Night of the Cruising Dead

Thorn was able to cover a good amount of the area back to the Promenade just using his suit’s cloaking module and a good helping of athletics and acrobatics. What he was not looking forward to was the fastest way down to what was called “The Trench”. Apparently, the fastest way down was a large slide titled “The Trench Run”. Childish crap, but it wasn’t as if Thorn was unused to sliding down far more abrasive terrain than a giant half-tube of plastic.

On the other hand, Thorn didn’t exactly pack away any rappel gear, and his HEV suit could only do so much to cushion the fall, making the Trench Run the fastest option available to him.

Then again, looking at the crazy as Hell costume party going on down below - with some outfits far more outlandish than his - he might be able to get away with being decloaked using some “persuasion”. As he sent out Psionic pulses for the sake of detecting biological targets, Thorn could swear he was feeling a Beta Plus signal return (like someone popping up on sonar). This was versus his Alpha signature.

It could be Subject-23, but it might be someone else, altogether…

He also detected something going on below. Mostly normal people, but what drew his attention was the psychological activity on those signatures - namely, that those people were near death. It wasn’t immediately pertinent to his mission, but it was worth keeping a mental note on the sensation.

Creeping up, still cloaked, Thorn came across two girls in conversation. His instincts told him that one of them must have been generating the return on his Psionic pulse. He didn’t emit another, out of concern that he might give his position away, but he did mark them as persons of interest on his OPSAT (Operational Satellite Uplink), disguised as a smartphone. This should allow Castle to keep tabs on where the two were on the ship at any given moment, thus allowing Thorn to resume his mission regarding them at his discretion.

He eavesdropped on the conversation. Subject-23 was Rose. The kid was probably not much older than 16, based on what he was hearing - which took her off the table as a candidate for the Initiative. That is, for the near-term - while psychics like Thorn and Rose made for good candidates as field agents, Thorn was hand-selected due to his prior Special Forces experience and passing of psychological screening.

If he had to go by eavesdropping alone, Rose would likely not pass screening to be a field agent - an analyst, maybe, but not a field agent. The more plausible scenario was the Initiative sent Thorn on Asset Denial detail - if another organization were to attempt to press-gang the kid into service, Thorn would be tasked with retrieving her…or termination, if retrieval was impossible. As for the Meta-human talking to Rose, Thorn was not in agreement with her points…but he couldn’t refute some of them, either.

The Initiative gave him something to do with his abilities, for good or ill. Between his military service and time in Special Operations, Thorn literally could not function in civilian life, especially with his abilities. To pass himself off as a hero would be nothing more than delusion - Thorn was a weapon. He’d been one since signing on with the Army. Rose was a kid with powers - until she decided that she, too, was destined to be like him, she’d be a person.

Thorn ran by his objectives again. He could easily shoot the Meta and retrieve Rose, but his gut instincts told him he didn’t need to resort to that. One way or another, he and Rose would meet face-to-face tonight.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: Retrieve Subject-23: Objective Suspended (resume? [y/n])

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: Question Cassidy and Sophia Meyers: In-Progress

DISCRETIONARY OBJECTIVE: Terminate Cassidy and Sophia Meyers

PERSONAL OBJECTIVE: Locate any trace of Ellen Nakamura on-board

Thorn simply stalked past the pair, still cloaked, but he could not stop his psychic signature from radiating in the air at such a close distance to Rose. He put distance between them and noiselessly went down the Trench Run, switching off his Night Optics before the lights on the ride blinded him. There was abrasion along his suit as he went down without a mat, but his suit held together.

Reaching the bottom, it was apparent that the costume party was even more outlandish than he thought. Folding the stock of his subsonic rifle before concealing it, he made for the shadows before decloaking to save power on his fusion cell. He tried to mingle with the crowd of costumed freaks as he nudged his way toward the Atlantis Theatre Club.

ATLANTIS THEATRE CLUB

Finally, the lights in the theatre went out, and the spotlight fell on a well-groomed young man in a lab coat climbing onto the stage with the large, tarp covered machine. He takes the microphone and began his introduction.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Dr. Bryan Reynolds and I have wonderful news, to share with each and every single one of you today. For I have solved one of, no, the greatest mystery of them all. Death!” He unveils his large machine. “Behold ladies and gentlemen, my greatest work. The Phoenix engine! With this, we no longer need to fear the reaper, the end of our days... We can live for as long as we wish!” The dramatic unveiling, coupled with the cheesy magic show music and lights elicited gasps from the crowd.

Ellen looked at the device with her keen mind and eye, and took her barely more than a few minutes to conclude this was some cheap farce. It was just a battery, some lights, some hidden speakers and wires, to make it look like some kind of arcane machinery. She sensed no anomalous radiation from it. Perhaps the lead was wrong, wouldn’t be the first time. But her attention would soon be diverted back to the old woman in the wheelchair.

“Grandma? Grandma!” The young granddaughter tried to shake the geriatric awake, but she was no longer responsive. Her head drooped down forward, drool on the side of her chin. Ellen took a peek ‘under the hood’ and realized that, indeed, her heart had simply given out. Acting like a medical professional, she came over and took her pulse, and looked at the family sternly, getting straight to the point.

“She’s… expired. Naturally. Best to call the morgue.” She glanced at the nearby cult bunny in the dog mask. “Well, what are you waiting for? Go get security! Excuse me, are you deaf?” Ellen grew frustrated very quickly when the cult women just stared at her then glanced away.

“A tragedy, but wait, what if… your grandmother didn’t have to die? What if… she can go back to your cabin with you tonight?” Dr. Bryan said, eliciting gasps from the crowd from what he was implying to offer.

The bunnies moved in and surrounded Ellen, as well as anyone else that would’ve interfered. The grieving family wheeled their dead grandmother onto the stage. At this point, half the crowd was calling out in outrage at the treatment of the deceased. Without much ado, Dr. Bryan and his lovely assistants began hooking the grandmother to the machine, connecting anodes all over her body.

“Really? Electrocuting a dead nonagenarian? This is your miracle? Are you really so crass?” Ellen remarked loudly. She’s done questionable things herself, but all for business, profit and power. Toying with a dead body was just some pointless, petty evil.

