Summary:Spidey shares an idea with a friend, sees another return to the heroing life, and the three of them stop a robbery. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
   |
It's been an interesting night. Three muggings, one scam artist trying to pass a bad check, and one rather enterprising drug dealer working out of an old video-rental place. Two of the muggings involved firearms, the rest involves knives and bats.
It was almost pleasant, relaxed, even playful. Part of that was the ease in which they were dealt with. The other…well, that might be the company.
The Angel currently on her shoulder was laughing and even singing every now and then as they spun and dove through the gaps between alleys and skyscrapers. It honestly sounded like she was having fun, even after they'd done this quite a few times. And he always felt like he was seeing Thea as she could have been, the air of a young girl at an age when you could still believe in magic.
He pointed to the flat roof of the Metro Museum of Art. "Want to take a break there?" He sent back to her through the Spider-Comm system. She made sure Thea's was up to date.
The reason it sounded like she was having fun was simple : she was. Thea got to do her thing, and just do it to do it, not because she'd been contracted, or because she was expected to. Add in her growing affection of the familial sort for Peter, it was just a fun night out she couldn't have with most people she knew. It was almost like she could have been, would have been, if her father hadn't chosen for her.
"Don't they have alarms on the roof?" Thea will ask laughingly, a warmth if sound could carry temperature. "I mean, if it's safe, heck yes!" She may like art.
Spidey descended onto the roof, pointing out the camera positions. "I figure they won't mind as long as we don't try to go inside," he says helpfully, unsnapping the harness for Thea to step onto the flat roof. "And I've been here before. Calling the sceutiry people to come up here is a lot of effort for nothing. They can record up having a drink." He reaches into his backpack, taking out a bottle of water for Thea and a plastic bottle of his fave drink, iced tea and lemonade. "I have another Arnold Palmer if you'd like that," he offers, but holds up the water bottle.
Thea steps out and close to the edge, just to admire the view. She smiles, taking the bottle of water. "Water's fine for me, thanks. I drink more water than anything. I don't remember the last time I had a soda or anything like that." She sips at it, just looking down. "Should I enjoy these ride alongs as much as I do?"
Spidey chuckles. "I know I do. It's fun to just let loose, you know? And I get to help people while I'm doing it. I…well, the reason I ask is that I know you're enjoying them. I get the feeling you don't get many opportunities to just…enjoy stuff."
Thea will be silent a long moment, sipping at water and looking away from Peter, down towards the street. "When I manifested, my mother had just died. My father's fix was to send me thousands of miles away. I had some fun, now and then, but the older I got, the more strict the training. Fun wasn't what I was supposed to be doing. "
Spidey sipped his drink, then nodded. "Well, then…it seems we have a lot to catch up on, don't we?" he says witha subtle smile (mask rolled up to drink his drink, natch). "I figure we can go another…three, four hours."
She laughs a little. "Don't you get tired of me tagging along? Literally hitching a ride?" She asks, slanting a look his way. Her eyes are violet tonight, contacts in. The hair is a deep auburn shade, braided back in a complex plait .
Spidey chuckles. "Angel, you might as well weigh as much as thistledown. In fact…I had a question for you." He takes a sheet of paper out of his backpack. "Have you ever used a wingsuit?"
"You do know how to flatter a girl, I'll give you that." She'll say with a smirk curling the lines of her mouth. "A wingsuit? I can't say as I have. I'm usually in formal wear, or blending in for a job. Never had a uniform."
Spidey unfolds the paper. "Wingsuits basically can turn a person into a glider. There are wing-surfaces between the legs, and along the arms. I was thinking about something you could wear, and I came upon an idea for a low-profile wingsuit that will enable you to glide short distances." He hands the unfolded paper to Thea for her to look at.
https://www.fai.org/sites/default/files/sport/image/wingsuit_2.jpg
"You want to turn me into some sort of not really a bird?" She teases, even as she takes the paper. She will tilt it to try and find the best light. "Oh, I've seen these. People jump off cliffs and stuff wearing these. So why is this your idea for me?"
Spidey sounds a little sheepish. "I felt maybe you should have a costume that has an option you can use to travel short distances quickly. Besides…angels can fly."
"I don't know it will let me keep up with you, though." Thea points out, before she will reach out to half hug him. "An Angel I'm not, but this could be useful."
Spidey returns the hug with the non-bottle-holding arm. "And the wing parts engage and disengage, So you can land and move quickly without having the wing parts trip you up." He grins. "I was also thinking about using a webline to slingshot you if you needed to go to some other vantage point to work."
