Halloween murder house

## Act 1

Having walked away from the last case alive, James decided it was time to cut loose and have some fun.

With Halloween coming up, he got the idea that going to a masquerade would be a fun distraction from his everyday extravagance with superpowered battles, and conspiracies. Heading to the local costume shop, he purchased pieces to construct for himself a Raijin (japanese lightning god) costume. It proved to be a little challenging, since there was no costume kit aimed to reproduce the iconography of this diety, and he had to get pieces, and do some repainting on his own.

Leaving the store, he encounters Rapunzel, who had decided to have a little street show where she herself played on an Ukelele, and her pet racoon (Sneaky) dancing.

After a quick chat, James invited Rapunzel to join him to the Halloween party that he had found a flyer for.

She agreed, and went to collect her own costume; purchasing a makeup kit and a dress in the style of "Alice in wonderland".

Returning to the HQ, Rapunzel heads up one floor to her sister's workshop, and asks Francine to help her assemble the final part of her outfit: a "key" in the style of those used in wind-up dolls.

Francine, offering to do one better (in exchange of being allowed to join them on the party), constructs a fully automated key, which fits into a box hidden in the fabric of the dress that then rotates the key, and could be "wound up" to make the whole outfit realistic.

On his own end, James repainted the neccessary parts of the outfit, and left them to dry overnight.

## Act 2

The evening of the party, Rapunzel was fully dressed as a wind-up doll, Francine as a Techpriest from Warhammer 40k, and James as the Lightning god Raijin. The trio called up a cab, and departed for their remote destination.

The destination proved to be an old farmhouse some distance outside of Hamburg. The party area, which included a marked off area of the grounds, where the DJ and dance floor were set up, the inside of the barn, where there was a bar and eating area, and the bottom floor of the main farmhouse, where bathrooms and changing rooms were provided.

The party was already in full swing when the trio arrived, and they were quickly assimilated onto the dancefloor.

The hostess of the party herself, dressed in a classic vampire queen outfit, was the heart of the party and fluttered through the crowds like a social butterfly.

All the way until midnight, James and the others enjoyed themselves, but at the stroke of midnight, James went to visit the bathroom.

He had just finished his business when he heard a shrill shriek of terror from the upstairs.

Obeying his superhero instinct, he dashed upstairs, only to find the Vampire queen herself on her back in a pool of blood, the windows open, and drapes fluttering in a mild breeze.

A scene made even more striking by the flash of lightning as the power went, leaving everything in darkness.

Mist sweeped in from the acid-burned woods, but as luck would have it, the Environmental Modulator kept the caustic mists at bay, as the vital machine had its' own emergency generator.

With no connection on his cellphone, well over a hundred guests, and no light, They had a murderer on the loose.

## Act 3

Quickly making his way outside to where Rapunzel and Francine were, he hastily filled them in on the situation.

Heading back up the stairs, they examined the crime scene in the light of Francine's flashlight, and they quickly found that the cause of death had been two pinpricks on the Vampire Queen's neck. Straight into the jugular.

The vampire queen had been killed... by a vampire? Well. Not really, since all her blood was on the floor, but someone had wanted it to look that way.

Blocking off the scene, James went downstairs to get a hold of tape and other things to show that the bedroom where the body was lying was off limits. Opening the door to the supply closet, tape wasn't all he found. The door had several deep gashes, looking as if it had been clawed by a mighty beast. And in the middle of it all, a horribly mauled man dressed in a werewolf costume. At least James believed that it had used to be a man.

Taping off the supply closet, James hurries back up to the other two. The connection between the two dead had one clear link: They had both been killed in ways the monsters they were costumed as would have killed others.

Heading down to the party again, Francine starts working on making the environmental modulator mobile, while Edgar and Rapunzel tells everyone else to remove their costumes while searching for other missing classical monsters.

They quickly learn that two are missing:

A woman dressed as a mummy, and a man dressed as Frankenstein's monster. The mummy had gone into the house a while ago, and the monster had just gone to the toilets.

James departs to track down the missing monsters, while Francine and Rapunzel continue their work on the survival and getaway plan.

Reaching the kitchen, James finds the mummy, completely drained of any bodily fluids; left little more than a drained husk. Then heading to the toilets, he finds a very drunk Frankenstein's monster leaning towards the wall while doing his business.

Seeing the wet floor of the room, James makes a dash towards the open window just as a shadowy figure throws a sparking cable inside.

Diving towards the cable, James is soaked by what can only be hoped is water, but he catches the thing before it hits the water.

Quickly yelling at the monster to go to the others, James jumps out the window, and hurries to follow the cable, as the shadowy figure was already long gone.

He finds a generator hidden in a shack, and turns it off; removing the starting mechanism so that it cannot be turned back on.

Now with the only unguarded source of electricity gone, Frankenstein's monster may be safe.

Using his flashlight to look for tracks, he finds what looks to be barefeet tracks that transform from those of a normal human into something else. Something slender and clawed.

Returning to the others, he reveals what he has found to Francine and Rapunzel (the latter of which has now surrounded herself with cute guys). Francine hatches a plan. A dangerous plan which might not work, but all the plan they have.

James volunteers, as it's their best shot of getting this thing before it kills any more people.

They commendeer the Frankenstein outfit from the frightened drunk, and James heads down into the cellar while Francine turns the generator back on.

## Act 4

Down the dark, musky stairs, James uncovers an old, discarded bathtub that has now been filled with water, and the drowned corpse of a man dressed as the thing from the dark lagoon.

Walking deeper into the room, he hears a crash as the bathtub is tipped; and then the sparking of electricity. Jumping up on a wooden stool, James avoids being electrocuted by the boogieman, just as Francine turns the generator back off.

Turning around to face his assailant, James turns his power against it, revealing a lanky, pale mess with a mouth several times too large for its' face. With a toothy grin from where one ear should be, to where the other should be, and yes the size of balled up fists, the creature has an unearthly, and very frightful aura.

It shrieks as it is struck by James' electricity, but it doesn't seem to actually damage the accursed thing. Again and again James saps it, to no avail.

Then, just as it looked to be able to get its' claws on James, Francine's voice rang out: "The shovel! Use the shovel!"

Looking down, James finds an old, rusty shovel. Bringing it up to his hand with electromagnetism, he bashes the beast.

The beast seems to shrink as it shrieks in pain.

Again and again James bashes the creature, and then suddenly it explodes in a flurry of feathers.

Then all was silent.

## Epilogue

The boogieman slain, the survivors of the event gather up around the modified environmental modulator, walking together through the polluted countryside until Francine once more gets reception on her cellphone.

Calling the emergency services, the survivors are taken away to hospitals and trauma clinics. The three troubleshooters are brought back to the safety of the city.

After what he'd seen, James slept uneasy.