8063/It Came from the 80s

It Came from the 80s
Date of Scene:	30 October 2021
Location:	Newtown Catholic High School, Gotham
Synopsis:	An undying horror, the ghastly remains of serial killer Gustav Gantz is released from the dark pit that once contained him, and terrorizes the 20-year reunion of the teens that put him down once before. This time it was up to Huntress, two Batgirls, Red Robin, and as-yet-lacking-a-codename Austin Reese to do the deed. Our heroes, yet again, save the day.
Cast of Characters:	Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake, Helena Wayne, Austin Reese, Stephanie Brown

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Barbara Gordon has posed:
Newtown Catholic High School is a private school. It has never been a bad school, or a bright beacon of hope, it has simply existed since its opening in 1967. To this day it remains profitable and with a decent reputation. The only blemish in the schools long history was a Halloween party in 2001 where a literature teacher Mr. Leist supposedly killed several students before taking his own life.

The survivors of that horrible halloween party find themselves once again at the school. It's 2021 and it's the 20 year reunion party. Some thought it was in bad taste, but others felt it was a chance to memorialise those that died that fateful night. Sad, but not why the Bats and the Birds and other concerned vigilantes have flocked to the school tonight.

Two days ago Babs got on to the trail of some corruption. Corruption in GCPD was always a top priority for her because it inevitable lead back to some heinous crime being covered up. This time it was no different. The culprit is the principal Dennis McCathry who has embezzled school funds to pay off the police to cover up the brutal murder of three construction workers.

Why? It seems that there's some downward pressure on the principal to get the school extensions completed on time or else the school backers may pull funds. Murders on the site would absolutely stop construction of the school extensions. Tastelessly, there's a fund raiser at the school reunion party tonight for the school extensions.

The new school gymnasium is almost complete. There's still scaffolding against all the walls and the event organiser has used them to hang big banners with pictures from their school year. There's one of the debate team. Heather, Peter, Fiona, Warren, Douglas, and Wendy. Of them six only three were alive to see this day: Heather, Peter, and Fiona.

The three have gathered together apprehensively near the novelty punch bowl. They're the only ones who know what really happened that night. What really happened to their friends and Mr. Leist. Peter is packing heat, a pistol tucked in to his belt under his coat. His fear is about to become a reality.

Babs has decided to attend the mission. Mostly because she likes spending time with Steph in the field and also because she has dressed herself in ye olde classic Batgirl outfit. Purple bodysuit, dark purple cape with yellow lining, yellow bat symbol and utility belt, different purple shade gloves. If's the real deal but at a halloween party? just another costume.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Somehow, Principal McCathry managed to convince the reunion planning team that his nephew would be the perfect fit for DJing the party tonight. It's mostly an excuse to appropriate funding, of course, because the theme of the night was supposed to be "Totally 80s!" but instead of playing Wang Chung and Culture Club, he's filling the gymnasium with a mix of dark synth beats. Sure, it... sort of has a retro feel? But the DJ clearly isn't reading the room.

    A lot of people are uncomfortable, both with the music and with the supposed irreverence of hosting a party on the 20th anniversary of the Halloween massacre. This is not going to go down in the record books of Newtown Catholic as a successful reunion.

    The members of the planning team are just about the only ones on the dance floor, passing out glowsticks, trying to get people to join them. But it's just not happening.

    In one corner is a group of teens, children of returning graduates who had the misfortune of being dragged along to this lame party instead of going somewhere fun to celebrate Halloween on a Saturday night. None of them are in 80s appropriate costumes like some of their parents are. There's a girl in a short black wig wearing a green tracksuit with a number on the chest, a guy in a hotdog costume, an uncomfortably sexy female version of Pennywise the clown holding onto the hand of her much younger sibling, completely encased in an Among Us costume, and a couple in a really impressive recreation of Beetlejuice and Lydia Deetz in their wedding attire. From the stage version, not the film, and they've both been making sure everyone knows the difference.

    Theater kids.

    Squid Games and Hotdog Man sneak away from the group. The planning team member standing guard at the doors that lead out into the school proper is both a little drunk from the spiked punch and a little dumb, so he's easily convinced by their excuse that the bathrooms in the gym are all full and Squid Games might puke at any moment, so soon enough they're walking unescorted down the dark, empty hallways. And they do actually find the nearest bathroom, but not because either of them are feeling ill.

    A few minutes later, a sharp, blood-curdling scream echoes down the hallways. Can anyone hear it in the gym, over the music?

Helena Wayne has posed:
Huntress was a bit surprised to get the text from Oracle earlier in the evening. She's been working Gotham pretty regularly, but the contents were a surprise. There was an internet link to the events of 2001 along with another link to the party details. It's not far away.

It's also not a lot to go on. But if Oracle is expecting trouble, then Helena can tag in. Getting to the school is easy enough, and between the lights and the thump of the music it's pretty straightforward to figure out that the party is in the gym. Detective 101.

Reaching the roof with a grapple gun is just as easy, and then Huntress finds herself peering down through one of the upper windows. Leaning over. Upside-down. Using broad-spectrum optics, she has a military-grade hydrophone against the glass to pick up high-res audio of the party as well.

Full surveillance mode.

Austin Reese has posed:
Sneaking into parties has always been easy. Especially when it's a costume party. Austin had heard through the grapevine about the Halloween party here from a friend, and despite not being invited, had crashed accordingly. He was dressed in a costume that would fit the 80s aesthetic while also keeping his face hidden. A teal bike helmet with a reflective silver visor, a sleeveless pink hooded jacket with a skull on the back, cargo pants, work boots and a meat cleaver that may or may not be real.

