Summary:A disturbance at a flea market becomes a rage. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Just before 6PM on Saturday night. All seems pretty normal, the weather is clear, mid-50s, no precipitation and few clouds, the sun waning. There's even a small flea market setup in a vacant lot in this part of the Bronx. Wide assortments of shops, art, bric-a-brac, clothing and jewelry and music…a real hodge-podge.
And this is when things get a little weird, an armored courier van is driving by the event, and then suddenly it swerves, wildly out of control /right/ into the thickest part of the market!
People scream, several dive for cover, but the van careens madly - if not stopped it is going to KILL someone!
6PM on Saturday night is not Spider-Woman time. 6PM on Saturday night is Gwen Stacy time; dressed not as a super-hero but as a college student in jeans, a t-shirt, a long jacket, and her backpack slung over one shoulder. The young blond is meandering about the flea market, checking out jewelry and scented soaps and OoOOoOoooh is that guy selling corn dogs? He is selling corn dogs! Time for a snack.
No sooner has she acquired said corndog, smothered it in mustard, and taken a bite, there's a calamity in progress. At first she doesn't hear it — putting your earbuds back in will do that — but there's absolutely no ignoring her danger sense when it starts hollering in the middle of her brain.
"What?!" Gwen jumps just in time to not get flattened, and yanks her earbuds out. She stands there with corndog in hand as the truck continues on its way.
Hurriedly, she devours most of the dog in one bite (so un-lady like) as she lifts her other hand, because of course she's got her webshooters hidden under her sleeves. She fires a glob of webbing, aiming for one of the wheels; and doesn't bother to look to see if it landed before she ducks into one of the vendor's tents. One of the ones that just got vacated in a hurry.
Isis generally tries to avoid crowds - her feline nature and empathy doesn't make them easy - it was the smell of the churros that drew her in though. She's generally always hungry and sugar is one of her main food groups. It's the blast of pain that she feels that alerts to something being wrong - closely followed by the terror of the others.
Even reeling from the emotions, Isis tackles the nearest person to her - pushing them out of the way of the vehicle. She sure hopes this doesn't rip the jacket that Hank made her.
Priscilla actually enjoys crowds and people, and she loves a good flea market. She hasn't been to one in a while, since moving in with her new family. But with the weather turning, she decided she wanted to be outside, and not in a 'hunting alien scumbags' sort of way. And having spotted mention of this on a social media feed, here she is.
The sense of utter horror and agony paired with the screeching of tires causes purple eyes to snap quickly around towards the van. After that, she sprints! But instead of sprinting away from the van, Pris is sprinting right at the thing! She none-too-gently pushes folks out of the way - this may not work, and better they not get trapped as this thing runs over them! - as she pushes herself hard, and then leaps up at the van.
And as soon as her feet leave the ground, her mind reaches out … and slams a mighty hammer-blow upon any and every mind she can sense inside that van. If nothing else, unconscious the driver's foot cannot keep accelerating. Pris has no idea if she can actually punch through these windows, but she's going to be trying shortly.
Gwen's webbing hits that one tire, one of the rear wheels and that gums up the works something fierce. The van slews, jumps a curb, and starts to topple. Isis manages to tackle a young mother and her child, getting them out of the way of the van by just a couple feet, they were toast otherwise, adn then the blast of mental energy from Voodoo as she charges towards the van nearly sizzles the air.
The driver's mind shatters…it was already shattering, and then it falls into darkness, the van crashing to its side and sliding a few yards, toppling a several stands, fetching up against one of the building's flanking the lot, rocking.
The unwebbed tire spins, and then the engine coughs and dies.
Gwen is in her abandoned stall, yep, empty but - the sense of danger? Yeah, not diminished…it is actually stronger. The hell?
The inside of the van…yeah, can't see, there's some sort of blue-black sludge inside the whole cab, and jolts of blue arcing through it. That…augurs ill.
Gwen stays in the abandoned stall while the van is crashing. Heroic? Maybe not, but some things just can't be helped.
While the un-webbed tires are still spinning and for everyone without danger-sense it might seem like things are settling down, Spider-Woman emerges from the tent, in full costume! Also with a backpack over both shoulders, and it's a different color from the one Gwen was previously wearing. How'd she do that?
"Alright, I'm ready," she announces as she approaches the van, and does a couple quick jumps, like a boxer might. She lifts her hands up in front of her and punches the air a couple times. "Who's feeling fighty? Wanna fight? I wanna fight. C'mon out and lets do this," she announces to the world.
Isis gives the mother and child a small shove "Get out of here …" it's a purring growl that Isis uses as she tumbles to her feet and spins to face the truck. At least it didn't explode?
