15468/Release the Spider-Slayers!

Release the Spider-Slayers!
Date of Scene:	13 August 2023
Location:	Lower Manhattan, Manhattan
Synopsis:	A pleasant little food festival in lower Manhatten is spoiled by the arrival of the ominous robotic Spider-Slayers! The local Spiders look ripe to take the blame for this one as well. Imagine that.
Cast of Characters:	Spider-Man, Spider-Woman (Drew), Ghost Spider, Firestar

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Spider-Man has posed:
Once more evening has descended upon the island of Manhatten, the last vestiges of the setting sun still giving the western sky a reddish glow. At least when it can be seen amongst all the buildings that rise up all around.

For a change the heat of summer is not so noticable, especially with the setting of the sun and evening is almost pleasantly cool -- a reminder that autumn is not that far off afterall. When the breeze whistles along the streets of the city, some might almost wish that htey had a jacket.

The streets around City Hall in Lower Manhatten have been sealed off and given over to a local festival. And not just any sort of festival! A food festival. Food trucks and carts, impromptu stands and even just folding tables have been set up all along the street celebrating all the diverse populations of hte city and the rich culinary traditions that each bring and add to the whole. Savory scents fill the evening air and crowds of people circulate, some trying a little bit of a number of different stalls, others focused on their favorites.

It looks to be a lot of fun. And it smells even better.

While there is no guarantee that the Mayor of the city will make any sort of appearance, this close to City Hall, with this much hustle and bustle, Spider-Man doesn't seem to be willing to take that chance. He is still very much aware that his best hope of clearing his name is to catch that actual would-be assassin. Maybe then the people of the city, the authorities will finally accept that he's innocent of what he is suspected of doing.

It isn't likely to change Jonah's mind of course, but Peter's not expecting miracles.

The police presence is reasonably heavy below, unsurprising at any event, especially one this close to City Hall given recent events and now and then the Amazing Spider-Man has even spotted snipers arrayed across some of the nearby rooftops.

Needless to say, he's been careful to avoid those, seeking out shadowy little nooks where he can watch, can listen, and most of all can give his Spider-Senses a chance to make their own evaluation.

Not really how he would ideally be choosing to spend his time right now, but it could definitely be worse. And maybe, before the night's through, he'll even sweep down and hide away his costume long enough to grab something to eat himself.

Of course the authorities, certain Spiders, they aren't the only ones keeping an eye on things down below. In the skies above, circular, silvery orbs of silver hover, lenses peered downward at the crowded city streets. Though these too seem to pay much more attention to rooftops and the ledges of buildings, making their own thorough search for their target...

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
So, the last few times Spider-Woman has donned her all too identifiable red-and-yellow costume haven't gone well. Broken ribs seem to be about par for the course, and for her, sleeping it off is genuinely the best solution, just letting her body heal the damage of something that can't be readily assisted by modern medicine.

With JARVIS back in the manor, what need has she to even leave?

Except, well. Her therapist and his unenduring logic. "You can't let a little setback keep you down," doesn't really compel Jessica Drew to action. It's her therapist's desperate (and frankly joking at the time), "Don't you want to punch bad guys in the face?"

She does, she really does!

So here Jess is, having glided her way down Fifth, aiming for a burger joint down in Greenwich. Only she's immediately waylaid by the scent of really great food. "Oh, no! I didn't bring nearly enough cash for this." She lands on the top of one of the food trucks, breathing in, when someone from the crowd points at her and calls, "There's one of those spiders! Call the police!"

Spider-Woman looks affronted. "What? WHY! No, I'm the good one! Not the other one is bad. Or any of them, really. Gosh, that's a lot of police." Jess probably didn't think this through. She can't exactly zap a webline out of here. Despite being part-spider that's not one of her abilities. Besides... the burgers. "All right, this is a misunderstanding. We can totally... talk this out."

That is a lot of authorities converging towards her, though. Welp. Her bestie is burger-blocking her and he isn't even here. Life is just unfair.

Ghost Spider has posed:
"So, why no costume tonight?" comes the voice of Kevin not far from where Jess's 'scene' was about to begin taking place. About Peter's height with a mop of shaggy brown hair, he was walking side-by-side with one Gwen Stacy.

With her long blonde hair pulled up into a ponytail, Gwen sported a pair of old, faded jeans, an old punk band t-shirt, a light jacket, and her trademark light blue Chuck Taylors. She walked along with her hands tucked into the hip pockets of that jacket, looking up at Kevin with a little grin.

"I mean.. I don't /not/ have my costume on."

"Oooohhhh... undercover." Kevin taps his temple, meme-style. "Smart."

Gwen rolls her eyes. "I'm not undercover. I'm just going to get a burger with my best friend."

Kevin's eyes narrow. "What about Peter?"

"That's different."

And just as Kevin might reply to /that/, there's a sudden mob of police converging on the poor, helpless burger stand they were headed to, which was currently being /assaulted/ by one of those SPIDER PEOPLE.

"Woah-woah-woah!" Gwen shouts, leaving Kevin's side to run up and stand.. beside Jessica, of all things. Of course, this is probably odd. For as much time as Gwen's spent around Peter recently, she hadn't really met Jessica outside of costumed 'events.'

"She's right! She's a good one... an even.. gooder one!" Gwen looks over at Jessica and smiles lopsidedly. "Don't worry, girl. I've got your back." Beat. "Probably."

Yeah, Gwen was working on her PhD. You can guess how that was going.

