Disappearing Act (Austin)

Driving through the winding hilly forests of Arkansas was something Void never realized she would be fond of. She had a helmet on for once as she travelled through the state to get to her destination, the black gloss mirroring the pines above in a shadowy reflection. Frosty air bit against her black kevlar outfit as she sped around the curves, not slowing down until she reached her location on Highway 240.

The little town named Hopper was as quiet as the road leading to it had been. Her motorcycle practically roared as she passed through. There were no cars, no people on the streets, and no lights on the road even though the sun had yet to rise. Even stranger, there were giant empty lots in random places, as if several buildings had been demolished and the debris had been promptly taken away. But Void knew better.

In all actuality the small town had been evacuated over two weeks prior due to the mysterious and sudden disappearance of several buildings in the area. Unfortunately for the townsfolk, some of the buildings had been occupied when they vanished. Panic had insued without anyone to quell it. That was probably because the police station had vanished along with nearly all the local law enforcement as well.

Void made a right and let her bike roll to a stop in front of the Hopper Church of Christ. It was old, previously abandoned with wood boarding, and white lead paint chipping from every nook and cranny. The bell tower had no bell in it and the whole place looked like it came straight out of a horror novel. It seemed like a random place to stop. But actually it had been the first building to disappear, and the only one to make a reappearance. Void had decided to start her investigation here since it seemed like the only inconsistency in this entire situation.

The girl rose and climbed off her bike. She removed her helmet and hung it on one of the handlebars, ruffling her short brown bob slightly to fluff it back up. She was in complete casual wear with a black and gray kevlar jacket over a midnight turtleneck sweater. Her pants were a bit baggy, but that was mostly because of the hidden padding tucked away into the kevlar material. Her combat boots made no noise as she unclipped her backpack and slung it over her shoulder, strolling quietly through the deserted open towards the church.

"Dios Mios, this place might cave in on top of me." She muttered with her natural peruvian accent. That was the nice thing about coming into a place where no people were. She didn't have to disguise herself one bit. Though she supposed being in this creepy place should have freaked her out, she could only feel peaceful as she went about her business. Her green eyes started at the base of the ancient church and traveled upwards as she slipped inside, ready to look around start her investigation.

She didn't see the tiny black shadows scurrying soundlessly inside after her.

A young adult clad in yellow and black disembarked the backseat of a derelict taxi and walked to the front, stuffing a crumpled mess of bills into the driver's greasy hands. The front door shut immediately after that and the car speed of back in the other direction.

"Man, he wasn't staying here any time soon", the boy thought.

as soon as the echoes of a roaring engine faded back towards civilization, the yellow jacketed youth kicked up a pile of leaves. He walked through the town surveying the decrepit boulevard and all of the eerily empty facilities. There were even huge plots, voids of where a building may have once stood. Not knowing the blight of the land, the interloper was intrigued even more. He started speaking to himself out loud:

"Man, what a shithole. Even the buildings got up and ran..."

He strolled and strolled, his only company being the wind  rushing through the trees and an unsettling silence. His journey started to feel a bit unfruitful, however. none of the open plots or buildings gave a clue of what could have turned Hopper into a ghost town. He groaned, falling into a mental fog as he tediously surveyed the area. He kept it up though, a lead like this would be stupid to ignore. It reminded him of what happened to his school not long ago, but the culprit that time wasn't considerate enough to clean up their mess.

Just as began to turn and search the other side of town, something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. About one or two blocks over, he saw a bright metal glint. He was too late to see whoever was it's owner, but as he spun around, barely visualizing a figure shutting the door and entering a rotten, old steeple.

He ran towards the church, pulling his mask over his mouth and donning his red goggles. There had to be answers there, and the bee boy was about to get to the bottom of it. The masked intruder pulled open the door, accidentally slamming it into the wall.


"Fuck", he mentally groaned, "Oh well, it's all or nothing now."

Decrepit benches, holes in the ceiling, creaky floorboards, broken windows.

This church was a wreck inside and out. As Void had walked down the middle of the aisle her eyes fell to the stage and podium at the head of the small but freaky room. A chill that didn't come from the frosty weather snaked its way down her back as she spotted a medium statue of some sort in front of the podium. As she neared the girl could see it was an angel made of solid marble, and it was the only thing not broken or dusty in the entire place. Oddly, though, it also seemed... transparent?

