The NEW Vanguard! Haunt Issue #6

Forming his body into a sphere, Haunt makes a false mouth (he doesn't really want to swallow this gunk...)for Stygian, Yeoman and Catalyst to pour the black ooze into the hole he made.

"This is weird" mutters Yeoman.

Stygian looked out across the rooftop. "There ARE some flying, jumping and running people still after the creature... but the armed forces are finding it difficult to keep up. It's moving at a superhuman speed and unleashing something from its body... like shrapnel. At this range, I can only estimate its 50 storeys high."

Yeoman stopped. "What the... This is ridiculous! We're throwing everything we have into this gunk, but that thing is beyond us, beyond this now! It's gonna take... a Nuke!"

"Nuke London?" spluttered Catalyst.

Yeoman frowned "Yeah. That's not gonna happen. Get pouring creep."

=========

The creature that was Dr P raised a huge fist and smashed it down on a building that more or less destroyed the entirety of the top five floors in one hit, and rendered the rest of it unstable.

Luckily this was uninhabited as the Police, ineffectual against the behemoth. No gun, gas, bomb, special weapons or technology seemed effective. It adapted to everything. The superhuman community had rallied, both heroes and villains, to form an army against it. With every battered and beaten superhuman, the creature got stronger and more powerful as it adapted and copied their powers.

Those it could not readily copy were ignored whilst the vast array of other powers were brought to bear on whoever resisted more than a few moments.

Along the trail of shattered buildings and mashed vehicles were strewn bodies of the fallen. Most clinging to life, others broken in mind and body, and some who would never rise again. This was a game changer, and life in Britain - if it continued at all - would never be the same.

First though, Haunt and his friends would have to stop it. Could he do that without killing his friend?

As he filled up with gunk, getting bigger and bigger, he suddenly recalled the words of his 'future self'...

"Praetorious must not be cured! Not fully... stopped, yes, but the cure will mutate into a virus. In my time there is..."

The creature turned, distracted by a bedraggled figure in tattered rags. Even if the group were able to get close enough to see Majestics' un-masked face no one would be able to recognise him for the bruises and blood on it. Remarkable given that nothing less than a small nuclear device could even give the man pause. He was almost as powerful as Adjutant... speaking of which...

Haunt looked about. If anyone in the British Pantheon of heroes could make a dent in Dr P, it would have been Adjutant, but there was no sign of him. He'd been AWOL for months now.

The trio continued to pour and suddenly there was a huge crash that made everyone look.

What seemed to be fragments of stone, bone or chitin flew from the body of the beast in EVERY direction, like a porcupines quills... but these were blunt, sharp, odd shaped... and ranging in size from marbles to a small car! Thousands of them, in every direction!

It flattened the remaining superhumans around the beast and punched holes clean through the other side of every building within 400 yards!

Yeoman shouted "DOWN!" and covered Catalyst with his body. Stygian gasped, then concentrated and vanished! Haunt had to reform his body in an instant, and lost a whole load of black gunk as it sprayed out.

Just in the nick of time. The building was pelted with the projectiles like a mini gun would spray its target! The noise was deafening, but it passed in moments amidst smoke and rubble.

Haunt reformed into the balloon, then looked to Yeoman, Catalyst, and Stygian who'd reappeared on the roof. Stygian gasped and ran to Yeomans' side, then helped the hero lean back. Haunt gaped as his friend grunted in pain. A six foot long shaft of razor sharp bone jutted through his back and angled down through his hip. Blood poured from the ruins of his body, and he was already turning pale.

"Unnnh." he grunted. "You better... appreciate... this... ya punk..." he said to Catalyst.

Haunt looked up. The creature would be here in moments!

"Pour into me what you got," the Haunt yelled. "Reload! And then get out of here! Catalyst! Make sure the authorities know how to make more of this stuff if I fail!"

The Haunt using his stretching, shapeshifting and Omni-arm to make tentacle hands, grabs whatever containers survived and still had the potion in them, and pours them down his "stomach" while he waits for Catalyst to make a last few more gallons of the stuff and have it poured into his fake stomach.

Once done, he flattens himself from a sphere shape into a giant amoeba-like form and tries slithering/oozing up to Doc P, hoping his flattened state would make him less noticeable instead of a bouncy ball shape.


ooc: current plan of action is to get close, using stretching to swing/climb up monster Doc P's blind side - back most likely - then swing around to his mouth and either squirt the potion into his mouth or jump into his mouth and then squirt it down his throat.

