Summary:Hungover heroes find themselves responding to a major fire at an apartment building nearby. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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The morning after a night of binge drinking is always a good time. Luke may be unbreakable in body and have a healing factor to deal with major trauma, but he isn't totally immune to the effects of copious amounts of alcohol. It just so happens that drinking a couple bottles of bourbon by himself in the wee hours of the morning equal the copious amounts of alcohol it takes to give the big man a hangover.
The bar being closed at this time of day he doesn't suspect that there is anyone else around, so he doesn't even think to look around the bar as he stumbles into the bar from the back room. The large man clad only in a pair of pajama pants shuffles towards the bar to fix himself a hangover cure, or nip a little hair of the dog, or both. "Fuck..how much did I drink." he mutters to himself in a low tone, hand held to his head to keep his exploding brain from popping out of his skull.
There is an empty bottle of Espolon on the bar, and it's not one from the bar's supply room.
There comes a sound from one of the booths, and motion. A red, glittery high heeled shoe falls on the floor in a clatter of noise, and Anya's voice grumbles to herself. She's using her backpack as a pillow, a leather jacket as a blanket, and her two red latex gloves are scattered haphazardly upon the table above where she apparently passed out.
Fortunately, the blinds in the bar were drawn after last call; as she stirs, a cocoon of black spider webbing is ripped apart and she spills out onto the floor, grumbling a naughty word in Spanish.
Luke turns at the sound of the shoe hitting the floor, already in a defensive stance even as his hangover obscured vision tries to focus on what made the noise. When things finally pull into focus enough to recognize the blurry shape of Anya, Luke lowers his arms and continues his trek towards the bar, pulling down two glasses instead of one.
"I'm assuming you are alone in there?" he asks in a whisper that sounds like he is yelling in his own head. "Or is Thea, Becca, or her friend…or hell all three of them…in there with you?"
Luke pours water into the glasses, setting on one the bar. He the proceeds to pour two glass of bourbon, sliding that up onto the bar as well.
"No it's just me," Anya grumbles, still in her clothing from last night. She grabs the wayward heel and shoves it back onto her foot, then begrudgingly clogs her way across the room to settle upon one of the bar stools.
"I was gonna clean up last night," she explains, ignoring the makeup that's all messed up on her face. "Instead, I got into that Christmas gift of Thea's. Not the really fun one, just… the other fun one."
Apparently, even spider types can get hangovers. It just has to be enough, and quickly.
With a huff, she seems to have just remembered something. A hand gestures to her sleeping spot, and a webline flings out to find her backpack. It's tugged across the floor lacking her usual flair, and a bottle of extra strength aspirin is fished out.
Picking up the bourbon, Luke tosses the entire glass back as one big shot before chasing it with some of the water.
"Never know with you." Luke mutters as she comments on her lack of companionship, eyeing the aspirin as it is fished out of the backpack.
"Breakfast? I think I have it in me to make some scrambled eggs, possibly some bacon."
That remark gets a look, and a wry one. "Here," she says, and slides the aspirin to Luke after fishing out seven of them. No, it's not an overdose; it's math. She briefly sizes him up and says, "I'd go for ten, maybe eleven."
Talk of breakfast earns an uncommitted sound. Instead she goes for the shot, taking it in much the same way as he did, before nursing that glass of water.
Dumping a handfull of aspirin into his hand Luke does a quick count and shoves the pills into his mouth, washing them down with a gulp of water. He passes the bottle back over to Anya with a "Thanks."
Luke shuffles into the kitchen, opening the little pass though so he can continue to be social while he cooks, the clang of a pot hitting a pan as he sets up resulting in a audible groan of pain. Soon enough there is the crack of an egg, and a sizzle as things start to cook.
"So… that happneed."
"I know," Anya answers, and groans at the image of herself in the reverse camera of her cell phone. A napkin is dipped into the water, and she gets to work at cleaning off her face. Face first; drunk spider den second.
