Superhero Adventures, UK Style

That evening, Banshee infiltrated Chrono’s office using her mist-form, solidifying once inside and took on her Mother Weirdigan form before approaching him.

“Well, my Boyo, you and I are the odd ones out in this world – though maybe not the only ones – and it would seem best that we stick together and keep an eye out for each other, eh? For my part I want nothing more than to get back to my old world – this one’s just too strange. But that might take a while, and the only way would seem to be to find out just what these Foundry people were up to when they brought us here.

Meanwhile, it seems we can make a living just by doing what we especially can. Which brings us round to Mr Dalton’s proposition; what’s your thinking on that? I wouldn’t be too keen myself to run around wearing someone-else’s badge and outfit if we can get by without that, but on the other hand it’s clear there’s something awry with Mr Dalton himself – and the best way to sort that would be to be close to him, one of his team. And I can’t help feeling a touch sorry for little Bethany as well, she deserves a better dad. So – but whatever we decide we’d best decide together, whether to sign on the dotted line or no?”

Flint momentarily wrestled with the concept that whilst income (from his HCP payments and admittedly occasional agency work) was good, more money (from working for Dalton) might be even better, his intercom beeped and he saw in the CCTV screen that an attractive woman in her late 20’s was at his door wanting entry. He pressed a button on his desk to activate his intercom; Before he could speak the woman spoke, “Mr Dexter, my name is Naomi Van Helsing and I’d like to hire you. May I come up?”

Pressing his entry button, both he and Mother Weirdigan watched as, a few minutes later, Naomi Van Helsing came in and sat down. “Do you mind if I smoke?” Without waiting for an answer she lit up her cigarette. Flint passed her an ashtray as she explained that she would like to hire him and his friend (she appeared to know who Mother Weirdigan was) to help her get some information from the County Coroner’s Office about two recent deaths that occurred recently at Providence Psychiatric Hospital. She needed them to use their HCP licenses to gain access to the records so she could check out a theory and hopefully prevent other murders.

Flint realised that he had seen her before, on a dust cover of a book in the massive shelves behind his desk. Naomi Van Helsing, apparently a pen-name for a famous horror author – he even had one of her books; a Times bestseller called The Vampire Geneviève.

She would not give any further information at this time but gave them her assurance that this would not endanger the Police investigation at all. She offered to pay them both double Flint’s normal rate. Before she left, Flint got her to autograph his copy of her book and agreed to meet them again the following day.

Next morning they met up and headed for the Coroner’s office – security into the offices was tight but when they showed their HCP licenses they were allowed to make their way through – they both noted that although their identities were thoroughly checked, Naomi just seemed to walk in unchecked as though security was unaware of her presence..?

Dr. Julie Madison, assistant Pathologist, met them at the entrance to the morgue and again checked Chrono and Banshee’s HCP IDs (but failed to ask for Naomi’s) – she revealed that both bodies would have to have closed-casket funerals as the attacks they’d suffered had been frenzied to say the least. Although both victims had died very differently the current Police theory was, despite evidence to the contrary, that this may have been the work of the same killer (possibly by a teleporting meta-human), or a group of killers.

The first victim two weeks ago had been a Nurse Sally Maguire (Banshee realised that this might be the sister of the Nurse Maguire they’d meet at Reading Hospital, which might account at least in part for her hostility towards them last time) had been stabbed 77 times by a variety of blades and then an Orderly, Micky Davis had been skinned alive before having his throat cut. Both were found in different locations in the basement of Providence Psychiatric Hospital. The knives used in both muders were apparently identical going by the cut marks but none had never been found. Both had died approximately at midnight, a week apart. The angle of the wounds (a number were angled low and thrust upwards) suggested the possibly that more than one assailant had been responsible and the Police hadn’t ruling that out yet.

The matter was currently being investigated by CI-5’s Superintendent Julia Cunningham.

Julie Madison stated that it was her theory that this appeared to be a copycat killer basing their attacks on the story of Raggedy Anne and therefore was likely a current (or previous?) patient. Again this was something that the Police were currently investigating.

At that point the County Pathologist Dr. Ira Cooper arrived, realised who Naomi was and immediately threw them out of the morgue while threatening them with arrest if this information got into the news before it was officially released. As they left, they could hear Dr. Cooper loudly berating Julie Madison for allowing Naomi access without checking she had been authorised to be there.