Several people in the crowd murmured their agreement. “I didn’t come here to see someone’s grandma cook!” “This is a total rip off!”
“The lady speaks the truth! You stop this farce now, whatever it is you’re trying to sell, we’re not buying!” Cassidy Myers stood up and spoke up, unwilling to stay quiet any longer. “Shame on you charlatans!”

“Seems we’ve some skeptics, ladies and gentlemen. But, please, until you see the results, please give me the benefit of the doubt.” Reynolds assured them, and began performing some calibrations on the dials and switches of his… device.

“We activate the machine, and pour Vitae energies into your dear, departed grandmother!” Dr. Reynolds threw a switch that activated the machine, and electricity poured into the fresh corpse, causing it to unsurprisingly twitch. Ellen looked around, and felt the immense wrongness in the room, not the least of which was the sudden drop in temperature; frost began to form on surfaces, while peoples’ breathes were condensing as they exhaled. People began to shiver.

The deceased grandmother slowly twitched, trembled, then, miraculously, stood up from her wheelchair.

“Ricky? Bobby? Is that you, my dear boys?” She asked, the sight of their mother back from the dead completely filling the older men with anguished relief.

“Yes, mom, we’re here! Are you… are you…” They stammered and muttered, unable to find the words.

“Come and give mommy a kiss.” The grandmother revealed a wide toothy grin, and otherworldly eyes; the grandmother’s eyes showed all white, as she eagerly plunged her teeth into her own sons’ throats. She gorged on the blood that poured from their arteries like a thirsty man in the desert, licking and smacking loudly as she ripped the heads free from their shoulders, drinking from the stumps. The sight dumbfounded her remaining granddaughter, and Dr. Reynolds, who apparently did not anticipate this outcome either, had wet himself in the corner. The crowd was completely horrified; many were headed for the exits.

“AAHAHAHA! ALL YOUR SOULS ARE MINE! I CAN’T DECIDE WHO NEXT… MY OWN FLESH AND BLOOD… OR THE ONE WHO LET ME IN. AHAHAHA!” A voice, or what seemed like a voice, emanated from the woman’s mouth, but her lips were out of sync. It was not just a sound, but like an eldritch vibration, a supernatural note that sickened any who heard it.

All hell broke loose, and Ellen’s one good eye went wide at the sight of the revived woman. No mere reanimated corpse, there was something malevolent inside her. Going into crisis mode, she takes off her glasses and moves toward the stage while everyone else head for the exits. Her eye began to glow menacingly, first she needed to keep order. She spied several cameras broadcasting this macabre display, and began blasting them with her dark light beam, fully intent on containing this situation from escalating into a ship wide issue.

ROSE AND ASTRID
Rose stood there and listened, absorbing Astrid’s advice. Realization slowly dawned on the young psychic. “You’re right, You’re right. I’m being… I’m being a selfish doo doo head. My parents are good people, and I’m only thinking about my social media following. We should go find them and have a talk.” Rose looked at the big ride that looked like the gaping maw of a Megalodon. “Well come on then, race you down to the trench!”

THE TRENCH

Once Rose arrived, she spied The Star Eater Contest that was going underway. She waved Astrid over to the registration. “Come on they’re about to start!” She said eagerly, watching all the contestants strutting around – some making replicas of Star Eater’s costume, while others just went with “versions” of it – cyberpunk, biker, cowgirl, ninja, and many more, like a bunch of alternate universe versions of her.

Meanwhile, some of the bored attendants were watching the Atlantis theatre club. While just a few people at first, people started paying attention when apparently someone’s grandma just … died… right there. A woman in holiday dress with a glowing prosthetic eye was protesting the event, but, they were being cut off.

More people were called over, until someone bluetooth’d their device to the screen. The dead grandma was brought up to the stage, treated with the machine, and had literally come back to life.

“Is that some kind of hoax? It has to be. The old lady is in on it.” A male Cyberpunk version of Star Eater said.

“They’re just trying to pull a fast one.” Another Star Eater, one in leather jacket, chimed in. And then, grandma looked up at her children and attacked. The crowd gasped, half the people immediately standing up and running for the exits. A purple light off camera shone briefly from one woman in the crowd, before the feed immediately died. The party goers were confused, afraid… they didn’t know what to make of what had just transpired.

“Chikusoooo~!” Eli watched the video stream as dear mother began a media blackout, and snapped to his native Japanese to cuss, breaking out into a sprint towards the Theatre Club.

KITCHEN

“They’re here, I tell you. What kind of psycho stows away bodies in the kitchen on a cruise?” The head chef said, leading a security team to the dead bodies he found. To his shock, he brought his entourage to an emptied-out part of the freezer, all the bags gone.

“I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing chef, it ain’t funny…” The security guard said, starting to turn around to leave.

“I swear they were here… they were…” The Italian head chef spied movement behind the shelves. These bodies had not only moved; they had surrounded the hapless party. The dead were an assortment of people that were literally pulled from the street. One moved forward to speak.

“Should listen to the chef, chief. You’re on the menu. AHAHAHA!” The ghouls descend on the search party, making short work of them.

DINING HALL

The diners who were neither at the Trench nor the theatre were enjoying a quiet evening at the main dining hall. An older American couple waved over a waitstaff, their expression one of disappointment and outrage. The woman readily shoved the plate of her steak into a passing waitress’ hands. “This steak is dry! Take it back to the kitchen, do something about it! I paid top dollar to be on this cruise, I expect the food to be of higher caliber!”

The young female waitress, name tag Jenna, let out an audible sigh. “Yes ma’am, right away ma’am.” She took the plate and headed for the kitchens, wondering what horrible remedy they’d do to make the slab of meat juicy, but she didn’t wonder for much longer when just beyond the kitchen double doors she spotted the kitchen crew running for their lives from a cavalcade of ghouls. Demonstrating unusual awareness, The waitress’s eyes opened wide and she quickly did a 180, dropping the steak. “Everybody run!”

“How rude! I’ll be talking to your manager, young lady!” the customer remarked, still seated as the kitchen doors swung open and the possessed finally arrived at the Dining hall, all hell breaking loose.

“You aren’t that fresh either, lady! AHAHAH!” The reanimated chef said, eyeing the seated couple and closing the distance before they could react; the complaining woman screamed out for but a moment, before their teeth sunk into her throat, tearing out her windpipe and arteries. The entire dining hall was soon painted crimson with their blood… and the night was just beginning.