"You've got such a mind for engineering, really. Why are you not being headhunted by the big companies?" Thea will ask him, a glance at him. "A webline slingshot?" There's that grin he's coming to recognize, a glimmer of someone who loves the adrenaline. "Now that sounds like fun."
Spidey chuckles. "It's being worked on. As for myself, I was able to get a job as a lab tech. My problem is, being Spider-Man has made me late for a LOT of classes, so most of the reputable companies would touch with a ten-foot mass spec." He shrugs. "In any case, I wanted you to look at the angel motif design and tell me what you think."
The bodysuit of the costume is white, with low cuffed boots and tactical gloves, both gold. A gold sash rests around the waist. An upper-head cowl is attached to what looks like a gold tiara that looks a lot like a halo.
"You really went with this whole.. angel motif. All the way." She looks it over, a glimmer of amusement across her features. "It's lovely. I don't think it necessarily matches my personality, but I'd be honored to wear it." Thea tells him with a solemn air.
Spidey exhales. "Well…I'd have to get your measurements. I have a few ideas I'd like to work the bugs out of, but it would mean that you could have a way to work with me but not have to go where I go for one reason or another. I might be able to set up some low profile body armor, but if you'd prefer not, I'll work with it. It's just…I really think we can help people. You, too. Something…you can look at and be glad you can do."
There's a flitter of some sort of movement from above, and then, there's a spiderchick, in black, white, and pink. Out of nowhere. "AHA!!" SpiderGwen announces, although there isn't much to aha about. It seemed like the thing to do, at the time. "So you've been hiding out in…plain sight." Not to mention the fact that she could see where they were on her HUD. "I mean, I leave for like, a month, and suddenly you're…" She looks around and shrugs. "Sitting here doing…this." Whatever /this/ is.
"I can get you my measurements. Just need to see my tailor." Thea will tease Spidey with a smile. "Low prof— " She falls quiet at the arrival of someone new that she doesn't know. A brow will arch, a glance at Spidey as her chin lifts just a bit.
Spidey blinks, and then smiles widely. His mask is still only covering the top half of his face, so it's easy to see. "Hey!…Spider-Woman!" He ALMOST said 'Gwennie!' but something kicked and and he realized that might be a bad idea. He does step forward and hug her. 'Cause he had to do SOMETHING.
Then he realized that Thea was excised from the conversation and he needed to fix that. "Spider-Woman…I think you know this lady. We've been talking about getting her into the heroing biz."
Thea blinks, letting her eyes get another look. "Oh, yes. Shoot out in the warehouse. I am glad to see you have fully recovered. Spidey calls me Angel. I'm just here for the ridealong."
SpiderGwen hugs Peter tight with a laugh, then steps back, looking over to Thea. "I know you. We interacted briefly, the night I fell." She doesn't care to give voice to the exact circumstances under which she fell. There's only so much of it she's dealt with, so far, and that isn't yet part of it. "So you wanna be a hero, hmm?" She walks a slow circle around Thea and Peter, a fist to her chin, tapping the spot that would be her lips with one finger, although her face is a blank, save for the eye lenses. She nods once, slowly, at Thea's recognition, then says simply, "Right. That night." Then, a deep breath, and a renewed sense of energy. "Sooooo, how have things beeeeeen?"
Spidey smiles a little more naturally. "Better, actually." He pauses, then remembers the cameras are too low-res for lip-reading and with no audio. He pulls down the mask, though. "Got accepted to college, got started on a lab tech job, watched someone get a job working for Tony Stark…and about a hundred muggings, robberies, attempted rapes, bank jobs, and one human trafficking ring bounced out of the Big Apple." He grins. "So much activity. I'm glad to see you back in action." He raised one arm. "Even got the new suit finished."
Thea just looks at Spidey with a faint smile, perhaps a little happy for him, or proud of him. "And he's just been letting me ride along, doing my own thing when it makes sense to let me do it." She'll shrug.
"Excellent news," Gwen says to Thea with a smile in her voice. "And you," she says to Peter. "I'm SO proud of you. I told you, didn't I? At your graduation. I knew you'd go far. I knew you had it in ya. You're destined for great things. I knew if from the first day I met you." She chuckles. "Well, maybe the second day. Cause the first day, we just got all tangled up, yeah?"
