A Doktor Who Makes House Calls?! [IC] [Closed]

[Electra]

Taking barely a moment to assess the situation, Wander leapt out the broken window and straight for the two demons holding the screaming woman and her dog. Landing momentarily on the shoulders of the first one, she bashed it smartly over the head with her bat and let the momentum carry her over to the second, which got the same treatment. As the unconscious...things began to fall, Wander snagged the woman around her ample waist and carried her safely to the ground, catching the little dog in her free arm as she landed.

For a moment, a very brief moment, she was grateful for all the similarly ridiculously complex scenarios Archer was always running her through in the Doom Room. Practice made perfect, she guessed. "Get to cover," she told the woman tersely, shoving the poodle into her arms. "Stay out of the street."

[Dr Archeville]

The two squishy squid-things fall to Wander's blows, and when the hit the street below their bodies begin hissing and making a noise like fingernails on a chalkboard. The woman she's saved is in shock for a moment, but as soon as her dog is restored to her hands, she snaps to and bolts.

The third thing, seeing its brothers fall, drops the yuppie jogger it had lifted (who now lies very still on the ground), and waved its tentacles at Wander. She felt a force around her, like invisible tentacles encircling her... but these things had never encountered anything like Wander before, or they would have known their force was insufficient.

Seeing this, it bolted, somersaulting towards Kid Cthulhu. The young hero almost got the impression it was... seeking aid?

[Lone Star]

KC was ready. He flapped his wings and rushed at the thing, firing a volley of eldritch fire straight at it. He screamed a battle cry as he rocketed towards the monster. He was ready to take these horrors back to the hellish dimension from which they were spawned. He had seen where they come from, and had no intention of them dragging himself or anyone else back. These abominations needed to fry.

[Dr Archeville]

A look of... confusion, maybe? It was hard to tell -- crossed the Squrm's face as what it thought was its kinfolk unleashed a fiery blast at it. The bolt struck true, and the thing tumbled down like a deflating balloon. Once it hit the road below, its form hissed and shrieked like its two brothers.

The jogger lay still, and the matron and her poodle were dashing off. Faces peered out of the houses along the road, butmany turned quickly away once they say the heaving, smoking, squelching things in the road.

What of the other two things? One had gone east, out to the sea, hile one had gone south, towards the river... or the heart of the city. But they were nowhere to be seen now, their wings carrying them at inhuman speeds.

[Lone Star]

KC flapped towards the jogger. He helps him into a sitting position. "Are you alright, sir? Want me to call an ambulance?" He looked around, still searching from where the monsters came. He would give them a piece of his mind.

[Electra]

Erin was moving to go help the jogger, but stopped short when she saw that Kid Cthulhu was there and reacting already. Instead, she activated her beacon. "Young Freedom, this is Wander, we have some weird monsters that just took off out of North Bay, one towards downtown and one towards the river. I need an ambulance to my location, and anybody available to track down those monsters." With that, she leapt back into the mansion to check on the incapacitated doctor.

[Dr Archeville]

Kid Cthulhu's calming words do nothing to alleviate the jogger's fear, and in fact he runs all the faster from the hideous tentacle-monster come to tear out and share his precious organs with the other tentacle-monsters.

"Kinda busy with some monsters of our own!" Phalanx's voice responded over the comm. Just Erin's luck -- she gets to the point where she thinks to call her teammates, and they can't help!

When Erin returns to the library, she finds the Doktor still unconscious on the floor. An unusually cold wind blew through the burst window, scattering papers to and fro.

[Lone Star]

KC nodded at the jogger's reaction. This kind of made sense. His head began to split again, and KC groaned in agony. He reached out with his senses again, and saw an open window of an house. Wherever these creatures were coming from was probably there. He flapped his wings, and headed towards the house. He hoped he wasn't already too late.

[Electra]

Looking around the library, Erin spotted the mug she'd used earlier to warm up Jack Jr.'s bottle. A movement at the window caught her attention for a moment. "Hey, KC, glad to see you. We need some answers."

Rolling the unconscious doctor over so that he was laying on his own hands, she straddled and pinned him, then dumped the cup of tepid water over his face. "All right, I want you to tell me what's going on!" she demanded. "What were those things? Why did you release them?"

[Dr Archeville]

Archeville coughed and sputtered awake, "pfaugh!"

... the Key...

.... and the Gate...

... what?

What? Wait, why is Erin atop us?

