First Spark

"Woah," the word escapes Abe's mouth before he could stop it. The group walked through the rusted, overgrown entrance to find a sizeable room with the statue of a young woman and an archway leading deeper in. The room was lit by the late afternoon sun filtering through the entrance and appeared to have been built mostly with concrete and cinder blocks, though that wasn't to say it was shoddy as there wasn't a single piece out of place and the floor was level and smooth. The group spread out across the room, investigating every nook and cranny they could see. George was captivated by the statue. It was sculpted to be an attractive woman in her early 20s wearing revealing, if stylish, clothes, carrying a phone in one hand, a shopping tote in the other, and striking a dynamically cheerful pose. The plaque on the base read:

"Patricia Millicent

Beloved daughter"

Slowly the rest of the group filtered over to admire the statue. A soft murmuring filled the chamber as they all took it in. Something was bugging Marie about the room and the statue, though she couldn't quite place it. Just as she was about to say something, Jason whipped around towards the archway causing everyone to turn to him.

"I swear I just saw someone out of the corner of my eye," he said as he motioned to the passageway deeper in.

Jesse, slightly annoyed, simply rolled his eyes and walked over, attempting to peer into the gloom of the next room unsuccessfully. It was just then that Marie finally figured out what was wrong.

"It's clean" the short AP student said in a voice somewhere between curiosity and confusion, drawing looks from a few others in the group.

"It's clean!" she reiterated, motioning to the room, "There's no dust, no dirt, no trash, no tags, bones, waste, nothing. It's spotless. Like someone has been cleaning up whenever the wind blows something in or an animal enters."

Upon hearing that, everyone began looking around with new eyes and as the realization set in they started to feel uneasy. They knew they were probably trespassing, but now they felt as though they could be walked in on at any minute. And with Jason claiming to see someone, a few were already starting to get nervous. Randy and George looked at each other. Deciding it'd be for the best to get this over with as quickly as possible, they moved towards the passage deeper in. The two pulled out their phones and turned on the flashlight to pierce the murky darkness of the next room.

Reaching the entrance, the beams of light illuminated the room beyond to reveal another archway and room past it and a few small puddles of some pinkish liquid scattered across the floor. Randy went to enter but George grabbed his shoulder. The thug glanced back and the taller blond shook his head and motioned to the floor. Randy looked down and screwed up his face.

"What?" he said, obviously confused.

"The liquid," George stated intensely.

"What about it?"

"The place seems weirdly clean, right? No dust, no trash, nothing. But there's puddles of something in here. And what liquid do you know is pink?"

"Coolant, medicine, floor cleaner... What's your point?"

"And how many of those would you think to see in a bunker in the woods?"

Randy rolled his eyes and shook the larger man's hand off his shoulder. Stepping into the room, he went to quickly cross it when he stepped into a puddle of the pink stuff and heard a gasp behind him. He pulled his foot out, noticing it was sticking to his shoe and a thin syrupy string connected his shoe and the puddle. He felt a strong hand on his shoulder and was suddenly pulled backwards out of the room. Wheeling around he saw the lumbering jock he'd just walked away from was the one who'd yanked him back. Before he could say anything, he noticed something about him. While he was already fair skinned, he'd turned white as a sheet and his eyes were practically the size of saucers.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Randy asked, slightly taken aback by the man's appearance.

"It moved," George said, drawing looks from a few other people.

"What?"

"It. Moved. The puddle. Moved."

"What. No. There's no way the puddle mo-"

"The puddle moved to be in your way so you'd step on it."

"That's impossib-ow what the?" Randy was just about to tell him off when his foot started hurting.

"Oh my gods!" screamed Marie and Randy looked down to see his wet shoe was falling apart.

Scrambling to get it off, he tossed it into the room with the puddles and watched as it hit one. The shoe slowly sank into the puddle that was way smaller than it. Randy started freaking out, sensibly thinking he might lose his foot. George pulled his water bottle from his pocket and dumped it on Randy's foot, watching in awe as the pink residue completely evaporated from the sock and visible skin. The rest of the group looked on in shock and began to murmur among each other.