"It's usually strangers, you know," she calls out to him. "I don't… I don't do that with people I know."
"Sounds familiar." Luke says from the other side of the pass through. "One and done. No attachments. No 'feelings' involved. I get it. Can't let people in."
There is more noise as another pan is put onto the stove, and the familiar sizzle of bacon is followed by the unmistakable odor of cooking salted pork belly. "What's your excuse?"
"Hiding." Anya daps another napkin and keeps wiping at her face, sighing with a sense of relief when her image in the camera is finally clean of flashy makeup.
"Hiding who I really am. What I can do." She shakes her head and barely stifles a laugh. "In more ways than one," she mutters to herself. "Thea mentioned we went clubbing, right?" she says, and finally rises from the table to go and clean up her webbing. "I hooked up with a couple of swingers. Had to… you know. Reign it in."
"Yeah, she mentioned." Luke says as he continues to cook. He snorts in a somewhat joking manner as he asks, "What, can't keep control of yourself in the throws of passion? End up webbing prematurely or something?"
He pauses to take another sip of water, "I get that. It's not exactly like I can perform to my full potential as well. Can't go around breaking people."
"I mean, I can lift a truck," Anya points out. "A semi truck. I have to pull my punches with most people, or else… you know." She makes a *splorch* sound, and mimics crushing a head with her hand. "Wouldn't that be a downer?"
She stuffs the webbing into a garbage bin and sits down at her seat again, eyeing her phone. She's got a change of clothes in the backpack… that's the next step. Eventually. She'll get there.
"Then, you know, let's say I did web all over someone. How do I explain that? How do I know those swingers aren't, like, raging coke fiends who traffic on the side, and I busted one of their friends? A one night stand with Anya Corazon, that's… that's nothing. But otherwise…."
Her words trail off, and her eyes are on her cell phone.
"Expecting a call?" Luke asks from the pass though, "That is the second or third time you have looked at you phone in the last 30 seconds or so. Or am I just that bad you want to get out of here as soon as possible?"
Luke walks back from the kitchen with a pair of plate loaded with eggs and bacon, setting them down onto the bar between Anya and himself. He grabs a fork and slides it over her way, "Yeah, I get it. I don't really know the upper limits of what I can do, but I am at least as strong as you. We have a lot in common in that regard. Can't leave a pile of broken bodies in our wake, etcetera. Still, you know other folks like us. Haven't ever thought of hookin' up with one of them? Don't have to hide, don't have to treat them like tissue paper…and no, that isn't a proposition."
"No, but I'm a tech junkie," Anya explains, "and my phones… doing something."
If he looks, Luke will see a shell app that appears to be cycling though lines of code. Lots of it.
"Which means something's up. Probably close." She shakes her head and quietly hopes that her hangover will be short lived. She smiles at the eggs and bacon though, and grabs the fork in hand. The way she eats is… disturbingly voracious, especially for a woman of her size.
Between bites, she swallows hard and clears herself enough to talk without being rude. "Thought about it, yeah. Never done it." A stray thought that comes to mind causes her to smirk, but then the program on her phone seems to have reached some kind of conclusion.
Snatching it updates, she blinks. "Oh no." She shakes her head again, and bolts up from her seat. "Oh no!"
Luke shovels mouthfuls of eggs into his mouth as well, pausing only to gulp some water to help wash it down, but it isn't nearly as shocking that a guy his size can shovel the food away like a black hole eats light.
"How come? Just haven't connected with anyone like that, or it is just easier to be anonymous? As for me, well, I pretty much know you…and while I did briefly entertain that thought when we first met now it would just be…I don't know."
As Anya bolts up, Luke glances up from his eggs, leaning over the bar to see what is on her phone that has her acting like this. "What's wrong?"
Don't think the thought didn't cross Anya's mind. Before being distracted by her phone, she looks toward Luke with a flush in her face.
