Summary:A final offensive from the Nightfall has the Spiders and a Batling attend. There's an important piece of information dropped though …. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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WAND Agents have been watching the 'ether' looking for the disturbance that everyone knew was coming. The Nightfall are moving and they're moving en masse, if the readings are anything to go on to.
The Spiders have been despatched to a place on Bell Point Drive down near Mill Basin. When they get there it's a warehouse and the air is thick with … tension. There's denim crows standing sentry, weapons clearly visible - and oh what weapons they are. Military grade, well maintained and well handled.
This isn't going to be easy to take down.
"That Giovanni is inside with his new pet. That one is really freaky." One of the men nearest where the spiders have landed is saying.
They can get a good layout of the compound. There's a door on one end and the windows give faint access to the inside. They'll need to get close enough to see inside though.
The door opens and out steps a Nightfall with tattooes on their face and heads. A mage. With a gesture of their hands, they start to chant.
"This is Special Agent Gorman. I have eyes on your Drone. Other teams are being despatched about the city." For this, a SHIELD Agent has been assigned to each team.
Spider-Man is in full battle mode now. He has one shot with the knockout drop load. It'll have to be enough.
Spidey sends over the Spidey-Comm, as well as the SHIELDies, "Got a mage exiting the building. We have to hit them fast. I need to get to within 50 feet of the guy for this knockout drop to have any reasonable accuracy. Giovanni is inside. If we can hit the mage fast, the Denim Crows should be easier to handle."
Blackbird is surprisingly good at keeping up with the Spiders, between a grappling gun, short glides on her cape, and some particularly impressive parkour acrobatics. But stealth is much more her speed than traversing the city. While the Spiders take the front, Blackbird has worked her way around toward the back of the building, keeping to the shadows as she gathers what reconaissance she can.
SpiderGwen touches her comm, watching intently. We need a man on the roof, and I'm that man. Going in, roofbound. Keep eyes on the prize. We've got this." Spider-Woman thwips out a web, and another, and another, working her way in, and concealing the path taken to keep her team under cover. With a final web, sent out adjacent, she swings in and touches down lightly atop the roof. "And…that's how it's done, ladies and gents. You're my eyes, I'm your hands. Or…whatever…" She's distracted herself looking over the edge, and derailed her train of thought.
"You want fast, you got fast," Silk calls over the Spidey-Comm. She is one of, if not the fastest person here she thinks, so she takes the initiative. "Let's save some lives." From her perch on the warehouse she'd been waiting on, she's suddenly running at full speed - close to a full 60mph in a few short moments before launching herself with a jump to propel her towards the chanting individuals, jumping as high as she can with her strength added into the run. At the pinnacle of the jump, she casts a webline to the highest point on the warehouse, pulls hard to fling herself further that way still maintaining a speed a regular human likely couldn't handle with accuracy. As she flies forwards, she shoots the single shot of the knockout needle that Spider-Man had given her once she's within range of the small gathering of Nightfall and Crows, aiming for the Nightfall's exposed neckline.
She's trusting the rest of her team to have her back once it all goes to hell - and trusting her own abilities to get the job done.
Not long ago, someone asked Wade Wilson what his heart truly desires. The answer wasn't what someone might expect; an unlimited supply of hookers and blow, a million dollars, or even for his face to be fixed.
The one thing he can't have… is death.
No one, save for one person, has seen or heard from Wade in days. Now, he is inside of that warehouse, chained to a wall before Giovanni. The black and red uniform that symbolizes him as Deadpool is worn, but it is dirty and torn in spots, the hood and nowhere to be seen. His face, exposed, is uglier than usual; the flesh looks pale and sickly, even dead, and there are flecks of it that are just falling off, as if he's rotting. The eyes are no longer brown and filled with life. Instead, they are white and calloused, lifeless. Most disturbing, however, is what has happened to his mouth. The lips, the teeth, the opening, they're all gone… and nothing is there save for a covering of rotting skin.
The man looks up at Giovanni, and a low, animal growl forms in his chest. He struggles against the chains for a moment, and the exposed area of his right arm shows a glowing, red tattoo cut into the dead flesh, but no…. it's not time yet.
