3201/Rooftop Vigils

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Rooftop Vigils
Date of Scene: 20 November 2017
Location: Unknown
Synopsis: Summary needed
Cast of Characters: Shadow, Silk




Shadow has posed:
    It has been a week since Gia's body was found and recovered. The police have been and gone, as have the crime scene investigation team, having found no clues to the cause or circumstances of the woman's death. All they managed to establish is that judging by the pattern of the blood flow, Gia was dead by the time her body fell from a great height to impale itself on the antenna aerial, but the civilian ATC for the New York area has no record of any aircraft that she could have fallen out of in the estimated timeframe of her death.

     The Shadow Knows this, because a copy of their findings has made its way to the Sanctum, where she has carefully perused it.

    The report's conclusions point toward a serial killer of some spate, but Natasha isn't so sure -- there is too much distance and too little time between some of the matching killings, and at least one attempt was interrupted and turned into a superpowered brawl. Whoever is doing this is hunting for specific people -- and she has no idea what their criteria might be.

    Which is one explanation for why The Shadow is wandering the alleys and roofs of Hell's Kitchen tonight, vaguely hoping that the perpetrator might return. Or maybe she's keeping vigil over the area in memory of Gia. Or maybe she's just acting out her frustration, like a hunting dog that has lost the trail and keeps worrying at a suspicious lump around the place where she lost the scent in the hopes of startling her quarry out into the open again...

    Whatever the reason, these past few days have gotten the word out among the criminal element: Something powerful is on the hunt, and the shadows are no longer safe to hide in...

Silk has posed:
    Cindy has tried to explain her 'Silk-Sense' to someone who doesn't have access to it- Spider-Man might understand, at least somewhat. Her senses, though, go beyond those of Spider-Man. This evening, she felt an old vibration- something that drew her out into the city's shadow-clad night.

    Of course, she went as Silk- dressed in her mess of spider-webbing that looked very much iconic- very much the web-slinging Ninja.

    Ninja were still cool, right? Cindy wasn't sure of that.

    For now, though, she sits at the very point that Gia had died. She's kneeling in that spider-esque way that is so popular among people with her power set. Knees wide, on toes, a hand barely touching the ground as she just looks at the dried blood and left over crime-scene tags that no one bothered to clean up.

Shadow has posed:
    Hell's Kitchen can be a confusing labyrinth of alleys and roofs even if you're familiar with the place, so it make sense to occasionally check your direction via known landmarks. That's The Shadow's reason for regularly turning and returning to the spot Gia was killed. Absolutely. Sentimentalism is not in The Shadow's playbook. Really.

    This does help explain how the figure crouching by the spot is noticed so readily. The murderer? Unlikely, especially if Natasha's hypothesis is accurate. On the other hand, she could have been wrong. Either way, she has questions. It's just a matter of whether this person has answers -- or things to answer for...

Silk has posed:
    "This is my fault. If I'd only disabled that damned lock.." Cindy says softly to herself, "You wouldn't be dead. If Spider-Man hadn't opened that damned door..." She sighs, a little morose as she sees the blood. Another corpse. Another victim. And she was at the center of the web- because that is where her Avatar sits. She is not the Webspinner, but she is the spinner at the center of the web, The Spider Bride.

    "I'm sorry. For whatever that's worth." Silk whispers quietly to the nothingness that remained of Gia. "I'll.. I'll try to help stop them. I mean, I will stop them. I sorta have to, but, you..." Cindy sighs, "I can't even apologize to a corpse. Get it together, Cindy."

    For now, Silk was unaware that Natasha, The Shadow, approached- normally she'd be very aware- but even Shadows fall upon the Web without the spider's knowledge.