"Yeah. Let's go-" Astrid followed Rose down the Trench. She hadn't ever been to an amusement park before, or anywhere that places actually had slides and slide-adjacent things. Being on a sudden, impromptu cruise date with Rose was the first time she ever did anything fun like this outside of meeting her in person once in a blue moon. Astrid could count the number of times that happened on one hand. Still, this was nice. It was nice to actually be a person and not just a hero occasionally, even if Astrid liked being a hero.

When Astrid reached the bottom, she was made painfully aware of the fact that there were... Many of her present. Ninja Stareaters, cowboy Stareaters, and half-naked Stareaters were just some of the Stareaters present in this costume contest of Stareaters. The real Stareater followed Rose over to the sign-up place, not entirely sure how there were this many people who looked like her in one place. At the very least, it would help her blend in some, even if her helmet was glowing and swirling with energy, while others weren't. Most of them didn't even get the flight suit right, and they didn't even have a dynamo harness on their backs. Granted... Astrid left hers on dry land. Alas, they pressed on.

Eventually, Rose and Astrid passed by a Stareater lookalike who was just plain wrong about her getup. The helmet was right, but she looked like she hadn't seen a shirt since she was born. Her two-piece swimsuit was bare bones and in the colors of the real deal's suit- Gray and white. She had green combat boots on that looked wildly out of place, and literally nothing else on her body. "Ooooh... I can't wait to find some villain to... zap me. Heheheh-"

"STAREATER'S A FUCKING CHILD, YOU GODDAMN CREEP!"

The entire deck went silent and stared at Astrid for all of three seconds.

"...Let's go."

They eventually stopped and caught the feed coming from a tv. A woman attacking her grandchildren, and the cameras being shot by- No. You have got to be kidding me. She stepped over and watched the stream on someone's phone, and she recognized that eye. And she also saw people attacking each other. Probably not a coincidence. "What the fuck? Rose-" She pulled Rose aside and whispered something to her- She didn't want people knowing she was the Stareater. "Listen- I know that woman. She- She's hunted me down once before and she might be doing that with you too, I don't know. But if she's here while this is all happening, there's gotta be a connection there. She has powers, I think. It's complicated- That eye does weird things. I'm not gonna tell you to stay put or get somewhere safe, but if you're coming with me- I need you to listen to me. Her name is Ellen Nakamura,  she works for some very shady people, and if she thinks you're dangerous? She will send people after you. The first time we met, she brought a whole squad of armed men. I'm going to go and do something about this, and she knows me already. So... What are you gonna do?"

Some date this was turning out to be.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t too long after Thorn took the Trench Run that Rose and the other Meta followed down. They were like a pair of teens on a first date; except the first date was with a bunch of Star Eater lookalikes. Some were closer to the mark, but one standout was dressed…well, to put it lightly: provocative. And the behavior was well out of order; Initiatives got as many eyes everywhere as the CIA did, and all observations pointed to Star Eater being underaged.

And if the freakout from the Meta accompanying Rose - plus his own psychic detections - were anything to go by, the actual Star Eater was pissed off by the portrayal. Good for her, putting the thot in her place, but that wasn’t Thorn’s priority. What was was the big screen feed that showed the old woman apparently resurrected, only to break out into chowing down on her children. Thorn concentrated and sent out a psionic pulse - effectively like a sonar.

Whatever had possessed the old lady wasn’t alone. And on the screen was a lady that the Initiative had the full file: Ellen Nakamura. And if she was here, it's likely she was suspicious from the start that things were going to go down.

PERSONAL OBJECTIVE: Locate any trace of Ellen Nakamura on-board; Complete

“Spectre One, come in,” Castle said in his implants. “I had hacked into the Theatre cameras and then...”

“Dammit, Castle, I know,” Thorn muttered. “Adjusting mission priorities; neutralization is now top priority. Electronic trace is already on Subject-23 pending future op. Copy?”

“Copy. I hope you know what you’re doing, Spectre One. Out,” Castle radioed.

“Duuuude,” some drunk guy slurred, putting his hands on Thorn. “You’re like…something out of a 2010 sci-fi game. What was it called? Star-something?”

“StarCraft 2,” Thorn corrected. “I look like a Ghost.”

“Dude! Looks so real!”

“It is real; I’m the only contestant with talent here. Everyone else is an amateur,” Thorn said, before giving the drunk a death glare from behind his mask, enhancing his words with a psionic air of intimidation. “Do me a favor: find someplace to hide and sober up.”

Thorn scared the literal piss out of the man, because the frat boy’s shorts got well. Frantically, the drunk nodded his head and stepped away. Soon as he was out of his sight line, Thorn engaged his cloaking system and unslung his carbine, dashing for the Atlantis Theatre Club. He still had the primary objective of locating the Myers parents, so that’s exactly what he went to do.

The aged couple was fleeing alongside the other Theatre audience members.

His finger was clear of the trigger guard; nonetheless, he had the barrel of his weapon in their general direction.

“Cassidy and Sophia Myers,” he psychically projected his voice into their heads. “I don’t know what’s going on on this ship, but if you want to survive the night, do exactly as I say.”

ATLANTIS THEATRE CLUB

While everyone else were fleeing and losing their minds, and the cultists readily giving themselves to the Possessed emerging from the back stage, Ellen made her way to the stage to confront the granny her age, surrounded by the mutilated bodies of her adult grandchildren.

“Reynolds, you idiot! Move your feet, off the stage!” Ellen scolded the cowering ‘doctor’, compelling him to flee, the mad scientist all too eager to catch up with the fleeing crowd.

“Who are you? What are you?” Ellen asked directly, looking madness and death straight in the eye. The possessed Granny, chewing on her son’s face, stared back, finding herself startled by Ellen.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, one eye?” she said, crawling about on all fours, circling the brave stranger, looking directly at her god eye. “Tell me, is that some kind of tasty candy? Will it hurt when I rip it from its socket?” She launched herself at Ellen, only to have a Dark Light Beam cut her in half at the waist. Granny screamed in agony as the purplish energy burnt her demonic flesh. Her pelvis and legs stayed some 5 feet behind her ambulant torso. She took a moment to shrug off the pain.

“Arrrghh! Damn you, that’s some power you’ve got, one eye! But it takes a soul eating monster… to recognize another soul eating monster. HAHA!” It laughed, but Ellen remained unaffected. She was cool and professional the whole time.

