Fantasy PHANTASMA: SCHOOL OF THE STRANGE

[ComradeSenpai]

"Do-goodery? Technically we should all receive fines for public indecency." Richter pointed out, unamused. "Let the police handle it."


As he said this, the twitchy man started yelling, and then the other pulled out a gun, shouting even louder, something in French. Immediately after this, the two were assaulted and pinned down by a large, lizardlike humanoid creature. The beast extended a huge proboscis from between its jaws and skewered one, quickly draining him of his juices before making quick work of the second. The chupacabra's three tongues wriggled in delight as it set its sights on Achim, Richter and the others.


"That's odd. Most police forces don't employ invasive species in place of K-9 units."


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"I guess you're right." Anya sniffed.


"Truth or dare, then?"

 

[CSA]

"Of course I'm right," replied Lily, "I'm me."


Still smiling and rubbing Anya's back, Lily took her turn once again.


"I'll choose 'dare'."

 

[MechaGhoul]

Achim cocked an eyebrow at Richter. "We? Oh no, only me. Hence my quest for threads." The sounds of combat dawning drew his attention.


Achim released B20 and placed it on the ground. "Mannikin, stay safe." Achim rolled his neck around. With a quick stretch of his arms he glanced at the monster and smiled. "Right, any of you fellows find a motorcycle, tell me immediately." He sniffed the air around him. "Ah! Damn wish there was more gasoline. Oh well. Ole!"


And so Achim quickly rushed towards the monster as he aimed to strike at the region which hosted the Chupcabra's kidneys with his right fist.


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[DrBones]

As soon as Achim put B20 down, its once flaccid and unresisting limbs snapped into action. With an audible gleam, B20's Blade of the Disgruntled Schoolchild grew rigid. Its weapon readied, B20 charged forward at the heavily-distracted Chupacabra.


Ducking between the scuffling feet of Achim and the Chupacabra, B20 easily made it behind the two. B20 tensed itself, and with a wooden clunk, sprang forward with its Blade outstretched just as the Chupacabra's left leg came down.


With a meaty tearing sound, B20's Blade slashed at the back of the Chupacabra's shin, shredding its Achilles tendon. Using the momentum from its leap, B20 yanked its Blade downwards, tearing the Chupacabra's heel and sole as well. Now on the floor again, B20 attempted to yank its Blade free from the Chupacabra's foot, with little success.


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[spandez]

"JUSTICE JUMP!"


The Justice Skeleton jumped high into the air, tumbling end over end. He'd sort of messed up the jump, but he could hopefully stick the landing. Thankfully, flashy gymnastics were a part the repetoir of ANY Hero worth his salt. He did his best to angle himself so he'd be landing on the Chupacabra's shoulders.


"JUSTICE CRUSH!"


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[MechaGhoul]

"This should be a simple scuffle." Achim noted as he kept up his guard against the Chupacabra, while he and his colleagues were fighting against the creature. As much as he would want to observe the showmanship of the Justice Skeleton in the battle, he had far more pressing matters.


He focused his attention on the beast, readying himself for any strike that may come his way from it. After all, Chupacabras were deadly prey. But of course they were still prey to be taken down.


"After we finish." Achim started up as he kept bobbing on his feet, and keeping his eyes on the prize. "I think Lone Star Security Services has operations over here. Or some other CorpSec agency has something over here. I know Corporate Security hires scabs just as much as other Mega-Corporations. After all, they don't really want to waste their own men and women to die. It's just the fact that usually, the scabs go on to the other Corporations, insteada Corp-Sec."


He maintained his position for continued battling as he spoke up a bit more, "Anyway, since they don't get as much scabs, usually they have more jobs available for those willing. Course for scabbing the pay, isn't always that great. Though sometimes you can score a really nice bundle of credits. We got enough people with us for a good unit for Scab Security. So whatcha say fellows? Want to go scab for security, do some good deeds, stop some criminals, and get some credits in the process?"


His guard would not be lowered, but he had to make sure his compatriots were cool with this particular batch of scab work. One thing was for sure, the biker knew it'd be interesting scabbing for CorpSec.


--------


Ferdie continued humming a bit as it smeared more blood on the carcass. Pausing for a moment, the creature twisted its neck back to glance at Susie. "Heyo! I got a quick question!" Peering behind the lens of the gas-mask, Susie focused her attention on the horrific spawn. "Yes? What is it sweetie?"


After a hastily grumbled, "With not crew please don't call me that." Ferdie spoke up on the actual subject. "So, I was thinking of doing like a quick prayer. Since I know you get a kick from it, and uh it can be amusing. My question is uh, which God?"