But what /might/ help is that Gwen Stacy was the daughter of NYPD Captain Stacy, who /was/ well known.. and she would point out, if it came to that and they didn't recognize her on sight, anyway.

Spider-Man has posed:
In that little shadowy alcove where he has managed to find some measure of cover, some measure of anonymity of the many, many people that seem to be keeping their eyes peeled especially for him, Peter's attention is almost immediately drawn to the sudden convergance of police towards one particular figure. Is this it? Is this the moment he's been waiting for? The chance to clear his name?

Nope. It's just his dumb luck inconveniencing another person in his life. Things do look a little heated down there amd Spidey tenses, preparing to leap down and maybe take a little heat off of his bestie.

Before he feels the need to do that however, it looks like saner heads are going to prevail. While plenty in the crowd -- and amongst New York's finest -- still look pretty heated, pointing and throwing accusations towards Spider-Woman, it seems that a few of the beat cops do at least recognize Gwen on sight and while the words of a Captain's daughter might not exactly be a get out of jail free card, they do help to make people pause and thing.

Another murmur goes through the mass of uniforms that descend on Jessica -- tragically cutting off her path towards a trio of impromptu burger kiosks that appear to have been set up just ahead, the scent of grilling beef wafting in the air. "I think she might be an Avenger. Isn't one of those Spider-types an Avenger? It could be her..."

"Oh who can keep track. Lets just take her in to custody and..."

"Isn't that Captain Stacy's daughter? If she thinks this one's okay I don't want to get into trouble with her old man..."

"Are you kidding? He hates Spiders. Thinks they're a menace. We'd be better gunning this Spider chick down then letting her roam free if he's around..."

It doesn't exactly sound like the argument will be settled soon.

Meanwhile, up above, while Pete doesn't immediately launch his way into the middle of things to take the heat off of Jessica, he does lean forward for a moment to get a better look. And that's enough.

One of the silvery eye-spies in the air locks in on him, framing Spider-Man in the center of that extended lense.

And in a laboratory across town a deep voice says, "Release them. At once."

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Spider-Woman, still standing on the food truck, has a kind of soapbox. Or a literal food box. If only she could get to the frankly amazing smelling food that is just tantalizingly out of her reach. Instead, there's this. "Come on, guys and gals. I just want a burger. I don't want to have to make this a thing. It's so exhausting! And then I have to explain to my therapist how I fucked this all up, and that's /truly/ exhausting, let met tell you. He doesn't judge, but he's kind of judging, you know?"

/Do they?/ Seriously a #firstworldproblem moment.

Spider-Woman turns to look as Gwen climbs up onto the truck next to her. The support is... well, look. Jessica's not going to judge at the /probably/. She isn't exactly advocating well for herself either. "Thanks!" she declares, brightly. "I think? Hey, I'm just here for a burger. And look, I could flashy my card, or like, call up Captain America to come down and distract you all with his awesomeness while I secure the burger area, but that feels like a gross overstepping of powers... you know what I'm saying?"

She's trying to make a point. She's just being a liiittle too subtle about it.

There's already doubt being sown into the mass of authorities, thanks to Gwen, who she absolutely doesn't recognize. Distraction was a technique well taught to her by Hydra, and Jessica adds to the uncertainty by just pointing across the way, away from the burger kiosks, "Oh look, I think I saw Spidey over there!" She points randomly to a building.

Then she leaps off the top of the food truck, angling for the nearest balcony to get a bit of height. Don't worry burgers, Jess hasn't given up on you yet!

Ghost Spider has posed:
/Isn't that Captain Stacy's daughter?/

"Hey! Yeah! That's me.. I'm.. I'm Gwen Stacy.."

/Are you kidding? He hates Spiders./

"Look, I feel like that's really over-simplifying things, and arachnophobia isn't really probable cause..."

/I'm pretty sure she's the one that's the Avenger!/

"She is!"

Gwen is literally open-arm pleading with the crowd in real-time, trying to pick out individual bits to help plead the case. Really, it was her case, too. Ghost Spider wasn't exactly beloved, and that wasn't even counting how many times her own father had drawn his gun and been ready to murder her without realizing it was his own daughter.

When Spider-Woman offers her thanks, though, Gwen beams a little. "Yeah. No problem. Us, uh..." Us what? Not Spiders.. "...girls..." (and she sticks the landing) "..have to stick together, right?"

Well, maybe. /Gwen/ wasn't silly enough to fall for the old 'look over there' gag like most of the mob, so even if she /did/ point at Peter, she had no idea. She just watched Spider-Woman jump and scurry up onto a balcony while the general murmur of 'Where?' spread through the gathered crowd.

"Sheep..." Gwen mutters.

"WHAT?!" one of the people in the crowd closest yells.

"Nothing!" Gwen chimes up pleasantly, leaping and back-flipping gracefully back onto the ground beside the truck. Because... gymnast. Or something.

"Well, that was stupid," Kevin chimes up from right beside her a moment later.

"Yeah... these crowds can get out of control."

"No, I mean you jumping up there."

Gwen shoves him with her shoulder. "I didn't see you doing anything."

"Exactly."

Spider-Man has posed:
While Spider-Woman might not point out his exact location in her efforts to distract the crowd, it is close enough in the vague vicinity that just for a moment Peter is forced to wonder.

In fairness, a good measure of her problems down there do probably boil down to him. To the ongoing negative press he collects from the Bugle. From being framed as an assassin. To everything else that seems to go wrong at times when he's near. She might have some fair cause for complaint.

He's not doing it deliberately, honest. He's a pretty nice guy, at least if you're not on the wrong side of his quips. And he normally saves the worst of those for the bad guys, so...

