Play Testers Wanted Pt. 08

"I am Namor, Ruler of Atlantis!" He declared.

"I am Ghost Spider, protector of New York!" She replied.

"I am..." I said as I removed my mask.

"YOU!" Namor gasped. "How?"

"I don't understand," I replied as he ignored Gwen and walked closer to me.

"It is. Beyond belief and thousands of years... it is you." Namor continued. "Is this yours?" He asked not explaining how he recognized me.

"The iceberg, no, we are here to see why the jet's weapon didn't melt it." I explained.

"It is a good thing that it didn't. There is something in the ice. Below the waterline is a creature trapped in the ice." Namor shared.

"That explains much," I stated. "The magic protecting the ice is a spell meant to imprison. We need to stop them from destroying the iceberg. A moment please, I am going to contact the Sorceress Supreme. This is above my paygrade." I said as I closed my eyes and reached out. 'Steph. Enchanted iceberg in New York Harbor.'

'On it! Be right there!' She replied mentally.

Steph Strange appeared out of a portal and using the cloak of levitation landed on the iceberg. She saw Namor and smiled. I wasn't the only guy that got around it seemed.

"Namor." Steph purred. "Been a while."

"Sorceress." He growled back.

"Monster in ice, sex later." Gwen giggled.

I watched Steph work and she determined the same thing I had but much faster. It all comes down to skill and experience. It was indeed an ancient binding spell. I was looking forward to working with Steph and picking up a few new tips from her. That was not to be.

"Ghost man!" Toni Stark's voice came over my radio. Crap.

"What's up Stark?" I asked and what followed both surprised me and was a little disappointing.

"I need a favor." She purred. "Pretty please."

"What is it?" I asked as I heard the soft roar of her suit's repulsor engines closing in on my location. "A friend of mine needs an exorcism performed."

"Do I look like a priest?" I asked as she landed, and the ice remain unmarked even from her boot's jets. "What is going on?"

'Do you wish to accept file transmission?' My HUD dinged cheerily.

"Sure." I accepted the data files. "What is this?"

"The place has had a bad reputation since before the Revolutionary War." Toni said as she eyeballed Namor. "Noises, things moving on their own, all sorts of weird shit... I had one of my guys research it to save you some time. There is an old well on the property that they wanted to cover up and build a tennis court or something. Her name is Fink, Dorothea Fink. Her dad is Nathaniel Fink, CEO and a member of some of the same clubs I frequent. They know you are coming. I gave them your street name. Limo is parked by that blue warehouse over there. Enjoy the ride."

"What if it isn't just a poltergeist?" I asked as I prepared to teleport.

"Banish it or something!" Toni said her attention on the iceberg and Namor.

'Notoriety my ass.' I thought as I teleported to the shore.

The limo was luxurious. It hovered on a cushion of repulsor energy and the ride was as smooth as glass. A suitcase was in the seat and a custom-made suit hung across from me. I didn't bother wondering how the hell she got my measurements. I touched the suit and added it to my inventory. I swapped out my armor for the suit. It fit perfectly. Next, I opened the suitcase and gasped at the stockpile of gold coins, twenty in all, as well as a Stark Industry tablet computer. I felt like John Wick with the payment in gold coins.

"Touch your thumb to the middle of the screen." The driver instructed. "It is keyed to your biometrics only."

I placed my thumb against the middle of the screen and the tablet appeared to liquify, crawl up my right arm, and wrap around it. The thing took on the appearance of a flexible black and silver forearm guard. An eerie dark blue flame design blossomed into existence and the artificial intelligence greeted me.

"Hello Boss!" Surfer said as she sat next to me.

"That isn't right." The driver declared. "Oh well, she doesn't tell me anything. She doesn't tell anyone everything."

"Where are we going?" I asked and a map hung in the air. "North Salem. Never heard of it."

"It is a small population center of no more that fifteen hundred families. It is upper middle class with an average income of a hundred and twenty thousand dollars annually." Surfer informed me.

"Let's dig into this haunting, shall we?" I said as I pulled up the files. "This goes back centuries."

It began when the colony was founded. When this area was a Dutch colony and even then, the records hint at even older legends about this place. The native peoples did not endure this area for long and warned against making it a home. Generations this thing has slept but its dreams invaded the waking world and the living. It was time to turn the soil and see the roots there are in North Salem.

