Summary:Spider-Girl and.. Spider-Girl look for Batman for questions. They're met by a nosy Foxfire. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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It's one thing that can be said about the reports and rumors that Batman has finally drawn blood - Staten Island is a hell of a lot quieter at night. With most criminals moving their operations or just going underground until the Bat is captured, it seems that the streets are quieter. Dimmer, really. Most people are hiding in their homes - torn - their borough's protector has really gone rogue? What of the others? Batgirl, Robin.. noone's speaking up in defiance.
It also makes patrols a lot more tense. The pneumatic hiss of a grapple line is followed by the flutter of a cape as Batman moves from building to building on patrol. He doesn't care - or seem to - that there's a masive manhunt on for him - he has a mission. And a rumor will not drive him under.
Staten Island. Anya Corazon might as well be in Toledo, Ohio. Aside from distant memories of living in Mexico, the vast majority of her life has been spent in upper Manhattan, with occasional trips into the Bronx or Queens. It wasn't until she adopted the side-gig as the masked Spider-Girl that she found reason to explore other parts of the area, but she's never been to this awful place.
After finding a quiet spot to change out of her street clothes and into the black and white that conceals her true identity, the young woman found a place to set up camp. The harsh divide between the haves and the have-nots in this area is stark in many ways; pristine, mid- and high-rise buildings with ghetto's across the street, quite literally in some places. This makes the perfect spot for her to set up watch.
Perched fifteen stories up on the roof of a commercial building, she begins interfacing the technology in her costume with both her burner phone and… her new invention.
"Rig on."
Calibrating… Calibration complete
"Sync with Phone."
Syncing… Syncing complete
Then, from out of her backpack, she produces a drone; the very same drone that had been on display at the regional science fair's NYU booth. She's had time to install a few upgrades, and is quietly praying that they all work as planned. The secondary reason for being here… let's just call it 'on the job testing'.
"Arana, activa."
The little drone spins to life, its rotors winding up with a quiet hum as it rises into a hovering position next to the young woman.
"Mapeo regional."
The drone suddenly flies off the rooftop of the building and begins roaming around the block, using its built in HD camera to take photos of the area that are simultaneously matched up with information downloaded from google's maps and Earth services. The interlay appears upon the HUD inside Spider-Girl's mask, and she gasps quietly. "It works," she breathes, grinning sublimely. There, she sits and watches as the drone moves in concentric circles, gradually building itself a permanent map of the area around where she's perched.
Spider-Girl had never heard of a Batman in her own home dimension. From what research had turned up at the library though… This was serious. If he'd really snapped after all these years… she probably wouldn't be able to take him out by herself. But she could at least scout things, maybe talk to him. Plus… She honestly didn't want to go back to her current home right now. So there's another spider swinging around Staten Island rather aimlessly, just waiting for the telltale prickle of her danger sense.
The drone immediately gets a hit. Two of them. One of them is clearly dark and large, along a grapple line as it moves between buildings. Anya has seen the bat in person - but to see the man move between the buildings with what appears to be little effort and a lot of skill could possibly impress the lithe woman - he's clearly a gymnist or an acrobat.
The other is the small red and blue form of what may be a female Spider-Man. They're running parallel to each other, not quite going to hit an intersection point without guidance from above.
"Que demonios…" Anya mutters in Spanish as the information comes in from her drone, and quickly. To have spotted not only her target so quickly, but also what would essentially appear to be Spider-Man with curves? Whatever her plans were for this evening, they just changed.
"Arana, marca objetivos," she says, and uses her right hand to tap at the air, highlighting both one target named 'B', and the other target named '?'.
Confirmada
"Seguimiento de objetivos."
The drone immediately begins moving along, following Batman. With lightning speed, Anya leaps off the building into a swandive, then flings her hand to fire a webline at a mid-rise across the way. Within moments, her body is whinging through the air, a shadow in the dark that is following her drone and closing in on the others.
