theHaunt

Honestly, I can only see three solutions to this problem, and they can all be accomplished in game:

1) Politely (or impolitely if you'd rather, whatever) ask them to tone it down or stop.

2) If they're still continuing to do it and it's still bothering you, kick them out if you're the team leader or ask the leader to kick them.

3) If you're not the leader and they won't kick them, leave the group. Even if it is interfering with your gameplay, they're just as entitled to RP as you are to not RP (which I'm assuming you don't based on your post, pardon the assumption if you do ).

It might be me, but I don't know what posting on the forum to complain that some people who RP robots annoy you is going to accomplish. Besides, when all else fails, there's always /ignore to solve problems with people annoying you.

Haunt caught the diminuitive artifact that Lightning Bug tossed to him.

"Hrmm..I haven't seen anything like this before, maybe one of those two will recognize it," he motioned toward Deth as she disappeared with the girl and Sly as he quickly followed her. "Guess we can ask them at the gate," he added, slipping the ring on for safe keeping as Eidolon tore open a gate to the netherworld.

He popped in and out of reality as he teleported through Steel Canyon, arriving at the Boomtown gate just as Sly began teleporting others in.

"Have any of you seen something like this before? Lightning Bug said she found it on some Circle of Thorns" he asked, displaying his hand wearing the ring to Sly, Lyle and Deth.

"Nice to meet you, Fire Mistress," Haunt said, then looked at Sly.

"So, what's your secret? It seems every ten minutes a beautiful woman falls into your lap," he asks, his grin evident even with his mouth obscured.

"If we're headed for Boomtown, I should probably give my contact a ring first, see if there's anything else he knows that would help us look for.....huh," he said, cutting himself short as he noticed the map the girl had drawn.

"So, uh, I guess we should go 'here' then..." he continued, pointing to the thin red gem, still a more than a bit surprised at the girl's actions thus far.

"Are we ready to move out then?" he asked a soon afterwards, the shakiness gone from his voice, as he looked at the small pack of heroes that had assembled.

Haunt clicked his cell phone off and turned back to the group.

"Nice to meet the two of you. I'm called Haunt, in case you missed it earlier," he said, and extended his hand to each of them.

"As for the source of my power? I'm not entirely sure. I know that my powers come from a mutation in my DNA; my body's cells produce raw negative energy. Beyond that, I've gathered that Eidolon here helps me to control it in this shadowy form, but I don't know where, erm, 'she' comes from," he said, glancing at Deth, the idea of Eidolon being female seeming to make more sense the more he thought about it, "or how she helps control it. Could just be a side effect of the mutation, but Miss Ascizen seems to beleive Eidolon's some sort of demon she's seen before.." he finished, then shifted his gaze away from Nexxes to the other members of the group.

"My contacts were able to find two locations: A lab here in Steel Canyon where the Tsoo are supposedly producing Rage, and a small warehouse somewhere in Baumton where they're apparently stashing dangerous artifacts. The exact location of the second building is unknown, but my contacts are fairly sure the Tsoo at the Rage lab know where to find it."

Haunt looked up from the girl who seemed to still be in her own little world, then glanced around at the closing battle before looking over towards Lyle.

"Said that the Tsoo are selling drugs and magics to the gangs, and generally screwing them over in the process."

Haunt's iridescent red eyes widened slightly as he grasped the situation. His personal "dealings" with the Tsoo had alerted him to this plot of theirs, trying to weaken the gangs through soul-stealing artifacts and faulty drugs. It seemed he and Ivory had been getting their data from similar sources.

Haunt quickly glazed over the quick glare at the audacity of the thugs to a calm, almost empty stare as Lyle approached.

"I know what he was talking about. The Tsoo are producing a drug called Rage to try and poison the Trolls, and are distributing dangerous artifacts to the Outcasts. I'm sure I can get the location of one of their HQs, but I'll need to make some calls first."

Haunt turned away from the group and procured his cell phone, and began to dial one of his contact's numbers. Eidolon's "face" remained looking at the band of heroes, glancing about, alert for any other trouble.

