Players:
Summary: Gremlins Are Coming!!!!
Date: October 17, 2010
Log Title: Voices On The Wind
Rating: PG-13
Tegu-Haaz - Abandoned Train Station
The windows and doors are all boarded up on the dilapidated old train station. The roof has caved in on the small building and there is broken glass from the windows littering the ground. The wooden platform extends about thirty feet and bends as it's walked upon. The single track has been over grown and it doesn't seem like a train has been down the rusted metal tracks in a long time. Inside the station house the floor is filled with holes, old train schedules and prices still hang on the walls and there are a few broken benches. On the other side of the ticket booth blank tickets fill the little cubbyholes.
It's night time and it's quiet at the train station. The wind blows through the leaves and there is very little light in the old building. There's the occasional creak in the floor as if someone is stepping over the wooden planks or it's just the old building setting in the wind.
There is nothing like searching for secrets to keep Heather's spirits high. She's a bit dirty, and still carries the pickaxe and shovel with which she dug up her own grave earlier in the week. Now, she remembers this place. The first time she was here, she did not explore it, but it was strange like any other. It may have secrets. Her wax box is hanging around her shoulder at the moment and, as she explores this odd place, she keeps her knife at the ready. Just in case.
He just wants to be alone right now. That's why he's headed here. The man who's been referred to by two names in the past few days. Troy and Leo. He's walking along the ground, just minding his own business, trying to pass by anyone. Yes, the rules are never go alone. But he doesn't care about any stupid rules. He's not one of Xavier's. He makes his own rules. A SHIELD agent decides the best course of action based on the current situation. And in his situation, reconnaisance is best done alone. Oddly, his footsteps make no sound as he moves. He carries a large staff in his hands as he moves.
Mike Drakos has been hiding out in the Train Station for several days. Here, he turns his emotions back on. He has a half-bottle of wine, about a third of it useful for fuel, the rest being forcibly filtered out; he's mixing the alcohol in with the lamp oil and running his engine in diesel mode. He's ok alone; he can read books from his memory and pray and try to figure the place out. Sometimes he dreams. He looks up as Heather comes breezing through, and waits for her to notice him sitting in his burlap-bag imitation monk's robe, waiting for the train that doesn't come through.
Having left the relative safty of the tavern a little while ago, Star shambles up onto the platform, just wanting to get away from everyone for a while. She's dressed as a boy in period clothing, her hair tucked up into a newsboy cap so that it's even harder to tell who she is. Her skin is ashen and almost waxy looking, her eyes lifeless and covered in a milky film. She pauses for a moment when she sees Mike in his odd monk's robe and sighs, shaking her head at having run across the metal teen for the second time in one day. The air is void of the usual haze of emotions that follows her around almost all the time. She looks back over her shoulder, her voice sounding a little… off… "I told you I wanted to be alone for a while, brother. Go back to the tavern." Forget that he's probably going to ignore her.
Despite the atmospheric gloom of the place, Tara has always managed to keep herself in high spirits. This is, after all, adventure! Though waiting around for things to happen is beginning to drain a bit on her emotions, though. All the really cool stuff is happening to other people, while she can go out looking for trouble and never find any. Perhaps this really /is/ hell. So. Bored and alone, she decides to hunt down Mike and bother him some. She's got a bottle of something in one hand to offer him. She has no idea what it is, since she can't read the label, but it smells strong, alcoholic, and, frankly, quite nasty. Should be good for him. So here she is walking along the tracks, singing softly to herself, out of key and in a bad Scottish accent, "If I could walk a thou-sand miles then I would walk a thou-sand more…"
Cloud is juat here to find a member of staff to do something to help his undead sister, anyone will do, something just needs to be done, also he's making sure she doesn't wander off on her own, he's dressed in blue jeans, red sneakers, a red and white checkered shirt, his dark roots are beginning to show though his bleached blond hair and there is a strip of cloth around his right knuckles, "Yeah, cos i'm sooo gonna do that", he's abusing sarcasm at this point, catching up with his sister.
A breeze blows through the Station and on the air is the sound of children's laughter. It has a sinister feel as if it's an odd attempt at a children being playful. While the laughter fades in and out on the wind, the sound of something scurrying on the floor, in the shadows, can be heard go across the floor of the Train Station.
