Halloween Hijinx: Part One of Three

Welcome to a new feature at StudioBrassy.com! Long-time friend Cholma has written up a story and kindly agreed to share it all with the Studio audience at large. The story centers around the heroic duo Maddy Jones and Cholma, and is based in the world of City of Heroes (a game he and I are both huge fans of). It’s broken down into a few parts to make it more manageable to read and I’ll be posting these  daily until the exciting conclusion!

Halloween Hijinx: Part One

A City of Heroes FanFic

A flaming pumpkin flew past Cholma’s head as he and his crime-fighting partner, Maddy Jones, fought a group of nasty gnomes known as Red Caps. Cholma looked over his shoulder, and in the fading light of a late October day he saw three walking pumpkin trees, called Fir Bolg, approaching the fight. One of them was preparing to throw another small pumpkin.

“Incoming!” shouted Cholma as he pummeled the nearest red-hatted monster, causing it to drop the wicked dagger it wielded. “We got company inbound!”

“Oh great,” snarled Maddy as she hurled an ice bolt at an oversized Hooligan that was firing enchanted arrows from a small bow. She spared a glance over her shoulder. “Just what we needed: more freaks.” She jumped into the air and with a small gesture, a flight spell held her suspended in the air just out of reach of several Rascals who were leaping about attempting to stab her. A moment later, she spread her arms and a large ice slick appeared on the ground.

As the Rascals lost their balance and fell over, she descended almost to the ground and appeared to draw an icy sword out of the palm of one hand. With a single swipe, she cut down the three already wounded Red Caps.

As she finished off the closest opponents, Cholma reached out and used a Telekinetic Blast to assault the chilled Hooligan. Screaming in pain, the green-clad gnome went flying backwards as the Blast slammed into him. His journey was short-lived, however, as the brick wall of a nearby store impeded his progress. The Hooligan slumped to the ground.

Spinning to face the incoming Fir Bolg, Cholma snapped out his left arm and made a pulling motion. Gold and blue auras surrounded the three walking pumpkins and then around Maddy and himself. Instantly, he felt himself grow more powerful as he sapped strength from his enemies.

“Oh yeah, I like that,” Maddy purred as she felt her blue-haired partner’s Fulcrum Shift attack empower. “It tickles!” Raising her hands over head, she whispered a few words and suddenly an Ice Storm swirled around the charging gourds. The ice crystals and high winds chilled and wounded the Fir Bolg, slowing their movements.

“Time to end this,” Cholma growled with grim determination. With a gesture, a Psychic Scream tore at the minds of magical creatures. As they staggered under the attack, a large bolt of blue magic flew past Cholma from behind and struck the middle of the three Fir Bolg, encasing it in a solid block of ice. Cholma lifted his arms before him and a swirling tornado of psychic energy appeared in the midst of his foes. All three were picked up and flung in random directions, striking walls or other objects to brutal effect. With a small shimmer, the vanquished creatures vanished as their magical energy dissipated into the winds.

Maddy landed lightly on the ground beside her friend. For over a week, the two heroes had been tracking reports of strange creatures attacking warehouses in the Independence Port area and had encountered the Red Caps and Fir Bolg on several occasions. “This is crazy,” she said thoughtfully. “I know we’ve been fighting these guys all week, but before this I have never heard of these guys appearing anywhere other than up north in the Croatoa area.” She looked around. “I still don’t get how this has anything to do with Mister Hackleford turning down an offer to sell his property here.”

Cholma had received a request two weeks ago from one of his contacts, that the owner of a shipping business in the Northwest corner of the port wanted help with what he called “supernatural attacks” on his employees and buildings.

“You mean besides these attacks starting a few days later? At least it seems we have finally found where they’re coming from,” Cholma said as he pointed towards a dilapidated warehouse nearby. “We’ve been plotting the direction of the enemy reinforcements every time we’ve had a battle, and they all appear to originate from that building. Including,” he added, “that last group of Fir Bolg.”

The two friends carefully surveyed the building as they approached. The sun had now set and a few streetlamps flickered into life. Maddy leaped into the air and started to gain altitude. “You check the sides, Cho, and I’ll scout the roof,” she said as she drifted upwards. “Watch out for security cams,” she whispered, and then she was gone.

From a block away, Cholma eyed the structure. A faded signboard with the name of a bankrupt company was high on the nearest wall. Only a few grime-coated windows were visible high on the three-story building. Close to ground level, torn and faded paper ads and notices adorned the outer walls. Graffiti was also heavily present. With a practiced eye, Cho noticed an old camera mounted on the building’s corner. It pointed down towards the main entrance on the South wall.

He tapped the communicator in his ear. “Careful, Maddy,” he said to the air. “There’s a camera on the southwest corner. The place is so old, I don’t know if it’s still active or not.” Seconds later, he saw her descend silently from directly above the device.

“Yeah, it looks pretty old.” Her voice was soft and clear in his ear. “The housing is rusted and a lot of the paint is chipped…” Her voice trailed off.

“What is it?”

“It looks like the power cord is brand new.” She placed her fingers lightly on the camera housing. “I can feel a slight vibration from it; I think it’s active.” She glanced around. “The roof looks clear, plus there’s a skylight and stairway access up here.”

“Roger, I’ll be right there then.” Tapping the comm to turn it off, he focused on a spot on the roof near Maddy and activated his teleport power. With a burst of light, he vanished from the spot he was standing on, and materialized a foot above the roof. As the minor hover effect of the teleport expired, he landed lightly on his feet. “What’s the plan?”

Maddy put a finger to her lips, and moved silently to the skylight in the center of the roof. Although the glass was tinted and covered in decades of dust and grime, a broken pane allowed her to gaze down into the building. The skylight overlooked a large, vacant factory floor. The room was mostly dark, with a few narrow shafts of light from a nearby streetlamp peeking in from cracks in a window. Just out of her view, she could detect a glow towards the north end of the building. As she was pointing it out to her partner, a pair of Fir Bolg shambled into view.

They watched as the creatures slowly moved towards the south end of the building and passed out of sight. Moments later they heard the doors to the building open and close. They moved quickly to the side of building and watched the creatures trot off to the east.

“Let them go cause havoc, or infiltrate the building?” Cholma asked quietly.

“Cho!” Maddy exclaimed softly in alarm. “We can’t let them go cause trouble! There’s only two of them; we can take them out quickly and then get back here with hardly any time lost.”

He grinned at her. “Well, let’s do this then.” Without another word, he teleported to another rooftop off to the East, and then another. Maddy followed silently in the air. They waited until the Fir Bolg were out of sight of the warehouse, then pounced.

They fight was over almost as soon as it started. The fraudulent jack o’ lanterns were dispatched before they hardly knew they were under attack. Cholma was dusting himself off when he heard someone slow clapping behind him. He spun around to see the massive bulk of a heavily muscled man leaning against a lightpole. The pole bent a few degrees off vertical.

To Be Continued