Gelato and the Fatman

Are we ready? Yes, we are. Let's finish whatever we were doing.

It's morning in Edgard, Louisiana.

Piper and I return to the hardware store greenhouse I completely missed the fact that there was a greenhouse at all. The early morning light strikes the greenhouse Elegantly.

We enter the greenhouse, and find that it has been overgrown massively. Some of the plants have grown enormous fruits.

And at the center of it all, is one half of a man. The other half seems split into a multitude of the many plants in the room.

I get Aaron and Legion, so they can have a look too.

I poke the man, and his eyes flutter open. He seems unperturbed, and demands to know who we are. We introduce ourselves, and I ask who he is, and he says his name is Tsao Gan.

His responses grow more sluggish and he says he was sent by his government (the Chinese government?). Suddenly his chokes as if strangled, and his body begins to split into more vegetation, before disintegrating almost entirely into shrubs and vegetation.

Piper calls Gemma, who isn't sure what to do with what is left with the man either. She suggests we "bring him in", so we do our best to collect what remains of him.

We find Johnny. Maybe he'll know more.

But Johnny is busy, for a very fat man is standing next to him. "Ah, the meddlers," the fat man says to us.

I demand to know who he is, and he says this is merely a simulacrum of the Fearmonger, from one of the citizens of the town. Aaron suddenly decides he's not going to attack the man.

He'll let the inhabitants of the town go, if we'll only play a game with him. He doesn't need this town anymore, as the experiment has run its course.

We begrudgingly agree, and he tells us a loved one will contact us. He snaps his fingers dramatically! he's an actor and his body mists away and one of the towns folk Joe...Bob Harrison...Ford appears in its place.

Johnny gets up, and seems confused. He says he felt someone approach, and then was in agonizing pain.

Piper shows him the plant man. Johnny doesn't know what to make of it.

Aaron's phone rings. It's Jake, and apparently there is rioting outside the bar.

While I use my door to fly a very heavy Legion back to New York, Piper teleports herself and Aaron back using many trips. They make it back to the Elephant's Nest first.

Several people have broken into the Elephant's Nest, and Aaron deals with them expeditiously. Piper goes invisible and tries to lighten the emotions of the area.

Aaron isn't happy with them, but suggests strongly they buy a drink. Or a dozen.

Jake is surprised how fast Aaron got here. Piperwhispers you're welcome and Jake leaps in surprise, so Piper drops her invisibility and smiles sweetly.

A crashing sound comes from the back, and Aaron and Piper go to check it out. A group of hoodlums have kicked in the door, and one grabs a backpack which was sitting in the center of the storeroom.

Aaron tells him to put it down, but the guy doesn't want to, so Aaron makes him. He punches Aaron, leaving a bruise. Aaron isn't amused, and his return hit knocks the guy flat out. The others scatter.

The backpack is empty save a strange device, similar to the ones we had seen before. It has three symbols, and the one of a "angry" face is lit up, while the fearful and sad faces are dim.

Aaron tries to figure out the device, but ends up just breaking it. The device explodes, smashing bottles and knocking Aaron backwards with a heavy thud. Piper barely dodges out of the way.

The explosion reshapes itself and turns into a red hulking creature with wicked tusks.

It roars.

Piper throws a bolt of light at it, but it shrugs it off, and charges Aaron with furious anger.

Legion and I arrive at the Elephant's Nest. We can hear fighting inside, and just in our line of sight is a big red angry creature.

Piper strikes it from the cover of its invisibility, and it just gets more angry. Aaron grapples it, and it explodes in fury again.

The creature is tough, but finally we manage to defeat it after Piper lightens its emotions. Finally, it crumples and disappears, and the yelling outside is replaced with quiet mumbles of confusions.

We have a few beers at the bar.

Two officers walk into the bar. You would think at least one of them would have ducked. They ask if we dealt here already, but also say there are strange things going on in two other places.

The first address is near where Piper works. People seem afraid here, and sure enough, we find another backpack with another device.

Aaron throws it in the air, and Piper blasts it with a light bolt, and a creature strangely like a hound forms and streaks off.

Piper grabs it telekentically, and Aaron flies up and tries to hit it. It looks at Aaron with frightened puppy dog eyes and then flees again.

We give chase, and it turns to shadow. I reach while riding my door, and try to punch it. Piper manages to grab it again, and she makes it happy and it disappears.

We go to my shop, and yup, people are sad here. Something about tubes and cars? Piper stops one man from killing himself.

Like before, we find a backpack. Piper tries to make the backpack happy. I try to punch it, and I find myself sucked into a void.

Outside a person forms from the backpack. A large fat blue man sitting crosslegged in the air. Aaron soon finds himself sucked in too, and Piper and Legion deal with it.

I'm unable to escape but Aaron manages to escape, and he celebrates by ripping off his shirt.

But finally, it is destroyed, so I get out anyway.

Piper gets a call.

It's the voice from before. Descolado.

He congratulates us, but says it's a shame we'll never find him.

Piper hears the sound of a jet engine.

We go to the airport, and get all flights canceled.

We check out the first boarding flight and coincidentally it has a man with the description of Fearmonger.

It's a China Airlines flight, so most of the other passengers are chinese.

We see the fat man standing next to a rather calm looking chinese man. He waves his hand and suddenly the crowd of passengers starts screaming and running.

Legion knocks him out, and the crowd stops moving.

The man stacking next to the fat man looks impassively at his fallen companion. Aaron tries to strike him and he steps neatly out of the way.

He shrugs, and disappears into a mist. Piper calms him and the mist descends and coats the ground as a slippery mess.

It's something shop-vacs are good for.