Summary:Two Spiders and a Hacker track down some no-good ninjas. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Gwen is sitting beside Anya, up on the roof of Hammertech; there's a Daisy Johnson down in the streets, in a van. When last we left our heroes they were busy hacking up a storm against some shadowy, internet types, who are employing ninjas. Or maybe it's the ninjas employing hackers. Who knows? Either way, Gwen has been doing what Anya told her, right up until the moment when her poor computer got the fried-egg treatment.
<Whelp. My computer is out, so I'm basically just here to punch stuff now,> Gwen comments, including Daisy in the conversation (or, 'Skye', perhaps). <Well, Spider-Girl, you're the one who knows what she's doing better than I. What's the next plan? Got any hot ideas, Skye?>
*
Any ideas? <If you two can't handle this on your own then is there some sort of Hero Hotline you can look to for support? I might say to call the police but for all we know they're a part of the problem.>
Skye is a little too proud to openly admit that she doesn't have any powers to speak of and can't hold her own in a fight. Instead she focuses on what strengths remain. <I can try to get into local security, shut things down or give 'em a distraction. Maybe trigger the fire suppression. I'm also pretty decent at moral support, so… You guys got this! Go team!>
Maybe she should start carrying pepper spray or a taser or something…
*
<Do that.> Spider-Girl has already tied the connection into the cellular relay running through her burner phone, bypassing the Spider-Net's usual connection and pairing both she and Gwen's masks into her own VPN.
"Let's go," she says to Gwen, and immediately starts shoving her laptop away into her backpack.
<Skye, we're underway.> The tech inside her own mask is translating the speech to text, for Anya's already leapt from the Hammertech building and is building up momentum with long, hard pendulums. <Get on it and see what kind of damage you can do. When we're close, I'll alert you.>
Triggering the comm to mute Skye from what she says next, she's now talking to Gwen. <One step closer, Gwen. We just gotta get there, see if we can find that leader. What was her name?>
*
<Tessa Winchester.> Gwen follows Anya off the side of the building with a running leap, letting herself plummet a long distance to build up speed before she shoots a webline and mirrors Anya's actions. <Her name was Tessa Winchester, or at least, that's what the chick in the alley said before she got stabbed, it might be an assumed name.>
Gwen settles herself into an easy rhythm of webslinging, following the other spider through the city streets.
<Hey, Skye,> she inquires, looping their most recent acquaintance back into the comms, <Are you planning on staying put or following? And for that matter, where are you now? …We've both equipped for a fight, but if anything comes your way and we need to help you, it'd be cool to know where you're at ahead of time, just in case, yeah?>
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<Yah. Hey, I'm not about to miss out on this! Just..give me a few. Some of us still have to deal with traffic.>
It's a quick hop from the back of Skye's van to the front. The decades old engine cranking over is almost music to her ears because it means getting some warm air back into the cabin! Already she's fallen way behind the two Spiders but with the GPS already set she is good to go and even has enough fuel for the journey. It's the little things in life.
<I'm about a block away from the Hammer building. Older powder blue van with a white roof, pretty easy to spot around all of these fancy new jellybeans. It's good for being a makeshift ambulance but I'm gonna keep a little distance, if they find me all I can do is lock the doors and cross my fingers. Any heavy lifting is up to you both.>
Aah, blessed warmth… And holy crap she's working alongside two powers!
*
<Okay.> Meanwhile, Anya is entering commands to her spider-drone via left hand, the fingers dashing through the air on an invisible keyboard. <We'll flank the building and do some advanced recon. Stand by.>
Those two missions she went on with SHIELD seem to have taught her something!
The spiders will be the first to arrive. Anya slows herself and lands upon the side of a wall, high near the roof. The black drone comes to a rest next to her, but she leaves the comm open for Skye to hear.
<Spider-Woman, try and find a safe place for Skye to park. I'm sending Arana in. Arana? Operacion sigilosa, reconocimiento completo."
The spider-drone's external illumination is extinguished, and it starts descending slowly toward the building, so as to create as little rotor noise as possible.
