ic Street Sharks [IC]

[Raveled]

"You lead a rich life, Mr. Wail," Glowstar said as the final shark-guy fell to the ground. "Of course, I've always had a soft spot for the old favorites." He hurried down the stairs to the door the shark men had hidden behind. A quick application of Terminus energy caused it to bang open and he sprang through, hands glowing and energies ready. "Hello! Have you accepted Oprah Winfrey as your personal savoir!?"

[trollthumper]

The doors flew open, revealing a gigantic, monstrous shark, its maw large enough to swallow a pickup truck, looming over Glowstar. Before he could open fire, however, the Terminus energies revealed that it was merely an idol, standing above an altar to the shark god. There were stains upon it that were best not considered, and the rest of the chapel was relatively sparse, with the only real decorations being cushions along the likes one might find in an opium den. Lying next to the cushions were small caches of needles containing a similar mutagen.

"Damn," Cannonade said when he arrived downstairs. "That... is really goddamn garish. Guessing worshipping crazy shark gods doesn't bring you good taste."

[Raveled]

Glowstar walked in, skirting the shark idol. On impulse he struck out at the idol and punched a hole clean through it, his Terminus-powered strike causing whatever it was made of to curl away from the hole as it decayed at an accelerated rate. The teen hero shook his head at the display. "Drug cultists arts and crafts," he said, nudging the crates of syringes with a booted toe. "The whole place looks like the drug-pushers' club house in Reefer Madness. All we need is Kristen Bell in a schoolgirl uniform. Or a dominatrix outfit." He paused and turned to the other heroes. "I swear, that made a lot more sense and was a lot less creepy in my head."

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel couldn't help but show a look as if he'd smelled something horrible when he beheld the shark idol.

"I think 'garish' is an...understatement. Let's clean up the decor a bit, shall we?"

He calmly walked over to the larger-than-life piece of "decoration" and laid one hand flat on its surface. He closed his eyes for a moment.

"Everyone might want to stay one or two steps back so you stay clean."

Suddenly, the statue started to hum with an other-worldly sound, originating from Gabriel's hand. The surface buckled in places, cracks quickly spreading, but the overall construct staying in place (though it crumbled more quickly where Glowstar had struck it). It ceased vibrating for a moment...before a different pitch started up, and perhaps 15 seconds later, triggered a chain reaction that saw the entire shark idol crumble into thick dust. Gabriel himself floated back in time to avoid getting more than a few specks on his immaculate outfit, specks he quickly flicked away. He gave a short smile to the teenage hero as he rambled about movies and actresses.

"There's probably a lesson about thoughts and words there, but it's late enough I don't feel like giving a lecture."

[Gizmo]

Wail let out a flat sound through his nose and crossed his arms across his chest as he surveyed the revealed room. "I used to get pop culture references..." he muttered largely to himself while Gabriel made short work of the massive shark idol. "Then again, I also used to smash up the scenery to make myself feel better, too." For his part, the veteran hero was less concerned with the iconography and more with the remaining mutagen, carefully picking up a set of needles and serum to better examine it. "This is all pretty ritualistic, which means somebody had to come up with the rules. I'm wondering if we're talking new fad or dusted off."

[Raveled]

"I don't think they had super-science shark mutagens in ye olde times," Glowstar pointed out. "None of these guys look like chemistry majors. Uh, not that most chemistry majors that I know have dorsal fins and rows and rows of razor-sharp teeth, but you know. I think we should be more worried that someone came along and gave this junk to them." He shrugged, toeing the collapsed pile that used to be the shark effigy. "We should tell Doctor Kirkstorm what we found out, and hand over the mutagen to the cops. And hope to hell that no one here took their work home with them, you know?"

[trollthumper]

"Sounds like a good plan," said Cannonade as he gave a good kick to whatever remained of the shark statue. He might have been tempting the wrath of an all-devouring shark god, but given what had been going on tonight, he probably would have punched it in the snout if it bothered to show up. "Don't know if they had any good bookkeepers, but there's gotta be some sort of paper trail here."

There were books, of course, found hiding in one of the back offices. They were written in some sort of impenetrable code, however, one that might be better handled by the techies in the FCPD. One thing was relatively clear, however - a diagram for the mutagen, in a relatively easy-to-follow chemical diagram. Their rituals and operations may have been arcane as hell, but they wanted everyone who was cooking this stuff to perfectly understand what they were making.

Soon, a STAR team was helping to clear out what was left of the operation. And somewhere, in the waters off of Freedom, someone watched, peeking out just above the surf. He turned and swam off on powerful arms, knowing that he would have to make other plans... but that the Brethren of the Devourer still lived.