Summary:Scarlet Spider is persued by some high tech junkies who want their drugs back. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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A lazy Sunday, that's what would do the trick. Get a person out of a funk with a little gallery hopping, maybe hit that Cuban spot on the way back home. Catch a movie, nothing too strenuous, right? Riiiiiiight. Because that always works out. Luckily, most people aren't Ben Reilly. Most people are currently in the middle of enjoying their day. And why shouldn't they? The sun is out, there's a nice breeze. Clear skies, perfect temperature…
"S'cuse me! Oop!" A blur zips past a young man carrying a crate of oranges. There's always a guy carrying something at a time like this. A series of curses follows the man currently webswinging down from the rooftops to hit the sidewalk in a tumble. Rolling hard, his back hits a parked Audi. The alarm barking immediately in protest. A street clothes clad young man with half a scarlet and white mask concealing the top half of his head, now pointing at the sky. "Get those oranges to safety, man!"
ZZAATT! The first beam of orange light hits the sidewalk, scorching concrete with a sizzle. The young man with the fruit looks up, slow and cautious to the skies in time to see the six gleaming warriors descending upon them from ten stories up. Brilliant steel chariots with zero-grav pods and rocket powered surfboards. Electric eyed cyborgs, howling threats of drug induced mania.
Sunday just went from lazy to weird.
Silk had been web-slinging her way to work - if one could call it such - when she'd spotted those chariots in the sky. That looked like trouble. And, a few more ziplines, and swings revealed the cascading orange light of weaponry being shot down onto the streets below. That was all Silk needed.
The fully costumed hero in dark black, white, and red swung forwards, using her momentum to catapult herself as high as she can before reaching out a hand and casting a webline from her fingertips at one of the cyborgs, seeking to pull it from it's comfortable position on high.
Since Riri'd managed to land her dream job, it took a lot to pry her out of her lab. Well, except for the test flights. And occasionally actually going home to shower. But reports of some kind of energy weapon fire and flying bad guys? That's definitely Ironheart business. Cue the suiting up montage, an elevator ride to the roof, and Ironheart takes to the skies. Arcing up into the sky over Stark Industries, she gains enough altitude for her sensor package to lock onto the moving firefight. "There you are."
The first warning any of said flying cyborgs would have would be the characteristic tearing hiss of repulsors in flight mode, before one of them is clotheslined off their ride by a suit of power armor going half again as fast. Ironheart whoops, corkscrewing a bit from the uneven impact, before she recovers and comes around for another pass. Target lock indicators blink around the intruders, and Riri looses a repulsor bream at the lead hoverboard. If she can attract their attention and pull them into a less inhabited part of the city…
Sunday's pretty much the best day to go cosplaying. At least that's Chava's belief. And so she does it. This weekend she has opted for something classic: Toph from Avatar, the flexible and wide clothes making it easier to hide some of her stocky nature and her short body height somewhat befitting the inspiration. Just another sunday at which she could slip into the skin of someone else. Someone that actually had a reputation - even if it was to be a popular character from a cartoon. But then…
ZAT! Something hit the pavement on the other side of the road, spiders appeared and dang, hell breaks loose. And poor Toph… eh… Chava wasn't toph and couldn't by far throw earth at them! No, only that cape of hers and what to her looked like the uniforms of the cyberpunks. With a little growl the short fake-earthbender started to storm over the street, dodging cars for the moment, the green and yellow clothes waving in the wind her movement and the fliers created as she tried to get into range to the attackers. The'd need to fly low though…
Ben's head spins. Whatever the Narcoriders gassed him with up there is decidedly not going to make his day any easier. They remember him, of course. On their way to raid a SHIELD installation of its experimental drugs, they just happened to spot Ben buying a tostada from a taco truck. There is bad history there. Ben just doesn't remember it. Quickly, he pulls his mask down all the way. Solid red. White eye shields. Distinct. "You guys are NOT invited to my birthday party anymore! There was gonna be a bounce house!" Pointing accusingly at his attackers, Ben yelps and ducks a blast that punches through the car door where his head once dented. "AND BEER!" There wasn't go to be either of those things. Another shot zips at him, the masked Scarlet Spider barely avoids that as he's slowed considerably by sluggish euphoria.