Situated in the back of the local Wizard's Well there sits a small, beat up cardboard box. Held within the container are several comics. They seem to be made to be 'professional-like', but a second glance reveals their true nature: these are comic books, looking to be at least two years old, that detail the history of a hero known as 'The Daring Haunt'. At the top of the small stack is what appears to be the first issue. This is the story detailed in those comics, the story of Ian "Haunt" Gabriel.

Issue #1: The Origin of the Haunt!

On November 13, 1978, John and Mary Gabriel's first child is born. Although he was a month overdue and somewhat pale after being born, the doctors assure the new parents that their child will be fine. They name him Ian, after his grandfather, and bring the boy home two days later; the doctors wanted to observe him and run a few tests, to just to make sure that everything's alright with the newborn. The new parents agree, also worried about the boy's well being. Two days pass, and the tests reveal nothing unusual, besides a slightly below-average metabolism, and 'something else...' The Gabriels, only seeing their son in between the various tests, asked the doctor what the problem was.

"His DNA is a bit 'jumbled', I suppose you could say. He's a mutant, for lack of a better word. While science hasn't yet given us the tools to see how this will manifest later, there's a rather good chance you'll have a little Statesman running around the house by the time he's a teen. Aside from this, though, he seems to be a perfectly healthy little boy," the doctor said with a reassuring grin and a soft chuckle. The parents were overjoyed, both at their son's bill of health and at the news that he could grow up to be a hero. They brought him home, and raised him as well as any two loving parents would; they decided to keep his mutant DNA a secret, however, to protect him both from others, and from himself. While they didn't want their son to be made fun of for his 'uniqueness', they were also worried of the other end of the spectrum, fearing that he could get a sense of privilege or entitlement because of his eventual gifts.

Besides this, nothing more can be said about Ian Gabriel at this point. He was raised as a normal boy, which, by all appearances he was. That is, of course, until the mutation began to manifest. But it's not yet time to talk about that. First, the story will be taken back, to about three months before the hero of our story is born, to be exact, to a very different world than our own.

The Netherworld.

It writhed through the dark underbrush, trying to escape. It was being chased, hunted by one of its own. Its skin was made from liquid Obsidian, fluid, dark as night, with clawed hands and feet that seemed to appear and disappear haphazardly as it moved. The only constant in the creature's form was its serpentine head, with eyes even darker than its frame; looking into its eyes was looking into infinity, peering into nothingness.

The being chasing it, a Pit Fiend, as they were called in the language of these wretched beings, stood ten feet tall, its visage the thing of nightmares. Large, leathery bat wings framed its back, bony, clawed hands tipped equally emaciated arms, and a scowl was set on its grim face, its skin somewhere between the pale blue color of frozen flesh and sickly green of vomit. One of the lower daemons of the Chorus in Hades, the beast was all too numerous in the "Pit". Still they cover the hellscape today, even after so many of their kin had been summoned by the Circle of Thorns to this world, as 'Spectral Daemon Fiends'.

The Pit Fiend continued to give chase, expecting the lesser shadow fiend to serve as a tasty meal. The creature pressed on, desperately searching for somewhere, anywhere, to hide. Viola! The glee was evident on the creature's face as it found its respite: a sinkhole.

Sinkholes are places where concentrated negative energy can be found on "the other side", usually found in the souls of wicked humans. Daemons can inhabit these holes, some using them for protection, while the higher levels of the Chorus of the Damned could use them to possess their owner. The obsidian creature was not one of these terrible Dark Lords, and so it sprung into the sinkhole to hide from its tormenter.

She was embraced by the darkness, protected by it, one with it. A daemon within a sinkhole is nearly impossible to reach, let alone kill, and so she comfortably remained within the dark soul that had saved her from the gut of the ravenous Pit Fiend. She studied the sinkhole she was in. It was somewhat small, but, after closer examination, it was growing. Testing the confines of the sinkhole, the shadow demon began to worry. Souls are never this damned before they fully mature, they haven't had time to commit enough evil acts. She worried about the vessel she had chosen to hide in, and looked through the realm, into the real world, at her host.

It was a yet unborn baby, still in his mother's womb.