It's a good costume and a great disguise that allows him to slip amongst the party without any real problem. At the moment he's mostly just vibing near the DJ. Most folks might not dig the music choice, but he's really into it.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
"So you know, Batgirl was way after the 1980s."

"Yes, I know," Stephanie Brown replies to the alumni here for the reunion, clearly in his 40s, wearing a trenchcoat and hat. At first glance Stephanie thought he was meant to be a flasher, but then she noticed the helicopter-like propeller sticking out of his hat, along with a pair of handles.

Nope, she doesn't get the costume.

"The color is a bit off too. I mean your purple, it isn't the right shade. And Batgirl doesn't wear a utility belt on her thigh like that. Though, I mean, it is kind of sexy," Inspector Gadget tells her, looking down at her thighs. "I'm sort of a Batgirl aficionado, had her poster," he says to the blond Batgirl.

Stephanie starts to regret choosing to come through the gymnasium to see the costumes, rather than a stealth entry. The man started hitting on her the moment he saw her. "I think it's a pretty good shade of-"

"And the hair should be red," the slightly pudgier-than-canon Inspector Gadget says, cutting her off. "But, hey, you know, you make it work," he says, glancing down Stephanie's costume appraisingly.

The material of Stephanie's gloves make no noise as her fingers tighten for a moment towards a fist before she controls the motion. "That poster, was it on your wa-"

"Above the bed," he tells her.

"Right. I have to go," the blond Batgirl says, whirling so her cape hits him lightly in the face and hurrying across the room and out a door into a hall.

<< Heading to- >> she gets out over comms, starting to say she's heading to the principle's office to look at files, when she hears the scream. << To investigate that! >>

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Truth? Babs loves that Steph came dressed as her.. well, original her. And yes, she wasn't 80s.. but who cares right? it's a costume party. May be the inspector gadget guy cares too much. She's glad Steph fronted the guy instead of having to do it herself. Some of her 'fans'.. ugh.

Also it's fun to be the costume-twin with Steph for the evening. Babs prefers the fans that are fans because she actually helped their lives. Oracle has instead taken herself to the principals office. A quick lock pick got her in there and she's plugged a device in to the computer. She got the filing cabinet open and is flicking through the pages.

What Oracle got used to over the years was not being the one running toward every scream. Not when she has the birds. Not when she has Steph. She switches her right eye over to a camera view from Steph's perspective and replies << I'm looking through files in the principals office. It's becoming enlightening. It seems the school is under financial pressure and the renovations are being funded by benefactors who want their names on buildings... and they're threatening to pull the funds if development doesn't complete on time >>

Still, is that enough reason to kill? and why kill the people doing the hands on work? it does explain the cover up. May be the motives aren't fully exposed yet. << Be careful.. the photos I got from the covered up autopsy were ..... extreme >>

One of the party of three hears the scream and tenses. She looks worriedly at the other two and the guy moves his hand behind his back to grip the pistol just to make sure it's there. "We should go check that out," he says above the din of the thumping music to his fellow survivors. They nod and the trio begin to make their way out of the gymnasium.

Tim Drake has posed:
    The scream came from the bathroom down the hall and around the corner from the gymnasium, though possibly only Helena with her hi-tech hydrophone might be able to actually pinpoint its source with accuracy. Everyone else who goes to investigate, which at the moment appears to be Stephanie and then the trio who have been hanging around the punch bowl, will have to do some searching.

    Though altogether probably not much. A pool of dark liquid has begun to seep out from beneath the door to the boys bathroom.

    "Hey," one of the three--Heather--calls out, to the figure of Batgirl ahead of them. "You shouldn't be out here! The rest of the school is off-limits." Which, of course, doesn't explain why they're here, of course.

    Unbeknownst to them, they too have been followed, by a figure wearing a heavy, hooded cloak and a carved half-mask. Though it's possibly only Stephanie who will see the edge of the figure's cloak flutter past a corner behind the trio.

    Peter doesn't wait around for the confrontation between Heather and Stephanie to be resolved. Once he sees the blood at the bottom of the door, he curses underneath his breath, pulls the pistol out from the waistband of his pants, and moves forward to open the door.

    Inside... it's a grisly sight. Squid Games is sat on the sink nearest to the door, and her body has been opened up from clavicle to sternum. Her expression is frozen in a rictus of pain and fear. At her feet, almost posed as if he's kneeling, is Hotdog Man. Well, most of him. He's been decapitated.

    And his head is face down in Squid Games' lap. They were both fully clothed when they died, but the implication is clear enough nonetheless.

    Immediately, Peter turns away and throws up a whole bunch of punch into the trash can by the door.

Helena Wayne has posed:
Huntress wasn't expecting comm traffic tonight. Thank you, BoP phone app and headset! Okay, she technically should have been, but it's been a long time since she's worked with a team.

<<This is ...>> Young Huntress? American Huntress? Non-Bertinelli Huntress? <<... This is Huntress. I'm on the roof with eyes and ears on the gym. I heard a scream just now. Outside the party. We've also got three more party-goers leaving the gym. Remaining on station here. Please advise.>>

Did she recognize the scream? Yes. But her voice carries the calm of experience beyond her years. No, Helena has worked with enough teams to know that soccer games aren't won by everyone chasing the ball. Play your position.

Austin Reese has posed:
Listening to the DJ or not, it's hard to miss three people whispering and then leaving suddenly. Austin makes a move to follow after them. It seems he's not the only one who's following them, though, because he spots the hooded figure as well. He mutters under his breath. At this point, who else can he run into? He's already faced off against both The Joker and the Scarecrow in a week. Why not add one more to the list? He's gone most of his life without running into super criminals, he can't help but wonder who he pissed off to make this happen.