*
<Got it.> Gwen follows along behind Anya, until they get close to the target building. It's an older building; brick facade, shops on the ground floor with residences taking up four floor above that, and old iron fire escapes provided for each set of apartments. Gwen stops on the building across the street, crouching as she takes a look.
<Alright, Skye… there's a couple back alleys, here and here.> She marks them on the comms; both can be got at from a block away, so she'll never have to drive across the gront of the target building, at least. <Be careful, I'd be shocked right through time and space if they didn't know we were coming.>
Anya's drone is going to get some very interesting footage. There's definitely a presence here; the target building has been converted inside. Three stacks of residences have been bought out it looks like, making twelve apartments that have had walls knocked out to make a large… workshop, perhaps? Once you look past the facade windows, which make it look like there's just ordinary household stuff going on inside until you get right close to them, it's clear that something is up. There's a lot of machinery, and a cradle for something big, that's… not there.
Oh, and there's ninjas. Like a lot of ninjas. All the ninjas are here, and they're heavily armed with everything ranging from traditional swords and the like, all the way up to somene with literally a minigun. Is that even legal?
*
It's hard not to daydream about what it'd be like sailing through the air and catching buildings for propulsion. It's a brave new world out there but beyond all of her fancy computer tech she's still a century behind when it comes to transportation. Skye will be not-so-fashionably late but the information on the alleys is given a <Got 'em> from her before she finds somewhere to park the larger vehicle.
She kills the engine and hops into the back again, hands immediately going for the keyboards as she starts sniffing out for available security that could easily be hijacked. She wants to start with a wide blanket first, try to make sure that nothing sneaks up on any of them from the outside. She can work on closing the net from there.
<I'm gonna be blind for a while here, watch your steps.> She's got some catching up to do and a lot of different systems to try and coordinate!
*
<Not really,> Anya replies to Skye over the comms. Blind? Hah. <Open 121.99.408.07.> It's an IP address, and Arana the Spider Drone's feed is located there.
In addition to multiple camera angles, the drone's EM and IR relays are available, each of them overlaid upon the video; red tones for the IR, purple for the EM, each of them easily toggled by interactive buttons on the screen.
<Are you girls seeing this?> Anya creeps along the wall slowly; the drone's programming borders on AI, and is currently directing itself. It's designed to get a full layout without literally going into the building, but it also responds defensively any time an IR signature (a person) comes close to one of the windows. <These bitches been burning that midnight oil.>
When the large object comes into view, she frowns. <What the hell is that?> With her left hand, she tags the large cradle.
*
Gwen sinks lower on her rooftop, using the brick facade for cover. Not that she can see overly much from where she is. <Uhm, I dunno, I can't see it.> Wait a minute. She patches her own spider comms into the IP address Anya gave, and whistles. <Well. That's a thing. Also, that's a lot of firepower.>
<Hey, Skye, your van. It wouldn't happen to be bullet-proof, would it?> Gwen moves to where she can keep an eye on said van, and watch the building front at the same time. <The thing, we're looking at. It looks like it's just… I'unno, a pedestal or something, for something else. Something that isn't even there right now.> She pauses, watching the feed. <Also, I count at least thirty of those ninja-chicks. And can I say again, that's a lot of firepower they have there? Like, that's ridiculous, we don't want them opening up with that around here, there's civilians and stuff.>
Inside the building, the various ninjas are moving around, doing their various things; keeping guard, maintaining weaponry, one is having a smoke… Oh, and one of them is sitting in front of a bank of monitors, that seems to be constantly flipping between a wide aray of cameras. One of those cameras shows a white-clade figure dart in front of it; and it's a motion that the person attending it picks up on, and rewinds for another look, and then one more.
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Aroo? It only takes a second for Skye to punch in the supplied IP then half a second more for her eyes to widen. "She has a Spider-Drone als—c'mon, Skye. Of course she does." Trying to play it a bit more cool with the others, <I've flown one of these before.> And this one seems to be following a predetermined flight path or something. The owner couldn't be piloting the drone AND creeping around on the side of a building, could she?
Skye frowns. "Okay. This won't do." It's Spider-Drone hacking time.