Giovanni's new pet? You could simply call him 'Undeadpool'.
The problem with being friendly and supportive of heroes - they may ask you to come along sometime. Thea had been given some more information about what was going on with Nightfall and the missing kids. If it hadn't been kids, maybe Thea's mercenary heart wouldn't have been moved.
Instead, here she is. Hair is a deep chestnut color, eyes brown, and her facial features would look slightly different to the Spiderlings that have met her. She's wearing her 'work clothes' for covert approaches, soft soled boots that cover all the way up her calves, snug fitting black pants and a dark shirt with a black jacket thrown over top. There's a gun tucked into an inside pocket, and several blades tucked about her person, but its her powers that are locked and loaded.
Not being a spider, Thea can't literally swing into action, but she's moving swift and damn near silent towards the targeted group. If that knockout misses, she wants to be there to do the next best thing.
The mage out the front just keeps chanting. The Spiders and Batling can see the portal start to open. It's slow and smooth but not instantaneous, which might give them some time to do … something.
The drone that's been used picks up the heat signatures of the children easier enough. As does Blackbirds scanning. They're moving to the front of the building. It won't be long and they'll be gone. "Come my pet. It will be time for you to earn your keep in a moment." Giovanni tugs on the chains and starts moving, stepping out the door and beside the next mage.
"Anything?" That's to the Crows who pull back reflexively from Undeadpool. Training only goes so far, it seems.
"Not yet. But we're expecting trouble."
The portal is nearly open. It's time to act if they don't want to traumatise the kids.
Silks pellet hits the mage, the substance within staining his neck. He starts to sink to the ground as the toxin takes effect. What the Spiders don't expect … is the way his tattooes seem to start to bubble and writhe.
"They're here. Spread out."
Steadily, SpiderGwen is lowering herself over the side of the roof, upside down. Her masked expression, as always, is vacant as she gazes into a dusky window. "I've got eyes on the inside, Spidey. We have a problem. Looks like they have weaponized a friend of yours with a tattoo. He's missing his wig and my old webspinners, and a few chunks of face."
Spider-Man says into the Spider-Comm, "Spider-Woman, try to immobilize him if you can. Everyone else…Blitz! GO! Portal is open! Clear the way!"
Spider-Man goes into crowd-control mode as he descends on the Denim Crows, firing weblines at two of the Crows, webbing up their weapons to their arms before ynaking them off their feet…
"Guys? They've got some sort of zombie on a chain," Blackbird murmurs across the comms, crouching by a window and reaching into her belt. And then she hears Gwen's version of it, brow quirking. "Right. So. I can smoke the building, but the kids are moving up toward the front."
As soon as she hears the sounds of a fight from the front, she makes her move. A smooth move pulls the pins and she busts the glass with an elbow before tossing the smoke grenades into the building.
A good count of five to let them do their work, and she follows them in, staff at the ready and infrared on her hood to let her see past the smoke. Target number one: Giovanni.
They're here.
That, it would seem, is Undeadpool's cue. The monstrosity that used to be Wade Wilson suddenly throws himself at the chains, ripping both arms right out of their sockets. Fortunately, there's no blood. However, as he prowls forward, two arms quickly grow to replace those that were torn away. They grow fast, in the span of seconds, but that's not all.
The dismembered arms strike the floor, flailing about madly… and begin to grow. They begin to grow back their bodies. Within moments, there are three Undeadpools prowling toward the entrance; two of them completely naked, save for one opposing arm on each that is clothed in red; the other, clothed save for the arms that have grown back.
Somehow, the cultists have used their black magic to make a serious perversion of Wade Wilson's healing power. A serious perversion.
With cold, lifeless eyes, the three Undeadpools go rushing for the entryway, converging upon poor Silk. As one, their sealed mouths suddenly rip open, revealing razor sharp teeth capable of biting through solid steel.
Ruh Roh.
Silk's danger sense goes off, and it's the only thing that saves her. "Deadpool?!" She's heard the conversation. She's met Deadpool - and her Silk-Sense is telling her before she even sees him who her assailant is.