Susie paused for a moment before she addressed her spawn. "You know which God." Ferdie scratched a little at his temple with one of his left talons. "Yeah but the thing is, I know you worship like five, at least five, as God. So uh, the most common and primary one you worship then?"


With a quick nod, Susie affirmed Ferdie's suspicions. Ferdie grumbled slightly, "Ahh, I wanted to do a prayer to the Bringer of Darkness. ...You know God doesn't like me killing as quickly as God, the God I wanted to pray to, does."


Susie wagged her left index finger as she placed her right hand on her hip. "Feeeeeerdie, you need to take the time to play with your carnage, when they are alive. That is the most important teaching God would want you to know. When it comes to the art of killing, you must be patient, well if you can. Sometimes you can't always get what you want from it. But if you can, you draw out the situation to torture and torment them until they break. When they break, then you fully kill them as they are not useful and fun anymore. Prayer needs to be done."


Susie held down her head as she clasped her hands in prayer. "You said you wanted to lead the prayer?" The abomination gave a quick nod, as it delved its talons into the chest of the dead man and began carving downwards.


"Oh Mistress of Exquisite Pain.


Hallowed be thy Whip.


Each droplet of prey's blood spilled,


may it symbolize our service to your will.


Amen."


"Amen." Susie quickly unclasped her hands. "Always good to get a prayer in. Oh!" Susie was about to smack at her gas-mask but stopped before she did, "I do need to make sure to go to Confessional for God, after all penance is quite important."

 

[ComradeSenpai]

The chupacabra let out a strange yet Latino roar as its proboscis zipped around, darting straight towards Skeltal's leg at blinding speeds!


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The proboscis was led astray as the beast fell onto one tattered knee, followed by being struck on the head with a powerful, stylish stomp of skeletal proportions.


 
"I dare you.... I dare you to lick your elbow!" Anya said, grinning and crossing her arms. It was time to play for keeps.

 

[MechaGhoul]

Achim glanced at the Chupacabra. He whistled a simple little ditty as he decided he needed to make the job easier for his Skeletal Companion. So Achim performed a quick sweeping kick at the Chupacabra's tattered knee, to bring him fully to the ground. Should help out the skeleton in the heroics.


[dice]5720[/dice]

 

[Blumenkranz]

"Ooooh, he seems so happy! How cute!" - said the teacher, amused by Ferdie's latest masterpiece - "But are you sure this is the guy we are searching for? I mean, he seems to know something, but we could have tortured the guy before gutting him..."


Natalya shrugged. "Well, not the first time it happens. Let's scan the zone for clues to know if it's a good idea to wait here until it's 22:00 or if we should search somewhere else. Check out his desk, I will check out the body".


After saying this, the woman knelt over what was once a human body and started searching on the remainders of its pockets, in hopes of finding something that could throw a bit of light to the mystery.

 

[ComradeSenpai]

The giblets with pockets still attached contained a soaked wallet, a ring of keys, and a book of matches.

 

[MechaGhoul]

"Yeah, sure thing. Anyone who recognizes my brilliance deserves a closer look." The horrific creature noted as he popped off the corpse. Susie glanced at Natalya and shrugged. "Mmm don't think so. Don't think it's connected to bus, eye, or dress? But dunno. There's a lot more of the building to cover."


Susie went to scavenge around in the desk, while Ferdie just stood over and glanced at the work.

 

[Blumenkranz]

Natalya found three things: a keyring, a book of matches and a juicy wallet that could have some money on it but probably didn't. However, she decided to leave the good stuff for the end, just like those creamy lemon desserts she loved so much.


First things first: examining the keys for potential engravings containing secret encrypted messages, hidden microphones or really anything out of place.

 

[CSA]

Lily stared at Anya for a few seconds before stifling a giggle. Was she serious? Lily thought that the girl was going to play hardball, but this was too easy.


Lily pulled her elbow up to her mouth, and attempted to lick it. Alraune, the beings of lust that they were, were of course equipped with longer tongues than other humanoids. More strong and deft as well, not only for preforming certain tasks, but for taking in their meals.


Still, however, it was not long enough. Surprisingly, she could not reach her elbow. What manner of sorcery was this?


"Juth... gib be a thekond," muttered Lily, still attempting to reach her elbow, "I'b almbost god it."


Of course she'd never tried to lick her elbow before, because why would she? But she expected it would be easier than this. The girl was more clever than she had imagined.