While it continues to pilot itself she keeps glancing to the monitor feed, only hesitating upon seeing the cradle and the Big Friggin' Gun. <Ooooh..WOW. This is all starting to look like a scene out of Predator. Unless that gun has a Bluetooth link you're all on your own.>
They did warn her this could get dangerous! They warned her and she went ahead and tagged along regardless. It's all really exciting but actually seeing what they're all up against is a fairly sobering experience. She's suddenly very glad to be parked in an alley and not out on the street.
<Bullet-proof, are you kidding? It's not in my budget to armor up the rust. It's a good day when I can top off the tank.>
Between trying to hack the drone and keep up with all of the existing feeds she doesn't catch sight of someone -else- catching sight of one of the Spiders.
*
Meanwhile, Spider-Girl has shrugged one strap of her backpack off a shoulder, and is eating. Yes… eating. She has a feeling she's gonna need the fuel. Protein bars are a thing of beauty.
<No chopper, at least,> Anya quips. Which is a damn shame; she does a great Arnold impression. <Something that's not there, yeah… or something that's not there yet. You know, like…>
Now's not the time to start talking about quantum mechanics and trans-dimensional barriers, Anya.
<… something. Okay, okay. Look, we either creep around, get a good look, and we get some backup in here, or we do this smart.> She pauses and takes a deep breath, before making her suggestion.
<Backup.>
*
Gwen is happy crouching behind the facade and looking from her current vantage point, just peeking over the top. At least there doesn't seem to be anything going on other than just a bunch of people who are clearly appropriating Japanese culture without permission and otherwise just milling around purposelessly. Or something.
<Does that seem like a lot of ninjas to anyone? It seems like a lot of ninjas,> she comments. <I mean seriously, where's the money coming from for all this? There can't just be a bunch of ninjas hanging around for the fun of i-WOAH!!>
Gwen's danger-sense practically screams in her head and she jumps to one side, just in time for a bullet to not so much ricochet off the roof beside her, as to make a big hole in it, large enough for her to stick her arm through into the apartment below. She doesn't waste any time running to the edge of hte building and diving over the edge, using a webline to pull herself back to the wall and stick there. <Someone just took a shot at me!> she reports. <With a really big bullet. Skye, be ready to move in a hurry.>
Somewhere, there is a sniper. At least one sniper, and they've got a silencer. In the workshop, the woman watching the cameras has just observed Spider-Woman jumping off the side of the building; she's busy with her keyboard and mouse, setting another camera to search for where she went. Meanwhile, the cameras are all coming alive and searching more actively. One of them is definitely scouring the area where Anya is hanging out; and another one is checking out the alleyways. There's a van that gets passed over, but nobody seems to be paying much attention to it just yet.
*
Backup. <Got anyone in mind?> Because Skye sure doesn't! For investigations there's a few names on the list but for straight-up fighting there is plenty of room for improvement.
<Yah that -totally- seems like a lot of ninjas. I don't get it, either. What's so important about that platform thing that they need to call in so much firepower?> For that matter she never did figure out exactly what the deal was with Hammer Industries or what any of these people really wanted… She got caught up in the excitement of the moment. Duking it out on the dark web is one thing but all of this..?
The building's old enough that she probably can't start messing with the breakers or the sprinklers without it being in person. If there's a distraction then she might be able to access their systems. However, for the moment..she'll take her victories where she can get them.
There's barely time for a smirk before she fumbles for a nearby game controller. "Hello, little guy." Someone has a new drone to play with.
The timing couldn't be better, in the next instant Gwen's getting shot at. Skye's blood runs cold at the thought. Aren't the Spiders like -super- hard to get the drop on? <Hang in there, I'm looking for 'em!>
Changing the drone's view is simple. A bit of thermal vision, a search up high for someone with a gun, it should be easy! Yeah. Totally simple.
<It looks like the hive has just been kicked, you guys. If we're running we should probably do it now!>
*
<I got a few on speed dial,> Anya answers Skye, and the smirk on her face is audible over the comm. <Whatever it is, it's important, in the 'really fucking bad' way. We->
Her voice cuts off when Gwen cries out, and she's quickly scrambling for shadow. "Damnit!" she says off comms, and is about to give Arana a new command, when… the drone does something it wasn't programmed to do.