Jason sighed and everyone looked at him. He nodded towards the vehicles and walked out. The remaining members looked between each other and couldn't manage a single coherent thought between them. After about a minute of decision paralysis Jason returned with a fire axe and a backpack, startling everyone out of their stupor.

"What the hell?" asked Jesse, "why do you have that?"

"Simple," Jason began, "regardless of what's inside we'll need some form of protection and I use it all the time so I know what I'm doing with it."

"What do you mean you 'use it all the time?'" Ross asked, backing away from the now armed man.

Jason gave him a flat look and gestured to his camo jacket, camo backpack, boots, and blue jeans, "I go camping all the time. I gotta cut firewood somehow."

Ross nodded and released a breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"Am I the only one who doesn't see the use of an axe against puddles?" Morgan asked while looking around the room at everyone else.

"George said it moved," Jason shrugged, "if he was seeing things then it doesn't matter. If he wasn't, then at least we have some possibility of dealing with it."

Agreeing with his rationale, George and Abe exit the bunker only to return about a minute later with their backpacks on and each carrying something. George had a large bat in his hands and Abe carried a long, gnarled stick.

"Wait, I you play derby? I thought you played rumble?" Devon asked, slightly confused that the quarterback had a derbyball bat in his car.

"Eh, I was in junior league. I still play occasionally, but it's not my preferred sport," George replied while giving a few slow swings to warm up.

"Okay so the sporty guy has a bat, that's not weird, but why do you," Devon pointed at Abe, "have a stick?"

Abe smirked and held it up, "because the quickest way to see if they actually move or not is to poke them and see what happens."

During the discussion, Morgan slipped out and came back in holding a dagger. No one noticed her leave which caused Ross to flinch away when she suddenly appeared next to him holding a large knife. Morgan just chuckled to herself as he muttered not to do that under his breath.

<"Listen... I know you want to keep me safe but I don't think they want to do me harm. I know I'm asking a lot of you, but can you try not to hurt them? I don't think they even know what you are or even really know about me given how they've been acting. Just please, I don't want to scare them off.">

Abe moved over to the archway with the long stick held in front of him. George held his light up to give his friend a better view and the geek crept forwards, angling the stick towards the nearest puddle. As he went to prod it, the puddle slid out of the way and Abe flinched back.

"Yep!" he called out distressed, "they're moving!"

Everyone else started to move closer as he went to prod it again and again it moved. The crowd was fascinated by the display. How was a puddle moving? Even better, how did it know where the stick was going to be? With an annoyed lunge, Abe finally managed to stab the puddle with the pointy end of the stick and it gurgled before forming into a small slick orb of some kind of viscous semi-fluid. Everyone stepped back except Jason and George.

"Is that..." Jason asked, unable to finish his question.

"There's no way," George answered.

"Well obviously it is," countered Abe and the three of them looked at each other.

"I wonder if it works like it does in C&C or the way it does in BattleForge?" asked George, eyeing his own weapon.

"Only one way to find out," Jason muttered before entering the room, axe at the ready.

The jock and hunter entered the room, eyes glued to the jiggling blob in the corner. The two readied their weapons and the blob leapt at Jason. He dodged the attack with surprising speed and, with reflexes he didn't know he had, sliced the underside of the blob as it sailed past. The strange creature slapped against the wall behind the two and they spread out a little more, attempting to make it harder to attack them both. The blob slithered forwards, syrupy liquid leaking from its underside into the cracks between the flagstones.

George took the initiative this time, stepping forwards and bringing his bat down on the creeping bubble. It impacted but didn't seem to do anything, though George could have sworn he felt something hard move against the bat from inside. The blob slithered onto the bat as George lifted it back up, a thick trail of slime reaching up from the floor to nearly shoulder height. Jason lunged forwards and cleanly slashed through the tether, a crystal falling out with the rest of the liquid as the outer coating was torn asunder. The two men breathed heavily from the adrenaline surging through their veins. They began to let down their weapons when they saw the other puddles begin to jiggle as well.

"Hey!" George shouted at the people watching, "a little help here?"

