahue begins his answer. By the time the creature is almost on them, he reaches both arms into the car and bodily pulls the cops from their car, tossing them lightly away from what is sure to be a trampled vehicle.

Only it's not...

Once again, displaying a complete lack of surprise, Vision turns towards the spot where the creature disappeared, sensors already cycling until they pick up on the faint readings. "Curious..." He turns towards Donahue and Wachowski, stating quite simply, "There appears to be some sort of supernatural creature in the area. I advise you to seek refuge." One arm points in the direction directly opposite the trail of red, "That way, preferably." Then, without warning, he takes off, speeding off through the air in pursuit of the creature. When it finally comes back into view, now visible again, and has suddenly gained wings, the android gains altitude angling to reach a point several feet above the monstrosity. Without anyway of stopping it -- yet, he simply waits and watches, prepared to rescue anyone else that might get in the way.

One can't really blame the cops too much. Supernatural stuff tends to be irritatingly bulletproof. And hard to track with normal technology. Rain's uncertain what she thinks of that. It seems unfair in a way. But then, the relationship between predator and prey is unfair. There was a time when people weren't the top of the food chain. It's buried long, in phobias and fears. In fight or flight. There's no time to muse, not at that sound. The hairs on the back of Rain's neck stand up. Then suddenly, PURPLE PORTAL. She's somewhat relieved when Prince doesn't step out.

She does jerk, though, startled. But she smiles. "Hi there. Um, it's cool. Portals are kinda tough. I remember, Amy. I'm Rain," She nods. She remembers, it seems. There's a look and aura of worry from Rain. She seems saddened for the animals. "I think I should - move away from them. They don't - deserve to feel this afraid," She remarks, motioning to the animals. "But I don't know where I'll go." All of the paths end the same. Something, someone. Whatever is coming. She seems troubled. Regardless, Rain is going to move away from the animals, perhaps trying to spare them whatever is coming. North perhaps, then, it is. "I hope you're doing well. Though, this is - sort of a bad time." She seems apologetic, in her awkward way. Right then.

Amy frowns, pausing when the animals begin to go crazy. Honestly crazy, not just spooked by the flash of light. When it fails to stop after several seconds, she raises a hand to her mouth and gives Rain a questioning look. She gamely gives the animals some more time to quiet down before lowering her hand and leaning forward to make sure she's heard.

"I'm cool, yeah. What's with the animals? Is it about the 'bad time' thing? Can I help?"

The two did perform some mildly complex divination together, once. That's the best way for witches to bond, aside from ruining crops and being burned alive.

The helicopter itself follows the creature... and then slows to a hover as it suddenly disappears. <> There's a break in the communication. <> There's another pause, as the person in front of the screens quickly zooms out, pans.... and then centers once more. <>

The helicopter changes it's position again, possibly the only thing capable of responding in such a way. And it might even be faster! Though that might be wishing too much. If it /can, though, the Helicopter moves to try and approch the beast, to come along side it, and to bring the built in search light up to illuminate it's skin.

The writhing chain of bodies and body parts continues screaming and bleating and growling, making no action against the Vision. Maybe it doesn't even know he's there yet. He probably doesn't smell like an animal. That might, in a way, make him less detectable. There's probably some way that can be used to his advantage.

As the helicopter gets close enough to shine a spotlight on it, those in the helicopter would see just how big and gross this thing is. Faces -- or partial ones -- from deer, mountain lions, bears, dogs, cats, rats, eagles, crows, ravens, bats, ants, bees, spiders, crayfish, lizards, toads, snakes, AND humans, as well as their various accessory parts, like horns, antlers, large ears, a multitude of eyes, mouths everywhere, many of them full of a mix of different fangs and teeth and tongues... It's nothing natural, obviously. The mix of hundreds of wings from flies and yellow jackets to bats, eagles, and humming birds all beat out of synch with each other. Limbs, flail everywhere.