"We are here Sir," the driver indicated. "This is Shadowfax Estate, the home of the Fink family."

"You can stay if you want. If not, I can get home on my own," I said.

"I will wait. Those are my orders," She stated.

Shadowfax Estate was a sprawling structure that covered at least two acres at best guess. We were met by a well-armed security force. I didn't miss the fact that they were armed with Hammer Industry heavy weapons.

"You must be Mr. Davis," the lead guard greeted me. "Please, follow us."

It was a short walk from the gate to the front door. I had never seen a house like this before and the interior matched the exotic exterior. It was lavish with dozens of museum class pieces of art, sculptures, paintings, and esoteric holograms. Dorothea Fink shook my hand and dismissed the security forces with a gesture. She was barely in her twenties, tall, thin, and a bottled blonde. I noticed a pattern in her behavior that was a little alarming. We would walk a few feet, she'd point to an object on display, and waited for me to recognize and comment upon it. I knew she was just an A.I. but she came off as one which was unusual. Was she programmed to act this odd?

"Father!" Pause for three seconds. "Our guest is here." Pause for three seconds. "Are you busy?"

"No, my dear," he replied. "Bring him through."

I was guided right over and through a 'cold' spot. I stopped when I hit it and shivered. Nathaniel clapped and declared me the real deal. He poured me a glass of extremely expensive scotch. I accepted it. Nathanial Fink was a large man, well over six feet in height, and despite his bulk he moved like a man half his girth. He was as personable as his daughter was robotic. I wasn't sure if it was wise to mention the artificiality of Dorothea.

"I've read the extensive research Toni gave me." I began and observed Nathanial closely. "The stories center around a well on the property. Have you had any personal experiences?"

"Visions. Voices. Objects moving on their own. I have three pieces of video footage from the internal security showing those events." He said and paused. "Of course, it could all be altered but you'd know. I knew that Toni wouldn't let me down and sent a skilled investigator..."

The sudden plume of psychic energy drowned him out. The stink of evil was overwhelming. I staggered back and fell into one of his chairs. It was beneath us. Whatever the hell it was, it was buried beneath the house.

"You turned the well into an elevator." I muttered as the vision revealed what had happened. "You excavated a vault far below the house. It even has a panic room." I stated seeing the construction of the protective structure. "It is a death trap. If you must use it, you are already dead!"

I felt a pang of loss from him when I mentioned 'already dead'. His daughter was dead. That poor creature was a mere shadow of his little girl. I knew better than to bring it up. The vision suddenly ended, and I sat there shaking. I apologized but Nathanial waved it off. I sipped my drink and the sense of loss at being left out of dealing with the iceberg faded away. Something serious was going on here. I looked up at the smiling face of Nathanial Fink and he repeated much of which I had already been exposed to from Stark's research team. It wasn't until he reached the most recent events that I felt a true sense of growing dread.

"I had the cave system scanned with radar and there is something buried beneath our feet. Something ancient, impossibly old, and it will be added to my collection." He greedily declared. "I will possess something so unique it will be the talk of..."

"Mr. Fink Sir...!!" A disheveled man raced in gasping for breath.

"How dare you interrupt me?!" Nathanial roared. "What is it Gavin?"

"There's been another disappearance. That makes um one more!" Gavin shared and then hesitated. "We've run into a pipe or plumbing but it isn't in any blueprint or record from the city." The man Gavin was perpetually bent over as if unable to stand erect in the presence of Nathanial Fink. While he was dressed nicely, he didn't seem to fit the clothes I thought.

"We've found it!" He growled making a fist. "Mine! Pay off the family. Look for a corpse. Wait for me to change." He ranted. "I want to see it unearthed. Dan? Would you like to join me below?"

"I better." I muttered. "So, when shit goes sideways there are survivors."

"You are afraid." Nathanial stated.

"Call me overly cautious. When did the disappearances begin?" I asked as I got to my feet and changed into my Cortosis armor. It had three new skins attached to it and one caught my attention. It had a clear ritualistic look to it along with a more stylized mask to add to the effect. It didn't change the armor's potency it was just cosmetic and created an alternate heroic persona. "Lead the way."