Maybe Isis has been watching too many movies.
"I can't feel anything in there…" Which is strange. Even from unconscious minds the feline like woman can sense things. Stalking closer, like the feline she mostly resembles, the slim woman with cats ears hops up onto the van and see's the sludge that's filling it.
"Ohhhhh… this is not good. What is it…" That's to herself.
Already on top of the van, the tall mocha-skinned curvaceous woman with a long ebony mane shrugs and shakes her head. "Driver's out." He may even be dead; she cannot tell, but she knows he's not driving in fear or flailing anymore.
And then the woman actually starts twisting her body and driving punches with the full force of her body - which turns out to be one heck of a lot more force than a human body ought to be able to generate - down at the window. And when that breaks the bones in her hands, she grits her teeth, squeezing her eyes, and keeps punching, her misshapen, ruined hand reshaping several times as she keeps this up.
All that blue-black good crystalizes, even as Voodoo pounds so horrifically at the windshield, and it starts to spiderweb (No offense Gwen!)…to crack, the material stained red with Voodoo's blood. And then Isis would feel something, something in the core of all that, Voodoo as well, and Gwen…her spidersense is /screaming/ of danger just as a fist size of Isis' entire torso /ruptures/ through the door facing the sky, the thing hurled at least a hundred, hundred fifty feet into the air as it is punched free. Out of that mass of crystal emerges about three full meters or man-dinosaur hybrid.
There's /no/ sign of anything from it, just molten rage, the desire to kill, to rend.
The thing has golden eyes with slit pupils, the head of a serpent, with bony ridges turning into spikes and then into massive horns. The torso and scales are marroon, with gold highlights, and there's a thick tail with a spiked mass at the end. Digitgrade legs end is massive rending talons. Rage. RAGE. RAGE all that emanates from it as it arches it's back, arms akimbo as he roars with primal fury, and crackling blue energy slithering along its body like St Elmo's fire.
Gwen really ought to be more careful what she wishes for, a thought that is currently front and center in her mind. "…Okay well, that's… that's a thing, then," she mumbles.
The van door is a bit of a loose end, and a great way to procrastinate for around thirty seconds or so. Gwen watches its trajectory, and then breaks into a run, rushing across the ground to where it's gonna land, more or less; she snags it out of the air with a hastily fired webline, making sure it doesn't damage anything or anyone.
"Okay," she declares, tossing the door on the ground, as she turns to walk back towards the crystal man-goo dinosaur. "Let's do this."
She lifts both hands and launches a couple globs of webbing at the thing, one after the other. "Come one!" she shouts, and slams one fist in to the palm of her hand. "I'm ready! Pick on me you moldy glob of angry snot-soup!"
"I … uh… don't think you should let it out…" ISis has seen things when she grew up in the lab. Things that shouldn't be released. She was one of them, really.
As the fist erupts from the cabin, she's sent flying - twisting her body to land in a crouch just above Spider-Woman as she taunts the thing. "It's really, really angry." The slim woman says. "So angry, I'm not feeling anything else."
Sharp, razor like claws extend from her fingers and her eyes glow neon blue, a feline growl sounding deep in her throat. Isis' nostrils flare and as she stares at the thing. "Reverbium … it's full of it. Becareful …." then to the other two "Do you want it angrier or calmer…" she asks, readying to leap and drive those claws into the goo.
Whoops! Up comes the rage, and Priscilla barely has time to roll to the side before the door is punched clean off and her with it! And then here comes … rage dino monster? OK, as a woman who regularly hunts shapeshifting magical aliens, this is just too weird for words. "Run!" she shouts, as a telepathic wave blasts out from her towards the civilians in the area, layering on the compulsion to get the flock out of dodge, and promptly!
What a time to not have her bike, her gear, and her weapons! Pris is going to have to think about that problem. But right now she has more important and more lethal things to worry about!
Seeing no sign of the man remaining, Priscilla frowns and snaps her gaze to the cat lady. "Doubt you can calm it down. But feel free to try." That said, Priscilla's body ripples and warps like something straight out of a CGI special effects masterpiece, stretching and contorting like colored taffy, and reshaping into something that is most definitely not human. Not at all. Just some kind of bony, exo-skeletal clawed dog/great cat/alien murderbeast. Geiger's nightmare fuel.
Shaking, the Dino-man spatters goo off it, and then turns its mad with hate gaze towards the annoying little thing spattering it with sticky-stuff. It doesn't have the brainpower to speak - but it recognizes a challenge when it sees one, the tone, the fist into hand…yeah, the little thing thinks it can challenge it and live? Another roar, loud enough this time to crack glass.
