"Common Casey," Beryl said, "I swear I saw one!"
Casey rolled his eyes, saying "right, and my mom's Alexandria. Aisha, back me up here!"
Aisha looked up from decorating her zombie costume. "Ghosts in Brockton Bay? Couldn't it be a cape?"
Casey grinned smugly at Beryl, who pouted and turned back to decorating her own pumpkin costume. "You guys are mean. I know I'm right."
Jose, who'd already finished his own costume, leaned on Beryl, saying "I believe you. My mom says ghosts are an important part of how the world works."
Casey, and Aisha all looked at Jose like he was crazy. Beryl just hugged him, saying "I knew I was your best friend for a reason! ...Why are ghosts important?"
Jose practically leapt out of his seat, excited to explain a part of his life to Beryl (and Casey and Aisha, he guessed). "So, when a person dies, they go to the afterlife, right? But, everybody they left behind misses them! So once a year, all the ghosts come back to visit their loved ones! It only works if you have a picture of them to guide them back, and having their favorite snacks and drinks to take back to the afterlife with them makes it even better!"
Beryl looked confused, asking "was that yesterday?"
Jose blinked, saying "no? The Day of the Dead isn't until after Halloween. Why, what happened yesterday?"
"Like I said, I saw a ghost!" Beryl twisted in her seat to look directly at Jose. "I twas totally creepy, with a see through skull face, and it looked like it was getting something it had hidden! I was too scared to come out of where I was hiding, but after I saw it leave, I went to check it out, and I saw some weird stuff!"
"Children," came the voice of their teacher, "pay attention to the your costumes, not the rumor mill."
The four of them leapt back to their seats, continuing to work on their Halloween costumes. Jose and Beryl kept glancing at each other in excitement, each wondering if the other wanted to go check out the ghost sighting, while Casey and Aisha both just rolled their eyes at their friend's antics.
---
"So," asked Casey, "who's house are we going to today?"
Jose waved his hand around, saying "oh, oh, me! Let's go to my place! We can ask my Nana about ghosts, and find out the best way to catch Beryl's ghost!"
Beryl squealed in joy as she hugged Jose, saying "you're the best!" Jose just blushed and smiled, rubbing the back of his head.
Casey, meanwhile, wasn't so enthused. Frowning, he said "guys, there's no way that ghosts are real! If they were, we'd be hearing about them in school!"
Aisha put her hand on her face, saying "Casey, there's lots of stuff they don't teach us about in school that they really should."
Casey didn't look convinced. "Oh yeah? What kinds of things aren't they teaching us? Let me guess, underwater basket weaving? How to ride a unicycle? Taxes?"
Not liking Casey's derisive tone at the end, Aisha responded, "more like the Red Summer of 1919, Robert Moses and his inner city people displacers, the Tuskegee Experiment. Really Casey, you can't trust the government to get everything right."
Beryl's eyes flashed as she pointed at Aisha in excitement. "Aisha, I've heard about that one! The Tuskegee Experiment! Oh, oh, what if the ghost is one of the victims who died?! Maybe we'll be able to put them to rest!"
Aisha frowned, saying "Beryl, that's somewhat insen-"
Only to be interrupted by Jose, saying "we're here." Everybody looked at him in surprise, then looked at the building he was pointing at – a somewhat run down looking tenement building with a small grocer on the ground floor. Jose walked up a set of stairs set into the building's foyer, and disappeared over the top.
As the other three scrambled after him, Aisha said "we'll talk about this later, Beryl, Casey." Beryl simply nodded, but Casey looked mildly spooked as Aisha stressed his name.
They all walked into Jose's Nana's third floor apartment together, jabbering about what they might do to get a look at the ghost. The place was filled with knickknacks, memorabilia, and photographs from her home town in Mexico, filling all the rooms with color. Having heard all the talking, Nana walked into the living room from the kitchen. "Ah, Jose, how's my little man doing!"
Jose ran up to her for a hug, saying "Nana, it's great to see you!" Breaking off the hug after just a moment, he continued, "my friend Beryl says she saw a ghost, and we want to know why the ghost might be out on some day other than the Day of the Dead!"
Beryl couldn't contain her excitement any longer, and said "and, and I thought maybe we could take a picture of it, or, or, or maybe help lay it to rest? OH! Oh, maybe we could even catch it!"
"I already told you guys," Casey broke in, "if they don't teach it in school, then it's not real!"
Aisha just groaned in frustration at Casey, dropping her face into her hands.
