Monster Apartment

Brief Title:
MA

Characters:
Havok, Nightcrawler and Mirage, Squidboy, House of Shadows

Scene Runner/Watcher:

IC Date:
10/30/2012

Location:
Mutant Town

Summary:
The trio encounters the "House" of Shadows while searching for a missing child

Social or Plot:

TS:
No

Log:
--[Mutant Town]--

EARLIER:

SHIP was notified of a local (mutant town) mutant disappearance. A worried mother came to ship's outer offices and reported that her 12 year old son Samuel "Sammy" Paré did not come home last night. Sammy is described as a small framed young man with salmon colored skin and fish attributes. A photo (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4b/Squidboysammy.jpg ) was given. Mrs. Pare' said the police will do nothing until the child is missing for over 24 hours and no foul play was suspected. His last known location was the Ryker building where he went to go play with a friend (David Moreau). He left that friend's house at 6:15pm to head home (1 block away) for dinner. He never made it. Which is why she came to X-Factor Investigations. Ship's hard light hologram, Mary Winters, informed Mrs. Pare' that X-Factor would do all they could to locate Sammy.

NOW:

Standing outside the Ryker Building, the three team members of X-Factor have some investigating to do. There is a door-man (Howard Long) to question and 12 floors to search.


Standing between Alex and Kurt, Mirage looks up at the building, and up and down the street, taking in any alleys on either side of the building or any other locations that would be ideal for a snatch and grab. "If you guys want to start searching the building, I can question the doorman."

With a nod, Kurt ponders, "How about, you start with the doorman, find out if the kid left the building. If he left, we could probably rule out looking through all 12 floors of the building. Once we know that, Alex and I can start asking around and maybe you could see if the doorman knows of security cameras, after we establish whether or not he is in the building or has left it?"


It's a depressed environment, Mutant Town is an extension of Hell's Kitchen and SoHo. The forgotten zone where most normal humans avoid. Therefore, the alleys have trash and other debris and the building is in slight disrepair.

The doorman is pleased to see the approach of Mirage. It's pretty clear he's a mutant since he has a third eye in the middle of his forhead - which is cleaverly disguised by his hat. He says, "Welcome, welcome. You are undoubtly here about Sammy. His mother came by earlier and you have the aire of investigator about you with specific questions as to whether or not I saw him leave. I did not. I was on duty, albeit there may have been a few instances when I wasn't at my post, especially around the time of 6 to 7pm when there was a disturbance on the 7th floor. Miss Wilkerson said she was hearing creeking noises beneath her floor - being the 6th, mind you. When we got up there to investigate, there was not a sound to be heard. It should be known, that the 6th floor has been vacant for a few months for remodeling and there are several school children who like to sneak upon that floor to play."


"Ship can get access to any street cameras in the area, and probably some of the security cameras from the surrounding buildings." she taps her comm unit and requests Ship scan the footage from any cameras in the area from the time the missing boy left his own home until at least 7:00 on the day in question. "Yes, Mr. Long." After that she listens, nodding at the doorman as he gives all the details without much effort on her part "Thank you Mr. Long. Have you noticed any strangers hanging out that normally wouldn't, either across the street or in the alleyways?" after a moments thought, she follows up with another question "When was the last the construction workers came to work? Is it the same people or different people?

Video footage does not reveal Sammy leaving the building through the front exit. There are no active cameras inside the building and only one outside that monitors the street.

No strangers out of the ordinary.

Construction crews haven't been around in a month. The building manager didn't have the money to finish the work.





"Ok," says Kurt, while Dani continues to question the doorman as well as Ship. "I'll start with the vacant Sixth floor." Then he looks around as if remembering the present area. Then he'll bamf towards the elevator, moving as far forward as he can within the range of his site. Then he'll take the elevator up, hopefully the doorman will call out if he actually needs a key or something. Otherwise, he might rely on bamfs.


The doorman will gladly hand over the key required to get to the 6th floor which can only be acccessed via the stairwell and that's been locked to keep meddling kids from entering it - however to little avail as there's other options for kids who use the fire escape.


