2015.03.13 - A Vengful Ghost

The sun is shining but slowly sets in one of New York's busier districts. Metropolis,that shining center of the island with its tall buildings and its great sky scrapers. With talk of vampires, Bacon is with his sister looking about for the fanged creatures, when there is a faint frost to the air. The kind of frost that the two of them know quite well. "Crap..." James mutters and the hairs on the back of his neck stand up,"This one feels familiar sis...."

It's a hunt, Pure and simple. She feels the temperature drop and her own senses pick up. Victoria, whips around and walks backwards, keeping a shotgun loaded with rock salt locked and loaded. "It does, doesn't it. You dont think... Mom and dad?" She frowns at the thought. "What do we know about this thing?"

The costumed avatar known as Moon Knight has been on high alert lately; undead priests, vampires, zombies.. it's been crazy the last couple weeks, so he's somehow not surprised when he catches a sense of something spectral on his rounds. It may take him a bit to hone in on it, but the way things have been going lately, that's definitely what he means to do.

Things are...well...odd things are happening in the world. Odd things that might or might not require Sirocco's presence. Unfortunately, Zahra Shamoun isn't...yet at least...gifted with the ability to sense vampires or ghosts or the like. Rather oblivious, she wanders down the street, stopping to glance in a window. (of course, other people might well quite neatly sense *her*.

James Cunning takes out a small gizmo from his pack and it lights up like a chistmas tree. "It's a strong one sis..." people walk around them ignoring them. This is metropolis. Weird is normal here and until things start flying no one cares....the frost is so tangible now that every breath is frost at this point.

Victoria Cunning sighs, "great. Vamps got a nest somewhere and we get Casper the deadly ghost. Peachy. What do we know about this place. Not the city. The place itself." She asks curiously. "Come on out. I don't feel like shivering all night!" She states sounding rather rough.

It's cold. It's too cold for the time of year. Zahra feels the unnatural chill, if nothing else. Which wouldn't cause most people to want to put on LESS clothes, but her strong hunch that this isn't natural leads her to duck into an alleyway to change.

Can the demon feel the chill or has something else brought him out here this evening? Up above he waits the flames kept low to help hide his presence. A black cat approaches and he allows the flame in his eyes to grow as he hisses to get it to go away. The cat mrowls loudly leaping down to cross in front of the Cunning siblings. Bad luck? Is it ever good when the Rider is waiting...

James Cunning takes out his smart phone and looks around, "This is...there are lots of temporary stores here but it depends on the holiday. There could behundreds but...I think....I don't think this one is location based, I think that...." and his eyes go white...and he starts to float up off the ground.

And then a *warm* wind flows into the frost, melting some of it and perhaps posing quite the challenge for the ghost. Sirocco launches from the alleyway, turning more than one head - an obvious super in the air might be somewhat familiar to the inhabitants of New York, especially Metropolis, but it's still something that tends to attract some slight attention. Victoria Cunning turns and points the gun at her brother, "Let go of him you son of a bitch!" She switches off the safety and fires a round of rocksalt at her brother. The good thing about the rocksalt, it won't kill him... just bruise him a little. It will give a ghost a bad night though! "Show youself!"

Marc Spector lands on a store roof about in time to see Victoria shoot a floating James...though the glowing eyes and the unnatural feeling from him might give some clue as to there being more to it than it first seems.. He murmurs a prayer, his truncheon glowing faintly in one hand.

There is no need for the Rider to make himself known just yet. Not that they might not smell the scent of ash or even death. Then again did that woman just shoot at the one that is with her? Its hard to hold the Rider when he insists on getting into things. Standing up allowing his flaming body to fully show with a jerk the chain from around his body unravels and he quickly snaps it out in attempt to knock the rocksalt shot out of the air before hitting its target.

The ghost howls and appears. It's quite familiar. Captain Professor Voodoo Master has returned and is the strongest ghost she has ever heard of. He unleashes a lightning bolt from his finger tips at Vicki. It's personal.

Just as he does this, the chain slams into the ghost, sending him slamming back into the wall. The salt didn't help things much, andhe flees into a nearby encyclopedia salesman.

James Cunning sits on the ground, groaning with rock salt in his chest. "Ow."

Victoria Cunning gets zapped a little. It stuns her but she does shake it off. "Great. I guess the word is Vengeful Spirit." She would turn and give her two cents to the Rider for interfereing but she doesn't right now. Right now she's got a ghost pissed off at her and for good reason. "Dammit Dresden, The jackass didn't salt and burn the body." She looks down at her brother. "you going to sit there all day like salted bacon or are you going to get up and help. This guy is going to start raising zombies if we don't deal with him. Any ideas where Dresden buried him?" She watches the business man close now, wondering what he is going to do next. Sirocco drops out of the sky, wind swirling around her. "I caught part of that," the obvious superhero says. "Is there any way to slow the ghost down?" She studies the businessman herself. If she picks him up and dangles him in a tornado the ghost will probably just jump to somebody else...