Nana smiled gently, kneeling down to look Casey in the face. "Young man, you were told about how Christopher Columbus was the first European man to find the Americas, no?" Casey nodded his head, uncertain where Nana was going with this. "Did your teachers tell you about what happened to the civilizations that were there after he left?"
Casey piped up, saying "they all disappeared mysteriously to never be heard from again! Nobody knows what happened to them!"
Nana shook her head, looking sad. "No, Casey, they didn't. You see, Columbus and his expedition brought with them disease, disease that they, themselves, were immune to, but the Taino people, whom he met with, were not. After Columbus left, illnesses like smallpox and measles ravaged them, and quickly spread to the Aztec, Mayan, and Incan empires.
"And those peoples, their cultures, were not lost." Nana smiled, here. "I, myself, and your friend Jose, are both descended from survivors of the Incan fall, and we proudly carry our culture with us to this very day." She stood again, patting Casey gently on the shoulder. "If you like, I can help you find the information in the library. Perhaps some other time, though, as I have to show you how to deal with ghosts!"
Casey looked confused and unhappy, crossing his arms and pouting. As he did, Nana turned to a nearby bookshelf, muttering to herself under her breath as she looked for something in particular. She shuffled tomes around on the shelf, moving on to the next one when she didn't find what she was looking for there. In the process, she pulled down a few things that none of the children recognized, including a board with letters on it, a raindrop shaped thing with a lens in the middle, and, with an "aha!", a slim book.
To any adult, they'd recognize a Ouija board and stylus, and a children's book of ghosts, designed to look old.
"Alright, here we go. This, children, is a book that was written by my grandfather, back when such things were still forbidden by the Mexican government." Nana gave them a smile and a knowing look. "It's this book, these tools, and others that are scattered through the apartment that you'll need. Use them, and you'll get your ghost."
---
That night, the children gathered at the appointed place. The dark was compounded by a thick fog, which none of them had known to expect (none of them watched any weather reports), and many of the street lights didn't work. They stood silent outside the fallen security fence around the once proud ship repair facility.
The steel clad building, while not abandoned, was obviously on it's way out. The boat lifts sat derelict, wood chocking lay rotting, and the steel stands were beginning to rust through. The only signs of occupation were tire tracks from the cart used by the custodial staff, and the two accountants who worked tirelessly to find new customers to pay the bills.
The children didn't know or care about any of this. There were only there for a good time to catch a ghost (or prove they weren't real).
"Okay," said Jose, consulting with his book, "let's make sure we've all got the stuff we need. Beryl, you've got the salt?"
Still somewhat vibrating from the excitement, Beryl said "well, we were almost out of salt, but I've still got that chalk set my parents got me at the beginning of summer! Salt's white, and so is chalk, so that's gotta work, right? Oh, and I also brought this old camera my mom said I could have!" She pulled an old SX-70 Polaroid camera out of her pocket, unfolding it to show it off. It had a sonar rangefinder and a flash.
Jose nodded. "It'll have to do. And that camera might prove useful, if we can't catch the ghost. Casey, you've got that iron trap you said your grandpa had?"
"Grandpa wouldn't let me take it," Casey grumped. "My dad let me use an old fishing net though. It's got steel wire core to keep the nylon from snapping."
"That might be better – we don't want to hurt the ghost." Jose took another look at his book. "Aisha, you said your mom makes candles. Were you able to get any?"
Aisha shook her head gently as she unzipped her backpack, showing it's contents. "Mom sold out this week's stock of candles earlier than usual. She said that's normal this time of year, with Halloween coming up." Smiling slightly, she continued, "I got my hands on this string of fairy lights, though. No chance of them blowing out in an inconvenient breeze."
Jose grinned at her, saying "that's great thinking! Now, the first step is that we need to hold a seance with the Ouija board, to see what we can find out about the ghost. Ready?" Jose put the board on the ground in the middle of the group, and they all sat around it, placing their hands on the stylus. Jose intoned "oh spirit, we call upon thee, tell us of the nature of the one which Beryl saw!"
The stylus began shaking, prompting Casey to nervously say, "common guys, stop shaking it!" Then, the stylus began moving. Casey gulped when none of the others responded to what he was saying, transfixed by what the stylus was doing.
Jose began to read out the letters that it pointed out, saying "M… A… L… I…. C… E…" He looked up at the others, his breath catching in his throat. "Okay, looks like this is a capture mission. If a ghost is that bad, then we can't risk it hurting anybody, right?"
Aisha spoke up, saying "if a ghost is violent, isn't it called a poltergeist?"
Jose nodded, saying "Okay guys, since we don't have the tools described exactly in the book, we need to come up with a plan that matches the differences between what the book says and what we have. Any ideas?"