<Did you just-> she starts, but when the drone finds the sniper, she shoves her ego back where it belongs, and is already scrambling up toward the roof. <You just keep Arana on that sniper!>
With a flip, Spider-Girl crests the rooftop and makes a beeline dash toward the sniper. She's alarmingly fast! The sniper is on the neighboring rooftop; just before reaching the edge of her rooftop, she tumbles forward and vaults herself off the roof with her hands, twisting about in the air to make herself a more difficult shot.
Someone was a gymnast in High School!
*
The drone has, indeed, found the sniper; following the shape of the hole the first bullet left in the roof made it relatively easy to figure out which building it was coming fron, anyway. The sniper has a concealed nest set up and is using a big gun. It's not a fifty cal, but it's close enough. She's busy lining up another shot, and fires, with a 'pfft' sound; other than that and the click of the action,you wouldn't hear anything unless you were close. Well, that and the sound of a shell coming out of the chamber and landing on the floor.
But hey, at least it's bolt action.
<CRIPES!> Gwen yells; another scream in her brain sends her leaping off the wall in a sufficient hurry that she lands pretty hard on top of a dumpster (which brings a mostly unintelligable, drunken complaint from inside.) <They don't like me!> she comments. <Either of you got eyeballs on—> She leaps to the side again, as another round punches through the wall and almost hits her. <Skye? SG? Please get the sniper.>
Skye and Spider-Girl may indeed have found the sniper, but the sniper has also found Anya; or at least, someone has alerted her that there's another target in the area. She's stopped shooting at Gwen, but is now pulling back from the window. She's got her weapon trained on the one way in, with her finger solidly on the trigger. Her sidearm is eased in its holster. "Come on, spider," she whispers. "I got a big can of raid with your name on it."
*
<"Arana?" Did you -seriously name your drone?-> Skye asks in bewilderment. Not that it matters for now! She's clocked the sniper with 'Arana' here and it isn't long until she can also see the thermal image of Anya doing some absolutely ludicrious moves. "No, don't do that, you're gonna—!" she about yells at the monitor before taking action in the only way that she can: Buzz the tower.
It's no different than chasing pigeons around in the park except that this drone is WAY better than anything she can buy online. Well..that and it appears that she'll have to fly it through a window and into the room beyond. It's a little tricky but her twitch reflexes are on point! Thank you, online gaming.
<Yah—working on it!>
Arana is sent rocketing forward like a hornet toward the sniper with no other intention than to be as distracting as possible for the alarmingly few seconds it'll take Anya to kick the shooter's teeth in. Hopefully this drone won't get shot out of the sky like her last one did…
*
<You don't name your tech??> Anya sounds absolutely flabbergasted as she soars through the air.
Trailing behind Arana, Spider-Girl isn't aiming for the window; she's aiming for the wall. Let's call it a little trick she learned from Morlun.
A resounding crash is heard as brick and drywall are decimated. The masked woman lands on her feet and is immediately firing weblines at the sniper's arms.
*
The sniper was prepared for Anya to come through the window.
But Anya didn't come through the window.
When a big hole getes smashed through the wall, she shifts her aim and fires, but it's not quite a good enough shot — which is fortunate, because it's a big bullet. (A really big bullet.) She drops the rifle and snaps her sidewarm up to open fire, but while automatic fire of small bullets might ruin an ordinary person, they just bounce off Anya's suit (and probably leave some bruises underneath). All that comes to an abrupt end, of course, when she both runs out of ammunition, and her arms are webbed up. "Mobilize everyone!" The sniper screams, yelling at a radio by her feet — one of those old school ones. Seriously, do these people just enjoy every tech level humanity has achieved throughout history? Will there be a caveman with a club at some point?
<Uhh, Spider-Girl, as soon as you're done with that person? We might want to leave. I don't think we want a firefight here with that much firepower, there's probably civilians all over the place.> Gwen isn't leaving yet, however, she's busy reclaiming her position on the roof. <I think we've got a little time before they start swarming the streets. Punch that dork and let's get outta here? Yes?> She glances down into the alleyways, <Skye, might wanna start your engines up.>
*
Skye is not expecting Spider-Girl to go straight through the side of the building. "HO-Lee-Crap! That's..that's a strategy! Tom Clancy would approve." As amazing as it is to watch there are way more baddies left to deal with and it would seem that the sniper is being thoroughly taken care of. Arana rockets back out into the open, now on the hunt for the -other- Spider.