"Impressive." Nathanial stated seeing me in my new outfit.

Gavin joined us in the elevator after his boss had changed into coveralls, boots, and a plastic face shield to keep him from getting dirty. The elevator opened into a finished room with a polished stone floor and walls. Clearly, we were in a modified cave. The vault surrounded us. The many doors were all structurally reinforced and the equal to any bank vault worldwide. The chamber was nearly a hundred feet deep and twenty feet wide. I examined one of the vault doors and noticed that it wasn't a single piece of metal but in fact was a cunning series of hardened alloy plates.

"I see the shaft of the well limited your construction. You adapted quite well." I said. "That must have been a bitch."

"It was," Nathanial admitted. "The elevator wasn't installed until this chamber was finished." I gestured at the double doors further down. "An accident well a blessing actually. Just as the elevator was being finished one of the workers placed unused materials against that wall. The weight was enough to poke a hole in the wall between this area and the next. Our geologist suggested that the cave was formed by flowing water. This wall was worn thin at that time but not eroded all the way through." He explained as he walked forward.

Two automatic doors opened into the rest of the cave system. Nathanial was a neat freak as all the natural passages had been smoothed, polished, and much of their natural state removed. The ceilings held inset lights and it was clear where new vaults were being constructed. His collection must be vast indeed or perhaps he was leasing out space to other collectors.

The entire lower level was a 'cold' spot. The psychic chill was ever-present and wore at my nerves from the moment we stepped off the elevator.

"I hate it down here." Gavin muttered under his breath.

"Have you recovered any bodies?" I asked Gavin and he shook his head.

"This place is a warren of tunnels and caves. It must have been underwater at some point, or so the geologist pondered before he disappeared. He was the first and the hardest cover story to maintain. He had a PhD and an extensive close family. His grandmother keeps calling and asking for him." Gavin explained.

"How do you know it is so expansive?" I asked. "If no one has gone down there." Gavin glanced at his boss before responding.

"Men were sent in. The data we retrieved from them hinted at the size and complexity of the caves beyond the dig site." Gavin stated with Nathanial's approval.

"Enough! We'll find that geologist and the others. They have to be down here somewhere." Nathanial stated as if it were gospel. "They have to be."

It became quite clear that Mr. Fink was used to being in charge. I caught the first sounds of movement and they appeared to come out of nowhere. Six men were laughing and joking as they passed a skull between them. They stopped when they saw their employer down here. The man with the skull nearly dropped it as he set it on the nearest worktable with other parts of a skeleton. Arrayed were bones, primitive looking tools, and pottery shards. Nathanial looked at the objects found so far, and it was clear they needed an anthropologist to examine and date the bones and pottery.

"Excellent work everyone. Get me someone to handle these bones." He ordered. "What else do you have?"

"Right over here sir." Another of the workers gestured and showed him the display of their ground penetrating radar. "I've never seen readings like this in my life. It clearly shows that the clay has been disturbed meaning that something is buried there but I can't get a clear reading because whatever it is, is absorbing the soundwaves."

"How is that even possible?" Nathanial snapped. "How deep are we?"

"At this level around five million years or more." He stated quite confidently.

"Hold the hell on, that skeleton looks humanoid." I snapped.

"Yes. Crazy isn't it," the lead digger replied. "It might be a mutant Pliocene ape or our theories about when the first humans entered the fossil record are all wrong. We might have developed far earlier than ever recorded. This is quite groundbreaking. We need an expert down here."

"And you shall have it." Nathanial purred obviously thrilled. "What is bothering you?"

"How did it get here? There were no humanoids anywhere near this area until millions of years later." I stated and Nathanial waved it off.

"Let's celebrate! Take a break gentleman. Dinner is on me!"

He knew how to motivate that's for sure. A man goes missing or wandered off and they are like ooh free food, what the hell? Then there's the ground penetrating radar that bothered me. Five million years old and something with sound absorbing qualities was buried down here. Could it be a Vibranium artifact? The dark elf history went back to the dawn of the first stars. Was this something of theirs? Could it be a stasis pod? Could it have crash landed later than five million years and just ended up at this level? I had a lot more questions than answers.

