Summary:Gwen and Avery meet up in Central Park, right about where they first met; together they swing about the city, see through time and space, and have a great time. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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In the wake of the exploration under the Dome, Avery is actually very grateful to be flesh and blood again, even if she had to have fingers splinted and nearly fainted from the pain once she transitioned back. First things first she reported in to Batgirl via Oracle and then sat down to write a report, by hand, which she then copied and provided one to Zatanna Zatara, the other meant for Batgirl and a third for the Silver Samurai when next they meet up.
A quick hop home to get cleaned up and changed, and then she jumped to her workplace at UPS, before jogging to Central Park.
Seated on the base of a statue of a horse and rider, the girl people watches in the chill weather, wondering if her 'Park Friend' would remember this is where they first met. Curious to see if she'll show up. Or call.
It's rare for Gwen Stacy to be out and about at night without being in her Spider-Woman costume these days, even if it's to make a trip or short-cut or whatever through the park. Tonight is not one of those nights. Fortunately, trees are alright for webslinging with a little practice, and so the young spider is making her way, until she happens to spot someone she knows sitting at the base of a certain statue.
A quick course-correction brings her within range easily enough; still, she doesn't make much sound other than a soft 'thwip', until she lands with an audible thump against the statue.
"Hey," she greets, as she climbs over the top, and looks down at Avery. "Fancy seeing you here, hunh?"
"Indeed, Lady Gwanda." Avery says with her normal voice. The girl is dressed in snuggly fitted jeans, and a warm jacket, as well as a cute little knit cap in blue and black to match the jacket. She managed not to jump TOO much with that thump, and looks up with a bright smile, and wisps of brown hair peeking from under the cap. "Tis a good thing to see you again, Gwen."
An in drawn breath and then she's standing on the back of the horse next to Gwen on the exhale. "So…you and I…we both be supers, yes?"
Gwen sputters for a moment, sitting up straight; and then as Avery is standing on the horse behind her, she turns to look over her shoulder, and sighs softly. "Well, I should'a known that cloak wasn't going to work completely," she admits ruefully, "But what was I gonna do? Protect my secret identity over people's lives? Yeah… that would not make my Daddy proud of me."
Gwen turns around, and sits cross-legged where she's facing Avery properly now. "So… yes, turns out we're both supers." She pauses, blushing beneath the mask; though fortunately, Avery can't see that part. "But! But. In my defense," she holds both hands out, palms up, "When we first met, I wasn't." She shrugs her shoulders lightly. "So. Your change heading into the dome was way cooler than mine, though. How'd you manage it?"
Avery can't help but grin a bit at the sputtering, and laughs very softly. "Why dost—why DO you apologize, Gwen? You need never defend actions done in the name of protecting those less able than ourselves. You behaved in all ways as an honorable woman would, you are a heroine, my friend."
Avery drops down to sit at the horse's rump, her grace and balance at /least/ peak human. "No, you have no need to defend your actions, you did the right thing. I know a secret identity is important for people, especially those with family."
And then the last question, Avery's smile fades a bit, and she shrugs. "I did not manage it, as it were explained to me the forms we took inside mirrored what our innermost hearts believed us to be."
Gwen chuckles softly, and shakes her head. "Well, then… I guess inside I believe myself to be a woman who's pretty tough but still vulnerable in a lot of ways, and still dealing with some sort of baggage. Otherwise I'm sure I'd have appeared in there still in my onesie and my mask, and not in some silly dress with no mask." She sighs softly, and scratches the back of her head. "Makes me wonder why a whole buncha people are… Nah, nevermind, Staten had lots of gangs, that's why there's Orcs."
Gwen leans back where she's sitting, resting one hand on the horse's head behind her. "Thanks, by the way," she adds. "Someone else was saying more or less the same thing — another speedster, actually — while I was talking to her about superheroing. Which was nice, but… I dunno. I spend at least half my time wearing this mask worrying about whether or not I'm getting it right. It's not like there's a manual for this stuff and I feel like I'm always one screw-up away from someone getting really hurt."
And Avery apparently thinks she's not a real girl, that she's a construct, what does that say of her? Worse - is it true? "You are very strong, Gwen! I saw with mine own eyes how hard you could hit, the speed and grace of your steps, you fight like a dancer, the dancing embodiment of justice." She smiles. "Nay, the mask and onesie, those be modern - the dome, it changes people to be their analogs for the setting, this Dee and Dee that Zatanna Zatara spoke of in the briefing." She nods then, and smiles. "Indeed. Innermost self, remember. Seen through the lens of this foul magic. So, Orcs, and worse."