And just for S&Gs, I wonder if Acting would help him be less noticeable in his approach and climbing? Doubt it but always trying to figure interesting ways to use skills.

Despite being somewhat noticeable (being pure white tends to do that in the shadows) Haunt sticks to cover and moves closer to the leviathan that was both Dr P and the other gathered scientists that formed the horrendous amalgam of rage and destruction currently terrorising London.

Closer. Closer still. He was within several hundred yards now.

The creature had paused to address the attention of several superhumans. They had tried their best to surround it and were pouring on fire, a green coloured energy and what seemed to be diamonds from their hands, eyes and in one case, his backside. Haunt grimaced. The bad guy who could 'emit diamonds' from his posterior was a joke in the superheroic community, especially as the diamonds didn't last, but they were razor sharp, ultra hard and came out in a torrent that allowed him, of all things, to take off like a jet. Unfortunately his powers seemed limited to how much he'd eaten the night before, and the torrent slowed.

Dr P/The Beast wiped showers of tiny glittering diamonds from its face even as it ignored the other energy beams. By now the most powerful heroes - and villains, that had decided to pitch in - were exhausted, unconscious or worse. What was left were the desperate, amateur attempts of relative unknowns, including 'Diamondcrack'. A joke in the villain AND hero community, he'd decided to try anyway - and fail - to slow down the beast.

His failure was compounded by a truck sized foot squishing him into the floor, leaving a red smeared puddle in the crater that was left.

Haunt winced.

He kept moving and got within 100 yards of the beast, who then started moving away. The green energy blaster, a woman in her mid forties from the looks of it, cowered in the ruins of a building as she gasped for breath, clearly exhausted by her efforts. She looked drained, and had 'pushed' beyond all previous limits to blast at Dr P's leg. Unfortunately by now the beast had adapted, and the powerful blast hadn't even left a mark on the bone encrusted chitinous exterior that would surely shrug off nuclear weapons by now!

The fire emitter flew about Dr P's head, blasting eyes, ears, into the mouth, anything he could to slow the beast down. He was fast too, and eluded the annoyed swat Dr P sent his way. Unfortunately he'd gotten the beasts attention too well, and a look from the huge red orbs for eyes lit the fiery mans form up, illuminating his skeleton briefly with a radioactive blast that, a heartbeat later, reduced the superhuman to ash. Dust fell from the sky in a light cloud over a small area, and Haunt grimaced. This had to end!

He climbed up a building, dragging his gunk filled form behind him. An onlooker would have though it a bizarre sight.

On a flat rooftop he gathered himself. He saw his target spin, catch an air-ground missile fired from a distant helicopter, then scrunch it in a hand with a muffled explosion. The eye beams lanced out again, and the helicopter dropped to the ground as smoking ruins. Everywhere he looked, Haunt saw fires, spiralling smoke, shattered buildings, a trail of devastation and death the likes of which he could not imagine!

Just then he looked back... and the creature was looking at him. Then it moved. How could something so big be so fast! He was in trouble... it reached for him... then paused.

With a bellowing voice it roared "RRRRRRRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

The hand hovered in the air only a dozen or so yards away, ready to squish Haunt but it had stopped. For how long, he couldn't tell, but could this be his chance? What was that his future self had said though?

OOC Go for it, pump all the gunk into Dr P's mouth as he utters Rush, or try something else. This is the first time the creature has given pause to anything...

Reforming into his Haunt persona albeit a bloated one, Rush King stood with left hand on hip and right hand out in an oratory fashion and started singing to his friend:

"Here I come to save the Daaaay! Never Fear, help is on the Waaayyyy! We know that when there's danger, we'll never despair; Because we know that when there's danger he is there...
On the land on the sea in the air.

We're not worrying at all
We just listen for his call
"Here I come to save the day!"
That means that Mighty Haunt is on the way."

ooc: somewhat distorted version of the Mighty Mouse theme song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdIev12fCPs

After singing out to his friend, he turns the lower half of his body into a giant coil and springs towards his friend's face, aiming for his mouth if possible.

The creature was faster than Haunt. By now, with superspeed and other abilities giving it near light speed reactions, it caught Haunt in the air as he leapt...

OOC Dex 20 (using Superspeed) vs Haunts Dex of 9...

Roll(6d10)+0: 8,3,7,9,3,3,+0 Total:17 +20 vs TN11 + Dex 9 (20). Success.

Mighty Mouse (OOC loved that back in the day...) felt a hand enclosing him... the strength! It was incredible! it was all Haunt had to simply hold the gunk inside his body! It was all over. No way he could...