They all looked between each other then Randy and Morgan stepped forwards, blades at the ready. One of the remaining puddles leapt into the air towards Morgan's head, only to be intercepted by George's bat. Morgan ducked her head in reflex as it made contact, the slime blob splatting hard against the wall and slowly reforming. The puddle closest to Morgan popped up and slithered next to her. She started and slashed at the mound of jelly, missing as it slid around her to attack the thug it'd taken the shoe of. Randy never saw it coming.

He stepped forwards and plunged his foot directly into the body of the blob. Instantly he recoiled and tried to yank it out, but it was stuck inside. He lost his balance and toppled to the ground, trying in vain to kick the pink mass off of him. Jason sunk his axe into the newly reformed slimeball and saw it gush over his blade like a watermelon. George shouted and the hunter's attention was drawn to the thug on the ground just as the witch's dagger sliced down.

He assumed he was witnessing a murder as viscous liquid poured out of the prone man's foot, only realizing what had happened after the light was trained on the foot. The liquid was a hot pink color, not the crimson red of blood. Everyone in the room took a few deep breaths, letting the adrenaline slowly die down.

"So..." George breathed, "what just happened?"

"I think we just killed a bunch of slimes," Jason said, letting his axe fall from ready.

"Slimes don't exist though."

"Well apparently they do here."

Morgan was too busy freaking out to pay attention. She'd never killed anything before. She felt herself being moved from her friend on the floor. She looked around to see Ross guiding her away while Jesse moved forwards to tend to Randy. Jesse pulled off the shoe and doused it and the foot underneath with water, watching the goop slide off. Tapping Randy's foot with a small rock and not seeing any reaction, he was satisfied that his foot wasn't damaged. He was still concerned that whatever acid was inside of those things might have soaked into his skin, but only time would tell. Jesse helped him up, making sure he was steady on his feet before looking at the other two in the room.

"What just happened?" the goth asked.

George shrugged, "you came here for a ghost and instead we found some slimes."

"Before you ask," Jason butted in before Jesse could respond, "no. We don't know how this is possible."

Jesse sighed and walked out of the room. He hadn't signed up for this. Morgan was recovering quickly, but everyone in the room looked nervous. He heard the three men walk back into the room behind him. Everyone seemed to look to them for direction and Jesse turned to look at them as well.

"We may not have found a ghost, but we found something weirder," Jason said plainly, his axe now covered with a pink film.

"So what should we do?" Ross asked, making sure Morgan was fine.

"Well we have a few options," George said, counting on his fingers, "we can leave now and never come back -leaving the mystery alone- but always wondering about it, we could delve deeper in to figure this out, or we could come back later when we're better equipped."

Jesse Ramone

Stats

-Strength - 3

-Intelligence - 3

-Nimbleness - 3

-Acumen - 4

-Physique - 4

-Synchronicity - 2

-Empathy - 4

Skills

-Brawl 2, Dodge 2, Intimidation 3, Sleight of Hand 3, Stealth 2, Bluff 2, Knowledge (High School, Goth, Varied) 3, Perception 3, Sense Motive 2, Technology 2, Animal Handling 1, Forgery 2, Medical 3

Equipment

-Phone, Wallet, Backpack, Keys, Notebook, Pens, Pencils, Textbooks, Folders, Papers, Snack, Poetry book, Journal, Chain Necklace, Makeup kit.

Description

-Skinny, pale Juki (Father is Nari, Mother is Tanzi), Black Hair, Blue Eyes ringed with Eyeliner. Wears edgy shirts, ripped jeans, black shoes, and a chain necklace.

-Born to a low class family, his father got him into rock and horror at a young age. Had a normal childhood and got into art, poetry, and internet forums around 5th grade. Slowly got introduced to darker music and stumbled onto the Goth subculture, then slowly became more comfortable in it over time. He never had too many friends but slowly made good friends with the other outcasts at school, having weekly vibe and game sessions with Devon and Ross. Hasn't had a girlfriend, but hasn't really felt the need for a relationship.

-Can be a bit mopey at times, but is a calm guy overall. Finds edgy jokes hilarious and can often be found listening to goth rock. Dispassionate unless shit's going down, then gets very reactive.