Summary:Spider-Man invites Mirage out on patrol! Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Peter picked this spot for three reasons. One, he hadn't patrolled this area all week. Two, this building had a place for Brightwind to land. And three…
He grinned as he checked the paper bag with the words SZECHUAN EXPRESS on the side.
This place had the best chicken egg rolls.
He was early. He had sent her the message to meet here at 8 PM. He was also wearing the Spider-Backpack, the red-and-blue one with the symbol. It was made well, in spite of the fact that he got it at a flea market in Queens.
Brightwind is easily spotted in the air, with Dani on his back. She's wearing her armor, naturally, since this was going to be a joint patrol of sorts. Spotting Spidey on the roof, she angles Brightwind down, the winged stallion flaring out his wings and coming in to land at a trot. Immediately the horse snorts at Spider-Man, coming over towards him and nosing curiously at the bag.
Egg Rolls are not typically seen on Asgard, after all…
Spider-Man is startled by Brightwind's interest in the food. He looked up to Dani. "Hey…is it okay to give Brightwind here chicken to eat? In fact, is it safe to give him fried ANYTHING?"
Dani dismounts from Brightwind, as he looks very interested in the bag. "Hey, if he can eat White Castle, I'm pretty sure he can tolerate that without a problem." She smiles at Spidey, "Nice spot you picked out. I don't think I've really been to this part of the city before."
Spidey shrugs. Can't really argue with that. He takes out a small thin paper bag with three chicken egg rolls in it. He takes out one and holds it up for Brightwind. "Now, if you want more salt, I'll pour some soy sauce on the others for you." He smiles as the other hand fishes out another trio of chicken egg rolls and holds them out for Dani to take.
I try to cover as much of the city as i can. I'm working it down to a series of routes that can provide the most coverage. It's been awhile since I've been around here and I think the crooks have had enough ov a vay-cay."
Dani grins and takes the egg rolls, "Nah, this is fine. Thanks Spidey." She nods at Spidey, "Admittedly, I don't normally do this kind of patrol, so I'm looking forward to doing this." With that, she takes a bite out of the egg roll, nodding at Spidey as she swallows then says, "Okay, these are really good."
Brightwind, meanwhile, takes the one offered to him, and noms it eagerly, then noses a bit at Spider-Man, wanting more. MORE.
Spidey grins. "Want soy sauce, or sweet-and-sour sauce?" He pours a dab of soy sauce on a second egg roll before feeding it to Brightwind. "I figure we should not let growling stomachs warn the bad guys."
Dani smiles, "Good notion, always best to get some food in before a battle. Even if it is just some muggers or the like." She mmms, "And sweet and sour sounds perfect, thanks." She takes the offered packet, putting that on the second one and mmming quite contentedly.
Spidey walks over to a pedestal next to the air exchanger and brings two cups and a bowl, putting the paper bowl down in front of Brightwind and taking the others, giving one to Dani. "I didn't know what you liked drinking, so I chose my favorite refresher. Half lemonade, half iced tea. Called the Arnold Palmer, because it was his favorite drink." He paused, then said, "I know about the sword. It doesn't kill, but it can incapacitate without hurting people, right?"
Dani nods, "Oh yeah, it can pack a good wallop, but it doesn't like, cut through people. Basically, unless it's made of uru or adamantium or vibranium or something like that, the blade will cut it. Magic." She smiles, "But living tissue, it'll bruise like the dickens, but not wreck it. And sure, an Arnold Palmer sounds pretty good right now."
Brightwind, meanwhile, has the drink, because why not. Horses need treats too!
Spidey nods and raises his mask to sip at his own drink. "What other powers or special abilities do you have, Mirage?" Because use code names while in the field. Never know who's listening. "I can stick to just about any surface, I can shoot webs with these webshooters, I can dead-lift about…ten tons or so. And I have enough stamina to do my Olympic gymnastics webslinging thing for about five hours before I get fatigued."
Mirage smiles, "Hmm, well, I have the armor and sword, the armor can protect me from most mundane weapons. I can communicate with animals via telepathy. Also, I can paralyze enemies with fear, and I can also cause their worst fears to manifest in front of them." Which would explain why she's called Mirage, anyway.
Spider-Man nods. "Okay. Well, most crooks seem to have simple fears. We don't want to make them phobic, but caught off-guard for a few moments would be good." He nods as he sips. "That's pretty impressive. Okay. I see something going on, I usually go in quiet, try not to attract too much attention…and bullets." He ponders. "How do you feel about drawing fire? Is Brightwind protected, too?"