And if the helicopter gets too cloe, the displeased monster getting light shown in its eyes starts squirting out a corrosive toxin from said eyes like one of those creepy lizards crossed with a poison arrow frog and a brown recluse. It probably won't be too harmful to the helicopter itself -- at least not immediately -- but that's not something people want to get hit by, that's for certain.

And if it gets closer than that, the helicopter may find an arm made entirely out of antlers -- with stag heads still attached and bleating in terror -- striking out at it. Mostly, however, it seems to be heading on a fairly fixed path towards the bay to the south. Is it trying to escape!?

Meanwhile, the tigers start trying to leap out of their pit, going so far as to scramble over each other in their insistence upon leaving, using the backs of other tigers as platforms. One of them actually manages to make it out and start fleeing across the zoo grounds... Right towards Rain and Amy.

...And then past them unless they do something to stop it. It spares not a glance for them unless they make a sudden movement, and even then it does nothing more than flatten its ears even more and skirt around them like a frightened house cat.

The creature is getting closer.

Vision finally shows some kind of emotion as the copter comes into sight. For now, he's flying well above them and the creature, but that clearly won't be the case for long. Wherever the monster is going, it's all too clear that he can't just wait and watch forever. He must act if he's going to save more lives. A few scenarios are played out to fruition in his mind, the pros and cons of each one are weighed, and slight adjusts in his flight plan are made so as to properly inact the chosen path... All within the span of a few seconds. Quite suddenly, the Vision's forehead lens charges and fires an intense, searing beam of solar energy that's directed right for the creature's face... faces. Creepy. For now he keeps it light, only about 5,000 degrees celsius, or in other words, the temperature of the Earth's core. At the same time, he angles himself to divebomb the creature gaining density until he weighs about 100 tons.

As he falls, he scans and monitors the helicopters frequencies until he's able to break their encryption and patch himself in, offering a fairly stoic warning: "I would advise you to clear the creature's immediate vicinity for the next few seconds."

Rain looks to Amy. "Something is coming. I think for me. I suspect it's what's been killing animals and people," She remarks. "I don't know, really," She admits. "It vanished last time," She looks up towards north. "I'm going to try to walk away from the animals a bit, so if it is after me, there's less for it to grab." She smiles weakly. "Sorry, critters." She waves to them. Rain looks to Amy. "You're welcome to stay around, but to be honest, this thing is pretty nasty," She remarks. Rain has an almost British talent for understatement.

Then suddenly, TIGER! Rain freezes. "Nice kitty. Good kitty. Do you have a sleep spell?" Should - probably make sure that little guy is put back. "I'd rather that than turn him into the newt." She looks towards the North again. She's taking a few steps that way, perhaps preparing herself. "I think we're - gonna have to fight the world's meanest chimera." She explains. She's hoping to deal humanely with the tiger, before her path takes her again towards the dread north.

Except, she totally stays still for now because if she gets eaten by a tiger, being eaten by the other thing is no longer an issue.

"These guys are getting pretty crazy. I think--"

Amy shuts up when a tiger comes barreling at them. Sure, she's fought dragons and demons and winged tigers, actually, but a real tiger in a real zoo throws her off. She steps to interpose herself between Rain and the tiger, hands raised and fingers splayed.

But she does nothing. The tiger makes a show of going around them before it gets into striking distance, and so Amy merely watches until Rain proposes a sleep spell. "What? Oh. Yeah, should probably put him back."

The black-haired teen gestures toward the retreating feline. It gets about two steps further before collapsing, which actually isn't a very strange thing for a cat to do. Amy moves her hands and the tiger moves with them, lifted invisibly upward and back toward its pit.

"Chimera? Um. I think I can do chimeras. Does it have any special moves? I can get us out of here, fast."

The helicopter gets close enough to observe, of course... close enough that it might get both of those dangerous barrels get fired at it, an arm puncturing into the metal, antlers mere centimeters away from it's occupants, acid spraying and eating way at the door, as it quickly moves away from it, occupants quickly moving away from the open space. <> The OIC radios on the comms, as the helicopter keeps a distance away, still illuminating it with a search light...