The crowd -- including the uniformed authorities -- still seem pretty torn on Jessica's bonafides. But that well timed distraction serves its purpose, allowing her to leap to freedom and at least -- temporarily escape notice.

Concern for her, for Gwen who he spots there in the midst of the whole thing as well, diminishes considerably and perhaps realizing that this could all just be a distraction for something else, that masked gaze is quick to flit around the street, seeking out any other sign of disturbance, anything else that he might have missed.

But when the next odd sight appears it does not show on the streets below, but rather in the skies above. The faint hum might easily be lost in the noise of the crowd, the conflicting music that plays from a dozen different speakers spread out along the little food festival. And then two unlikely silhouettes cut an unlikely path through the night sky before starting to veer down.

Both look to be rather large, spider-shaped machines, though one is most definitely bigger then the other. Mechanical legs and mandibles click ominiously and while they initially zero in on Spidey, heading straight towards that shadowy alcove, they do hesitate when they pass over Jessica and Gwen as well, dozens of artifical eyes briefly rolling their way.

But in the end it is just a pause and the only warning that Spider=Man gets is the faint tingle in the back of his head a moment before the larger of the two Spider-Bots opens it's mouth, a bright laser blast bursting forth and tearing into the brick of the building.

Hurling himself away at the last moment, Pete begins to fall towards the crowd below. "What the he-- heck!"

It's going to be one of those nights.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
One can't really blame Jessica Drew for Peter Parker's luck. It's all his fault, after all.

It's not like Jess /deliberately/ points in his direction. She doesn't even know he's there! Just, sometimes, the universe likes to have a laugh, and certainly enjoys heaping it on the Spiders in particular. It's just their lot in life.

Like Jessica Drew's revised plans: go change into civilian clothes, and buy those darn burgers. She should've just ubered anyway: lesson learned. She's busy now crawling up the side of the building she leapt towards, seeking the solitude of the rooftop, when she hears that hum.

It's one of the downsides of exceptional hearing. Something that's low key that wouldn't bother anyone else is really, really annoying. She scowls, looking around for the source, eyes widening beneath the half-mask as she spots the machines overhead. The... spiders? That's right when she sees one of them open and shoot an actual laser into the building she pointed at earlier. "Uh-uh," Jess utters, and then: "FUCK!" when she sees a familiar figure falling.

Yeah, she's not watching her mouth right now. Unlatching one hand from the wall, she points her palm at the spider-laser bot that just fired, and lets off a venom blast. Her bio electricity does wonderful (terrible) things to mechanics, unless they're shielded against it. She's gonna roll the Spider luck, and try and take the thing out while Peter's falling.

Ghost Spider has posed:
"Hold on." Gwen reaches out to grab Kevin's arm, suddenly stiffening.

"It's doing that tingling thing again, isn't it?" Kevin asks. "You should really have a doctor look at that. There might be medic--"

"Shut. Up. And move!" Gwen grabs Kevin and drags him to the other side of the food truck just as a chunk from the brick building across the street *explodes*, sending a shower of pieces -- some larger than others -- raining down on the suddenly screaming venue-goers.

Panic erupts.

There's a mass stampede of people going in all directions away from the corner of the building that's being attacked. Police sirens suddenly wail in the distance, and there's a sudden crackle of radio traffic from all of the various units already on-scene as they begin to take up cover positions and draw their weapons.

The owners of the food truck bail out the back door, and Gwen shoves Kevin inside, slamming the door behind them and pulling down the shade over the ordering window to give them privacy. There are burgers still cooking (actually.. burning, now) on the griddle. RIP.

In seconds, she's ripping off of her jacket and shoving it into his arms.

"Hold this."

The shirt comes off next, revealing the black-and-white Ghost Spider costume underneath.

"And this.."

Jeans are next, but they get caught on her Chucks, which she hastily kicks off in frustration.

"These.."

Then she's scurrying for her shoes to get them back on, hopping on one foot.

Kevin just stands there, holding her clothes and gawking. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Go home," Gwen says, pulling her mask down over her face. "I'll call you later."

Then she's bursting out the back door of that food truck in full Ghost Spider attire, swinging around the corner to flip back up on top of it and then *THWIP* a web-line out to a building so she can start to swing towards the Mecha-Spider-Menaces.

Firestar has posed:
Walking up the street, Angelica is initiall unaware as anyone that is looking at her phone for directions might be. However, it doesn't take long to catch on to bad things being about.

She looks up the street towards the ruckus that is unfolding and sighs softly,"Well, I liked this outfit." she mutters and heads towards the next alley, not noticing the falling Spider-Man yet so she doesn't just tear into the sky in civilian wear.

Down the alley way she runs and once she is out of sight there is a bright flash of yellow light from the depths. Seconds later Firestar blasts into the sky and takes a moment to assess what she's gotten herself into,"Never a dull moment." she mutters.

Spider-Man has posed:
Generally falling off a building is pretty bad.

Sadly, for Peter Parker it is something that happens fairly regularly in his life. On the whole, even as a Spider-Person he would not particularly recommend it to anyone. It does help of course, to have inhumanly fast reflexes. And the web-shooters do mean that he can almost always regain a purchase of some sort and avoid crashing to the ground. Though there have been exceptions to therule at various times, as his back can well attest.

Spidey doesn't intend for this to be one of those times however and even as he hurtles backward through midair -- the exploding brick of the wall he just vacated showering down around him -- he lifts an arm and fire's a perfect shot at the larger of the two flying spider-bots. That webline *thwips* in the most satisfactory way, striking the bottom of the robot.