Two streamlined, brilliantly polished hover chariots cross paths in a winding pattern between the brownstones, galleries and light posts. Two… things… on each. Likely people. People-ish. It's hard to tell with all the neon latex, outrageous metallic add-ons, hoses and speakers. The 'music' they blast outward is headache inducing at best. A web line catches one of the riders in the back, yanking him off the sled with a high pitched shriek. The pilot circling back in time to see Riri suddenly blast the hoverboard out from between the legs of the advance unit. It sails into a van with a loud POP. The pilot? Falling onto another boarder as they all retrain focus… two of them going right for Chava. Why? Because most everybody else is running -away-. Looks like Ben included!
"You guys got this, right?! Awesome!" Says the masked man stumble-falling against a mailbox.
It's a quick matter to cast a few more weblines to her target as she swings him down and around to stick him, literally, to the side of the nearest building with her super-fast reflexes, but even then she's lost some height as each singular moment is precious in a sky-battle.
Another webline is cast, this time towards the underside of one of the gliders, her other hand streches out to cast another couple of weblines to the nearest building, and then she's pulling, hard, to send one of the gliders out of control.
Is that… Well, that makes two spiders. Silk is recognizable from when Riri fought Crossbones, but the other one's new. She turns on her external speakers with a few eye movements. "What'd you do to piss these guys off?" The boards look more maneuverable, so focus on those… Her trajectory wobbles a bit when she switches her right hand repulsor into combat mode again, the armored teen firing repeatedly at the right 'flank' of the attackers. Knock them off, hopefully let the impact knock them out. "Silk, You take the left ones?"
Chava-Toph stops on the hood of a Chevie that has halted in the road, its driver having bailed at the blasts hitting the sidewalk and seeking shelter. It looks like some classic kung-Fu stance, one hand close to her face, the other arm stretched out, the hand halfway open. She waits, just long enough for one of the sky-bikers to get into what she considers range… and then her outstretched hand closes and she pulls it back, the other hand darting forward, her mind reaching for the latex pants of the pilot and giving it a pull backwards. Not that she was more than human strong, but on a physical grip, it would be enough to try an evil wedgie…
The grav pods hum with a frequency that can make teeth vibrate. It's an odd sensation being close to them and when Silk zips in, dispatching the first cybernetic drug raider, gets a first hand experience in it as one floats quickly past. In the narrow street corridor, this air born battle solidifies. Silk's webline catches a board, the rider having not a single chance at salvaging his balance. Metal shrieks and so does the rider as he cartwheels wildly off the board through the air. Ben, trying to hold himself up on a streetlight post, cheers. "Yeah! That's what you get!" He lifts his arm to attempt a shot with his web shooters, loses balance and almost faceplants.
"He STOLE the Holy Needle! THIEF! Interloper!" The remaining sky stoners roar insults and accusations. Ben? He waves dismissively and tries to crawl toward a truck. "I don't know what a Holy Needle is!" The masked man defends. Repulsor blasts catching a mohawked cyber rider in his own flank, sending him through an apartment window. He's not getting back up.
Chava and that latex mastery. It was not expected. Definitely not by the rider that was barreling at the back of Ironheart, only to take a sudden nose dive. Blasting that chariot straight down into a vacant taxi. The results are explosive and colorful to say the least.
Another webshot provides a pillowed air-bank of webbing on the ground that will both cushion the plummeter's fall, as well as entrap him in her webbing, even as Silk is forced downwards by the grav pods of the flying machines.
A few more weblines are cast upwards, "Who are these guys?!" She asks aloud to Riri, though Ben and Chava can likely both hear her as well.
