Issue 1 Downtime

Around midnight, Regan floated through the back alleys of Maldon. She had felt weird all night. Not like with the moon, whatever that was had stopped for now. No, this was more of a tug really. Regan felt like every where she went seemed to be pointing in the same direction. If she relaxed her eyes, it even looked like the roads curved together, converging on a single point somewhere ahead.

It all felt so...inevitable. Regan kept her soulblade gripped in her hands, having taken more of Nailah and Victoria's words to heart then the two might expect.

I swear... if another car ends up being thrown across town... Victoria watched quietly, shielding her presence for now.

Regan wrinkles her nose, looking like she's going to throw up for a moment.

It takes a second, but it hits Victoria not long after. A disgusting, malignant spiritual corruption is in the area. It was powerful enough that even someone not attuned to the mystical would feel slimy walking through it.

Something nasty and evil was in Maldon. And it felt suspiciously like something out of Limbo.

Oh goddess damn it...

Victoria drew a dagger from her belt, her avatar manifesting behind her (and being handed a wand). Slowly she started making her way through the streets, quietly shadowing Regan, keeping all four eyes settled onto the town to try to find the source of the disturbance.

After a brief moment, the corruption seemed to disappear. Regan still looked very weirded out though. She tilted her head and turned around several times, like she was trying to pinpoint the origin of a sound.

"Hello?" Regan calls out, "Who's out there?"

She sounded...concerned?

Victoria, meanwhile, tried to observe as well as she could while being ready to jump in and... shit, stop her? Protect her? It was hard to tell with this little brat.

Meanwhile, Regan was trying to pinpoint a sound. Something so soft she could barely hear it, but she felt it. It had a soft and weak feel. A tiny pulse or flutter that was almost heartbreaking.

She heard a whimper coming from nearby. Regan dissipated the soulblade and knelt down.

"Hey, don't be scared," Regan said gently, "Come on."

Out of a dark alley, another spirit stepped out. It was the kid who died in the paper. Everyone already guessed this already, I know, but let's keep moving this story along.

Oh goddess... please let this one not be sticking around too. Perhaps not the most charitable thought, but it'd been a rather long week for her dealing with Regan.

The kid....was not as stable as Regan. He didn't seem able to talk and kept flickering in and out of sight.

Regan would have no idea what any of this meant, but a seasoned practitioner of the mystical arts would have a good idea.

"Are you okay?" Regan asks, pausing for a moment, "Are your parents around anywhere?"

The kid shook his head, grabbing onto the hem of Regan's hoodie and looking terrified.

"He's hurt," Victoria said quietly, deciding that now was probably a not-horrible time to stop hiding. "I...well, obviously this isn't something you see often." As she waited for questions, she tried weaving a minor spell to try to figure out how the ghost was hurt.

For a moment, Regan didn't recognize Victoria's voice. She reflexively stepped between Victoria and the kid, soulblade in hand.

As soon as she recognized Victoria, she seemed to relax. She put her hand on the kid's head, who had grabbed onto her tightly.

"You can help him, right?"

Teeth marks. Claws. Something had tried to devour this boy, probably the same thing that had left a trail of corruption in the alley.

"I... hope so. In theory I can, in practice this isn't something you ever get to prepare for."

She reached out her senses to the boy's spirit... first to try to fix some of the damage... stabilize him with some of her own magic, secondly to try to get a sense of why he... well, was a spirit instead of having moved on.

Before Victoria could get too far into her work, there was a coughing, hacking sound as something shuffled towards them. Up ahead in the street, a fat man in a trenchcoat was drunkenly stumbling around.

"Flippin' mutie brats. Always hangin' r'nd th' pub. Right bunch of noisy lil' fucks. Int'rpt'ng my suppah."

He twisted at a ring on his hand nervously. In the pale streetlight, Regan and Victoria could see sweat shining on his pale skin. His black, thinning hair sprawled across the top of his egglike head in sticky strands. Altogether, he did not look well.