Spidey nodded, still smiling slightly. "Well, you have a bright future ahead of yourself. In any case, I'm developing a low-profile wingsuit for Angel, here." He looked to Thea, then smirked. "Angels gotta fly after all. And I don't know how to give her actual wings." He showed the paper with the wingsuit design to Spider-Woman.
Thea will say nothing, just biting her lip as she watches Spidey. She knows he has a lot ahead of him. He's got so many allies and people willing to work with him. She chuckles when he's saying Angels have to fly. "I don't think you're getting me true flight without help from Ironheart."
"Looks like a great idea," Gwen replies, looking at the design. "I bet it'd work pretty great, as long as you can keep the extra fabric folded out of your way. If anyone can get that sort of logistics going on a suit like that, it's Spidey. You get that, and you're gonna be golden!"
Spidey grins. "I have an idea about that too. We'll see how it shapes up."
He stops as everyone on the Spider-Comm system gets a message. "Store Robbery. Five thieves. Armed and dangerous." A red dot appears on the HUD. Three blocks away."
Spidey quickly folds the paper. "Angel, Spider-Woman…shall we get to work?"
Thea laughs, moving closer to Spidey in order to be able to hook up the harness. "Sounds like another stop on the defeat crime train. You know I am in."
"Sure thing, sounds like a plan!" Spider=Woman dusts off her sleeves and prepares to take to the skies. "It'll be great to get back into action again!"
Spidey latches Thea in, then fires a webline and jumps off, Thea hanging on for the ride, Spider-Woman alongside.
It was supposed to be an easy haul. Tyler was the lookout, Rich and Jack to take care of the cashier, and he and Josh were to handle the manager. Only the manager had hit the alarm. Josh had winged him, but now they had to get out.
"Contacts. Four of them, heading out the entrance of the store. There's one more, ducking into the alley." Spidey swung wide to check the layout and confirm. "Ladies' choice, Spider-Women. Want to handle the quartet, or the straggler?"
"I dunno, maybe you knock down the straggler, then join me? I'll get those four into position for ya, by the time you get back to me." She flits a look back up to Thea, not wanting to involve anyone who was still a little uncertain, till the situation was a little more under control. "Meet me out front when you're ready!" SpiderGwen doesn't hesitate, but instantly swings for the front of the roof, coming down into a crouch as she peers over at the four coming out of the store. She instinctively sends out webnets to cover the fleeing criminals, hoping to trip them up and trap them together.
Thea is along for the ride, but at Gwen's input, she will smirk. "You can just drop me off, Spidey. I'll take on the solo, and leave you guys the other four. Two apiece ought to be enough to amuse you for thirty seconds."
Spidey nods. "Tally-ho!" he crows as he swings towards the alley. "ALICE, that alley goes all the way through to the next block over?"
"Negative. There is construction going on. The alley is blocked off."
Spidey nods and disengages the harness, dropping Thea off at the entrance to the alley, before slingshotting back towards the other four.
Two of the men, Josh and Rich, get caught immediately. Josh doesn't fall over, but Rich does, faceplanting into the web. Josh pivots his waist and aims the pistol up at Gwen, a big Desert Eagle in matte black, and fires at her.
Since she'd been expecting it, Thea is ready. She'll all but run her way out of the harness, thankful she's been working out a lot more lately to be in amazing shape. Even as she tries to close the gap before he hits construction, she will use her powers to drag at the running thief, starving his muscles of oxygenated blood to slow him down.
Gwen sees the gun before he even aims. Something snaps inside her and she goes flat on the rooftop before he can fire. "Sonofa…" Gwen peers over the edge, firing off another net, specifically for Josh, letting it mesh with the other, in hopes of taking him down. "Got a couple of free range robbers out there, Spidey. I'm working on these two." She doesn't mention that they're armed. She figures the gunshot spoke for itself.
Spidey acknowledges with an "OK" through the Spider-Comm, then spots the ringleader and Jack, both carrying pistols. "Got 'em."
Josh's gun arm is brought down by the web and the weight of the weapon, and then it is tethered to the ground. The pavement might complain, but he is unable to shoot at Gwen or anyone else.
Jack is looking for Spider-Man. He didn't know who the bitch-spider was, but where there's one…
Then something the size of a tennis ball hits in front of him and the boss, and he wonders what the heck it is. And then it blows up and throws him against a parked car, webbing him to it. He is barely aware of himself, and is not aware of the boss webbed to the lightpole upside-down across the street from him.
He'll find out later, though.
Thea, however, apparently got the easy job. The alley is deep in before the construction fence boarded over with thick plywood completely blocks the alley to a height of 30 feet.
