Triple Murder in Riderside, Rebooted

[N/A]

The Scarab floated around Avenger and knelt down to face Vulture. "Good. Now Avenger here is going to hold you down and squeeze some truth out of you. And I'm going to make sure you're telling the truth. You can open your mind to me, or resist, your choice. It's the difference between unzipping a jacket or smashing an egg against a frying pan, so choose wisely. And every time we pick up on a lie, Avenger here is going to break something. After what we already know about you, and your 'extracurricular activities,' none of us will even get bored with hurting you anytime soon, let alone start feeling remorse over it."

"Are we clear? If you can't manage to force actual words past that lump in your throat, feel free to just nod and whimper."

[Dr Archeville]

The lad in the Vulture outfit just barely manages to nod.

[Razorback]

"...none of us will even get bored with hurting you anytime soon, let alone start feeling remorse over it."

Slamdance stood, shocked, for a second. 'That's not very heroic. I know these two have much more experience than me... and that he probably has something to do with what happened to Richie, and worse things will happen if we don't do something about it. But, do the ends justify the means? Do we have to sink to that level to win, is you can call it that?'

He stood their waiting, hoping he didn't have to intervene against his allies.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Your powers. Describe them. Their origin. Their use. Crimes you have committed with them." Jack saw his own past in the boy, a childhood and youth brutally wasted when there were so many wonders to experience. This young man had happily thrown away everything Jack himself had lost. "Do not lie. Do not omit." He fell eerily silent at that, his gaze boring into Vulture's.

[Dr Archeville]

"I summon demons!" he squeaked. "Hell Hounds, mostly, though once I summoned a winged monkey demon thing. Scaring others, mostly, or theft. I... I've never actually killed anyone with 'em before. I wasn't even planning to kill that shopkeeper, just scare 'im."

"And the suit lets me fly! Offers some protection, too, but not much more than a kevlar vest would. And it's got some sensory enhancements, IR and UV lenses, and a radio. It's all just tech, no magic involved."

Scarab knows he's leaving things out, but he's not, strictly speaking, speaking false about anything.

She sees memories of him summoning other things -- bat-winged shadows, swarms of hellish hornet-like things, and on one memorable yet ultimately disappointing occasion, a Succubus. That summoning was a lengthy ritual that did entail a human sacrifice, though he is not the one who did the killing: Scarab sees a toned man in a fox mask do the actual killing, with a red silken garrote. The Succubus -- now wearing the skin of the murdered woman -- seemed initially very attracted to Vulture, but Fox talked him into handing her over to him.

Scarab also sees memories of him, in the (intact) suit, using some sort of area burst sonic attack on the shopkeeper -- the 'Hobo' you all saw earlier -- which temporarily stunned the man. Also, the suit offers ultrasonic hearing.

He did not plan to kill the shopkeep, just to scare him, but once he saw how badly the guy reacted, Vulture got swept up in the power and decided to go all-out.

[N/A]

Avenger, Slamdance, I'm going to keep talking tough. It's just talk. Go with it. We're not actually going to cross the line on this one, but he needs to believe that we will.

The Scarab shook her head and sighed.

"Apparently you still think this is a game. Because you're still fooling around. I could have sworn I heard my friend in the hockey mask here tell you to not to lie, or omit anything. Yet you failed to mention all the other demons you and your little club have conjured up. It's quite the menagerie. And you didn't say anything about the innocent woman you helped your friend butcher, just so you guys could get an extraplanar roll in the hay. Of course, you didn't have the guts to actually do the deed on either front, did you?"

She turned back toward her comrades.

"That poor old man he set his dogs on? He didn't plan on killing him. Not at first. But he changed his mind at the end. He was high off of his own power. He felt like such a big man. And he wanted to feel more. It's all just a game to him."

Then she grabbed a blood-stained pillow off the nearby couch and knelt back down to face Vulture.

"Didn't even mention that nifty sonic manipulator in the suit. Was that going to be your ace in the hole against us? Cute."

She slapped him across the cheek, hard. Then she grabbed his chin and wrenched his face back in line with hers.

"You just don't get it. I saw all those events as you described them, through your eyes. That's what I do. You can't lie to me. And in case you hadn't noticed, this isn't the Freedom League you're dealing with. We don't play by the rules. We don't play nice. If you're not going to cooperate, if you're not going to be honest and forthcoming, if you're going to keep wasting our valuable time, then...well, we have no reason to keep you alive, do we?"

The Scarab placed the pillow over Vulture's mouth and pressed down. Not hard enough to suffocate him, but enough to muffle any sound coming out of his mouth.

