House on Haunted Hill (Closed, Rialle, C-Class Mission)

Wiping the raw egg whites from his lips and chin, Jaeger let out a satisfied sigh. Eggs really were nature's candy. But with protein. And not really all that sweet but they were perfectly gooey and had a certain rich flavor to them that just always hit the spot. They were also pretty easy to get if you didn't care what kind of bird they came from.

"I'm good. Broke. You?"

He rummaged in his pocket for the job flyer, which he'd folded and put away so as not to lose it. After a moment he found it, produced it, unfolded it, and slammed it down on the table in front of Rialle. He grinned widely, giving her a chance to read it. In the meantime, Poogie pushed his way past the door with a great deal of effort, and then started to search for his friends. Really, it was just like Jaeger to leave him to find his own way. The little pig decided he would give the wizard a piece of his mind, once he found him.

"Looks like theres some fishy shit goin on at this mansion," Jaeger said, missing the irony of his phrasing considering the company he was in, "Might be there's some ghosts. You down for a good old fashioned ghost hunt?"

Jaeger watched as Hoku carried her away. It appeared this bunny was stronger than he looked, which was interesting to say the least. He shrugged, not one to force her to ride with him as long as Hoku could keep up. Poogie climbed up onto Jaeger's lap, and Jaeger forced a little black helmet onto the pig's head that sported the word WILD. With a happy and affirmative "Rrnk!" to indicate that he was ready to ride, Jaeger gave the little pig a thumbs up and kicked the engine to life.

"Try to keep up, okay?" he said to Rialle teasingly, and took off down the road at an alarming and frankly unsafe speed.

The mansion in question wasn't that far away, all things considered. It was an old, abandoned place tucked into the East Forest just outside of Magnolia town, though it was bit too far to walk. Jaeger weaved between trees and jumped overgrown roots and bushes for as long as he could before he finally had to bring the motorcycle to a stop. The mansion was just barely visible through the trees about a hundred yards away or so, and was surrounded by dense underbrush. They would have to proceed on foot.

"Looks like we can't ride any further. Probably for the best, just in case. We might not want to announce our presence on this one."

As Rialle settled in under the bushes next to Jaeger, he nodded towards the house. She’d arrived just in time to see a rather suspicious figure approaching the mansion, dressed in a long black coat and a wide-brimmed black hat, wearing a white mask that resembled a bird’s skull. They were carrying a leather doctor’s bag in one hand, and an ornate brass key in the other. Jaeger held up one finger to gently quiet Rialle. The strange-looking “doctor” slid the key into the front door, turned the lock, and went inside. Oddly enough, they neglected to close the door behind them.

“Nothing much until just now. A few odd lights in some of the windows, always a weird color. Some rumbling noises.  No sign of Madison.  Nothing particularly ghastly until whoever the hell that was.”

He slowly and carefully pulled himself out of the bushes, standing up and brushing himself off quietly. Looking left, then right, he started towards the door with haste. The front yard of the mansion was overgrown, but not so much so that a grown man could effectively hide in it, so he decided the best plan was to just make a beeline for the door and hope nobody was looking out the window. Once he was at the front steps of the house, he paused. Turning back to Rialle, he motioned for her to follow if she hadn’t already, and then removed his boots. They were heavy and hard-soled, and would make it impossible to get around inside a creaky old building without alerting everyone inside.

Jaeger had been afraid that she'd go for the stairs leading down - he'd been actively ignoring the obvious fifth path. Basements in normal houses freaked him out, and he could only imagine how awfully creepy the basement in a place like this would be! Still, this was a team effort and he'd asked Rialle for her input, so when she headed down the stairs, Jaeger followed.

The steps themselves were well-constructed and solid, but still creaked like there was no tomorrow. The banister was carved wood, the finish worn down with age. Once they had cleared the cieling, Jaeger hopped the bannister and landed on the basement floor below. He figured this would keep them from being bottlenecked on the staircase itself, as well as give them more tactical positioning options.

The basement was dark, lit only by dim candlelight and the phosphorescent glow of strange liquids in beakers and vials adorning a long steel table. A faint bubbling noise echoed off the stone walls. If it weren't for his Reverse Sunglasses, Jaeger would have a tough time seeing with any detail, but wearing them allowed him to spot the beak-masked figure from earlier off on the other side of the room. They were pouring a bright purple liquid from one beaker into another beaker with a dark blue liquid. If they'd noticed Jaeger and Rialle come in, they hadn't shown it.