….Well there's a tingle. But it's more of an 'I'm being watched' tingle than an 'I'm about to attack' tingle. Mayday pauses for a moment, perching on a sign and peering around, before resuming swinging. This had BETTER not be the Scriers in this universe too…
Batman doesn't have a sense. Spider or otherwise. However, what he does have is over two decades at this on his side. Turning his attention to an incoming comm, the lines on a man's face pull into a frown. An alarm - two blocks from his location. Police are at least five minutes out. Apparently they know that /he's/ listening, and they can't do a thing about it.
The Batman's attention turns from the patrol path he was on to switch his trajectory with another grapple line as he makes a sharp turn to cover the last of the blocks on his way towards a jewelry shop.
Anya's drone sweeps along, lights off, the rotors humming quietly amidst the eerie quiet that exists across Staten Island, with the black-and-white Spider-Girl not far behind. She breathes an exhilarated breath of air while banking along in pursuit of the target marked 'B', her body cutting through the night with a similarly sharp turn and a hard pull on a pivoting webline. "Who are you," she murmurs to herself in regards to the target market '?', that strange figure clearly as front of mind as her hunt for the Batman himself.
What had drawn Junko to Staten Island? She couldn't exactly pin it down, the white Gi with the red Hakama flapping in the wind, as she eyes over the roofs in front of her. Triangular ears peak from her red hair, and a likewise red domino mask covers her eyes, hiding her identity. Strapped to her side with an Obi was a Daisho, the other side held a Jitte and a long cord. Her siluette shifted with the wind's blow throguh the baggy clothes, a strap keeping the large arms in check as she watched the roof, scanning them, watching for the telltale signs of blue light on the facades. Spotting them, she starts to dash over the roofs, almost seeming to fly over the gaps between buildings. She doesn't have the aid of swinging between skyscrapers and construction equipment, but she seems like a natural as her red and white figure heads in to the same warehouse that the police was cruising in on.
The high pitched whoop of a burglar alarm shatters May's pondeirng, and she pulls a sudden direction change, diverting towards the new noise. Beating up some thugs would be just the thing to take her mind off her… not exactly stellar performance in this universe so far. Clinging to a wall across the street, she assessees the situation…
Landing on the rooftop where the alarm is going off, Batman frowns. He sees the small box on the wall, and heads over to it. It's apparently shorting, and the alarm is blaring because of it. Reaching in, he shuts off the alarm, and moves to check the roof access to make sure it's secure.
The shop is locked up tight. There seems to be no movement from within - no tell-tale flashlights or movements from burgulars. Perhaps, it was just a false alarm.
That appears to be what it was as he gives a grunt after making sure the door was secure, and starts preparing to move again - but with the time he's spent here, it's given the two spider-women all the time they need to catch up.
A sound on the wind will surely give Batman a brief moment's notice that he's about to have company. Anya appears out of the night air, releasing a webline with a soft fluttering sound, her feet landing on the rooftop with light footfalls. "Hold up," she says, hands in the air, palms pointed skyward. "Cops are coming, but, we need to talk." She jerks her head to the side, suggesting that they get out of the area before the whole place starts smelling of bacon.
Movement on the roof across the street, There's a soft thwips as two weblines latch onto the edge, and then there's a second Spider-Girl staring at Bats and Anya. "…I'm not going to start a fight if you're not, but I also want to know what the hell's going on. And also I need to talk to /you/," She points directly at Anya. "About some other Spider stuff later."
The Firefox on the other hand was still on the way as the spiders fling in, cornering the bat. Just a couple roofs separate the dashing figure of red and white from the one that the commotion starts, making clear where the target of the police cars was.
"If you're here to convince me to give myself up, forget it." Batman responds, tone flat as he rises to his full height as not one - but two Spider people arrive. And people talk about the number of Robins he has. He looks between the two, Anya's he's met - Mayday he hasn't. With neither of them making a move to go after him to apprehend, it gives the Bat a chance to ascertain the situation.
Finally, he makes a decision. "You have three minutes."
A quick motion of Anya's head and she's observing this new person, and it's entirely possible that behind her mask, the Latina's eyes are narrowing. Her hand drops to point a finger in the air toward Mayday, that universal hand gesture that says 'you just hold your tongue a minute'.