Still, something is going on, and Austin is not the type to sit back and listen to music while there's something dangerous going on. So he follows, shifting the cleaver he was holding into his right hand so he can have it ready to go if he needs it. He'll wait and see what happens first.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Though the soles of her boots are muffled, they still make some noise as Batgirl runs through the school looking for signs of where the scream came from. The pool of blood and the three people in the hallway are enough to tell her when she's found it. << Blood leaking out of the westside bathroom. >>

A hand reaches down to her utility belt, drawing a small yellow-gold cylinder. There is a quiet SHUNK sound as it extends into a bo staff. Either that's a very well done costume, or else...

"I'm not here as part of the reunion," Batgirl says as she strides forward, staff held ready in one hand. Peter gets to the door first though, and the sight of the gun causes Stephanie to keep a wary on him as she moves to see into the room.

<< One of the guests has a gun. Just arrived here when I did from the look of it. Two dead in the bathroom. One decapitated, the other disembowled. Huntress, someone else was in the west hall. Dark cloak or robe, kind of thick. See if you can find them? >>

Batgirl moves forward, taking advantage of Peter's losing his lunch to take the gun from him. She empties it of bullets into a utility belt pouch, and then the gun follows. She moves to confirm the one victim that was sliced open is dead, not that she expects otherwise. She then begins looking about the area for any clues or leads. "Do you know these two?" she asks the trio. "Have any idea who might do this, or why?"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Barb is off in her own little world for the moment as she types on her portable bat computer. Mr. Stein, the supposed killer in the massacre 20 years ago -- << Wow you're not going to believe this. Mr. Stein not a week before the massacre at this school found a series of hidden passage ways in a hotel in Metropolis called The Sovereign Hotel. They found numerous bodies. His students apparently found a secret doorway that no one else had found. Hang on... >>

Babs starts rewinding the footage from the gymnasium and pauses on the image of the trio, << Three of the debate team that Mr. Stein went to Metropolis with are here tonight. Peter, Heather, and Fiona. Literature teacher finds serial killer hotel lair and less than a week later murders a bunch of kids in a high school? >>

As Batman taught them all, there's no such thing as coincidence. She slips in to the principal's seat and starts to type on his computer looking in to the background of The Sovereign Hotel.

If Oracle is surprised to hear Helena's voice she doesn't say so - no, she invited The Huntress to tonight. Evaluation time! Decapitated? She looks at the right eye camera and sees the gruesome mess in the bathroom.. a shiver runs down her spine. << Batgirl and Huntress - we may need to know what those three know >>

Tim Drake has posed:
    As Austin passes through the doors exiting the gymnasium, the cloaked figure he'd been following after is there. Waiting. About 30 feet down the hallway. Wordlessly, it points to its ear through its hood, and then crouches down to set something on the ground.

    It disappears through a nearby door into a classroom, and if Austin attempts to pursue, he will find the room empty with no trace of where the figure could have gone.

    Either way, he'll hear the high-pitched "Oh my god!" from around the corner as Heather and Fiona lean in past the bathroom doorway to see what has Peter ralphing. There's no way Peter can even try to fight being disarmed, not with the way he's bent over the trash can.

    Both victims are dead. No pulse from the young woman dressed up as one of the Squid Games characters. Heather shakes her head at Stephanie's question, Peter is... still sick, but Fiona risks another glance towards the bodies. "I... I think that's Tina's daughter."

    She looks away, hand over her mouth. "Oh my god," she repeats--she was the one who screamed that, a moment or two earlier. "Um, yeah... Christina Gonzales. She--she was my lab partner in Chemistry, we were close... I spent a lot of time tutoring her."

Helena Wayne has posed:
<<We can't panic the crowd, or they'll scatter like a covey of quail.>> Huntress declares calmly. <<Packing up recon mode and heading down to engage. Heading for the West hallway.>>

She knows that Batman would've flipped through the upper window, shattered glass everywhere, dropped a line into the gym and scared the hell out of everyone at the party. But Huntress isn't Batman. Running light and fast along the roof, she heads for the West hallway.

No time for grapple lines now, Huntress is in full acrobat mode. Diving off of the higher gym roof, she tumbles with the landing and comes back up running. All the while she is watching for signs of others on the grounds, either entering or leaving on the West side. With infrared.

<<Entering the West hallway now.>> she declares, breathing just a bit fast. School security? It takes her perhaps half a minute to get inside. Crossbow out, she loads a bolt.

Austin Reese has posed:
The first thing Austin does is stop to check the floor where the person put something down. He picks up the small object off the ground, and then turns it over in his hand a couple of times. It looks like an earbud. Probably not the best idea in the world, but he lifts his motorcycle helmet and puts the earbud in his earbud in his ear, before pulling the helmet back down.

He does a quick check into the room where the figure went into, but doesn't spot anyone. No chance to do a very thorough search though, as the scream gets his attention and he goes sprinting around the corner.

He's not really thinking about what it'll look like when he comes running around the corner in a full face motorcycle helmet and holding what could be seen as a weapon, but he stops in his tracks when he comes across the group, "What in the blue hell? I heard screaming and came running."

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown turns back from the examination of the bodies and the area around them. << Right. Finding out what they know. Female is the daughter of a Christina Gonzalez. >>

It doesn't take any effort for Stephanie's voice to carry notes of sympathy. "Do you know what her name is? And the boy?" Batgirl asks. "And is Christina here tonight at the reunion?"

Stephanie did a quick check of vitals on the one victim. Now she checks for phones or ID. If she does find a phone, she quickly enables access to them to Oracle so she can begin hacking into them.

Batgirl turns back to the trio there. "Any idea who might have wanted to harm them?" she asks, before her gaze turns on Peter. He's taller than the modest-sized blond, but Stephanie does her best to channel Bruce and try to loom anyway. "And as importantly, why did you bring a gun tonight?"