"Oh yeah, look at that! Perfect shot, perfect score!" Pete hollars.

The problem? The webbing doesn't actually stick to the robot, simply sliding right off. Instead of arresting his fall, Spidey just plummets downward. "Oh c'moooooon..." he yells, firing off another web-line frantically at a nearby building. It too strikes home but before the line goes taunt, Spider-Man lands.

Right on the hood of a parked car.

There is an audible crunch and the sound of exploding glass as the roof gives way into a very Spider-Man sized dent, the safety glass of the windshield fracturing loudly, even with the cries of the now panicked ground.

And Spidey? Who didn't intend to fall? He stirs with an audible groan.

As has should be obvious now, he doesn't always get what he wants.

Fortunately Jessica is a little more successful with her gambit. While that hulking Spider-bot might shrug off webbing like it's not even there, it doesn't seem to do quite so well with venom blasts. The bio-electric blast hits home and almost immediately the flight mechanism in the mechanical spider seems to go haywire, sending it careening towards the ground, crashing in a heap.

Unfortunately, it begins to stir a little faster then Spider-Man does and while it can't seem to get airborn again, it begins to scuttle over towards where he now lays sprawled atop the ruins of some poor car, those razor sharp legs clicking ominious as it scuttles across the ground.

While she might not have been the actual target, when Ghost Spider bursts out of that food truck it seems to attract the attention of the small of the two robotic spiders and it suddenly veers away from Peter, honing in on her instead. Racing towards her, it doesn't fire a laser blast, but those spikey legs that are currled up beneath it? To of them suddenly lash out, extending a good fifteen feet from its body as they drive straight towards Gwen.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
The big spider bot she shot at goes haywire and drops to the ground. "Home run!" Jessica yells. Yeah, she's mixing up her sporting metaphors. She clearly doesn't do sport. And she doesn't stop, either, to see it starting to scramble along the ground.

Instead, Spider-Woman fixes on the other big bot in play. The laser beam was nasty, and she doesn't intend a repeat action. With a deep breath, she pushes off the building she was clinging to, gliding outwards, aiming directly for the still-airborne large spider-creature near her. The moment she's close enough she'll use her bio electricity to stick to its surface, intending to crawl along its back and ride it like a horse.

It's not the worst life choice she's ever made. But it's certainly not up there for being the best, that's for sure.

"Hi, buddy! You're giving us a bad name! And we really don't need the help. Spidey's got that part on lock. So if you can just like... not."

Weirdly though Jess doesn't seem to intend to straight up destroy it. Nope. Instead, if she hears it opening it's 'mouth' she's intending to use her weight to re-direct the laser... towards one of the other flying spider-creatures. It's exactly like one of those shooting gallery games, except with deadly spider-creatures, and floating somewhere above the streets of New York.

It's fine, everything's fine.

Ghost Spider has posed:
It's a good thing Spider-Sense is real, otherwise this whole being-a-Spider thing would be a lot shorter lived than it ends up being.

Gwen had decided to take the straight-at-em approach to combatting these mecha-spiders, whatever they were, and that worked REALLY well.

Like... really well.

So well, in fact, that not only was she spotted, one of them was coming right at her! It was almost as good as calling out its name. But, she didn't have any of their names.

Then there's that familiar tingling, and without stopping to think about her reaction, Gwen's non-swinging arm reaches out towards a manhole cover and she *THWIPS* it up into her hands like Captain America's shield.

*CLANG*

The cover stops the impact, but it also knocks the manhole cover out of her hand and sends her spinning off to the side, shooting out another web to catch herself mid-fall and swinging past.

*THWIP*

"Slow down, Vlad! We don't even know each other like that!"

Well, at least it had a name, now.

Firestar has posed:
"The things you get me into Spidey." Firestar mutters. Then she sees him fall. A sharp inhale gasp and she plunges from the sky towards the falling web head. No way to catch him before hits so she changes her attention towards the spider driod going towards Ghost Spider.

Her altitude goes up and her angle a bit wide before sending a focused maser blast at the machine, but without putting Gwen, Spidey, or Spider Woman in the direct line of fire.

Spider-Man has posed:
Up close it is clear to see in that especially fine finish that coats the Spider-bots that something has been applied to keep the Spider's normal webbing from sticking, a final slick polish to protect against one of their most formidable weapons.

Fortunately it doesn't seem to help at all with Spider-Woman's means of clinging to surfaces and she easily clings to the larger of the two Spider-Bots as it scuttles about, it's approach towards Peter delayed fortuantely by her intervention. Instead it frantically begins to buck and lunge about, trying to dislodge Jessica.

Finally however, it does indeed do what Jessica wants and opens it's mouth, perhaps intending to blanket the area with that laser blast. But when that energy starts to build, it finds it's head jerked upward until it's facing the other flying Spider-Bot right as that red energy beam leaps forth.

That impromptu and poor man's Captain America shield serves Ghost Spider well, those deadly spiked legs clanging off of the manhole cover and away from Gwen at the last minute. The legs retract with amaing speed, ready to be launched forth once more, another attempt to put an end to a hated Spider.

Of course that's when Spider-Woman directs the laser beam at it's side, making it recoil. Before it can cover up though, Firestar hits it in the same place as well and the added blast simply melts that outer shell of armor leaving the laser free to cut into all the complex circuitry beneath. The second Spider-Slayer begins to fall from the sky.