Heather stops moving, listening to all of these voices echoing through the station. Dull thrums of dark green passing by her senses, incomprehensible but detectable. She furrows her brow. A gathering? she wonders, Or is it important movements, a message from the Universe? She stops and walks towards Mike in a slowness that is not commonly associated with her. Her gestures and speech are quick, but something Mike has likely come to be used to, <Do you hear them moving about? The voices. It seems my exploration here is some kind of…> she stops at the sound of children laughing and scurrying. Her knife, already readied, is gestured in the direction of the sounds. <More voices and sounds. Some kind of fate.>
Looking around as he gets nearer, Troy/Leo groans under his breath. Then, with the sound on the wind, he sighs. "Stupid brats everywhere. Old McZavier had a farm. E-I-E-I-O. And on this farm he had mutants. E-I-E-I-O. With a brat brat here and a pain-in-the-ass there. Here a brat. There a pain. Everywhere a brat or pain…" He singsongs as he keeps moving. Anyone close enough may note that his feet aren't QUITE touching the ground. They're about a half-inch above it.
There's a small frown at the sound of voices and Star stops short, watching as Heather joins Mike, "What was that?" She's visibly nervious and just waits to see what's going to happen, "Last time there was a weird wind like that, I ended up getting scratched." And there's the source of her nerviousness.
The trouble with going to a place to be quiet and away from people, is that sometimes everyone wants to be quiet and away from people. Mike looks up when Heather asks about the voices. He can't move as fast as she does but he can understand her and with effort, answer at her speed: <I hear something that wants to sound like children at play.>
He observes Troy's avoiding the contact with earth, and like Tara's singing something is a bit off .. but he looks over to Star and says, "Something pretending to be children. Why? You're shaking."
Tara's head tilts at the various sounds coming her way, though the one she zeroes in on is Mike, so she makes a beeline his way. "Hey, Mike!" She calls out to him as she gets close enough to sense him. "I think I found something you might like!" She holds out the bottle to him, unknowing that she found a bottle of Irish whiskey. "So, hey. Who's playing the Silent Hill soundtrack?"
Following his sister Cloud catches sight of Troy/Leo and begins trying to place him before he's distracted by the laughing in the wind, he quickly moves to stand near his sister when she begins freaking out, "Ok, that may be the creepyest sound i have ever heard".
The laughter is joined by a child crying as the wind picks up, blowing leaves through the building. As the gusts hit the building the look structure shakes and creaks. A few more scuttles of something moving can be heard along the floor with a different giggle from the one on the wind. The long shadows in the dark building make things hard to see.
<Star, her voice. It has a tinge of blue that wasn't there before. Odd, suspicious,> Heather says to Mike. She doesn't feel it makes any sense to even try using the wax case in these circumstances. The laughter and crying, either because she does not understand them, or because she does not process fear very well, do not bother Heather. Her eyes gaze out to try and find the scurrying thing. <Can you translate me into slow world, while you are silent and I am not? It could be important.>
"Wonderful. More freaky shit than I can shake a stick at. Feels like I'm still on that X-Campus." Troy or Leo rolls his eyes and moves to plant his staff against the ground, sticking it in place as he waits for whatever freakishness is, or might be coming. Last time he had to deal with this, he got cut. He's not in the mood. Though, he is in the mood to bash something to pieces.
"Hey, Tara," Mike says, "Not a soundtrack. Definitely more freaky shit though. And that smells like irish whiskey, Tara, thank you."
Fuel he takes, because, while other people might enjoy it more, he could actually run on the stuff.
"Heather wants me to translate for her." He answers her, <Yes, I can do that, and Star is biologically dead at the moment, I'm not sure how thet sounds blue though. What do you want me to say?>
He's turned off the emotions again, if anyone could tell. It's easier to process all this without panicking. And those children's voices? Definitely panick-inducing.
Star shakes her head, "I don't like that wind…" Her hands clench into fists at her sides for a moment before she looks up at Cloud, her lips, faintly blue tinged, pressed together, "Brother, do me a favor: Don't get hurt, whatever happens." That would probably kill her the rest of the way. She looks over at Troy, or Leo, or whoever he is at the moment, not recognizing him as anyone that might have once been a student at the same school she started this semester, since he was gone before her time there. She doesn't seems to recognize anyone but Mike and Cloud, for that matter, and the only reason she knows Mike is because she saw him earlier in the day.
Tara nods at Mike. "Thanks. I can understand her when she speaks, but I really have to work at it. Hi Heather," she says greeting the other girl. The other folks here garner a little wave of greeting… even Troy, though she never met him. She tilts her head again as more skittering can be heard as swell as the off kilter laughter. "Hmm." she says thoughtfully, her head tracking the sound. "Wonder what's there…" With that her brow furrows in concentration as she sends her telekinetic sense out to where the noises are coming from, hoping to 'feel' whatever it is that's there.
