Summary:Ant Man, Captain Marvel, and Dead Girl venture into the Disaster Zone and find something familiar among the ruins. Log Info:Storyteller: Clockwork |
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What better to do on a Wednesday night than go poking about in the Disaster Zone. Over the past few years there's been all kinds of rumors coming out of the zone. Some say there are folks that live there. Some say that it's a complete wasteland. There's rumors of radiation, toxic sludge, strange things happening where no people ought to be. Some folks have gone in and found nothing. Some have gone in and reported that there are indeed some weird phenomena to be found among the ruins.
In this particular section of the Disaster Zone nearest Turtle Bay, ground zero for where the U.N. once stood, there is a warehouse not far from the docks that once stored event supplies from massive numbers of tables and chairs to linens and everything in between. Half of it has collapsed on itself. The other seems relatively intact. Tonight, there have been lights moving around inside that can be seen through cracks from the collapsed section.
The destruction of the city was a major blow to New York. Dead Girl had watched it all happen- not wholly passive, of course. Still, she walked through the Disaster Zones fairly regularly. She walks the same paths she's always walked- the Dead can get rather stuck in their ways.
Dead Girl just enjoyed her walks- and walking through a wasteland was still somewhat new and novel, giving her a vision of what the world would be like if the much feared nuclear war of the sixties ever came to pass. It's sobering, in a way.
Lights are a bit out of place, though, usually the Disaster Zone is haunted only by ghosts. The shy type. Dead Girl turns and begins towards the warehouse.
No work tonight, which, of course, is frustrating — any night that Scott Lang isn't working is a night he's not getting paid. But there are alternatives to getting paid. After all, people want to know what's going on in the disaster zone. Some people will pay for that information, or for stuff retrieved from that area. So, packing away a few tanks of ants shrunk down to microscopic size, Lang makes his way out to the DZ. Turtle Bay isn't the closest access point from his HQ, but he'll take it. He enters the zone on the wings of Ant-hony Shalhoub — he seriously loved Monk, awesome show — and whe he spies the warehouse glowing… well, that seems like a perfectly vible opportunity.
The two approach the warehouse from slightly different directions, but both see roughly the same sort of activity. Lights flash periodically, like someone swinging a flashlight around. Then they go out. Then they come back again. It doesn't seem to be in any sort of a pattern that would indicate communication or morse code or anything of the like. There are no sounds loud enough to be heard on the approach, either, at least not to normal senses.
The sky is grey, blocking out the stars and the moon, leaving it rather dark everywhere around the warehouse, itself. Only whatever lights they bring with them really illuminate anything. The ant seems content to fly Scott wherever he wants to go, and nothing, to this point, impedes their progress.
Dead Girl's body goes translucent and she starts to roll forward- feet leaving the ground as she walks the Astral paths to her destination- it lets the larger bits of ruin be no impedance to her- she just floats through the wreckage like a ghost. She doesn't notice Scott on his ant.
Rather she's quite curious about the lights and continues towards- and possible through the wall of the warehouse… although she does take it slow, so as to not startle anyone.
The ant is trained. Also helmet-controlled. Ant-hony Shalhoub will fly Scott wherever he wants to go, within his admittedly limited range. Assuming Ant-hony is a male. He probably isn't. Scott knows a lot about ants; his player less so.
But the flickering lights will draw more than ants. They will draw moths and other bugs as well. Good thing it's still cool. He's not easily visible on Ant-hony, but he's perceptive himself and can spy the dead woman approaching the same warehouse he is. He doesn't know she's dead yet, of course. Just that they're going the same direction. Flickering lights summon more than insects.
It doesn't take very long for Dead Girl to phase right through the wall into the building beyond, nor for Ant-hony Shalhoub to find an opening more than ample enough to fly through. Once inside, the amount of stuff that is still present within is impressive. Apparently there hasn't been a lot of looting of fancy uncomfortable lawn chairs and shiny linens. Oh, sure, there has been some looting. There's a good deal of stuff missing, but what remains is quite the collection. Large metal racks stretch upward from the floor almost two stories, bolted into the cement floor so that they won't topple over. There's a fork lift clearly used for moving freight about the place that looks like it's been taken for a spin or two, one of the racks dented where a crash probably occurred at one point or another.
For the moment, the light seems to have stopped, but there are sounds from the other end of the warehouse — a murmur of voices, some shuffling, but nothing distinct.
Slowly, slowly, Dead Girl floats towards the murmuring of voices- she goes higher into the air, to get above the situation. She's wholly silent as she floats through the air- not breathing. Just a pair of glowing red eyes, dimmed by the fact they're see-through at the moment. No judgement is made, yet. No- this is pure curiosity.