"I'm not," Anya tells Batman. "But I think someone's setting you up. I've seen stuff like this before, and it smells like B.S. There are people after you now, and it's the last thing you need considering what's about to go down with Nightfall."
A sideward glance is given to this other Spider-Girl, warily.
"Murder definitely doesn't fit your MO from what I've read. And with all the stuff calling you the 'World's Greatest Detective', You'd have covered your tracks better if it /was/. So I smell a rat too." The red and blue Spider-Girl is also basically glaring at Anya, but she refrains from flipping the bird. "I have /not/, however, been told about Nightfall. But unless we want lots of awkward questions from the boys in blue, we should probably move."
As the Firefox lands on the roof, she lets her momentum dissipate in a slide, the thick tabi throwing up some of the roofing's small pebbles. "Gotcha…" she says on a somewhat triumphant note, hands held low at her sides, palms down, ready to pull from either side, but fingers off the hilts. "And what do we have here? Kumo and Komori. Your worries about the blues though… they're fast tonight. Maybe a minute or two till they are here."
"You can help by remaining on task." Batman responds. "This is an internal problem - I'll deal with it." Classic Batman - he's shoving everyone out of the pool to focus on other things. "Captain America has agreed to take over the Nightfall planning, you can speak with him on it. I'll help where I can." When the new Spider speaks up, his hand reaches up to scrub at his jaw for a moment.
Perhaps he shouldn't have assumed that all the spiders talk to all the other spiders. "I don't have time for this. Mage enhanced gangbangers are kidnapping kids for their cult to worship a dark demon. There's multiple sources working on it." he explains quickly, as someone else is showing up.
Now he's starting to sense /another/ setup. Three on one. He's already working the odds and battle plan in his mind if he needs it.
The arrival of Firefox has Spider-Girl (Anya) turning her body just slightly, positioning herself in such a manner that suggests she's on Batman's side here. No matter what form of fighting one is skilled in; jujitsu, cage fighting or good old fashioned drunken boxing; there's a universal body language that tells others which side you're gonna be on if things devolve into fisticuffs.
"I'm on task," she retorts to Batman, a bit of fire in her tone. She doesn't explain just how, but testing her drone is all part of the plan. She is, truly, on task. "I know I'm new to all this shit, but it ain't no 'internal problem' when you got tabloids up your ass. Maybe you need to stay on task." What she means by that isn't made entirely clear, but maybe there's a reason she's not explaining herself.
Another look is given to Firefox, then to the Spider-Girl in blue and red. "Bacon," she says, as the air becomes illuminated with red and blue by the approaching cops. A hand is flung to the side, a webline cast, and within moments Anya is whipping off to a nearby building, without showing signs of stopping until she's put some distance between herself, the false alarm, and the others.
Spider-Girl (May)'s posture is guarded, but not hostile. Although she does start to look a bit angry as batman rattles off what's going on. She spins around as Firefox arrives, lifting one hand slightly in case things /do/ go south. "Yeah, because we can all just phone up Captain America. But I hate villains who go after kids, and these guys sound like scum. Now that I know, I can try to deal with them. With or without your help."
She tilts her head a bit to the side right before the other Spider-Girl tips her off, and quickly thwips off after her fellow Arachnid. No desire to talk to the police thank you, esepcially since her civilian ID has no documents….
As the Spider Girls darts away, Firefox' face sours, the wrists turning to get the palms up. "They could have given a lift…" she mutters, glaring at the Batman before changing her stance. She was willing to fight, should it go that way, to keep him or subdue him should it be needed, but she wouldn't start. "Staying to meet the blues or are you following after them? Your choice, but you gotta come clean to someone about your trail - either to the girl team tonight or the blue boys. And I'd say the boy team tonight is after blood."
There's a look at the two spiders as they take off. "Hnh." he offers after the pair of them. He trusts Anya to get Mayday to speed. And then Junko starts to talk to him. After she's done, there's a lift of a brow.
And he chuffs the closest thing to anyone's heard from a laugh from the Bat in a long time. Falling off the side of the building, Batman fires off his grapple gun and swings off in the opposite direction into the night.
Who says he needs to talk to anyone?