Summary:A batch of off-the-cuff code, a particle cannon, and a lazy tech. Result? Another Spider-Girl! Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
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He's not a student yet, but he will be. That's good enough to check out the place, and the exhibition for ESU's Science Wing, with their new Vault system set up and ready. They are planning an interesting show, too. The university's particle beam cannon (of which someone has helpfully tagged with a sign that reads ASK ME ABOUT ALDERAAN) is getting ready to test the spectrum analysis of some materials from a meteor strike upstate near Albion.
He's here as prospective student Peter Parker, but he's wearing the suit under his clothes…just in case.
MEANWHILE, ON EARTH-982
"/Relax/, Dad. I'll be fine. You went here, remember? Look, I've got to go. I don't want to miss the show, right?" Hanging up her cell phone and shoving it back into her pocket, May 'Mayday' Parker makes her way inside, hurrying to catch up with her tour group. Even after three years of being Spider-Girl, he just /had/ to check up on her. It was just a college tour, what could go wrong there?
She follows the group downstairs into the Vault, and into the viewing room, where a large window looks onto the control room. A scientist in a lab coat enters the room, giving a brief whistle to quiet the crowd of prospective students. "Thank you for coming today! The sample's being mounted now, and we'll be starting in just a few minutes. In the meantime, any questions?"
In the same science wing as Peter Parker, Junko roams the stands. She stops at one, chuckling at what she thought was a baking soda volcano for a couple moments before she realized it is actually a geological model of the actual mountain Vesuvius, soil samples of the different marked areas displayed next to it. "So, what makes this stuff special?" she asks the geology student, who starts rattling about something while just on the other side of the aisle and behind her, the astro-geologists tinker with their PBC.
Frank, Rich, and Tommy were connecting the last few plugs when Frank stops and looks at the code. Jeez, who wrote this, Mister Rogers?
He cracked his knuckles and began to put in a few shortcuts. A logic jump here, a gatekeeper port there, fudge a few memory arguments…
He smiled at his handiwork, then compiled it.
CODE INTEGRITY - 91 PERCENT. APPROVE? (Y/N)
Frank grinned and hit Y. "Close enough."
~EARTH-982~
Inside the control room, one of the techs knocks on the window, giving the guide in the observation room a thumbs up. He turns around and gives the woman a nod, before raising his hands again. "Okay, We're about to begin. We're starting the audio feed from the control room, so let's listen in." A speaker crackles, and the voices of the research team come through.
"Power levels are looking nominal."
"Capacitor array is green. Magnetic guide coils are green. We are go."
"Initializing." The lead scientist moves a lever forward, and a resonating hum fills the room.
Behind frank, Junko starts to regret she ever asked, the helpful student just never bothering to look up long enough to realize she was trying to ask him to stop, but too polite to interrupt his string of talking about how important this rock and that rock was for the makup of the italian volcanos and what one could extrapolate from it and the Mount Saint Helens explosion about the dangers of volcanism.
Frank turned to face the redhead and…stopped. Then grinned. "Hey there…howya doin'?" he says in his best Joey voice. Rich looked over and sighed. Frank had fallen in love…for the first time TODAY. Rich answers, since he actually heard the question. "Anomalous minerals in the rock. We're checking to see point of origin." He looked to Frank. "Frank, we green?"
Frank turned and frowned at Rich. "We're green, okay. I'm talking to the stone fox here and you're harshing my MOJO."
~EARTH-982~
A blinking yellow light on the console attracts the attention of one of the techs. "I'm seeing some instability in the sample's resonance… It's causing fluctuations in beam power, but… Shouldn't be an issue. Sustaining sequence."
May takes a few steps closer to the window along with the rest of the crowd, ooohing as the sample starts to glow.
As suddenly someone from behind her talks up, asking her how she's doing she turns, nods and finally uses the chance to disengage from the slightly overenthusiastic volcano guy. "Thanks for the info." she says before turning fully to Frank, giving him a thankful smile. "Oh, quite ok…" The Asian girl gets a step or two closer to the laser setup before continuing. "…and thanks for the rescue there."
Peter moves to the barrier as the device prepares to fire. He wonders idly what they will find. And soon he will be a part of this noble pursuit of knowledge.
Rich looks at the panel. the readings were odd. the values were off. He ran a test of the calculations and tapped the ENTER key.
Then the result came back.
0.982 SHIFT ALONG ZORTH AXIS.
"What the hell is…?"
The cannon fired.