"Star, maybe you should head back to the slaughtered lamb, something bad is going down here", just in case Cloud puts his hand into the pocket with the diamond, "I won't get hurt, i know how to look after my self", still he's begining to freak out aswell, "Anyone heard anything like this round here before?"
The laughter and crying continues getting louder and it feels like it's right around the corner on the other side of the walls. It doesn't let up as the wind continues to blow and howl through the building. There's a mischievous laugh from something right next to Mike as something grabs as his leg.
<I would explain what I mean by her sounding blue, but it's not important now,> decides Heather, speaking out loud. She may as well speak since she's not having to slow it down any. <And nothing now. I just need to know that you can and will. I have time for planning that others may not. If we are attacked, my knife and pickaxe may be less valuable than my voice.> The laugh catches her attention, and she tosses her knife in that direction, aiming to hit whatever is there with the handle of the blade, <Watch out!>
The sounds are getting stranger and stranger. At least, that's what Troy/Leo thinks as he turns his head in the direction the sounds seem to be coming from and begins sliding across the ground in their direction, staff at the ready. He's really wanting to wreak some havok on something. He lets loose a nearly bestial yell. He still doesn't see anything, so for all intents and purposes, he's sliding at Mike with a full-on Angry/Berserk expression on his face.
"Tara, something has grabbed my leg … something very small is moving around. Can you sense it? Anyone?"
Mike doesn't report that to Heather yet, as he's trying to turn on his eye-lamps to look for what did it. He hasn't used them for a while here, they use too much energy. The robe he adopted to make him 'blend in' should someone physically show up may be more in the way than not. He's currently only aware of the positions of others, not aware of their expressions, as he yells, "Who's there? Show yourself!"
"I'm almost afraid to find out…" That's her opinion of what's hiding in the shadows. When Cloud suggests that she leave, she gives him a withering look, or as good of one as she can, anyway, and shakes her head, "Yeah, right. Only if you go, too." So what if he can turn all diamond and sparkly? She's not about to let her brother out of her sight! Then the strange floating guy yells and the newly minted zombie that was once Star Rosen tenses, backing up a step before she stops and straightens to her full, though unimpressive, height, ready to hold her ground and moving to try to put herself between her brother and whoever this madman is.
Tara scowls. "Six small…. people. About the size of a cat," she says to Mike. Scowling, she concentrates on their location. "There, there, there, and… aw, crap. Lost 'em. they move fast," she says pointing in their general direction.
The throw of Heather's dagger hits something as it lets out a unworldly yell in a high pitched voice. Black blood flows from the wound of a small creature with long fingers, withered skin and a bulbus noise likes there not moving. There are several shrill screams and Tara would be able to 'feel' that more small figures are coming. Cloud would be able to feel something brush by his legs as it rushes by. From the shadows sprout eight little gremlins as the all lunge at Mike screaming and laughing. All the while the sounds of the children crying and laughing get louder and louder.
Cloud sighs and nods, "Ok, if you agree to leave, i'll go with you, i just want you out of here now", when Star runs in front of him, he reaches out to grab her and pull her back behind him, when he feels something run past his leg he yelps (really girly one that he deseves to be mocked for) and kicks at it.
<Whatever they are, they can be tampered with. What abilities do we have here?> says Heather, zipping back to pick up her knife before she loses it and putting it away. There's a second pickaxe at the farmhouse, so she may as well just use that as a weapon, readying herself to battle whatever is coming. Reviewing mentally, she recalls her fellow students' abilities and asks, gesturing towards Troy/Leo, <What is his powers?> If any of the creatures come to close to her, she swings the pickaxe in a quick ark to try and knock it back.
As he nears, Troy focuses his power into strength, twirling his staff as he moves to hit at one of the gremlins, trying to send it flying with all of the force his body can muster. His, for some reason, no-longer-power-less body. After trying a single hit, he turns to glare at the others, eyes almost red with rage. "Comeon. You don't want the robo-boy. You want someone who can FIGHT." He says, in a deep, bloodthirsty cry. "Come get some." He smiles, eerily. His breath coming in and out in snarls of anger.
<Gremlins!> Mike squeaks at speed, then shouts, "GREMLINS!" He's the son of a mechanic and lived around them, and he knows about gremlins even though they're not supposed to be real. Not something he wants anywhere near him! He jumps up, FOOM, managing at least ten feet off the ground, but there's nothing to grab onto. He can't really maneuver well in these stupid robes either; he's just hoping that none of them has gotten a good grip on him. He's trying to sense them around him, and still keep some kind of defense going. And those children's noises, making it harder to focus on what he's doing. Now would be a great time for, wait, she asked a question. <I dunno! Friction control! I barely know the guy!> And that's got him coming back down towards the ground, trying to rotate forward so he can handspring away from the little monsters.