Distractions. Bless them or curse them, for what they are.
"There's a fire. Big one. Residential." She looks up from her phone, eyes wide.
"It's three blocks away."
"Shit." says Luke as he looks from the phone to Anya. "Well, what are you waiting for? Spider-Girl out or whatever it is you do."
As For Luke, he places one of those big hands on the bar and just vaults over it in one smooth motion, heading for the front door in nothing but his PJ pants.
"Move it or loose it, Corazon!"
"Oh are we racing?" Anya sasses, a big smirk growing on her face. "Go on. I'll give you a head start."
Should he look, he'll see the young woman leaping into the air, casting black weblines to the walls and ceiling. Suspended, she suddenly turns into a twirl of webbing, shedding the leotard and fishnets and all.
When the whirlwind ceases, she's dressed in a brand new Spider-Girl costume, sans emblem. She'll handle that en route, because, branding.
Luke doesn't look back. After all, he doesn't know what it takes to put on that suit and wanted to give her her privacy. He just heads out the door, letting it close shut behind him before he pauses.
"Fuck. I didn't ask which way."
"WHICH WAY?!" he screams behind him before it occurs to him to just look for the smoke. Once he locates the smoke, he turns towards it and sprints, his super-powerful legs pushing him at speeds of about 40 miles an hour.
"Arana, ve!"
At Anya's command, her sleek, black spider-drone lurches from the discarded backpack, coming to life with a quiet whir of super charged rotors. She bursts out the door just over Luke's shoulders, and keeps pace just ahead of him, leading him on the most direct route toward the blazing building.
The drone also flashes an alert over the Spider-Comm, to any connected and in the area.
Bursting out of Luke's, she throws a line at the nearest building and takes to swinging, gaining speed at an alarming rate.
Seeing Spider-Girl bound out behind him and then take point as she swings over his head, Luke mumbles something under his breath about more efficient modes of transportation as he follows those curves towards the structure fire. At least the view is nice.
"How much farther?!" He calls up, as he pushes his legs to try and gain just a bit more speed to keep up.
Thea was up, and in the area. She had been on her way to her grandparent's restaurant, in order to pick up some food (including the briled cheese), to try and make an awkward sort of apology to Luke and all for her melancholy exposure of things she normally keeps quiet.
When the phone flashes, and it's from Anya, Thea shifts direction and is on the move. There's a fair amount of cursing under her breath in various languages - She doesn't have her support kit. It's a security blanket, but it is nice to have for minor injuries. She'll just have to make do with herself.
Black hair is neat in a french braid, she's got on a wool peacoat over a pretty deep pink sweater and dark jean. The boots are knee high and heeled, but it doesn't seem to slow her down. She's not as fast as Luke, but she's no slouch as she runs.
Once she swings around a corner, the building comes into view. Eight floors, half of them engulfed in flame. Firefighters are on the scene, trying to quell the blaze as best they can while getting men in and victims out, but there aren't enough of them there yet.
"Jesus," Spider-Girl gasps, and lands upon the side of a street lamp. "Arana, EM!"
The drone begins circling the building, using her electromagnetic sensors to try and get an overlay of people inside. It won't be the best feed, but it's something.
As Luke turns the corner and sees the building, he slows, but only for a brief second. Just enough to figure out what is going on and make sense of what his hung over brain is able to ascertain.
"I'm going in! Get people out!" he calls to the ether in hopes that Anya hears him, and sprints forward again towards the burning building heading directly for the front door. If there are any barricades in his way, he just hurdles over them without loosing any speed.
Coming from the opposite direction, Thea will reach the site not too terribly long after her compatriots. She will slow to a jog, shedding her coat to set over a makeshift barricade. She only stills when she sees a familiar, and very tall, biosignature running into the building. "Are you kidding me?" She says with a sigh.
The biokinetic will turn slowly in a circle. No one that is too terribly hurt, and there's some medical people already at work.