Down atop that shattered car roof, Spider-Man tries to recover, tries to move, despite the protests of his body that feels quite confident that staying where he is, maybe whining a little is definitely the correct strategy moving forward. But he can see Spider-Woman still tangling with the largest of the spider-bots. He can see Firestar flying over head -- good timing that -- and can see Gwen's efforts to fend off the other murderous robot.

It's enough to stir him into motion -- though he probably immediately wishes he didn't.

This is New York. Craziness abounds and while msot sensible people have run, looking for cover in al lthe craziness, some linger. Some gesture and point -- to the flying spider-bots in the sky and to Peter as he finally starts to mvoe.

"It's Spider-Man! Those robots must be his!" come a number of cries, and several uniform officers break off from the fact trying to evacuate the street, starting his way.

"I was just attacked by the freakin' things but sure, okay. They're mine. Because that makes sense," Spidey grouses, one hand pressed to his back.

At least it looks like they have everything under control.

At least until a third of the constructs suddenly skims over the rooftops, the largest one yet. Another arachnid, this one appears to be a flying scorpion and that metallic tail begins to wave about, more laser blasts beginning to rain down towards Gwen, Jessica and Peter.

Firestar, notably, it seems to ignore entirely.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
This is New York. Who /hasn't/ seen a Spider-person riding a giant spider-bot like some kind of messed up Spider-Rodeo show? There's probably going to be a half-dozen TikTok's rating her technique by morning.

"Hey, chill out, Roboto. I come in peace and whatever, unless you try to... do that."

Jessica just sighs, as she wrenches the spider bot upwards, sending that laser beam up into the sky rather than into the fleeing crowd. "YOU'RE WELCOME!"

Yeah, she's being sarcastic. It's all those comments about the spider-bots belonging to him.

Probably though from a PR perspective this doesn't look like a great move. Someone could easily splice together video making it look like she was riding the stupid thing when it fired and splice in damage footage... oh well. The Avengers has a PR team. And a lot of money.

"Hi Bestie!" Jess calls to Peter as he finally starts to move atop the car. "Totally didn't see you there before, my bad. What's up with all the Mini-Mes? They gotta be controlled from somewhere else, right? A signal we can track? I mean, I would but I kind of need both hands, but I'd really like to go punch whoever it is in the face, especially if it's that dweeby little TechBro dude-"

"-ohhhhkay, that's bad." Understatement of the year. Especially when lasers are raining down. There's good and bad sides to being targeted though.

Good: those lasers are also shooting at the big spider-bot Jessica Drew is on.

Bad: those lasers are firing at Jessica Drew. Her reflexes are fast as heck, but with multiple hits coming in, at least one scores across her thigh as she scrambles across the top of the spider bot.

Ghost Spider has posed:
Gwen was just starting to have fun with poor Vlad -- which probably meant she was going to be impaled in another 1.2 seconds when he lashed out again faster than she could grab another manhole cover.

Just as those mechanical legs start to unfurl again, Ghost Spider's big white eyes widen in slow-motion horror.

Thankfully, that never happens. A hole is burned into the side of her little mini-flying-spider-bot-of-doom, and while it struggles to recover, Ghost Spider is busy trying to swing out of stabbing range. When she looks back, Vlad is falling out of the sky.

"Great teamwork, guys!" she yells, though the big white eyes of her costume focus for a minute on Firestar.

*THWIP*

"Hey, can you go to outer space?! I was just telling a friend earlier I need more friends that can fly..."

Ghost Spider's white hood flutters as she swings, still watching Firestar, and the big scorpion opens fire. With a tingle of spider-senses, she suddenly shoots a second line to change direction, and the closest of the blasts severs her web-line just above her hands. For a moment, she's tumbling in complete free-fall, connected to a loose-line and trying to line up a shot.

*THWIP*

It goes out and lands, but she swings upside down, her head just barely passing above a few police cruisers and associated officers who duck out of instinct more than necessity.

"SORRY!"

*THWIP*

Then Ghost Spider is swinging back up towards the tops of the buildings, no doubt looking about for something she can swing at the stupid thing.

Firestar has posed:
It's difficult, but Angelica pauses a moment. The machines ignore her and she takes a moment to breathe or, more to the point, look around for anything that might be controlling the spiders. A van with a satellite dish, some shadowy guy with a remote, or the like.

She glances towards Gwen for a second and nods,"I can so long as I have a means to breathe." she replies to the passing woman and watches her for a second before looking again for a source of the spider machines.

Absently, she touches something at her hip,"No time for that." she mutters and rises a little higher and expands he search and starts to select her next point of attack with the big spider this time, getting clear of everyone is always the tricky part. Someone accusing Spidey gets a look from her that might well burn hotter than the nuclear power plant inside her. She doesn't say anything, just stares them down until the other looks away and then turns her attention to the threat again.

Spider-Man has posed:
Captured in a still, it probably does look a little like that Spider-Woman is in fact riding the Spider-Slayer into battle instead of clinging to it and trying to corral it in some fashion to keep it from melting a dozen or so people with it's laser breath.

No doubt Peter's camera is also somewhere, rapidly clicking away, capturing moments like that one. Though he might try to avoid selling it to Jameson, given his tendancy to twist even pictures that look a lot more innocent then that one.

Then again, month end is creeping up and next month's rent will be due. And Jess did kinda point him out to the cops and crowd right?

The Spider-Bot pursuing Ghost Spider falls out of the sky like a hunk of junk and this time it does not move when it lands, the hole melted in its side apparently doing enough damage to render it inoperable.