I... I don't know.

"Vh... vhat is going on here?! Vhat dings? Released..." Comprehension slowly dawn on the confused Doktor's face, "vait, you mean dat passage I read from Taylor's book actually did someding?!"

[Electra]

"Yeah, released five nasty tentacle monsters on North Bay," Erin told him, not letting up on the pin. "They're a risk to civilians, and at least two of them got away. They're like nothing I've ever seen, but they're pretty horrific. How do we stop them?" she demanded again. It looked like she was entirely prepared to make him go to sleep again if she didn't hear the answer she wanted, very quickly.

[Dr Archeville]

"How in blazes should I know? It vas von of Taylor's books -- I am just as surprised dat anyding happened!"

... what, no 'I told you so'?

Whatever. I'm going back to sleep.

What?

Dumb kid's probably making it out to be a bigger threat than it really is.

"Vait -- dey got loose? Okay, ah, let me see..." He began to sit up, then realized Erin was still pinning him. "Ah, I can think better if I can pace, or at least can see the book I vas reading dat started all dis. Und is he mit you," he nodded towards Kid Cthulhu, "or wit dem?"

[Electra]

"He's with me," Erin replied, reluctantly unpinning the doctor and getting up, hand still on her bat. "Don't try anything funny, though. I know you're a big superscience guy and all, but that just means you maybe tasted a bad formula or electrocuted yourself or got possessed or something. "I don't even know what book you're talking about, though." She watched him like a hawk as he got up, glaring the whole time.

[Dr Archeville]

"It vas... dis one" he said after a moment's scan. It was a black, leather-bound tome, and what little Erin saw as he flipped through it was all gibberish to her.

You... you really are going to sleep?

Eh, too bored.

He hrmed and murmured as he flipped back and forth through the book, "I dought dis vas de one, all of dese images look familiar from when I flipped through it a few moments ago... but I cannot find de page I had actually read from."

Kid Cthulhu sensed that the Doktor did indeed hold the correct tome in his hands.

[Lone Star]

Kid Cthulhu sensed that the Doktor did indeed hold the correct tome in his hands.

"That's...that's it. Unaussprechlichen Kulten. I've heard about this one. Sir, you need to give that to me. That book's full of evil. I'll keep it with mine, alright?" He wasn't about to let the scientist read another passage again. Something else horrible might happen. KC shuddered with the thought.

[Dr Archeville]

"'Nameless Cults'? Wait, no," Archeville pondered, pacing, eyes darting to and fro. "'Unspeakable Cults'... 'Unutterable Cults'... 'Inexpressible Cults'... 'Upronounceable Cults'... no, no, de case is all wrong, it should be."

Wait... you are the 'Grammar Nazi,' yet you are not leaping at this?

...

He suddenly stopped, and locked his eyes on Kid Cthulhu's. "De book is not mein to give, you would need to speak Taylor. But, can you use it to stop dose things? Or at least to track dem?"

[Lone Star]

KC crossed his arms. "I...I don't know. I messed up my first attempt at rituals, and you can see that. It might tear my mind apart. I don't know if I should risk it." KC wringed his hands. Would it be worth the sanity lost to read the book?

[Dr Archeville]

"It vould seem you are de only one who can," Archeville replied, trying to sound supportive. "You are de only one here experienced mit dese sorts of things, and who knows vhat sey are going to do out dere if ve do not stop sem. At de very least," he held the tome out to the be-tentacled hero, "you seem familiar mit dis book, und could find someding in it to figure out vhat sey are, what sey vant, and how ve can destroy sem or send sem back."

Yes, we can work together, for the good of all!

...

The Doktor glanced over a his little black bag, his scattered instruments, then to Erin. "If I had had any idea someding like dis could haff happened, I vould haff never come here in de fist place, and insisted sey come to von of my facilities!"

[Electra]

"So then when you messed up, they'd be trapped in your "facilities" with no way out?" Erin demanded. "Right now you better stop thinking about what-ifs and start getting some of your people or giant robots or whatever it is you have out and rounding up those monster things. You have some kind of in with The Interceptors, right? Maybe they can get on that. In the meantime, how about you give the book to KC and take a big step back."

[Dr Archeville]

... what did she just say?

Oh, crud...

