8980/Great Intentions: Little China, Big Trouble

Great Intentions: Little China, Big Trouble
Date of Scene:	28 August 2019
Location:	New Utrecht, Brooklyn
Synopsis:	Kid Arachnid gets into arcane trouble. Silk, Doc Strange and Swamp Thing arrive to sort it out.
Cast of Characters:	Kid Arachnid, Silk, Doctor Strange, Swamp Thing

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Kid Arachnid has posed:
Tuesdays are supposed to be pretty chill, right? Someone should have told Miles. So he could call them a liar and point out the obvious flaws in their theory. What flaws are those? Oh, just the howling madness of swarming spirits and wild energy spewing out of a broken tea pot laying in the middle of a narrow alleyway.

That's a pretty big flaw.

Miles had come across two men sneaking out the window of a three story brownstone. Dressed in black with hoodies on. Not wanting to feel hypocritical, what with his own attire and hoodie being kind of his thing, he made a little joke about getting locked out. One man screamed and shot at him immediately. The other? Dropped a tiny, porcelain kettle. Both men gasped. Miles paused to question their apprehension when the little thing hit the fire escape and... cracked.
#224ight and noise poured outward in a vortex of madness. Miles, blown back against the brick wall of the alley and held fast. The pressure was incredible. Pinned like part of a bug collection, his mind races as the scene before him plays out.

Unfiltered, unhindered magic of purest change starts to warp the grit and grime. Twisting the alleyway into something new. Alive. Life grows from the cracks of asphalt, strange plants pushing open the tops of dumpsters as flora races up the walls. Pushing toward the street in an ehb and flow. A pulse. Two feet forward. One back. All the while, weak and now free spirits race upward only to be held back by the unseen barrier between this strange magical growth and the hard, modern touch of the city.

Miles screams, unheard over the roar of unleashed and long trapped magic. A spell broken before its time. Magic rampages. The two would be thieves? Slowly being overtaken by aggressive moss and vines. Phantasmal insects and half visible scavengers clawing, biting

Silk has posed:
    Cindy had been off the ferry all of twenty minutes with a full on surprise visit planned. The air is different from Gotham, lighter, pleasant, far less prone to dirty crim...then that sense kicks in despite all the other noise going on. She half stumbles, struck dumb by the spider connection and a near first row seat to the mayhem for a split second. Trouble. So much for a relaxing surprise visit because she also feels something also ping across her silk sense. "Miles." She is off then, shoving through foot traffic she had just moments before been patiently wading through. She swings her back back forward off one shoulder to hug against her chest. Out comes the black eye mask like some Gotham crusader. No where to quickly get dressed she veers down an alley.

    A minute two later...*TWHIP*!

The webbing line catches and she swings back out into the street to get some momentum and height now donning a spider silk outfit overtop her normal clothes. Its a quick fix but the hardened carapace of webbing should give her a buffer.

    FWIP - swing - THWIP - swing - THWIP THWIP.

    Cindy bridges that distance fast, using the man made landscape to her advantage. That us when she sees it from her vantage higher up and Cindy dives, free falling before she throws another line and starts to swing directly towards and adjacent building as she begins to frantically look for Miles.

    The sense pulls her to..THERE!!!

    She scurries across the side of a building yet affected and tries to get to him.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen was standing in front of the small business front with a hand in the pockets of the slacks he's taken to wearing since starting his new life as a job-hunter. The windows before him give the sense of hope, that he's finally doing something again. Something helpful and meaningful. Stephen lifts his hand out of his pocket to rake through his shaggy hair and then scratch at the fur of his beard. Yeah he did promise Felicia he would shave it, but it's his unemployment beard, like a goalies playoff beard. It's for luck, and it makes absolutely zero sense. Strange stands before the site of his next venture when that twinge of wild magic washes over the sorcerer and the hairs on the back of his head stand on end and the former sorcerer supreme knows something is wrong.

    It takes Stephen longer to get to the site than when he was the man on top, he had magic to spare, and was a bit more willing to pay the prices for the spells he cast, but lately, he's been much more conscious of his actions. Strange stops suddenly as he spots the pulsing and changing alley. Oh dear. Is all the surgeon thinks as he looks in and spies a semi-familiar spider-man and a new one, then the two men who were already in the alley and he clasps his wrists together before sending both hands out to put the men in a levitaion spell and pull them out of the growth before they can get devoured by the rampant expansion of life.

