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Paranormal Investigators Story Part: 4

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Part 4: Maria

It was just last night when a powerful evil spirit of fog attacked, and it was something none were able to stop.
Then The Greystone Paranormal Investigators beat it with a combination of conjecture, brute force, endurance, and luck.

Drained after the great victory they somehow achieved, the heros all expected a new greater terror the following day.
As it unfolded however, they discovered the opposite was true.

Mark stayed at their headquarters and simply tinkered at things in his workshop, Doug spent the day preparing for his move to Sunnydale,
Jannette mostly spend the day relaxing at her home, and John spent most of the day watching TV.
It was almost like the most boring day before everything began. Unfortunatly, it was going to be exactly like the day everything began.

Late that night, John recieved a call from Mark. He awoke with a start as the phone rung in the background.
All Mark had to say was "You need to get to HQ NOW!" to convince John something had gone terribly wrong.

As soon as John entered the door, he was greeted by Jannette and Mark both bearing grave expressions.
Without a word, Mark pressed a button on the phone to replay a message he recorded.

It was a female voice, desperatly pleading and barely audible over terrible static.
"P-Please! S-Save me! I'm near what looks like a warehouse of some sort! I... I don't know where I am!
How did I get HERE? It's, there's some sort of crane outside! It's so dark out here! It's here! So cold! So empty! SAVE ME!"
The message cuts out and Mark pulls out a list of notes he assembled from the recording.

As the tension lowered, Jannette resumed eating from a small bag of cookies and a mug of coffee at the table next to her, still focused on Mark.

"I think I know where that is." Mark said as he held up his notes.
The only warehouse undergoing any construction right now is the one we visited a couple weeks ago during the Full Moon Murderer incident.

A month had already passed since that fateful day, and the moon was once again full in the sky.
It's light illuminated the Greystone Paranormal Investigators as they set out on this mission against a powerful and unknown enemy.

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The warehouse in question was a shipping warehouse placed in the business district of the city.

As they prepared to enter, John cautiously looked at the building ahead.
"So, What's it like inside there?"

"It's cold and old." Jannette replied. "I knew there was something off about it when we came here last time!"

"What's the story of this place." John asked. "You think it might give us a clue what we're up against?"

Mark opened up a notepad in his hand and flipped through pages to refresh his memory of the building.
"Let's see... I did a little research after our first time here."
"The company that owned the building only recently started losing money for some mysterious unknown reason."
"They lost the building only recently. I don't think anyone owns it at this time."

"So, it's an abandoned warehouse?" John asked in surprise. "Anything about ghosts?"

"Nope. There wasn't a whole lot of information left about the building or even who owned it."

"Alright!" Jannette proudly proclaimed. "We have something in there that could be worse than anything we've seen so far. Let's show it what we can do!"

As soon as she finished, they stood next to eachother in front of the door. Learning from their mistake last time, they didn't bring as many supplies this time.
Mark had a backpack now where he stored any supplies he might need, except for the capture device in his hand.
Jannette was holding a large iron bar she borrowed from Mark, and John wasn't holding anything.

Mark opened the door and turned on the light.

"How?" John began to ask, but Mark pointed to the light above them and explained. "Oh yeah. Last time we were here, we discovered the building runs on a small generator."
"I guess we forgot to turn it off after the Full Moon Murderer incident."

As soon as they entered the building and shut the door, something in the door frame slid loose and it locked behind them.
Everyone turned towards the door to see what had just happened. John tried to open the door with no luck, so Jannette tried to pry it open.

"Your not going to get it open that easily." A voice behind them said.

As soon as they saw who it was, they all froze and terrified shock. Jannette dropped the bar as she froze in place.
It was the Full Moon Murderer. She stood in the center of the room with her arms crossed. Her sythe like blades held underhand like before.
She wasn't as pale as she appeared in the moonlight, but her stare was still just as peircing and intense as they remembered it.

"She's a GHOST!" John shouted while pointing at her.

"I'm not a ghost." She replied with a calm voice.

"But you died! I saw it!"

"No I didn't. You just threw me into the bay. Listen, There is something I want to discuss before..."

"How did you find us!" Jannette interupted.
"Yeah! Tell us!" John added.