“Oh, you’ll have to try harder than that to sell me a scam, granny.” She responded dryly, her eye beam shooting faster than they can move. Good, she can contain this mess if needed.

Granny snarled at Ellen and immediately, two Possessed emerged and pounced on her. They could do not much more than distract her as Granny fled into a nearby vent, half the possessed corpse she used to be, her entrails dragging along the walls. Ellen’s Dark Light beam reduced the Possessed – and the stage – to burnt crisp.

ASTRID AND ROSE

The contest goers weren’t going to let the actual Star Eater ruin their fun. “Aw come on we’re just having fun!” “spoil sport!” “Yeah that’s what they all want you to think!”

The contest was now in the finals, the top 10 were lined up. After a brief moment of silence, the winner was announced. “And the winner, contestant number… 9!” And there was much cheers and catcalls. Contestant number 9 Star Eater was remarkably true to Astrid’s look, and even fixed up an LED helmet so she could mimic her signature glowing helmet.

“Hey that one’s not bad, she even put in work on your helmet. Her costume is- oh…” Rose was giving 9 a good stare until she realized the costume was a bit too form fitting and realized that was no costume, but painted on. The lady just had pasties in the right places painted over.

“Thank you for this award! Now, I know some of you are here to just have fun, but let’s not forget, we’re having this contest because Star Eater is like, a totally cool hero, and like, she’s probably Gen Z and I actually totally look up to her, for reals, not lying. Good night every one!”

The party and contest were well and truly over now over with the ship power suddenly going out, the emergency lights coming on after a few seconds, bathing everything in a sickly red light. Remarkably, a lot of people were still in denial at the severity of the situation with the Atlantis Club, with of lot of folks sticking around waiting for the power to come back on.

Rose was starting to hyperventilate as she looked around, the thoughts and fears of people like an airborne allergen for her. She reached for Astrid’s hands, needing her reassurance now more than ever. In such a way, Astrid too was privy to the feelings of anxiety of the crowd. “Ashy, I’m scared… Everyone is scared. I can feel everyone’s worry. I need to find my parents to make sure they’re alright. I think they were going to attend some kind of show at the Atlantis Theatre. Can we go see them? Please?”

THORN – THE ATLANTIS THEATRE GRAND LOBBY

Cassidy was moving as fast as he could, keeping a firm grip on his wife. Anyone who got in his way got a taste of the large Texan man’s bullheaded determination. The dark lobby was now only illuminated by emergency lights, illuminating the way out. Screams of pain and terror started to erupt from the crowd, as unseen assailants feasted on unfortunates. It took Thorn’s truly intimidating visage to halt him in his tracks, and even then, his desire to keep his family safe served as a rudimentary defense against psychic influence.

“Who are you and what do you want with us?” Cassidy looked Thorn in the eye, as he reflexively interposed himself in front of his wife, no fear or hesitation. He may have been old, but Cassidy was still a large man, with large working man’s fists. Of course, he already had some clue why anyone would come for them- Rose.

“…Oh, Jesus, Mary and Joseph!” Sophia exclaimed suddenly, when she looked up and saw, above them a desiccated human, corpse-like in pallor, crawling along the ceiling. Her mouth was covered in blood, eyes filled with a truly otherworldly force.

“Those three won’t help you! AHAHA!” She said, the possessed corpse dropping down. Cassidy moved her much smaller wife out of the way, catching a claw on the arm. The man let out a wince.

Emerging from the crowd, Eli did a clean shoulder check on the Possessed, pushing it over and putting two in the chest and two in the head. He then turned to speak to the gathered folks talking in the hallway, noting that the ghost cosplayer was legit. “You all need to be somewhere else.”

“HAAAAA!” The unliving were not fond of staying down much, and it attempted to lunge at Eli. He cleanly cuts off the clawed hand at the wrist with his razor-sharp katana, causing it to let out an otherworldly scream of pain. Eli finished it off with a blade across the throat, decapitating it. Go for the head, it looks like.

Two more possessed stalked towards the trio. The Red Shogun instinctively moved to protect the civilians, shooting Thorn a quick glance, hoping the fellow was as tough as he looked. “I can smell the blood of this one… it’s filled with that special metahuman flavor. Heheheh.” Thorn and Eli would have a fight on his hands.

“Who are you and what do you want with us?”

“Right now, I’m the last person you should be worried a-” Thorn started before being cut off by Sophia’s exclamation of fear.

“…Oh, Jesus, Mary and Joseph!”

Following the sight line of Sophia to a corpse-like human crawling on the ceiling, Thorn was unable to get a good shot off before the Possessed woman dropped down. Before he could get a shot off, some type of weird samurai in tactical gear charged the Possessed, planting shots with a .45 caliber pistol - unmistakably a 1911A1 clone. Thorn was rather fond of such a weapon on the range or off-mission for self defense, but his assignments usually relegated him to things that were more modern and high-tech.

The guy finished the thing off with a katana - one of extremely high-quality forging, considering how easily it cut through flesh, muscle, and bone. Thorn wasn’t exactly sure what to make of the new red-clad samurai, but he wasn’t sensing any hostility towards himself or the Myers couple from him. At present, he was willing to take what allies he could.

“Hunker down behind the ticket counter! We’ll handle this!” Thorn called out to the Myers couple.

Psionic energy enveloped Thorn as his next moves consisted of three major actions: with his turn toward the attacking Possessed, he sent out psionic energy that suspended all hostile targets within three meters of the epicenter its impact point in a Crushing Grip (suspending them in the air and crushing their bodies inward). Then he planted a pair of 9x39mm SP-5 rounds into the chest of one and one to the head of the same.

Finally, he moved his off-hand to the other Possessed (some poor cosplayer), psionic energy flying towards the poor sod in the form of a Kinetic Blast. Considering that Thorn’s Kinetic Blast was strong enough to breach the side of an Armored Personnel Carrier, the power was overkill; an unarmored human was doomed to be reduced to a mass of giblets.

Astrid should've expected that Rose would want to go find her parents. The thought of these zombified creatures hurting Rose filled Stareater with fear. She wasn't sure what she'd do if that happened, but it would likely be the second time she went supercritical in recent memory.  This fight was going to be a problem.  Rose's psychic powers could likely do a number on them all, depending on how much of a mind they actually had left, and Stareater could erase them from existence just by hitting them, but Stareater didn't have her harness, meaning she didn't have spare energy to draw from in an emergency situation. She needed to be smart about this.