Then she does something Ben possibly may have never seen before? She weblines up, as quickly as she can - which is quicker than either him, or Spider-Man, and then at the high point, she splays out both arms, and all ten fingers. From each finger, a webline is cast, making an honest-to-goodness spider-web, with her as the fulcrum point between them, holding onto each. She may trap a fly or two, but the rest are going to have to do some crafy manuevers to get around it, or target her. She's fine with any of that. It will buy Ben some time to get away and recover, and it will buy Riri, and the other costumed girl she doesn't know further chance to act if it all goes down right.
"I have no idea!" is Riri's response to Silk as she looks over to the spider- "Alert, Rear." The voice of her suit systems gives her just enough tome to snap-roll sideways and avoid the incoming fire. Any chance to observe the ensuing fireball is also cut off by "Alert, Front," and the armored teen has to rapidly pull up, arms stretched out in front, repulsors blazing as she brakes to a hover just in time to avoid getting caught herself. Turning around to face the oncoming fliers, her eyes flick from target to target. "Okay, Who's first?"
Having one off the boards, Chava jumped off the hood of the vehicle, trying to avoid the shrapnell of the machines flying apart. And she was on her way over to the other side, to where she dropped the guy. Zapping civillians? Not with her! She was going to make him pay…
Whatever Ben got a whiff of has really done a number on him. Balance gone, Spider-sense out of whack and feeling… actually, pretty good. Small blessing, right? Using the truck to ground his senses as best he can, Ben Reilly is a little stunned when he sees Silk do what she do. Eyes wide, he pauses. Clutching the front fender for dear life. "Heeeeeeey, that's-" Ben stumbles, takes a knee and waggles a finger up at the vast web now overhead. "That's actually really neat. A little jealous. A lot dizzy."
Cutting the direction of UP from the options of pilots is generally seen as a pretty mean thing to do. Luckily for all of them, these particular sky junkies deserved the brunt of it. Deserved it and are now absolutely frantic. The two remaining cybernetic combatants have to fly low, unable to maneuver well between the webbing above and the cars, posts and heroes around them.
Pulling himself up again, a little of the numbness fading. "They're Narco-something-or-others! From a dream some Hell's Angel had in the early 70's! They shoot drug lasers!" Ben furrows his brows. "Huh. Guess I do remember them. YIKES!" Ducking a blast, Scarlet Spider points at Chava suddenly. "Wait, wait, wait. Are you a cartoon or am I really that whacked out? And is it just me or is Iron Man looking WAY slimmer?!" Ben ducks again as another blast just barely misses him. The chariot rider making a straight line at Riri, dart blaster firing rapid needleshot at her armored self as the last remaining boarder tries to make it past Silk and get a clear shot on Chava.
Silk continues to hold the massive web, to ensure absolute chaos among the remaining members on their high-tech anti-grav vehicles. She'll wait a few more moments, to give Riri and Chava that final opportunity to spring their own attack admist the confusion and frantic regrouping they're trying to undergo.
It's only after those precious few moments pass and the others can act does Silk drop from her vantage point, swinging just enough to the side to land on one of the low flying chariots. "Tag, you're it," she tells one of the two on the chariot, as she hits one, and ducks, then hits the other.
Another series of webs are shot out in front of them, to capture and hold the vehicle, and the men as she jumps off, sticking to the side of the nearby building she's using as the capture point.
Riri's HUD flashes as the flechettes bounce off her armor, highlighting the incoming chariot as the biggest threat. "Guess it's you, then." Both hands come up, repulsors charging with a rising whine, and she unleashes a dual beam directly into the oncoming vehicle. "Calling dibs on a couple of their weapons once this is over, by the way!" …Wait, did he say /drug lasers/?
Chava Kang just seemed to ignore ben as he called her a cartoon, passing him to eye for one of the remaining pilots that are still in the air. Again she assumed a position, reaching out, waiting… and this time yanking the trousers more back and down than back and up, trying to once more dismount one before seeking shelter next to a car to avoid getting hit with a druglaser. "That's cosplay, you color-mixed-up-spider-man!"
