Chapter 24 - MegaOctagon!

Like generals before a battle, the Hunters look one last time at Eddard's map, placed flat on the hood of the Madame Blavatsky.

The eight graffiti artists are:

-Alana, accompanied by Benny and Ripper
-Beverly
-Johnny
-Logan
-Alice, summoned for the occasion
-Brian
-Dan, Brian's friend
-Eddard, who will take care of the sea operations with the help of his skipper Cap Hernandez

Dan volunteered a car, to follow the very loaded Madame Blavatsky - so passenger transportation is a little easier.

Eddard distributes notebook pages with exact copies of each symbol, assigning one to each of the painters.

The start of the operation is set to early evening, just after the shops' closing time. Basically, now.

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Meanwhile, in an unknown location, the being that evolved from Solomon Black stirs, preparing to strike at Gulf Haven once more, to test the extent of his power, to quench his thirst for destruction, while dreaming far more ambitious plans...

OOC:

Any last minute preparations? Any preference on who will paint what/where? Any extra kit they want to carry?
Over to you, Hunters!

"I'm going to draw the D̴̡̎ȅ̵͎s̶̯̓t̷̥̀r̷͉̎o̴̻͒y̸̰͌ symbol!" Al announces with a grin as the group works on their final preparations before getting started, snatching up the notebook page displaying it from Eddard. "We need some kind of signal for when we should start painting," she then says. "Or decide on an exact time."

We should definitely be on the lookout. Johnny interjected. For anyone that might try to stop us or call the cops...but especially for birds since they could tip off Solomon to the plan.

Is there a particular sigil I need to be at to start the process, Mr. Eddard? he asked looking at the map.

"Well, probably the Beginning symbol," Al says, pointing at it on the map. She makes a face. "But that means you'll be at the opposite side of the city from me."

"Al is right, Beginning could work. After all, it needs to start with a little of your magic, Johnny - just like last time..." he says.

"This is cool. But... You sure you guys are not in some cult?" says Dan.

"Told you it would be awesome!"

"Er... about the birds... I brought this just in case..." she says, showing a motorbike helmet, too large for her. "Don't wanna be target practice, like last time!"

Al nods at Brian's comment. "You're helping us destroy a real and super evil ghost," she says. "Of course that's awesome."

The helmet is a really smart idea, Alice. Johnny agreed. Those birds could be vicious, as Alice found out. I haven't seen any around as much after Solomon got the Fulcrum but there's no sense in not being prepared just in case.

Logan turns to Bev, "How about you? Got any new inventions, hiding in that coat of yours?"

Al looks like she's going to make another disparaging comment towards her brother, but then she shrugs and says, "Can't hurt to have it around."

Bev looks at Logan. "Let's just say I having a 'shocking' surprise for Solomon and his buddies," she says as she smacks her fist into her palm.

"I'm really 'wired' up to show him who's boss."

Shutup Bev...

"Um yeah, I've got some tricks up my sleeve." The metal of her new wrist launcher peeks out at the cuff of her coat. "That one wasn't on purpose," she says to no one in particular.

"Right. We're all here... we got the symbols and the paint, and we know where each needs to be painted. We should get a move, then!"

He folds the map and gets aboard the Madame Blavatsky, A couple of Hunters manage to squeeze in too, crammed with the ladders and paint.
The rest of the Hunters get in Dan's car, that follows Blavatsky.

The small convoy starts driving to the first of the pre-scouted destinations, where the first Hunter and their necessary equipment get dropped, with instructions to keep a low profile until they see the flare signal from the sea, to the South, then to start painting the symbol assigned to them, and complete at all costs, protecting it after it is complete. Johnny is also to perform his magic to kickstart the Octagon ritual.

Slowly but surely, Eddard drops off each and every hunter, then rushes to the embankment where Cap Hernandez is waiting with his boat, a blank bedsheet to paint on, and a box of flares.
1-Beginning - Johnny
2-Water - Eddard, Cap Hernandez
3-Fire - Alice
4-Earth - Logan
5-Air - Dan
6-Darkness - Bev
7-Light - Brian
8-Destroy/The End - Al, Benny, Ripper

Once she, her brother and puppy have all been dropped off, Al takes a while to refamiliarize herself with this area. She kind of forgot what they picked as the canvas for the Destroy symbol. In the end, it's Benny who reminds her, by pointing out a huge ad poster of a blonde woman grinning maniacally (Al's words, not mine) at a bottle of perfume. It's facing the right way and it is a large enough even surface. Plus, she remembers Logan pointing out, it's not real vandalism, if you only draw on a poster and not a wall. The only problem is that, as ad posters tend to be, this one's at a pretty visible spot, so even in the evening hours like now, it's going to be hard to go unnoticed when she's working

Once they're in place, next to the poster but slightly hidden from the road, Al turns to her brother. "Benny, you're the lookout, that means for now, you have to keep an eye on the sky so we don't miss Eddard's flare!" Al meanwhile takes out the notebook page and starts drawing and redrawing the symbol, copying Eddard's example. She wants to really have the shape down when it's time to do the real one.

Johnny got dropped off in front of a run down wooden fence overgrown with vines. Behind it lay an abandoned railhitch beside the skeleton of a factory long since closed. His particular canvas happened to be the rusty tower that used to water the steam engines if a bygone era. It was high enough to give a good view of the city and had plenty of rusty, vine encrusted surface to make his sigil. In the twilight, the empty windows of the building looked like empty eye sockets and the big barred wooden door resembled an scowling mouth.
Shaking the feeling of heebie-jeebies it gave him, Johnny trudged through the overgrown kudzu towards the water tower to climb the structure and begin painting once he'd cleared the clinging vines from the section he planned on painting.

When the car pulls to a stop, Bev hops out and helps Brain unload the small, fixed up ladder she brought. "Don't worry, it's practically kiddie," she says with a wave as Brain and his bud pull away.

She's left in front of a strip mall--a Jazzercise, Orange Julius, hair salon and a music shop. With a grinding scrape she drags the ladder round back and locates the the brick wall they'd marked early. It's right next to the juice shops dumpster; the whole area smells like grease and rotted food.

"Barf," Bev says to herself. "Gag me with a spoon."

She sets up her ladder, pulls out her spray paint can and starts shaking it. A pleasing *clank, clank, clank* the only sound she hears.

After dropping everyone off and parting ways with Dan's car, Eddard drives to the coastal road and parks Blavatsky near the harbor.
Grabbing his kit he walks to a small jetty, where a small sloop awaits. A man is busy preparing the sails.
"Hola Capitan Hernandez! How are we doing for our little tour?" Edd calls, climbing aboard.


"Most unusual tour I heard of, but... It's your money and we're good to go." he points a finger, "You're still not drawing on my sails, though, " he admonishes.