She leaps upwards, and begins to cast a full five-fingered load of webbing towards the three attackers as her other hand reaches out to webline and pull herself up, allowing her instincts to save her.
Someone else will have to take out the Crows, she's got her hands full.
Spider-Woman takes one quick swing on her web and crashes through the window, and tumbles across the floor. "Deadpool is multiplying. Using my one shot of knockout on the original Zombiepool." And she fires it toward the exposed flesh of his face. "Gonna try to ice the rest of these things with webs." And she begins webbing the living crap out of the clone ARMy. Arm-y. "I have to get them web-immobilized before they get big enough to be as much of a pain in the ass as the original."
Thea is running, the mage is down, but Thea is worried about the Crows around him. One hand curls in a fist as she shoves her powers at them, into them, to make them all feel as if they can't breathe, as if their lungs are starving for air.
The pulling of oxygenated cells away from lungs is distracting when it's more than one at a time, so Thea will find a place to get down, get low, and hopefully find some cover.
Giovanni laughs as the portal opens and Undeadpool slips his leash. "Wondeful. Have you come to see what your friend wanted?" The other mages there cry out in terror as Deadpool explodes into action. "Giovanni! What have you done? This is not the power of Lord Plokta!"
Then he's out, his tattooes swelling and bubbling as the toxin takes effect. Is he alive? Hard to tell.
"No, this is the power of something even better …" he tells his compatriot, gesturing to the Crows as he does. "Get them." Some of the Crows are affected by Thea's power. The weapons are dropped to their side as they grasp their throats and their faces slowly grow red.
The tattooed mage tsks at his downed companion as he strolls across the compound to the body. "Time to go …" he says. Grabbing the body by the shoulders and dragging it towards to the portal.
The remaining four, swing their weapons in Thea's direction and open up with a volley. Two loose their weapons to webbing though. Thea can find cover as the bullets spray everywhere but she's going to have to move, unless Spider-Man does something else.
Inside, smoke from Blackbirds grenades spews forth. She can hear the remaining Crows stumble and fall. "Oh shit. They're coming in the back." Regardless of the fact that there are children there, weapons fire in the direction of that breaking glass. She can be sure there's only two though.
Spider-Man looks at the mage worked to pull his downed comrade, then webs another Crow to the ground as he fires a webline to pull himself into a flying leap at the mage dragging his friend.
The range is 50 feet for the splat round before drag overcomes force, but he gets about 30 feet away before he fires his own "paintball" at the mage.
"SIDDOWN!" Spider-Man barks at him.
Undeadpool Prime is webbed up but that doesn't stop him; he cranes his neck and bites through the webbing, before ripping through and moving after Cindy. He leaps into the air, inches from biting her foot clean off, when the pellet launched by Spider-Woman strikes and splats all over his face. He goes down in a heap, but his body and fingers are twitching, scrawling at the floor. It's not exactly the effect Spider-Man was going for, but then again, Wade's healing factor always gave him a rather severe resistance to toxins. At least he's down for now; Interestingly, when his hauntingly frightening maw closes, the dead skin seals up again over it.
Apparently the Nightfall also found a way to shut him up.
Undeadpool #2 and #3 find themselves caught up in webbing, but they begin ripping at it viciously. #2 rips his leg free, which falls to the floor and begins growing into a fourth. The other turns and begins bashing itself into a nearby wall, over and over again until the head and left arm drop off, forming a fifth and a sixth. They all rip at the webbing with fingers and teeth, and the two newest ones find themselves free to fight. #4 turns on Spider-Gwen, charging at her with his jaw wide open, while #5 turns and charges upon Spider-Man. He leaps into the air with an open maw aimed at the leader's neck.
#6 leers at Silk, jaw open as his belly produces an unearthly scream.
These people are the worst. As the guns go off, Blackbird charges in toward the Crows still inside the warehouse. With a snap of her cape in front of herself, she's in the middle of them, staff spinning to crack down on hands and weapons to disarm, then skulls and knees to bring the gangsters down.
Someone else is going to have to stop the mage from escaping - she's occupied trying to keep the kids from getting shot before she can herd them away from whatever is going on with Deadpool.