Just then the hand started to shudder and a deep growl of "Rrrrush..." rang out... And the creature raised a shuddering hand to its mouth! Then it squeezed! Without a flexible skeleton and body Haunt would have died. As it was, he spewed the black gunk out like a spraying rocket. Into the creatures mouth.

It dropped him, thrashing, as it roared a deafening cry of pain! Haunt fell, crashing into the floor, smashing brick and concrete underneath his stunned body. The pain! He was barely holding to consciousness...

He looked up... and the creature seemed to be turning dark/black... It shuddered, thrashing around and flattened another building by falling on it... The body stiffened, turning blacker... then it shattered!

Haunt raised his head a little to see the massive of dark chunks... Where was...

The world went dark...

=========

"Cough!" went a noise near to him. Haunt opened an eye.

Covered in black congealing slime, a face looked down at Haunt. "Rush? Are you..."

Dr P!

Haunt groaned, feeling the agony as broken bones knitted back into place. He raised himself, and recognised his friend, albeit that he was covered in gunk.

"It's not what we think! All of this... it's a plan... a trap! There are..." he broke off and looked up...

Haunt looked at the black slime dripping from ruins and still standing buildings. It was all over the place, covering a square mile or more. The stuff worked! The fallout from this would be huge, but that paled - as everything did - against the sun bright light in the sky as something fell from space... A meteor, some kind of asteroid...? Falling towards London?

Dr P helped his friend sit up. Haunt, like everything else about, was covered in gunk. He looked about. People... civilians... police... the odd army soldier... were stumbling about through the black gunk.

They, too, were looking up at the blinding bright light coming from the sky towards the battered capital city.

"Listen to me!" hissed Dr P. "My formula could never have done all of that! I'm telling you, there is something bigger going on here! The group of scientists weren't all human! One of them must have been a plant... someone knew what was going to happen and altered events to create the creature... I'm sure of it!"

Haunt turned to his friend. Every bone in his body, heck, even his skin, felt in agony from the squeeze the creature had given him. It should have killed him, he knew, but something - probably Dr P's will - held it back just enough to save him from death.

The bright light behind him though... in the sky... if that struck London, it would spell the end of all life, possibly across all of Europe!

ooc: My other big hero theme song of that era was Underdog's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa1fH0SvGPg
Gigantor came in third. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtXcXUVlLqU

"You have any idea what to do, Prof? All I can think of is become a big trampoline and try to absorb the impact." [ooc: Stretching used as defense only adds to his defense against impact damage, right? Not sure how big a difference it makes though.}

He thinks a quick moment.

"Or fly up to it and try to deflect it into the ocean but it's probably so big that we are talking massive tidal waves inundating the coastlines."

He looks around to see if anyone else is left standing who might be able to help out.

Stygian appeared from the shadows of a building on a few yards away.

Initially, Haunt thought she was about to attack Dr P, due to her enraged body language. However, with immense effort of will, she moved instead to crouch near Haunt. "The creature is gone." she growled. "The recriminations of what happened, and how all this came to pass shall no doubt have to go through the justice system..." she added with a glance at Dr P "But all of that will mean nothing if that... asteroid.. strikes London. England, and a proportion of Europe, will simply cease to be!"

"I propose that you fly me up there and I open a portal. The most I've ever opened to was half a mile, line of sight distance. Up there, I can perhaps see as far as the Thames Estuary goes. Perhaps as far or further still than Southend. I will 'port' that thing into the sea. There will be consequences... but less so than it hitting the ground!"

Though the light was blinding, it was still possible to see that the incoming object was high up. Haunt couldn't be sure but it seemed possible.

"You open spacial rifts? Portals?" asked Dr P. "Can you ... reverse them?"

A pause, then... "Possibly. You are suggesting to put it as low down as possible then let the momentum fight against gravity as we reverse the asteroids course?" she held her jet black chin in her hand. "I can try it. Over water."

"Of course." said Dr P. "it will fire into the air but catching something at terminal velocity will be far easier than trying to catch THAT." he said, shielding his eyes against the glare of the asteroid which was coming down so fast it was burning up, but not enough that it would be safely dissipated!

Dr P turned to Haunt. "Everyone else looks down and out. The army is smashed, the air force helpless. London.. England.. Europe.. is depending on you R... Haunt. And your friend here! And yes, I will face whatever justice is needed to sort out this... calamity..." he said with sadness and pain as he looked at the devastated areas all around him. Toppled buildings, fires, smouldering ruins, smashed vehicles, rubble, smoke, bewildered people wandering around... It looked like a war zone.