Swamp Thing has posed:
    A new wrinkle in the Green, a streak of magic going across every tree root of the earth like a tingling sensation across a nervous system, or a sudden thrashing in a spider's gossamer web. Already disconnected from his 'main' body down in the bayou, it was no trouble at all for the once-man to travel along the natural network, and spring up in the middle of the disturbance, to see what the trouble was.

    In the middle of this commotion, while the Dr. was saving lives as a doctor did, and the two spiders were dealing with their problems, a humanoid shape sprung up from the dirt, many of these wild and colorful plants forming a figure of arms and legs, with a rippling torso and shoulders, heads and the back with bright pink flowers that were a long ways away from home. The figure was still for a few moments, then like Frankenstein's Monster struck with lightning, the slack relaxed face suddenly tightened with sudden expression, those sunken empty eyesockets suddenly growing what looked like translucent red olives with yellow 'pits' for pupils that looked around. From deep within its chest, a powerful deep voice bellowed.

    "What...is this?"

Kid Arachnid has posed:
This is way, way above his pay grade. As Miles yelled and shouted back at the near deafening roar, the whirling storm of rampant life devoured everything in its path at a pace much more rapid than time should allow. The steel of dumpsters corroding as moss, molds and more chew and climb it. Brick crumbles as roots push through mortar. Vines and limbs creating a mad web between the buildings in this narrow landscape.

Digging fingertips into brick, Miles tries to pull himself along the wall. Straining with all his impressive might against the living grasp that starts to encircle his ankles and higher. The would-be thief with the gun, shaking and screaming for escape, starts to turn the Glock upon himself. The other starts praying. He sees his end. It's the one he planned for someone else. There. Miles could swear he sees Cindy. An outstretched arm aims and he fires a web line toward her. Hoping for the bestz

Stange intervenes just in time as a shakey trigger finger starts to squeezez Pulled up from their growing confines. Wild vines lash and whip at the spheres crwating sparks and smoke as they burn themselves. The pure force of the spell triggering starts to fade but the life it has left behind feels no such restraint and continues its insane consumption of everything in a twenty yard radius. Pushing at the entrance to the alley, modern life pushing back against the vibrant display. As Alec forms, Miles Morales catches sight of his creation. The noise having left a fierce ring in his ears, he shouts at the top of his lungs. "Great! Now it's a dude! What was in that tea, you jerks?!" Plantlife, strangely, seems hesitant to try and consume Swamp Thing. The one thing here that it seems to respect and not attempt to devour.

Silk has posed:
    Silk begins down the side of the building, feeling the heavy brush at first. But it starts to fade and she rushes forward, hands and feet moving her in such a quick blur towards Miles. When the line is cast her way she reaches out, grabbing it and wrapping it around her wrist. She gives a pull, tugging upon him rather hard. She strains heavily upon the line and two fingers of her hand his is attached to suddenly shoot forth actual organic webbing from pointer and middle.

    "HERE!" She cries, trying to hit him with the strength of her natural webbing so she can get pull herself up to the edge of the building and then brace herself. She pulls hard, growling and then crying out as she feels the presence. Strange's magic is there, but what it is remains unclear. However Alec is noted, her eyes widening. "That..that can not ..be..good."

    She anchors the webbing and then grips further down it to continue pulling. Once he gets free he's going to come flying his direction - something she's not thinking about in that moment.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Strange pulls the two crooks through the air and down to the mouth of the alley with an effort that used to be nearly second nature to the wizard but has become something much more focused and concentrated. "You two need to stick around and learn something." Stephen says as he gestures the two men to meet back to back at the nearest street light and a second spell is cast upon the two men, aiming to pin them to the lamp for safe keeping.

    Then Strange turns his attention back to the alley and steps to block the man-made cavern from growing out into the city street proper. The presence of the Swamp Thing doesn't go unnoticed, but it feels different to the wizard than the growth bomb that was set off. "Are you friend or foe?" Strange asks as he unbuttons the cuffs of his shirt and starts to role the sleeves up to just below the elbow. The doctor is getting ready to do his thing and is seeking out all the information he can get.