So mission accomplished there. They might be formidable foes, but teamwork can still prove highly successful.

Those bursts of laser blasts from the flying scorpion do some of the work for them and as that weaving tail targets Jessica, it instead slams the Spider-bot she rides repeatedly with blasts to it's back. The scuttling ceases and smoke rises from the top of the mechanical construct, that specially coated plating glowing a bright red.

Two down.

But those blasts don't stop there and that tail continues to rain destruction down on the street below. A number of shots smash into ledges close to Gwen, narrowly missing her, and Jessica is much in the same boat.

Peter has to throw himself aside yet again as the crushed car behind him explodes as one of the lasers hits the gas tank, diving behind a nearby food truck for cover and wincing as his hand goes to his back again. "Ow, ow, ow!" he complains, shouting over to Spider-Woman. "Bestie! We need to stop meeting like this. Maybe just grab a nice hamburger or something. Preferably without the police presence," he suggests.

Though the rain of red energy from above does have the unintentional side effect of driving back the boys in blue from the fugitive arachnid.

The divided attention of the flying scorpion also helps to keep it from bringing all it's focus to bear on any one of the three spiders and finishing them off.

Sparing a moment to check and make sure Ghost Spider is okay -- though really, she's doing better then him right now -- Spidey does finally get an idea, peaking out from cover long enough to spot that manhole cover put to good use earlier. While his webbing doesn't seem to stick to the Slayers, it works just fine on sewer covers and a webline zips out with a *thwip*, attaching to the circular metal plate. Starting to spin, Pete uses it like a discus, hurling it towards the Spider-Slayer above -- and shearing through three of it's legs. It wobbles in mid-air, damaged, and then starts to rain destruction down on that food truck where Pete hides, laser blasts blanketing the area.

For Firestar, from her perspective there is no signs of anything like a satelitte truck or the like that might be controlling the mechanical monsters. But from the air she might notice the trio of hovering, silvery drone orbs and the cameras that survey the scene below. Almost invisible from the ground, they are much more apparent to her, this high up.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
It really is exactly like a rodeo, Jessica Drew clinging frantically to the back of the spider-bot, trying to dodge the slam of that tail, and then finally backflipping away when it's down for good. She dusts her hands like it's no big deal, beaming at Spider-Man.

"BURGERS! Yes. That's why I was here. We can totally burger after this, there's burger kiosks right there-"

It's just fate that those burger kiosks are totally wrecked by a smash of the scorpion tail that Jessica dives away from. She's a little slower than usual, thanks to that score down her leg, though thankfully it doesn't seem to be bleeding too much. It does mean another sweep sends her smashing into the side of a kiosk, Spider-Woman landing with a groan.

Just in time to see Spider-Man hurl the metal plate up towards the creature overhead.

"Oh, that's a GREAT idea. Think you can throw me up there?" Jessica climbs to her feet and takes a breath, squinting upwards. "I can carry a webline up and tie it to something so you and Ghost Spider can get get some leverage? Then we can punch it in the face. Or like whatever it has instead of a face."

That's like Jessica's default ??? step of any given plan, it seems.

Ghost Spider has posed:
*KABOOM*

The rooftop ledge that Ghost Spider was swinging under suddenly explodes, and there's a shower of brick and other debris that rains down over her as she reaches an arm up to shield her head.

"OW!"

One pieces catches her particularly hard, but then she seems to get an idea. Glancing down, she quickly stretches a hand out and *THWIPS* one of the chunks of debris.

Timing was everything, here, so she perches on a ledge and for her moment aaaaaaaaannnd SWINGS the chunk of debris in an overhead arc towards the scorpion's tail, not releasing the web-line, but using it as a makeshift bola perdida to wrap.. and wrap.. and wrap until it's stuck to itself.

As soon as it bites down onto itself, Gwen /yanks/ to tauten the line and try to unbalance its flight more than pull it towards her.

Still, she can't help yelling, "GET OVER HERE!"

Then that bola gets tethered the bottom of a solid metal pipe coming out of the top of that building, effectively trying to tether the scorpion in place and restrict its use of that tail.

At least, that's her plan. It's not a great plan. It's not going to last for very long, if it lasts for all, but she at least hoped it would stop trying to set the world on fire for a few seconds while they came up with something better... like getting Jessica on top of it.

Firestar has posed:
Angelica looks towards the scorpion droid and considers for a long moment. The three of them seem to have it occupied. It wouldn't take long to fly there, blast it, and then go after the strange orbs.

She changes her height, up and over the drones and then towards them, not moving their direction until she is above what she can estimate is their line of sight. Might be, might not.

If they break and run she will send beams of sizzling death at them, otherwise she will try to get above them and try to get a better feel for what they are and what they might be doing.

Weapons. The other machines have weapons and she is mindful of the drones and the potential that they might as well. So far, nothing mechanical here has given her too much consideration, so she rolls the dice on that luck a little longer.

Spider-Man has posed:
While the webbing from his and Ghost Spider's web-shooters might not stick to the flying Spider-bots themselves, there are ways around that as both Jess and Gwen prove.

For a moment Peter can't do much but duck and cover as those lasers rain down around him, flattening that poor food truck into a smoking ruin even as Spidey rolls away. Hearing Gwen's shout from above breaks his concentration for a moment and he can't help but sneak a peek her way to make sure that she's okay -- and nearly walks into a stray laser beam himself.

Shaking his head and forcing his head into the here and now, he catches Spider-Woman's plan and grins beneath his mask for just a moment. "Yeah. I think I can do that," he agrees.