<Okay there are still a whooooole lotta meanies out there.> Right around when Gwen suggests starting the van's engine Skye reaches the same conclusion from the thermal readings. "That's not good." With a tap she relinquishes control of Arana back to its AI programming then scrambles back behind the wheel. The van might stand up against some pistol calibers for a little while (not that she wants to find out…) but if they start bringing out the rifles then she's toast.
<I'm getting moving down here, be safe!>
*
Her costume may be bullet proof, but it still hurts like hell.
Scowling, she yanks the weblines hard enough to pull the woman's shoulders out of socket, but just shy of dismembering her.
<We gotta move!> she agrees over the comms, but makes sure to stomp on the radio for good measure.
Diving through the hole she created, Anya flings a webline and hooks around the edge of the building, making a beeline to get the hell out of dodge. Arana just heads straight up into the sky, where darkness will conceal her, but leaving her to keep a proverbial eye on all of those tagged IR signatures.
*
Yep, time to go. Gwen reaches flips open the lid of the dumpster she's standing on, and reaches down inside, yanking a homeless person out and making a dash for it, dragging the poor guy along with her. "Time to go, buddy!" she pushes him off down a different alleyway, "You're not that drunk," she pronounces, "Run if you wanna live." She leaves the man to (hopefully) wander off, and fires a webline up to start swinging. She doesn't go far, though; she just lands on top of Skye's van with a soft 'whump'.
<That's me,> she clarifies into the comms. "Just start driving, I'll stick around up here and make sure you make it out. If things get really ugly I'll hop back off and fight.>
As for the sniper, she experiences being pulled off her feet, and the sudden dislocation of both arms; one at the shoulder, the other at the elbow. Her eyes peel wide and she screams. "Eagle? Report? What's hap—" comes out of the radio just before Anya smashes it beneath her heel.
As for the contents of the building, a bunch of them are swarming into the streets. Fortunately though, from the IR signatures, it looks like the big guns are sticking around inside. For the moment they're just covering the windows, in case their friends outside (the ones with more… out of date weaponry) need help. The latter, however, are definitely on the search, splitting up into groups and fanning out.
*
"Okay, don't go crazy, crazy draws attention, just take it easy and act like a normal car that's turning out onto the road, nothing to seEEP!"
'That's me.' "And this is me having a damn heart attack!" Skye calls back. With Gwen on the roof there's no need to take it to comms. If her hands didn't have a reason to shake before they sure do now.
Still. At least she didn't have to watch Anya go to town on the sniper. It wouldn't have been a good image to have burned into her mind.
With a few calming breaths the GMC rolls out of the alley and turns away from the building, rumbling away in all of its rustbucket glory. Nothing to see here, honest! Just a van with a Spider on it. It's New York so it's totally normal.
*
"Arana, supervisa y rastrea todos los objetivos."
Once the spider-drone reaches a safe distance in the sky, it begins tracking those IR signatures to the best of its ability.
As she thwips through buildings, her mask tracks Gwen's location, so she makes an effort to swing toward her and the van. <I've got Arana tracking them,> she says, and the sound of webs being flung is audible over the comm. <If they try to relocate, we can track them.>
*
"Sorry!" Gwen shouts through the side of the van. "I'll… warn you next time." She scurries down to the side of the van, on the opposite side of it to where the ninjas are; it turns out to be good enough as Skye drives past several of them but they don't clue in. It's just a rustbucket van, afterall, and Spiders don't usually show up to parties by driving.
Looks like it's a clean getaway this time; there are plenty of IR signatures searching the streets and alleys near the target building, but nobody is after the van, and fortunately, nobody has clued in to where Spider-Girl has gotten to. All in all, it's relatively smooth sailing for about ten minutes. Spider-Woman hangs on to the outside of the van; the van drives, Spider-Girl webslings. Then;
<SG — my danger-sense is tingling again. It's not a panic yet, but… something's coming.>
*