them

December 24th, 1943
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John Chance approached the front door of the Derleth House, his four associates having split up to cover other entrances. He'd chosen the most direct route, having opted to start with an attempt to reason with the man inside. Chance climbed the steps to the porch carefully, keeping an eye out for anything strange, then approached the front door. Three knocks and he announced himself. "My name is John Chance, and I just want to talk." After a pause, and no response, he added. "You may know me better as Doc Wonder." Another short pause and he heard the click of a lock being undone and the doorknob turning. The door opened just slightly and, after waiting a moment, John pushed the door open the rest of the way.

Behind the house, a vigilante clown, a ghost detective, and a masked secret agent scaled the fence surrounding the back yard. The three masked men moved quickly across the yard, the agent checking windows as they did, and found that nothing seemed out of place - if not for a hostage situation taking place inside and the disappearances of four police officers sent in to investigate. Coming to a stop at the back door, the clown checked the door. Turning the knob, he found it unlocked but didn't press on just yet. Operator Zero spoke, looking up to a nearby balcony. "This is where we split." The agent drew his grapple gun and launched the hook at the balcony's railing. "Good luck." With no further word, he zipped up to the higher floor. The clown looked to the detective. "I guess we just go in then, huh?" The Hint, face wrapped in bandages, replied. "Yes." And opened the door.

Back at the front, the Golden Eagle landed on a top-floor balcony. Her wings folded into her jetpack, and she took a moment to lean over the railing, catching sight of Doc Wonder entering the house through the front door. Well, it seemed entry wasn't going to be too much of a hassle. She stood and turned to the balcony's door and found it standing wide-open. Strange - she thought it was closed when she landed. Wendy drew her zap gun - just in case - and stepped through the open door.


TODAY
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"I'm just so tired of the things that look back." Deborah Koontz stood in the doorway to her living room, addressing the two men that had come to check on her. Daniel gestured to Kevin to stop whatever he was doing, and responded to the woman. "Uh, Ms. Koontz? What was that?" Kevin, for his part, let go of the sheet covering the mirror in the corner, and turned to the door- he didn't like the sound of that. He didn't know what it meant but it couldn't be anything good.

"I shouldn't have watched that god damned tape." The woman replied, though it wasn't actually an answer to Daniel's question. It just added another question. "What tape? And what was that about things looking back?" In response to Daniel's question, the woman just gestured vaguely around the room - apparently indicating the covered frames, mirror, and ending at the television, unplugged and turned around with its screen facing the wall. "Look."

Both men, the wizard and his apparent assistant, turned to the unused television - finding that now, the screen was facing them. Behind them, Deborah Koontz crossed through the door.


THEN
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The lack of response made Chance tense. No one telling him to come in, no one telling him to leave. No threats and no cries for help. He progressed through the house - darker than he liked - until he found himself in the sitting room. Through the dark, he could make out a shape - a woman sitting in a chair in the corner, near a bookshelf. "Miss Derleth?" John Chance spoke - the woman reached to pull the cord on the lamp on the table next to her, and didn't react when the light failed to come on. "It's not him." She spoke. "It's them. And it's *him*."

The back door opened into a dining room - the Clown noted that the dining room table alone, with its tablecloth hanging to the floor, seemed bigger than his apartment. His second thought was how bright it seemed "They have every lamp in the house in here or--" Jester was shut up by his partner's hand clamping over his mouth. "Shhhh." The Hit lifted his other hand, finger to his lips - assuming there were lips behind the bandages. He followed with a whisper. "Not alone.". The tablecloth shifted, and a chair screeched across the floor as it was pushed back.

Upstairs, the Agent - Operator Zero - found himself in a bedroom. At least he was pretty sure there was a bed, somewhere, underneath the piles of comic books, pulp science fiction novels, and loose papers. Sifting through some of the papers, he found then indecipherable. What appeared to be English at first glance turned out to be nonsense - a code, maybe, but nothing like anything he'd seen before. Shrugging, he turned away, heading for the door. As he reached for the doorknob, it clicked - locking - and while he checked for a way to unlock it, he heard the sounds of paper crinkling and shifting behind him. Books and magazines fell to the floor as something rose out from under them.

Just through the open door, the Rocketwoman entered the library. Browsing the books as she made her way through, zap gun at the ready, she found nothing she recognized - though, near as she could tell, most were related to so-called anomalous phenomena - spirits, magic, and demons. The Hint's specialty, she thought.  A thud around a corner nearly made her jump out of her skin, though she recovered quickly, and after a moment to breathe, turned the corner quickly, prepared for whatever might be lurking - but it was only more shelves. More books. Spotting one on the floor, she crouched down to pick it up. "I didn't mean to do it." The man's voice came from behind her - where she'd just been. "I just wanted them to stop."


TODAY
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"Well that's - something." Kevin didn't know what it was, but he was getting progressively less comfortable here. And this was from someone who's spent roughly twenty years trapped in a fictional diner. The television clicked, screen coming to life, and the VCR whirred to life, tape spinning. Despite, as Daniel noted, neither being plugged into the wall. Daniel gestured for Kevin to give him golf club and tin lunchbox he'd been carrying. "Go wait in the car." Kevin didn't have to be told twice, and backed away to leave the room. Daniel looked to the woman, Ms. Koontz. "You should probably get out of here, too." She didn't move, though - didn't even seem like she'd heard him. Turning back to the TV, he was just in time to see the title card, and the announcer blared about the serial's exciting conclusion - Action Boy, Chapter 14.

Down the hall, Kevin called back. "This isn't going to make any sense, but --- I can't find the door."