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Babs pauses and notices a temp comm coming online. Tim, what are you up to? She brings up the details and sees a note from Bruce about this guy. "Huh," she muses softly to herself and then says over comms directly to Austin's comms so as not to confuse the whole group too much. << My name is Oracle. There have been three gruesome murders here in the last few days and the principal of the school paid off corrupt police to cover them up. Now we have two more bodies already tonight and may be more to come. Twenty years ago this school suffered a massacre - congrats, you're not up to date. Batgirl, Huntress, and Red Robin are also here. Those three guests near the bathroom - they were here twenty years ago when the massacre happened. They know more than they're letting on. I'm adding you to the group channel. Introduce yourself >>

Babs switches back to the group and adds Austin in, << We have a new voice helping tonight. Now here's where things get really strange. The Sovereign Hotel was the site of 47 recorded disappearances over a period of twenty years. I don't think Mr. Stein was the killer - I think he found the lair of a serial killer in that hotel and the guy got away. Perhaps he followed the debate team back to Gotham. We may be dealing with a copycat or may be even the original. What's really strange is how the hotel was designed. Secret passages everywhere. Elaborate traps and death rooms. The architects name was Gustov Gantz. German Immigrant at a young age. >>

Bab pauses in her discussion on the channel before saying << Hang on a moment. These murders and disappearances ended in 1981 when another teacher from... this same high school, an art teacher named Mr. James took... another group of students to the very same hotel! and they all went missing too... Ask them about the Sovereign Hotel and their teacher Mr. Stein >> Far too many coincidences now.

Tim Drake has posed:
    If Fiona doesn't know the name of Christina's daughter, for sure then the other two don't. And indeed it turns out to be so, because Heather shakes her head mutely at Stephanie's questioning. Over the trash can, Peter groans something that sounds like a "no" too.

    Both bodies have phones on them, though it's harder to get at the male victim's things given he's, uh... still dressed up as a giant hotdog, even in death. But Oracle will no doubt swiftly have access to both.

    In the meantime, Fiona says, "She and her husband are here. I think--the kids, they're all here with their parents, so that means..." That two teenagers were just murdered with their parents only a few hundred feet away. She looks like she might be ill herself, though all she does is step back into the hallway and hug her arms around herself. Heather soon joins her, with a steadying hand on her friend's shoulder.

    "They never should have thrown this party," Peter says, suddenly, cutting in. When Batgirl interrogates him, he only shakes his head. "The Halloween Massacre... none of it is true, it wasn't *like* that." He's starting to sound like he's losing control, about to shake apart. Whatever his reason was for coming armed, it was out of fear, not malice.

    While Stephanie is getting the story out of them and Austin is being brought up to date by Oracle's voice over comms, Helena will catch a glimpse of a figure moving through the drop ceiling through her thermals, some distance away. It's overhead, but only for a moment before it passes over a wall and she'll be able to see it drop down into a room, marked Teachers Lounge.

    Whatever means she applies to get through (or over) the locked door separating her and the figure, what she will find is this: the body of a man in a cheap suit, slumped onto a couch in front of a television, which is on but turned to static. The man's face has been mutilated and he's sitting in a puddle of his own blood, hand still clutching the remote.

    The hooded figure stands nearby, observing from a distance.

Helena Wayne has posed:
Holy crap, and she thought Gotham of HER dimension was messed up! It makes sense, though, and fits the personality profile. <<Oracle, can you give us a deep dive into this Gustov Gantz? School, acquaintences, places of residence, organizations. Include known descendants, please.>>

Crossbow in ready-position, Huntress advances quickly and quietly down the West hallway looking for a heat signature. Like a soldier.

<<I have movement in the ceiling... going into the teacher's lounge. Affecting entry now.>> There's no time for niceties like picking the lock. Huntress just kicks it down.

Crap. The body isn't going anywhere for the moment, but the hooded figure is still mobile. She levels the crossbow at him. "Don't move. I won't tell you again."

<<We have another corpse here, repeat another corpse. And our friend in the hooded cloak as well. I will detain.>>

Austin Reese has posed:
Okay apparently there is a whole organized group trying to figure out what's going on. That makes Austin feel a lot better than he would have when he thought he was running solo. He listens intently to everything he's told over the earbud, then after Oracle gets through giving both him and then the whole group a rundown of the situation, he does finally speak up.

<< Uh hey. You can just call me Austin. I don't have any fancy callsign.>>

He moves up to where Batgirl is talking to the trio, "We're trying to stop this from getting worse, but we need your help. We need to know anything you can tell us about the Sovereign Hotel in Metropolis. Everything that's going on tonight is related to it somehow, and we know you all were there in '01."

Geeze, he realizes he's talking to them about something that technically happened before he was even born. Thankfully the helmet does help to deepen his voice.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown pockets the phones into her utility belt, leaving them connected to Oracle. She crosses her arms. Good looming tactic, she's noticed, and she keeps her attention on the three adults. "None of it's true?" Batgirl repeats of the Massacre twenty years ago. "It's time to tell the truth then. Something happened, with the Sovereign Hotel, didn't it? And now these students are dead because of it."

Batgirl takes a step forward towards them. "And it isn't going to end here. Unless you help me stop it. So I need to know. No holding back. And we need to know quickly. There are other people at the party, other kids with parents. And they are in danger."

Stephanie has already heard the message from Huntress about another dead body. She doesn't mention it yet, but it does give her words extra impetus in her tone as she tries to convince the trio to talk. She gives Austin a small nod, acknowledging his joining in the hunt.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Three dead in one night. Three dead prior to this. Whatever is going down has roots, long roots that started well before this school. She frowns and types on the principals computer to bring up internal security. She turns on the teachers lounge camera and sees .... well, that's clearly Tim in his D&D costume.