So, like Luke, Thea will do the stupid thing, and run into the building. She can help people get out, even if she has to over-adrenalize her own system to do it.
The spider-drone, nicknamed Arana, is picking up all sorts of electro-magnetic signatures from inside the building. Some of them are human shaped. By her estimation, there are at least twenty still trapped inside, give or take. The drone won't capture those who are already dead.
"Arana, IR." She gives the verbal command, even as Luke and Thea rush into the building. Still, she hangs back. The drone is now feeding IR information to her mask, which is intense… but it tells her where the worst of the blaze is located.
Still, she hangs back, taking in all the data she can get. There's a reason; as much as she wants to rush in like the others, she is definitely not fire proof, and neither is her costume. Spider silk burns.
Luke on the other hand takes a deep breath of fresh air, and then plunges headlong into the building, and the flames inside
Pushing ahead into the flames, Luke starts trying to systematically clear the floor, checking for anyone that may still be trapped inside the building. Any doors or other obstacles in his way get unceremoniously shoved aside or broken down to clear a path as he searches.
Fortunately, Luke's altered physical properties have made him fireproof, so the licking flames do him no harm.
The same can't be said for his pants.
Unlike Luke, Thea can be hurt by flames - and so can her outfit. But she's got a deep lungful of air, and she uses her powers to try and make it last despite the mad scramble behind Luke. She will run up the stairs to the next flight, even as all the gray smoke that tinges the air, and the red from the flames reminds her of her all too recent experience in her own hell.
She will take a moment to close her eyes, trying to shake the thought like a monkey off her back. There is a mission at hand. She will focus on that, as she feels along with her powers looking for people who are trapped or hurt.
Spider-Girl vaults from the lamp post, soaring through the air and over the barricades erected by first responders. She lands right next to the fire chief, startling him for a moment.
"Hey Chief," she says, unceremoniously.
"Spider-Girl??" he exclaims.
"The one and only. You got a lot of heat up there." She gestures toward the top floor, where the brick is charred but windows remain intact. "I'm thinking, if I bust out the roof up there, we're gonna get a backdraft. But at least we'll know where the fire's going, and it'll be going away from survivors."
"How the hell do you know where the survivors-"
"Surveillance drone!" she spits, and points out the black spider-drone that is circling the building. "Just trust me on this, okay? Clear your men off the top floor, and once that backdraft does its thing, you might actually be able to get some of those flames out!"
"But-"
"TRUST ME!" Anya cries, and is already throwing a line to the burning building, aiming for a wall that is flame free.
Shoving away some fallen debris and busting down a locked door, Luke makes his way into a far room. A faint cry for help, and some heavy coughing draw his attention to a back bedroom where a couple huddle in a corner trying in vein to escape the smoke and rising flames.
"Hold on!" shouts Luke, loosing some of the precocious air he was holding in his lungs.
Rushing forward, the big man throws the pair over his shoulder, ignoring any protest. He makes his way to the wall and levels a powerful kick, smashing a hole into the brick and mortar to create a makeshift door.
He leaps out of the hole to the ground below, startling the same fire chief as he lowers the victims to the ground. "Take care of these two, I'll be back with more."
Turning around, Luke jumps back up and through the hole that he made to continue his search.
Alas, Thea can not just smash and kick her way in. Her shoulder takes some battering against a door. But she'll get in, and find an older woman who has fallen just short of her walker. She will help the old woman to her feet, while pondering the best way to help her down without wasting any time.
She'll get the woman onto her back, piggyback style, before she's rushing down the hall, and then down the stairs. She'll gasp in air the moment they're clear of the smoke, only setting the woman down once she can find someone to take care of her. "She's all right, a little bruised up, could probably use some pure oxygen to help her recover." The nice thing about emergencies is that people won't stop to think and ask Thea how she knows that.
It's when she turns to head back into the building, that it hits her again, as soon as she's inside that smoke. It won't be shaken off so easily this time, and the biokinetic ends up on the stairs, sitting and motionless, her eyes open even with the sting of smoke - unseeing.
