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analepsis & necrocomicon
December 24th, 1943
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"You ever feel like you're getting too old for this?"
"You are, but I've got a while to go."
"Oh. Thanks." John Chance zipped up his jacket, before grabbing the zap gun and pair of goggles off of a shelf and sliding them across the table to the woman at the other end.
Wendy Parker grabbed the gun, holstering it, then put on the goggles. "I'm just saying, you've been doing this longer than I have, Doc. A lot longer." She flexed slightly, painted steel wings ejecting from either side of the pack strapped to her back. Another slight movement and they retracted. She was satisfied with the response time. "So what are we doing exactly?"
"Got a call about a hostage situation - police are trying to handle it, but it turned weird."
"How weird?"
"Weird enough to call for people with colorful aliases." The man the papers called 'Doc Wonder' checked his pockets, and, satisfied, settled on fiddling with the ring on his right hand while his companion checked her gear.
"Fair enough - but why do they need a rocketwoman for this?"
"They don't, I just couldn't find the Strigoi and everyone else I'd usually contact is overseas."
"Oh. So it's just the two of us, then?"
"A few other locals might meet us there."
"Anyone I know?"
"I don't know - Operator Zero, The Hint, and Mester Jester."
"Ugh. That clown gives me the creeps."
"Oh, he's not that bad."
The Golden Eagle shrugged her shoulders. "He's not that good, either."
December 24th, 1943
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"What sort of 'hostage situation' requires a vigilante clown, a masked secret agent, a rocketwoman, and a ghost detective?" Doc Wonder asked his contact, leaning against the car he'd driven to the meetup outside of the Derleth Mansion. On the roof sat the Golden Eagle, listening to the conversation, while The Hint, face wrapped in bandages, discussed something unrelated with the masked Operator Zero a few feet away, on the other side of the car. Doc wasn't sure where Mester Jester was, now that he thought about it. The Eagle piped in, adding to the question "Yeah, and who's the hostage?"
The officer who met them took off his cap and scratched the top of his bald head. "Well, that's the thing. Mr. Derleth has his wife in there with him - she's pregnant, you know - but he's threatening the city." The policeman paused, allowing Doc Wonder to interject "What, the whole city?" before continuing. "Yeah - yes. That's what he says, anyway. We thought he was just a nut, but then--"
A CLANG on the hood of a nearby police car signaled the appearance of the facepainted clown. From the roof of the Doc's car came a disgusted grunt, but it went largely unheard as the Jester interrupted. "Then what?" The detective and the agent looked up from their conversation long enough to acknowledge the clown's arrival, but quickly went back to it.
After a brief moment to recover from the startling appearance, the officer continued."Then we sent some men in after him. And then some more men after those. And now we're four men short and we don't know why. So I called you, Doc, to see if you and your group could help. And, you know, some of the other boys have their own connections." The officer gestured vaguely at the assembled group of adventurers and mystery men.
Doc Wonder looked to the clown, then the detective and the agent, before turning to the rocketwoman. "Well, it's good they do, most of my group are out of town and we wouldn't want to be short-handed." The doc turned back to the policeman. "So, what else can you tell us? Do we have any idea what kind of weapons he might have?"
The officer shrugged "I don't know, nobody's seen anything. At least not anyone who's come back out. He just keeps ranting about funnybooks."
Another interruption, this time almost whispered - but still somehow very clear and audible - from the other side of the car. "Wait." The Hint had broken off from his conversation with Operator Zero, and the two moved around the car to join the rest in their discussion of the situation. The Hint continued. "Comic Books. That Derleth?" Doc Wonder looked to the detective, then to the officer. "Oh."
"What is it?" The Eagle spoke from her perch on the car's roof, hoping someone could explain what 'funnybooks' had to do with anything. The Hint looked up at her, though seemed to be looking through her, before returning to the conversation. "Three years ago. Double disappearance. Murder? Charles Binder, comic magazine writer. Editor? Robert Derleth. Investigated myself. Ties to the occult. Never solved." The Hint gestured to the house. "William, son of Robert."
The Golden Eagle wondered, for a moment, how Operator Zero managed to have a conversation with this guy, and whether or not he was more unnerving than the clown. Still, she thought she remembered hearing something about the disappearance - she didn't know it was that weird, though. The clown, for his part, piped in - recognizing names if not the situation. "'Action Boy'! So that's what happened to it!" The ghost detective responded with a simple, direct "Yes." And the clown mumbled, sadly. "I loved that book."
Doc Wonder glanced between the four other assembled adventurers and the officer who'd met them here. "I guess that's all the information we're going to get, then." It wasn't very much, but he wasn't sure what else they could get standing out here. The information-gathering coming to an end, The Eagle finally stood up, though remained on the vehicle's roof. "The house is pretty big, we should probably split up. I can take the top floor - for obvious reasons." As she spoke, the wings of her jetpack extended.
"Me too." Operator Zero added, drawing his grapple gun. "We can go in on opposite sides." The Eagle nodded, followed by Doc. Then the Jester spoke up. "Me and the Hint can go in the back way." The clown paused for a moment, glancing to the Hint, before adding. "Uh, if that's good for you." The reply was another "Yes."
"Well, that's settled, then." Doc Wonder turned to the officer who'd been informing them of the situation. "It looks like we'll take it from here." Back to the group, he finished. "I'll go in the front, and we'll all meet somewhere in the middle. Let's get started." The plan seemed to be good enough for everyone assembled, and the group split.
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