<< There's a fight I'd love to see one day but don't bother. That's Red Robin. Introduce yourself, he's one of our best. Robin any theories on how our perp is moving about? >> Because there were no foot prints in that blood pool at the bathroom door and no obvious signs of forced access through vents or windows.

Oracle types quickly in to her computer. << Gustov went missing in 1981. He was apparently acting as a janitor in his own hotel. People described him as a quirky German guy. Some people thought he was a bit pervy. Well, if he made a hotel with secret passages either he was doing it as a peeping tom or.. he was a serial killer. >>

<< No known descendents. No significant others. He's fitting a profile isn't he... >> Some silence for a moment as she deep dives in to the historical records. And there it is. A history of cruelty and violence so typical to the criminally insane.

<< Wow,his father was a nazi. His mother was killed by the nazis in hiding after the war. His pet dog was killed by school bullies when he was just a kid. Looks like he spent a lot of time in hospital from being beaten himself. He's like a German John Wick, except you know - serial killer instead of anti-hero hitman. >>

It's Heather that cracks first. Their sworn secrecy and silence about what really happened. Peter was cracking anyway. "It's not human. It came after us - after we found all the bones in the hotel. Mr. Stein, he tried to save us.

It killed him. It killed our friends. We - we used science to trap it in the floor in the old boiler room." She glances at the others. The implication is obvious.. with all the construction work going on these three worried somehow it might get loose. And 'it', whatever it is.. has. At least, if you believe the paranoid victims of a school massacre 20 years ago.

Tim Drake has posed:
    The hooded figure turns as the door is broken down, and he finds himself having a staring contest with Huntress's crossbow. "<<Very funny, Oracle,>>" comes Red Robin's deadpan voice both over comms and aloud, within the teachers lounge. He doesn't so much as twitch a finger, reading the training and intent in Huntress's form clear as day.

    "<<My best guess was through the drop ceiling, but there's no sign of any disturbances in the dust up there. Dead end, I think.>>"

    He very slowly tips his head towards Huntress, and then begins to raise his hands. The carved wooden mask comes free from his face, revealing the domino mask behind, and he unties the cloak from around his neck, revealing the red and black of his costume. "<<Principal McCathry is our third victim. If I had to guess, though, I'd say he was actually the first. His body has had time to cool.>>"

    His undercover costume is thrown out a nearby window for later retrieval, and Tim is just stepping over to the body for a more thorough examination. The information dump Oracle is giving out over the shared channel has him pausing, though, and he looks over at Huntress, mouth firmed into a grim line. "What are the odds that he's been living in the walls or something for 40 years?" he asks, though by his disbelieving tone it's clearly a rhetorical question.

    Something else is going on here.

    Of course, he's not present for the story that Heather tells, while Peter shivers and cringes in the background. Only Stephanie and Austin have any hint of some sort of supernatural angle to this, as of yet. Out in the hall, Fiona looks down, towards where the gym is. Her eyebrows draw together. "Wait... I think I just saw--."

    Then the screaming begins.

    The music from inside the gym is suddenly much more audible, as the double doors are pushed open and people begin to pour through, some bloodied, many panicking. An inhuman roar echoes down the halls.

Helena Wayne has posed:
RED Robin? Just how big IS the Bat-family in this dimension, and how many colors do the Robins come in? Geez! Huntress lowers the crossbow and relaxes. A little. She gives a curt nod and declares. "I'm Huntress." Technically still under evaluation, but she's not the one who's been creeping around in a hooded cloak.

<<Let's stop for a moment. Whoever is doing this is like a cat leaving a trail of dead birds. They WANT us to find them. Why is that? Where will they go nex...?>>

Screaming. The gym, of course. <<DECOYS!>> she hisses, starting for the door and heading towards the gym.

Austin Reese has posed:
An inhuman monster that they trapped under the floorboards twenty years ago only to have it released by potentially illegal construction? What did he stumble into a 1980s horror movie?

"You think that they freed this thing and now it's out killing again? You've gotta give us some idea of what it is? Werewolf? Demon? Unstoppable Nazi super-soldier?" Helps to know what genre you're in to avoid those particular tropes.

The screaming from back at the gym and the inhuman roar that follows makes Austin turn his head towards it, "Definitely leaning towards one of the former two. Get out of here!" He starts running back in the direction he came from, TOWRDS the screaming and roaring.

<< I don't know how true it is, but they said it was some kind of monster they sealed in the basement, and judging by that roaring sound I'm inclined to believe them! >>

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl listens to the explanations from the trio of survivors, alongside Austin. "What do you mean that you used science to trap it? To lure it somehow, or did you have to do something to contain it besides seal it in with building material?" she asks.

Austin gives the others the update, and then before Batgirl can say more, she hears the roaring sound as well. "Keep talking, answer my question," she says, reaching into her utility belt and pulling out a Bat-walkie talkie. A small hand held version that will allow what is said on it to broadcast over comms, though it can also be excluded from their own conversations. "Answer into this," she says, tossing it to the one who has seemed the calmest and most rationale so far.

And then Batgirl is running for the gymnasium, dodging panicked, fleeing people on the way.

Tim Drake has posed:
    "Hydrofluoric acid," Fiona says, out in the hallway. "We trapped it, and melted it down, and then we poured it under the foundations." Her expression has gone hollow, haunted, as she looks back towards the group in the bathroom. "I was almost expelled because we were caught in the chemistry lab, but I was--"

    There's no more time for explanations. Fiona catches the walkie-talkie and stares at it for a long moment, but she nods.