Meanwhile, Anya is scrambling up the side of the building, hand over foot, causing little shards of old brick to fall idly to the ground in her wake. When she reaches the roof, she gives a mighty heave and vaults herself into the air, soaring high above the rooftop.
*THWIP! THWIP!*
Twin weblines attach to the edge of the roof, and she pulls herself down, making a beeline for her target. Her body curls into a ball, and smashes right through the rooftop at an angle. She comes through the wall on the other side, and throws another webline to the wall to keep herself from tumbling to the street below.
Panting, she scrambles diagonally across the building, trying to get away from the hole she just made before all hell breaks loose.
Luke continues his search, clearing the floor he is on room by room unaware that he has a friend in need just above him, nor that his other friend is about to make things very interesting as the fire is going to be feed a large source of fresh source of oxygen. Luke clears three more rooms in quick order, making holes in the outside walls to save time getting the people out.
Considering the first floor cleared after getting another 7 people out of the building, Luke rushes for the stairs running headlong into the fire of the staircase, flames licking at his skin soot covered skin. He emerges from the flames, stumbling across Thea in her catatonic state. "Sweet Christmas!" he exclaims at the sight, moving to scoop her up into his arms and get her out, making his way for the closest exit…even if that is one he has to make himself.
It's when she's touched, picked up, that Thea reacts. There's a scream like he's murdering her, before she will lash out with a punch. Only after that, does she blink. "Luke?" There's just that second of daze, before she shakes her head, hard. "Put me down. I.. there's people upstairs still. We need to get them out." Her voice is not at all carrying it's confident tone, and there's zero sass. "I'm all right. I'll be okay. I just.. hell." Just the one word. Luke will understand.. she thinks.
Suddenly, the top floor of the building virtually explodes.
Flame shoots out of the hole Anya created, and even blows out a couple of windows on the top floor. A collective gasp comes from onlookers below at the brief but fiery carnage.
However, a gust of air moves through the building, sucking smoke clear of the lower floors and providing a brief reprieve from the burning blaze. It will be brief; soon enough the flames will catch anew, but it will give the fire department a chance to move in and start filling the open lower floors with water.
Anya is briefly engulfed in flame as a window explodes right next to her. The young woman goes sailing through the air, her costume lit up. A scream is heard as she blindly throws weblines into the air.
One of the firefighters on a ladder truck is quick; he diverts the stream of water, catching Spider-Girl as she falls. By the time she hits the pavement, she's been put out.
Fresh blasts of water meet Thea and Luke, as the fire teams move in. The clock is ticking!
"Shit, hold on." Luke exclaims as he instinctively curls himself around Thea to protect her from the flaming, falling debris that rains down on them as roof explodes.
"We have no time." he mutter to Thea as he releases her from his protective embrace, "so you better be solid now. You can freak out later. Come on, there are people to save."
As the cold water hits, Luke take a brief second to take a much needed breath before he rushes forward up the stairs to the last floor. "You go right, I'll go left. Move!"
"I know we have no time. I'll be fine." Her chin lifts, a stubborn look crossing her features. "I won't freak out."
There's a little shriek as the water hits - it's cold, after all. At least she isn't in just a white t-shirt. But she will go right at the top of the next flight, letting her powers surge free to search for people that might still be inside this, for Thea, literal hell.
The backdraft did its work; smoke is being sucked to the vacant top floor, and the fire department keeps moving in, filling the lower floors with water. It won't be long before areas untouched yet by sprays of water will flame to life again, only this time the fire will be cooler. Faster to burn, but easier to put out.
Anya bodily picks herself up from the crater she's made in the street. Her costume is… well, it's barely there. She takes a moment to web over her exposed chest, but her entire left leg is naked, along with most of her torso and half of her face. Her skin is covered in soot, running in streaks from where the water extinguished her. Fortunately, she doesn't appear to have been burned. The costume took the brunt of it.