Void had just made it to the statue and was about to reach out and touch it when a loud banging sound echoed through the church and made her jump about three feet in the air. The girl whipped around so fast that her hair flung over her face before falling back into place and framing her features of surprise and defensiveness.

A masked stranger with some buggy goggles stood at the open door to the church, allowing the pale daylight finally rising over the town to leak into the building through an entrance that was intentionally made. The sound had put Void immediately on edge, and her stance only became more guarded as she took in the appearance of the bumble-bee like dressed young man.

At first Void didn't want to say anything, but the chilly, ominous vibe creeped up her spine again and she had to wonder if this boy was the cause, "Who are you supposed to be?" She near growled, army green eyes narrowed and posture like that of a tensed cat with her widened stance and balled fists. Her accent had regressed into that of an American from the city in order to hide what little semblance of a secret identity she had left. Now she cursed herself for not wearing her own mask.

Behind her in the shadows of the podium the little black figures gathered, their beady dark eyes going unnoticed by the girl who stood in front of them.

Startled by this woman's sudden shift into defense mode, the yellow-striped explorer scrambled to attention. The color in his face flushed out as it was obvious that this person knew far more about what she was doing than he did. Regardless, he took a deep breath and put on a calm act. While he left his mask on, he lifted his goggles and affixed them on his forehead for the time being.

"I go by 'Hivemind', and I'm trying to figure why all the people and houses just got up and left the place. I've seen a pattern with this sort of thing, and ya'll around here may need all the help you can get."

He glanced around the shambled facility, not quite noticing the impish figures circling around the two. It was far too dark to make some of the features of the place out, but he could tell there were pitiful and torn Bibles, pilfered-through bags, and even what looked like scratched and tarnished offering plates scattered around the room. He had to find a way to illuminate the room without giving up his powers.

"Come on, think... Aha!" Hivemind grinned a bit to himself and closed his eyes. suddenly, what seemed to be two clouds of round, moving lights appeared in the lenses of his goggles. While the red tint absorbed most of the light, the area around them was now revealed in a faint, crimson glow. He started glancing around the area in hopes of both finding any clues and making himself appear cool and controlled. Might as well kill two birds with one stone.

:"So, if you wouldn't mind telling me, do you know anything in detail about this place. Was it always such a creepy shitho-"

As he happened to glance back at the girl in combatant apparel, he saw a cluster of horrid little creatures mere feet away. The beings screetched as the light pointed in their direction.

"Oh, Jesus!"

The lights from the goggle transferred to his hands, appearing as small, bright purple beads of flares that circles and moved like a swarm of insects. Without warning, he shoved his hands out, as if commanding the cloud to move, and they zipped barely missing the woman's thigh towards the beasts.

He looked around, only to see another group screech and draw nearer from behind him.

"Ugly little things... I think we found our culprit!"

Hivemind knew that he couldn't generate two swarms and split them that far apart to double team the demons, but one of the hideous things was unlucky enough to stumble closer. This one was puny. The bee boy looked down for a moment and punted the based, smashing in a faded, stain glass depiction of Christ casting Legion into a hoard of pigs. It wasn't much, but he chuckled to himself

"Heh, one down."

Void watched the boy carefully as he began rather nonchalantly explaining who he was. She didn't let her guard down because she still had that odd feeling and she wasn't quite sure she believed the young man, either. It was an awfully large coincidence that he came into the church around the same time she had. She stayed silent as he went blabbering on, lights in his red goggles activating and making the place look far more possessed than it had moments ago.

Then somehow, all hell broke loose. Her eyes darted to the boy's hand as he frantically called for the Lord and the light in his goggles moved to his hands. It was odd and Void knew right then that she was dealing with another Meta.

But she supposed she could deal with that after figuring out what the little impish looking creatures were. They scattered out from behind the podium, hissing and making little clicking sounds as they scurried wherever they could find that was safe. Void wondered how she hadn't noticed the hoard of little demonic looking beings. Now that she had seen them, courtesy of Hivemind's weird lights, they seemed to be everywhere. In the rafters little black figures darted about, they seeped out of the cracks in the floorboards, and hid among the benches. Void was seriously creeped out. Their beady little eyes seemed to look right through her....

