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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jonrog1" data-source="post: 113683" data-attributes="member: 189">RAW RECRUITS: PT. 3 ... Andy ducked as the boiling water splashed over the wall by his head. "Damn!" he thought. "That could have caused 1d6 of damage!" (DM's NOTE: That is not a game joke. Andy's mind works like that. He's hard-wired for D&D.) Johanna thudded into the wall, slid to the floor next to a now-screaming Eliza. Jo's constant stream of imaginative invectives told the others she was all right. Ross tried to calm Susan Desmond, but in a flash she attacked him, beating his chest with her fists. Jerry, his Dad and Nick ducked as lamps went flying, chairs spun in mid-air. Stephen barely dodged as the coffee table soared past -- and CRASHED through the front window! An instant later, the very second Eliza's screams stopped, the floating furniture hit the floor. Quickly checking for casualties, the group found only one -- Jerry and Nick's high-school football Coach was unconscious, winged by the flying coffee table. The Hoffman agents took control. An ambulance took the Coach. Neighbors were shooed away with the story of an "earthquake tremor" and how the Desmond's house had a floating foundation. Soon, the group could begin its exhaustive, logical investigation of the situation. "It's the little girl," said Jo. "She's a channel for the evil spirits, we've all seen the movies. We need to kill her, now." "Perhaps we should start by reviewing the ... reviewing the ..." Stephen paused. "Where did you get the vodka?" "I brought an emergency bottle." Jo took a swig, stuffed the bottle back into a camera bag. "What? I don't have a problem. Shut up." Stephen and Andy decided to review the tape from Andy's shoulder-cam back in the van. Jo would talk to little Eliza. Ross would chat up Peter Desmond, Jerry and Nick, who were all sitting in the kitchen. Susan Desmond had collapsed immediately after the incident, and was resting in her bedroom. Eliza was a bit discomfited by the "pretty lady" standing in the corner of her room, staring at her. And why did Eliza have to sit in a chair with her hands on her lap? Jo did manage to discover that Eliza felt uncomfortable around Jerry, her older brother -- but that seemed to be picked up from the tension between Jerry and his Stepmom Susan. Ross talked football with the men. Ross was from Texas -- football chat came easy. It turned out that the Coach had been riding Jerry, the quarterback, hard. The Coach's lead-footed son was second string, and if not for Jerry would be QB. Jerry was slated to start in the big game that night, starting in just a few hours. "I've got a big math test, so I was thinking of bailing," explained Jerry. "Coach heard, and even though he hates me, it gave him an excuse to come over and chew me out." Along the way Ross subtly discovered that Jerry knew nothing of his pyschotic birth mother, and that Peter believed she was either dead or living in an alley somewhere. In the Van, Stephen and Andy reviewed the video. "Furniture flying ... Eliza and Susan both freaking out in different ways..." Andy muttered. It was like a tornado was inside the house. "STOP!" Stephen's eagle eyes had picked out something.  "Rewind. There. See that vase flying through the air?" "Heading right for Jerry Desmond's head," said Andy. He then hit play frame-by-frame. The vase zoomed at the back of the teenage boy's head -- -- and dropped to the floor a moment before braining him. "The poltergeist is focused on Jerry," said Stephen. "But why did it manifest at night, in front of Susan, the mother? And did you notice the Coach was wearing a Masonic ring? Ah-ha!" Andy was triumphant. He didn't quite know why, but for conspiracy buffs, the presence of Freemasonry is a gift from the gods. Stephen glanced back at the tape. "Holy crap. Get the others in here RIGHT NOW!" Andy summoned them, and when Jo and Ross arrived, Stephen led them through an earlier loop in tape. "Here, just before all hell breaks loose. What is that?" "Black SUV parked on the opposite corner." Ross squinted. "Some woman with red hair is getting in -- didn't that teacher have red hair?" "But she just lives across the street -- that's a BOOM MIKE!" Andy circled the frozen frame on the screen with a marker. "No, no, like a boom mike but not one, and definitely pointed at the house by the driver of the SUV ..." Jo leaned forward as, on the tape, the poltergeist incident began. "I can just make out the driver ... dark glasses. Pale. dark suit ... a hat..." They all turned at the metallic THUNK as Andy slammed backward against the wall of the van. He'd jerked back instinctively when he realized what was on film. Without warning he palmed his gun, threw open the van doors, scanned the streets. "Not here anymore, they've moved on!""What? What's with the freaking out?" yelled Stephen. "Dark hats and suits, pale, dark glasses, black car!" Andy waited for them to guess, then finished it. "We just met the MEN IN BLACK!"</blockquote>

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