All three of the others began talking almost at the same time, as their ideas formed into a coherent plan.
---
Sophia was finally sure that she'd have the opportunity to do some real hunting tonight, seeing as the rest of the Wards were preparing for Halloween escorts, and she was considered too abrasive to be trusted around little children. She chuckled to herself, musing on the fact that her being the 'problem Ward' had worked out in her favor for once.
Walking up to the Mallard Marine building, Sophia looked around to make sure that there was nobody to see her breaking in (not that they could even if anybody were there – she was stealthy as fuck) and used her power to phase through the wall. Once she was in, she made a beeline straight for the sealed compartment where her special equipment was hidden, making note of the chalk markings on the ground.
She thought maybe they were graffiti left by some asshole or another, marking out territory. Or, maybe, just maybe, some of the workers at Mallard were preparing for a new job – she snorted, unable to even finish the thought without laughing. Nah, no way that was happening. She'd have to see if she could get one of those fancy hunting cameras to find out who was moving in on her turf, and rip them a new one. Maybe this was one that she could get Emma's help on?
As she thought about all of this, she went through the motions of retrieving her hockey mask, well worn, hooded duster coat, and crossbow. This was a standard (if somewhat personalized) hunting model, with a high draw of a hundred pounds, and a compound mechanism to make reloading faster and easier. No Tinkertech to fail in the middle of a mission, thank you very much!
It was just after she'd pulled out some of her good broad-head bolts that she heard a clanking sound. She turned around, to see if she could see what had caused it. 'Too easy' she thought, as she saw somebody pulling around a stack of wood chocks. She crept in that direction, making sure to draw her crossbow as she went, passing right over the chalk circle.
"Now!" she heard somebody shout, and suddenly lights turned on, and she was wrapped in a net!
She screamed in rage, shouting "you assholes are dead! I'mma shank your asses!" She went to phase out of the net, and then she screamed in pain, just for a moment, before she blacked out.
---
Beryl leapt out of her hiding place behind the pile of wood, where she'd opted to act as bait to lure the ghost to the magic circle. "We did it! We caught the ghost! Aisha, quick, call the PRT, we caught the ghost!" As Beryl danced a victory dance around her the ghost, Aisha did just that, pulling out her hand-me-down flip phone and dialing.
While Jose quickly ran up to the ghost and began drawing more circles around the ghost (to reinforce the original circle, you know!) Casey walked up to in, scowling. "Okay, so ghosts are real. They don't seem so tough to me." He looked up at the others, just as Beryl finished her victory dance. "Is this really something we care about? I mean, if ghosts are this weak, they can't be much danger, right?"
Jose, finished with his new magic circles, looked up, and said "it's that kind of thinking that gets people hurt! If we weren't here to catch all the ghosts, they'd attack people, like this one was about to attack Beryl!"
Beryl, for her part, skipped up to Jose and gave him a tight hug. "Tank you so much for keeping me safe! You're the best!" Then she went to poke inspect her the ghost, smiling brightly. Jose just blushed and smiled slightly, feeling really light all of a sudden.
Aisha closed her phone and spoke up, saying "hey guys, the PRT are sending somebody over to check it out. They should be here any moment."
Casey, more interested in capes than ghosts, looked at her and asked "oh? Who'd they send?"
"Me" came a voice from the opposite end of the building before Aisha could answer. The four of them turned to see the owner of the voice, before dropping their jaws in mixed disbelief and awe. There was Armsmaster himself, clad in shiny blue armor with chrome highlights, his visor framing his neatly trimmed beard. He walked up to the children with silent steps, explaining how they hadn't noticed him entering the building. "I was patrolling just down the street when your call came in. Fortuitous timing, if I might say."
He then walked up to their ghost, stopping right at the edge of the magic circles. "If you would be so kind as to cut the power to the fairy lights, I believe I can handle the situation from here." Jose nodded, and ran to the outlet they'd been using to power the lights that they'd wrapped throughout the fishing net. The moment he unplugged the cable, Armsmaster walked up to the ghost. "Shadow Stalker, wake up!" he shouted.
This startled the children, as well as waking up… Shadow Stalker? They looked at the scene as their ghost Shadow Stalker started awake, and quickly phased out of their net, taking a fighting stance. "What the FUCK!? What-"
Armsmaster snarled at her, saying "Shadow Stalker, you are in violation of your parole, operating outside of approved patrol hours, wearing unapproved attire, and carrying strictly prohibited weapons and ammunition. Stand down and prepare to submit yourself to inspection, immediately."