Scott whispers to Ant-hony, "This looks like a job for Ant-Man and the Translucent Wonder." He hasn't got a clue who Dead Girl is, and isn't speaking to her yet — it could ruin the surprise. However, micro-man and normal-sized bug flit lightly across the building, following not far behind Dead Girl (AKA, the Translucent Wonder, whose red eyes are making him rethink the idea of taking her on as a sidekick).
She wasn't here for it, but Carol saw the aftermath of the destruction when she came back to Earth. And well, if there is any radiation… she handles cosmic rays on a regular basis, so that doesn't bother her. Currently, she's in her costume as Captain Marvel, not exactly being subtle as she glances over towards the warehouse with the lights on.
At least, until she gets close, at which point she lands close, powering 'down' with the glowing so she isn't broadcasting her presence if these people are hostile.
"It went this way," a voice hisses, female, young, perhaps late teens or early twenties. There are a pair of figures huddled near a sunken corner of the room with their flashlights pointed into a hole that seems to go through one wall and into another side building. Her companion appears to be a youth of about the same age. Both of them are in jeans and hoodies, wearing boots, carrying backpacks. Perhaps they are exploring. Perhaps they are looting. It's hard to tell. Either way, they're following something, from the sound of it.
For the moment, neither of the pair seem aware of the others in the building with them, the translucent floating girl and the tiny ant are not really on their radar.
"Do you think it went after Mark?" the boy asks. "Didn't he say he was going in the other building?"
Dead Girl slowly floats to the ground, head cocked to the side as she clears her throat and goes more solid. "Hey, you guys know it's like super dangerous in these buildings, right?" she asks- sounding quite sweet, despite the fact there is no mistaking her for anything other than a corpse with glowing red eyes.
Oh. It's KIDS! And not, like, little kids. Kids who are old enough to be aware that this is dangerous and… then the Translucent Wonder is stealing his micro-thunder. Curses. "Uh," he says, such vocabulary, as he resumes his normal size. "What she said." Good one, Lang. Well spoken. You rule. "What was this about an 'it' that went 'that way'? Are you guys sure you should be following?"
At which point, Captain Marvel opens the door and steps inside, looking around. Better late than never after all, as she hears the voices and makes her way over in that direction. Recognizing Dead Girl, she waves over towards her, "Hey, everything alright here?" She looks at the kids with a bit of concern, then over at Ant-Man with a curious expression.
At the sudden sound of voices behind them, both teens scream and drop their flashlights, turning around and seeing only a floating pair of vaguely glowing eyes and a shadow barely illuminated by the edge of the fallen flashlights. Startled, they take a minute to catch their breath. And then the door opens, which doesn't really help the light situation but there's a third voice, and both kids seem a bit startled.
The boy stammers first, "Well sure, I mean.. the whole place is dangerous. But we brought flashlights.. and first aid kits.. and cell phones.. and… is.. is that a ghost?" Both manage to get their flashlights once more, and pointing them at Dead Girl does not improve either of their nerves. They huddle a bit closer together, for the moment too distracted by Dead Girl to answer Scott immediately.
"Personally, I prefer the term zombo-american." Dead Girl says- it's hard to tell if she's joking, it's said particularly dryly. "Anyways, yeah, I'm Dead- but don't worry. I won't hurt you." She assures the teens.
"I'm a nice lady, really!" Dead Girl assures the frightened mortals. "Anyways, yeah- who is Mark and what do we think is following him?"
"It's great that you came prepared, and I totally understand the desire to explore places you're not supposed to be," Ant-Man says, "but a first-aid kit isn't gonna help much if the roof collapses on you, you know?" However, the arrival of Captain Marvel draws his attention. And here he waves. "Hey, Captain M! Long time never met!"
Captain Marvel grins over at Ant-Man, "Um, yeah, that looks like Hank's suit? But you're /definitely/ not Hank." She then looks over at the kids and gives them a smile, "I don't know if you know who I am, I'm Captain Marvel. What's going on, exactly, and maybe we can help?"
"Mark's our other friend. He was going to go around and check the office that's attached, see if he could get in from the other side. We were in here and heard something moving around and there was this… thing," the girl blurts out a bit. "It looked like a big tablecloth and it was just sort of roaming around the room. But we must have spooked it because it took off through this hole." She gestures with her flashlight then says, "Oh, I'm Karen, this is Pete."
Then Pete's eyes go really wide, "Whoah… Captain Marvel?" He points his flashlight in her direction, which lights up her suit, and for a moment he seems to lose ability to speak. He looks over at Ant-Man then and stammers, "Oh uh, yeah.. nothing seems to be falling.. but one time we did go into this.." At that point, Karen elbows him in the gut, which causes him to stop, abruptly.