"Kids, to the back door!" she calls over her shoulder. "Stay low, move away from my voice!"
Silk seems satisfied when she and Spider-Woman manage to tag-team and web up the remaining Undeadpool's, as Spider-Man's pellet brings the Prime down. She doesn't have much free time, though, as the others are forming from how they're getting out of the webbing.
Her instincts again kick in, and allow her to backflip to avoid the foot-chomping from #6. As she does so, she twists and fires a web-line at Giovanni's back, then yanks at it /hard/, to snap him back and off his feet, and prevent him from escaping.
"This is going to hell, fast," she breathes, feelig overwhelmed, quickly. "Any ideas on how to stop these from multiplying? It's like we're in a bad video game on Insane Difficulty."
Number Four lunges toward Spider-Woman, who thwips out filament upon filament on the creature, focusing one large webbed splat on his face and leaping over his head, jerking his head backward toward the floor in an attempt to snap his neck as she glances up to see Number Five charge Spider-Man. "NOOO!" Her scream is primal, full of rage and anger. "NOT. HIM." She thwips another webbing splat toward the back of 5's head and pulls hard. "Not. Him."
Thea runs and ducks, even as she will pull her gun out and return fire, too much in the moment to aim for anything but center mass. She will pull hard on muscles and flood them with blood, keeping them rigid and unable to relax, using that to immobilize even as she releases the ability for them to be able to breathe again. She will run forward hard, still shooting, and try to keep people away from the portal.
These people really are the worst. Blackbird isn't wrong about that. The kids sniffle but their mostly quiet - probably terrified after their ordeal. Not to mention it's smokey and smelly in here now. And there's a lady beating the snot out of gang bangers.
The denim crows put up a fight for Blackbird, soon there's just one who's facing off against her. He's got a semi-auto trained right on her chest and his look isn't nice. She can see him pull the trigger.
Giovanni throws up 'shield' as Spidey's paintball comes at him. "I don't think so … My lord is so much more powerful than Plokta … This was a waste of our time and resources." He looks towards to Undeadpool and sighs "And I'm going to hate to leave that behind." But he disappears through the portal "Don't worry, we won't be back. We have what we came for …."
There's one Denim Crow left standing. Her shots as she fires at the running Thea are good. Trained. Precise. Her arm locks up, then her legs as Thea works her power. It will give the SHIELD agent the opening she needs, perhaps.
That leaves Undeadpool and his multiple doppelgangers.
Spider-Woman's attacks on Undeadpool #4 and #5 may provide the clue the heroes are looking for; webbing their heads, they're both pulled off their feet and immobilized. They flail about, reaching for the webbing but are unable to pull it free. Someone had better web up their limbs before they find a way to multiply again.
#2 and #3 are still focused on Silk, but #6 turns and snarls at Spider-Woman. However, rather than attack her, it charges at one of the downed Undeadpools and dives, it's maw latching onto Undeadpool #4's leg, and begins ripping. #4 and #5 seem to have realized what's going on, and start reaching for their own extremities. There are precious few seconds to spare before they succeed in multiplying once more…
Spider-Man grimaced as Giovanni foils him. AGAIN. The portal closes and he lands near where it used to be. He sends through S-Comm, "Giovanni bolted with the other mage. Status of the kids?"
A light bulb comes on over Gwen's head. Not literally, but like, you know, figuratuvely. She had an idea, is what I'm tryin' to say. She immediately begins thwipping out webs, and webs. And webs. Everywhere. Webbing faces. Webbing limbs. Webbing anything that looks like it might be a limb. Webbing things that are probably furniture, but better safe than sorry. Webbing uh…."SORRY SPIDEY!" Releasing THAT web, and continuing. It's a webapalooza up in here.
Blackbird can see that moment. The gun trained, the finger ready to pull on the trigger. The moment of choice. Time to trust the suit. She pulls her cape across her body and dives toward the Crow, bracing herself against the inevitable. She just has to get them down long enough to give the kids a chance to get clear.