Shadow Stalker stilled herself, ignoring the children in favor of focusing on Armsmaster. She looked like she was carefully considering her next actions. "I'm not going to fucking juvie!" Or not. She attempted to phase and dodge behind Casey, to use him as cover as she attempted to escape.
However, Armsmaster was faster, more agile, and far more experienced as a fighter. He deftly brought the butt of his halberd up, turning on some kind of electric stun gun in the process, and flicked it at Shadow Stalker before she could even reach Casey. Shadow Stalker shouted in pain and fell to the floor, solid again, and Armsmaster walked up and cuffed her with Tinkertech looking handcuffs. He sighed, and said "foolish girl, this might have been easier on you if you had cooperated." He divested Shadow Stalker of her equipment, barring only her mask, which he left in place. While he did so, the children thought they could hear him muttering, presumably to some sort of recording device hidden in his armor.
It was as Armsmaster was saying something about 'blood on the bolt' that Beryl, Jose, Aisha, and Casey all got together and sat down, still in some shock about what was happening in front of them. Casey started talking first. "You guys had me hoping that ghosts were real." He pouted, crossing his arms. "Now what?"
Beryl sniffles, almost on the verge of tears. "I thought I'd really seen a ghost! Why couldn't it have been a real ghost?" She seemed outright despondent.
Jose held her hand, scowling as he said "who says you didn't? We just have to try harder next time!" He didn't know what to do when this didn't seem to help. Still, Beryl leaned into his shoulder, sniffling just a bit more.
Aisha didn't say anything, looking thoughtful. She seemed to have something important on her mind.
It was then that Armsmaster turned his attention to them. "I'd like to take your statements separately, please. Let's start with you." He pointed at Aisha, who simply nodded and stood to follow him to the other side of the cavernous room. They went like that until they had each given their statements, saving Jose and Beryl for last, to give them their space.
By the time they were done, PRT agents had arrived to secure the scene, making sure to document everything they could find. Armsmaster gathered the children together one last time. "I hope you all understand what kind of danger you put yourselves in by not calling the authorities. If Shadow Stalker hadn't been weak against electricity, I don't know what would have happened to you." The children all looked shamefaced, unable to meet Armsmaster in the eye.
That was when the lights all suddenly flickered and went out, only personal flashlights still working - and at that, only some of them. There was a soft breeze, and a moaning sound. Then, in the middle of the room, as if she were lit by a spotlight, stood a woman. Her hair was long, black, and curly, with a silky sheen. Her skin was pale, but not so much as to seem sickly - no, her skin was more like fine porcelain in appearance. She was willowy, and had an expressive mouth turned up in a kindly smile.
And she was totally translucent. They could all see the people on the opposite side of her from each other. It was like looking at her through a mist, or she wasn't supposed to be there.
Hands clasped in front of her, she said "thank you. Thank you all, so much. You don't know what this means to me…" Then, she began fading.
Before she was entirely gone, though, there was a series of clicks flashes, each followed by a whirring motor sound. Even the woman looked startled by this, before she started laughing, and disappeared entirety. It was a beautiful sound…
Then, all of the lights came back on, and everybody, the children, the PRT agents, and even Armsmaster, stood in silence. They all felt as though they knew exactly what had just happened, though they knew not why.
The silence was broken by Beryl giggling, which quickly turned into outright laughter as she held up her camera and then photographs, dancing as she did. "I was right, I was right! Ghosts are really real, and I got pictures to prove it!" She squealed in pure joy as she glomped Jose, knocking them both to the ground. "Thank you so much for believing in me Jose! Thank you!"
"Ahem" came Armsmaster's clearing throat. "It would seem that there's more going on here than I initially expected. I may have been premature in lecturing you. Still, that's no reason to ignore basic safety precautions." He smiled gently, looking at Beryl. "May I have two or three of those photos, to aid in further investigation? It would appear that my armor ceased functioning for the duration of the appearance of the… ghost, and I was unable to get a recording of my own."
Looking up at him with tears in the corners of her eyes, Beryl nodded. She quickly looked at the photos, and said "h-here, you can have these three. I guess they're all about the same quality, anyway." She took the three in question, handing them to him.
"Thank you very much" Armsmaster responded, accepting the photos and gently putting them in a compartment in his armor. He then stood back and said "you should probably all be off, then. I certainly should, seeing as I have a prisoner to escort. Until next time!" He waved as he walked off.
The children quickly did the same. There was no quiet on their walk. "I can't wait to tell Nana all about this," said Jose. "I wonder what kind of ghost we'll meet next?"
They talked and made plans the whole way to Jose's Nana's third floor apartment.
