Here we are in the Big Easy once again. Last time, recall, the characters got kinda tore up by an alligator-man (well, Styx got the most tore up, Wing Diesel got clawed some, while Magnus and Levee were unhurt).
Styx is getting released from the hospital, still Recovering from Massive Blood Loss and with Multiple Stitches. Levee is picking her up and wheeling her out, while Magnus has been doing tricks for the kiddies. Toby is washing Wing Diesel in the parking lot, trying to buff out the scratches.
As he's doing so, a beat-up, muddy pick-up pulls up. A guy in overalls gets out - barefoot - and looks over at Wing Diesel but doesn't really react too much. He asks Toby if "the magician is in there" with a strong Cajun accent, and Toby says he is, and the man walks off towards the hospital entrance with purpose.
Magnus, Styx, and Levee are coming out the front door, and the man walks up, points at Magnus, and says something that Magnus doesn't quite catch (Cajuns exist in many of the universes he has visited, but he hasn't really spent time around them). But then the man grows a foot and his skin gets scaly, and Magnus assumes that he's the Gator-Man! Magnus pulls a ray-gun out of his hat and warns the man that he's in no mood, but the man lunges at him!
Magnus fires and the bolt scorches the man's overalls, but doesn't do any real damage. He grabs Magnus by the lapels and shakes him, demanding "WHERE MY SON?" Magnus doesn't know what he's talking about, and before he can answer, Levee calls up a wave and shoves both of them away from the entrance of the hospital to the grass berm where there are few people around. Wing Diesel flies in and lands between Magnus and the Cajun, but he ducks under the dragon and makes for Magnus again. Styx runs over and tries to talk the man down, making him Willing to Listen, and Magnus does something uncharacteristic of him and apologizes.
Levee, at this point, recognizes this dude - his name is Aaron Blesoe, Jr. (most folks just call him Junior), and he's a breakthrough and sometime hero called Swamp Rat. She addresses him by name and he calms down, changing back into human form, and agrees to talk. He explains that last night, he was at home with his son, Emil, and the boy just vanished into a shadow. The only time he'd seen people do that kind of thing was at Mardi Gras when Magnus was doing it (he admits he may have gone a little nuts).
The heroes ask him to show them where this happened, and they head out to the swamp (Levee drives her own car, thanks). They arrive in the trailer park where he lives and he says that last night, Emil was doing his homework, and then he got up, walked into the corner, and then just leaned and fell in. Junior had been trying to figure it out ever since, but could not track his son - not by scent, sound, or taste of the air (at which point he changes his tongue into a snake's and flickers it).
Styx looks around for a ghost, and asks the woman if she saw anything. She says she didn't see anything, but heard everything get hollow and echoey, like a big empty garage, maybe. And then she heard a voice whispering, and she couldn't quite tell what it said, but it, um, quickened her. It was a very enticing voice, is the point. Styx returns to the living world and tells the others this, and Magnus opines that if something is stealing children through a dimensional gate, the children might not be on this Earth anymore (Junior asks for clarification and then immediately regrets it).
Levee goes down to the water's edge and dips her hand in it, and asks the brackish water of the swamp for help. The water responds, and she feels herself Pulled back towards the city. They get in her car, and Junior tells them to inform him if there's any development.
On the way back, they get a call from Sergeant Guidry, who tells them that multiple children around the city have gone missing. The reports are the same - they just vanished into shadowy corners. He asks to speak to Styx, and quietly inquires as to whether these children are still alive. Styx resolves to find out, and lets herself sink into the world of the dead.
In said world, she talks to a spirit and asks if there's been a sudden arrival of a bunch of kids. The ghost says there hasn't, and that's a relief, but as Styx tries to leave, she feels skeletal hands pulling her and a chill spreading over her physical form. She's done this before, but never when she's quite so close to death. Seeing her body getting pale and cold, Levee pulls the car over and turns up the heat, and Wing Diesel lands. Toby pull Styx out of the car and puts her under Wing Diesel's wing, letting his warmth coax her back to life. Styx does indeed find her way back, and Magnus advises not doing that again.
They arrive back in the city, and Levee follows the pull to the shipping docks. Here, the water speaks, but it's drowned out by sounds of machinery, so she only knows that what the water was trying to show her was in this area. While she noodles this, Magnus pulls a golden apple (from here, or maybe here) from his hat and gives it to Styx. She eats it, and feels her wounds knit and her strength return - she's still injured, but not nearly so badly.
Meanwhile, Levee has an idea! She finds an empty bottle, puts a bit of water in it, and spins it, letting the water show her where to go! The water points her down the docks to a warehouse with a big FOR SALE sign on the front. "Abandoned warehouse," she says. "This might be it."
Next time, we'll see if it is, in fact, it!
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