Shadow has posed:
    If Cindy had been talking a little louder, or Natasha a bit faster, a certain amount of imminent unpleasantness might have been avoided. Or perhaps not. As the Shadow approaches, she reaches out with her will, twisting perceptions in subtle and stronger ways, shadows rippling and running along surfaces and swallowing the light, muting the sounds of the city in the background almost imperceptibly until her Silk-sense suddenly starts yelling loud enough to get through her brooding and warn her of... /something/. Nearby. Somewhere. A general direction, where normally she'd be confident she could pinpoint a presence at this range. Intent on her...

Silk has posed:
    Cindy is silent, though, as Natasha comes into ear-shot. Just a quiet vigil over someone who shouldn't have had to die. Someone who didn't deserve what happened to them. Gia may not have been the kind of hero who had flashy spider-powers, or carried a vibranium shield, or stalked the shadows to give justice to those who might otherwise not get it but to call her anything less than a hero was beyond insulting. She gave people hope- she helped them when they were at their very lowest.

    She was just the sort of person that Cindy needed right now, in all reality. Feeling as she does- as alone as she feels.

    But then, a little tickle. Silk looks up, shifts and gazes into the darkness where Natasha might just be. "Who's there?" she calls out, eyebrows furrowing as she bristles quietly and waits- watches where her senses point towards danger.

Shadow has posed:
    Being detected early isn't what gives Natasha a moment's pause -- unlike in her Grandfather's day, people with better than human senses are not unheard of. What does give her pause is the strange outfit -- is that spider webbing? Thoughts flash through her head. Spiders prey on other beings, and the ones that are large enough to hunt mammalian prey tend to drain their victims and leave husks. A possible link? Or has she found the culprit? Better safe than sorry.

    "That would be my line," she responds, the voice mask hidden under her scarf aided by her will to distort her voice, deepening it and occluding the origin until a sinister rasping voice seems to echo from all around. "A woman died there, her body drained. Are you looking to join her? Or..." A pause as her hands, still unseen, slide her guns from their holsters, before she continues with a distinct hint of menace snarling underneath "... hungry for another meal?"

Silk has posed:
    Silk frowns deeply, her senses are going wild now as Natasha goes for her guns. "Woah.. how'd you turn the reverb up like that?" she wonders, looking around. "Oh, yeah. This lady. Right, yeah. Been happening all over town...wait.. join her? Another meal? Oh...no.. I didn't have *anything* to do with this. Well, that's not entirely true, but I didn't kill *anyone*." she states, "I'm no killer, nope. The closest I get to hunting down food is in the yellow pages."

    Still, Cindy would be lying if she wasn't a little nervous with all the smoke and sinister sounding whatsits- and of course, how her Silk-Sense was going mad. Danger! Danger, Cindy Moon, Danger!

Shadow has posed:
    Normally a little added confusion makes The Shadow's job easier by pushing the terror along nicely until a bunch of hardened criminals are reduced to a gibbering heap of confessions, prayers and Little Accidents, but in this case it's only making the target less coherent. Natasha remains silent a few moments longer, weighing the girl's words and stance.

    Eventually, she concludes that whoever this young woman is, she's unlikely to be the culprit... and she does appear to have answers. She holsters her guns, and lets up slightly with her will...

    Cindy is vaguely aware of the ambient light returning together with her Silk Sense as shadows flow and skitter along the rooftop, up along a wall, coalescing into a tall black figure in a greatcoat and a slouch hat, cloak billowing in the breeze behind it while a red scarf obscures every facial feature the hat doesn't, except for a pair of sapphire blue eyes that almost blaze with intensity.

    "Explain," The Shadow commands curtly, the voice no less sinister even though she can now see its origin.

Silk has posed:
    "Its a long story." Silk replies, frowning quietly as she shifts from foot to foot- a bit of nervousness there as she gets eyes on Natasha and her senses surround the young woman. She's uneasy- the shadows. The way this woman is talking to her. It puts her on edge.

    "So, I'll give you the short version. There are people hunting me." Silk states plainly. "What we see here, is someone caught in the web. They eat.. totems. Avatars of Totemic deities. Pick an animal, and it has an avatar, or several, if its a more powerful kind of beast." she remarks. "Me, I'm a spider- I know, big reveal. Spiders are the ones they really need. Really want. We're the ones that really get them off- and me, in particular."