"Or rather, we have no reason to keep you alive after we've had our fun with you. Avenger...break something else."

Avenger, bend, but don't break. Give him a chance to get scared and start talking.

[Avenger Assembled]

Though all this telepathic contact made Jack a little uneasy, he was more than happy to go along with Scarab's plans. With someone else suggesting ideas, it was easier not to feel responsible for all this. Avenger took the boy's right leg in his big hands and began to twist it slowly, putting pressure on the knee joint. Jack has experience hurting people, he doesn't actually twist hard enough to shatter the joint, permanently crippling Vulture. But it's hard enough that Vulture will think he will.

[Dr Archeville]

"AHHHHH!!!!!" he screeched through the pillow. "What else do you want from me?"

[N/A]

"We want what we keep saying we want: you to answer our questions to the best of your ability. Stop leaving things out to make yourself look better and tell us everything you know. Tell us what we need to know, in order to put this demon-summoning nonsense to bed once and for all. We want you and your pals to stop hurting and killing people. If you help us, we can probably keep you out of prison. If you keep being difficult, then you'll get a motel bathtub full of lye and a one-way trip down the toilet."

"Now I think Avenger has some more questions for you. Let's try this again."

[Avenger Assembled]

Screams in his ears and blood in his mouth, the mixed flavors of Vulture and and Scarab pooling together in a torrent of humanity. Was staying in character as the creepy champion of the night worth those screams? I am not Avenger! I am Jack Faretti! Avenger suddenly slammed his fist into the back of the kid's head, the blow as precise and stunning as his earlier efforts had been painful and unsettling. With Vulture out, truly out, Avenger stood over him, blood on his hands and blue eyes boring implacably into the unconscious boy. "No. Have taught him fear. Is adequate. Suggest you probe him as needed now, and we carry him away to police." He stared at Scarab, his eyes the only windows to his soul behind his hockey mask. "Am not a monster. Pursue new lead."

[N/A]

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

The Scarab clutched her face and shook her head as she slumped down to her knees. "I told you how strong his mental defenses were. How difficult it was to read his mind while he was unconscious." She leaned her back against the couch. "I'm wiped. I don't have it in me for that kind of fight again. Not yet. That's why I was relying so heavily on the psychological trauma. I was softening his defenses, making him less inclined to shut me out, and bringing the right thoughts to the surface, where they're easier to pluck out. And you were playing your part beautifully...right up to the point where you screwed it all up."

"I thought you understood. Did...did you honestly think I was just a cold-blooded monster?"

The Scarab's mask retreated momentarily from the top half of her face, just long enough for her to rub her eyes, before reforming in its standard configuration. "The only other leads we have are his accomplices, Fox and Shark. I think we should run down Fox next, in Hanover. In Vulture's memories, he seemed to play the role of a mentor, a 'big brother' of sorts. The Bad Influence."

"Dropping Vulture with the police seems like a good idea, until you think about it for half a second. What exactly would they hold him for? What would they charge him with? What evidence of wrongdoing on his part do we have to supply them with? Last I checked, telepathy and precognition aren't admissible in court."

[Avenger Assembled]

There was a long, noticeable pause in the room, the night itself seeming to hold its breath. "Well." Propelled by a sudden impulse, Jack reached up and pulled his masks off. First the hockey mask in one hand, and then the ski mask in another, exposing the man beneath the mask. Avenger's true face was...well, actually rather shockingly unlike the man himself. With his sloe eyes and longish black hair, delicately masculine features and sensual red lips, it was a bit as if Rudolph Valentino had been behind the mask of Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera. Avenger was beautiful!

"Let's discuss this like adults, shall we?" With his own masks off, he gave Scarab an expectant look. "In my experience, violence begets violence. I don't do this to terrify children. Even moronic ones." He shot a truly murderous glare down at Vulture. "As for his crimes, it is certainly illegal to summon demons and use them to attack passing vagrants. I suspect that proper encouragement will persuade him of the wisdom of a confession, particularly once he is show that we can find him anywhere. For that matter," he added bluntly, "it is also illegal to carry crack cocaine. The sentence for that is fairly steep, I believe." He folded his gloved hands before him, masks neatly held in each. "But I would prefer to keep such illegal methods only as an emergency. Suitably broken, a young man like this can be properly molded. What did you uncover from his mind?"

[Razorback]

"I don't know if I have a problem with the threat of torture... but I do with torturing to get information. How does doing that make us any better than them?" Slamdance stood, watching his allies, to see how they would react.