Alex will be off to check the alleyways.



Following Kurt in, Dani's intitial intention is to go ask the Moreau's, specifically David, some questions about Sammy, his behavior and stuff. This brings her thoughts to how the cameras didn't pick anything up, but people and cameras aren't the only thing that can see (record) things. There isn't an alley or street in the city that doesn't have a stray cat or dog or other animal residing in it. Her plans change, she heads back out onto the street. She reaches out with her mind, searching for and touching the animal minds, seeking information. She realizes some creatures will be more helpful then others, so only focuses on those.


Having to do it old school, Kurt has to physically search around and he so begins to explore the 6th floor. He'll probably call for Sammy occasionally. Who knows, the kid could be stuck in the walls after breaking his leg and his friends could be too scarred to tell anyone the tricked him into getting stuck or something.

Upon reaching the 6th floor, Kurt knows something is definitely wrong. There is no electricity, even though it is mid-day, the only good light source is from the ends of the hallways which look out onto the fire escapes and they are several yards away if not present at all. The walls are moldy and the floor seems damp (but not wet). The smell is of decay. Most of the doors into each apartment are closed.



Dani reaches out to various animals - rats in this case - and they're intersted in food. They want nothing to do with the building in question and know there's bad ju-ju there.


Rats avoiding a building like it has the plague, never a good sign. Knowing a least a little something more, though not necessarily helpful, Dani once more goes on the comm "Find anything Havok, Nightcrawler?" she then goes back into the building and heads up to the 6th floor, she takes the stairs. It will take a bit longer, but they need to be thorough and if there was a kidnapped involved, they wouldn't have taken the elevator.


Nightcrawler took the stairs too, as it was the only access to the sixth floor. Still, he calls back through the commsys, "The whole floor is moist and moldy. Smells like decay. If he was playing up here, no telling what might of happened. I'm going to have to start room by room, could take some time, no electricity to this floor it seems like." And he'll do that, check the first door nearest one of the windows from the ends of the hallways.


Alex relays, "Nothing in the alleyway. I'll head up the west fire escape and move in through the window.


Kurt finds the door locked. It's a standard deadbolt with accompanying knob lock. When he touches the knob, it feels cold and clammy.


Dani takes the stairs two at a time on her way up, speeding up when the other two detail what they have discovered. Good think she works out regularly and is in shape, else she would be dieing by the time she reached the sixth floor "I'm nearly there myself." she replies to them "Don't do anything stupid without me."


"Stupid is my middle name," chuckles Kurt, then he looks at the window at the end of the hall, marks outside and bamfs there to wall crawl. He'll go to the nearest window of the first apartment. He'll look and study it a moment and if things look safe, he'll bamf into a visible spot.


The window that Kurt tries to peer in is blacked out with what he can assume is paint

Alex reaches the 6th floor about the same time Dani does. She steps into the hallway and she will be able to see him stepping through an opened window approximately 20 yards away.


Keeping a hand on the stairwell door, to keep it from slamming behind her, Dani gestures to Alex when she spies him crawling in. Nose wrinkling at the smell, Dani moves down the hallway, glancing at the doors as she passes, she looks for anything else out of the ordinary besides the damp, mold and wretched smell.


"Initiating the ban hammer," announces Kurt into the comsys before using a foot to kick at the window to break it open. He'll do his best to use the booted part and avoid all the glass.


Alex's nose also scrinches at the stink and he states over the com, "Man it stinks in here. Kurt, did you try mixing your brimstone with fart?"

Kurt kicks the window, doesn't even crack. In fact, it could even have hurt his foot.


There maybe a slight eyeroll from Dani at the jocularity, but she's a girl, that's to be expected. "Didn't the doorman give Kurt the master key? Why is he trying to break through a window?" a puzzled expression goes with the question.


"Stupid ban hammer broken, reinitiating sequence," says Kurt, then adds in, "Master key to open stairwell doors from inside the stairwell, not keyed to the rooms it seems." Then he plays with momentum and teleportation, dropping off the wall, building some speed and teleporting so he falls feet first into the window.