And then it is charging the Spider-woman like a glistening freight train of doom.
Voodoo's burst command jibes very nicely with most people's instincts. A couple hang back, just hunker down, a few more holding smartphones up, hands trembling as they film this…thing.
Voodoo's form change into similar brute, draws a narrow eyed gaze, the thing pulling up short just before Gwen, and pivoting about a ton of muscle, thick armor and bone, WHIPPING that tail in a scything attempt to batter all three women with the spiked wrecking ball at the end.
Alright, the good news is it's focused on Spider-Woman, who is tough and can probably take it, at least for a few hits. She thinks. The bad news is, it's focused on Spider-Woman, who is about to find out if her assumption was correct. "Let it focus on me!" she shouts to the other two women who seem to be both brave and capable enough to fight Ickysoaurus Rex.
Brave plan, Gwen; she gets that suggestion out just before it charges her. She stands her ground, planting her feet and shuffling backwards a couple of inches. "Uhm.. more angry! I don't think less angry is an option."
She manages to get that out just before the thing reaches her and the others; and then it's whipping that tail. She jumps over it, doing a backflip to land facing the tail now swinging away from her; she zips out a couple weblines and digs her heels into the ground, hoping for the best.
Isis is good with letting Gwen draw the aggro. She's a better DPS anyway. Or is it Mage? She always gets confused when she plays those games. "Angry is easy." She agrees with the other two, focussing her those eyes are so very, very blue, on the creature. "He's … big isn't he?"
Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Isis, the mistress of understatement.
A wave of angry emotion flows out from the slim empath - the problem? It floods the area. Isis power is strong but not particularly directional. Voodoo and Gwen will feel it, as will the bystanders.
"When you turn it, I can jump on its back…" What she intends to with that, is anyones guess.
And the geiger-beast is behind the ickysaurus Rex, still atop the van's cargo compartment. The Spider-Woman wants first go? OK. Seems mighty reckless, but Voodoo usually fights things she understands, and this thing she does not. She'll let the reckless teen heroine go first.
And then it whips around far more smartly than she expected, and it seems to have identified Voodoo as a threat just because she shifted. Well, fark that. Time to get in this fight! The geigerbeast leaps down from the van and sprints towards the creature giving a rasping snarl like a dry-running chainsaw. She leaps over the cat woman, and then … anger. ANGER!
Hit an empath with feelings, apparently. Because now Voodoobeastie's volume increases, and out come razor-sharp claws, slashing for legs to slow and disable the opponent … and make it suffer.
Making Voodoo angry is not always a healthy thing.
Spider-woman avoids the scything tail of doom with a dancer's grace, and then she shoots webbing at it…good news - she hits! Bad news too, sad to say, the thing is strong, the girl is dragged, heels digging twin furrows in the ground and scattering rocks and dirt as she's flung towards that wall by the van. Meep!
Yet another leap from the kitty girl, Isis also evades getting smooshed with relative ease. And then she stokes the thing's anger, and it /literally/ sees red, blood vessels in the eyes bursting with the uptick in its heart rate, blood pressure rising and yes, it turns as Isis had hoped, back wide open.
The geiger-Voo's buzzing approach even in the thing's rage draws a hiss, and soon they are clawing and rending at each other. Geiger-Voo's claws tear into highly resilient flesh, and the thing bellows it's pain as bright blood flows, and then it tries to see how much of the geiger-Voo's armor it chan chew though, no doubt there's a lovely chewy center to this super-pop!
Gwen tumbles through the air, and manages to not fly head-first into the wall. She does hit with her shoulder, though, and that sure does hurt. But, you should see the other guy — or in this case, wall. There's kind of a Gwen-shaped hole in it, that she crawls out of, unable to explain two things; one, where this thing came from, and two, why is she so angry?
Oh well, think about it later.
"HEY!" she shouts, "You, uhm… Xenomorph person I don't know! Watch out!" With the warning given, she shifts her attention to the crashed van beside her. She siezes hold of it by the side, and then strains her muscles hard, so that she can… learn that armored trucks weigh a lot more than ten tons, as it turns out.
Like a lot more.
"Dangit," mutters the Spider-Woman. Well, it's on its side, so she helps herself to the rear driveshaft instead, tearing it loose and charging back into the fray with it. As she gets close she leaps and swings her improvized club, aiming to dome the big dinosaur… thing.