Moon Knight tchs.. well, those two are familiar. ..Though the flying girl and the guy with his head on fire? Those are new additions. He knows enough about the situation though to jump down to the ground and start shouting to the people nearby to disperse; the less civilians around, the better. It doesn't slow his approach of the posessed man, truncheon raised warningly, as if trying to box the ghost in.

The chain wraps back around his torso before Rider jumps down to the ground. Cracking his neck with loud popping noises he stares at the innocent the ghost is now hiding within. Not that some others here might be on his radar but this one for now has his attention solely. Reaching to his back he aims his hand a sawed off shotgun appearing pointed at the man.

The businessman raises up off the floor and begins to play music, the distant pounding of a drum fills the air as suddenly the possession turns viral and more of the crowd begins tohave white eyes and turn en masse toward each of the heroes but more focuses on James and Vicki.

James gets up and takes out a paint pellet gun filled with holy water, aiming at the ghost, only to be hit by a briefcase in the back of the head. "OW!"

Victoria Cunning sighs, "The damn drums. It had to be those damn drums! They are in the area. Okay We got a group here. Lets make sure this doesn't spread. Who here feels like being adventurous and going for the drums? Get to em and burn em. We have some stuff to help deal with that if you don't have stuff to set a fire. I can't go for it, That ghost will come after me. I plugged him, he's a little peeved about it."

"I might be able to slow these people down without hurting them!" Sirocco exclaims. "Why doesn't the burning guy go deal with the drums?" And with that suggestion, she sweeps both hands upwards and a strong wind starts to blow towards the charging, possessed innocents. If you've ever tried to walk into a really strong wind? It's not that easy.

Moon Knight glances pointedly to the man with a flaming skull for a head when Victoria mentions some artifact in need of immolation, his thoughts apparently in line with Sirocco's. For his part though, he rushes the original possessed man, intending to slam him around and pin him against the storefront. "You want to get to them you'll have to go through me." he challenges, and though he doesn't have the Cunnings' expertise on this brand of ghost, he hopes to at least give the spirit pause.

The sound of drums doesn't really give the Rider cause for concern. The gun is fired towards the possessed man this being a spirit shot and not an actual bullet to hopefully either knock the ghost out of him or stun him helping Moon in his own endeavour. The stare would only cause the innocent man likely to pee his pants so that is out.

The gun and the charge hit at the same time, and while Moon Knight has the skill to avoid being shot, its only just barely missed since they aren't used to working together...but the man howls as the ghost leaves him and leaps from one to the other. This one is tough, but while it doesn't take out the ghost it does have the effect of making all the other living 'zombies' pause for a moment. James is able to recover long enough to use the emitter to begin looking for the center of the activity and he stands on the street, looking around, "It ....is here and yet not here?"

He looks at Sirroco, "That might help...we don't want these people to get hurt or hurt us."

Victoria Cunning smiles and fires a few rounds into the air. "Come on! Lets dance Voodoo man! Leave the people go and you get your prise. You get me!" She states hoping this works. "I can hold this for a while. You guys find the ghost." She doesn't seem to be showing any kind of strain, although she's upping the intensity. Don't hurt anyone, Zahra tells herself, firmly, at least not anyone who didn't deserve it.

Moon Knight, meanwhile, swings his charged truncheon at the spirit when it departs.. but it's blasted fast. It's clear even if he clipped it, it didn't do much. Fine, reevaluate, try again, where did it-- Moon Knight stops and stares. "Wait, Moon? Isn't that--" though he cuts himself off, muttering in something very like disgust, "You have -got- to be kidding me..." and without further preamble he fires his grapple rope at the beanie kid, intending to tie him up if the winds don't interfere too greatly.

The grappel wraps the kid up quite well. The kid's white eyes concentrate and telekinetically begin to beat the crap out of Vicki as he lifts her into the air and bashes her against a building two or three times, then in one window and out of another.

James readies his own rock salt shot gun but can't bring himself to shoot a kid, even a possessed one. Frustrated, he takes the EMF reader and finally figures it out, "DOWN! The drums are DOWN!" And then gets lifted into the air and slammed into a brick wall at a high velocity. "OW!"

The ghost moans with frustration as the innocents are lifted into the air and made harmless. None of them have ranged weapons and at one point they take off their shoes and throw them at Zahra but those are easily intercepted.

Victoria Cunning goes on a free ride. (FREE RIDE!)and is tossed around the room. She quickly tries to recover but that is to no avail as she is tossed and slammed into walls. This will leave a mark. She carefully works her way to her feet, "Come on ya magical bastard. What else have you got?"

"Down?" Sirocco's focused on keeping the civilians properly restrained...she can't really help Vicki. "The subway station!" she suggests. Where's the nearest entrance? Maybe if they distract the ghost enough it'll let these people go and she can let them run away.