This couldn't be. It didn't make sense. Seeking an answer, she looked within the boy. His entire insides seemed to pulse with negative energy, tissues and organs were slowly being broken down by them, replaced with shadowy counterparts. The shadows would kill the unborn child if not brought under control. Suddenly a protective feeling came over her; she needed to help her new home, her new charge. She had to protect the being that had just saved her from the maw of the Pit Fiend.

Most importantly, she needed to act quickly. The negative energy was already lapping at his nervous system, and more importantly, his brain, neither of which could be copied well enough to work. It was beyond her to even attempt to possess an adult, but this child; she could take control enough to stop the dark miasma within him. The Obsidian being focused all of her energy, needing every last morsel of it to both take control and pass through the realms. The sinkhole began to glow on the outside. Soon, her form melded with the interior walls of his soul, forever binding her to the one who had unknowingly saved her. Once within him, she was able to slow the speed of the negative energy, to stop it until the boy became strong enough to control it himself.

From that day forward, she remained with him, forever a part of him; his conscience, his guardian, his Angel, always speaking to him, an eternal friend and savior.

When she spoke to his subconscious mind, she called herself Eidolon.

After this, the first comic comes to a close. Moving on to the next one in the pile, the cover for Issue #2: A Tale of the Desert can be seen.

Haunt took a moment to catch a breath after the girl launched herself at the Lost. After she had reached the thug, his eyes widened in shock at her combat tactics. Ducking and weaving through a few of the remaining fighters, confident the others could finish them off, he moved over to the blood drenched girl. Eidolon continued to warily watch the fray in case they were needed.

"Geez, are you suicidal!? Nevermind, don't answer that....thanks for the help, and, err..are you alright..?" he rambled weakly, still a bit stunned at the "unusual", to say the least, tactics of the girl that was absentmindedly doodling in the puddle of the Lost's blood.

Haunt had caught up to Sly a few seconds earlier, but had remained cloaked in shadows, trying to get a grip on all the new faces that had appeared.

"I know it's said that you can't throw a stone in this city without hitting a hero, but this is kind of ridiculous.." he thought, before stepping out into the fray.

"Greetings, erm, everyone, I'm known as Haunt, a friend of these two.." he said, motioning towards Sly and Deth, "though proper introductions can wait, I suppose," he added as another Rifleman took aim at the combatants. Haunt grinned, and glanced at Sly.

"So what's the tally now? Trolls, Outcasts, and Lost, all in the past quarter hour? At this rate there won't be any villain groups left to defeat..." he said with a slight laugh as he jumped at the Rifleman, fists clenched, Eidolon pulsing.

With a several flurries of punches and a final life-draining attack by Eidolon, he was able to take the homeless mutant down, but not before recieving a energy-beam-induced gash on his shoulder. He then turned to a pair of Scrounger lackeys that had produced knives, and were creeping towards the straight-jacket bound girl, who seemed too out of it to properly defend herself.

"You'd think these goons would've heard of a 'tactical retreat' by now.." he muttered as he rushed them.

After reaching them, Eidolon produced shadowy tentacles that lashed out in all directions, piercing through several of the still-standing enemies. A green pulse passed through all of these tentacles to Haunt before disapating, healing the grievous wound he'd taken from the Rifleman.

The technique left him physically drained, and had attracted the attention of several thugs, whom he was unable to fight in his current state..

"No, it wasn't me, I thought you'd done it," Haunt said as he glanced at Sly, the confusion obvious in his voice. "I think it'd be best to question it later," he added as the Trolls regrouped.

Haunt did a quick body count as the creatures rushed towards them; there were three weaker minions surrounding their leader, all shivering as they slowly approached. He chuckled at the cackling Sly, then crouched again as Eidolon flared up, before charging them.

He lept into the center of the bunch, positioning himself to the side of the minions, who surrounded their boss in a triangular shape. Almost simulaneously, Eidolon first began to seep across the ground surrounding the group, draining their life force, and send a needle-tipped spike of shadow at the Torvast. The spike sapped the last of the weakend Troll's life force, as Haunt's body seemed to glow, invigorated yet again.

The other trolls seemed unfazed by their leader's downfall, and spread out into a line, moving in to surround him as the cold nipped at them and the shadow sapped their health. Haunt crouched into a defensive position yet again, waiting for the monsters to inevitably move into the right position for him to finish them off.

One second, no movement from Haunt.