"Go save the day!" shouted Dr P!

"I think you just said that instead of porting it off to the side and into the ocean at full speed, you are going to port it so that it falls "upwards" and then at very reduced speeds, let it fall into the ocean or as close to it as you can get. Correct," the non-scientist Haunt asks.

Seeing the affirmative, the Haunt changes his shape into a slightly larger than human-sized Buck Rogers type rocket ship [as big as he can go with his shape shift and Omni arm powers] {https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/toy-space-ship-buck-rogers-rocket-police-patrol-ship} with open cockpit for Stygian to sit in.

"Hop in," he says as he finishes changing his shape.

Once she does, he takes off.


https://www.google.com/search?q=buck+rogers+rocket+ships&sa=X&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&biw=1280&bih=976&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=OyJ8ijysCwZxAM%253A%252CwSEL3sfWjViBcM%252C_&usg=AI4_-kSV8upeLhGIhNo301MoOpvlFuxBhQ&ved=2ahUKEwig-Nub8b_eAhUm01kKHZi8Cj0Q9QEwCXoECAMQFg#imgrc=OyJ8ijysCwZxAM:

various Buck Rogers toy rocket ships. Really cool!

OOC Big fan of the 30s serials (Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, King of the rocket men etc) and tried to collect all of the XXVC game line (think I succeeded but can't be sure).

Stygians expressionless mask didn't show surprise but Haunt got the idea an eyebrow was raised under that darkness. She hopped in though, nonetheless, and the rocket took off, albeit without the time eating spiral smoke billowing take off such a thing might have warranted!

Up, up into the pale grey sky, with London shrinking far below. The trail of devastation was clear to see from here and Haunt winced. Surely there would be repercussions, and how would he feel if Dr P, honest as he was, turned himself in?

Mind you, that was a moot point if this object hit the ground!

OOC Stygians roll... Spending 40HP to save London... Roll(6d10)+0: 2,4,7,1,7,8,+0 Total:14 DOUBLE plus Roll(2d10)+0: 5,2,+14 Total:21

Warp 12 + 21 (33) vs TN 11 + OV 15 +4 (trick shot) (30)

"ArrrrrARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!" yelled Stygian over the howl of the wind and the 'rocket engine' noises Haunt insisted on making. A dark portal with jagged edges appeared in the air and seemed to expand to fit the oncoming asteroid...

Haunt could see its size had shrunk dramatically, as if the outer crust were being burnt away by re-entry...

FWOOOSHHHH!!!

It vanished through the portal and Haunt turned to fly towards where Stygian indicated. Even at his top 'rocket' speed it took several minutes to reach the scene. By then the asteroid had appeared IN the sea and fired upwards and out, both cooling and slowing it. Now a splash ripple hundreds of yards wide was dissipating to mark where it had gone up, then back down again.

Turning his hand into a flashlight after dropping Stygian at the bank, Haunt flapped ghostly wings over to the entry point, took a deep breath then plunged in. A quick jig around with his bag bought him an oxygen tank with 4 minutes of air, plus what he could hold with his own mighty lungs.

Minutes passed and Stygian considered going in herself, but breathed a sigh of relief as Haunt surfaced. In his arms was not an asteroid, as she'd thought, but a man coated in thick black gunk!

Moments later Haunt and Stygian were by the mans side, scraping off the incredibly thick, sticky and strong gunk that seemed to adhere to the mans form but dissolve when it was pulled away with the use of super strength.

The man was familiar, and Stygian murmured "That's Albert Watkins... ADJUTANT!"

Adjutant was the acknowledged most powerful superhuman in the United Kingdoms and probably Europe's superhuman hierarchy. Only several Americans, the odd Russian and Chinese hero, and a reclusive Norwegian who claimed to be an Asgardian (called Allfather) could match or slightly exceed his power. Possibly Lionheart might come close, Haunt figured, but that wasn't the point.

What WAS the point was that Adjutant was exhausted, naked aside from some comic code authority well placed black gunk and extremely battered and bruised!

"What could do this to him?" Stygian whispered. Just then Adjutant coughed, spluttered, turned to his side and spewed gallons of black gunk out from his lungs! He seemed to be at it for a while and the pair of heroes wondered what on earth could do this to him, and how he could survive the experience!

"They're coming..." he spluttered, still spitting black gunk. "The Shadows... Darkening... they're coming!" he groaned through hoarse lungs, then he sagged, into deep unconsciousness!