"Urgh!" she groans, and forces herself to approach the front of the building, coming alongside the firefighters as they work their way in.
Spider-Girl's costume still faired better than Luke's pajama pants. The last remnants of which burned away a while ago, but the lack of modesty doesn't stop the big man from his task. He can address that later.
Shoving his fist into a wall, Luke locates out one of the main water lines used to supply water to the upper floors. and tears the pipe in twain to allow the water to gush freely from it, before he uses those big hands of his to bend and shape the piping in a crude yet somewhat effective form of a sprinkler system that helps wet down the upper floor, getting the hotspots closer to the middle of the building where the firemen's hoses can't reach effectively.
That done, and hoping it will buy the time needed to get the rest of the people out, Luke starts to kick down the doors of the upper floor apartments, yelling to those that can move on their own to head down and out as fast as they can, while he scoops up those that can't move themselves, carrying them in his arm like toddlers.
Thea's sweater has suffered - scorches and holes, and her jeans will be ruined before this is all over. She will open doors and knock them open as needed, searching and calling for people who may still be here.
If someone hadn't seen her in that disassociated state, they'd never know - she's moving, efficient, and while she sends some down the stairs under their own power- she will personally escort a heavily pregnant woman, while carrying her curious Toddler on her hip down the stairs.
This time, however, she stays put - outside. There are people she can serve better out here, and people just seem to think it is a miracle as burns start to heal, bumps and bruises fading, while the biokinetic just stands there, staring at the building.
Noticing Thea, Anya approaches her wearily. With one eye exposed, she's visibly worried. "Luke," she says, the worry evident in her voice as much as it is on her half exposed face. The ripped up costume even reveals the massive spider-shaped tattoo that covers her entire back; it's not made of ink, and the subtle blue glow that comes from it could just be a trick of the eye.
Chewing on her lip, she looks on with worry. "C'mon, Luke," she says to herself, and reaches an exposed hand to grasp Thea by her arm.
A minute goes by, then two. Suddenly people start coming out of the main doors, some crying, some screaming, all soaking wet and coughing. They make their way towards the emergency crews, and ushering the last of the people out of the building while he follows behind, lifting a couple of couches over his head with one hand as a way to carry more people, saunters Luke…naked as the day he was born. His free hand positioned to give him all the modesty he can.
"Yo. Can I get a coat or something?"
There is a flinch when Anya grabs her arm - Thea had been looking inward, as she was using her powers, even on herself. IT wouldn't due to have burns or bruises, one never knows when she might need to show some skin for a job.
"He'll be all right. I saw him inside. He's a tank." Which makes her the healer or the cleric, she supposed, but now is not the time for amusement.
She's snorting in laughter as Luke comes back out into the clear, a hand over her mouth. "See? " She says to Anya, before she's running for a fireman's blanket to bring to Luke. He can make a sarong or something.
When Luke emerges, Anya cannot help but stare. "Oh, I see." Her lips contort into a rueful smirk. "I definitely see."
She trods up on one bare foot, one barely contained within black, charred spider silk. She doesn't even bother hiding the smirk on her face, and as Thea offers him the fireman's blanket, she barely manages to conceal a giggle.
"Is HR still on vacation?" she asks. "Because I could totally web you up some undies, but I don't wanna make Thea jealous."
Luke sets the couches down gently, to let the emergency crews attend to them, casting a glance over Thea and Spider-Girl's way as Thea runs forward with a blanket.
Luke wraps the blanket around his waist, securing it like a towel. "Shit. After last night and today I am not sure there is an HR anymore. You were just lucky I was wearing pants at all this morning. All the same, I don't think I want sticky webs all over…there. I don't feel like a wax. I'm just glad I shave, because any hair I had is singed off now. "
Luke glances between Spider-Girl and Thea, "OH..Wait. Do you?" He snorts, "OF course you do. Fucking secrets. You two ok? Look a little singed yourself there, SG. Might want to repair your own situation."