"Sey could get to panic rooms specifically designed to protect people from out-of-control beasts," he snapped back, "or to de teleporters dat could get sem out of de city. Und vhile sey did dat, de protocols in place specifically for dealing with out-of-control nasties or uncontrolled metahumans -- like de robotic drones und de trained security guards equipped mit an assortment of advanced equipment -- vould start attempting to contain or destroy sem. Sey vould probably haff found it harder to burst out of ArcheTech's force field-enhanced bulletproof vindows dan de vindow of dis library," he tossed the book at Kid Cthulhu, looking back and forth between them, "und I vould not haff to vaste time explaining all dat!"

As Archeville paced and gesticulated, the unusual layout of the room cast odd patterns of shadows on him. Surely that's all it was, right? His skin wasn't really shifting, just a trick of the light; when he'd paused in a shaft of moonlight, he looked completely normal.

And how the frak does she know about my involvement with the Interceptors? One of them must have blabbed!

She did not seem to know, per se, more like she suspects, or just wildly guessing. Mona has probably taken her by the Brownstone, and she likely associated the advanced technology therein with us.

The Doktor huffed as he drew out his Electromagnetic Screwdriver and began adjusting its controls, muttering something about encrypted channels and city-wide sensor sweeps.

Screw his, I'm gonna work on some death rays. Or reminisce about Oktoberfests past.

Oh, leaving again? Do not let the hindbrain hit you on the way out!

[Lone Star]

KC caught the book. This was it. He looked at the heroes in the room. "Might want to step back." KC said. He opened the book. Surprisingly, there were no wails of the damned, or any of the usual deals. He sat down on the floor and flipped through it. It was best that he did not dwell on a page for too long. "So...these things. I think they're...squrms.. They are aliens in this world, and...they don't like Euclidean surfaces. If we press them against a wall, they should die. Or something." KC said. He closed the book. "Dok, can you locate the remaining squrm?"

[Electra]

"Against a wall?" Erin said disbelievingly. "That... that seems pretty weird. Does that mean that the three of them I knocked to the ground should be taken care of now? I mean, the ground is pretty much flat, does that make it Euclidean?" She wasn't comfortable dealing with all this creepy metaphysical stuff, but as long as things could be solved or at least helped by punching them, she'd do what she could. Going back to the window, she looked out into the darkness of the night, but nothing weird seemed to be out there at the moment, not even the house ghosts.

[Dr Archeville]

Wander did recall that when she knocked down the two creatures to the road, they bubbled and hissed as if contact with it was anathema to them. Maybe it really would be that easy!

That weakness is so stupid I'm not dignifying it with my rage.

Your earlier silence was nice; a return t it would be welcome.

"Vhat vere sey doing when you encountered sem?," Archeville asked while still fiddling with his techno-wand. His tone was much less snappy, "did sey appear intelligent, or were sey mindlessly attacking, as beasts? Did sey make any attempt at communication, mit you or with each other?"

"As for tracking, vell... mitout knowing more about dese things, de best I can do is track flying, man-sized beings." Archeville gave them both a "and we know how little that would narrow things down in this city" look. "Vhich I vill do, und start eliminating de signals from known fliers until I pick up only de unidentified ones. But..." He looked back at the be-tentacled hero, "you said you are familiar mit dese types of things, ud mit 'magic'. Do you haff any sort of... like.. 'detect magic' spell?"

[Lone Star]

KC blinked, and closed his eyes. "I think I can. Just...give me a few minutes." KC cleared his throat, and sat down on the floor. He cleared his mind, and removed all of his thoughts- his stresses, his worries, and his upcoming midterms from his mind. He removed the floor beneath him and the apartment from his mind, and sought out the beacon of the squrm's preternatural magic. Suddenly, KC's eyes shot open, his eyes glowing green.

He pointed with his index finger. "They went that way."

[Dr Archeville]

Kid Cthulhu's mind reels through dimensions untold before snapping back to this plane. When he points, he does so in two directions, east and south.

To the east, about half a mile off shore, one of the Squrms darted about over thee water, as if looking for something... or calling to something. Along the shore, several people -- an elderly couple out for a moonlit strolls, some teen hanging out, a few joggers -- all stood at the edge, looking to the creature. But they did not look out of curiosity, or stare agape in terror -- it was a more worshipful look. Or a dominated look...

To the south, the other Squrm was circling a castle-like five story French country-style estate situated on the seaside bluffs overlooking Great Bay in Port Regal. A place redolent of history, madness, and magic: Providence Asylum. A few faces peered out the asylum's windows, looking up plaintively at the creature.