Isis leaps - growling and spitting like an enraged feline. Empathic feedback - it's a thing. Poor Voodoo - her anger feedbacks to Isis which in turn feeds out to … everyone else. As she lands on the creatures back those claws … claw at the coating, trying to find anything that she can gouge and draw … blood? … from.
Those sharp little fangs in her mouth bite as well … it probably tastes terrible but Isis doesn't care - this thing needs to go down … /now/.
Finding a gap between the chest piece and 'helm' so to speak, Isis pries the opening wider and slips her slim arms around the creatures neck - and … squeezes.
Now, there's the dino-thing with a cat-woman hanging from its back as it tries to gnaw on geiger-voodoo and is being beaten on by Spider-Woman.
And suddenly - if perhaps for not the first time ever - Voodoo is being eaten!!! More dry chainsaw snarling, and the geigerbeast twists around impossibly - thank you, shapeshifting! - and starts slicing the ickysaurus rex in the face. Best part? Razor-sharp claws with steel-armor-penetrating strength, slicing through eyes! And rear claws digging into mouth and jaw!
Hurt? Hells yes, Voodoo is hurt! But the choice is kill, or be killed. She votes for kill right now. ANGRY!!!!
This is definitely going to make the news, no question.
Most of the onlookers fled when Voodoo sent that 'run' command at them, but the few brave (Stupie?!?) souls who watch and film find themselves caught in the rageback loop between Isis and Voodoo, two empaths /feeding/ each other's powers in the area. Some of them drop their cameras, one guy takes out a 9MM and shouting advances firing, he unloads one mag, ejects…reloads and then does it again, finally throwing the gun at the dino-man, all to zero effect. Isis might catch a bullet or two though…not that she's likely to care at the moment.
Isis rends, and tears, and yes…it tastes like a raw sewage popsicle soaked in syrup of ipecac! BUT…she can feel its rage spiking higher and higher, breathing going ragged as it bleeds, and bites and snarls - literally frothing.
Geiger-Voo is in agony, but she too feels the things pain and anger, more to the mix. Normal citizens pick up clubs and other items beating on the monster, multiple sprays of blood and gobbets of flesh torn from the brute as it in turn mauls Voodoo.
And then Spider-Woman tears out the drive shaft of the armored courier…and steps up, a swing…PTANG! Steel driven by ten tons of force, boosted by rage, spiked with adrenaline, force amplified by a huge lever.
The behemoth gets knocked sideways into a van, buckling the innocently parked vehicle. The beast loses hold of Geiger-Voo, and might shake off the Isis rager, and then it /shrieks/…falling to one knee, unable to breath, blood streaming down it as it clutches at its chest, tearing at itself before it goes stiff, eyes dimming, and then falls.
The Spider-Woman hasn't hardly had time to notice that the thing is unconscious, or dead, or… whatever, really. She drops the driveshaft, and her danger-sense is too busy reminding her that there's ordinary folks hanging around with guns and clubs and stuff, and they're still a danger, even if mostly just to themselves.
Also, she's inexplicably angry. Like really angry.
She very carefully and deliberately puts the driveshaft down at her feet, lest she snap and dome someone with it. Someone who isn't a giant nasty weird dinosaur.
"That's enough of that," she decides, forcing her tone of voice to be one of calm. And sort of succeeding. Hey, at least she didn't let off a string of expletives, as she sends a glob of webbing at the guy with the gun. "Everyone else move along! Nothing to see here! Unless you want to get webbed up." She raises both hands, keeping her fingers on the paddles for her webshooters, just in case there's any more trigger-happy wiseguys in the pack.
And the Geiger-beast falls to the ground when released, squirming away, getting itself ready - as best possible - to continue the fight. And the creature has a heart attack, and dies of its wounds. And Geiger-Voodoo-beastie moves forward, nudging at the beast, at the body. But its rage no longer beats against her mind. She turns towards Isis and lets loose a snarl of chainsaw sound, as a voice sounds in the vaults of the catwoman's mind. "Stop, please." It's a 'loud' mental voice, achingly so, as if Voodoo had perhaps failed to keep up with all of Emma's lessons on toning down her telepathy in her current state. She'll feel bad about the headaches later.
Damn that hurt.
Isis drops to the ground hissing and spitting, reduced to her feral state once again. She'd spent sixteen years, kept like this - this isn't unusual as her lips curl back and she bares fangs. And sticks out her tongue trying to clear the taste from it - just like someone had put peanut butter on a dogs tongue.
Voodoo and Spider-Woman can see the humanity as it shimmers behind Isis's eyes. Shivering, still quite feral, the slim mutants says just four words before she curls in a ball on the pavement.
"Call Nick. Paragon Investigations."