~EARTH-982~
An alarm starts blaring, and the console in the control room lights up like a Christmas tree. The lead scientist slams a button and thick shutters drop over the window. "It's overloading! Shut it down!" "Shutting down!" one of the console techs yells, his fingers flying over the keyboard. "…Attempting shutdown!?" The previously steady hum is turning into more of an angry growl. "It's not shutting down!" Green lightning bursts from one of the equipment racks in a shower of sparks, and the crowd of observers screams, May among them, and attempts to beat a hasty retreat. She has just enough time to realize the massive spike in her spider-sense before there's a green flash, and-
The laser starts to fire and as Frank is taken back to do something about this thing, Junko could only watch, standing next to the barricade as the light from the canon shot onto the piece of rock.
There is a CRACK like a bolt of lightning had hit the building, and the cannon erupts in a shower of green lights and flashes. The server suddenly…BECOMES an eight-foot cube of…what looks like spaghetti.
Peter turns around and sees the green lights hovering in the air around them. "NOBODY MOVE!" he barks out, and people stop. "Instability is going on. Stay still and don't move! Things should normalize shortly!"
~EARTH-???~
It's dark. May is in pitch blackness, and the only sound is her breathing. "What…" Another green flash, accompanied by the same blitz on her Spider-Sense, and she falls headfirst through what feels like drop ceiling tiles, bounces off something much harder with an oof, and finally lands in something much softer. A bit of fumbling around reveals a light switch, and…
She's in some kind of storage closet, a gaping hole in the ceiling above, with some bits of tile still in a cart full of dirty labcoats. Groaning and rubbing her head, May starts to move towards the door, before realizing that something was clearly wrong, and people were going to need help. …Time to suit up! A few moments later, Spider-Girl emerges from the closet, a backpack slung over her shoulder, and… Has no idea where she is. This definitely isn't the basement, that's at least a fifth story window…
The green orbs hanging in the air begin to wink out as reality asserts itself…slowly. He looks around then sees the exposed wall, with a mass of cables that had exploded outward, trapping three techs in the black spaghetti. of power cables. Then he hears a groan and sees one row of databank racks beginning to lean forward, pulled by the cables. "Guys! Don't move! If you move, you'll pull the racks on you!"
Two of them freeze, but a third one starts struggling all the more.
"Oh, jeez, he's going to crush them!" Peter pushed through the crowd to find some hidden place to suit up…
After some quick consultations of a fire map and at least one very surprised Scientist, Spider-Girl has figured out at least SOMEWHAT where she is, and where she needs to go. Fortunately, Stairs are a lot easier when you can just drop down the middle and avoid the stairs themselves. Bursting into the control room, she links the equipment racks to what looks like a sturdy structural beam in the ceiling with two bursts of webbing. "Jeez, and I thought it was a mess behind my dad's TV. Everyone okay?" It's about this point that she realizes that she recognizes NOBODY in this room.
As Peter runs to change, leaving his coworkers in the mess of cable, Junko slowly aproaches to try to help, carefully eying the tilting servers. "Careful there… eh… you there.. blondie… I think you can get a little to the left safely?" she says, trying to navigate them to relax the wires just enough so she can get closer without ripping everything down.
Frank looks at Junko and smiles, the urge to flirt overriding his urge to struggle, which was good for now. "Hey, baby. What say you and I head over to the MU after this and we can get a cup of-"
"ShuuuUUUUT UUUUUPPP! I swear, Frank," Rich snarked at him, "If your twig was key-shaped, you'd screw a DOOR!" He looked to Junko and…who is that?
"Hey, miss…you're one of the Spider-Girls, right?"
Spider-Girl manages to /mostly/ suppress her laugh as, equipment secured and out of danger of crushing people, she starts to try to untangle Rich from the cables. "…One of? I guess. I /am/ Spider-Girl." To anyone familiar with the current Spider-Roster, her costume isn't totally familiar. There's more blue than typical, with the arms and legs almost entirely blue, her torso and head still in red. "You're just lucky I was in the area. What happened?"
"Ehhh, no?" Junko answers to the young man asking before shaking her head at Frank, puzzled as he calls her a Spider-girl, only then looking up to the one boasting to be Spider-Girl. "Some… accident?" is all she can say to the cause before assisting with trying to untangle the remainder of the team, warily eyeing the cables and heavy machinery dangling from webbing.
Tommy, the quiet one in the back, raised his hand. "Reality warp. Totally jiggered it along the Zorth axis. Borked the whole deal. Up the ding-ding."
Rich spat, "Are you TWELVE?" He looked back to Mayday. "Naw, Spider-Girl has the black costume, white spider. The other one is Spider-Woman."