Then the agonized runner turns around, his back against the wall…and it's a kid. Twelve, maybe thirteen. He is terrified, and his heart is hammering in his chest.
"P-please…I'm sorry…please don't put me in prison…they said they'd pay me a hundred dollars…all I was supposed to do was keep an eye out…"
Thea will pull up a little short. She knows kids this young, even younger, can be criminals. "Oh yeah? A hundred bucks to be a look out, huh?" The terror isn't feigned, Thea can tell that. "You think they're going to pay you know that they're busted?" She'll ask, walking closer.
Gwen bails off the roof, and hits the ground with a quick tumble. She tries to remove firearms from the webbed robbers, and maneuver their arms to zip tie their wrists. "Thanks Spidey, good to know ya have my back!" she calls out to Peter.
Spidey grins. "Likewise. I'll go check on Angel, see what she snagged."
As he leaves, Josh says, "Hey…what say you dump that guy, and then you and I can vacate this scene?"
Spidey rounded the corner as he sees red and blue lights. The cops are here, and that means this mess will not be their…
He comes to the end of the alley to see a kid against the wall, covering his head with his arms.
…PROBLEM.
"Angel, is this the last one?"
"He is. They told him they'd pay him to be look out." She will look back at Spidey, sympathy for the kid splashed wide on her features. "Look, kid. I'm not going to hand you to the cops. But believe me when I tell you if I ever see you in on a mess like this again, I will know it is you, and I will." And then she will reach into a pocket, and offer the kid a few twenties. "Now lay low until the cops are gone."
"I appreciate the sentiment. REALLY, I do. But he's my main SQUEEZE, if ya know what I mean," Gwen fibs. "And no chick lucky enough to get a guy like Spider-Man would /ever/ willingly let him go. Least of all for a skeeze like you." For emphasis, she tightens the ziptie, maybe just a LITTLE too tight, and walks back to the point where she can see Spidey and Angel. She stops short, just watching.
Spidey nods, then cocks his head. Danger.
Then, from the street, he hears running feet. He looks around. Nothing. No fire escape, no Dumpster. This alley must have been cleared out prior to the construction.
He looked back to the mouth of the alley. The cops were going to come in here, and they were going to find this kid…and arrest him, stick him in a cell. And his life would be over.
He suddenly grabbed the kid, hissed, "STAY LOOSE." And then he THREW HIM straight up. When the kid reached the height of the roof ledge, Spidey fired a web to keep him there.
He looked to Thea and Gwen. "He got away," he said quietly, as the cops drew closer…
Thea doesn't even blink, her expression bland and then slowly shading disappointed. "Well, that's just a shame." She manages to not smile, but Spidey knows exactly what she's thinking. "But shouldn't you guys get out of here? The cops have no interest in me."
Gwen looks between Thea and Spidey, and shrugs at the explanation. She turns her head and looks in the direction of the police. "Fair enough."
Two officers enter the alleyway, frowning as they see the trio there…but no kid.
To Spidey's surprise…they lower their weapons. "All right, Spider-Man…where's the lookout? CCTV has him coming into this alley."
"Climbed the fence. I think he might have been a monkey mutant. This citizen saw it, too."
The cops frown. "GREAT. Well…at least we got the other four. That'll have to satisfy the judge." One of the cops looks at Gwen, then at Spidey. "Bounty's off, right?"
"Yeah. Judge put in the order a week ago." He looked at Spidey. "Beat feet, you two." He looked to Thea, then said, "Ma'am, I'm sorry, but you'll have to leave. This is now a crime scene." He eyes Gwen. "A MESSY crime scene."
Thea will give the officers her most innocent expression. "I saw the guy running. I tried to catch up but.. he was just so fast." She will move to walk away, as if leaving the scene like a disappointed do-gooder. Spidey knows where to find her
"Hey, /I/ can't help it if those guys were so excited to see me that they—" Gwen shoots a look at Spidey, then shrugs. Better left unsaid. "A'right, fine, I'll take off. You boys have a good night, and be sure to stop by King's Donuts for a round on me. It'll already be paid for." Gwen fires off a web and swings up and out of the alley.
The cops head back out as Thea leaves as well. Spidey is a little bummed. She was going to have to get home the old-fashioned way.
He sent a subvocalized message to Thea and Gwen through Spider-Comm. "I will see to taking the kid home. I think he's had enough of the criminal life. I'll keep you all posted."