Outside, Naomi stated that this confirmed what she suspected and asked them to help her investigate the background to Raggedy Anne at the Psychiatric hospital. Again their HCP licenses should gain them access to the hospital archives which, despite being stored in the basement (a part of the Hospital Records Office known to the staff as the Black Museum), were extremely well indexed.

Providence Hospital was established on the outskirts of the village of Bedlam, near the town of Wessex as a secure outreach for the St Mary Bethlehem mental asylum in London in the early 19th century, the hospital was seen as a place to hide away the incurable insane and just forget them.

When Wessex expanded, the village was absorbed by the residential district of Boar’s Head and lost much of its individual identity; however the hospital and its estate remained untouched until the 1890’s when it became part of a larger hospital complex – Providence Hospital. As Wessex expanded into a city, its location on the outskirts of the city centre and relatively small and cramped size meant that the decision was taken to move the general Hospital in the 1960’s closer to the City Centre and turn the estate next door into a specialist facility and hospice.

The asylum building continued to act as the City’s primary psychiatric hospital.

Down in the archives of the hospital’s “black museum” Banshee used her mystical senses to see what she could ‘read’ – she received psychic echoes of screams and uncontrolled hysterical laughter recorded into the stone foundations of the building but nothing currently ‘active’…

On examination, the hospital records showed the history and abuse of a young girl called Annie Chapman who died in 1889.

Raggedy Anne was the name that Annie Chapman was given by the staff after being sent by her parents to Bedlam Sanatorium whilst still a young child back in the 1880’s – whilst here she was tortured and abused including being experimented on with an early form of electro-shock therapy. She was driven to suicide aged only 17.

Records seemed to suggest that her mother may have been having an affair and Annie was a result of that liaison. Her ‘father’ appeared to have realised and punished Annie rather than her mother by having her committed and then ‘forgotten’ at such an early age.

There were also records showing occasional violent attacks between 1899 and the 1930’s on staff and patients, always involving stabbings and occasionally death. the perpetrator was always a young female patient – in each case the other patients described the assailant’s  hair changing colour to red and growing in length and the attacks were always using a knife or sharp objects to attack – and again the weapons were never found afterwards.

They found a poem “The legend of Raggedy Anne” amongst the records – it was dated 1915, written in a child’s hand and had a dark crimson stain at the bottom of the page.

“With head nodding to the beat, she skips down the ward.
Hungry, looking for someone to eat, over the decades she got bored.

She sees a scared child and advances with hearty laughter,
As they scream she smiled, as she takes them to the hereafter.

Blades flashing, she stabs them in the heart that was beating,
Knives slashing, their skin she is peeling.

Seven is the number, she laughs as she sings,
Before I can slumber, as bloody blades she swings. “

The attacks subsequently stopped in the 1930’s after the horrific death of six staff members and a young female patient.

Then in the 1980’s, five pupils from St. Thomas Aquinas School, near St. Mary Mede broke in to the hospital which had been temporarily closed for redecoration and repairs and apparently performed a séance. Whatever happened, three of them died that night from multiple stab wounds or from being skinned and again no weapons were ever found.

Another of the pupils died later as a result of her wounds, again from multiple knife wounds then two more deaths followed both of staff at the hospital shortly after it reopened, one of whom was stabbed multiple times and the other skinned alive.

Then the deaths stopped. The sightings of Raggedy Anne also stopped about this time.

The final surviving student from the séance, Ruby Barnett, was committed to the asylum for the remainder of her life and although there was no trial, it was always assumed that she was responsible for the six horrific murders…

They had to check. It was Naomi that discovered that Ruby had died last month in the hospital. Admittedly of natural causes.

Interestingly, the records show that Ruby had been visited at home just hours before she was committed to the asylum by a Rabbi Sharik Ben Holmz, (even though she was CofE not Jewish) accompanied by ten Jewish elders. No explanation was ever given as to why.

Naomi checked online and it turned out that Rabbi Sharik Ben Holmz was dead but his son, Shallach Ben Holmz was also a Rabbi and worked amongst the homeless in London.

Next morning they headed to London where they met Rabbi Ben Holmz… Although initially distrustful he eventually opened up and admitted that he was aware of Raggedy Anne and his father’s attempts to pacify her spirit.

He knew that after seven sacrificial deaths Raggedy would rest, supposedly for 77 years; however, when she awoke she would be stronger and more powerful and he understood from his father’s records that the next time she was laid to rest it would only be for 77 months, then 77 weeks and so on until she couldn’t be put down at all.