Helping that along, Ghost Spider comes up with a similar solution, the inprovised bola finding it's mark, wrapping around that tail raining destruction on the street below and abruptly limiting it's mobility considerably. It jerks, this way and that but can't immediately free that weapon, though the metal pipe visibly bends under the strain. Still, the line holds, making it that much easier for the pair on the ground to enact their own particular plan.

Is this a good idea? Damned if Pete knows. He sore, he's tired and he just kinda wants to go home and collapse at this point. If Spider-Woman is willing to give it a go, so is he. So tossing her one end of a web-line, Spidey calls out, "Hold on!".

That's the only warning she gets before he starts to spin, to build up momentum and get her airborn. Then she too is hurtling through the air with that webline to tie onto the Spider-Slayer, his aim at least true.

He really hopes that she doesn't over or under shoot the mark. He'd feel pretty bad about that.

High above the street, as Firestar surveys the scene, as she notes the position of those drones circling overhead, seemingly intent on the battle between the Spider-Bots and the three Spiders the trio of devices don't seem to notice her. Until she swoops in closer to one of them. As she nears, that silvery orb suddenly explodes -- a built in self destruct mechanism it would appear -- and the other two abruptly start to soar away, those camera lenses turning towards her instead of the fight below.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Jessica catches the webline, and wraps the end of it around her wrist, giving a thumbs up to Spider-Man. "This is totally going to work," she says, sounding specifically unconvincing. Probably for good reason. Spider-Man spins, and she launches up into the air, muttering, "Don't hurl, don't hurl, don't hurl!"

Yup, A+ superhero right here.

Years of practice with gliding around has made Jessica pretty adept at understanding aerodynamics. Once Spidey has her pointed in the right direction and flying upwards she narrows herself to a point -- maybe a little too aerodynamic -- as she thumps into the bottom of the scorpion creature, scrambling to get hands and feet against the surface and engage her bio electricity before she falls. "Yup, nailed it. Easy peasy."

Heart beating, Jess begins crawling underneath it, towards one of the leg joints. With a considering look, she hangs upside down, attached only by her feet, as she wraps the web line around and around, tying it tightly in place and giving it a tug, letting the long line out of it place out, providing a perfect attachment point for the other spiders to attach their weblines to.

Seems steady enough. She gives a thumbs up to Spider-Man below, then crawls up the side and onto the back of the creature, aiming for the other end of its deadly focus -- the head. She'll look for any kind of cover or opening to pry open, but failing that, she's just going to start thumping it with her not inconsiderable strength.

As plans go, simply punching things fixes a lot of problems. Ask Hulk!

Ghost Spider has posed:
"Please hold... please hold..."

Gwen was trying to reinforce that anchor point with more webbing when she caught sight of Spider-Woman flying through the air towards the thing.

"...And that's why she's an Avenger."

Still, she could see easily enough what she was doing, that band of webbing wrapping quickly around the scorpion's body.

*THWIP* *THWIP*

Still on that rooftop, Gwen backs up and shoots out two web-lines.. one from each wrist, pulling back to use them as a slingshot, and when they're at approximately the right tension, she jumps, spreads her arms (and webbed wings), and glides through the air towards the thing.

"INCOMING!"

It's a decent arc. Not perfect, but she was doing it on her own and, as they'd established in the past, she was good... but she wasn't exactly Peter Parker. Still, it's close enough that when she gets overhead, she shoots a new line out onto that band of webbing and pulls herself down to land lightly on top.

"That was awesome, by the way," Ghost Spider says, leaving her feet on the band of webbing as she crawls to the other side. "Thanks for the help up. Us girls have to stick together, right?"

Quoth one Gwen Stacy only minutes (though it might have felt like hours) before, after trying to help stop an angry mob atop a food truck before it was demolished.

Then she starts to mirror Spider-Woman's actions, looking for a plate to rip something that looks important out of and, failing that, a weak point to simply start punching.

Firestar has posed:
Firestar turns the heat around her up, melting any potential slag from the exploding machine. She really doesn't want to leave the others behind, but sometimes intell is more important.

A glance back to the others and her eyes lock on Spidey for a second. She nods, seeming satisfied he's off the proverbail ropes enough she can leave. Since the cameras move to her she sends two wide blasts towards the machines, to give them something else to think about.

In that brief moment she shoots higher into the sky, mingling into the clouds above and continuing to follow the drones from above and hoping the blasts blinded them enough for her to get into the clouds undetected.

Spider-Man has posed:
Sometimes the simplest plans are the best. Sometimes there is just no beating the direct approach.

While it is easy to overlook, none of the Spiders are exactly weaklings and while they might not be amongst the true heavyweights, they don't have to be to get results. With Spider-Woman already clinging to the wildly bucking Spider-Scorpion and Ghost Spider sling-shottingherself through the air it is just up to Spidey to join them.

Grabbing hold of that dangling webline, he begins to scamper up to, clinging to it tenaciously even as it swings wildly in the air. It might take a few extra minutes but soon enough he has joined them, dangling from below.

"Okay, he got this!" Pete shouts, adding his own enouragement.

Soon enough Gwen manages to find a seam thanks to those dents, ripping up a plate and revealling the electronic innards beath.

Just moments later, as Jess strikes from the top and Peter strikes from below, the Spider-Scorpion's head suddenly breaks free with an audible crack, plummetting towards the ground below.

Huzzah! Victory! Time to celebrate!

Though they might want to do it elsewhere, the Spider-Slayer starting to fall from the sky.