Kurt slams into the window, it does NOT give and he probably pulled something that time. But didn't break anything (not a blue result). Instead of giving it another go, he ports into the hallway of the building and can see Alex and Dani at the other far end.

Alex answers, "Guess it wasn't a master. Maybe just the stairwell door."

That's when everything starts to go wonky. The hallway starts to twist and ripple as the floor shakes and waves uncontrollably. The heroes suddenly lose their powers and are cut off from the rest of the world. The sounds of wrending wood and metal can be heard as well as a low moan. The distance between Kurt and Dani/Alex seems to grow 8x to appear as if they're 200 yards away from one another.


Dani doesn't notice that her powers aren't working right away, she's to busy falling into the wall as the floor shakes violently under their feet "What the hell?" she calls out, thinking for a second its an earthquake, but no normal earthquake is going to make the hallway seem to get longer.


Kurt's initial reaction is to go for a wall, which he'll try to bamf too, realize his power isn't working, and then simply move to. He'll do his best to keep sure footing too, but will rely on his mutant physiology to cling to surfaces, trying to be safe. "I can't port," he'll shout as the hallway seems to grow, letting the others know that this weird reality warping might be affecting powers as well. "I'll try coming your way." And he'll do that, trying to cling to whichever surface looks the safest between floor, walls, and ceiling.

Alex stumbles, falls, slides across the wacky flooring and is dumped through a laundry chute that appeared as a gaping mouth. "Aaaaaaaahhhhh!" The chute closes. The building churns more and seems to chuckle "muhm-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh".


Stuggling to get to her feet as the floor pitches, Dani tries to make a grab for Alex but the floor doesn't cooperate and sends her careening to the wall again. She lets out a string of her native language, that could only be cursing as the apartment building consumes its snack. Finally she manages to get to her feet, using a doorway as an anchor and doorknob to pull herself up, much of her attention keep on the chute mouth that is in the wall

Still making his way towards where Dani is and Alex used to be, Kurt calls out from what he saw. "Stay on this floor or go in after him?" His only real concern is closing that distance with Dani now, not trying to figure out what is going on so much presently.

That doorknob that Dani grabs, turns and the door will spring open (inward toward the room), jerking her with it. The room itself is stable, no wobbly floor. Yet it's dark, dismal and decayed. Fixtures within are covered in mold. It's a two room apartment and just to the side of the living area is a bedroom whose door is wide open. She can peer through into that room to see the skeletal remains of a human upon the bed.". Dani is agile enough to avoid being chucked across the room and into the bedroom by the whipping of the door - which seemed to want to toss her into the bed with the skeleton.


Kurt will see two doors opening on either side of the hallway - near to where he is. The floor torques, the walls bend and undulate. Both open doorways slam together enveloping Kurt. He's agile enough not to lose a foot in the collision.


A surprised scream comes from Dani as she door swings open and tries to launch her across the room. She makes a grab for the other side of the doorknob as it swings open, it takes a moment to process what here eyes see while she is being flung about. As the door swings shut, assuming it is going to so it can try to fling her again, she will grap ahold of the door jam so hopefully it can't.


In the jamb of two doorways now made one, Kurt looks at both rooms, trying to decide which is safer. He'll take into account which has the closest window and which might have more windows. That will be his plan of escape, trying yet again to break a window, hopefully he can find an object in the room he chooses to help him.


Dani's door does indeed shut. As it does, it becomes the high point of the room. Meaning the doorway becomes the ceiling and the bed becomes the floor (15 feet away and straight down.) The door will slam shut, it's best that Dani's parts are not between the door and the jam.


Kurt finds himself between two dingy apartments. The floor is still the floor, the ceiling is still the ceiling. The room is also very stable, no shaking, and dimly lit from a candle at the far end of each room. The candle is upon a small wall side table with a moldy drape across the top. It smells icky in here. There are heavy black-out drapes on either side of the candle/table. Both rooms seem to mirror one another. That's when Kurt hears the voice of a young boy (which seems more ethereal than localized or in any particular point. He says, "Is anybody out there?"