"...Yeah. We can go." Astrid looked down at her suit's monitor. It read 96%. "Listen, my powers work on an internal battery. I store up energy and blast it back out, but without that energy, I get weak enough I might pass out. Normally, I have a backup gadget that stores it for me, but I left it behind before I flew over here- It would've given me away. I can fight without it, but I gotta be careful about what I do. So I need your help. Be on the lookout for things like tasers or lighters. I can use that stuff to recharge. Stay close to me- I'll keep you safe. Let's go. They can't be far."

---

Astrid and Rose made their way across the ship on foot, and were treated to the sight of several corpses being levitated and flung against each other by some guy with a gun and body armor. And... A power ranger? He was cutting up the zombies with a sword. As the two armed strangers came closer, they'd see Astrid shoot one with a "star bullet," essentially a tiny shooting start no bigger than a marble, and aimed it at the zombie's chest. The zombie exploded from the inside out in a flash, and everything above its ribcage stopped existing. Stareater stopped dead in her tracks when she got within ten feet of them, and held her hand out with a ball of glowing Whitespace energy. Stareater didn't have an actual gun so this was the best she could do.

"Identify yourselves!"

SKIRMISH

Cassidy and Sophia gladly take shelter behind a concierge kiosk, Sophia staying on the lookout.

Eli only glanced at Thorn and immediately capitalized on his power to immobilize the Possessed. This was timely, as for all his training, Eli was barely keeping up with the Possessed supernatural speed and strength. Their blows would’ve likely crushed his body without his armor. Wielding sword and gun, Bullets only seemed to stun them momentarily, and the limb taking katana he used was far more effective at stopping them.

One possessed that had toyed with him had a look of “oh shit” once he was frozen in place, the red samurai quickly holstering his gun then cut his head off with an expert downward blow. He took two steps over, and an underhand strike takes another at the torso, the katana passing through them like they weren’t there.

The third was splattered all over the wall by Thorn’s psionic blast. Eli let out a tired sigh once the current skirmish was concluded, removing the blood from the katana with a snappy flick, then sheathing his blade according to Iaido. “Chunky salsa.”

THE GIRLS

Rose was in best gf mode and used that psychic power to good use. On their way, she started bumping into people who were too scared to think about some Texas girl going in the wrong direction. By the time they reached Rose’s parents, she had a gift bag of pilfered smartphones with mostly charged batteries. She looked away and whistled innocently as she offered Ashy the batteries.

It wasn’t hard to find where to go. People were leaving the Atlantis theatre and the Trench by the dozens now, and soon enough the two gals made it to the scene where Thorn and Eli had made their stand and protected Sophia and Cassidy. Star Eater quickly demanded them to identify themselves.

“Whoa, whoa. We’re alive and not hungering for human flesh, kiddos.” Eli said, raising his hands in a de-escalating gesture.

“…I’m Red Shogun. I’m here to deal with this Anomaly, on behalf of the Iskatonic Institute. My superior... is still inside the Theatre.”

Rose glanced at the Red Samurai and took a peek in his mind. “You… that momma’s boy creep from earlier. You… saved them.” Rose said, now feeling ashamed at verbally assaulting him earlier. She glanced over where her parents hid, then quickly made her way to them. “mom! Dad!” She exclaimed, kneeling to embrace them.

“An unflattering, but not inaccurate description…” Eli mumbled to Thorn under his breath.

A BLOOD-SOAKED PLAZA

From the grand entryway of the theatre, Ellen in her blood-soaked holiday dress pushed Dr. Reynolds along, shoving him to move faster. Reynolds looked at all the dismembered bodies and dry heaved a second time.

“Oka- Secretary.” Eli slipped for a half second, switching from ‘mom’ to ‘secretary’, since they were now officially on the clock. In her presence, Eli deferred to Ellen’s lead. “Who is he?”

“Dr. Bryan Reynolds, our main suspect in this event.” Ellen put it succinctly, glancing around at the gathered company. The precocious teen hero Star Eater had somehow gotten involved, while Thorn seemed exceptionally familiar as well. “This is an unexpected reunion. But we can talk later.”

Ellen shot the disheveled, horrified man a death glare. “Talk. How did you reanimate the dead?”

“I’m… I’m not really a doctor, I’m just a … washed up actor who got by on his good looks. The cult paid me to put on the Frankenstein show.” The man said sheepishly. Ellen’s occult eye glowed menacingly, the heat coming from it causing ripples in the air around her. “People are dying mister Reynolds; what you did was much more than some Frankenstein show!”

“I didn’t know! The cult gave me the script. The cult has a cabin onboard… I didn't know the dead would actually come back and start eating people!” Reynolds said, desperately defending himself from accountabilty.

“Dad!” Rose exclaimed, and all eyes went to her as she saw her father collapsing to the ground. In the heat of the moment Cassidy’s face quickly went pale and broke out into a sweat. He lay down to sit and “…Rose… my baby girl…” He muttered before going into shock.

“Oh Cassidy, you’re burning up!” Rose’s mother exclaimed, clutching his forehead.

“The creatures’ attacks seem to spread a virulent infection. I can see it spreading up his arm… it will have to come off. Stand back, girl. We need to do it quick to save your father’s life.”

“Wait! Can we not just decide to cut off my dad’s arm?!” Rose impulsively moved to defend her father, mis stepped and caught Ellen’s forearm. Upon contact she got a taste of her early memories – nuclear fire that took her mother, her brothers perishing in kamikaze strikes. Ellen did not take kindly to the intrusion and broke contact before the telepath could see any more.

“You… you poor, poor woman…” Rose suddenly said, breaking down in tears and sobbing.

With the immediate threat dealt with, Thorn took the time to change magazines. 9x39 mm rounds seemed effective in stunning the Possessed, but they did not kill the things, even with a head shot.  The "Red Shogun" seemed very efficient with decapitation, which did the trick. And explosives were a decent enough option, especially psionic explosions. This was the one scenario in which the explosive Anti-Personnel rounds of his canister rifle would have been handy - yet he had foregone that in favor of a pure stealth loadout.