    It clicks on, over comms. "<<It... hunted us. Hunted people, like Gantz did in his hotel. If it... catches your scent, you can use that, lure it away. But it won't stop, once it's after you. It never stops.>>"

    Stephanie and Austin lead the charge, and Helena emerges from a broken door not far behind them. At her heels is Red Robin, his own staff retrieved from his belt and telescoped out. "<<We have literally no idea what we're running into, here!>>" he calls out for everyone's benefit.

    And it's true. Austin said to run and the trio of civilians they've left behind is definitely doing so, Fiona and Heather doing their best to support Peter's weight.

    "<<It's a monster,>>" is all Fiona can be heard to say, before the comm-line goes dead from her end.

    Not much of a description to go on, but as efforts are made to swim against the rushing tide of people escaping out from the gymnasium, it proves to be unnecessary. No cheesy 80s costume could create the illusion of stretched, too-long limbs and a gaping maw of sharp teeth crammed in tightly against one another that drip with ichor and blood. The thing, whatever it is, was once human. But it has long since become something else.

    There's an argument to be made about nature versus nurture, here. Was Gustav Gantz always this, on the inside? Was he born evil? Or did the things he was put through as a child make him this way?

    Tonight, there is no chance to get an answer to that question. The spider-like figure twists itself up from where it has dug its long-fingered claws into the stomach of someone, near the buffet, and its misshapen skull lifts in a movement that is almost a parody of scenting the air. Then its pale lips split into a wide grin.

    It turns. On all fours, it begins to run towards our heroes.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Babs pauses.. an 'it'.. something supernatural? It's not the first nor will it be the last time she's had to deal with something like that. Usually they have a mage or two on call for these sorts of situations. Once the danger has passed usually - unless the danger is magical in nature.

"The principal is dead too huh.." she muses to herself at Tim's report. Logging off she pauses again as she hears from the trio via Steph's comms. << I'm heading to the science labs. It's doubtful we're going to have everything we need on hand.. if we're really dealing with some undying murder monster then we're going to need to repeat what these people did as teenagers >>.

Halloween, of course it was going to happen on Halloween. Much better though than the days when Scarecrow would hit the streets with his toxins and fear gases. She makes haste with a whip of her purple and yellow cape down the hallways. Briefly she catches sight of the crew making their way to the gym. Two classic Batgirls.. that's going to confuse Huntress for sure.

Instead of heading to the gym with the rest of the team, Barb goes straight to the chemistry labs. Acids. She can do better than that. It's 2021 after all and she's not a scared high school student, she's Oracle: Electricity, nitrogen, acids. It must be a very powerful poltergeist of some kind. She gets to work firing up some bunsen burners and assembling the ingredients. << Keep it busy, I'm working on the solve. >>

Helena Wayne has posed:
Huntress runs towards the gym alongside Red Robin. "So. Just how many Robins are there if you all have assigned colors? Asking for a friend." She spots Batgirl as well. In purple and yellow. Different figure, jawline, and hair as well.

Okay, she's going to need a roster to keep this all straight.

<<If it can be trapped, then it can be killed.>> And apparently that's enough for her. She breaks it down. <<Humanoid. Elongated features. Runs on all fours. Target vital areas: eyes, throat, nostrils.>>

Huntress takes another bolt and clenches it in her teeth for fast reload, waiting for the shot.

Austin Reese has posed:
A few steps into the gym, Austin skids to a stop on the hardwood floor. The work boots have good enough traction to keep him from falling over. Alright that was definitely not what he was expecting. It does definitely fall under the monster category though. He gets out of the way of the door, moving to spread out a bit from the others that are arriving at the same time. He has no idea how to fight this thing.

But he does have some knowledge. This thing has been killed before...Sort of. Austin can at least work with that knowledge. He sticks with the theme of the night.

"If it bleeds we can kill it." A brief pause, "Or at beat it down until we can melt it."

Stephanie Brown has posed:
<< Alright let us know when you have something to melt it down. We will try to trap it! >> Batgirl 2.0 sends as she enters the gymnasium with the others and gets her first sight of what they are facing.

"It goes after someone by scent," she says as she darts off to the right compared to the rest of the group, heading between the monster and the scaffolding that lines the walls of the gym. "Red Robin, you wearing any of that cologne I used to like? Want to go give him a whiff?" she half-kids as she rushes to get on the creature's flank.

A pair of grapple guns are pulled out, one in each hand and pointing opposite directions. Batgirl shoots one at the creature, intending to wrap the bat-shaped grapple head around a limb. The other gun shoots out its tip that wraps around a solid section of scaffolding.

Batgirl hits a button on each gun and affixes the backs of them together. They lock together to form a solid line between the creature and the scaffolding.

Tim Drake has posed:
    "Seven. It's the full Roy G. Biv spectrum," Red Robin replies, voice flat. It doesn't sound like his heart is really in the quipping, but he's out here trying his best, okay? His free hand heads down to one of the pouches of his utility belt as he mentally works his way through a checklist of substances he has on him that might be of some use. "<<If it can be melted down with acid, chances are it's not immune to physical damage in general,>>" he theorizes.

    Which means they can try to hit the thing with their various pointy sticks and-or sharp blades.

    Red Robin pulls up behind everyone else, working to haul a fleeing civilian to their feet from where they've tripped and fallen. "Run!"

    And so they do. The civilian down the hall, Red Robin into the gym.

    The creature continues to advance on them in a loping run. Though the shape of it was once human, all it is displaying here is animalistic behavior, a predator on the hunt. Though Batgirl 2.0 springs a trap on it, and it slams down into the wooden floor of the gym with a howl as the grapple line snaps taut.

    There's a clear shot for Huntress to take, there.