Jaeger began to move quietly across the floor, moving into a flanking position with Rialle. With any luck, this would go over way more peacefully than he expected.

Jaeger raised an eyebrow at Madison as he tossed her mask casually off to one side.  He didn't like the tone she'd taken with Rialle, and the statement she'd made was more than a little bit confrontational.  He could tell Rialle was a bit riled up.  He wasn't sure what had gotten her hackles raised, but he couldn't blame her regardless.  Even Jaeger, a dirty vagrant, had gone back home to visit Geen and his gramps over the years, and had always left with a tearful - yet masculine - goodbye.

"Listen, kid.  Your parents are worried sick about you.  They think you're here against your will, that some nutcase has taken you hostage or you're possessed by a demon or something.  They just want some peace of mind."

"Let them worry.  They're content to be insignificant, just a simple merchant and his wife living day-to-day and never making the world better.  What I'm doing here - what I've DONE here - it's magnificent!  The world will never be the same after what I've done!"

As the thump, thump, thump of slow and heavy footsteps drew closer to the stairs, Jaeger slid his hands into his pockets to put on his brass knuckles.  If there was going to be a fight, he wanted to be at least somewhat prepared.  He looked towards the stairs, keeping only a peripheral eye on Madison.

"What exactly have you done here, Madison?"

"I've reanimated the dead."

Jaeger watched as Rialle's water dragon slayer magic slammed into the beast, ripping away bits of its awful flesh as he fell to the ground with it.  As the two impacted to the basement floor and Hoku hightailed it out of there with Madison, Jaeger rolled off of the creature.  He'd heard a few bones snap when they landed, and hoped that would spell the end.

He wasn't so lucky.  The monster stood, swinging up with one of it's huge grey arms and nailing Jaeger under the chin.  He reeled back, almost toppling over from the impact.  Somehow his reverse sunglasses neither broke nor came off his face.  Lucky!  Jaeger spit out a tooth, and, head swimming, leapt in at the beast raking away at the rotten body with his claws as he let an unholy sound echo from within his throat.  He wanted to make this fight as quick as possible.  

"FEARSOME HOWWWWWWWWWL!"
________

NAME. Fearsome Howl
RANK. D-Class
TYPE. [Attack]
MAGIC. Take Over
MODS. Debuff Durability
DESCRIPTION. Jaeger calls upon the power of the Wolfman and lets loose with an otherworldly howl from deep in his throat, breaking his opponent’s focus and making them less capable of properly defending themselves.

MP COST. 1

MP 1/5

For a long couple of minutes, all Jaeger could hear was the sound of his own raging heart.  He'd killed the abominable corpse man - or at least, broke it badly enough that it was dead again - but the adrenaline still surged through him.  Rialle had said something to him, some expression of gratitude before heading up the stairs and out of the house.  His senses were on fire, even moreso than usual with the Wolfen's strength active within him.  He looked at the head in his hands, and actively willed himself to drop it.  It his the ground with a dull thud before rolling away into the darkness.  Jaeger pushed his reverse sunglasses up off of his eyes and onto his forehead.  The lenses were smeared with that vile green mess.  He couldn't see through them anymore.

As he caught his breath, he closed his eyes.  He pushed the Wolfen's mind back into his own subconscious, ignoring its pleading cries to run off into the forest, to hunt and to kill and to eat.  His arms and legs returned to normal.  His socks had been destroyed.  He gave the motionless corpse one more kick for good measure before heading out of the basement.  On his way to the door, he paused.  In one of the side rooms was a great vat of that green liquid that had been bleeding out of the thing he'd just put down.  He couldn't allow this to fall into the wrong hands.  He returned to the basement, retrieving one of Madison's burners from her lab table.  Using the flame to set the curtains, carpets, and some of the walls alight, Jaeger made sure this place wouldn't trouble the world any further.

As he made his way across the lawn and to his friends - pausing only to grab his boots -the house went up in flames behind him.  He gave Madison a hard look.

"Let's get the Professor here back to her parents so we can get paid and grab a real meal.  I'm gonna need to dry clean my jacket, too."  

Throwing his leg over his motorcycle, he planted his own helmet on his head, Poogie's helmet on his little pink head, and held the FOR LADIES helmet out to Rialle to put on Madison's head.