Even in Monster Apartment Buildings gravity works and no matter how tight Dani tries to leverage herself into the doors frame she is going to fall. When she does she does her best to twist and tuck so that she will take a minimal of damage when she hits the floor, but all that ends up doing is make her bounce off the bed and into a nearby peice of furniture before hitting the floor. She lays there for a moment trying to regain the breath that was knocked out of her from the multiple impact.


Noting the candles and the black drapes, Kurt suspects something mystical afoot. As neither is a better option, as they are a mirror of each other, he hesitates at both doors until he hears the voice. "There is yes, we are here to help." Not that they're doing much in the way of helping, "Can you tell me what happened here?" IE, some virgin lit the black flame candle and now the sanderson sisters are alive again trying to eat kids souls.


Bouncing off the bed, Dani will find herself on the wall which is now serving as a floor. The bed itself is in a discheveled state and the decomposing skeleton is at her feet in a position as if it's reaching for her.


The disembodied voice of the boy calls back, "Help me, it's dark in here and cold."

The candles in both rooms seem to flicker as if a breeze is carried through the room. But the drapes do not move.


Taking a few deep breathes she lifts her head to stare at the skeleton. Dani gets to her hands and knees, quickly crawling away from the boney thing, just in case it does animate and grabs at her. Her nostrils flare, the scent of the decomposing skeleton much like the scent of death in the hallway. Getting to her feet she mutters to herself "This is a place of death." something she is quite familiar with. Assuming it isn't also being blocked she calls on the valkyrie sense she can still manage to call upon while on the Midgard plane, hoping to get a sense of what she is dealing with at worst and how to deal with it at best.



"Who are you," calls Kurt to the other voice, picking a room at random since neigher offers any clues that differentiates it from the other. He goes straight for the curtains, curious what is behind them.


"I'm Sammy. Who are you?"


The skeleton does not move, but if Dani looks away, her imagination implys that it will move when she's not looking. The other /sense/ she would have is that there's something far more powerful at work here and it's very much like the William Katt movie, "House", because strange things are afoot in the Ryker Building.

The far ends of each room (on either side of Kurt) start to descend. He stands upon the apex and each room starts to angle away. Implying that he needs to make a choice.


Not knowing whether the apartment building itself is problem or someone playing with her mind Dani does the first thing she can think of to figure it out. She calls on the only power and weapon she has that could possibly work against something that seems to have evil intent. The glowing staff appears in her hand, stepping toward the skeleton she falls foward onto one knee to slam the glowing spear through the floor and into the skeleton. Sure it could still be mental tampering, but she has been through that and this just doesn't feel the same to her.

The structure seems to scream, writhe, and rend itself into millions of shreads over the course of a few seconds until the chaos subsides and suddenly the three heroes plus Sammy are laying in a large vacant floor (of the same building - no individual apartments, gutted except for elevators and support columns with daylight streaming into the area from windows along all the far walls).



Sammy jumps up, says, "I want my mom!"

Alex rolls to his side and sits up, "What the heck happened?"

Dani picks herself up with a groan from where she was thrown. Being in the epicenter of the reaction she probably got the worst of it "No clue, whatever it was it must have been extraplanar...maybe demonic in nature." she moves to the child "Whatever it was, it's gone now. You okay Sammy? Your mother sent us to get you, we will take you to her." she starts to hold her hand out to him, put remembering he is twelve and would probably think she was treating him like a baby, she drops it again.


"I'm Nightcrawler," said Kurt in response, hoping some X-Factor popularity might be a good thing now but not wholly sure. Then as he's about to say more and try to open a curtain, everything just fizzles out and everyone is in the same room together. Then they're all in the same room, he is more curious, "What happened Sammy, did you or your friends do something?"


Sammy, looking like a humanoid fish, tucks his hands into his pockets and says, "Thanks."

With the threat dispersed, the trio and Sammy are able to evacuate the building to find Sammy's mother outside. On the elevator ride down, Sammy implied that the elevator stopped on the 6th floor, he got out, and suddenly the building attacked him - sending him on a wild ride of scaryness.


In all, X-Factor 'Investigations' once again saves the day.

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