    From the opposite side, Red Robin tosses out a grenade of pressurized liquid nitrogen. It imapcts the monster on its side, and its other leg is flash-frozen to the floor. "I stopped using Axe a long time ago, Batgirl," Tim calls out.

    Pause here for necessary clarification. That was a joke. Tim would never, even in any potentially unfortunate periods of teenagedom.

    Resume.

    "<<We're going to keep it here while the school evacuates, Oracle. But hurry!>>"

    Because even now, the monster roars with deep effort over top the backing music of dark synth beats as it begins to pull at the line trapping it. Does the scaffolding give first, or the high-tensile strength cabling?

Barbara Gordon has posed:
As the bunsen burners heat up the acid, she carefully empties out one of her old style explosive devices and pours in a much larger bunch of nitrogen than what she and her bat-brothers usually use. A delicate operation with very little time on her side. She arranges four beakers in preparation for the acid and then stops and thinks a moment.

A quick re-arrange of her Bat-a-range and grappling gun configuration in preparation. As the acid starts to bubble she turns the heat down and carefully pours it in to the four vials.

<< I have four vials of very strong acid, a cryo-bomb, and I'm going to shock it with electricity. I'm on my way. Here's the plan - I will toss each of you a vial, shock it with extremely high voltage, then throw the cryo-bomb, to stun it - then you all hit it with the acid. If we can melt it in to the floor like the teenagers did 20 years ago... I'll go get the batwing and come back and haul the floor away for Zee or Strange to deal with. Everyone on board? >>

She puts glass stoppers on each of the vials, closes up the explosive device, then slips each part of the plan in to her retro yellow utility belt. Those were the days - she was so young and naive back then. Now she's old and experienced, yet she's still running toward an unnatural monster with extremely dangerous acid on her belt. << TLDR, keep it busy and in the gym. I'm on my way. >>

Helena Wayne has posed:
<<I've got no heat, folks. It's a stone. Room temperature.>> Huntress declares. Scent. Yes, let's work with that. The grapple line takes and the loping creature is mometarily paused. She aims for where the nostrils should be

<<THWOCK!>> Cock and reload. Quickly.

<Sulphur and phosphorus! Anyone have any fireworks? Hit it from both sides.>>Her next shot breaks her initial suggestion and aims for a foot, trying to nail the monster to the floor. Probably for only a short time.

Then she hears the plan over comms. <<Roger that! We'll be ready.>> Roger that, WHO? Oracle? Batgirl? Because there is ANOTHER Batgirl in purple and yellow... a redhead... in play now as well.

Austin Reese has posed:
What a night to not have any kind of lighter on him. He'll probably have to remember to carry one on him after this. Still, he does have the cleaver in his hand. He wasn't planning on getting up close with this thing if he could avoid it, but at this point he really can't.

The cable trick locking it down from escaping, followed by the cryo bomb, makes Austin spot an opening. He runs forward, aiming for one of the limbs that hasn't been trapped by either a cable or cryogenic explosion, and he drops down to his knees, sliding across the floor, under the creature, and swinging the cleaver in an arc as he slides.

He figures maybe he can at least damage that leg, if not outright cut it off, further impairing it's ability to continue to fight, or worse at this point, flee. He heard the plan over that earpiece, and he just hopes he'll not screw it up when trying to throw a vial of super volatile acid.

As soon as his cleaver swing is made he's back up to his feet, running to put some distance between himself and the creature, << Hey if you got another one of those grapple things, hook it to one of the basketball nets! They're anchored to the roof, that should hold it better! >>

Stephanie Brown has posed:
"I actually do have a scent bomb," Batgirl says as she pulls out a batarang, sends it flying at the creature to hit it with a small concussive whoomp as the thrown weapon detonates. Then she grabs a handful of flash pellets and throws them, the little blasts and concussions not as powerful, but more disorienting as they flash all around it.

"But it might disable any of us not able to filter it out," she says. Who'd have thought having to fight a mage would have had benefits. Like coming up with sonic and scent-based attacks since nothing else she had tried against Felix Faust had worked. And worked they had, at least temporarily.

"Oh my god, I fell for a guy's Axe?" she quips as she moves in closer, drawing the creature's attention so it slashes a clawed hand at her. Batgirl uses her bo staff like a pole vault to flip over the attack, following it up with a hard strike from the staff and then retreating away. "Only one more grapple gun left, but do have this," she says, running at the wall and kicking off it to jump up into the air and catch the backboard. She pulls out another device - Red Robin, and likely Huntress will recognize it as a line launcher - and jumps towards the creature. A spike flies out, sticking in it, while one flies out the other side to anchor in the backboard. Intended for horizontal travel between buildings, it provides an additional line on the creature.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
    Barbara Gordon, action hero, Batgirl, Oracle, sliiiiides around the corner to the gym. Her first eyes on with the actual monster and her breath catches in her throat a moment. She presses her lips together and steel herself - action must be taken. Time to join the heroes she put in harms way.

    Stepping in to the room she draws two grappling guns like a bandito and aims one at the monster and the other at a power socket. With a fire both grapples launch and one embeds in to the wall, the other in to the monster and it becomes evident that they share a line as a gigantic crack of electricity zaps along the line and in to the monster.

    The lights go out and so does the inappropriate music left playing without the DJ. Silence except for the sounds of physical exertion and an undying horror. In the time that it is stunned she tosses over a vial of acid to each of the heroes, then whips out her big nitrogen bomb and lobs it at the creature.

    "Now!," she yells to the team to melt that damned thing. The irony isn't lost on her that a monstrosity like this was locked away in a catholic school all these years. This time they won't leave it here. She'll come back with the Batwing and steal the floor away and take it to Zee for a more permanent solution.