"Hrm. Sounds spooky." Dead Girl says, as she turns her head towards the hole. Her eyes blink- the red glows disappearing a moment as she again goes translucent and sinks into the ground near the hole- coming to look into the darkness as she just floats through the ground as if it didn't exist. "Hellllo? Any one in here?" she calls out, as she disappears for a moment to take a look.
"'Scuse me, then," Ant-Man says, and he shrinks down once more, remounts his flying ant, and zooms off into the hole with a cry of, "Hiyo Ant-hony Shalhoub!" Of course, there goes the Translucent Wonder, stealing his thunder once more by preceding him into the hole. Tsk. Sidekicks never learn. Especially when they don't know they're sidekicks.
Captain Marvel shakes her head a bit, and looks back at Karen and Pete, "Okay, you two stay here. We'll be back in a bit." Then she steps into the hole, her hand glowing to help light the way if necessary. Or maybe just photon blast some villainous whatsit that appears.
There is no response when Dead Girl calls out into the hole. As Scott zips into the hole and begins to head through it, he finds that it isn't a very long passage. It basically goes through the wall and into a back hall of another smaller attached building that hooks up to the warehouse. There doesn't appear to be anything in the hallway, but a number of the doors in the hall seem to be open and there's some muffled thumping coming from further down.
Both of the teends nod to Captain Marvel when she tells them to stay put, continuing to huddle together and mutter between themselves as she goes, "Did you see that? He shrunk down to nothing and disappeared…" and ".. I think she was /in/ the floor.."
Their voices continue to trail off as Carol makes her way into the hole, lighting it as well as the corridor beyond, which is unlit save by one exit sign that still flickers occasionally.
Dead Girl hrms, still floating through the floor- through the hole- into the other building. Her eyes gazing into the darkness as she slowly goes forward, "Hey Maaaaaark, you in here?" she wonders, looking back, "The guy's name was Mark, right?"
Scott guides his noble steed down the hall, pausing once or twice to peer into likely rooms, then passing on. That thumping, though — that's the thing that seems of most concern. Once the sound registers he follows it toward that end of the hallway. "Mark," he agrees, close enough to Dead Girl to hear her question.
Captain Marvel nods, "Yes, Mark…" She hears the thumping along with everyone else, so keeps walking further down, hopefully to find some answers.
If Mark is in there, he's not responding, though the thudding continues. As they continue down the hall the noise gets louder, until they come to a wide open room and a very strange sight. There in the middle of the room are what looks like three giant wads of knotted up tablecloth.. dancing? They're spinning around in circles and bumping into things, anyway.
One brilliant blue whirling tablecloth seems to be stuck to the ceiling, while a green and gold one seems to have a rather large lump in the middle, a lump with a leg.. with a sneaker.. hanging out of it, which periodically bangs into things, making the thudding noise. The third is a dark red lump which seems to be trying to squeeze itself through another hole in the wall, perhaps trying to escape. It's hard to tell exactly what they are doing at the moment.
"Oh. That's kinda spooky." Dead Girl says quietly as she floats towards the 'lumps' of table cloth. "I think that thing is trying to get away." she offers back to Scott and Carol while she goes to check on the lumps, sneakers and attached to ceilings, "Helllloo? You guys alive in there? Yeah, you're alive." she offers with a little grin as she tries to assist the lumps out of the sheets.
Scott resumes normal size now, extracts a couple of tiny rectangular objects from a very small drawer in his helmet, and then grows them to regular size with a red disk. Ants burst forth from their enclosures, and he directs them. "Weigh that thing down, guys!" He jumps up to grab hold of the leg and sneaker, trying to haul it down, perhaps out of the sheet.
Captain Marvel flies up easiler towards the blue tablecloth stuck to the ceiling. "Alright, /this/ isn't exactly what I was expecting." With that, she places a hand on the tablecloth, trying to pull it from the ceiling. Gently, if possible.
Scott's army of ants swarms toward the one particularly lumpy tablecloth mass, the green and gold one, with the leg and sneaker sticking out. Between he and Dead Girl, and the ants that swarm all over it, they manage to pin it down for a moment. The leg and sneaker don't move. Whoever is in there is likely unconscious. Scott tugs at the leg but that body is pretty tightly wound up. It's going to take more than a leg-tug to get him untangled.
Meanwhile, the red tablecloth seems to be wriggling its way into a crack in the wall, about a third of it successfully making it in.
Captain Marvel takes a hold of the blue one on the ceiling, and with a tug she's able to pull it closer, but it seems to be somehow holding onto the ceiling, and it begins trying to twist away when she tugs on it.
"I think that one is getting away." Dead GIrl notes as she floats on as Scott and Carol take care of the wriggly pods and the one with the sneaker. She floats back towards the red thing- "Hey, you okay there?" she wonders as she phases through the wall to cut the squeezer off at the pass.