She pulled out a newspaper clipping with the ad Mark posted.
"You people really should be more careful about what information you tell others."
"Information is key in this business, and any information your opponent has can be dangerous."
"Did you know there are some evil spirits that can use you full name to curse you?"
"For example, My name is Maria, and that's all I'm telling you about my identity."
"wHY ARE YOU IN THE GHOST CATCHING BUSINESS? Why are you collecting them?"

"We just catch ghosts. We don't actually do anything with them." Mark answered.

"Don't play dumb with me! Why?"

"Fine, If you really want to know we were investigating a murder at the steel mill suspecting you might be the culprit."

"Now tell me, how are you connected to the Steel Mill murder."

"We just went there to investigate the murder and we caught a ghost. That's all."

"Yeah!" John shouted, regaining courage as he spoke. "What does it matter if we're interested in the paranormal or not?"

"Your actions are something that goes against my interests." A smile spreads accross Maria's face while she points to the device Mark is holding.
"Technology like that could cause a lot of problems in the wrong hands."

"What we use it for is our own "Interest"" Mark countered. "And my "Interest" is why you even care."

"Because it's my job to care!" Maria said as she opened her eyes wider and quickly pointed her finger at them.
The large blade on her knife shining in the dim light. It gave off an even more menacing air while it was held up.
Noone dared break the silence that followed her words while they each tried to understand what they meant.
Mark stared intently at her as if to analyzing her would glean any new information they did not yet know.
Jannette slowly shifted into a battle pose, eyeing the threat as if she were a snake waiting to strike.
John had a rather confused look oh his face, the gears in his head turning at maximum capacity for any information on this new terror.
She resumed her arms crossed position as if waiting for something to happen.

An unknown amount of time passed during this state of standstill before John ran out of patience or knowledge.
"What's you job?" he suddenly asked.

The Full Moon Murderer's eyes opened in surprise. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but closed it again.
Apparently she wasn't expecting this question and had to think hard about how to answer it.

After a few seconds her eyes got wide again and she started pointing at them again in an accusatory way.
"If you think about what your job is, it should be easy enough to figure out what mine is!" Maria loudly replied.
Even though she went back to her calm state again, it was obvious she was running out of patience.
Her face was beginning to redden and she started to tap her foot on the ground.

"Just tell us already!" Jannette snapped. "Why are you even bothering with us?"

Maria shot Jannette an angry glare. "Look, I know your still hiding something from me!"
"You probably already knew what I was going to do before you even came here!"

Jannette became oddly quiet and dropped her attack stance.

"What did you do to the woman that called us!" John cried and raised his fist in anger.

"That was me."

John fell back in shock as if some amazing new truth was revieled to him. "You mean there was no ghost?"

"No. That's not the point." She replied.

"Why did you lie to us? We were expecting some huge evil spirit or something!"

"Lie? Like your one to talk! Where is the other one hiding?"

"The other one?" John asked. "Is there another ghost?"

"THE OTHER ONE! THE ONE WHO HIT ME WITH A BALL!"

"Oh yeah, him." Jannette said as if putting together a puzzle.

"He moved." Mark stated plainly.

"Your kidding me!" Maria shouted "That is the worst excuse I've heard yet!"
"He's probably waiting outside as backup! There's NO WAY you would come to such an obviously dangerous situation without some sort of backup!"

"No, he moved, he's not even working in the paranormal field anymore. I think he does sports equipment now."

"HIS NAME IS STILL ON THE FLYER!" Maria said pointing to a piece of paper next to her.

"It is?" John asked.

"STOP!" Maria plunged one of her knives into a box next to her. "It's obvious I'm going to get nowhere talking to you people!"
"I called you here for one reason, to finish my job before you people become an even bigger danger than you already are."
"There is NO easy way out of here, and I don't intend to let you find that way before I'm finished!"
"Your just distracting me until your freind calls for help! You have to the count of five before I start!"

"Why not try to kill us now?" Mark asked. John and Jannette both paled and froze in horrer at this dangerous question.

"I have my reasons." Maria replied. "But! If I must tell you something, I shall tell you this."
"To slay you without you fighting back would be shameful, and would not make up for the terrible job I did last time!"

"What if we don't do anything?" Mark said as a small smile appeared on his face.

