7141/Gravesend

Gravesend
Date of Scene:	05 April 2019
Location:	Gravesend
Synopsis:	April crashes a gang meeting. So does Spawn.
Cast of Characters:	Spawn, April O'Neil

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Spawn has posed:
    "Glad y'all could join us here tonight, and what a night it is! We got the Red Circus along with the False Face Society, and the Neon Dragon Triads. We got the Dogs Of Hell, rubbin' elbows with Los Muertos an' the Bombers. Hell, we even gots us representatives from Wallenquist an' the Magliozzis. I know half of ya would just as soon firebomb an' slit each others throats, but we got problems that are bigger than any of us individually. I know it. Believe me, I know it!"

    The man at the podium had a larger than life personality, his silky long hair and smooth stubble covering his handsome face. In this darkened closed down nightclub, the seats were filled and the tension in the air was palpable, as the entire building was crammed full of dirtbags, sleazeballs and general psychos, hardened men and women who made ther lives off the misery of others. The waitresses were nervous even as they were sent out to serve drinks, take empty glasses and shut up and make themselves as unnoticeable as possible, it was a tough gig for sure.

    Of course, there were other places for a snoop to be, if they so wished...

April O'Neil has posed:
April is that caliber of snoop too. She'd gotten tips and inside information about this gathering of... exceptionally unique societal antagonists tonight and she'd decided, whether soundly or not, to give it a look.

Fearless, April is... reckless she might be... She's actually wearing a Yoda tshirt tonight too, but its on beneath the black hoodie that she has on, zipped up, with the hood up over her head. She also has put a blonde wig on, to help hide her identity a little more, and some stylin' purple sunglasses with sparkling glitter embossed frames. Some knee-torn jeans and black leather boots finish April's incognito attire, and she's just trying to appear as 'one of them'.

She got past the bouncers at this nightclub by just flashing them a smile, its all it usually ever takes for her to get inside a place, her face was a gift, she's quite aware of that but she also doesn't let it go to her head because she realizes her looks are fleeting and nothing she can take credit for.

As the speech continues on, April stands in a back corner, she's shorter than most of the hulking figures inside this place, and she does her best not to make eye contact. She's TRYING to just blend in.

She's also recording all of this though, with a microphone peaking out of her jeans right pocket against her hip.

Spawn has posed:
    Luckily, she's just one of the goons here, or at least that's the perception. Amongst the cut-throats and the tattooed killers in the crowd, she's not very noticeable at all. Ahead of her is one particularly nasty piece of work from the Red Circus Gang, one example of the many 'clown' copycats who came crawling out of the woodwork when Joker became as infamous as he was. The tall bald man had his face painted as it mixed with his dirty nasty grey beard, a tattoo across his neck saying 'Spaulding' and some other things that were less intelligible, as he was pacing around in place muttering to himself. Whenever he got a bit too close to the incognito April she would probably be able to smell gunpowder, fried chicken and the cheap perfume of prostitutes, but so far nobody was paying her any mind.

    In the center of the room, the man who had everybody's attention kept going. He had an Asian woman alongside him who just looked out across the room with a psycho look in her wide wild eyes. The man, for his part, was perfectly relaxed.

    "Yeah, my daddy used to tell me, 'when it gets too big, stop doing it.' Well there was wisdom in his words, but he didn't see the world change like we did. He didn't know about demigods and sex perverts runnin' around in capes, making things almost impossible for the little guys. He didn't know that he was the last of his kind, part of the greatest generation when a man could head out into the wild an' really MAKE somethin' for himself!"

    Every time the man in the center spoke, people started cheering, started getting a bit rowdier. This room was like a powder keg, and the man was lighting one match after the other.

April O'Neil has posed:
April's sunglasses covered eyes do take a moment to focus in on the Red Circus ganger in front of her, and his mere presence makes her raise a hand up out of her hoodie pocket to lower her sunglasses down to the very tip of her pert nose, where she stares at him just over the rim of those purple/glittery shades. She picks up on some of those scents that seem to be wafting from the guy too, but this entire place is a hotbed of questionable, to down right gross, odors.

The incognito investigative reporter, and internet podcast personality, keeps her shades down on her nose for now, they still shield some of her face well enough to keep her identity questionable at most, but having her eyes not shaded in this rather dark nightclub helps her gather in ore details of everything around her.

She still tries hard not to make eye contact with anyone, eye contact leads to conversations... she wants to avoid those for the most part. Silent observer here! Gain information and use it after... thats April's game plan.

Her blue eyes peer over those shades and she stares at that Asian girl with the wild eyes up beside the speaker, then she looks upon the speaker himself again as he prattles on.

Part of her thinks this is a gang rally, to unify groups for some kind of push toward another crime wave, kind of like what the Shredder organized two years ago when she first met the Turtles.

Spawn has posed:
    "I like her eyes."

    The Asian woman spoke for the first time, freely and boldly interrupting the main speaker and apparent leader of this little rally. The entire bar which had been rustling with noise and murmurings suddenly stopped. Even the man in the center looked over in surprise, but he didn't seem angry. In fact, he immediately tried to follow the woman's line of sight, and immediately zeroed in on April. His own brown eyes narrowed in curiosity and amusement, but behind that there was something else, something sinister. Something sadistic. When he spoke with that soft southern twang to his gravelly voice, it was aimed at the clown in front of her.