"Spider-Woman wears black, white, and purple. Maybe she's the Anuk-sa-Amun cosplayer in a new costume." Tommy speaks with great gravitas.
"Whoever you are…" Rich said to Mayday, then looked to Junko. "Whoever YOU are, thanks for helping us out. Just…be careful. Those racks weigh 1,500 pounds EACH."
"Nah, I'm pretty sure I'm Spider-Girl. I mean, I have been for the last three years and everything. You guys haven't heard of me?" With rich freed, Spider-Girl thwips up another couple of weblines just in case. "And don't worry. I'm pretty sure I can bench press a lot more than that, and webbing's stronger than you think." Just in case, once Junko's done freeing Frank, she does her best to right the racks. "Might want to get those bolted down though, since this stuff's gonna dissolve in about two hours."
Junko Saito eyes up to the self-proclaimed Spider Girl, then the bickering of the scientists, then she sighs. "Look, just be careful, ok?" She asks as she finally manages to free Frank, pointing to the side behind the rack. "And… sorry, but this isn't the right time to flirt, ok?" she asks him, carefully stepping away from the tilted tower.
All right! Clothes stashed! Suit ready!
Spider-Man runs into the exhibition hall to find…
…everything being handled. The anomalies were gone, and two young women are helping three technicians out of a mess of cables. Four racks are being held up by…webbing?
For a moment, he had the urge to check if he had fired anything yet.
Then he got a good look at the women and one of them…was dressed like him. Not EXACTLY like him, but…pretty close. The other girl was…Japanese, but a redhead. Jeez, try not to think about MJ.
Then a voice that sounds like May's father, but much younger, says, "Wow…another Spider-Person. We are going to need a naming scheme set up."
Spider-Girl freezes when the other wall-crawler enters, slowly looking up to face Spider-Man. She reaches down to one of her webshooters, which are substantially bulkier than Spidey's, and unclips a small cell phone. She looks at the screen, before putting it back. "…Okay… This is new. This is definitely new. Call me Spider-Girl."
Junko eyes Spider-Girl, then Spider-Man. Both sound young. "Uhm, ok, I don't get you Spiders, but didn't JJJ just warn about you multiplying like crazy? Let's see… Spider-Man, Spider-Girl, Spider-Woman, Silk… Another Spider-Girl… Blondie, you had just said she wasn't either of the first four? That makes her number four? Five?" She looks puzzled.
Rich nodded. "Yeah. The website said four so far."
Spider-Man took a deep breath, then said, "We can discuss names later AFTER we get these three out." Spidey helps Frank the rest of the way out, then points to the far corner. "Okay…now then, Spider-Girl…welcome to New York." He looks to the redhead. "And your name? I don't want to just keeping thinking of you as Hey, You…"
"I've been in New York my whole- Never mind." Spider-Girl sighs, face-palming, before making her way over to the last tech. "Seriously, what's with all the separate cables? And why so /many/? You'd think someone would have organized these better…"
"No idea, Spider… person." Junko answers to the girl first, then works on stepping away from the machinery. "Junko." she finally gives her name. "Eh, is this thing safe now?"
Spider-Man hmms. "Nice to meet you, Junko. It looks safe for the moment, but let's not waste time on the off-chance it isn't." As he steps forward to extend a hand to Rich to walk through the mass of cables, he says wryly, "These were probably bound up until a few of them came loose, and then they ALL came loose. So let's clear the area." He looks at the webbing again, then says to Spider-Girl 2: Spider Harder, "That is holding pretty good. Synthetic, or organic?"
"Synthetic." Spider-Girl holds up one wrist, wiggling it and the accompanying webshooter. "It's actually your formula. I'm kind of your apprentice. …And I also don't really know how to make it since you always did that." Cables get webbed together to create more bundles, creating a clear enough path for the last tech to escape, with a bit of help from the new wall-crawler to pull him upright.
Junko waits for the techs in the corner with the others, shaking her head a little. "How can she be an apprentice if we have all spiders accounted for and she ain't one of them?"
Spider-Man looks around, then says, "Maybe we should chat elsewhere. The place is empty and I'm worried about residual anomalies. They'll need to clear this building." He looks thoughtful for a moment. "I know a White Castle nearby that should still be open. Want to talk further there?"
"Well, I was in /my/ universe. Since clearly, this isn't mine. I'm guessing it had something to do with being at this demonstration, things exploding, and all the green lightning." Spider-Girl slumps a bit. "And yeah, that's fine with me. I'll pay." She doesn't have a /ton/ of money, but at this point in time, Spidey definitely needs it more than she does.