Swamp Thing has posed:
    "'Friend or foe'. I am the Avatar of the Green, its shepherd and its hand to hold in times of pain. I am no friend nor foe from the man who rise in the spring, and fall and wither in the winter. I merely...am."

    It took a few moments for him to think and consider this answer, but in that time he looked around and noticed the behavior of the wildgrowth around him. Reaching out his left hand he felt along that rusted dumpster and brushed along the vines. Silently, he invited them to merge with him, though it was not a command. He did not make demands of this world, but merely sought its cooperation.

    "They are moving...quickly. They are moving more at the speed of a human's heartbeat, acting unlike themselves. What caused this, 'friend or foe'?"

    It was hard to tell...but was that his way of teasing Stephen, for his earlier question? Was that him giving someone else a nickname? Was it?

Kid Arachnid has posed:
The relief Miles feels knowing that not only Silk but Doc Strange have arrived is, to be honest, pretty damned impressive. He knows them. Well, knows one and the other he has met... Counts, right? When Cindy catches his web line, Miles pulls as well. Hand over hand, straining fist over fist. He can feel his shoulder pulling almost out of socket when she really digs in the heels. "C'mmmmmoooooooon!" Yanked free, Miles rockets at Cindy and she at him. He lets go of her web line to try and go for a high five as he slings past.

The two men freed from certain doom by Doctor Strange are conflicted, to say the least. Not dying but likely going to prison, they relax against their arcane bonds as they are bound in place. One kurtly telling the other to quit crying. Which only makes the man sob openly, thankful to be alive but still screwed. The plantlife edges toward Strange's feet. Bit by bit but slower. The pulse and throb of growth seemingly stretching longer between beats. The fireplace on the third floor spilling excess vines and flowering limbs. Where the scuffle originally took place.

As vines and thin, green limbs grow from the emerald curtain that falls down the side of the building, Alec's suggestion is taken. Growing into and around Swamp Thing, the mad vegetation starting a slow march toward the newly arrived avatar of the green. Miles, having just barely caught the edge of the roof to keep from being yeeted into the upper atmosphere by Silk, calls down with hands cupped around the sides of his mouth. Shouting way, way louder than needed. "Hey! Do we trust things with glowing eyes?! Is there a rule for this? Hey! Was that his tea pot up there?!" He asks, pointing at the vastly overgrown fire escape.

Silk has posed:
    Which means in effect as Cindy passes Miles that she is rocketing down towards the vegetation. She misses the high five because - living greenery inbound. She lifts her hand and FWIP! A new line slams into the opposite building and she pulls hard, scaling some of the line as she swings to keep from swinging too far down. She comes within reach of the green avatar that is Swamp Thing before beginning her arc up. She hits the opposite building and attaches herself, glancing back towards the others.

    Miles is safe - one problem taken care of she turns about and leans out from the wall. Her eyes land on Doctor Strange and she peers curiously about before she notes something that Miles is pointing to and from her brew position, she sees something. "I can get it!" She calls out and as she edges along the wall hand over hand, clinging to it like the web wrapped spider she is she reaches out to throw a line towards the pot. The sticking webbing goes flying, missing any of this growth now hurrying its way towards the creature central to it. Pot. Right.

    If successful she pulls upon it, jerking it towards her waiting arms as her feet keep her in place upon the brick.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Strange looks to the man-shaped plant formation at the question it asks of him and to which, Strange then looks up to the spider-twins, "Hey, What did these guys drop or open up?" Seemingly unconcerned with the struggle Miles and Cindy were dealing with. They should be able to handle some plants after all. "It wasn't some porcelain container with red and yellow tape holding the lid down?" Stephen asks awfully calmly even as the pulsing growth continues.

    Stephen's grey eyes linger up towards Miles and he hopes either kid saw the container. Tea pot... Strange sighs softly as he looks down into the plants at his feet and then towards Alec. "It sounds like one of the tibettan vegetation soul bombs. A very potent and dangerous spell used to create new forrests and jungles to replace those that had been destroyed by any number of means." Strange says with a sad look as he lifts one booted foot and starts to step into the alley. A small surface spell is put under his feet to prevent the wizard's shoes from actually stepping onto the plants as he steps in further and further. "It's powered by the creators essense. It is said they would sacrifice their lives to seal and fuel the magics stored in the continer to promise indefinite storage and potent results."

