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| - Name: Fenris Tenebrae; The Wolf in the Darkness; The Devourer; The Wolf; The Great Wolf; Destroyer of Civilizations, and of Worlds Origin: Greenverse - Ghost Finders Gender: Male Age: Unknown Classification: Great Beast Powers and Abilities: Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Reality Warping, Matter Manipulation, Immortality (Type 4), Telepathy, Soul Manipulation Attack Potency: Planet level when fully manifested Durability: Likely Planet level (Immortality makes him very hard to kill) Stamina: Likely indefinite Range: Possibly planetary Standard Equipment: None notable Intelligence: Knowledgeable of other universes apparently considering it tried to invade the main one and nearly succeeded Weaknesses: Needs a spiritual tether of sorts to establish itself in a lesser universe. 1) “Fenris Tenebrae,” said JC, and his voice was very cold and very grim. “The Wolf In Darkness. The Devourer. One of the really old Great Beasts, and the most terrible.” “What’s so bad about a wolf?” said Natasha. “You eat ghosts,” said JC. “Fenris Tenebrae eats civilizations, and worlds. It is the end of all things, given shape and form and appetite.” 2) "You can’t fight the Great Beasts!” said Happy. “They’re as much conceptual as anything, a horrible Idea from a higher plane, downloaded into physical form in our dimension. You can’t kill an Idea. The best we can hope for is to pry it loose from our plane and send it home with a flea in its ear.” He frowned, considering. “And we might be able to do that. So far, all the signs suggest our Intruder is following the standard pattern of any haunting, building everything from and around a single focal point.” 3) A burst of compressed air slammed out of the tunnel-mouth ahead of the on-coming train, sweeping through the station, hitting the three ghost finders like a blow in the face. They all rocked back on their feet as the air wave hit them, then the train roared into the station at impossible speed, brakes squealing painfully as the cars shuddered and skidded to a halt. Clouds of steam billowed up around the train and its long row of cars, thick creamy steam that stank of brimstone and blood, spoiled meat and sour milk. JC turned his head away from it. Melody bent over her instruments as though she could protect them with her body. Happy gazed into the slowly dispersing cloud of steam with an awful fascination, his face twisted with horror and disgust. JC made himself look back at the train. The steam died away, revealing a line of cars that stretched the whole length of the platform. Every car was packed full of people, men and women from earlier in the day, caught and trapped, then taken away, not to be seen again, until that moment. They’d been in there for hours, traveling God alone knew where, in the dark places under the earth. Driven mad, they had turned on each other. JC and Happy and Melody watched helplessly as the trapped passengers went at each other with their bare hands. Half-naked, clothes torn and tattered, they fought and tore at each other like animals, their faces distorted by savage, primal emotions. They murdered and r**** and ate each other, laughing and crying and howling like the damned things they were. Blood and s*** and piss, and other liquids from torn-out organs, had been spattered and smeared across the car-windows, but not enough to hide the horror within. The uproar from inside the cars was almost unbearable, a horrible mixture of sounds that should never have come from human mouths. 4) “We can’t answer questions without new data,” said Melody. “And we have to do something, while we still can. This thing’s power levels are already off the scale. I think it’s getting ready to spread its influence beyond this station.” “You mean through the rest of the Underground?” said JC. “I mean through the rest of the city,” said Melody. “And then across the worlds. Rewriting the rules of our reality to make a new world, more like its home dimension. I don’t think there’d be much room for Humanity in a world like that.” 5) Happy ignored him, looking at Melody. “How far away from us is the Intruder, and please say lots.” “Hard to tell,” said Melody. “If I’m interpreting these readings correctly, and I’d be the first to admit that there’s a whole lot of guesswork involved . . . it seems our Intruder has added a whole new platform to this station. A half-way place, where its world butts up against ours. This new platform comes and goes, not always there, or at least, not always connected to our reality. It’s the Beast’s lair. Home for its new physical form. For whatever shape it’s taken in our world. We can only access this new station with the Intruder’s permission.” 6) “This isn’t a train,” said Kim. “It’s the Intruder’s idea of a train. A new-made thing, based on the hell trains it used to abduct the commuters earlier. There’s no driver in the engine; the train knows where it needs to go. The Intruder’s becoming stronger all the time . Its thoughts and intentions can take on shape and form now.” 7) Happy cried out to Natasha. She looked at him, nodded quickly, and grabbed his outstretched hand. Their minds slammed together, and the combined strength of their joined thoughts struck out at the Wolf like a single shining lance. The Wolf opened its mouth, swallowed the attack whole, and took no harm at all. The head surged forward, its great jaws snapping at Natasha and Happy. They scrabbled backwards, letting go of each other’s hands. 8) “It’s not playing games any more,” said Melody. “It doesn’t have to,” said Happy. “I think the Beast brought us here to show us its true face.” “You say that like it’s a bad thing,” said Natasha. “To look into the eyes of a Great Beast is enough to destroy a human mind,” said Happy. 9) “Yes!” Kim said suddenly. “It’s a man! I can sense him if I concentrate hard enough. Over there, by the end doors.” And again everyone looked, but even when Kim pointed, they still couldn’t see anything. JC even lowered his shades for a moment, but it didn’t help. He looked at Happy. “Not a ghost. A presence. Alive, not dead. So who is it?” “I think . . . it’s the man who killed me,” said Kim. “Or what’s left of him.” JC leaned in close beside her. “Are you sure?” “He’s not entirely dead, but pretty close,” said Kim. “This is part of him. His mind, his spirit . . . driven out of his body by some terrible trauma.”
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