Thea blinks at Anya, as she is most decidedly /not/ looking at the 'view'. It's not polite to ogle the guy saving people from a fire! "Jealous? " The biokinetic looks down at her own clothing. "But I'm still covered up, I don't need webbing up for modesty, and it's hardly like I would begrudge Luke his modesty." She gives Anya a /look/, that tells the other woman to watch it.
Then her gaze is turned up to Luke's face. "Do I?" She's totally confused now. "What secrets?" Yep, she's in the weeds. "I'm fine. Braid even survived, which is good. Bald is /not/ my look."
Oh, she'll watch it. Anya knows better. "You think this is made of sticky webs?" She asks, indicating what's left of her costume. She then shakes her head and casually moves her hands over the coldest parts of her ripped up torso; sheets of webbing extend from her wrists, coating those exposed spaces in a fresh sheen of black silk.
"She knows," Anya confirms for Luke, then turns around to look at the carnage left behind. A hand rises and wraps around her head, rebuilding her mask in a haphazard way.
"I wonder how many didn't make it," she mutters.
"Can't think about that." Luke says as he sighs. "It will drive you mad. All the 'what ifs' and the 'if only's. Just focus on the ones that did make it, the ones that wouldn't have if we didn't show up."
Luke cinches up the blanket, holding it in place with one hand, "How am I gonna know if it is sticky or not? It's not like I test it. You want to web me up something, be my quest. Likely be better than holding this up till I get home."
He looks over to Thea, "Do you know, which has already been answered." he says as he looks around the crowd of victims, the firefighters, and beyond the barricades…the gathered crowd and all the phones being held up as cameras. "Um…I think I need to get out of here."
IT takes her a moment. "Oh, yeah. I've known for a while. Since before I met you." Thea flashes Luke a quick smile. "I knew her in mask, first. Clandestine meetings and all kinds of things." There's a shrug. "Mentioned I worked with the Spiders. Sort of part of my crazy schedule."
There's a glance over at the phone holding public. "Anya, web him up something. I'm going to go cause a distraction. Meet you guys back at the bar, after?" There's a gleam in blue eyes as she steps away from both of them. They'll see when she's working on the distraction - she'll scream, tearing that poor once pretty sweater to pieces. "Oh god! It's burning! My skin is burning! Help!" And well, a half naked young woman in just her bra and jeans will maybe allow Anya and Luke to slip away, as Thea makes her skin red and angry looking with her powers.
"Probably a good idea," Spider-Girl agrees, about the whole getting out of here thing.
She's about to say something else when the FDNY battalion chief approaches the three of them.
"You folks…" He shakes his head. "I don't know what to say. You're lunatics, all of you, but…" He turns to the building, which is smoking and burning, but nothing close to the blaze it had been when the trio arrived. "I don't know what to say."
"It's what we do," Anya tells the chief, and pats him on the shoulder before turning back to acknowledge Thea's advice. But then… well. There's a distraction.
"Drop the blanket and close your eyes," she suddenly says to Luke with a stern tone.
Luke stays quiet as the fire chief makes his way over, trying to look away…but really, Luke is not exactly indistinguishable. He breaths a little sigh of relief as Thea start to do her thing, the noise first drawing his attention to the now half naked, screaming woman.
Averting his eyes and Anya speaks, Luke raises an eyebrow. "Drop the blan…ok, whatever you say, Chica." smirks Luke as he lets the blanket fall from his waist, and shuts his eyes. "No pictures."
Well, no one's going to recognize her, she certainly isn't well known - even as a politician's daughter. She will drop to her knees on the pavement, rocking and whimpering at an angle she can keep an eye on Luke and Anya.
Her skin looks red, welted, almost even blistering - but it's all an act. She's making it happen from the inside, to sell the whole thing. She'll even let someone put a cold, wet cloth over her back.