Victoria looked up from her work, though her avatar didn't. While one of her minds continued looking over the ghost, she turned her attention to the man in the trenchcoat, clutching the shadow-and-ice dagger along her forearm, the third eye opening on her forehead as she cast a charm to see any active spells.

The ring on his hand was no ordinary bit of metal. Victoria could tell the thing held some sort of demonic being that had scooped out everything human about the man who wore it and now wore him like a suit.

He squinted as he got closer, smiling broadly at Victoria and Regan. His teeth were jagged and black, stained with some sort of green ichor.

Regan looked terrified. She gripped the handle of the soulblade tightly, her hands shaking.

"Ho ho ho," the demon said, "What's all this then? A mighty lil' w'tch ahn...."

"Well...in't special. The bitch hers'lf," the demon said, licking his lips as he twirled the ring.

That little comment got Victorias' full attention. The avatar dissolved as she focused completely on the man. "You know... anyone who refers to someone else as 'the bitch' obviously doesn't know me," she said, positioning herself between the man and Regan, as she began an incantation in the back of her mind.

Regan kept her arm around the ghost boy, soulblade out.

"Chasing kids again you fat fuck?" Regan said angrily.

"You know this bastard, darling?" Victoria said.

"Yeah," Regan says, "We met a few times back in Limbo. He's an ugly sack of shit. Calls himself the Bogey Man."

As Regan talks, the demon flows out of the man's skin like liquid, reforming into a demonic looking form. The skin collapses into a little pile on the ground.

"Now, Ah'm thinkin' ah'm gunna have myself a nice, big dinner," the Bogey Man says, flexing his claws as he approaches.

"See what you mean," Victoria said, glancing briefly back to Regan. "All right, you ugly sack of shit. I haven't had a chance to stretch my legs for a while, so I'm almost looking forward to kicking your ass."

The Bogey Man spat a sticky gob of green slime onto the ground, "Ah think someone n'ds a lesson in manners."

With that, he charged at Victoria, swinging his claws at her.

"First lesson is always clean up after yourself. Winds of Watoomb!" she cried, holding her dagger up to the air, calling gale force winds to blow slam into the Bogeyman (and doing her best to redirect the gob of slime onto him or him onto the slime)

Continue keeping him contained... it should only take a few moments more to conjure up a defense for Regan.

On it.

The Bogey Man hits the wall hard, splattering against it into a mess of white and green. He slowly slides off, reforming. One of his arms slashed out at Victoria like a tendril.

"Y'h even know who yer protectin', lil' witch?" The Bogey Man says, chuckling.

Meanwhile, Regan was standing guard over the whimpering spirit when the flicker of a shadow slid across the ground and disappeared inside her.

"Ahhh...th'r we go. Thought we could have a lil' talk, me 'n you." Regan heard whispered inside her head. Regan tried to shout, but whatever it was kept her mouth and movements locked down for the moment.

"Get out of my, head!"

"In a tick. First,I have an off'r f'r yah. Y'h pissed off some people back home. Th' nasty sorts," the voice said, "Th'y been lookin' f'r yah an' they're closin' in fast. "

Regan paused,suddenly looking very scared, "What's your point?"

"Gimme th' witch an' th' kid an' I won't tell 'em where y'r hiding."

"Oh, I have a good idea," Victoria snarled. "And you know what? I've protected worse. Here's an interesting spell. Tell me how it feels, I'll send word to Victor afterward. He'll find it amusing," she said, sending an eldritch beam to pierce his spiritual essence.

The Bogey Man exploded, white chunks of flesh scattering everywhere.

"Ah'll even do ya'h one bett'r 'en th't," the voice whispered to Regan, "Ah'll get y'h past those pretty lil' protections on the ring th't witch is wearin'. I get her soul and you get her body."

Regan closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to look at Victoria. Her grip tightened around the soulblade.

Victoria thrust her hands out, rings of energy spinning in place around her, around Regan and the spirit-boy, and five more darting about, seeking out any further magical disturbances to block.

Regan opened her eyes, "Goth slut isn't my thing."