A quirked brow at the thanks, and then Avery nods. "Oh, I am no expert, but I /do/ know heroism when I see it shining bright, and you, my friend, you glow most brightly indeed."
Gwen blushes for the second time, and is again thankful for the mask. "Thanks," she murmurs, "I'll… I mean, I'll do my best ot live up to it. I do try my best, always." She slips down the horse's neck, until she's crouching on its shoulders, a bit more level with Avery. "You handled yourself pretty darn well yourself in there," she muses. "Pretty damn fine showing. And you looked pretty darn cool, if you don't mind my saying, whatever it… means." She shrugs lightly, "I guess that really only matters to you, though, right? But I hope it means you have a good self-image, Avery, 'cause you're awesome in every sense of the word."
Gwen leans back against the horse's neck, and perks an eyebrow upwards. "So… what's it like? Being fast, I mean."
"And doing one's best is all anyone can ever ask of anyone else." Avery says without hesitation. Aves is perfectly comfortable sitting Indian style on the bronze horse rump, and she smiles over to the costumed heroine, the Spider-Gwen. "I have fought many times, both in the real world, and my former. My liege has said again and again I needs must learn to /think/ and only THEN take action, I can be impulsive, it seems."
Avery is fairly serious as she speaks. "Oh, I am sure I will figure things out, my friend." Alas, she does not have a mask, so when she's told how awesome she is, Avery blinks a couple times, then /she/ blushes, faintly sure, but visible enough.
"Fast? I am no speedster, I can /see/ as they do, but I cannot MOVE as they do. I do have exceptional reflexes, aye, but not their other abilities. My power is the ability to Walk the Space Between Breaths, I have heard it called 'teleportation', yes?"
"Oh? Oh! Well." Gwen smiles, and snappoints at Avery. "That'd explain why I thought you were a speedster, then, you go from place to place really quickly." She pauses. "Like, really quickly, as it turns out." She pauses, chewing over something in her brain. "You know, I used to wonder how people with super-powers talked to each other about… stuff. I guess now I know."
Gwen leans forwards a little, shifting her legs so her feet keep her neatly stuck to the statue. "So… you have a liege? I mean, I know what a liege is, I just didn't know people still… did that, these days. if I'm not prying too much. But I admit I'm curious?" She humms softly. "Is it anything like having a Dad? 'Cause I got a Dad and sometimes it's not that much different from having a liege, I would imagine."
"Tis an easy mistake to make, methinks. I react swiftly, I have considerable balance, and I can get around swiftly - if you cannot see as a speedster does you could not have seen that I did not cover the intervening space when I moved." Avery leans forward then, hands on the horse's back. "If you wish it, I can take you for a Walk Between?" Avery actually giggles. "Apparently we talk about such things badly and lacking precision." She teases.
"I have sworn fealty to the Batgirl, methinks she is sommat bemused by that act, but she is a good liege lady. A Liege and their Vassal - it is perhaps in some ways like family, aye. The Liege is sworn to provide education, shelter, and training to their sworn Vassal. In turn, the Vassal owes service, loyalty and obedience. Is this not much what a father does for their child?"
"Well… sure, until the daughter gets old enough that she doesn't wanna do all that stuff any more, and starts rebelling by doing things like wearing clothes or makeup that her Dad doesn't approve of, staying out late, and then getting superpowers and taking up heroic vigilanteism without telling him." Gwen rolls her shoulders, "But, I solemnly swear that last part is to protect him."
The young spider shakes her head, "And, no, I don't see like speedsters do. I know when I'm going to be in danger, so if someone were to teleport in behind me and whack me in the head, I'm pretty sure I'd know it was coming. Us spiders are hard to get the drop on that way." She stands up, and stretches her arms up over her head, arching her spine.
"Talk me for a 'Walk Between'? Well…" she pauses, and grins, "Heck yes, why not? I'd love to experience what you do."
"Ah, well, a Liege can dismiss a vassal, or a Vassal such as I could rescind my vow of loyalty, though it is a serious matter in either case." It is a telling thing that much of the rebellious stuff is clearly not something Avery understands. "Oh, of course your super activities be kept secret to protect your father, that is only right. Though…mayhaps someday you will tell him, it must grate a bit to hide this."
The danger sense thing, that definitely intrigues Avery. "So…if I sneak up on you with no ill intent, you'd know nothing beyond what your senses tell you, but if I sneak up and I mean you ill, you would know it? That sounds a most useful ability indeed."
She rises as Gwen does, and laughs softly when she is eager to try.
"Most excellent…" She looks around able to see a lit up sign some long distance away. "I can only go where I see save for a few locations I have memorized." She offers her hand then. "Ready?"