"Well, it's not far." He looks to Junko. "I dunno how you feel about sliders, but if you like them, you're welcome to join us. I actually get free meals there. Saved the owner's daughter about a month or so back." He chuckles slightly. "I mean, you were part of the rescue, and I think it was pretty gutsy that you stepped in, Junko. So I think you qualify as a hero, too."
"Eh… I… I feel honored." the Asian answered, stroking through her hair slowly. "I mean, All I did was… stay calm?" She chuckles a little, brushing through her hair, sorting the ponytail a short moment before shrugging again. "Well.. if you insist…"
"You definitely qualify. You stuck around and helped us, and you don't have any powers." Spider-Girl's grin is obvious even through her mask. "Plus, you get to say you had lunch with two superheroes. That's a hell of a story, right?"
Spider-Man nods. "You two did all the work, anyway. All right, follow me."
Five minutes later, Spidey opens the door for Junko and Mayday, and his tale about being a known property is given some additional weight. The place is done predominantly in white—white tiles, white walls, bright lighting. A young man at the counter waves, then points to a handwritten sign:
SPIDER-MAN SPECIAL
12 CHEESEBURGER SLIDERS
LARGE FRIES
LARGE COKE
$10
The man says, "Hey, Spidey! Amanda wanted to tell you she aced the test! Thanks, man! Who are the ladies?"
"Colleagues. Spider-Girl, and the redheaded lady is Junko. They saved some lives over at ESU. Can you put them on my tab?"
"Sure thing," the man said. His nametag said BUDDY. "Whatchoo ladies want to order?"
"Well, I obviously have to have the special, but could I get a Sprite instead of a Coke? That's actually a really good deal." Spider-Girl slips her backpack around, rummaging inside it, before passing her counterpart a crumpled ten. Leaning a bit closer, she mutters "Let me at least pay for mine. I know you need the money."
Junko just smiles a moment as she eyes the menu, then shrugs. "If I can have just a normal burger and some fries with a sprite, please?" she asks finally, shaking her head a tiny bit, the red ponytail swaying behind her head like a tail. "It's not that I did anything hard… I mean, she did the tough part…"
Spider-Man places the order, but does verify the drink is Sprite for Mayday, handing Buddy the $10 as he relays Junko's order as well.
"Amanda can bring these out to you," Buddy says with a grin. He points to a corner booth, where a young auburn-hair woman is cleaning it energetically.
Spidey nods, then walks over to the booth, standing next to it for the women to sit first.
Spider-Girl makes her way over to the booth, giving the waitress a wave before slipping into the booth. "Sure, I did the heavy lifting, but you still were the only one out of that whole crowd who helped. That means you have some guts." She looks to Spidey, momentarily a little more serious. "Sooo… Yeah. I'm sure you have all of the questions."
Junko slides into the booth after Spider-Girl, flushing a little at her praise. "I… I just kept calm…" she more mutters, looking down to the table as she folds her hands in her lap.
Spider-Man sits across from the two of them. "It's the small yet important things, Miss Junko. Keeping your head when everyone around you is losing theirs. Acting instead of watching. Doing something instead of doing nothing." He smiles wryly under the mask. "So, you did what a hero does."
Spidey looks to Mayday, then takes a deep breath. "Normally, I'd have a lot of questions about how you were able to connect, but I heard about the mention of the Zorth axis. That is the fifth dimension direction, and can connect different universes to each other. The problem is, the server doing the calculations turned into an Italian Tower of Pasta, so there's no way to repeat the result."
Spider-Girl nods along as Spidey talks about heroes. Pretty much what she says. …And then Spidey breaks the bad news, and she slumps. "I guess… I was at a demo too, and they were scanning a meteor… probably the same one. But you're saying I'm stuck here. We can't redo it on this side, and there'd be no way to know when they're doing a scan on my side, and…" Oh shit. Her parents, her friends… They're all going to freak out. And she's got a baby brother too. This… It's all finally catching up.
"Eh, if you go all formal, it's Miss Saito. But… I mean, it was really nothing. I mean, what's the worst that could have happened? A couple broken bones?" She's lifts her hand to hide her face a moment, maybe to hide the embarassment creeping to her cheek. Or to try to hide the fact that broken bones don't really faze her really.
Spider-Man gives her a sympathetic look. "We can try to find another way, Spider-Girl. Never give up hope." He looks to Miss Saito. "Forgive me if I'm being rude, but please take a moment of silence to realize you did something you can be proud of instead of trying to water it down."