In the 1930’s Raggedy Anne ‘s spirit had committed her seven murders and had subsequently rested but was raised violently in the 1980’s by Ruby Barnett using one of the other pupils as a human sacrifice to call her forth prematurely. Ben Holmz’s father had subsequently used an ancient exorcism ritual found in the ruined settlement of Masada which consisted of a series of sonics (the singing of the elders) to bind Raggedy Anne’s spirit into the body of Ruby. However when Ruby died, that must have freed Raggedy’s spirit to try again. Two have already died this time, five more would presumably follow unless she was stopped.

They managed to persuade him to translate the ritual from its ancient Aramaic dialect into music notes that Banshee might be able to reproduce but to do so meant binding her again inside another living creature… The only alternative was to let her kill five more times, only to return in the future even more powerful than before.

Given that it been a full week since the last attack, Chrono and Banshee arranged to return to the hospital basement. The Police, working on the theory that the best way to catch the killer was to a) not give them any more victims and b) hopefully catch the murderer trying to enter the basement had established patrols upstairs which made entry that evening impossible by normal means, however Chrono used his time altering abilities to get himself in. Banshee passed the security by transforming herself into a mist; her powers being limited in what she could do since her arrival in this world.

Downstairs, Banshee again took a psychic reading and knew then that a malicious spirit was active nearby – someone else was down there with them – it didn’t take them long to find her. Raggedy was sitting on the ground of one of the rooms surrounded by dolls and toys she has animated and was turning metal and ceramic tiles into blades.

Coming out of a secret corridor behind her was a man in a leather jacket (and shades despite the poor lighting) carrying a pile of CD’s – this was one of the volunteers on Hospital Radio; Eamonn Langsford who apparently regularly used the old secret passages down here to travel from the main car park to the general hospital by taking a shortcut through the basement of the psychiatric hospital.

Raggedy Anne tilted her head and laughed hysterically as multiple ceramic blades (that moments before had been old cracked floor tiles) attacked him and start skinning off the skin on his arms and face. Around her, Raggedy’s toys and dolls began to come to life with knives in their hands and began to also attack the screaming man. Chrono used his delay time abilities to blunt and knock aside as many of the blades as possible, before punching Raggedy in the face. Up until now Raggedy had seemed real and solid but the blows don’t seem to have any effect. Banshee used her corrupting touch both on Raggedy and on the toys – the toys fell part causing some sort of psychic backlash as Raggedy screamed in pain.

Despite their efforts, Langsford was in a serious condition and Chrono elected to remove him from the scene and rushed him to the main hospital while Banshee continued her attack causing Raggedy to vanish into thin air. The toys and blades also disappeared. A cry of “Bored now, but I’ll be back!” echoed in the air as she disappeared.

At the hospital, while getting Langsford emergency treatment for his wounds, a young cancer victim, Rachel Collins appeared walking down the corridor covered in multiple wounds and contusions. When asked, all she remembered was going to sleep about 8pm and the next thing is was 1am and she was standing by the corridor in Emergency badly injured.

Checking it out, Chrono tossed the girl’s room and found nothing but Banshee got the impression that Raggedy was involved in this somehow. Checking out the CCTV they saw the girl vanish from her room and sometime later reappeared in the corridor – using his time slowing abilities Chrono saw a momentary flicker on the tape as Rachel got possessed by Raggedy.

Both Chrono and Banshee reached the sickening conclusion that they must have caused the girl’s physical injuries – whilst Raggedy can’t be hurt, the people she possessed obviously could.

Heading home, Chrono was going passed the Jade Restaurant when he saw it was still open for a late birthday party which was just breaking up and popped in to grab a bite when suddenly his favourite waitress, Suzi Hong levitated into the air and started to change into Raggedy who had clearly decided to make a ‘home’ visit.

As Raggedy started to form blades from the floor tiles etc. Chrono used his time speed to break them and successfully bind Suzi’s body so that Raggedy couldn’t hurt her any further. After a few minutes struggling, Raggedy threatened to harm the elder Hong’s while Flint watched, then decided to leave for ‘a better target, little man’…

Yet again Eddie blamed Flint for the events and standing on tip toes slapped him on the back of the head… Some days Flint felt that he couldn’t win!