Silk's own attempt to thwart Giovanni die as soon as the shield is thrown up, leaving her to observe and calculate her next move. Even as #2 and #3 focus in on Silk and she ducks under one and dodges the other's attack she manages to twist around and web them in the back of the head as Spider-Woman had done, followed by a quick yank, and then utilizing her advantage of the ten spinnerets she has to try and 'hogtie' #2 and #3 as quickly as she can to render them inert.
"Follow Spider-Woman's lead!" She calls. "Hogtie them!"
You know. In case you don't have webbing.
There is a hissed string of curse words in Arabic as Thea gets hit, though it's a graze along her side versus a full penetrative hit from a bullet. With her target so helpfully frozen in place, Thea will return the favor three fold, toward centermass. She will feel around with her powers, looking around and moving to protect her back as she does, making sure there's no one converging on the Spider Gang from behind, figuratively speaking.
Spider-Man is going to have to wait for a response from Blackbird. The sound of weapons fire from within the building might make him worry though. Sharp reports and then … nothing. He can't hear children and he can't hear movement.
The kids with Blackbird though take the chance and file towards the back door where she entered. They're clear - the Denim Crow has to reload. Given the batling another opening.
Thea brings her Crow to the ground. That makes a half dozen on the ground, incapacitated.
"Special Agent Gorman. Sweeps of the area show just that abonimination is active. Please advise if you need a WAND Agent to attend."
Undeadpools #4, #5 and #6 become absolutely covered in Spider-Woman's Massive Web Attack. Within moments, the three become cocooned, and even though they're shoving themselves around inside the webbing, they just can't rip any more pieces of themselves free.
#2 and #3 are yanked off their feet by Silk, and their arms are pulled behind their backs in a web-style hogtie. Let's be honest here, folks… talk of hogtying? It's a really good thing that Wade Wilson is dead right now. Or undead. Or whatever it was Giovanni managed to accomplish through such witchcraft. They're stomping their feet and legs like monsters, trying to bash them hard enough to break one of them free.
As for Deadpool Prime, he's still half snoozing, half moving, where he lie upon the floor. But if he comes to, odds are this whole mess could start over again.
The three clones that were webbed up by Gwen? Suddenly they squeal like aliens, and their bodies just up and disintegrate within their webbing, leaving behind a tangled mess of webwork and a pile of rotted flesh.
Spider-Man grimaced as he waited, then saw Deadpool-Prime shifting around. He decided to play it safe and web him to the ground with the treated webbing, just in case. So, he covered him from neck to toes in webbing.
Blackbird is going to be a black-and-blue bird in short order. The cape helps. The suit helps. But semi-automatic fire is nothing to scoff at for someone whose greatest superpower is interpreting Batman's cryptic silences.
But she has half a moment while the Crow reloads, which is all the time she'll get. There are tears in her cape and her suit, and there's blood on both, but in that moment, she leaps forward to slam the end of her staff up into the underside of his jaw, bringing him down. And her with him.
She's just gonna…lie here for a minute. Catch her breath.
Thea takes the time to reload, just watching, pacing to keep in motion, focusing to stop her side from bleeding while she glances in the direction of the Spider gang, making sure she's not needed for anything urgent.
Silk sees what's happened to 'her' Undeadpools, so, she squints, and says, "Alright." And, she douses her two that she'd webbed up with a ton of more webbing too, to encase them like she'd originally tried, except now they're completly hogtied so they shouldn't be able to bite themselves free again. It also should stop the bashing and slamming of limbs to break themselves free.
She looks up at Spider-Man, to Spider-Woman, to Blackbird, Thea, and says, "This just got a whole lot worse, didn't it?" She sounds - sad, more than upset. Worried. She looks at Undeadpool Prime, and one can hear the frown in her voice. "Can we even help him?"
SpiderGwen, on seeing the disintegration, begins to call out to Spidey, unable to see what he is already doing. "Web him, Spider-Man! Web cover him up, immobilize!!" Her screams garner unwanted attention, as a Denim Crow leans in and a single shot is fired. Sometimes a single shot is all that's needed. There's no time to call out. There's no time to touch her comm. There is only blackness so heavy that she has no hope of lifting it. Then, nothing at all.