    "Captain, if you would be so kind as to bring that girl over here? Looks like we've got a new player cutting in on our territories, a pawn tryin' ta make herself a queen! I admire that kinda gumption in a woman."

    Immediately the 'Captain' turned around, adjusting his very small top-hat on his head and looking down at April with a sneer.

    "C'mere, girl, be a good girl fer daddy...or you could run and I could chase ya, hehehehehhh!"

    It was strange that when he laughed it also sounded like he could be crying or even growling, his teeth were bared in a smile, a sneer or a rictus grin, with it being impossible to tell at any given moment. It was also strange that overhead, the few working lights started to flicker and fail. It could make sense that crimelords didn't pay their power bills or make sure their buildings were up to proper code...

April O'Neil has posed:
Everything seemed to be going just fine, April's recorder was picking up this whole speech and everything that would come from it would be able to be used online, or whatever she deemed necessary--

'Oh balls.' April suddenly thought as she realized that tweaked out Asian bird just completely called her out specifically!

All the muscles in the reporter's body instantly tense up and her body temperature inside of her clothes shoots up from 'comfortably warm' to 'suddenly hot' with fright and intense nervousness.

She quickly pushes her sunglasses back up onto her nose to hide her eyes as she realizes the rest in the room were EYING HER now. She also doesn't immediately obey and move toward the stage, it takes her about fifteen or twenty seconds before she finally, and hesitantly, starts to move through the crowds as people stare at her, part for her... and give her way to the stage where the speaker is.

As she starts to put herself on display in front of everyone as well, she looks out at the crowd and steps up and over to where the speaker is. She looks away from the crowd toward him and she shakes her head, her blond wig inside of her hooded head gently shifting as she does that. "I'm a nobody." She says to him, though its meakly loud enough that most people at the front of the audience could hear her too, but those in the back likely can't.

Spawn has posed:
    The crowd was watching her with rapt attention, immaculately dressed Mafia guys alongside Friends Of Humanity skinheads and bikers, even as the Red Skulls watched from the club drinking their lagers and adjusting their suspenders.

    Up on stage, the tall man looked at her with a smirk on his face even as he started unbuttoning and rolling up his sleeves. The Asian woman next to him was holding a sheathed rapier, clearly something this man liked to use. He reached down...and picked up a pair of black leather gloves next to the sword, putting them on ominously.

    "You're a nobody? Well hell, I thought I strictly invited somebodies to this little event, all you boys an' girls out there, are you nobodies?!"

    The response was almost in unison, and was something to the effect of,

    "HELL NO!"

    That only left the smiling man, as he turned her toward him by her shoulder, assuming she didn't pull some judo move at the last moment. He was adjusting his gloves, his gloves obviously designed for punching, or at least for keeping his hands clean, even as he looked up at her hoodie and the blonde hair spilling out with a more critical eye.

    "Well if you're really a nobody, I guess nobody's gonna mind if I do this...?"

    His right hand had balled into a fist and he looked like he was going to step into a haymaker, when one of the bulbs up top exploded, and the rattling of chains could be heard. That stopped all of them, convinced all of them to look up. And similar to the collective denial earlier, a new chorus could be heard, the clicking of guns, and the turning off of safeties. It seemed these men were paranoid.

April O'Neil has posed:
April's gaze does look out toward the audience as they cheer and chant about not being 'nobodies' and she realizes she may have used the wrong line there, which makes her visibly fidget up on stage. She still has those sunglasses on over her eyes though, so her nervousness is somewhat concealed still at the very least.

Her stare is pulled back to the speaker then as he takes her by the shoulder and turns her to face him. She looks up at him from behind those dark lensed glasses... she can tell he's about to do something, she's noted the sword too... this could go south fast.

Luckily April's sweat layered right hand is still inside her hoodie pocket and she's turning her Tazer over to get it into proper place, her thumb sliding up and into the grove on its trigger... she's getting ready to pull it...

Her body tenses as she sees the man go for a punch, she HAS BEEN training at her local gym in self defense, so she's about to try to block it and TAZE HIM--

But then the sudden change in atmosphere takes her away and like the rest, she hears the chains and the strange sounds in-general... April looks in the direction that they're coming from now as well, like the rest!

Spawn has posed:
    It appeared that this was enough to set the 'Captain' on edge, the big heavyset man running up onto the stage, wielding a machete and snarling up at the ceiling like a crazy person, ready to prove what an alpha he was and prove how unafraid he was.

    "C'mon, we ain't afraid of no bats in our belfry, an' we ain't got no spider problem! Whatever you is we ain't afraid, come down here an' The Captain'll stuff yer ball-ghraaaaAAAAAAAAAGH!"

    Two chains snaked down with the speed of attacking cobras, both wrapping around his right wrist and clearly snapping it gruesomely as the big man was lifted up, and thrown violently into the crowd of anxious gangbangers. That caused a cacophony of gunfire, a deafening thunderstorm of lead being shot haphazardly up into the upper structure of this nightclub. Unfortunately for whoever owned this place.