Surprising perhaps to everyone, Anya doesn't look. Instead, she twirls around Luke twice, coating him from thigh to shoulder in black sheets of webbing not unlike her own. She's even decent enough not to make it purple, even though she was tempted.
It isn't sticky; her organic spinnerets can do hundreds of web combinations, not unlike some of the more exotic spiders in nature. It is very tight, but very stretchy.
Thats not why she told him to close his eyes, however.
A moment later, Luke will feel himself hefted off his feet by his waist. "Hold on!" Anya warns him, and the two are yanked into the air by a well aimed webline into the sky.
"Hey, that tickles." Luke exclaims as he is webbed up, squirming slightly at the odd sensation of the webbing against his skin
"You didn't tell me this would tic…GAH!"
Luke is certainly taken by surprise as he is hoisted into the air, his eyes immediately flying open and slipping a massive arm around Anya's waist for stability. "Sweet Christmas!"
Not long after Luke and Anya are up, up and away, Thea will stop crying. It's not quite like a tap being turned off, but close. She will get to her feet, feigning a shakiness she doesn't feel, and will slowly creep over to her peacoat.
She will ignore medical professionals, shaking her head. She'll simply insist she's going to get herself to the nearest emergency room, all on her own. They can't make her go, after all.
She stops at a shop along the way, to buy herself a new sweater - this one turquoise. She'll slip it on, before she's back on the sidewalk, heading to the bar.
Swinging one-handed takes talent, and it took Anya a while to get it right. Fortunately for both of them, she's got it mastered; a diversion sends them down a narrow alleyway, in order to hide exactly which way they're going.
"I told you not to open your eyes!" she argues between exhilarated laughter; web slinging through the city will never, ever get old. "By the way, Thea likes you. Just a hunch. Stating the obvious. You might wanna give it a try." She smirks. "For HR's sake."
It doesn't take long to reach the bar; she lands on the rooftop and immediately tries to pry herself out of Luke's grasp.
"Yeah, saying 'don't open your eyes' is a guarantee someone will, especially when they are being lifted up into the air like a ragdoll!" exclaims Luke as they swing through the city.
When they land on the roof, Luke slowly releases his arm from around Anya's waist. "You think?" says Luke in reference to Thea. "Well, I mean, I know. I just don't know…you know? Last night might have screwed the pooch on that anyway, so."
He lifts his shoulder in one big shrug, "Discussion for another time." Luke utters as he opens up the skylight to his apartment, letting Anya drop in before he follow down behind. "Make yourself at home while I change….do I just peel this off?"
Thea had no idea she was being discussed up on Luke's roof, as she walks along the street. She's muttering to herself she should have picked up new pants, these ones are singed and she knows she probably still smells like smoke. Damnit. But she'll head to the bar - because she promised, and she needs to make sure everyone is okay.
"You never know," answers Anya with a shrug. "Could be a dumpster fire, but it could be a fun dumpster fire." As for the makeshift costume, she grins. "Yeah. It'll stretch. A lot."
She'll make quick work of heading downstairs, where her discarded latex and tights are, along with the backpack and a change of clothes. She can't help but look around the apartment as she goes, at least mildly curious… but not enough to be rude!
The apartment is a large studio apartment, the same size as the bar downstairs. It is modestly furnished with a couch and an oversized loveseat, a pretty decent entertainment center with a large flatsceen TV and stereo system, and a cornered of section that serves as a bedroom that houses a large king sized bed and a few dressers. There isn't much in terms of decoration on the walls. No old family photos, no paintings, no posters. The only thing of note is a small crumpled photo of a woman who looks around Luke's age that hangs by the entrance.
Luke moves off to the bedroom, calling out as he starts to peel the webbing from his body slowly, at first not trusting it not to stick. "Anya, make sure things are locked down. Don't need people stopping by tonight. Sounds like we have things to discuss."