The rings flew over to the pile of skin, focusing in on the ring. It would keep the shade from returning to it, but as Victoria would quickly sense there was something very wrong with her pupil.

"Well, ah tried givin' yeh a choice. Now things get rough," the voice said. A spiritual corruption spread throughout Regan as the shade started to possess her. Regan's hand awkwardly twitched, touching the soulblade to the ring around her.

Meanwhile, the streetlights had begun flickering and a dark fog was settling around them, centered around Regan.

Shit. Dammit, dammit, dammit. Victoria remembered the feel of the man who'd been walking down the street and quickly put two and two together.

Have to protect her.
Have to drive him out.
No margin for error.

"In the quiet black of night,
"By the endless twisting path,
I invoke the mystic right,
And the Goddess yet unseen,
Spirit filled with piercing light,
Let ye who stir my wrath,
Seraphim shield her with your might!"
Be purged by the Flames of Faltine!"

Victoria stood, haloed in energy, one side of her body holding her wand and glowing with an inner light, the other side holding the athame with that half of her head shrouded in flame as she unleashed her spells.

Flames swallowed Regan, whipping around her and ripping the shade from her. It hit the ground as the flames died down, looking like a slick, black, slimy shape with green eyes. It coughed weakly, trying to get to its feet, but it was obviously too badly hurt to move much.

Regan rose in the air and eerie, ghostly hands erupted from her chest and back. They wrapped themselves along the evil spirit, dragging it towards Regan. All the lights around them flickered and any electronics in the area started going crazy. The thing shrieked like an animal, clawing at the ground, but it was useless. As it reached Regan, there was a flash of light and Victoria could feel the thing being pulled into some sort of gate inside of Regan herself. There was one final shriek and then the thing was gone.

Regan collapsed to the ground, or at least as much as she could collapse. She looked tired, confused, and a little frightened at what just happened. As the dark fog cleared, the lights returned to normal.

"This," Regan says, taking a deep breath out of reflex, "Has been a weird night."

"That sounds about right," Victoria said, kneeling by Regan to support her as she looked at the boy's spirit. "It never rains but it pours here."

"Is he okay?" Regan asked.

The kid looked like he'd been crying, but wasn't any more hurt than he had been before all this.

"I lost my mom," the kid said, his voice fading in and out.

"As okay as a lingering spirit can be," Victoria said. "But we can fix that."

She looked at the boy. "I can't say what you will find beyond this world... but I can promise you that in a few moments, all of your questions will be answered. About everything."

"That...was awful," Regan says, moving over to where Victoria and the kid were. She crouched down to the kid's level.

"You're going to see your mom soon," Regan says, ruffling his hair, "I promise."

The kid looked at her suspiciously, before looking at Victoria again. He didn't look like he quite trusted Regan.

"Oh, come on," Regan protested, "I'm the one with actual experience. Don't be a brat."

Victoria smiled slightly, holding out her still-glowing hand. "When you're ready, just take my hand. It won't hurt... nothing will ever hurt you again."

The kid reached out and hesitantly took Victoria's hand.

Always makes an exorcism easier when it wants to move on... But despite any connotations that 'exorcism' might have, what happened was rather gentle. She quietly chanted, in Latin it seemed, and a glow expanded... in front of them? Around them? It was hard to say. "Just step toward it... It's time to go home."

The kid stepped towards the light, looking almost hypnotized. He looked back, mouthing 'Thank you' before stepping fowrard into the unknown.

But the kid wasn't the only ghost being pulled towards the light. Regan moved towards it, the soft glow drawing her closer. The light felt warm and secure....and she just felt so tired all of the sudden...

And (as she'd found she could before), Regan felt Victoria taking her hand as well. "Only if you want," she said quietly. "But there's no hurry. It's not like this is the only time I can do this."

Regan shook her head, looking like Victoria had just waken her up. There was a roar inside her head. A parade of visions of demons, fire, and pain.

"No," Regan says, holding tightly onto Victoria's hand, "Not now."

Victoria drew Regan back toward her, waving a hand aside, the gateway closing. "You're still a little snot," she said, without much bite to the words.