Avenging Shadows - Part 32

Quentin, Mantis, Willie Loomis and Jacques were sitting around the dining room table in Collinwood, going through boxes of personal effects belonging to Dr. Julia Hoffman.

"This one has found lots of notes and letters, but nothing stands out as out of the ordinary", Mantis replied.

"Keep looking", Quentin said. "I want to know why you and Jacques have been having these odd sensations of despair and sadness and Julia is involved."

"This is a waste of time", Jacques exclaimed.

"I don't know", Willie said. "I think I've found something here."

"What is it, Willie?", Quentin asked.

"It looks like a diary or journal of some type", WiIlie said.

"I've seen Julia's diary before", Quentin said as he examined the small book that Willie was holding. "This doesn't look like it."

"It is a diary of some sort", Mantis said.

"And there are initials on the cover. J H obviously stands for Julia Hoffman", Willie noted.

"I'm feeling something.. a sort of sense of relief in the room", Jacques said.

"Quentin....look!", Willie said quickly as he pointed towards the far wall.

As the others turned, there stood young Sarah Collins, who said nothing, but had a slight smile on her face.

"Sarah? Sarah, is this it? Is this what we're looking for?", Quentin asked quickly, moving towards the small figure.

"Help her! Save her!", Sarah said quietly.

"Her? Is it Julia? Will this book help us help her, Sarah?", Jacques asked.

Sarah just gave another slight smile before vanishing into the darkness.

"We must be on the right track", Quentin exclaimed.

"This one agrees", Mantis said. "Let us go through the diary and see what it says."

"I think I'm gonna go lie down", Willie said. "If you don't need anything else, that is..."

"Go ahead, Willie", Quentin smiled. "Get some rest!"

Willie gave a small smile and walked out of the room, headed towards his bedroom.

"What's wrong with Willie?", Jacques asked.

"He doesn't like ghosts", Quentin said.

"Then how does he handle living here? Collinwood seems to have quite a few ghosts", Mantis asked.

"He handles it quite well actually", Quentin said. "But every so often, it's a little too much, even for someone who's employers happen to be a vampire and a werewolf."

"Like now", Mantis smiled.

"Like now", Quentin agreed.

"Now, let us go through this diary", Mantis said. "Maybe we can find out just why Julia Hoffman is needing our help."

**

Dr. Druid brought the Quinjet to a landing and quickly introduced himself to the law officers in charge and got an assessment of the situation. Billionaire Vincent K. McMahon and his family, on tour with their company, World Wresting Entertainment, had been taken hostage and was being held captive by the super-villian, Electro and some minions. Electro was demanding one hundred million dollars ransom or else he was threatening to kill the McMahon family.

"How long has he had them captive", Dr. Druid asked the head officer.

"About two hours", the man responded. "So far, he's made a bunch of demands and threatened to fry that family. Everytime we try to get close, he shoots off those electrical blasts of his."

"And how many hostages", Druid asked.

"As far as we can tell, there are four persons being held. Mr. McMahon, his wife Linda, his daughter and her husband", the man replied.

"No children? Thank goodness", Druid answered. "And how many accomplices has Electro got with him?"

"We've counted four, but there may be one or two more. They're armed and dangerous", the man said.

"And the perimeter is secure?", Druid asked.

"No one can get in or out", the man replied. "We're at a stalemate!"

"Excellent", Druid replied. "Now let me see what I can do."

And with that, Druid seemed to vanish from sight as the amazed officer looked on.

In truth, Druid had not vanished at all, but had used his powers of the mind to only seem to vanish from sight.

Druid moved swiftly among the numerous officers that surrounded the building and using his powers of illusion to remain unseen, moved up to the side of the building.

"According to the officers, the McMahon family is being held in the suite on the top floor. That's within my powers of levitation", Druid thought to himself as he willed himself upwards and swiftly rose to the top of the motel and quickly moved inside through an open window.

"That was the hard part, getting into the building undetected", Druid thought to himself as he moved around the room and towards a door leading to the next room. "Now, let me use my telepathy to get a better fix on what's going on in the other room with Electro and his goons and the hostages."

Using his vast powers of the mind, Druid concentrated.

In the room, hostage Vincent K. McMahon felt a tingling sensation and a strange presence in his mind.

"Do not panic, Mr. McMahon", Druid told him telepathically. "This is Dr. Druid of the Avengers. I am using my telepathic abilities to survey the room and observe things through your eyes."

"I understand", Vince replied in his thoughts. "It feels kind of weird though."

"I need to get a fix on where everyone is at so I can decide on a course of action", Druid responded. "Turn your head as best you can and look around the room to give me a better idea of what is going on."

Vince slowly turned his head and glanced around the room, from one end to the other, giving Druid a clear telepathic picture of where the hostage takers were all located and where Electro was standing, ranting and raving on a phone, talking to law officials.

"You coppers are up to something", Electro ranted. "Maybe I should just fry one of these wrestlers or their wives and send out the smoldering corpse to make sure you know I mean business!"

