the Faces of Fear
Believing the Faces of Fear still have posession of the book, Moon Knight decides to infiltrate the House of Madness with only Daredevil's aid.
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They were on a narrow Chinatown street that formed a sleazy amusement arcade. Up ahead was the Snake House -- where Colleen Wing first encountered the Silver Samurai. Ironically, the House of Madness stood very near the Snake House.
Looking closer, Moon Knight saw that a sign had been nailed across the entrance of the House of Madness reading: "CLOSED FOR RENOVATION" in big red letters. Although the place appeared closed, Marc noticed there appeared to be someone patiently waiting in the ticket booth.
Peering in the ticket window, Moon Knight saw that the figure was actually a mechanical Chinese stereotype. Its synthetic, long, black hair was tied into a neat ponytail that ran down its back. It wore a long mustache that hung below its chin. Its eyes were painted with garish pigments, and its acrylic nails were several inches long.
Without warning, the mechanism grinded to life. Its hinges mouth poorly mimicked speech, while its hands made beckoning gestures in crude jerky robotic motions. An automated voice roared from a speaker over the ticket window, "HEE! HEE! HEE! Welcome, one-and-all, to the House of Madness! For those who enter, only screaming insanity and hideous death await! Take your tickets and enter...but first say a prayer, for few ever leave the House of Madness! Ha! Ha! HEE! HEE!"
With an annoying screech, the tape rewinds and replays as 2 tickets popped out of a slot in front of the window. The "closed for renovation" sign swung to one side, and the brightly painted doors whispered open. The names Moon Knight and Daredevil were emblazoned onto one of the two tickets. In small print the ticket also read: "House of Madness is in no way responsible for personal injury or death during enjoyment of said amusement."
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Standing in the doorway and looking in, it was very difficult to see anything. The place was extremely dark. The only illumination came from dimly glowing tiles set into the floor, which were partially obscured by swirling tendrils of opaque fog.
Black curtains hung from ceiling to floor. The glowing tiles branched out to form 6 paths, and each path headed into a different curtained hallway. Which path were they to choose?
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The two heroes decide to split up. When they finally step onto their own paths, bizarre music began echoing throughout the place. The exotic melody blasted from 20 inch speakers mounted high into the walls, and blared loudly enough to make communication between the two heroes impossible.
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As Marc turned a corner in the curtained passageway, he found himself feeling transported in time. Before him was the infamous tableau of the nefarious Dr. Frankenstein. Marc noticed that the curtained hallway continued past this exhibit.
Lining the old, stone walls of the lab were wooden shelves. On the shelves rested old jars of grotesque body parts floating in odd, multi-colored liquids. Above flickering bunsen burners, putrid gases bubbled from beakers filled with boiling chemical solutions.
A very lifelike figure of Dr.Frankenstein was standing next to his monster, who was strapped to an operating table. The doctor and the monster repeated the same mechanical motions over-and-over. The doctor raised and lowered a brain floating in a jar of viscous yellow fluid, while the monster lie on the table and turned its ugly head from side-to-side.
After watching them repeat their movements a couple times, Marc was shocked to see that the good doctor had ceased its movement and was staring directly at him! "Welcome to my grisly workshop," the figure said in a tinly metallic voice. "You are just in time, you see, this brain is no good...AND I THINK I'LL TAKE YOURS!"
The monster broke its restraints and sat up on the table. To Marc's horror, he realized the monsters cranium was missing. Where there should have been a brain, was only a throbbing pink cavity!
The mechanical monster then lurched forward to attack Moon Knight!
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Meanwhile, Daredevil turned a corner and found himself within a moonlit forest. Through the styrofoam trees, Daredevil saw a continuation of the curtained hallway at the end of the room.
Between Daredevil and the exit, 2 figures were locked in mortal combat. One of them was a slavering werewolf, while the other was an elderly man armed only with a silver-tipped cane.
Daredevil watched their awkward movements, the werewolf slashed the old man across the face, who retaliated by beating the wolfman with his cane. The wolfman the slumped to the ground, only for the two to resume their original positions in a matter of moments. Until the wolfman hunched down, in preparation to leap at Daredevil, while the old man screamed "beware the curse!!"
After defeating the werewolf, Daredevil was dismayed to see the old man stumbling towards him through the woods. He had grown fangs, and claws, and his hair looked much longer than it had moments ago!
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After defeating Frankenstein's monster, Moon Knight continued down the curtained hallway and found himself in the middle of a birthday party. Balloons and streamers hung out of the darkness above him. 2 children wearing party hats were sitting around a tiny table. A huge cake alight with candles and sparklers sat on the table. A smiling clown stood nearby, with another curtained hallway behind it.
Suddenly, the clown sung a song while it juggled gaily painted balls. "Hi! Ho! I'm Hemlock the Cccclllllooooooooowwwwnnn, and I've brought a treat ssssoooo wipe off those fffffrrrrrroooooooowwwwwwnnnnnssss!"
The robot children at their cake, and quickly slumped over onto the table. Marc now saw that their faces were painted as death masks. The clown finished his song, "Hi! Ho! I'm Hemlock the Ccccllllooooooowwwnnnn! You ate my treat sssooo you're dead without a ssssssoooooouuuuuunnnnnddddddd!!!!"
The children suddenly sat up straight again, and began staring at Moon Knight, chanting "Eat the cake! Eat the cake! Eat the cake! Eat the cake!"
The clown lurched, "Hi! Ho! Whoooo!!! Hemlock the clown has a special treat for yyyooouuu!!!!"
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Daredevil found himself next in a crypt. 2 men were hunched over a casket. One of them held a wooden stake, and the other has a large mallet. While he watched, one man held the stake while the other pounded it with the hammer. They fell back, shielding their eyes, and a beautiful figure sat up in the coffin. The stake was sticking from her chest. With a hideous scream that rose above the lilting melody that echoed throughout the House of Madness, the scantily dressed vampiress fell back into the coffin. With rusted hinges, the two figures moved forward and repeated the mechanical episode.