As it gets hit with something far brighter, and another target is seen... and head. <> The connectiong that Vision would have had is suddenly severed, but for one voice. <>

The beam from the Vision sears a large hole through the chimera, leaving behind charred edges and the pungent smell of cooking meat. And lots and lots and lots of screams as the creature goes BERSERK and falls from the sky almost immediately. Before it can even hit the trees, it wisps around like mist, turning transparent, and then vanishing completely. The entire area is saturated with that glowing energy now, concealing the chimera's location. And as it is now invisible and intangible once more, it is likely hiding due to the huge injury it just suffered. It's a beast of some kind, even if it's a monster. It is responding on instinct, not thought. It is seriously hurt... And it needs time to find new prey to replace the pieces it has lost this night.

At the zoo, the powerful sensation of numerous life forces welded together suddenly fades and then vanishes around the same time a bright beam of light can be seen in the forest to the north, only about half a mile from the shore of the bay. The screams that accompany the light and vanishing can be heard clearly even from all the way in Amusement Mile. It will take a bit longer for the animals to calm down, but even they seem to realize that the immediate danger has passed.

As Vision puts a hole straight through the creature with his solar beam, he blinks, clearly surprised. His divebomb ceases as soon as the monster fades into invisibility again, and he takes to hovering right next to the Chopper. <> He glances inside the cockpit for a moment, before he breaks out in the most awkward and ill-practiced smile ever. <>

Huh. The dread feeling is gone. Rain blinks. She closes her eyes. "I wonder what that means. It seems to run away and go invisible a lot," She remarks quietly. But on the bright side, Martin should TOTALLY believe her now. She looks to Amy. "Thanks. And um, it eats things. I think it takes more than their body. It was like, a lot of animals welded together. And maybe people. Like uh, that guy who welds things to other things." Something about dogs and welding? She's not sure. "It's vicious and it goes invisible. That's most of what I know," She admits. She seems glad the animals are settling down, at least. Though, worried. If it takes parts of animals and people, does that mean more will die? Where did it go? She seems uncertain. "Most of what I know - I found it when I went into part of the forest reserve and- it left this weird glowy fungus all around. That's about it. Not even really super glowy. I suspect since it's - gone, there's not much to do here." She seems less distracted. Though, still worried and apologetic.

And it seems the the helicopter won't have much to do in this little contest, as the big guns that they requested come from the skin, causing the target they were following to cry out in the voice of a thousand dying animals, then completely disappears from scope, as radio chatter from the monitor person idicates he can't see it too. And there's some more intelligence from the hovering creatue next to the chopper; from his position, he can see the door open slightly, before he moves around to the cockpit. The glass is tinted, just enough to give him a view of a masked pilot staring at him through military grade night vision that shouldn't be avalible to a news chopper it's dressed at. He looks back slightly, before the voice returns. <>

And with that, the helicopter continues on, the search light active again. This time, it's panning ovver they pay, looking for anything out of the ordinary that the creature might have been after... And it probably isn't going to find the Witchy Duo. Or recognize who they are, at least, so long as they don't start throwing magic flares.

Amy plants her hands on her hips and impassively watches the light show off in the distance.

"An evil katamari," she says, slowly nodding her head as Rain paints a word picture of the beast.

The teen waves a hand through the air, trailing sparkles as she slices a hole into space itself with her arcane might. "Here, you jump in first. We'd better go check that fungus out. Being a superhero is a lot like Scooby Doo, I've found, but I think we missed out on the chase sequence. After hours zoo would have been a good one, too, right?"

After Rain, Amy leaps into the portal. It closes behind her afterward, leaving the zoo dark once more.

Vision simply watches the chopper take off, his bizzare smile fading back into an emotionless line. "Curious... Perhaps the left side was a bit too high that time. I will need to adjust. Perhaps I should lower the intensity by thirteen percent, as well..." And so the Vision hovers and ponders the intricacies of smiling for nearly an hour before he drifts off to go practice on an alley cat...