"We are supposed to be the good guys... the good guys don't kill... they don't steal... and they aren't supposed to torture people. That's what the bad guys do." Although he still had is mask on, the distress was evident in his voice.

"You're beliefs are what they are, and mine are mine alone. But this sounds like the path to hell is paved with good intentions if I've ever heard it. We have to be above that."

[N/A]

The Scarab looked up at Avenger, and did a double-take when she realized his mask was off. "I...I didn't glean anything beyond what I've just told you."

She turned to Slamdance. "We are above things like torture. But the villains don't always have to know that. I'd have stopped Avenger if he went too far. I was bluffing. For reasons I just outlined."

"Now, unless someone has a better plan, I suggest we strip the budding young sociopath here of his vestments and drop him off at his house. We can always find him later if we have to. Then I suggest we pay this 'Fox' a visit, as he seems to be the driving force behind this merry band of ne'er-do-wells."

[Avenger Assembled]

His face expressionless, Jack donned his masks again. "Yes. Will deal with the suit." He disappeared from view for a few moments, returning with a a carving knife from the kitchen. With calm, methodical efficiency, he proceeded to cut Vulture entirely out of his suit, pulling hard enough to cut the material while he avoided ostentatiously bending the knife in his hand. It was a little unsettling to find himself miming out the act of cutting something off in this house of horrors, but what could you do? "Suggest we scout out Fox first. Don't want to be caught again."

[Dr Archeville]

It's extremely tough going, but with his supernatural strength, Avenger is able to eventually cut/tear the suit off of Vulture.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Weaker than it looks," growled Avenger as he pulled away the sliced-up remains of the suit. "Suggest we take it with. Leave it in his room. As an omen. Not useable now." When the suit was in pieces, several pieces, Avenger neatly replaced the knife. "Deed is done. Replace him, then find Fox?"

[N/A]

"Agreed. We can always confiscate it later. Or take a suit from one of his confederates. Which I'd like to do, so I can give it to Archeville for study. Seems like the bad guys are always at least one step ahead of us when it comes to innovation."

"The kid lives at 250 52nd street, in The Fens. Check his pockets, see if he has ID on him. In his own mind, he refers to himself as 'Vulture.' I'd like to know his 'real' name, so I can undermine that aspect of his self-image before it takes root any deeper."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Will carry him in the sewers." Avenger gathered up boy and mutilated costume both, nearly disappearing into the shadows before he added, "Or Scarab could fly us. Suggest we meet back here in the morning. Must eat. Must sleep."

[Dr Archeville]

Avenger finds a wallet, with a driver's license. "Vulture"'s name is Thomas Wells. Also in the wallet, and tucked into his pockets, were many small strips of paper with weird symbols on them.

Going over the kid with her senses, Scarab detects something fairly odd: a very ornate bone flute, held in a custom concealed holster on his side.

[Avenger Assembled]

Having stopped Wells' torture, Avenger had few reservations about emptying his wallet. I'll donate this to that nice homeless shelter guy by the mall. And buy myself that new DVD.With the money his, he stopped to look over the strips of paper, studying them with an odd light in his blue eyes.

[Dr Archeville]

Avenger's keen mind and keener eyes tell him that these mysterious scraps are the equivalent of demonic phone numbers. They're components in demon summoning rituals.

[Razorback]

"Suggest we meet back here in the morning. Must eat. Must sleep."

"I agree. I will meet you two at sunset tomorrow. If there is nothing else for right now, I will see you two then."

With that, Slamdance went to the door, did a quick look to make sure no one was watching, and snuck out down the street. Once he was out of sight of the house, he moved at full speed to a local park to remove his gear, and proceeded to use his skateboard to get home.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Suggest we research these." Avenger displayed the scraps of paper to Scarab, the little pieces fitting oddly in his big, bloodied hands. "Appear to be necessary components of demon-summoning. Each tied to a particular demon." The words didn't exactly fit the broken-sentenced speech pattern of Avenger, but then Jack had already risked enough to show the other hero the man behind the mask. "May be too much for the boy."

[N/A]

The Scarab looked at the paper scraps and nodded. "I'll look into it. After I get some rest."

She pointed at Vulture and tapped her fingers upward, as if tugging on some invisible loop. An ornate bone flute popped up out of a concealed holster and floated into her hands. "He went to a lot of trouble to hide and protect this. I'd bet money it's a component in his demon-summoning."

"I'll see you both tomorrow." She disappeared from their sight as she floated up and out the window, back to her Lair.