The instant Gwen signals her readiness, Avery shifts them between. She draws in a breath and they vanish, appearing for a fraction of a second in a vast plane of energy and light and chill, infinite space that the mind cannot grasp, then there's the exhale and they fade in having transferred from the statue to the sign, the buzz of the neon, a strong breeze, and ooh…much colder up here!
"You know… I've never tried that," Gwen admits. "Tell you what; if you ever get the opportunity, sneak up on me with nothing but friendly intentions, and we'll see if it tips me off." She shakes her head, "I don't always necessarily know what the danger is, either, just… I'll know that something bad is about to happen and usually get some idea of which way I should duck to not get murdered by it."
Gwen takes a couple steps to close the distance, and holds out a hand to clasp with Avery's. "Ready," she agrees.
She was not ready.
After a brief journey through… something Gwen is at a loss to describe, she finds herself suddenly standing on the catwalk at the bottom of a neon billboard. "…Holy crap," she gasps, after several attempts to catch her breath. "I just saw time and space."
After a moment, the spider puts one hand on the billboard to steady herself, and looks up at Avery with wide eyes. "You do that all the time? Wow. I mean, Wow. That's incredible."
"I will be honored to assist, of course. And truly, do you NEED to know? So long as you have an idea of how to avoid it, the details can be found out after. That seems a most miraculous power, my friend."
Hands clasp and infinity fractures en route to the sign. Really, who COULD be ready for that the first time? Some people never get used to it.
Avery grips Gwen's shoulder a moment to help her steady. "Indeed." And just think, she sees in bullet time, what does /Avery/ see in transit? It lasts but a fraction of a second - but that's a lot longer for a person who sees as a Speedster does. "I was taught to do it by breathing, so it is for me the 'Space Between Breaths'." A faint frown. "Sometimes it makes people ill, the vertigo."
Once Gwen has her hand on the board, Avery releases the girl's shoulder. "Aye, all the time, and I can do tricks." She grins and reaches her hand off to the side, the thing vanishing into nothing, and then there's a tapping at Gwen's shoulder. Avery's hand extending from thin air /behind her/ to do so.
Eyes alight with humor. "Does this count as sneaking up?"
Gwen chuckles softly, and nods, "It's a pretty useful thing to have," she agrees. "Someone was trying really hard to shoot me the other day, and knowing when she was going to pull the trigger saved me every time. …I still have two bullet holes in my hood though, which I really need to fix." Yep, she does; two in fact. Must've missed her head by millimeters.
"I have a… pretty well perfect sense of balance," she adds. "Must be helping with the vertigo. I still got it there, but I haven't felt it for a long time. I—"
Gwen's eyes widen again (and the eyes on her mask do likewise) as her shoulder is tapped. "Well, I'm not sure that counts as sneaking up on me, since I already knew you were here," she points out, "But it's cool anyway."
The spider looks over the edge of the catwalk, then back up to Avery. "Well. Fair's fair, you took me teleporting… want me to take you for a swing?"
Avery clearly doth not approve of people shooting at her friends. "Oh, Lady Gwanda, dost have a name in costume? Spider-Gwanda perhaps? My codename be Zeal, as you know." Yes, she's teasing a bit, but — she is allowed to, it is clearly stated in Section Three, Paragraph Seven, Subsection eight point three of the Friendship Code that teasing is allowed between friends, doubly so on a catwalk high off the ground. "Still…better the hood be holed through than thine head."
A blink then at the offer of going for a swing. "I have a grapple gun, but it is only good for one swing, your webs are different, yes?"
A grin then. "Heck yes, why not? I'd love to experience what you do." She says with a luminous smile. "So…how do we do this, I assume thou will need thine arms, shall I cling to your back like a burr?"
Gwen shrugs lightly, "All part of the job," she replies. "Getting shot at, I mean, even though it's really not my favorite part." She stretches once again, arching her spine. "I go by Spider-Woman. …I know, it feels just slightly corny, but I mean… it's accurate at least." She bobs her head, "Alright, Zeal, that's what I'll call you when secret identities are in order, yes?"
She turns to look over the edge once more. "I could get by with one arm," she muses, "But yeah, hanging on to my back probably works best. And don't worry about falling off; even if you did, I'd catch you. Even if you couldn't, y'know, Walk Between Breaths." She bobs her head, and drops to one knee. "Whenever you're ready, then!"
Avery nods. "It is, what was the term I heard in a movie — ah! I have it, for us getting shot at is 'The price of doing business.'." She has the scars to prove it too! "Spider-Woman, very well." She's not going to judge. She /does/ however don HER costume, in this case a domino mask, yeah, not much of a costume. A firm nod. "Zeal and Spider-Woman."
