Diana (Kinda) goes home for Halloween (Double XP)

Siargao Island, Southern Philippines

Arriving in her home country, Diana wasted no time in the crowded, polluted city of Manila and hopped on the first plane to the wild lands of the South. Manila wasn't just crowded by population; she had to rub elbows with dozens of homegrown heroes, who valued reputation and ego as much or more than protecting their country. And by country, all of it, not just the capitol city.

Transportation quickly regressed technologically the farther from the capitol; from a plane to air-condition bus, to a rural open-air bus, to finally a jury-rigged motor cycle with a couple of 2x4's that served as a passenger seat. But what they traded for civilized comforts, they got in a tropical paradise; Diana slips into her swimwear and hit the nearest and cheapest resort, a walled off place with a painted plywood sign, bamboo cottages and a white sand beach with half a dozen people. She catches the late afternoon rays and takes a swim... and as night fell, she began to hear the dark whispers of the Island.

The local tabloids often included a section on the supernatural- this was usually dismissed as filler material, but as of late the supernatural sections were being tied to headlines of murders and disappearances near unsanctioned mining sites. Being a backwater part of the country, few heroes deigned to investigate, but Diana held a special place in her heart for these wild reaches of the country. Her destination was not that hard to find- a piece of the mountain on the Island had an ugly brown bald spot, in the middle of a lush green carpet of trees.

It was not difficult to get a lanky surfer local with a bike to drive around the island. As they turned the corner on a high and rough mountain dirt road in the dark, Diana told the man to stop, just outside a chainlink fence in the middle of nowhere. In bright red letters on a white background, it read 'PRIVATE PROPERTY. TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT.'

"(Well? Go inside, Bruh.)" Diana told the biker.

In a frightful tone, she received a most frank retort. "(No way, there have been murders here! And the mining guards don't like trespassers.)"

"(Exactly.)" Diana puts the dollar bill in his hand, as he turned around and went back to the beaches. Diana wondered who ran this operation- the extremists, the communists or the Chinese- but figured it didn't matter. No matter who won, The people on this mountain were the ones who suffered. She walked right through the gates, and headed to the small village the mining company had taken over, 'civilized' they would say. She would start looking there.

The village was much like any other burgeoning Filipino town touched by "development". a covered Basketball court, a church, a school, market and a clinic on the same street, facing the new housing blocks. All of them were these ugly concrete boxes painted in gaudy colors, and Diana sighed. This sort of development ironically made people poor, because now there were told they had to have a hundred things. houses, cars, internet, tv, cellphones.

She walked cautiously, realizing the village was empty. The lights were on, but nobody was in town. Western style halloween decorations adorned the village's public buildings. Were they working? no, even the women and children were missing... She drew her sword, beginning to investigate the civic buildings.