"GRRRRR" She growled in annoyance. "FINE! If that's the case, then you willingly forfiet you life!"
"I'm not going to let you get away AGAIN!" As soon as she finished she pulled her knife out of the box and readied a battle pose."

"I STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON!" John said on the verge of having a panic attack.

"1"

"Split up!" Mark commanded and dashed through a door deeper into the warehouse.

"2"

With little else to do, Jannette grabbed John's arm and shook him to bring him back to his senses. "RUN!"

"3"

Taking the left door, they ran deep into the warehouse before Jannette stopped. "I think we should be safe here for now."
"She talks about honor and stuff, but then she just traps us! What kind of person does that?"

"Well, we would probably just run away again instead of fighting her. What sort of plan did you use last time?" John asked.

"Oh that, we split up and I jumped her from the ceiling while she was distracted."

Suddenly Maria's voice shot out in the warehouse. "You can't just run and hide the whole time! Sooner or later you'll have to face me."

Quietly, Jannette pulled a cookie out of her pocket and wispered. "I saw this in an action movie once."
She threw the cookie and it crashed into a box on the other side of the room.
Picking up on Jannettes distraction plan, he followed her as they quietly moved to the other side of the room.
They couched behind a stack of boxes and waited for Maria to leave.

After a few second one of her knives burst through a box between them.
"That's not going to work." Maria said. From the sound of her voice, she was still on the other side of the room as if she threw the knife like a dart.
"I know you have a power, because I can sense it. I have powers too!"

Trying to remain as calm as they can, John and Jannette try to move away from the knife and to another hiding place.
This time they picked a metal container.
"What does she mean by power?" John wispered.

"Uh, power! Like uh, strength power. She probably has mystic ghost powers or something!"

One of Maria's Blades flew like a boomerang and sliced though a chain hiding up a box near them and it crashed to the ground!
Small metal Balls scattered on the ground.

"Why do you even bother to hide! I can hear you talking!" Maria yelled at them. "Are you really that bad at hiding, or do you even care what's going on?"

Taking the cue, Jannette jumps out from her hiding spot dramatically striking a pose. "Oh yeah? You can't even touch us!"

As Maria furously jumps forward, John threw some ballbearings and Maria stepped on them. They flew out from under her and she hit the ground hard.

Taking up thier evasive strategy again, John and Jannette ran deeper into the warehouse whilse she was stunned.

"Yeah! I can't believe that actually worked!" John cried in happiness. "What do they use those things for anyway?"

"I don't know!" Jannette shrugged. "I think I have a plan though!"

Dazed, Maria walked into the room and scanned the area for any sign of her targets.
It didn't take long before she saw part of John sticking out from behind another box.

"Are you people even trying anymore?" She asked as she approached the hiding guy.
When she got near, John turned around and threw more ballbearings at her.
She jumped over them and pointed her blade at him. "The same trick isn't going to work on me twice!"
Then she looked up at Jannette clinging to a chain on the cieling. With one quick swing, her knife severed the chain and Jannette landed on a bunch of boxes below her.

"If I can sense where you are, and you pulled the same trick before, I'm going to expect you to do it again if your up there!"

Ignoring Maria, John gasped in surprise. "Mark?"

Mark was peeking out from the doorway behind them as if he was looking for the right time to strike, but ducked back into the room when Maria turned to look at him.
She turned back around and John was already helping Jannette off the box.

Turning a corner, John and Jannette ended up in a room with Mark, who was examining a door.

"Mark!" John exclaimed and ran over. "Do you have any ideas how we can win this?"

Without pausing, Mark replied. "We trap her!"

"How are you going to do that?" Maria said as she entered the room.

Mark bolted out a door and left John and Jannette with Maria.

"Is this all you can do? I really thought..." she started before a crane hook swung into her and knocked her to the floor.

Mark came back out with a smile on his face. "I found more rope!"

With Maria tied up, they began searching for an exit. Maria had been really thorough with her trap though, and it seemed as if all the exits were sealed somehow.
"HOW DID SHE DO THAT?" Jannette asked. "She must have left some place open! I mean, how was she going to get out of here?"

"Maybe she wasn't." Mark replied deep in thought.

John's face instantly became one filled with horror. "YOU MEAN WE'RE SEALED IN HERE?"

"No, That can't be right." Jannette thought aloud. "There's got to be some way out. Maybe she was going to use her crazy ninja skills to escape somehow?"