"I know that look." Nathanial jovially rumbled. "It has you hooked too. Good! Let's eat and throw out theories."

We did just that. I did check the news about the iceberg. It was getting a lot of attention and the heroes had failed to budge it an inch. It just sat there unmoving and the ice beneath the water was too dark to see what was trapped inside beyond a vague shape and size. I was glad my mystery was far smaller and easier to solve. I let it go for now. Perhaps once I solved mine, I would rejoin Steph and help them out.

"Are there any unusual objects that you've dug up?" I asked as we enjoyed on homemade gourmet chili. I'd never had gourmet chilly before.

"A few," the lead digger replied after getting the go ahead from Nathanial. "It isn't much, but it is strange because of how far back we are talking about. One is a petrified stick. It was clearly sharpened to a point as a tool. The other is a clay pot. It is only the bottom and a bit of the sides where the markings are. At first we thought they were just gibberish."

"At first? What happened to change your mind?" I asked and a single glance to Nathanial killed that line of inquiry.

"Interesting eh," Nathanial said clearly cutting off his employee. There was more to it, but what. If I used telepathy, they might detect my presence and spoil the relationship. I'd wait and find out. "Those of you that haven't finished your shift get to it. The others get some sleep."

Once the others had left, I turned to face off with the big man. "Are you really going to hinder me like this? You were the one that wanted my help." I paused to let my words settle in. "Either show me everything or I can't guarantee everyone's safety. You aren't a fool. You know that this could turn ugly and people perish."

"I am not used to having people call me out. My employees value their job or money enough to keep them meek. I should have suspected more from someone that Stark sent me." He stopped, licked his fat lips, and nervously gestured. "There was a third object. I didn't get to see it." He snarled as he continued. "A metallic tablet with characters on it. Can you imagine? A five-million-year-old relic of an alien race or proof that intelligence arose on this planet before humanity!"

"What happened to it?" I asked and his fist slammed down shaking the entire table.

"One of the missing diggers stole it. He fled into the depths of the caves and hasn't been seen since. That was over a week ago. He must be dead by now." Nathanial growled. "I don't take kindly to thieves Mr. Davis."

"What color was the tablet?" I asked and he described a greenish-grey alloy. "And the letters?"

"No one got a good look at it. The other man that handled it described them as squiggly and eerie just before he joined his cohort in the bowels of the Earth." He fumed and I knew there was more. "I mounted an expedition deeper into the caves. I hired ten mercenaries to retrieve the tablet. My diggers are far too valuable to throw away like that. Out of those ten blood thirsty men only two returned. Neither of them has uttered a single coherent thought to this day. That is why you are here. Something uncanny is happening and I need a skilled professional to deal with it." He admitted.

"And I thought this was going to be boring." I said and he smiled. "Let me meditate on all of these facts and after that I'll get at it."

"Take your time Mr. Davis. I understand the wisdom of collecting one's thoughts," He said before I was showed to an unoccupied room. It was decorated in Germanic motif and appeared to be a spare office or perhaps one that Nathanial's secretary might use. I sat in the comfortable chair, closed my eyes, and arranged the data in front of me. I looked at the dates first and there were no clear patterns of so many years between events. That is when I delved into not just the dates but what had occurred that might have triggered the psychic disturbances. That is when I discovered a clear pattern. In each occasion the ground had been disturbed. When the original well was dug, foundations for homes, and so on. By delving into the soil, they had triggered a psychic response. Now Fink was erecting those vaults and going further than anyone had in the past. I feared that if the thing was further disturbed it might lash out more violent than ever. I had to try and convince Nathanial to abandon his project.

"Fat chance of that." I muttered as I opened my eyes and tried to find a logical way of appealing to the man's logical side. As I stood, I heard the front door open and hear Nathanial greet someone.

"Professor! You got here much quicker than I expected."

"Are you kidding? A five-million-year-old skeleton and you are surprised, ha-ha!" The Professor replied.

"Ah, perfect timing," Nathanial stated seeing me. "Professor let me introduce you to a colleague of Toni Stark. Daniel Davis this is Professor Evan Kent Paleontologist."

"What is your field of study Mr. Davis?" Professor Kent asked.

"I am an Arcanist," I replied. "I am also a colleague of Doctor Strange."