Thorn's eyes evaluated Rose from behind his masked face, the goggles able to accurately allow him to see her facial features with pinpoint precision, even in low-light conditions. At this proximity, there was no way that Rose could miss that he was a psychic, too. As for Star Eater, she had been of interest to the Initiative - not as a field agent, mind you, but as a possible R&D candidate. Her IQ was genius level - impressive for a girl who hadn't even reached adulthood. Plus, the Initiative was aware of...other things about her.

Still, Thorn killed and performed espionage for a living - it would be pretty ridiculous to start judging Star Eater for the past...especially in a crisis situation like they were facing.

"I'm afraid that's classified. Callsign is Specter One," Thorn said.

“An unflattering, but not inaccurate description…”

The Red Shogun seemed a bit miffed at being called a "Momma's boy", but didn't exactly disagree with the description.

When the group finally reached Ellen Nakamura, Thorn immediately caught the near-slip up in the Red Shogun's speech. Thorn was not particularly fluent in Japanese, but he knew it well enough to know that the Shogun was deliberately avoiding saying "Okaasan"; in short, the Red Shogun, true to identity records was Eli Nakamura, which made Ellen his mother.

"Ellen Nakamura...not seen you since that crap back in Alaska. But I'm not here for reunions; our priority should be containing this outbreak," Thorn stated, quick and professional. "I don't have to tell you how immense the international repercussions could be, otherwise."

He let Ellen and Rose debate over what to do with Cassidy, and though he was loathe to admit it, he hoped Cassidy pulled through - a corpse couldn't answer his questions, after all. But he knew who would answer his questions - the so-called "Doctor".

"You're going to tell me everything you know about this 'cult'. Where this cabin is, what the cult's goal is...the whole works," Thorn said as psionic power flared around him. "You can talk right now, or I can dig around in your head for the answers. Don't worry, I'll try to keep your mind intact."

Okay- Red Ranger didn't seem like an active threat. And neither did the Mojave-Ranger looking motherfucker. That was good at least. Astrid, however, was absolutely fucking blindsided by the fact that Ellen was here, and had to fight the urge to not disintegrate her in front of Rose and her parents. Even though she already knew Ellen would be her, Astrid still felt an unrealistic, irrational contempt for the woman.

"Okay. Everyone slow down. Myers, it's me. Don't say my name out loud in front of these people-" Even though they all probably knew anyway. "The kid you used to see all the time when Rose was feeling lonely because I lived so far from her? That's me. The name is Stareater for now, not you-know-what." Unlike Ellen, Astrid actually pronounced the name properly, not as two separate words. Listening to the "doctor" who caused the mess, Astrid put Ellen out of her mind. He didn't have anything worth saying apparently, so she direction her attention to Cassidy. Old Man Myers was infected and Ellen wanted to cut it off. Rose didn't.

"She's right. If we don't- It'll spread and he'll turn out like them. I can-"

Rose apparently read Ellen's mind. What did she see that made her pity a bitch like her? Whatever, that wasn't important.

"Cassidy, if we don't cut that off then you're dead. We can save you- And after you're out of here, I can make another arm for you. Remember how me and Rose always talked about me building stuff in my dad's lab? It'll be easy. It'll hurt like shit but it has to happen. Okay?" Cassidy was the closest to a real father figure Astrid ever had. Mason was an okay guy, but she didn't really know him that well. And he didn't know her like Cassidy did.

ASTRID

Cassidy looked at Astrid and took a few moments to realize who he was talking. “Well, I’ll be, if it ain’t my Baby Back Ribs’ biggest fan. I knew you and Rosie girl were special.” He said with a warm tone despite heavy perspiration and labored breathing.
Cassidy listened intently to the young lady who’d been his daughter’s paramour gone missing now returned, and another woman who seemed very familiar at corporate meetings.

Cassidy felt his arm trembling and growing cold, his veins visibly spreading some virulence up his arm by the minute. He glanced at a nearby bar, as he felt himself getting parched. “Rosie, be a good girl and bring daddy some whiskey.”

“I… I…thought you quit drinking.” Rose asked, anxiously.

“Stareater is about to take my arm off, Rosie. May I please have this one?” he asked her daughter politely, even as he struggled to keep his eyes open.

“Okay… daddy.” Rosie rushed over to the nearby bar and looked at the selection. Unpleasant memories aside, even a teenager understood his father’s need to cope with what was coming.

Ellen shot Elijah a glance and an elbow, and like telepathy got the samurai to move. Pulling out a surprise RN degree, Eli pulled out his first aid kit and started prepping Cassidy for surgery.

“Do I know you from somewhere, young lady?” He asked Ellen off-handedly.

“OPEC Summit mister Cassidy, 2002. We were discussing business related to the impending war. Specifically I was speaking with your late father Jack, while you were getting inebriated.”

Cassidy looked at her and was confused, and didn’t press her further.

Rose brought Cassidy a bottle of black label, and the old Texan took a mighty swing of Jack to prepare himself for the ordeal to come. He looked uneasily as his arm was visibly necrotizing, the Red samurai fellow applying a tourniquet to his arm and using a marker to indicate the cut, just below the shoulder. It would leave a stump and make dealing with the aftermath easier. Sophia bravely sat by her husband and divested him of his upper clothes. “It’s his favorite coat and shirt…” she mumbled.

Red in the face and hammered from downing half a bottle, Cassidy loudly slammed the sturdy bottle on the carpeted floor. Without so much a slur he looked Astrid in the eye… face bowl, offering up an already half necrotized, trembling arm. “I’m ready, my dear. Make it quick.”

Unable to watch Astrid go through with the procedure, Rose decides to go and help with the interrogation.

THORN

Reynolds seemed about ready to soil his pants from the psychic pressure of Thorn’s presence. His was a particularly spongy and cramped mind. “C-c-c-cabin 237! 237! They all talk about Room 237 but I’ve never been there. They… they keep talking about… ‘bringing back the good times’, ‘making a comeback’. They even paid me in pretty old bills.”

Rose had transferred to this scene, and not wanting to feel helpless tap-tapped at one of the ship’s many available touch screen kiosks. She zooms in on that level and scrolls, helpfully informing them of a concerning matter. “There is no Room 237.”

Ellen listened and pondered as she often did, what all this meant. “Where did you meet them for payment. There might be more to their odious claim.”