Chaos. That about sums it up. Web lines everywhere, the smell of superheated metal in the air, a low hanging mist on the street around the impact points of the drug fueled riders. Yes, that's right. Some of them got hit so hard it knocked the high out of them. Ben Reilly, half crouched in the street at full arms length from a small, blue compact car. Fingertips on the fender. Just incase. "Wow. These guys really were mad. Heh. Sucks to be them. Whoa." A stutter step and he pulls in close to the vehicle until he gets his legs back.
Ben watches as the chariot rider races past him, a crude hand gesture thrown at Ben as they passed. "Uncool, dude." Scarlet Spider says just before their date with destiny. Destiny being the absolute mayhem that Ironheart and Silk brought them. Silk lands, strikes once and then twice. Just a fraction of a second before the double beam blast punched through the chariot. Both riders snatched free and webbed to the side of a building. One upside down. Very unhappy looking.
The last of the riders seeing the fate of his comrades, turns in mid air. Attempting a slick get away only to be pummeled by his own pants. Tumbling off the side of the board toward the ground below, board hitting the street in a clatter as Riri gets showered in bits of flaming sky sled.
Once all the riders are down, Silk lands neatly onto the ground, looking about at the wreckage, and the weblines. Those will dissolve soon enough, but not before the authorities can get them down and confine them. She gives a thumbs-up to Ironheart, then another to Chava before looking over at Ben, realizing that he's in a mask and - maybe? costume? Not that her original costume was much better.
"Hi," she offers. "Everything okay down here?"
Riri wobbles preariously as the shockwave hits, before cutting thrust and dropping to the street in the classic 'superhero landing' pose. It's only /minor/ damage to the roadway compared to the rest of what's been going on. Rising to her feet again, she turns and somehow manages to stare at Ben despite her suit's glowing blue eyeslits not really having pupils or anything. (Is it still a steely gaze if there's not really much steel in the armor?) "Sooo… Care to explain what's going on?" The voice is somewhat modulated by the helmet electronics, but it's /definitely/ not Iron Man. Her armor's paint is scratched and scorched, bare metal showing through in places, but she's pretty much intact. And it's definitely a her. "Good to see you again, Silk."
Chava scoffs as she gives the last, falling guy a break with the trousers, just making sure that he wouldn't break his skull to shatters before she lets him go, hoping that the mere hit would keep him KO. "I'm ok, something that he can't say about himself." She points to Ben, then eyes up Silk and Ironheart, tapping her chin. "Gosh, I can't wear spandex. Looks like a sausage on me… and armor is kinda constricting…"
Explosions mostly over, all dreamscape escapees captive for the time being, Ben Reilly slumps down to the asphalt. Back against the truck tire. Exhausted, head in the clouds and a little out of sorts but uninjured. He rolls the mask up past his mouth. A lopsided smile offered to Silk. "Oh, I'm doing fantastic. Great work with the webs and the flipping and the stuff." He says, offering his own thumbs up. Costume? Yeah. The mask. The rest? T-shirt and jeans. Beat up red Pumas left untied. Definitely could use work.
The CLANK of Riri's armored landing draws Ben's attention, a light chuckle as he draws his feet in, knees up. Forearms resting atop said knees, one web shooter visible on his left wrist. He gives a little wave to the steely eyed Ironheart before bowing his head. "Whew. What a day. Uhhhh… far as I can tell, those guys popped out of thin air, didn't like me one bit and then made a big mess. Which is really rude." A brow arches under t he mask. "You buy that at all?"
Rolling his head to the side, he upnods Chava. Chin scruffy, unshaven. "Hey. That you with the pointing and the pants thing? Weird as Hell. Worked though." He frowns a tad bit. "And don't call me Spider-Man. I'm out here trying to not get sued, you know? You guys all good? Nobody hurt or tripping like whoa?"
Silk snap-points at Ben. "You're the one Spider-Man told me about. Scarlet Spider." Beneath her red veil, she smiles - and while that's impossible to see, there's a certain look in her eyes that reflectsthat smile too. "I've been wanting to meet you, and say hi. I'm Silk." She gestures, "This is Ironheart. And —- I don't know the girl dressed in the green robes. But, hi to you too," she says to Chava.