Avery actually takes a few moments to arrange herself on Gwen's back, she wraps her legs about the other woman's mid-section using them as the primary means to hold on, her hands wrapped about the torso just below the bust line, keeping her shoulders free and allowing the best range of motion for the arms. "Ready!" She signals, voice alight with anticipation. Avery's no Spider, but she's very fit, and strong for her size. She can hold on a good long while.
Just before they get into motion, she says, head next to her friend's. "You know…I wonder if we could do both…" Swing /and/ Walk Between, that would be trippy as hell!
Gwen smirks, as she bounces back up to her feet. Apparently the weight of another human being isn't much for her to deal with. "Let's do one thing at a time before we get complicated," she replies, "But that does sound cool."
Without further ado, Gwen takes a step back, then rushes forwards, jumping off the edge of the catwalk and entering a graceful swan dive, plus passenger. She allows herself and Avery to plummet a good forty feet, before she holds one arm out and fires a webline at the building across the street. Her other hand rests over Avery's arm, just in case, as they start to swing like a pendulum.
As they approach the high point of the swing, Gwen releases the line, letting momentum carry them both through the air until they're plummeting again; a webline keeps them from approaching the ground, and soon enough they're on the way back up.
"What do you think?" asks Gwen, raising her voice to her beard over the rush of air.
Avery didn't anticipate her having lifting issues, sure, she has a lot of lean muscle mass even with her slender frame. That said - Gwen was knocking orcs the hell out, sending them flying like ten pins, nope, not a surprise to find that Gwen is more than strong enough! Avery cannot help it, when they do their swan dive the woman cuts loose with a whoop, eyes wide with excitement and holding on for dear life.
Gwen would easily be able feel Avery instinctively trying to shift her weight to help with the swinging, though this will take a bit of time to learn properly.
Bright laughter as they reach that moment of equilibrium, just before they plummet again.
The question gets a breathless answer, her voice /thrilled/. "Oh, it is AMAZING! /You/ are amazing, such fun!"
Gwen takes Avery around a corner, down the street, around another corner, and then up onto another billboard — this one static instead of neon, and only illuminated on one side thanks to a dead bulb, so that at night it does a really poor job of advertising a certain brand of hot dogs. But, hey, it gives them somewhere to stand where they're not directly in the limelight.
"Thanks," breathes Gwen, as she leans against the darkened side of the billboard. "It was terrifying for me the first time. You're pretty gutsy to take it so well." She grins, giving a nod, "It might not be as fast as what you do, but now that I'm used to it? Sure, it's pretty fun. When I'm not chasing bad guys or being shot at, that is."
Avery has a pretty phenomenal, nearly perfect in fact, sense of balance. She proves to be a fairly easy to deal with passenger, and she manages - somehow - not to whoop and holler the whole time. Once they finally land, she squeezes tight a moment, a tactile thank you, and then dismounts and grips Gwen's arms if permitted, facing her friend. "Oh, I do parkour, I jump off things a lot, rooftops a specialty. I have never had much of a fear of heights." Which…considering the Space Between…is probably a very good thing.
A huge grin, and a nod. "Oh yes, this is FUN. I might win a race with line of sight, but I cannot maneuver as you do, there are advantages to both. We /must/ try combining Swinging and Walking Between, that could be very important someday, yes?"
She sighs then and looks down. "I have not been a very good friend, Spider-Woman, I should like to correct that but I also needs must get back home - I have to report in to my Liege bright and early." A sweet smile. "Shall we perhaps plan to meet and do something fun? Even if just watching a movie…?" A firm nod. "Something friends do."
Gwen is quite happy to clasp hands, until she wants to give Avery a playful swat on the shoulder. "Don't be silly, you're a great friend." She nods once, as she takes a step back. Something on her person makes a 'bzzzzxzxzxt' sound, at about that moment; she pulls out her cellphone, has a quick look at it, and stuffs it back where it came from. (Where does she keep that thing, anyway?)
"I gotta go too," she adds, "Someone's being a naughty boy over in Brooklyn and I gotta get over there." She pauses, and nods once more. "Let's go see a movie," she agrees, "And we can go to Whitecastle and eat a ton of sliders, too!" She sticks around just long enough to give a thumbs up with both hands. "Alright, it's a date. As soon as we're both not superheroing. Good luck with that report, Zeal! Ciao!"
Gwen turns, and takes a running leap off the catwalk; within moments, she's making great time, webslinging on her way to Brooklyn.