"The angel." She breathed as she turned around just in time to see one of the things crawling on all fours towards the statue. When it came within three feet of it, though, the little thing screeched and disappeared. Void blinked. It literally just vanished into thin air. Her green eyes stared at the slightly transparent statue for a second longer before she decided that it had something to do with this mystery.

In her distracted state, Void had let one of the strange creatures sneak up on her. She didn't notice it until it had already begun climbing up her leg. "Mierda, no!" She cursed in a rather squeaky voice as she shook her leg to try to get the thing off, but its little claws dug into her pants like a cicada to a tree. It reared its head back and revealed long, red fangs, at the sight of which cause Void to increase the density of her pants to that of granite. When the little thing bit down, there was a clanking sound and it immediately squealed in pain. Void took the opportunity to bravely reach down and grab it by the scruff and fling it over to the statue. Its horrid screeching was abruptly cut off when it too disappeared into thin air.

"Interesting." Void had the feeling she should take the statue with her and get out of the church. Especially since it was currently being overrun by the little imps. The walls were nearly covered in them like a black pulsating tidal wave, and there were too many on the floor to count.

The statue looked to have a height of three or more feet, and a wingspan of the same width. Knowing the density of marble, Void guessed this thing could easily weigh over 1,500 pounds. Not that it was a problem for her. She tucked her hair behind her ears as she put her hands on the stone figure and drastically decreased its density. Once it was about as dense as styrofoam she lifted it and turned towards the doors, careful not to damage it in its now fragile state.

As she moved forward the black beings hissed and backed away from her, clicking angrily like squirrels. She spared a glance over to where Hivemind was fighting the little beasts and sighed, "Hey, you! I think we need to evacuate!"

Lost in combat, Mel heard the woman warning to escape. It took him a fraction of a second to mentally put away the hilarity of punting an imp into a window to notice that he was completely surrounded by the creatures.

He gasped,
"Shit. You're right!"

Without second thought, the Hivemind rejoined with his power and used it to clear a path to the exit. He sprinted out, having to cover his eyes as he stepped into the light. It was so dark in ominous in that damned church that he had forgotten that it was still midday. Looking back into the doorway of the building, it seemed that the beasts did not care enough to follow them into the sunlight. They were not even looking at the two.

Finally catching his breath, he looked up to the woman.
"As I was saying, what's your name, and what do you know about this place that I don't?"

He took a second look at the woman, who was carrying one of the statues from the steeple as if it were light as cardboard. He scratched his head, but suddenly remembered:
'Oh, that must be her power. She's a meta too."

"Hmm, so that's what you were here for."

He stepped forward and inspected the angelic sculpture a bit more. Upon first glance, nothing seemed out of the ordinary about it.

Void ignored Hivemind for a moment in favor of returning the statue to its regular state and allowing it to fall to the earth with a heavy thud. It managed to stay upright on the slightly uneven ground, still slightly clear. The girl then allowed her green gaze to travel back to the church... only to realize that it was gone. She hummed a short note, trying to make the connections between all the clues gathered so far but a little to distracted with the boy in front of her to focus properly.

"I'm Void." She simply stated, not bothering to point out that the building they had been in was suddenly gone. She figured he'd realize that on his own eventually, "And I'm not so sure why I should be telling you what I know. Haven't you done your research?"

She leaned lazily on the statue, yet remained carefully alert to the young man in case he got angry with her and tried to pull some stunt. Not wanting to mess with him too much in case he wasn't as friendly as he seemed so far, she decided to appease him with at least a second proper answer, "But I can tell you that I wasn't exactly looking for this angel-faced statue here. It just seemed important enough to take a look at."

Void scanned the kid up and down, wondering about his powers suddenly and thinking about how the imps had reacted. Maybe he would be of some use. But she had to make certain he didn't have an alterier motive. "I'll tell you what. Tell me what you know about this whole situation and I might decide to fill you in on what I know."

While the Beeboy wasn't quite pleased with the woman's acerbic tone, he put the annoyance to the back of his head. She was his only available source of information, thus respect was paramount, whether it was returned or not. The question now was: how much information was this girl looking for, and how snoopy would she become if his answers didn't suffice?

"Void, eh? Pretty edgy, but regardless, I'm here because I've noticed a pattern lately. Not too long ago, something like this happened to my home town, at my high school in particular. While it thankfully took place after hours, it was like the top of the building was just ripped off the ground. That was on the East Coast though. The incidences were few and far between, but it just kept creeping West 'till it made it's way here. From all the news, this seemed to be the hardest hit place so far, so I came here to try to see if I could find any relation to what happened to my town."