"Well, last time I was here I did use the vents to move around." Mark said as he stared at the ground. "I didn't see any way leading outdoors though."

"Then we go up! John proudly proclaimed. "Vents have to lead to the outside somehow, so maybe they lead upwards, like some vents at some places usually do!"

"There's only one problem." A voice cam from nowhere. "I'm still here!"

Even though she was still tied up, Maria was awake and standing again.

Jannette waved for John and Mark to leave the area. "I got this, go form a plan or something!"

"I can beat you with my hands tied behind my back!" Maria boasted.
"I have trained in the arts of combat for a long time. You may have skill, but this handicap means nothing to me!"

"Maybe so..." Jannette started as she readied herself for battle. "But I'm so skilled, It's almost like I can see where your going to attack before you do!"

Drawing an imaginary circle on the ground with her foot, Maria pulled back and unleashed a quick fury of wide kicks that Jannette dodged.
She tried to counter with a series of fast punches, but they were just as effective as maria effortlessly moved out of the way.
On the last one, Maria ducked low and tried to deliver a sweep kick, but Jannette managed to stumble backwards out of the way just in time.

jannette picked up the closest thing she could and held it out to block a straight kick, but the box lid disolved into splinters when her opponent's mighty kick connected.
She was blown back into the boxes behind her, and some ballbearings fell out of her pocket.
Suddenly it came to her! Taking out the ballbearings she threw them at Maria and they came to rest around her feet.

"Hah!" Jannette laughed victoriously. "Your trapped now!"

Maria chuckled. "You still have a lot to learn. You assume I'll just try walking over them when I could easily just do this!"
Without lifting her foot, Maria kicked outwards and knocked some of the ballbearings away.

Jannettes only reaction was to charge her foe before they can escape. She blindly ran to where the ballbearings littlered the floor and jumped at Maria.
In an instant, Maria raised her foor and Jannette crashed hard into it. The resulting collision sent both of them in opposite directions.
Jannette was stunned by the attack, and simple crumpled to the floor, while Maria landed on her side out of the ballbearing trap.

Maria quickly recovered, and her eyes darted about the room for anything she can use. They stopped when she spotted her knives resting on a shelf accross the room.

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A few minutes ago, John and Mark are just entring the neighboring room to discuss a plan of counter-attack...

Without wasting a second, John begins as soon as they stop.
"Mark, what if we just gang up and and try to attack all at once?"

Pausing as if to think over John's proposision, Mark glances into the next room to check upon Jannette.
At this time, Jannette and Maria are trading a furious blur of kicks and punches.
Though his face only changes a little, it's easy to see the nervousness Mark is feeling about the sight.
"I uh, don't think we can do that. It looks like we would just get in the way. We need to come up with something that doesn't involve us entering the fight."

"What about that crane thing? Could we do something like that again?" John asked.

"Unfortunately There's nothing nearby we can do that with. I had prepared that trap in advance with some of the rope I found in a box, and we used the rest of it tying up The Full Moon Murderer."

"What about a cage or something we can drop and trap her with? We can wait until the cops show up after!"

"We don't have anything we can use as a cage. There is a box in the other room, but we don't have any way to bring it down."

About this time, Jannette is knocked back by Maria and slumps to the floor.

John takes off into the other room. "JANNETTE!"

John helps Jannette stand up as Mark runs to their side.
A sharp sound pierces the air as the ropes around Maria drop to the ground in pieces.
"If this truly is the exent of your abilities, then this battle is drawing to a close." Maria said as she approached the Investigators.

Jannette tried to move quickly but winced in pain and instead leaned against the boxes behind her.
"Mark, If you have some super secret thing you did that's going to save us, now would be the time to do it!"

"Nope, sorry, but I don't have anything." Mark replied as if in thought.

"What? Then what did you do the whole time you were sneaking around?" Jannette asked.

"I was looking for an exit the whole time."

"THEN WHY WHY DID YOU PEEK OUT EARLIER? I thought you had some last minute life saving thing like last time!"

"What? Last time I was knocked out, remember? That was Doug."

"IS ALL YOU DID WANDER AROUND TRYING ALL THE DOORS?"

"No." Mark said in an ucharacteristically uncertain way. "She got us trapped pretty good. I can't even figure out how she did it!"