Starting to fall -- again -- Peter does catch a glimpse of Firestar starting to fly off, raising a hand in silent thanks for her assistance.

Then he might want to do something before he really does in his back.

It is a good plan, Angelica has. Follow those drones back to where they came from. But those lenses twis to follow her progress, paying more attention to her then the end of the third and -- presumably -- last Spider-Slayer. When they can't lose her, the remaining two drones also explode in a shower of debris.

Whoever is behind them is apparently willing to sacrifice a few mechanical creations rather then be readily tracked.

Again, they are left with more questions then answers it seems.

Not to mention that long fall to the street below.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Spider-Woman TOTALLY was not freaking out and totally made it look utterly cool. She has learned most of being an Avenger really is some part faking it till you make it, and some other part, being brave and/or stupid enough to try things that can fail in really bad ways.

And sometimes succeeding in spite of it.

"Yup. Totally intended to be cool," Jess says, super casually, to Gwen. Convincing, too, as she bashes at a bit of the metal underneath her. "This thing is really slippery. Feel free to use me as an anchor if you need. I promise I won't hold it against you. Though try and avoid the hair, that really hurts."

Soon, all three Spiders are there and punching. The thing cracks, and she lets out a delighted fist pump... just before she realizes the head of the thing she's perched on is falling away from the body.

"Oh, fine. This is... fine."

Spoiler alert: it's not. The thing is going to crash directly down onto the street, which, while it's cleared, is probably going to destroy the last of the food trucks there. "No, nope! You can take my burger kiosks, but you'll never take my tacos!"

Jessica pulls a familiar tactic. Physics! With all her might, she /shoves/, trying to realign the downward trajectory of the head so that it lands on the already damaged area of the streetscape below. Whether it works or will have to wait, because she has a little too much sideward momentum, unable to bleed it off before she goes smashing into one of the buildings nearby, thudding down heavily onto a balcony.

The groan suggests she's still alive, at least!

Ghost Spider has posed:
Jessica's not wrong. With the way the thing is trying to get them off, it almost works before Gwen reaches out to place a hand on the back of Jessica's shoulder to steady herself, the spider-adhesion locking her in place again.

"Oh, hey! I think I found something!"

After a few seconds of punching, Gwen's fingers slip under the edge of a plate, ripping, peeling, and tossing it off. Then there are a few sparks, and it's not long after that the whole head falls off.

And then the thing starts to free-fall which, as low as it was to the buildings, meant there were only a few seconds before it hits the ground. Jessica leaps free, using the whole equal-and-opposite method of controlling its uncontrolled descent. But Peter's still attached.

He probably didn't need her, but with only a few seconds to decide, she scoops an arm around him and zips out a web-line to a building, arresting their descent with a little swing in the opposite direction.

It was better than landing on another car, at least. But it probably wasn't going to look great in the papers, either.

"Fancy meeting you here," she quips. "You looked like you could use a lift."

Rather than anything more fancy, she simply lets out more line, slowly lowering them towards the ground. Of course, the crashing scorpion drive back most of the closest law enforcement, but it wouldn't take them long to catch back up.

Her eyes cast up towards where Jessica landed not quite as gracefully.

"You should check on her and get out of here. I'll make sure everything's safe before the police move back in."

Spider-Man has posed:
The Taco Truck is spared!

It is an August night miracle, but Spider-Woman's efforts, leaping after the falling are enough to keep it from laying waste to one more of the innocent food trucks lining the street, crashing down into one more firey pile of debris in the middle of the increasingly empty street.

Something to be celebrated. When she is able to get up and move again.

Spidey can definitely relate.

Of course that does leave Ghost Spider and himself on the plummetting main body of the thing and Pete eyes the swiftly approaching ground. "Please work, please work, please work," he chants quietly to himself, really hoping to avoid being beaten up any more tonight.

Then Gwen's there, sweeping an arm around him, swinging them towards safety. "Imagine that. Lovely timing as always. A guy could get used to being rescued," he teases right back.

But he also keeps and eye on the prize -- which in this case is preventing any more major damage. So with Gwen providing the momentum, he shoots out his own web-lines with quiet ^thwips* to snag the falling body before it can crash. Swinging it mildly, he manages to aim it towards the alley way, right towards the waiting dumpster.

Of course it's a little too big for the dumpster, crushing the garbage container beneath it.

But it did not crush the Taco Truck.

Cause for another celebration.

"Are you kidding? There's still food trucks and stalls up. Maybe not running, but there might still be food to be plundered. She'll be through the moon." Though possibly nursing a back almost as bad as his own. "Okay, meet back here in a few minutes. And then lets get out of here. I really, really don't want to fight anyone else tonight."

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Jessica is the sort of person who listens the universe when it's tell her the food trucks of the world are not for the likes of her, not tonight. Sure, she'll be thrilled the taco truck was spared... but it doesn't mean she's allowed to get one.

Her therapist tells her she reads too much into the signs of the universe. Then she tells him a long-winded story about what happened the few times she went against said signs.

She definitely won that one. Not that one should be keeping score in therapy or anything.

Look, Jessica has problems. Chief among them a need to go soak in a hot bath like, stat. The first movement is always the hardest, but once she staggers to her feet, the slow climb up to the roof is a lot easier. She takes the time to catch her breath there, waving towards the pair of Spiders. Yup, totally makes it look like she's not feeling like a decrepit old woman right now, nevermind that pained hand stretching to her back before she throws herself off the building.

...and into a glide straight up Fifth. She's gonna have to settle for JARVIS burgers, not nearly as good as dubious street-truck burgers.