Shadow has posed:
    The way the figure just stands there, tall and still as a statue with just the cloak moving at all probably does not help either. Most creatures in the animal kingdom with that capability for motionlessness are known to be /very/ still until very suddenly they are most emphatetically not. Of course, moving too suddenly or too aggressively will likely guarantee a response in kind...

    For her own part, Natasha digests the explanation, her eyes narrowing. The suggestion that Gia was, essentially, collateral damage for being in the wrong place at the wrong time does not ease her anger.

     "Why here? Why now?" comes her response. She'll get to the bottom of Gia being an 'avatar' of some stripe later. If this odd young woman is telling the truth...

Silk has posed:
    "Because I'm not hiding anymore." Silk replies plainly. "I came out of the shadows, and now they can smell me. The need me to do something- some kind of ritual." She pauses a moment, "I've spent the better part of the last eight years in a bunker under Sim's tower. I went into hiding, and then Spider-Man opened the door to let me out."

    Again, Silk pauses. "Once the door was opened, they knew here I was. The hiding place was useless... and now that they've got my scent, I can't go into hiding again anyways."

    Just about eight years? Alone in a bunker- and from the look of what is visible on Silk's face she can't be older than her mid twenties, and is probably younger than 25. She was in her mid teens when she was locked away, alone, under an old art-deco tower in Manhattan.

Shadow has posed:
    Another pause. A brief jerk of the head, made more obvious by the movement of the hat. "They'll keep coming after you?" comes the question with a hint of speculation in the voice as Natasha considers possibilities and weighs options. Keeping an eye on the girl and waiting for the perpetrator to attack her is a tempting option, but probably harder in practice than in theory -- if she were easy to keep track of these 'hunters' would have caught her already. And if they're the same that tangled with some of the Avengers earlier, there's probably a limit to how much damage her guns can do. But still, something in her rebels at the idea of letting Gia's killers get away without some token of her ire to show for it...

Silk has posed:
    "Until they get me and put me through their undoubtedly deadly ritual, yes." Silk replies. "They'll probably keep coming, and keep killing until then. I'm trying to get people together. TO figure something out, to defend against them- or.. I don't know, send them packing. But... I can feel them." Silk states, "I can feel them, now, skittering along and walking....and stalking me."

Shadow has posed:
    ... More silence. Then: "... The woman who died here had many friends. If you find those who hunt her... You won't be without allies."

Silk has posed:
    "I'm sure I won't." Silk replies quietly, "But, these people? They hunt the multiverse. They jump from world to world like you do from rooftop to rooftop." she offers, "Right now, I'm on the defensive- but, maybe I can find something... hopefully." she takes a slow, deep breath. "ANyways, I need to keep moving. Its been a pleasure. The name is Silk, by the way. A pleasure, I'm sure."

Shadow has posed:
    A nod, acknowledging the warning. "I don't care how far they hunt," comes the reply. "If they think they can hunt the people of this city with impunity, I intend to do something about it." Steel and determination and a hint of menace. It's not that Natasha doesn't understand these people are likely way beyond her ability to fight; it's just that she won't let that stop her from trying.

    She meets Silk's eyes again, sapphire eyes burning into brown. "And I am known as the Shadow."

Silk has posed:
    Silk nods quietly, before she turns and runs. She leaps, the epitome of grace in movement. From her fingertips, silk shoots out and attaches to a nearby building, and she swings like one would expect of those in her particular club of people!

    In movement, is where Silk seems most free- every step, every moment like magic. She swings away, into the night.

Shadow has posed:
    That much, at least, they have in common. Behind her, The Shadow lets herself topple backward from the ledge she was balancing on, twisting in midair to catch herself and convert her fall to forward momentum and go on her way. She's learned a great deal -- and the answers lead to new questions. Still, at least now she has the chance to find the answers...