At first, Tara gets a rather manic grin as she fistpumps, "AllRIGHT! Finally some action." Then when more pings on her telekinetic radar tell her that Heather's action just pissed off the hive of gremlins, she hesitates. "Uh. More incoming," she yells, a little too late to warn Mike of the impending attack. When he jumps up in the air, she grabs him, and lifts herself up a few feet off the ground, out of arms reach of the little guys. Any remaining gremlins get a mental boot to the head.
"Six? Looks like more eight to me…" Star looks at Cloud and glowers when he grabs her, pulling her arm away, but not before he moves in front of her, "Look, I'm already dead. What more can they do to me?" She obviously doesn't think much. She tries to push her brother aside, her strength much more than she was capable of before she died. She turns to focus on Mike when he shouts and points in the direction of the monsters attacking the robotic mutant, not looking to see what happened when she shoved him, "Look, those… things… are after the metal guy!" So do something?
More and more flood into the building at a rapid pace all laughing maniacally. Some drop from the holes in the roof, others through the floor and doorways. Any opening they can get through the little Gremlins find a way to get in. They all seem to be aiming for one target, the big metal boy, Mike. As they jump from the holes in the roof down, they all try to land on Mike. They start to also crowd into the others, trying to grab onto ankles to trip them up and make them fall so that they can't protect the Metal Teen.
Having kicked out at the thing that ran past his leg, Cloud if pushed to the floor by a suprising burst of strength from Star, "Ow, how did you do that?", he absorbs from the diamond in his pocket and pushes himself to his feet as more things start swarming around them, stomping and kicking at anything that gets close.
<Enraging the beasts was inevitable. We just moved along the timeline.> Heather looks up at Mike and tries to remember any mythology about gremlins. Nothing comes up in the memory. She doesn't have a very good store of these kinds of ideas. But she does catch what the others say. <Translate! Tara: Shield Mike if you can and bring him to the ground by the center of the platform.> She swings her pickaxe and quickly shifts her feet to avoid being tripped. <Strange other man: I want to know his powers. Star: do you still have abilities? Cloud: How strong are you?> There's a pause as she swings her pickaxe again. <I have an idea,> she assures. Though it should probably be obvious by now. She's a little to occupied with her quick swinging to do anything but quickly speak her words.
A different voice comes from Troy/Leo's body. A higher-pitched, happy voice. "Everybody get behind something! I'm gonna try it and see if it works!" But then the gruffness comes back. "I'll let you out in a minute. I'm busy." He says as he flings a hand towards Mike, putting an ultra-slick field on the roboy's body. "Hate supernatural things. HATE THEM." He growls. "But they give me plenty of reason to bash things. SLIDE SMASH!" He laughs darkly.
The big metal boy is not going to take being swarmed by machine-eating rats without actually punching. The exposed metal on Mike's body, what's not covered by the Barnes uniform under the burlap fake-monk-robe, are the metal shells that protect the mechanisms on the backs of his hands, and the tops of his feet, oh yeah, and his face. That's actually likely to be a problem if they get his face off. At least for a moment the children-sounds have died down, or become less obvious, and Mike's punching at gremlins. One of them seems to have attached itself to the back of his right hand before it slips off, possibly taking a finger with it, or just the cover. Robot brain can dual-task, so a part of his attention was forked off earlier, it translates Heather's words, while the rest punches at nasty gremlings.
"Let go of me, you little freaks!" Star tries to shake the Gremlins off of her legs, looking back at Cloud as he's getting up, "What?" She blinks and kicks at one of the monsters clinging to her with all of her strength, tripping over another as she loses focus for a moment, "Gah!" She looks at Mike and then Heather as the question about her abilities is relayed and shakes her head, "No… I…" She sighs, "No." She shrugs and struggles to her feet looking back at Cloud and shaking her head again, finally answering his question, "I don't know… I just shoved you."
Tara tries something new, as she floats over to where Mike is being swarmed. First she creates a TK shield just barely off of Mike's skin to protect him from any further attacks from the little beasties. Then, with her brows furrowed in concentration, she explosively expands the shield to try to send the buggers flying out in all directions, and any that happen to come her way, or drop on her, she tries to shove forecfully away. If that works, well then, she might have time to follow Heather's instructions and get herself and Mike to the center of the platform.
Looking over at Heather Cloud shrugs, "I'm not sure how strong i am, just stronger than usual cos i'm harder, Star seems to be packing a punch now though", he continues to kick at the things running around, "We need to get Mike out of here, they seem to just want him".