Dani shakes her head, "Not really, but bullets don't faze him that much. But typically I stay at a range and fight, unless I need to jump down and get into it a bit. Which is when the sword comes out." She grins at Spidey, "So, I hang back and keep you covered?"
Spidey nods. "Unless you want to go in with a war cry and flummox them with the sight of a sword-maiden bearing down on them. Okay, we'll play it by ear." He looks to Brightwind, then to Dani. "All done eating? Ready to go fight bad guys?"
Mirage grins, "Ready. Let's do this." She hops onto Brightwind, "Lead the way, Spider-Man, I got your back." With that, Brightwind rears back, striking a pose, then they both look expectantly at Spider-Man.
Spidey grins. "Okay. If i hold up my hand flat and wave, it means I spotted something." Then he reaches out and casually fires a webline, and then he is off and webslinging, swinging wide to drop his trash in the dumpster below him.
Webslinging is something to watch. It is trapeze act, gymnastics event, aerial acrobatics, and catching "air" like a professional snowboarder by turns. And it seems so effortless, like walking down the street for anyone else.
Dani whistles a bit, looking impressed at the webslinging, then urges Brightwind into motion. The horse spreads his wings and launches off the roof, soaring slowly after Spidey, letting him take the point as Dani keeps a fair distance away. A winged stallion with a rider tends to attract a lot of attention, after all.
There is a pattern to his direction. He moves in a zig-zag pattern, covering a lot of space, but he is moving fairly quickly. Can he even see what's going on below him at the speed of a cruising police car…
And then he sudden wheels around in a tight arc, then swings up to land on the roof of a tenement building, holding his hand flat and raised, while the other hand points down into a quiet, dark street.
Only it is not quiet. Three Chinese women, wearing clubbing outfits, are moving at a brisk trot, nearly a run, as seven Chinese men follow them on foot.
Dani catches the signal, flying high and wide for a better view. Her eyes narrow as she sees the men chasing after the clubgoers. Suddenly a purple glowing bow manifests in her hands, and she knocks an arrow, firing at the one in the back. The arrow hits, and the man immediately seizes up and falls down.
Don't worry, there's no lasting side effects aside from an aversion to winged horses and Asgardians.
The remaining six suddenly stop and look at their fallen friend, then look skyward, their eyes going WIDE at the sight of the woman on the flying horse.
The three women, however, don't notice at all and keep on running. They'll notice in about another ten seconds.
While they are looking up at her, one guy near the back is suddenly YANKED upward to be webbed up and hung from the streetlight. The snagging is not immediately noticed as the leader barks at the others in Chinese. They start checking themselves for weapons…
Mirage actually looms on the winged stallion, her countenance looking dark as she raises her hand, pointing at the leader of the group.
Suddenly, the earth seems to shake, and flames erupt from the ground, as a massive figure emerges. A giant man with a scowl, bulging eyes, and a long beard, clad in classical Chinese robes and wearing an ornate golden crown. King Yan has arrived, and is going to judge the criminals before him!
Wow. She can loom. Spidey can't loom. He can't even be suspiciously scary.
Four of the six see their worst nightmare as King Yan, and they drop their weapons, scream like they were schoolgirls about to be attacked by something with LOTS of tentacles, and start running. As they run, they are picked off one by one and webbed to walls, the street, and hung from another lightpole like a pinata.
Of the other two, the one in the hoodie is watching his landlord coming after him with a grinning demon dressed like a lawyer. It's a long, sordid story. He is looking at them, and then his eyes roll up and he passes out. The other one, the leader, is watching as a gientess is coming after him with a carving knife the size of a Yugo. It could be a scene from a movie. Attack of the 50-foot Ex-Girlfriend.
Spider-man drops to the ground to see him standing still, white with shock…and standing in an acrid-smelling puddle that was not there before.
Dani, meanwhile, flies ahead, catching up to the three clubgoers that were fleeing, and she lands ahead of them, mainly to keep them from running into yet more trouble. She raises a hand, giving them a smile, "Hey, it's alright. They're taken care of." She looks perfectly reassuring, as opposed to the Avatar of Death that showed up for the men earlier. "Did they hurt you at all?"