At that point, Reynolds produced a golden key attached to a simple keychain, a golden coin that held nine tiny rubies. There was a truly otherworldly presence to it- magical, psionic and anomalous radiation, and it was psychokinetic. To those good of heart, like Rose, they seemed to immediately recoil, like smelling rotten eggs. To those whose hearts were neutral, it produced a rather irritating but harmless background static, like tinnitus. Then to those with will and ambition… Ellen Nakamura handled with like found treasure. “There’s a club… a special club, that only people with this key can reach. It’s called the 9th Circle. Please take it, I don’t ever want to see it again. Can I please go now?”

Meanwhile, as Rose looked at the key and took a step back, she looked at the fellow she’d quietly suspected all this time since they met.“…You. Did you come to take me away?”

On principle, Astrid kicked the bottle down the side of the deck once Cassidy was one with it. She knew the guy had… “history” with alcohol and didn’t want to add insult to injury with it being in sight longer than necessary. Except when she kicked it with her steel-toed boot, the whole thing snapped into pieces as they scattered away. She watched Rose leave, understandably so. And she watched the others tend to him, drawing a line and pulling his shirt off.

”Alright.” Stareater lacked the capacity to inhale, but she made an audible sighing noise like she was mentally preparing herself for this. She straightened her fingers in a chopping position, and pressed the left edge of her hand against the dotted line. Astrid applied some pressure to the point of contact, and then…

”One, two…”

There was a flash of light, and a crackle like fireworks. Astrid’s hand practically passed through Cassidy’s flesh and bone like it was water, and there was a surprisingly small amount of blood flowing out of the severed limb once it hit the floor. The reaction between the energy and the flesh resulted in a billion microbursts of energy that partially cauterized the wound.

After a moment of silence, Stareater spoke up. ”Okay… It’s done. I’m sorry that had to happen. I can make a prosthetic for you eventually. I still know how to do that stuff.” She said, trying to inject just a drop of humor into this. But when she looked at Rose’s direction, she overheard what her girlfriend said. ”…What?”

Thorn was not a particularly squeamish man; he’d patched up more than his share of combat-related injuries, not to mention caused them. Ending a life for the first time is an utterly disgusting experience…then you get desensitized to it, and all the blood and gore it comes with. Ending it by complete accident when your powers activate is a whole different experience…and it, too, simply becomes another chore, in time.

A key? A golden key attached to a chain? There was some room that didn’t exist that could only be reached with the key. Thorn felt a mixed feeling of revulsion and interest in the key, but his ears rang. The club was called the “9th Circle”; a reference to the Divine Comedy, no doubt.

“Abandon hope, all ye who enter here,” Thorn quoted, before saying, “This will require further investigation; I don’t think we’ll get anything further out of Reynold, here, but as an accomplice, my superiors may be interested in keeping him for leverage”.

“…You. Did you come to take me away?”

Thorn dreaded that it came to this, not that Rose could see any such facial expression on his masked face. Experience has long taught Thorn that telepaths could not get away with telling lies to each other. His answer was as neutral as he could manage.

“Circumstances have changed,” he said. “Someone else who may not care who gets hurt along the way would have come for you if I didn’t come first. I know this: your power is growing, but still untrained - dangerous things can happen if it goes uncontrolled.”

Absent-mindedly, his mind flashed back to when his abilities emerged from dormancy. Unlike Rose, he didn’t have to deal with his powers until nearly a decade ago, and he was already a fully-trained military man back then. Such untrained, dormant power being released all at once - rather than being eased into - had terrible consequences.

He could still remember the opposition, recently dead, bleeding out of eyes and ears, staring blankly into the ceilings. He could remember his team, many rendered gibbering wrecks, talking to people that weren’t there and staring blankly into the distance. Any who had crossed his path in his then-untrained state would have been doomed. He owed the Initiative for helping him get that power under control.

His thoughts were well-guarded, but the occasional flash of that day still got out. Flashes that - with or without context - would be utterly horrifying for a child. By what little could be made from his flashes, Thorn was a well-meaning man that drew the short straw in life, and was trying to make the best with what he had in the only profession he knew. Namely, killing.

“I envy you, kid. To always have had that power and have had a lifetime to get used to it…it’s time I never had on my side,” Thorn said. “I got the crash course, but you still have time to decide what to do with it. I’d rather avoid you using your power for the wrong reasons - or at the behest of the wrong people.”

Upon hearing Star Eater's response to overhearing Rose's question, Thorn decided he needed to make himself scarce.

"I get the feeling you're in good enough hands without me. I'll scout on ahead - stay alive, kid," he said before he engaged his suit's cloaking systems and moved forward.

Cassidy took the procedure like a man, biting down on his belt and grunting at the brief pain, before watching his arm from the mid bicep down fell off. As the wound had cauterized, Eli had little else to do but let Cassidy consume some pain killers then clean up the cut. The severed limb disturbingly necrotized at a rapid pace, becoming sickly and pallid as the possessed were, even twitching and grasping beside Astrid briefly before shriveling up.

Thorn and Rose (see what I did there?) had a longer conversation that what their spoken words carried. While she had a super powered paramour, it was in Thorn she had a kindred soul in, someone who shared in their psychic gift. Once Thorn had shown his intentions, Rose laid a reassuring hand on his bicep.

“Thank you for understanding, and, I wish your circumstances were better. Also… I mean… we’re in the middle of this freak outbreak. Maybe you can tell… whoever you’re reporting to, that we got eaten?” She suggested.

Once Thorn made himself scarce, the group could hear the attacks echoing through the vent shafts, the distant wails of the demonically possessed feasting upon the living. Ellen took a few steps before the Myers spoke up.

“Now hold up… we can’t just… you can’t just leave us here!” Cassidy said, helping himself up with his one good arm, cradling his stump.

“You don’t have to worry, Mister Myers. I’ll take you to the lifeboats; you have my word.” Elijah volunteered, much to the surprise of the Myers… and Ellen. She was quick to make a disapproving remark.

“Baka! You are being too altruistic, Elijah. Fine then, you’ve a better chance to survive getting away from the Anomaly.” Ellen said, implying she’d rather not risk her son further.

Eli looked at the Myers family if they’d accept his protection. Rose looked at him a moment and answered. “I… I know you’re telling the truth.” She said, laying a hand on the Samurai. Then she glanced at Ellen. “…Stareater thinks you’re evil incarnate, and I do sense a lot of darkness in you. But you are a … decent parent, at the end of the day, for raising such a good son.”