"More like if one of those racks had landed on you, you might have lost the limb. They probably weighed as much as a small car." Assuming the drinks arrive, Spider-Girl rolls her mask up to expose her mouth and sips at hers. "And you really should listen to him. If you don't agree that you did something awesome, we'll be here all day." A bit of a wry smile comes back.
"Wait… you mean she's like stranded here?" Junko finally notes, freaking more out about that than Spider-Girl's mention of losing a limb. "I'd get better, seriously. But she's all LOST here. Like… she might never see her family again! That is.. uhm… ths whole spider stuff… Is that a legacy thing or just a theme that is running wild at the moment?"
Spider-Man takes a deep breath. "I couldn't tell you why. There's some kind of convergence going on. I don't know why it is happening. I just hope it's not the reason you got pulled here, Spider-Girl…but you need a place to stay." He looks thoughtful. "I don't like the idea of you being homeless, but I don't want you to expose yourself just for a place to stay…"
Spider-Girl takes another long sip of soda. "Well… On my end, it's a legacy. I am the one and only Spider-Girl. Aaaand… I might actually already know where you live." She tugs a bit at the neck of her spandex, squirming in her seat. "In the interest of not freaking you out, I also know all the safe places to crash at Midtown High. I was on the basketball team, and there were a few times when I was just wiped out after a game and my parents were busy. Plus a couple lock-ins."
"A legacy, you know where he lives… uhm…" Junko ponders about it a moment, then starts to giggle a little. "Oh god, that might be awkward, Spider-Man… I mean… She wears your costume, so your time over there was over I guess…"
Spider-Man frowned. He had a lot of questions. He was about to speak when Amanda walked up, balancing trays of food. She placed a tray in front of each person, then passed drinks around. "Thank you," she said to everyone, and walked back to the counter.
Spider-man paused, then asked, "Do you mind if I see your webshooters, Spider-Girl?"
"No, he's still alive. And this isn't /his/ costume, see. Colors are wrong. And Spandex is stretchy, but I actually have /hips/." Spider-Girl points at Junko, grinning, before cutting off abruptly as the food arrives. "Thank you!" She gives the Waitress a wave, stuffing a slider into her mouth before Spidey asks. "Mmmf. Sure. Hang on." She pops the device off her right arm, sliding it across the table. It's a lot bulkier than Pete's, looking like a bracelet a few inches wide, with a lever protruding out of the front that would normally go into her glove. The design is… familiar, yet retro, with extra web cartridges sitting flush in slots around the circumference.
"But yeah. Still totally alive, just retired to have a family plus you lost a leg in a fight. Not saying anything else, because I'm pretty sure there's rules against that or something." Mmmmmf. Damn these are good.
Spider-Man takes the rig gingerly. It doesn't take him long to find the low-profile catch to pop the ocver open. He ponders the inner workings for awhile, then says, "This looks similar to one of my earlier designs. You should be able to use the same webfluid I use." He closes the cover, then hands it back. "Until you can get access to a phone, we'll have to use a dead drop I set up at Midtown. There is a bottle of webfluid under the lockers on the far northern wall. Lift under locker 1243 to get to it. If you don't have the equipment to fill the cartridges, just leave the empties there and I'll fill them for you. "
"I've got a phone, probably just need a new SIM…" Spider-Girl pauses in mid-slider to pop out what looks like another cartridge from her left shooter, but it is revealed to be a compact mobile phone. Not a smartphone, but it's at least got talk and text. "…But yeah. I can definitely get in there, and I can probably make myself a hammock in the ceiling or something for tonight. As for the SIM card… I'll pick up a prepaid or something, and we can meet on top of the Bugle building tomorrow?"
"So, he's still alive, how did you take over?" Junko nods to the waitress, shrugging a little. "I mean, you said it's legacy, so someone had it before." She chuckles as she reaches for the burger. "So, how was the one that hat it before you? and if he's still alive, are you his girlfriend of sorts or would that be Spider-Boy? Then he'd be your trainer or something, but isn't he a little young?"
Spider-Man nodded. He looked to Junko, then said, "Listen. you ever want to talk…" He takes out a card and puts it on the table. "This will go to me directly. Both of you can use it. If you just want to talk or anything. I think you have good instincts, Junko."
"He's right. You did a great job today. And nah, he had it, but he's like… Thirty years older where I'm from. And definitely not his girlfriend." Spider-Girl visibly shivers at that, before drowning the thought in more soda and food. "…Business cards? Why didn't I ever think of that. But seriously…" She continues on, telling the pair about a rather hilarious time that her Spidey got his artificial leg stuck to the wall because the sticking function wouldn't shut off. And for a while… It's just a nice afternoon lunch with new friends.