Another second passed, still Haunt remained unmoving, save the ring of shadow cascading around him.

Three seconds, and he exploded into a whirlwind of fist and shadow.

He pummeled all three minions at once, and combined with the draining they had already experienced, they dropped to the ground at nearly the same time, unmoving. Haunt cracked his knuckles as Eidolon's form tightened around him again, then turned to Sly, who was already off, trying to catch up to Deth.

"Hey, wait up!" he called as Eidolon opened a portal to the netherworld, and they began to chase after the teleporting Fox.

Haunt closed in on the battle field to find Deth had already left and Fox was left with several other Trolls to "clean up", including one that was preparing to swat Sly like a fly. Haunt disappeared in a burst of negative energy again...

...and reappeared above the Troll that had regained its sight. His fists, wrapped in shadow, came crashing down, and connected squarely with the back of the fiend's skull.

"Sorry for the late arrival," Haunt said as it collapsed to the ground from the force of the blow; some of the shadows around Haunt broke off and swirled around the Troll, greatly hampering its vision.

Haunt turned so he was standing back to back with Sly, and crouched down. Eidolon began to pulse faster, and he lunged at the nearest Troll, dealing it a dozen crushing blows in the space of a few seconds. He ducked under a punch, and cracked him in the jaw with another "Shadow Punch". It sunk to the ground.

He let his gaurd down for a moment to turn again and see how Sly was doing, and in this time the first Troll, the shadows having disappeared giving him his sight back, landed a meaty punch to the back of Haunt's skull, sending him to the ground, disoriented.

"You sonova..." he managed to grumble as he struggled to his feet.

"No problem," he replied as Sly climbed out of the can.

Haunt managed to flash a weak grin at Sly's new resolve, still a bit stunned by the sudden turn and re-turning of events in the past few minutes. "So, he's either crazy about her, or just plain crazy," he mused, then turned to follow him. He was just about to suggest the group get going, and was pleased that something was finally happening, in spite of the circumstances they were happening under.

Eidolon began to pulse more rapidly around him, lifting him several feet above the ground. She then tore open a rift into the netherworld, and they were consumed by shadow.

In a small explosion of negative energy, he appeared outside the shop, taking a final look back to see if anyone would follow.

He hoped Lobe would leave the building in tact if and when he exited.

"So...do you have...any clue...where she's headed?" he asked in between ports as he finally caught up with Sly.

Haunt quietly chuckled as the smack resonated through the room, he was about to check if some kids were playing baseball outside, silently stunned at the volume of the crack.

"Aww, we were just kiddi-oof!" he said, the guilt evident in his voice as his seat was swiped from under him. Eidolon focused the shadows and they picked up beneath him, allowing him to hover just after his bottom took the full thud against the floor. Eidolon grinned devilishly.

"Okay, okay, I guess I deserved that," he half thought, half spoke as Eidolon's face wavered between a devilish grin and a scolding glare.

Haunt blinked a few times at the shattered door, not expecting this great a reaction by a long shot. "Wonder where she stormed off to.." he said to no one in particular, still blankly staring at the doorway.

"So..uhm..does that.. happen often...?" Haunt asked Sly as the man nursed his face, then offered him a hand to help him out of the trash can.

Haunt grinned behind his mask, and nodded at the winking Sly.

"Indeed..I suppose that does make you a 'she' afterall, Eidolon!" he said after making sure Sly was standing closer to Deth than he was. Eidolon's visage seemed to seethe with anger before quickly mirroring Haunt's grin. 'She' seemed to silently chuckle at the Sly Fox, as she and Haunt also awaited Deth's response.

Haunt frowned, he couldn't help but feel sorry for the giant standing next to him; he could tell just by the man's reaction to the accident that his prodigous size and strength had caused him problems in the past. He was relieved when Sly and Deth quickly sought to console him, and he couldn't help but wonder if the two were a couple; they seemed close, but he wasn't quite sure. He never was very good at reading people.

Eidolon grinned as the peice of chocolate was thrown to it, and snapped it up into its translucent maw. The peice of candy traveled down its still extended 'throat' before reaching Haunt's body, where it swirled around him, caught in the current of the shadow surrounding him. He snatched it up and popped the partially dissolved treat into his mouth, then turned back to the group.