"I WAS ON THE VERGE OF GETTING KILLED AND YOU WERE JUST DOING NOTHING!"

"I set up the hook trap, and found some rope again."

"We found rope last time! It would be in the same place as before, because this place IS ABANDONED!"
"Your supposed to be the smart one! Why didn't you, I don't know... Use it to trip her or something?"

"Because you could have tripped over it. You can't just place things wherever you want and call it a trap."
"You randomly scattered ballbearings everywhere, so there's a good chance we would slip on them by accident."
"Attention to detail and careful planning are important to survival."

"John beat her last time with barely any planning and it worked!"

"We can't just do things and hope we get lucky! If we rely on luck too often, it might run out!"

"But John does whatever he wants and it usually works!"

"Maybe it has, but most of his plans are based on horror movies he's seen before, not actual provable science."

"Um, Mark, we actually used one to beat a ghost, remeber?" John chimed in. "Besides, you could prove some of that stuff real or not now right?"
"I mean, you did find out how to catch ghosts..."

"Ah, about that, I don't know how it works yet." Mark mumbled.

"But! Mark! Why can't I mention horror movies then? I mean, they do use legends and stuff as a base right?" John asked.

"Yes, sometimes, but that's different! Movies are different than real life!" (Mark)

"I know that! I'm just saying we can use them as reference for ideas since they are the best reference we have!" (John)

"Like I told Jannette, we can't just coast along on luck and conjecture!" (Mark)

"And I can't do everything!" (Jannette)

"HEY! I helped take her down, I am doing something!" (John)

As they continued their argument, Maria stared at them as if in a confused daze.
They had completely forgotten about her presence. How is something like this even possible?

Right at the part where Mark was talking about Jannette relying on luck to give her a weapon, Maria couldn't take it anymore.
"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!" She yelled.
The investigators all stopped and began staring at Maria as she continued.
"Can't you take this SERIOUSLY? YoUR TEAMWORK IS POOR, Your precautions are substandard AT BEST, and you can't figure out how to open a DOOR!"
"Are you REALLY the people who beat me or NOT?"

"At least we're not EVIL!" Jannette snapped.

Jannette's last taunt was the last straw, Maria threw one of her blades in a blind rage and it missed all three of the investigators.
It traveled accross the room and sliced into a chain on the wall.

Before anyone could react, a metal crate fell and landed where Maria stood.
The event was so sudden and shocking, everone just stood there for a while as if to process what had just happened.

Mark coughed uncomfortably and spoke. "I suppose this means our mission is complete."

John shuffled his feet and touched the box. "Should we try to lift it to see if she's... You know..."

"I don't think we need to." Jannette answered. "She's probably flatter than a pancake now. Besides, how are we going to lift something like that?"

Instead of saying something about the box, Mark looked at the ground with guilt filled eyes.
"I'm sorry about all the stuff I said." Mark replied.

"Eh, don't worry about it, I know you were just saying that stuff because we were all stressed out about dying and stuff." Jannette said as if the argument was nothing at all.

"but still... I wonder what Maria's job is." Mark muttered.

"Jannette mentioned that it might have something to do with the ghosts." John said. "And I think she might be right."

"Whatever it was, we may never know, I just can't shake the feeling that we're missing something important." Mark responded.

"Well, whatever it was, there's no use thinking about it now that she's finally gone this time." Jannette said as she shrugged.

"So, should we try to leave through the door or the vents?" John asked. "It sounds like she left a way to open them again."

"Duh!" Jannette replied. "We should use the vents! She probably set some trap for us or something!"

"Yeah!" Mark Shouted. "We can use the rope I found!"

And so with great difficulty, the investigators made their escape, and discovered that Maria rigged the door they had entered to be blocked off.
Instead of checking the other doors, or checking anything else, they decided to return to HQ.

They have done enough investigating today. With this case closed, they wanted to rest up for the next one, whenever it may be.
The main theme of this chapter is that though the Investigators have taken on some challenges, they are still really inexperienced. If I had to place it as part of a story arc, I would say it would be classified as the end of the story arc, "The Beginning"

Part 3: collecter128.deviantart.com/ar…
Part 5: collecter128.deviantart.com/ar…
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CaptainMexico's avatar
I'll read the part 1.