Tim Drake has posed:
    The scaffolding begins to creak and moan in a worrying way, loud enough to be heard over the thump of the music. But the impact of Red Robin's cryo grenade causes its other hind leg to stiffen, just in time for Huntress to land a bolt right through its foot, pinning it to the floor above the emblazoned logo of the school's mascot, the Newtown Nautilus.

    Yes, it's a mollusc. No, whatever committee picked it out for the school did not think it through. Yes, of course, the kids all call it Naughty the Nautilus.

    "Iiiiiii know you've been vith them," comes a low, hissing voice. The German accent is not strong, but it's there, undeniably. The creature stretches impossibly long, towards Batgirl 2.0, the claws of its forelegs... its hands... digging into the wood as it continues pulling against the various things that bind it in place. "I can smell them. Vere are theeeeeeeey?"

    Gantz, because it must be Gantz, or at least was Gantz at one point in the distant past, looms forward. Its body continues to lengthen, stretching like taffy. It's so close... almost...

    And then Austin slides underneath the creature and strikes out with his cleaver. The creature's arms are so thin now that he cuts through it fully with ease, and with a screech, the monster slams into the gymnasium floor just after Austin manages to get clear. As it struggles to get back up, the explosive batarang and flash pellets that Stephanie throws at it stun it further.

    From somewhere in the gym, Red Robin yells, "I was joking about the body spray!" Why he's disappeared has become rapidly obvious when he rounds back on the creature with a fire extinguisher, which he sprays right in the thing's disgusting maw. And then with Stephanie's quick thinking, they have it pinned by all its remaining limbs, anchored in... what, at least five spots?

    Point is, the thing is disabled, choking, gushing out inky black from the stump of what was once its arm, pinned to the floor with crossbow bolts and basically immobilized.

    When Barbara arrives and electrocutes the thing, the lights overhead flicker, and the music starts to skip. Smoke and a disgustingly sickly scent begin to fill the gymnasium as the monster's flesh crackles.

Helena Wayne has posed:
Yes. Two Batgirls in the same costume: one blonde and one redhead. From the voice and the moves, however, Huntress recognizes the redhead from a previous meeting. She doesn't have much time to ponder the duplicity, however.

The crossbow is holstered a moment before she catches the vial of acid. Electricity crackles, the lights (and the music, thankfully!) flicker and die. The cryobomb detonates and flash-freezes the creature.

On cue, Huntress hurls her vial along with the others.

The acid vials seem to move in slow motion, and Helena's mind races on other tangents before impact. There are so many unanswered questions, of course. How did Gantz do it? Why here? Why this group?

Austin Reese has posed:
Austin wheels around in time to spot the vial of acid flying through the air in the crackle of electricity from Oracle's veritable lightning strike. He never got to go to high school to play sports, but one could think so for the way he leaps to make the catch.

Thankfully he comes down with it, even though it's hardly the most graceful landing ever. Still he manages to scramble to his feet and with all the power and accuracy he can muster throws the vial at the creature. He just has to hope that he manages to put enough force behind it for the vial to break.

His mind is racing. He thought he was just sneaking into a party, not that he'd be fighting a supernatural killer from beyond the grave. But those kids younger than him did this twenty years ago, he has to be able to do it now.

All in all it's been a very eventful birthday night.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown catches the vial as she backs away from the creature. Her costume and that of the original Batgirl have some noticeable differences in design, making it easy enough to tell them apart even apart from the very different colored hair that each has visible outside her cowl.

Batgirl moves around to a position to better help bracket the creature. She leans back, winding up and hurling the acid. It sails in a graceful, lazy arc, descending from above towards the German-turned-monster. When it's about two feet above him, a batarang comes whirling through, shattering the vial to rain the contents down all over it.

The young heroine dusts off her gloves. "Fernando... Fernando... Venezuela... couldn't have thrown that any better," she says as if pleased with herself.

Batgirl uses her pole to help her hop up onto the DJ platform. As the Bats and their new ally use the acid on the creature, a new song starts playing out familiar tones over the speakers.

Don't Fear The Reaper.

Tim Drake has posed:
    The empty fire extinguisher clatters to the floor, and Red Robin leaps up to snatch the vial tossed his way from the air. He has just enough time to take a few big steps backwards to get himself out of the danger zone before he, in time with the others, throws it at the monster.

    Red Robin is at the creature's front. Austin, to the side where he's cut off the monster's arm. Huntress opposite him. Batgirl at the back. Working together, they managed to douse the thing thoroughly with acid, and now along with sizzling, the monster's skin begins to blister and pop.

    It screams. Rage, frustration, pain, all of it--very human and yet still so very evil--audible in the shrieking noise that leaves its throat.

    As first its skin and then a strange mockery of a musculature system revealed beneath melts away, the smell swiftly becomes overwhelming. Not just the noxious fumes of the acid and the smell of blood and burnt flesh, but death and decay that sticks to the skin and in the lungs.

    And then the upgraded cryo-bomb that the other, OG Batgirl throws lands. The liquid nitrogen sprays out across the surface of the goopy, chunk-filled puddle of what was once the monster of the Newtown Halloween Massacre. It hardens right over the smiling face of Naughty the Nautilus.

    Red Robin coughs once and then immediately fits a rebreather over his mouth, which... helps, some. And he has spares in his utility belt, so he passes them out to anyone--well, probably just Austin--that didn't come with one.

    "<<This is Red Robin. Target is neutralized. We'll stand guard until Batgirl returns with the Batwing to extract the remains.>>"

    The beginning chords of Don't Fear the Reaper begin to play, and Red Robin looks up to the DJ booth. He salutes the blonde Batgirl casually and then leans on his staff like a crutch.

    This is why he doesn't go to parties.