He looked at the statue once more. It didn't seem to give any sort of impressive aura or dark vibe, so it was impossible to truly tell whether it was a major piece to the puzzle or just a creepy artifact. As he turned his head, he was shockingly greeted with the disappearance of the demon-infected building that the two were just in. He sighed, both happy and sad, as the evil creatures were gone, but the biggest piece of evidence in the town had completely vanished. He looked at the statue again, possibly forming a new connection.

"But as you can see," he said, pointing towards where the church once stood, "there's a few key differences. While I'm convinced that it's all related, the phenomenon seemed a lot less... destructive here."

He looked Void in the eyes,  for a second, and his mind wandered for a split second.

"Should I tell her about how this all started right before I got my powers?", he wondered " She'd think I'm crazy if I just went and said 'Oh hey,  some mysterious alien god started speaking to me and warned me that all this was gonna happen.' She'd probably think I'm the one that caused it too... Yeah, just forget about that whole thing."

He caught himself staring, and shook himself back to reality.

"So, uh, where do you think all of this stuff is ending up? I doubt all of these buildings and people just magically faded into the aether."

Void frowned when the boy called her 'edgy', not commenting that the name was an heirloom and not some angsty title she'd given herself. She supposed that wasn't the point of his little speech, though, and ignored it as she listened to him carefully while reading his body language. He seemed to be telling the truth, and the information he'd given her wasn't too useful, but at least now she knew why he was here.

She didn't say much while he stared at her, sensing he wasn't finished, but it was kind of uncomfortable to be eyed down so much. She crossed her arms defensively and kept her face impassive to not let too much of her unease show. When he finally spoke again, a little awkwardly because he must have realized he was gaping slightly, Void felt pretty relieved.

"Those imps weren't anything natural, so actually it's probably not even a stretch to think that the buildings could have magically vanished," She said, not to argue but just for the sake of figuring this place out. "But I have a feeling only the people inside of the buildings that disappeared will know where they went."

Void then stepped away from leaning on the statue and looked carefully at it. As she did so she started fulfilling her end of the deal by telling Hivemind what she knew, "The Hopper Police Station, three abandoned buildings, including the old church we were just in, an old but lived in apartment complex, and the middle school have all disappeared." She decided that was a good place to start as she inspected the statue further, noticing that it was completely solid now, "I'm here because someone with a lot of money had a nephew in the school when it vanished. He wants him back."

Void turned to Hivemind and tucked her hair behind her ear, "The old church had actually vanished before and came back a few days ago. So, there must have been something special about it and I think it's this statue."

Now she just had to figure out what that special thing was. Maybe it was blessed or something? Or maybe the material it was made from made it special. As far as Void could tell it was pure marble. Obviously she needed more clues.

"So since we seem to be working towards the same goal... Would you like to tag along with me?" She could probably use his power since the imps didn't seem too fond of it back in the church, and Hivemind seemed to have a 'hero' vibe about him. That made him slightly more trustworthy.

Hive was a bit thrown off by the sudden shift of attitude. What was once leery caution in the woman's tone had switched over to a sort of acknowledgement, like two military officers on the field. Even if this desire for cooperation was purely because of his meta-ability, he appreciated that she was willing to help out.

"I don't see why not. This place is so unpredictable that It'd be much appreciated."

As she explained her knowledge of the event, he noticed that Void was pondering the statue even more.  Even in the bright, Midwestern noon it gave off a dark and unsettling vibe. As he was thinking, he kicked a bit of dust up; only now realized how little he (or anyone else for that matter) knows about what's going on.

"Tell me, Void, are you superstitious? It's obvious that this must be supernatural, but do you think this place has a history of occult stuff? The fact that it pinpointed some Podunk church town is a bit weird."

After mulling the facts over once again, he held up his hand. The same purple lights faded into existence and condensed into an erratic, insect-like swarm. He started to curl up his fist into a ball, intending to test it's effects on the statue, but he stopped himself, remembering that this was the edgy-lady's finding. He put his arms at ease and the lights faded intp the aether.

"I was thinking, if this thing is special, do you want to try and experiment with it? I don't want it to explode or anything though."