Swamp Thing has posed:
    For a few long moments, the Green Man(though at this point he was the multi-colored man, given the lush jungle vegetation that was making up his body here.) looks at the ever-growing, ever-expanding nature that was bursting through walls and concrete. He listened to the doctor give his explanation, and though he was not familiar with the mystical terms being said, the once-man understood all the same.

    "I shall have...to visit Tibet. Some time."

    A few more moments of silence.

    "You all likely see this as a problem to be solved, and Red Solutions for Green Problems are solutions I've little patience for. These plants wish to grow and expand. I shall give them growth, and expansion."

    Instantly, that plant-shape seemed to grow slack and still once more, instantly rotting and falling apart like a long-decaying corpse. That's because the Swamp Thing was speaking to the growth directly, letting it wrap around his consciousness as the vines wrapped around his temporary body. Here in the middle of this urban sprawl their goal of life would be met only with violence. But the Avatar of the Green would take what was here and would move it up north, up to where there was only emptiness and tundra. There, these mystical plants could have their wish, and grow as much as they desired.

    That was how the green man left this group. No goodbyes, just silence as, if his offer was accepted and the magic allowed him to do so, the plants would slowly wilt and return to the ground, almost in reverse-time. Of course none of the damage to the city or the dumpsters or the people would be repaired. That was for the Red to worry about.

Kid Arachnid has posed:
"Be careful!" Miles shouts at Cindy, still far too loudly as his hearing is completely shot. Not permanent but just long enough to be annoying. Over the side of the roof Miles climbs, soon slinking down the wall on his hands and feet. A 'Mr. Fantastic' hoodie on and falling with gravity. "It was, like, some kinda coffee mug or something! Those two jerks were stealing some old ladies cup and now the Green Devil down there wants it back! Working theory!" Miles has been practicing lip reading. It helps.

When Silk shoots a web line at the mass of green and leaves surrounding the little broken kettle, she snags one piece. It's halfway to her when the vines and lashing, thin limbs of strange plants turn advances upon her. A thin, pencil thin limb twining around her ankle as she focuses on her task. Just as leaves and thin, weak sprouts reach maliciously toward Strange's feet as he levitates above. The Doctors assumptions prove almost scarily precise. The Tibetan Forest Bomb is a strange and, at times, useful spell. At others? Beautifully destructive. The half-life animal spirits that fled tbe scene, however... were something else entirely. Spiritual shrapnel? Silk snagging half the kettle slowed the growth to a near halt.

The efforts of Swamp Thing, however, completely changed the environment. For the better? Debateable. Miles pauses in his climb down, holding a hand up to his masked mouth while he watches the plant man rot and... and... "I don't know what I'm looking at and I don't know if I like it or not but the SMELL?! Nuh uh!" Drawing the ravenous plantlife back around his spirit, soul or consciousness, Swamp Thing leaves the alley with his newfound vegetation. Miles, however, is left in a completely wrecked alley between a laundromat and a tenement. "Guys? What the $&@# just happened?!" Plants withering, shrinking and vanishing rapidly, Miles is at a loss.

Silk has posed:
    Cindy is a bit too focused to notice the vine until it is too late. Her eyes widen and she reaches down to try to claw the thing off of her, "No you don't.." she begins and starts to back herself up the wall like a crab but the vine strains and she is snagged. Again she reaches down and just as she grips it it begins to decay and her hand draws away, slightly silk wrapped and with some plant goo. She makes a face and shakes the appendage as she lifts her dark eyes to look around.

    "What on earth..." she begins and as the piece she has of the pot sits in her grip it appears it is not longer needed. She climbs the rest of the way up the building and moves to perch on the edge, giving a shake to her leg to free her ankle of some leftover plant decay.

    "Where did it go?" she asks of those left.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Strange slowly lowers himself back down to the sidewalk of the alley as if he was stepping off an invisible porch and looks around as the greenery fades into the winter that quickly washed over it. "It's gone somewhere safe where man may not find it for ages." Strange says to himself as he lifts a hand towards the fading Swamp Thing.

    With a glance up to Miles and Silk. "It should be safe now." Stephen says to no one and everyone present before he reaches up to his sleeves and undoes his rolled sleeves to re-button the cuffs. "Okay. Seems I have a lot of work to do." And without a farewell, Strange walks back out of the alley and back towards his new offices.