"Thanks, though," she says turning her attention back to Ben. "Glad I was in the neighborhood. But if you're the Scarlet Spider, why weren't you - you know, making with the weblines, and the thwip thwip?" Curious.
"I just showed up when someone reported weird energy weapons and flying crazy people." Riri shrugs one armored shoulder with a whine of actuators. "Good to see you again, Silk." And back to Ben. "More to the point, are /you/ okay? You were the one getting shot at and everything. Do I need to call an ambulance or something? I'm okay in here, I've got pretty good filters."
"Gosh, you ought to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender, Silk. Totally awesome show. Then you'd know that I wear Toph today." Chava comments, propping her hands in the sides, definitly not blind and not an earthbender, more having kind of immitated what might have been airbending… but in fact was clothbending. "I'm fine."
That smile of his tugs wide, toothy and a little bloody from a knock to the head. Ben fires back with his own two finger-gun bang-bang! "Ahhhh, yeah. That's me. Was me. Was. Semi-retired." He says, lifting a finger in point. "Silk, I'd get up but my legs feel like taffy and not in a fun way. Seen you on the news the other day." He says. Keeping tabs on the Spiders via media is a little hobby. A weird one.
"Ironheart? That's an awesome name. Does Iron Man know you do the… you know?" He makes the palm blast motions. Looking at her with masked side-eye. Eventually he just chuckles under a breath, turns his head to spit the taste of blood from his mouth and give an enthusiastic thums up. "I'm solid. Gas is wearing off as we speak. Nooooo ambulance. No cops. No Shield. No tomatoes, hold the mustard." He says, starting to push himself up in a sudden hurry.
"Avatar! AH HA! I knew it!" He says triumphantly, waggling a pointed finger at Chava before gesturing to come closer. So he can lean on somebody. Human crutches are cost effective. "Seriously though. The pants thing. I'm gonna tell people about that for years. It was awesome."
Looking back over shoulder, he jabs a thumb toward some wall-webbed cybernetic deviants. "Pretty sure those guys aren't even real though. Dream constructs bleed out after a while, I think? I dunno, man. It's all too weird. Anybody know the time?"
"Good to see you again, Ironheart," Silk agrees. "The man we helped, by the way, is - well, mostly okay. He survived," she shares with Riri.
There's a followup glance of mild confusion to Chava, though. "Haven't watched TV in years," she admits. "Sorry? But, the costume seems to work for you, regardless." Another thumb's up.
She looks to Ben, "Authorities will be here soon. Probably best I'm not here either. Need a ride up to a rooftop until you finish getting your bearings?"
Pause. "About 4:30."
"Yeah, he does. Actually intercepted me after my first flight in the suit and hired me." Riri grins inside her helmet, reaching down and hauling Ben to his feet. "C'mon, Up you get. Even if I don't call anyone, Cops and SHIELD are going to be all over here in a few minutes." She guides Ben over to Silk. Spiders know how to take care of eachother, right? "Thanks for the update, Silk. I've got an email address for Ironheart if you want to send me more info. But I should probably go too." She gives them one final nod before taking a few steps back, arms down at her side, and blasting skyward where she disappears up into the blue.
Ben squints under the mask. Things jumbled. The webs in his head fading but still a bit slow. "Up? Oh. Right. Yeah." He lifts his wrists, wobble wobble of the webshooters as he offers a wry, lazy smirk. "Ran out of gas. That'd be fantastic. Suuuuuuper jealous of the web fingers still, by the way. I seen that. Yes, I did."
An upnod to Riri then as she helps haul him to his feet. He pauses for a moment, quiet. Getting his bearings before an enthusiastic thumbs up. "I'm good. I'm good. Hired you just like that, huh? Put in a word for me, yeah? I make a mean cup of coffee." Helped over toward Silk, Ben watches her fly off. Just like that. Zip.
"I absolutely need to get those shoes." He says, shaking his head. A little salute to Chava and it's time to skeedaddle before the authorities come. Like you do after fighting cybernetic dream mutants from… yeah.