 

[ComradeSenpai]

Anya grinned wider, tilting her head as the alraune struggled to lick her elbow.


"Do you need help, Lily?" she asked.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The keys held no apparent numbers or spy devices, nor did it hold any cute accessories.

 

[MechaGhoul]

Susie proceeded to search the desk for anything that could be of note. Meanwhile Ferdie just poked her as she searched for materials. "Hey. Hey. Hey. Find anything interesting? Hey. Hey. Y'know I wonder if those pigeons are still alive?" Susie simply annoyed the banter from the creature, and continued in the search.

 

[CSA]

Lily quit attempting to lick her elbow for a few seconds and looked at Anya. The Neko seemed to be having a lot of fun with this, at least, but Lily wasn't certain how to complete this dare.


"The dare was that I had to lick my elbow," Lily restated, pondering the quandary deeply, "does that mean that I, specifically, have to lick my own elbow, or just that I must simply somehow cause my elbow to be licked? This is a very important distinction."


Lily eyed Anya carefully as she posed this question.

 

[ComradeSenpai]

"Well, I guess I can help you, Lily." Anya said, looking to the side.


"But... only if you say please~" she smiled.

 

[CSA]

Lily smiled at the girl and scooted close to her, putting her arm around the Neko. She leaned in close to her and said, as sweetly as possible, "Alright, sweetheart. Pretty please? Will you help me out?"


"Somehow I can't shake the feeling that she planned this."

 

[ComradeSenpai]

"Hmm.... Okay." Anya turned around, and grasped the alraune's arm. Lifting Lily's hand, she closed her eye, and rubbed her warm, wet tongue across Lily's elbow.


"You're.... it's your turn, now!" her eye lit up as she gave a bubbly smile, wiping a strand of saliva from her lips.

 

[CSA]

Lily smiled and relaxed as Anya ran her tongue across the Alraune's elbow. She couldn't keep herself from giggling at the warm, wet, slightly rough sensation. It felt funny, but not bad.


"Wow, that's the first time I've been licked," said Lily, "But it was actually alright. I think I kinda liked it. Anyways, truth or dare?"


Lily had never owned a cat, but she imagined that perhaps she had just gotten a glimpse into a cat-owner's world.

 

[Blumenkranz]

The keys were clean. Seems like scanning them throughly was a waste of time, but she had to make sure she wasn't overlooking any vital clues. Natalya knew all the tricks of the business, and she knew some fixers liked to write secret messages in mundane places, which lead her to the next matter.


She had found a book of matches inside the man's body. That seems like an oddly weird choice for someone in this era: why use a book of matches to lit up cigarettes when lighters had been a thing for quite a long time? Matches were, of course, much classier than a plastic lighter, but this man didn't look like a classy man at all. Maybe it had some phone numbers written on it... or in the matches? Clearly, this called for examining every single one of them for possible information.

 

[ComradeSenpai]

"I choose dare this time. You can't outdare me, Lily." Anya said, crossing her arms.


"I'm the daremaster. That's a title."


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The matchbook advertised a strip club in Dallas, Texas.

 

[MechaGhoul]

A thought occurred to Susie as she was searching the desk. Truly, a company would keep files on which van was taken out for service. And they would most likely, keep record of the names of the individuals who took it out. It was common procedure for Sky-Pirates who cared for the craft. Well at the least for Quartermasters who cared for the craft, and the state of the ship. After all managing inventory was quite important.


So while searching the desk for anything that could prove useful, Susie focused her attention on finding records of that sort. Really anything that could, quite possibly lead to records of which vans were taken out, at what time, and of course the employee who took it out.


"Hey! Listen! Hey! Listen! Hey! Listen! Hey! Listen!" The abomination poked at Susie as she searched, while he delivered the speech in the most ear-shattering voice he could manage.


"Not now." The Elf grumbled out annoyed.

 

[CSA]

Lily stared at Anya for a few seconds, wondering why she herself was not considered the daremaster. She'd always chosen dares, and she'd never failed to complete one. That title should be hers.





"I dare you to relinquish the title of daremaster to me: the true daremaster," announced Lily, smirking. There was no way that Anya just introduced a silly title and manipulated Lily into wasting a dare to get it. Lily was too smart for that, and Anya could never have thought up something so cunning.

 

[ComradeSenpai]

"Oh.... okay. But be warned, the title of daremaster comes with a great burden." Anya foreboded.


"And now, daremaster: Truth or dare?"


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Susie came across the logs for the various vans owned by the company. However, the last logged date for the one matching the kidnappers' van was the day before yesterday.