The children whimper as Blackbird goes down. They eye her and the door. That's just before Agent Gorman, with his Tom Selleck moustache, strides through the door. "Good work, Blackbird…" he says to the prone woman. There'll be more clean up agents along in a moment to take the kids in hand.
Outside, the Quinjet sets down and a dapper looking man steps from the plane. "Oh my … this is unfortunate indeed." He peers at the webbed up Undeadpool. Who … does that look like he's starting to look a little more normal?
Perhaps the proximity of Giovanni to him affects it …
The zombie threat is neutralized, though the ones wrapped up in Silk's cocoon are still writhing about, rather then disintegrating. Undeadpool Prime, however, has gone very still. It isn't breathing, but it's fingers are slowly moving and flexing, and the eyes… the eyes don't look quite as lifeless anymore.
They look scared.
Spider-Man hears the shot, then turns in time to see her fall. The eye-lenses go wide and he runs over to her. "WOUNDED!" He nearly yelled over the Comm. "Spider-Woman's been shot! Try to find Blackbird!'
Spider-Man ran over to Gwen to see what exactly happened to her and what can be done, a thousand crime scenes flipping through his head. He looks up and around. "HELLP!"
Blackbird manages to raise a hand long enough to give a thumbs up, though it's really more to the kids than to the SHIELD agent. Jesus. Everything hurts. "I'll be up in a minute," she mumbles, starting to take inventory of herself and already running through in her mind what she needs to do to make sure she doesn't get recognized. Including policing her figurative brass, in the form of DNA evidence. She pulls a small canister out of her belt, starting to spray some sort of foam over the wounds for the time being.
Ah, hell. She can hear the shouting from outside that someone is wounded, but getting up is still going to take a minute. "Blackbird in," she says over the comms, struggling to sit up. "Who's down?"
Thea hears the screaming for help, and turns. She'll dart into the building, heading for the bio-sign that is 'Spider-Man' in her head. She'll help Blackbird later, but right now there's bigger wounds to heal. She will slide her gun out of side inside her mildly ruined jacket, feet making soft sounds as she hustles over to Spidey.
Silk looks to Spider-Man, and Thea - then looks to Undeadpool. Leaving the two to tend to SpiderGwen as too many chefs can mess up the kitchen, she instead makes her way over to Undeadpool. She does not seek to free him, but she squats in front of him - new costume and all, no longer the webbing-made costume, "Hey," she calls to him, kindly. "Remember me? We beat up Steve Rogers together. Not the hero. The pervert." She watches his eyes, looking for any sign of personality there, rather than the animal.
For a long moment, Wade's eyes just stare off into the distance, the brown peeking out from behind white film like cataracts. For anyone who's ever dealt with veterans and has seen shell shock, it seems very similar. He still isn't breathing and his body still appears dead, but the glowing red tattoo on his arm (funny, the tattoo grew back) is glowing a bit dimmer than before.
The eyes eventually pivot toward Cindy, and a burst of life comes through, as if for a moment, the essence of Wade is able to break through in a look. It's angry, bordering on manic, but it's also terrified to the point of panic. The man's chest rises once, only to pit a deep cry of horror against his sealed shut mouth, before the eyes lilt away from Cindy and start staring off into space again.
Spider-Gwen lies nearly motionless, save for a slow, shuddering breath as her body's healing has already gone to work. Sometimes all it takes is a little faith to move mountains and surmount the nearly impossible. At this point, holding out her hand in the darkness is all that she has. This is faith. And sometimes…well, sometimes faith is enough.
Spider-Man grasps Spider-Woman's hand, holding it tightly as Thea arrives. "Hang on, G…Spider-Woman…come on…" And all he can think is that if something happens to her, then he got her killed…and no one would ever convince him different.
"…Please, hang on…"
"Well then." The dapper WAND agent comments watching Wade. "Come along then, Miss Spider-Girl, woman, Silk. Whichever one you are. You and Mister … Undeadpool can do this is comfort. I rather think you're on to something here…."
It's going to take a moment before they can load Deadpool and Gwen, and the others, onto the Quinjet but it will soon be winging it's way back to the Tri. Most to the med wing but Deadpool to containment.
Maybe Cindy is onto something.