    As the gunfire continued, an impossibly deep voice bellowed outward, and the rustling of dead leaves and the rattling of chains could be heard mixing to the chaos.

    "Wrong decision, assholes."

    The thing that descended upon the club was only occasionally visible due to the flashes of gun muzzles and the lighting system up top going haywire and deciding to add a strobe effect. The color red would be visible, a cape in motion. Chains, spikes, and a pair of glowing green eyes. Inhaling deeply through his nose, the organizing this thing looked down at the hoodie woman, even as he quickly pulled a gun from his pocket and cocking it.

    "Well, time to cut our losses and run. Looks like this just ain't yer lucky day, sweetheart."

April O'Neil has posed:
Its when those devilishly frightening chains shoot down out of the darkness above that April jumps backward, but ends up falling back onto the stage onto her butt, she lands with a thud and just continues to scurry backward until her back is pressed up against a brick wall. She watches the man get... murdered, right in front of her, and her first reaction to this?

April whips out her Stark phone and starts to record it all. But she can only hold onto the phone with one hand as the other goes up to the side of her head to press her hood and hair against the side of her ear, because that gunfire is SO LOUD inside the nightclub! April huddles up against the wall as she records footage with one hand and... just tries to survive through this!

The deep growling voice that booms down from above makes her eyes stop squinting and she looks back up to try to see who it is. Its definitely not Batman... She sees the flashes of red and then the green glowing eyes.

The Organizer's voice causes April's stare to break over to him and she seems, quite perplexed, scared but not terrified. He has a gun. Great. April starts to try to slink her way up the brick wall, her right shoulder pressed against it as she moves to stand up, still holding her phone out to record all of this.

Spawn has posed:
    Over time, the sounds of gunfire started getting a little less frequent, and it seemed that in the ruckus some gangs were choosing this moment to turn on each other, and continue their old blood feuds.

    For his part, the Organizer(who probably paid Top Dollar to have this big night of his) turned to April with a hint of regret on his face, cocking that pistol of his and shaking his head disapprovingly.

    "Is that a smartphone? I'm afraid I can't have my face out there in public just yet. Well, maybe at least I can give those pretty blue eyes of yours to my dear sister, that's the sorta thing really puts a smile on her face."

    With that he clicked his tongue, gave her a charming wink...and a metal chain went right through his hand as he looked down in shock. Moments later he was flung off his feet, pulled screaming into the maelstrom of violence.

    When the dust settled, the lights were still flickering and strobing, as a tall figure walked slowly out of the darkness toward her. That brilliant red cape was pulled mostly around him, billowing even though there was no wind in this room. The figure looked down at her, green glowing eyes emerging from the dark of the room.

    "Walking in here with a camera and a wig...not the smartest thing I've seen someone do."

April O'Neil has posed:
April didn't have words for the Organizer of this event. There wasn't a lot she could do really even, she had that tazer in her pocket still but... this place had turned into a blood bath of gang violence and she was trying her best to avoid the collateral damage, you know, to herself!

"Look, freak." April finally does speak up though to the man. "You're gonna give nothing to your si--" She cuts herself off as that chain rips apart the man's hand and she steps back in shock at the sight of it!

April crouches then, a second later and ducks for cover behind the metal and wood podium that had tipped over in the madness. Its here that she hides to let the dust indeed settle!

When it does, and when that voice speaks to her of her wig and camera, April peeks up over the podium, her camera is still held up over it and recording also. She sees the green eyes and she speaks back to it. "I don't think I have the resources available to me to do much better than this?" She says in a question of a voice. With a short pause, she fires out another string of words, much more detrmined in nature!

"Who are you?!"

Spawn has posed:
    With his back still turned, the camera's footage probably wouldn't be the absolute best quality, but it picked up enough, enough to show what this figure was capable of, capable of reducing a room of hardcore criminals to a room of corpses and people who need serious medical attention. The chains still rattling, the cape still swirling, the figure looked over his shoulder directly at the woman, directly at the camera.

    "...Spawn."

    And with that, two chains suddenly lashed upward, clawing at the ceiling, pulling him up into the air. It happened so quick, that he was gone by the time police and paramedics finally arrived on to the scene, just in time to play the part of janitors.

April O'Neil has posed:
April had a second cell phone in her other pocket, it was a burner phone and she used it to call the cops, 9 1 1 all pushed with quick thumb presses without even having to look at the plastic buttons--indicating that she might have a bit of experience at calling for such help.

Her eyes are preoccupied, they're on the menacing and intimidating figure of 'Spawn' and as he rockets out those chains and makes to vanish, she too rises, but she only rises up onto her booted feet. Recording all of it, she is breathing heavily and lingers her stare in his direction for a moment longer before she looks down to the carnage left in the room...

"Shit." April mutters, she starts to make her way off of the stage, hopping off of it and down to a 'clean spot' on the floor where she steps over bodies and broken furniture, bottles and worse. She heads for the exit where she makes to dart out to the street outside!