The gremlins manage to grab onto Mike but before they can get a solid grip on him, Troy manages to make him slippery so they start to slide down. Just one managing to take Mike's finger as they leap and grab on. Then Tara's Telekinesis manages to throw all the gremlins off. They let out screams, laughs and victory cries as Mike's finger is held up as a trophy. After that they start to vanish, running away and just disappearing. The laughs of the Gremlins dying away to just the sound of Children's voices on the wind, more crying then laughter now.
Heather kicks her foot as all the gremlins run away, throwing her knife again towards the finger. <Darn it! Darn it! Darn it!> She considers herself to have just lost this game, her actions not being quick enough. She sighs and puts the pickaxe away, listening to the crying again. <That sound is still there? Interesting.> Her curiosity seems to quickly overtake her rage over her loss (well, Mike's loss, really. He's down one finger).
The part where he translates back? That part Mike isn't doing so good with. His hand hurts, he's covered by a slippery force … wow, that slick field would make a GREAT lubricant, how does that work anyway? And Tara's done an explosive-decompression thing, and now the little rats got the … well, that's almost funny. They gave him the finger with his own finger. And that HURTS, in theory and practice. He glares at the spot on his hand, where the mechanism clicks without the cover, and says, "Thanks, guys. I'm pretty sure they would've gotten me entirely if you hadn't helped."
"COME ON! Come back and fight!" Troy rages, eyes bloodshot as he picks up a nearby rock and flings it with all his strength at one of the fleeing gremlins. "Why is it that everything here comesin for a fight and then runs away after it does some damage?" He snarls, shoulders bent as he growls out muttered obscenities under his breath. "Can't even have a decent fight anymore. Everything just runs away." He also deactivates slipperiness on Mike.
Star looks back at Cloud for a moment to make sure he's alright before calling to Mike, "You okay?" Probably not, but it's a question that's expected to be asked. She wrinkles her nose at Troy and shakes her head, her hat having come off in the fight so that her hair falls loose around her shoulders, "They don't always run away… The zombie that scratched me had to be killed before she did even more damage."
Tara shrugs at Troy as she settles Mike and herself down on the platform. "Yeah, well, we're living in a horror movie. That's what they do." She looks somewhat concerned at the loss of his friend's finger as she walks up to him and puts a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Does it hurt?" She honestly doesn't know if the metal boy can feel pain.
Straightening up Cloud walks over to Star, "Now when the hell did you become wicked strong?", he undiamonds, "Mike, you ok?", why if those little ratty things are gone, why is the laughing going on?, "Star are you ok?"
With all the gremlins scampered off the wind dies down to a steady breeze but the laughter and crying of the children's voices on the wind never truly fades.
Heather dashes again to pick up her knife, thrown in frustration again. She checks the blade before tucking it away. <I am sorry, Mike, that I have failed. I will remember this and think on this, what it means, and next time will be different.> With that, she checks all of her gear and zips away.
"Screw this, I'm outta here." The gruff voice says from Troy's body as his posture suddenly changes. A sparkle begins over his body before it's a regular shine all around him. "Darn. I missed it all. Oh well, I guess I should be going." says the other, more positive and upbeat voice.
Mike does a quick assessment, and pushes a few shell back flat, to be tightened later. "They got the shell and brace for one of my fingers. Right middle, and I'm going to have to lock back the movement mechanism for that one or it'll gunk up and wreck the whole hand," Mike answers Star and Tara, "and yes, it hurts, like having all the fleshy part of a finger torn off, but I can turn that sensation down. Some. Maybe." He twists the mechanism, and it makes an odd popping noise before retracting back and leaving a rubber tread by itself, and that he rolls up and tucks into the opening, where it acts as a plug to keep things out. "Better. But not gone. OK, I'm hating this place even more now. Even if it does seem to be 1/3 dream, it's all the nightmare part. Custom nightmares, because I don't think gremlins are part of old-Salem folk myth." He repeats a concise version of this to Heather, along with <… and we lost this round, but this can still be helpful. Watch me to see if anything weird happens.>
Star nods and grimaces apologetically at Cloud, "Yeah… I'm alright." Beat, "I… I didn't hurt you, did I?" She didn't know her own strength? The undead girl shakes her head, "I don't know… I just-" She wrinkles her nose and cuts herself off, watching Heather leave and shying away from the light that Troy/Leo gives off, "Wow… I think he's almost as messed up as I am." Oops. Looks like she's feeling sorry for herself now. "I think I'm going to go back to the tavern now… You coming, brother?"