Haunt watched Deth start to clean up, and quickly got up from his chair to help, trying to remember his manners. He walked out to the center of the rubble that littered the floor after Lobe's accidental feat of strength, and crouched down into a lotus position; the shadows keeping him hovering several feet above the floor. He focused his and Eidolon's mind and the shadows began to swirl around him, creating a small tornado, and collecting the dust within it. Eidolon's serpentine head then tore open a hole to the netherworld, where the miniature tornado swept the debris. Haunt shrugged at the few odd looks he got as the portal closed itself.

'If anything in there's got a problem with the mess, they can take it up with me later' he said dismissively before returing to his seat.

Haunt frowned at Deth after she grabbed his chocolate bar that was headed for Lobe, but it quickly deteriorated into a chuckle.

"Mother knows best, I suppose," he said with a defeated sigh and a half grin. As she ordered the pizza, Eidolon's serpentine head slowly snaked its way toward her, and sat there poised for several seconds before finally making a lunge for the chocolate she was holding. Deth quickly moved the candy in question out of its reach, and administered the creature another scolding as it seemed to grin wildly, like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Haunt chuckled as Deth prepared Lobe for dinner, finding her motherly attitude almost comforting. It'd been more than two years since he'd heard the tone she used with the gargantuan hero, and he had to admit he missed it. He sighed as he thought about this for a few fleeting moments, before turning to the conversation going on behind him, watching the three with an amused look on his face.

He grinned when the pizza arrived; only needing food once weekly sort of takes the enjoyment out of having a good meal, and most of his feeding had been relegated to ramen or junk food: it was cheap, and gave him enough energy to keep himself going. Pizza was definitely a treat.

He'd grabbed two slices of the pie, and sat back down. He lowered the cloth obscuring his mouth, and began to chow down.

As he sat amongst the similarly eating heroes, he figured now was a good time to get caught up with what had brought the group here.

"So, would anyone care to explain just how and why you all emerged in this shop a little while ago? Eidolon here can usually sense when people shift between realities, but his response to your appearance was different than anything I've seen before..."

He quickly added, "the brutally short version is fine too, I'm just curious, is all."

Haunt shrugged and slumped down into a chair as Contact flew off. He was getting anxious, and he was starting to doubt his volunteering to accompany Helsing and Cabas. He'd met some loose cannons during his travels, and the impression he'd so far gotten from the men was more 'adventurous' or, perhaps, 'eccentric', than 'erratic'. Maybe he was just bad at reading people. He sighed, and decided it might actually be a good idea to have a drink, if only to calm his excited nerves. He tipped the drink at Sly in thanks before downing it, the taste of alcohol the only thing he could discern before the the beverage went down his throat.

He raised an eyebrow as the odd man entered the small shop, and could feel an almost palpable tension between him and the Sly Fox, like two rival warriors who have crossed paths.

Haunt looked up as the giant man's stomach began to rumble, and watched him as he bemoaned his fate, stuck inside the store with nothing to eat. Eidolon's faceless stare, however, remained fixed on the newcomer.

Haunt dug through his outfit, finally reaching into a hidden pocket within his dark gray shirt, and pulling out the chocolate bar he'd been holding onto. He tossed it to the mountain of a man called Lobe.

"I dunno how long that'll tide you over, but you're welcome to chow down on it for now."

Haunt shrugged off Lyle's comment, his mind turning to the rest of the group assembled around him, trying to determine where their powers stemmed from. He was quickly interrupted, however, by Helsing returning, another man in tow. His eyes widened slightly at the man's facial display, but he soon regained his composure. He'd seen stranger, well, at least things AS strange, as him before. He couldn't help but chuckle at the short exchange between him and Lyle, however.

He watched Sly return from the corner of his eye, his arms full of drinks. Counting the various beverages in his arms, Haunt assumed one was meant for him. "Thanks for the offer," he said, as Sly passed him a drink, "but my odd appearance actually stems mostly from my, well, just about non-existent metabolism. I had a meal about two days ago, so I've got a good five more to go before I need to 'refill'."