Druid continued to speak telepathically to Vince McMahon.

"I will need to act fast and attempt to take out Electro first", he told the WWE magnate.

"If you can get these ropes off of me and my family, we can handle the rest of the goons", Vince told him.

"I can't put you and your family at risk like that", Druid replied.

"I'm Vince McMahon, damn it!", Vince replied. "My son in law is Triple H. My wife and daughter have both been trained in self-defense and fighting. This isn't our first rodeo. If you take care of the walking light bulb and get us free of these ropes, we can handle ourselves!"

Druid sighed and using his powers of telekenesis, he began to work on the bonds that restrained the McMahon family. Vince could feel the ropes holding him loosen and from his vantage points, he could see the ropes holding the rest of his family loosen as well.

"Wait for my word before you make any move", Druid warned Vince McMahon and telepathically notified the others as well.

Then, Druid used his telepathy to reach into the mind of Electro. Although he couldn't mentally take over Electro's mind, he sensed the anger and rage and confusion in the villian's head and realized that he could use this to his advantage to place subtle suggestions in Electro's mind.

"You need to use the bathroom", Druid told Electro and he placed the suggestion into Electro's head that his bladder was ready to bust.

"Ya'll keep things under control in here", Electro yelled at his goons. "I'm going to the bathroom. Be right back!"

And Electro left the room to head towards the restroom several rooms away.

"And now, while Electro is out of the room", Druid told the McMahon family. "Move quickly!"

And the ropes that had been holding the McMahon family fell away, loosened by the telekenetic abilities of Dr. Druid. Vince McMahon, his wife Linda, his daughter Stephanie and his son-in-law, Triple H all jumped up.

"What the...?", one of the goons shreiked, but he was quickly silenced as a huge fist by Triple H laid him out cold.

Stephanie grabbed another one of the goons and fell backwards, monkey-flipping him hard into a wall.

Vince moved quickly and planted a knee into the guts of another of the criminals and then delivered a picture-perfect DDT that planted the man hard into the ground face first.

"Don't move... any of you", the remaining good yelled. The McMahon's turned and saw that he had hold of Linda McMahon and was holding her with a gun to her head.

The McMahons and Triple H stood there, unsure of what to do as the man tightened his grip on Linda and put the gun up to her skull.

"Stand down, you freaks or I'll kill her!", the man said sharply.

Linda gave a small smile and planted an elbow into the man's gut, before flipping him over with a hiptoss. The man lay on the ground, stunned when Linda kicked him square under the jaw with a huge punt.

He fell back unconcious.

"I guess all of those programs with Steve and Randy did pay off", Linda smiled as Vince and Stephanie gave her a hug while Hunter used the ropes that had been holding them to tie the goons up.

Meanwhile, several doors down in the bathroom, Electro was relieving himself when he heard the noises of the McMahon's escaping coming through the walls from the other rooms.

"What the..?", Electro scowled. "Can't those idiots do anything right?"

Electro quickly tucked himself in and was headed out of the bathroom when he was leveled by a flying couch, moved by the telekenetic might of Dr. Druid.

Electro responded by blasting the couch with a bolt of electric energy and then shooting another bolt of energy towards the shadow of a figure in the far corner of the room, blasting a hole in the wall.

Druid moved quickly, evading the energy blast and caused a barrage of furniture and other objects to propell towards Electro, who used his energy blasts to stop the objects before they could reach him.

"Come on out, super hero", Electro yelled. "Quit trying to hide in the shadows! Come on out where I can kill you!"

Druid smiled and thought to himself, "He wants superheroes? I'll give him superheroes."

And using his powers once more, Druid created some illusions which seemed to come out of nowhere and move towards Electro.

Electro looked up and swinging towards him was his arch-foe, the Amazing Spider Man, along with Daredevil and The Black Widow.

"About time heroes! I don't know what you're doing in England, but you're going to die!", Electro yelled as he blasted at the figures, only to see his blasts go right through them harmlessly.

"What...?", Electro said. "I just blasted them. It's not possible! It's not...!"

WHAMMM!!

While Electro had been distracted by the illusions, Dr. Druid had used his mind powers to move right up next to Electro unobserved and undetected... and with one hard punch, had nailed Electro with a strong sucker-punch to the jaw, knocking him unconcious.

"And that... is that", Druid said as he kneeled down to secure his now unconcious foe.

Druid pulled out his communicard and contacted the officials waiting below.

"The location is secure", Druid said. "Electro and his goons are waiting to be taken into custody."

As Druid put his communicard back up, Vince McMahon walked up to where Dr. Druid was standing.

"That was very impressive. Thank you!", Vince said.

"No problem", Druid replied. "Just doing my job!"

"If you ever want a job with my company, the WWE", Vince said, "Just let me know! This whole new age magician look would go over great. I could make you the manager of Kane and the Undertaker."

"No, thank you", Druid smiled. "I'm quite happy with my role as an Avenger."