The two figures stopped to stare at Daredevil, speaking in unison they said "Beware the eyes! Beware the eyes!"
With her silk gown fluttering around her pale lithe body, the vampiress rose from the coffin to attack Daredevil.
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Defeating the vampiress and continuing on Daredevil thought he had left the last exhibit, but was still standing in a graveyard. Among the tombstones, 2 men were waist deep in a freshly dug grave. The 2 men dig with a pick and shovel. After striking something, one of them shrieked and they both stepped back. A skeleton wearing a tattered shroud floated out of the grave. Daredevil noticed it was suspended by a length of glittering wire. After a moment of bobbing mid-air, the skeleton returned to its grave and the 2 men resumed their original positions.
The 2 men in the grave were not robots, but the brothers Grimm hired by Hanmerhead to eliminate the heroes for hire. They looked to Daredevil and spoke in unison, "The dead shall walk! Beware! The dead shall walk!"
From all around, bony fingers and skeletal arms clawed up through the faux soil. Wearing their funeral clothes, a horde of skeletons were ambushing him. The skeletons are fake, but Daredevil was knocked unconscious by the Brothers Grimm. He awoke to find himself being buried alive by the Brothers Grimm, as they dumped dirt onto the grave.
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When Moon Knight turns a corner in the curtained passage, he finds himself in an egyptian tomb. Heiroglyphs decorated the stone walls in front of him. An english explorer peered into an open sarcophagus, while lurking behind him with outstretched arms stood the Mummy. The mummy lumbered forward and grasped the explorer in a titanic stranglehold. After the explorer was killed, the two machines returned to their starting positions.
Moon Knight deals with traumatic anxiety and flashbacks triggered by the atmosphere and environment.
Suddenly, Moon Knight is shocked to reveal the explorer has deviated from his routine. The explorer's mouth gaped at Moon Knight and screeched in a shrill, deafening voice "The mummy's curse is upon you!"
After defeating the mummy, Moon Knight suffers a complete mental and emotional break due to his worsening DID. After a lengthy internal struggle, Moon Knight gathers himself and continues on his trek and stumbles upon the Brothers Grimm burying Daredevil.
Moon Knight rescues Daredevil and dispatched the brothers Grimm with no mercy for their blatant disrespect of his wishes for all members of Night Shift to vacate New York.
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As the two heroes exited the curtained passages, the blaring music that had eerily echoed throughout the House of Madness came to an abrupt stop. They were standing in a large room. Empty wooden bleachers loomed to either side of the room. In the floor between them was a circular pit. Protruding from the wall to their right was a huge, leering face. It resembled the mechanical Chinese stereotype seen in the ticket booth. Its open mouth formed a tunnel. Above its head waa a garish sign that read: "The tunnel of madness", and above that was a flashing red sign that read: "EXIT".
From speakers on the ceiling, was the screech of an old tape rewinding. A scratchy voice said, "Welcome one-and-all to the final exhibit!! Please have a seat. The next show is about to begin!"
After a brief moment, the voice continued "From the mysterious mountains of the far east, we present for your pleasure...THE DANCING SERPENTS!"
Weaving and twisting, the heads of 3 oriental dragons ascended from the depths of the pit. They were supported by long, slender necks resplendent with brilliantly colored scales. Their serpentine dance was fascinating to observe, but their glossy gaze settled on the heroes unnervingly.
Suddenly, the heads stuck straight into the air on long necks and the heads plunged towards the Heroes.
After destroying the dragon heads, the scratchy voice blared over the speakers "And that's the end of our show, folks. Please peoceed in an orderly fashion through the Tunnel of Madness and out the exit. Be sure to visit the gift shop for a T-shirt. Thank you, and please come again!"
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The tunnel of madness was aptly named. Looking down it, the heroes saw that the floor, ceiling and walls had been painted to distort perspective. The tunnel appeared to go on forever. Doors and mirrors of all shapes and sizes lined the sloping walls. Some mirrors made the viewer appear morbidly obese, while others made them seem grotesquely thin and tall. As the heroes venture down the tunnel various doors intermittently opened to reveal various monsters who would shower them in brightly colored streamers, before the doors snapped shut and confined their robots to narrow spaces developed into the walls.
Daredevil uses his heightened perception to detect that they are being observed. Moon Knight then looks into a mirror and notices glowing red orbs peering back at him from behind a two-way mirror. Upon detection, a noxious green gas began pouring into the tunnel through nozzles mounted in the floor and ceiling. Moon Knight begins throwing his crescent shurikens and shattering windows to reveal Deathlok and 6 Faces of Fear in a lair just outside the tunnel.
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They had entered a large workshop. Mechanical monsters in various stages of disrepair stood solemnly along the walls.
Toward the middle of the room, a menacing looking cyborg glared at them with red eyes. He was flanked by 6 thugs wearing halloween masks. "We've been expecting you!" Deathlok said.
Behind them Marc saw Tak's parents lying side-by-side on a work table. They appeared to be unconscious. An industrial laser hung down from the ceiling above them, and was tracing a red line across the table. In a moment, the searing laser was set to run along their necks.
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After defeating Deathlok and saving Tak's parents, the heroes reap the rewards. On a table was over $50,000 in stolen jewelry the Faces of Fear had recently heisted. Lockers contained enough pistols, rifles, ammos and grenades to arm 20-30 men. Enough spare parts and motors lay about to design an army of mechanical soldiers, as well as another partially finished Deathlok duplicate and its blueprints. They also find a memorandum from the mysterious "boss F" to eliminate Tak's parents.