As Haunt listened to Ivory explain, he was able to more or less piece the group's story together, though he still didn't understand several things. Suddenly the man turned to him, and said.

"We can't simply go off picking fights with the Tsoo. Even in Paragon City we have to establish motive and retrieve a warrent, or at least establish heroic cause for intervention."

Somewhere in the back of Haunt's mind, he considered retorting that three murders of his loved ones was enough 'heroic cause' for him, but he held his tongue. Three years of diligent training in the Arizona desert had taught him to watch his emotions, though he was sometimes prone to slipping when it came to the Tsoo. The man continued, talking of going off with Lyle, leaving the rest to go interrogate the Outcasts for information. Although he would have preferred going with them, he knew that he hadn't yet earned the group's trust, and, frankly, he didn't trust himself when it came to those monsters.

"Understood," he said, and watched as Ivory tore open a hole to another plane, Lyle following closely behind. At they disappeared into the trans-dimensional gateway, Eidolon didn't merely shudder, it quaked. Haunt considered a third reason for not going: Ivory didn't seem like the type of person he'd care to defy, at least not at this moment.

After hearing Kyle's offer, Haunt nodded to him, "I'm up for it," he said, trying to mask the range of emotions that he'd felt in the past few minutes at the mention of the Tsoo. He turned to the rest of the group, looking at them almost expectantly.

"Anyone else?"

"Um, thanks," Haunt said as he scrambled to find a place to store the card in his pocketless outfit; he settled for tucking it into the fabric of his dark gray legwraps. He glanced over to the one called Lyle, for a moment unsure about what he was mumbling about, before realizing the common misconception people had when meeting him.

"Hate to disappoint, but as far as I know, Eidolon here definitely doesn't stem from any magical artifacts or otherworldly demigods. Just a chance recombination of my DNA when I was born, combined with some focus training brought my buddy into this world," he said, nodding at his shadowy companion, who nodded back, it's featureless face seeming to grin.

Haunt proceeded to shake 'the Sly Fox's hand, and thought he was able to match the names to the faces in the room as they were listed one by one. He looked back over to the woman he was talking to minutes earlier, and grinned again as she mumbled to herself; he was beginning to think he was wierd for talking to Eidolon all the time, he was glad to see he wasn't the only person with voices in his head.

Haunt looked towards the woman, following her gaze as she seemed to study Eidolon, before finally speaking.

'Interesting name for her. Eidolon. I am afraid that the meaning of the name has been corrupted by the foul creatures that have taken the name upon themselves and attempt to corrupt this world.'

Haunt was a bit slow to respond, as he realized who she was talking about by "her". His hand, tightly wrapped in gray cloth, clasped around the back of his pale, purple cranium as he smiled sheepishly beneath his mask.

"Indeed.. It was a bit shocking to find those wretched things went by the same name as my companion here." He paused and glanced at Eidolon for a moment, one eyebrow raised, before continuing, "I've never thought of Eidolon as a 'her' though, and I must admit, the thought of having shared my mind with the opposite gender for all these years is somewhat..unsettling.." He completed, giving Eidolon another quizzical look. 'She' seemed as confused by the idea as he was.

As the woman walks off towards the corner, he turns and faces the group once again, specifically to the man in the jacket covered in company logos. "Hey, you're 'the Contact', or somesuch, right? First Strike Security and all that? I've seen you a few times on TV, nice to meet you," he says, outstretching a hand towards the man.

"However, I haven't had the pleasure of being introduced to the rest of you... Care to enlighten me?" he adds, looking at each hero assembled in the room in turn.

Haunt sat on the edge of a small building, looking out into Steel Canyon. His red eyes scanned the area, and frowned beneath his mask as he watched the sun hang in the sky.

None of his contacts had any work for him, and he preferred to wait until nightfall to bust criminals on the street. He glanced at the shadow surrounding him; in its common form it obscured most of Haunt's body, with a serpentine head perched on his spiked shoulder. "So, what do you want to do?" he asked the translucent, semi-sentient being surrounding him. He knew there was a problem when he was talking to the creature that could not only read his thoughts, but was practically a part of his body. The shadow apparently understood this too, and the silent, snakelike head seemed to visibly sigh.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," he said consolingly to the shadow, that he'd taken to calling
'Eidolon' not long after it had appeared, surging out of and then continually swirling around his body all those years ago, "we could really use some work, huh."
Suddenly, Eidolon's intangible form seemed to shiver around Haunt's body. While the creature first began doing this when Ian learned to phase between this plane and the netherworld, granting him the ability of 'instantaneous' travel, it had now taken to doing it whenever it sensed a shift in dimensions.