“Your words are exultant praise to my ears.” Ellen said rather dryly and sarcastically.

“Okay, okay, enough family therapy psycho-analysis, doctor Myers! We should get a move on. Come on, the nearest life boats are two levels up.” Eli cracked a joke to cut the tension, getting quiet looks and crickets from the Myers family. A swift and hasty exit was far more appealing for them to beat feet, the now one armed Cassidy supported by wife and daughter.

Rose then turns to Stareater, now asking her a tough question, an implied team up with less than savory team mates. “…If that key… thing… can save the people on the ship, are you going to help?”

“…To the lower-class cabins then.” Ellen said, marking their route to Reynold’s cabin. The Possessed were now scarce on this level, as they’d decided to go after easier prey elsewhere. Still, the threats would not cease- they would only evolve to become more sinister, more supernatural, as the dark force began to twist reality to better disorient and unbalance the motley crew of supers. Hallways began to stretch farther than they should, while shadows began to jump in the corner of the eye.

She turned away after taking the arm off, leaving the samurai and the commando-looking guy to tend to the wound.  Ellen and one of them, her kid perhaps, were talking about getting the parents off the boat. Not a bad idea, but they were a long paddle from shore by now. Moreover, the ship had sailed far enough that it was awfully difficult to see what direction was nearest to dry land. By the time the lifeboats were launched and let loose in open water, they'd loose any sense of direction on the inside. Still, it was better than one of the possessed biting Cassidy on the neck or worse. If that guy went with them, maybe they'd be fine. Fine. Fine/

Stareater elected to ignore the fact that Rose was feeling sympathetic for Ellen. She shouldn't have taken it so personally, Rose was just like that. She was an overly-sympathetic psychic would could feel what others felt on a supernatural level. When Rose asked if she'd be going with the others to stop whatever this was, Astrid had to think long and hard about it. She had an irrational disdain for Ellen. She didn't realize it, but she was projecting onto her because she saw Richard Black when she looked at Ellen's face. They stood for the same things, they worked for the same entity. Astrid had enough of Institute scientists after the explosion up in Canada, but she took up the name Stareater for the express purpose of putting that behind her. Astrid wanted to be something else. Something, someone that actually mattered. The conflicted feelings were palpable to Rose's powers.  But Astrid remained.

"I have to. People are in danger and I can get them out of it. I'm not gonna make you come with us, but I won't stop you if you do... " Rose could feel creeping dread build up in Astrid, like she secretly feared for Rose's life. But she didn't say it out loud. She knew Rose could make her own decisions, especially having braved this entire ordeal for as long as she had so far. No, Astrid had faith in her, but it didn't stop her form worrying. Astrid turned and walked over to Ellen, Eli and Thorn.  She ignored the last two and fixed her "eyes" on Ellen. It was weird, but Ellen could tell that Stareater actually was looking at her and not just perceiving everything from behind that fishbowl of hers, despite not really having a face anymore.

"You get one chance to show me you're not a heartless bitch who only cares about herself. One.  If you want my research as bad as you said back at Mason's bar... You'd better not fuck this up. Got it?" That was the easiest way Stareater could convey the phrase, "I am willing to look past my unreasonable hate of you for the greater good, so long as you prove you're dependable."

A sense of foreboding filled Thorn’s mind as he walked ahead on full alert, even as the halls leading to the cabin area were dead silent. Cloaked or not, he didn't run into a single Possessed on the way here; that didn’t feel like it should have been possible. His head felt like it was being split open, for whatever reason.

What was going on? Was this all due purely to the demonstration at the theater, or was the ship itself to blame?

“Sergeant Bradshaw,” someone said, as if someone was whispering from behind.

Out of instinct, Thorn turned on his heel to face the source of the noise, only to find the previously empty - if dirty - hall awash with blood and bodies. These weren’t just bodies, however - they belonged to people that he knew. They had been people he previously fought alongside.

The closest body was a clean-shaven man in his mid thirties, with a chiseled jawline, in special operations gear. His eyes were rolled into the back of his head, and blood trailed - like tears - down his cheeks.

“Lieutenant Walker…” Thorn trailed, before simply adding, “Martin”.

The commanding officer of his platoon, Martin Walker had been one of the relative few to have actually survived the initial psionic shockwave that accompanied the awakening of Thorn’s power. It wasn’t without consequence, as Walker had been reduced to an invalid, spending the rest of his days fed by an IV, unable to move, talk, or even think rationally.

The lights were on in those eyes, but nobody was home…a man who was still alive, but could no longer live.

Thorn blinked his eyes rapidly, hoping to whatever deity existed - if they existed - that this hallucination would pass. But the vision failed to dissipate, what with all the feeling of psi in the air.

“Arthur…” another murmur came, and he turned to see someone else, standing up from the bodies.

Corporal Christopher Winter stood with unfocused eyes, waving his sidearm in Thorn’s general direction. But with his higher reasoning functions completely fried from Thorn’s original psionic awakening, and his motor cortex damaged on top of that, the round that was fired missed Thorn completely, despite the meager two meter distance between the two.

“Why?” seemed to come out of the hallucination’s mouth.

“I…I didn’t know. It was an accident,” Thorn pleaded.

But it was of little comfort to the dead. Thorn got so caught up in his past that he had accidentally decloaked. Possessed seized the opportunity to attack. The sharp impact to Thorn’s skull was all it took to refocus back into reality.

Fortunately for him, the armor took the brunt of the impact, meaning the worst he felt was the sudden stop of kinetic energy against his body, with no breaking of the skin. Being caught off guard, his rifle was knocked away from him, but even in hand-to-hand fighting, Thorn was no less dangerous.

The artificial muscle fibers along his HEV suit interacted with his psionic abilities, boosting his physical strength. The hooks and punches would kill any normal man, but the Possessed still came, and it forced Thorn to improvise with whatever was at arm’s length. The psi interference wreaked havoc with his ability to focus and - consequently - use his psionic abilities.

Furniture and doors became his makeshift cudgels and blades. The door, in particular, was swung with enough force to embed halfway into the Possessed’s neck. Nabbed from behind, Thorn kicked his heel back right through his attacker’s knee. Still, if he didn't get an assist soon, he was liable to be overwhelmed, particularly if more Possessed show up.