"Well, at least come to the shows we'll be running next week here in London", Vince said. "Be my guest. Bring your Avenger friends!"

"Your offer is very generous", Druid said, "but I'm not sure we'd have the time."

"I understand", Vince replied. "Saving the world and all that. But if you have the time, please come to the shows. I'll leave word with my people...just in case!"

"I'll try", Druid said.

"That's great!", Vince said. "Thank you, again!"

And with that, Vince walked off to go talk with waiting authorities.

And Druid, his job done, headed back to the Quinjet to head back to Avengers Castle.

**

As the Avengers Quinjet circled the land below, the Black Widow cautioned her team.

"According to SHIELD reports, this place has been abandoned for years", she said, "but I have my doubts. Phillips seemed to me to be the type that wouldn't stray far from familiar territory and since this was his home and earlier base of operations, it makes sense that he would return here or at least be close by."

"But wouldn't SHIELD know if he was around?", Spitfire asked. "It's not the kind of thing they would miss."

"Normally, I'd agree, but beneath his home is an entire maze of tunnels and hidden rooms. He knows the area and could hide indefinitely if he chooses to", the Widow explained.

"So how will we find him if SHIELD couldn't", Issac asked.

"We won't", the Widow replied. "We'll make him find us."

"I don't understand", Sharon replied.

"We'll go in and search his former home", the Widow said. "And look for any signs of recent occupation or clues."

"We'll most likely be under survelliance from the time we enter the buildings. Most likely we are even know", the Black Knight added.

"And having us in there, snooping around his home, will no doubt make him nervous, especially if he does have that nuke like we suspect", Spitfire injerjected.

"He'll make a move on us and most likely try to take us down and take us to the nuke itself.", Issac finished. "I get it now!"

"But all of this is assuming that thy foeman is actually here", Hercules remarked.

"He's here", the Widow said quietly. "I can feel it!"

"We're preparing to land", the Knight said. "When we land, we'll seperate into smaller groups and search the home for anything suspicious."

"Sharon will be with Dane. Issac with Hercules. Spitfire will be able to cover a great deal of territory on her own, as will I", the Widow said. "Keep your comminicard's open transmission."

"Yes ma'am", Issac said.

And with that, Dane Whitman, aka The Black Knight landed the Quinjet on the lawn in front of a huge, stately house.

"The lawn and landscape looks well maintained", Spitfire noted as the Avengers exited the Quinjet.

"It could be maintained by a service", the Widow answered. "That doesn't mean anything."

"So how do we get inside", Sharon asked. "Break in or through the roof or what?"

As they approached the front of the house, the front door suddenly swung open.

"I believe we're being invited in", the Black Knight observed.

"Well, shall we proceed", the Widow commented. "Everyone, stay on your toes and let's move in."

**

"I think I've found something here", Quentin Collins said loudly, startling both Mantis and Jacques, who stood by looking through the personal effects of Dr.Julia Hoffman.

"What is it, Quentin?", Mantis asked.

"It's a description of a ritual of some sort", Quentin said. "And it refers to someone with the initials of N.S."

"What does it mean?", Jacques asked.

"As near as I can tell, it appears that Julia attempted to contact this N.S. for some reason", Quentin answered.

"With a ritual?", Mantis asked. "Then you suspect that it's possibly a demon of some sort?"

"It appears so", Quentin replied. "She writes of her frustration in trying to cure Barnabas of his curse and how she's willing to do anything to help him."

"So she contacted a demon and made a deal?", Jacques inquired. "That would be insane!"

"Who can judge a person in love", Quentin said. "And looking at the dates here, this was roughly about the same time that Barnabas appeared to be cured of his vampire curse. And it's also roughly about the same time that she was diagnosed with cancer. She died a few months later and Barnabas's apparent cure also quit working not long afterwards."

"Were you here for all of this?", Mantis asked Quentin.

"No", Quentin answered. "I was dealing with issues of my own and had exiled myself to France at the time. I heard about all of this later on from Barnabas."

"So what do you think about all of this in her journal?", Mantis asked.

"If this is correct, Julia found a way to contact some demon entity. She made a deal to save Barnabas at the cost of her own life and soul", Quentin responded.

"And then whoever it was faulted on their deal since Barnabas obviously didn't stay cured of his curse", Mantis said grimly.

"Obviously", Quentin agreed.

"So what do we need to do?", Jacques asked. "Obviously, she's looking for help and trying to contact us now."

"We need to retrace her steps and attempt to contact Julia", Quentin said. "And if that fails, we go straight to the demon or demons that Julia contacted, and work it from that angle."

"This one suggests that we contact Barnabas Collins", Mantis said. "He should be here for this."

"I agree", Quentin said. "He's more familiar with this type of thing than I am and since it's Julia, he'll definitely want to be here."

"And while you contact Barnabas, this one shall also contact someone who is an authority in this particular field and may be able to help us", Mantis said.

"One of the Avengers?", Quentin asked.

"But of course", Mantis smiled. "It's nice to have allies and friends!"