Banshee had just arrived back at Container Town when she saw Big Hearted Bertha and a new arrival a young 17 year old red-headed girl called Mary start to levitate and as she watched, Bertha started to change into Raggedy and threatened to break the girl’s neck whilst Banshee watched. She took great delight in telling Banshee that the girl’s full name was Mary Anne MacCarty…

Using her harp, Banshee forced Raggedy to leave Bertha but when she vanished she took the girl with her. Just then Chrono appeared to tell his own tale of woe and they elected to return to the hospital in the hope of rescuing the girl.

Heading back into the basement of the hospital Chrono and Banshee checked out the tunnel used previously by Langsford. Chrono immediately started checking out the walls and realised that there are a number of sealed up rooms and corridors down here that Raggedy could be using to conceal Mary. As a ghost Raggedy could turn herself and others insubstantial and just walk her victims through walls. When Banshee tried to do the same she found she could go through cracks but not solid objects and the rooms she can get inside did’t hold any clues as to Mary’s current whereabouts.

Frustrated, they met up with Naomi and the Rabbi early the next day. He had managed to translate the ritual and suggested that Banshee should be able to ‘sing’ the frequency necessary to bind Raggedy into a living body… the question now was whose?

They have two choices, they can let five more people die, including presumably her current host who will be the last victim and cause her to rest for 77 (?) Months before reappearing stronger than before or they could try and bind her to a living creature for the rest of that person’s life…

Could they do that to either the young cancer victim Rachel or to the other Mary? Chrono wondered if Raggedy could be bound into say a tree (or something with a long lifespan) but the problem would be convincing her to enter it in the first place… Not sure how, he elected to go down to the restaurant and ‘borrow’ one of their bonsai trees just in case.

They discussed whether it would be possible to put the victim whilst possessed into cryogenic suspension but didn’t know who to contact or where to get hold of such equipment.

Going through hospital records Naomi found another possibility – on the ground floor of the hospital near the radio station was a private room occupied by a comatose, braindead young girl called Abigail Dreyfus. Her father would never allow her life support to be turned off and if Raggedy could be entranced into that body they may be able to bind her inside it.

A plan was hatched – they needed someone to go down into the basement and pretend to be a victim to enhance Raggedy out. To everyone’s surprise Naomi volunteered. Secreting themselves inside the corridor they again faced Raggedy – clouds of blades appeared heading towards Naomi only for Chrono to use his time abilities to knock them into the ground however one blade stealthily sneaked by and stabbed her in the arm. To their amazement once the blade was removed Naomi’s wound immediately started to heal. Was she a meta-human or..? They had after all seen her in daylight hadn’t they?

While Banshee used her corrupting touch to again attack the animated toys and attack Raggedy, Chrono found some cable and began to bind Raggedy’s body. After a couple more attempted attacks on Naomi and angry and frustrated, she stopped trying to free the body she has possessed and tried instead to take over Naomi’s – only to find it wasn’t as easy a target as she had expected. The two personalities struggled for control of Naomi’s body and her face and body underwent a partial and temporary transformation – leaving the unconscious body of little Rachel lying bound on the floor.

Chrono tried to offer raggedy the bonsai tree as a vessel but was ignored so instead he elected to use his speed to rush the partially possessed Naomi along the hidden passage to Abigail’s room at the other hospital.  Banshee remained behind to untie Rachel and make her comfortable before alerting the police to the presence of an injured girl and then using the hidden passage to reach the hospital herself.

In Abigail’s’ room Banshee transformed into Mary and began to produce soothing sounds from her materialised harp, gradually forcing Raggedy to flee into the only available other body – Abigail’s…

As Banshee was about to start the ritual, they were shocked to see that Raggedy was animating the possessed body to sit up – at which point Chrono sprang into action and used his time-speed to bind her into the bed. Meanwhile Mary transformed back into Banshee once more and shrieked the necessary ritual to bind the ghost and ‘host’ together for the rest of Abigail’s life. As the ritual was completed, Abigail stopped struggling and returned to her natural comatose state.

Police flooded into the basement of the Psychiatric Hospital in the meantime as Superintendent Cunningham retrieved Rachel (shouting that she would demand a full explanation later, that she promised herself)  and some of her officers found young Mary holed up in a sealed chamber nearby screaming her head off.

In the confusion of the rescue, young Mary wandered away and got a lift somewhere, leaving Banshee to wonder why Raggedy picked on her and what the similarity in names might mean.