"What's up?" Haunt asked it quietly, glancing first to its snakelike head, and then around, attempting to find the source of the shift himself. Eidolon glanced downwards, towards the building they were seated on.

"Care to check it out?" he thought, as the idea reverberated within their shared consciences. Eidolon agreed in a way that very few psychics would be able to notice, before its incorporeal body partially slipped through the roof and inside the building.

Their shared perception became present in the room, cloaked in the shadows of an old, forgotten corner of the shop as they listened intently, trying to see why such a large group had shifted dimensions directly below them.

He heard a man talking, and managed to catch the tail-end of his statement.

"...they got them from Tsoo." Ian's face contorted into a snarl at the mention of the people who had killed both his parents and master. If these apparent heroes were looking to fight the Tsoo, he would gladly join them.

He was pulled away from his thoughts as another man spoke up, seemingly trying to explain how they had gotten into the shop and what they were planning on doing next. Haunt heard mention of someone called Rebecca, an idol of some sort, and something called a Gideon. Although he had become as confused as the man sounded, his mind was still focused on the mention of the Tsoo.

Haunt had decided. It was time to head in there and introduce himself, see what was going on, and if he could perhaps help. Eidolon seeped back up through the ceiling, and before long the shadowy being of negative energy had helped him carve a small portal into the netherworld.

He emerged moments later from the shadowy dimension, appearing somewhat to the side of the group of heroes. Eidolon shivered as they appeared through the portal.

"Sorry to just drop in like this, but I, well, heard someone make mention of the Tsoo. If you're, by any chance, going after them, then I'd like to offer my services. I'm known as Haunt, and this," he added, gesturing to the symbiotic shadow on his shoulder, "is my, err, partner, Eidolon."

((sorry for the long post, got a little caught up in the introduction ))

((OOC)) Well, I've been meaning to get into some RP in this game, so here I go:

Name: Haunt
Real Name: Ian Gabriel
Age: 26
Origin: Mutation
Powers: Dark Melee/Dark Armor, powers stem from a semi-sentient shadow that surrounds his body
Bio: Ian Gabriel was born in a small town in the northeast. Though he appeared normal at birth, he was nearly a month overdue, and was unusually pale. Tests also showed his metabolism was slightly below average, though both of these anomalies were attributed to the extremely late birth. At puberty, his mutations began to manifest, slowing his metabolism to a halt, causing him to lose his hair, giving his eyes a glowing red property, and changing his skin to a dull, purple color. He was able to complete his junior year of high school, but ran away from home soon after, seeking to learn the source of his mutation.
He hitchhiked across the US seeking answers. During this time, his body continued to change, and two sets of bony spikes grew from his shoulders (his bones were the last part of his body to slow down to the almost non-existent pace of his metabolism, causing the excess bone growth to protrude around his shoulders). Eventually, his travels lead him into the Arizona desert, where he met an ancient martial-arts master. The old man was able to notice the strange power held within Ian's body, and took him on as a pupil. Ian trained under him for 3 years, and just before his master formally completed Ian's training, some of his old associates returned and murdered him: he was an ex-hit man of a criminal organization, who had quit in disgust years ago. During the assassination, Ian's powers fully manifested, and a swirling, flowing body of shadow surrounded him, hiding him from the assassins long enough for him to be able to escape.
Ian left the home soon after burying his master, seeking revenge. He traveled around the country, following leads, and, after visiting his home for the holiday season of 1999 to catch up with his family, reached Paragon City. After arriving, he was able to kill his master's murderers, at some point being branded as the Haunt- an angry spirit seeking revenge- by the organization the killers worked for. In retribution, the organization that Haunt's master's assassins worked for murdered Ian's parents. Haunt convinced the rest of his family to move out west, and continues to search for the people that killed his parents and master, hoping to someday take the whole mysterious organization down.