If Moon Knight is conflicted about hurting a child he doesn't show any sign of it right then-- he approaches the boy, one hand to the faintly glowing symbol of the moon on his chest, and his other reaching for the boy's shoulder as he chants under his breath-- a prayer, perhaps, trying to attack or at least disrupt the ghost's attacks.. he does glance to the others at the mention of the drums being underground, but for now he's busy..

The well coordinated actions by the two manage to stop the ghost before it leaps to yet ANOTHER host, plus something in the boy seems to want to KEEP the ghost there but the caster's spirit is too strong for the boy, and gets shot and chained at the same time, the iron from the chain and flame making it disrupt thoroughly discorporating into the air. It will take it a few moments to reincorporate.

So disrupted, while the drum beats continue and the people under its thrall swear in nightmares, they are quite completely secured by the winds....The Ghost drops Vicki and James. James gets hit in the face with several lose shoes though.

"OOF!" She glances, "Yo Flames, Moon Knight, Nice!" She comments to them as she struggles trying to get up and go again. Victoria smirks an fires a few rounds with the salt shotgun. "Comeon now!"

"...Somebody go find the drums? I'm busy here!" Sirocco calls above the sound of the wind. How much longer can she keep this up? She hasn't tested her endurance like this yet. Yet. Well, there had to be a time to do it.

Moon Knightlooks over his shoulder in appreciative respect as Ghost Rider expells and dissipates the spirit so tidily. He'd like to ask about that, but Sirocco's right.. Ghost Rider can clearly keep up with the spirit, the siblings just took a beating, he ought to see about those drums. When actually stops tunnel-visioning enough to see what Sirocco is actually doing though he exclaims, "Woah!" Followed by, "Not too shabby." as he scoops up the kid and runs for the subway entrance. He doesn't have Bacon's device, but he's hoping from close enough he'll be able to feel the artifact.

GhostRider keeps the ghost wrapped up in his chains pulling it towards him. The drums though are rather starting to give him a headache or perhaps just rattle those bones a little.

Moon is able to find the drum almost immediately, a single snarling thing made up of bone and likely human flesh. Not pleasant at all, but its there. Now what will he do with it?

"BURN IT!" James says and tosses some oil down the sewer. Which, by the way, smells just....wonderful.

The crowd thrashes trying to get out of the spell but not able to do so while the Ghost shrieks in pain as the salt hits it, locked in place by the chains and unable to gather its power as salt blasts hit it in the face.

"Hurry...I'm...starting to have difficulty keeping this up," Sirocco admits. She's starting to flag and the winds are starting to die down. Not enough to release the crowd yet, but...

Moon Knight scoops up the tossed items, grimacing under his cowl at the morbidly pulsing instrument. He's only too happy to liberally pour the oil over it and set it alight. "There it goes!" he shouts up, so the others are ready should anything else unexpected happen.

The drum explodes in a sharded ectoplastic wastrel of broken glass and ash (glash?), covering the water, the walls and Moon Knight with a foul, thin coating of glowing slime that might linger for some time until sunrise....

Instantly the crowd is freed and cheers the heroes. They clap and are exceptionally happy to be OK...except for the small innocent little boy who is wrapped in a rope, squirming to get out.

The ghost screams in rage, and slowly discorporates.

As things come to an end, Rider turns back into Blaze after the ghost is gone. Falling to his knees he coughs a bit now looking around glad he didn't hurt anyone other than whatever/whoever that was.. Getting to his feet slowly, He just glances at any of the others he can see.

James Cunning sighs with relief and then looks up and about as he hears Sirens. "It's time to get the hell out of dodge Sis." He waves to the nice people and covers his face as they begin filming on their phones.

Moon Knight ...coughs. Still, this is all in service to Khonshu, or at least that's what he tells the rest of himself. He climbs back up to the surface, still towing the boy and looking around. "Hey, wait! This is twice now this has happened; who are you two?" he calls to the siblings, who seem to be beating a retreat. He knows without looking that Sirroco is still there, though he double takes for a moment, wondering where Ghost Rider went.

Victoria Cunning awakens from being practically knocked unconscious. She quickly covers her face, doing her best to avoid the extra publicity. "Someone call Dresden, I didn't kill him this time!" She laughs a little and quickly moves over to the car. Tossing her Shotty in the back seat, She quickly fires the car engine. It's times like this she wishes she had modified the car to conceal the license plate but oh well. The engine roars and Godsmack's VooDoo begins blairing. Vikki just reaches forward and turns off the radio.

As soon as the people stop being all white eyed, Sirocco puts them down...carefully...then she drops to the ground and drops to one knee breathing hard. She's one tired divine servant right now.

Oh No - Is basically all that goes through the mind of Blaze realizing his turned back before he could leave. Turning he runs for an alleyway and all they may hear is the sound of a motorcycle engine as it revs up and grows distant as he makes his escape.

A hand sticks up through the ash and rubble. He LIVES! Captain Professor Voodoo Master LIVES! He wipes his eyes under the new moon long after the heroes have left, only to be immediately tazed by a cop with a pair of magic proof handcuffs thrown on him....