"What does that mean?" asked Stygian.

Somewhere, deep and buried inside of Rush King, a voice screamed out "NO! We beat them! They're gone... aren't they...????"

Haunt felt an icy shiver down his spine, and looked around. Sure enough, where he looked at shadow, they seemed to be darker... Wait! Were there... eyes there? He blinked. The sun broke slightly from the clouds and the shadow faded, but Haunt knew something big... evil... was this way coming...

=========

OOC End of Chapter. Feel free to post Haunts reaction. When Dave E posts his chapter will be wrapped too. Instead of a mountain of hero points for your heroic efforts, I will be handing out Attribute points for you to increase existing abilities or buy new ones. You will get a fresh store of HP but I'll detail that when both chapters are wrapped and we start on a new one. All being well this week but definitely next at the latest!

"Need to get him to medical services," the Haunt tells Stygian, "and then help everyone else back in London. This isn't over yet. Not by a long shot!"

"You'll have to do it." rasps Stygian.

"i'm a fugitive. For that matter, for breaking Catalyst out of jail, so are you." she adds.

"Hold on." she vanishes into a portal. Moments later, she reappears. "Called the police and ambulance. It's theirs now."

She looked north, to the spirals of smoke rising from distant London. "This is a game changer. Public opinion sat on a knife edge before a giant rampaging super monster smashed London up. This will tip it over the edge."

Haunt knew Stygian was right. The civil war of several years ago between registration and anonymity sides split opinion back then but the right for supers to wear masks in order to operate and protect their civilian loved ones won out thanks in large part to a positive press.

This time? It was a mess. From what Dr P said his potion, or part of it, could not have created the beast that tore a hole through the heart of the superhuman community and smashed security services into the floor. There was more going on here. A plot. A plan.

And whatever it was, it had oh so nearly worked!

He sighed. Yeoman still needed help thanks to that huge bone shard jutting from him. Catalyst was... well, he was probably gone by now. The authorities would begin picking up the pieces, locking areas down. Too many cctv cameras across London not to pick something up.

Then this. Adjutant. Smashed up, covered in some kind of super goo, falling from the sky.

Something bad this way was coming.

Something evil.

Dark.

Apocalyptic.

First thing I want to do is raise Dexterity since so many of my powers are linked to it. Then raise Will for Regeneration.

I am wondering about losing the skill Weaponry since I do not think I've ever really used it since I tend to rely on Omni-arm instead. Or is it combined with Omni-arm for attack purposes?

What's the range for Fog at 10?

Would like to also increase Aura of Fear if I have points for it after trying to raise Dex and Will. Charisma might be nice to raise too.

But the order I would like to spend points is Dex, Will, Aura of Fear and Charisma. Maybe get rid of Weaponry if I am not really using it and maybe using those points to increase the other skills that I do use.

Those are my initial thoughts.

OOC Weaponry gives loads of free extra attack dice and combines with Omni Arm.

285 HP to Boost Dex to 10 (with Stretching and Self manipulation up to 10 as they are linked)
120 HP to boost Will to 8 (and regen to 8, linked)
75 HP for Aura of fear to 10
=480HP

Charisma would need 60HP. You can spend some of Haunts remaining HP132 to cough up the 40 required...

Well we definitely want to keep Weaponry then!!!!!

Dex, Will and Aura of Fear all look good raised like that.

So only 20 HP left to spend plus the 132 remaining … hhmmm ….

Now I'm not sure if I want to raise Charisma or not.

You have any suggestions? What's left that I could raise with my remaining points? Stats, skills or powers? Would gaining a new power or skill be of a level that could help me with the remaining points?

Body sounds good. So many times I've been down in single digits, combine that with his now higher regeneration rate and he comes off more unstoppable.
{Which of course, you will immediately make plans to get around it anyway you can}

So lets do Body and keep the remaining 62 HP for something really needed in my first battle.

Looks fine to me.
just out of curiosity, what do I need to raise Fog one more point? Something I want to keep in mind for the future.

The Heck with it! Let's spend it! How big an area is an 8 anyways for that power?

Still Fog is part of his schtick so increasing it makes sense. So from a one room fog he can now do several rooms or perhaps, filling part of an alleyway and then having it spill spookily out into the street. Kind of a nice special effect there. Then if I can combine it somehow with Aura of Fear set at a continuous low level to set the mood … be great for atmosphere.

Just have to remember to spend a bit more on it the next time I get some points. I would like to realistically eventually spread it out over a block or two but not much more than that.