"Captain, my last go-round of hijinx involved a living blob of mozzarella when I went to pick up a pie after dropping off my kid. What we expect is like the last thing you should expect these days," Ant-Man observes. "It's Scott, by the way. Not that you should know me or anything, but that's my name. Guys, go for the red one!" This is directed toward a large portion of the ants. He has no idea what's going on, but better safe than sorry. Now, having stilled the leg, at least, he sets to trying to unwrap the thing. Of all the tablecloth creatures, this is the one that worries him the most. That's probably Mark in there.
Captain Marvel hmms, "Well, Carol, by the way." She slowly and patiently starts to try and unwind the tablecloth, to see what's going on with it since… well, this is something more Doctor Strange's speed than hers, but she's determined to get to the bottom of whatever this is.
When Dead Girl phases through the wall, she can see that the red tablecloth is indeed trying to wriggle into the space between the walls and then on out a vent to the outside world. It's got one end in the room, one end out the vent, and part of it is wriggling through the middle. It would likely be easiest for her to head it off at the outside, since there isn't enough room for a person between the walls. Scotts ants begin to swarm over it, crawling up the wall and into the hole to cling to it.
Eventually with some work, Scott is able to free Mark, who tumbles out of the tablecloth like a sack of potatoes, inert on the floor. The green tablecloth then promptly wraps itself around Scott, as though trying to give him the same sort of hug.
Meanwhile, as Carol continues to try to unwind the blue one, and it struggles against her, the cloth suddenly goes limp, and a translucent blob of what looks like jello falls on the floor and suddenly takes off, attempting to exit out the door they had come in.
Through the wall, outside, Dead Girl is kneeling near the blob of whatever that's trying to escape, just cutting it off and looking at it curiously. "Hey, what're you up to?" she wonders, "Everything okay down here?" She puts herself right there in front of the escape point- unworried about being hurt, it seems.
Scott has the advantage that he's at least wearing a helmet that allows him to breathe. And he can also shrink. Or grow. Shrinking seems more helpful right now — shrinking so small that, hopefully, he'll fall right out of the blanket's possibly fluffy clutches.
Carol blinks at the translucent blob falls to the floor and takes off, and immediately flies down after it, "Hey! You wait right there!" She does, however, fire a warning shot ahead of the thing, trying to get it to stop. It's not a /high/ powered blast, but enough to hopefully get it to stop.
Whatever it is that Dead Girl is talking to doesn't seem to answer her, though once outside, the tablecloth goes limp and another translucent blob of jello seems to drop out from it, and slithers away from her, leaving its trail of fabric covered in ants behind, and sliding along the wall in a hurry.
As Scott shrinks, he falls into the center of the tablecloth and right into that translucent jello that is at the center of it. Ew. Gooey. It's very reminiscent of the jello he's got in a cool whip container.
The warning shot does not seem to halt its progress, only change its course, as it darts into one of the side rooms.
"Hey, where you going?!" Dead GIrl wonders, frowning a bit. "Well, that's weird." She says, not seeming too concerned. She looks back towards the other building and goes to check on the two teens left behind. "Hey, I don't know what this goo is, but I don't think I can capture it with my bare hands. I'm going to go check on those other two."
"Oh my god, again?!" Scott announces from within the glop, and in a moment he's full sized once more. Maybe even a bit taller, because he feels like it will be somewhat easier to deal with this stuff at larger sizes. He does his best to catch the ooze in the blanket. "I know this stuff! It's the stuff that was animating the cheese!"
Captain Marvel blinks, "Animating… the cheese?" She arches a brow and lands down next to Scott, giving him a curious look, "Things have definitely gotten a little stranger after I left."
When Dead Girl goes back to find the two teens, they are exactly where Captain Marvel told them to stay. Apparently losing their friend was enough for them to decide to let the superheros and ghosts take care of things. They let Dead Girl lead them back out of the Disaster Zone and to safety, thanking her profusely for her help.
Scott manages to gather the goop into the green tablecloth, where it wriggles and writhes and tries to animate it once again, but seemingly with less power than before.
The third clump of goo escapes as well, off through another opening in the building and out into The Disaster Zone.
"The mozzarella I mentioned before," Scott says. "It was animated by one of these things — we're keeping it in the lab at Avengers Tower. They seem to show up, animate stuff, cause some chaos, then abandon the stuff they're animating and run away." He gives the writhing tablecloth a shake. "And I suppose I should bring this stuff there. You want to take the kid to the hospital?"
Carol nods, "Sounds like a good idea, I can get him there. Just let the kids know that Mark is going to be okay." She gently picks Mark up, checking to make sure he's alright, "Tell the other Avengers I said 'hey'." She smiles a bit, then adds, "You did good work."
With that, she takes Mark out of the building, leaping into the air with him once she's outside so she can get him to the nearest hospital.