The three women, now slowed down in speed and heart rates, bowed and thanked Dani. Only one of them spoke English, though, and she explained that they were at a club, the leader had come on to all three of them, they had given him the brush-off, and then he showed up with friends and they had to leave the club…
Dani smiles and nods, returning the bow from horseback, then she says, "Well, you're safe now from them. But be careful, alright? Thank your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man." She hrms, "And Mirage." She wasn't worried about the credit, but… she sees the media, and knows Spidey gets a bad rap. So… giving him some good press can't hurt.
They immediately looked around, but Spider-Man was a bit busy webbing up the holdouts about 30-40 yards away. They looked to each other, then bowed to Dani again, the one knowing English said they were heading straight home, and they were very appreciative of her. Then they headed to the left, towards a street that was more populated.
Mirage watches them go, just to make sure there's no other surprises in store for them, then casually guides Brightwind back over towards Spidey, "Yeah, I… think I may have overdone it a little bit." She looks a bit sheepishly at Spider-Man, "Didn't quite mean to steal all your thunder there."
Spider-man looks over and smiles. "Mirage, you were awesome. You jumped in to save three people from God-knows-what." He lightly pushes one of the human pinatas, setting them to swing. "I know Asgardians are all about glory in battle, and I don't know how much you go for that, but this isn't glorious battle. I fight dirty, I cheat, no one gets slain in valorous combat, and the cops show up to clean up afterward. For every Repperton Spider-Man special, there's five where the intended victim never even knows they were saved. But I'm not in it for the glory. So I don't care about thunder-stealing. You made sure three people go to sleep in their own beds tonight. That is what you can take with you."
Dani smiles, "Yeah, I don't do it for glory, I do it because it needs to be done." She nods, "But I've seen the papers and such, and you get way too bad a rap. Figure anything I can do to help that, even a little bit, helps." With that, she smiles at Spidey, "What next?"
Spidey looks around. "A call to the cops, so the victimizers don't get victimized themselves. Then, it's back to The Job." He smiles and says, "Call me…SPIDER-COP." He laughs, then fires a webline as he sends a call to 911 with a computerized voice giving the description and that all criminals are bound and immobilized. He winds up the webline, the elatic line tightening.
When he hangs up, he puts the phone away, waves to Dani, and then lets go with his feet and is sling-shotted into the air between two buildings…and the patrol continues.
Dani takes off after Spider-Man on Brightwind, and the next few hours are an interesting patrol. And definitely a lot more effective to work as a team than just solo, though one thing is that Mirage isn't using the illusion generation that much, as it can be rather taxing.
Finally, Mirage is standing on the rooftop that they started the patrol on, Brightwind standing a discrete distance back as she looks back at Spidey, "So, that was definitely good to work with a partner. I like that." She grins, "What do you think?"
Spider-man looks thoughtful. "I think you manage the whole 'shock and awe' thing pretty good. You should use that to best effect. Sneak up on a group, then overwhelm them with sudden physical attacks alone. The armor works well for you in that regard. You also can use it as a distraction for other people to work their own talents, like me. You might need a gadget or two to help you find crimes as they happen—I lucked out with a crime-warning system." He taps his head. "With a little practice, some time honing your tactics, I really think you could handle small to medium groups of any strength."
Mirage grins, "Yeah, I'm not sure I can do this on a regular basis… I mean, it's good, but between the X-Men and Valkyrie stuff and…" She ticks off a few things, then looks at Spidey with a warm smile, "This was good, though. It was… nice, to patrol with you Spidey." Her tone definitely shows that she means it, "You're pretty good yourself, and you do a lot of good work around here."
Spider-Man smiles wryly. "Not so long ago, I used these gifts to make a buck. And it cost me everything. I learned then that I had a responsibility to use these gifts. The RIGHT way." He looked to Mirage. "If you ever get bored and want to hang with me…literally…send me a text. I…I enjoy spending time with you, Mirage. You're level-headed, brave." He smiled to Brightwind. "And a cool ride, too."
Dani grins, "Sounds good to me. I can give you a text." She places a hand on Spidey's shoulder when he talks about responsibility, as she can understand that, "I learned a lot too, when I thought I lost everything, five years ago." She gives that shoulder a squeeze, then smiles, "You'll be hearing from me soon, Spider-Man."
Spidey smirks. "I do hope so." He fires a webline and waves to the two of them. "Nothing like dinner AND a show!"
And with that, he is off again, swinging away, seemingly without a care in the world.