9491/Smash the Spider

Smash the Spider
Date of Scene:	08 October 2019
Location:	East Side, Manhattan
Synopsis:	A nice day turns south when a group of Villains attack Spider-Man from a trap. Kraven draws first blood. Iron Man and Shadowcat assist in apprehension.
Cast of Characters:	Spider-Man, Shadowcat, Iron Man

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Spider-Man has posed:
It's a relatively beautiful day in New York. The sun is out, the sky is clear, and while the streets aren't empty, at least the traffic isn't Grid-locked. So it's the perfect kind of day for an early afternoon swing.

The Red and Blue hero dips low nearly to street level, arching through his swing between vehicles, and even running across the side of a transport truck baring the Big Belly Burger Logo! All around him the shouts for selfies, the waves and flashes of camera phones, and the occational You MENACE!

Truly, it's a good day to be alive.

"So, I was thinking about picking us something up from Reginalds on the way home." Spidey says into the handsfree blu-tooth headset worn beneath his mask. On the other end, Kitty Pryde. "I have a powerful lust for Pasta."

Shadowcat has posed:
On the other end of the connection, Kitty Pryde is sitting at the Sanctum Santorum, back to work on cataloging artifacts. "Ok I don't know what that one is, but just from the looks of it, it should probably be behind glass," she says aloud.

Kitty directs her next words at Peter though, "Ok, what I heard there was yadda yadda yadda Kitty doesn't have to cook yadda yadda" she teases. Like she ever cooks. The closest Kitty comes to cooking for them is if she gets them both a bowl of cereal at the same time.

"Just kidding. That sounds great. Seafood? Marinara?" she asks of the sauce. "Damn I never did get to use this gauntlet," she comments.

Spider-Man has posed:
Spidey runs along the side of a dumptruck, slapping the hand of the driver held out the window, Yo spidey!! "Hello, adoring fan and dedicated city service worker!" Leaping off in a side turn, into exagerated backflip, into webline swing around a corner. "Sorry, had to slap some fivers for the hardest working guys in NYC.. Are you... Oh no, Kitty. You know Magic is a gateway drug? Next thing you'll be reading tombs at parties... and then you're doing summoning circles alone.. The first time you speak backwards or in hollow, echoy, magic voice I'm scheduling an intervention."

One foot touches down on the top of a street light, but his whole body folds over into a side flip back into another swing. The constant *THWIP.. THWIP* and rush of air pretty indicative of what he's doing.

"I'm thinking Chicken Habinara... and don't kid a kidder, Kits.. we both know you can't cook. Which is half the reason I lo-" Spidey's senses go off half a second before the projectile hits him. Just enough time to changes directions, twist his body awkwardly in mid-swing, and land against the wall inches away from being splat by a hurled prius, "What the hell is it with me and Electric smart cars?" He muses, looking around until he sees it.

"Hey babe, gotta get to work, Rhino is trying to build a parking garage on East Side Manhattan, kiss kiss."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty laughs during the first part of what Spider-Man had to say. "I'm not doing magic. I'm cataloging it," she says. She agreed to help Doctor Strange with it some time back. "Though this gauntlet, he was going to loan it to me for fighting these smoke people who were threatening this... ah, magic place," she says. "You know, that old story," she says as if such things litter their lives all over. And they kind of do.

"You lo-?" she asks before getting the clarification of what's going on. "Uh oh. Well I'm not all that far away. Lockheed and I can head over," she replies, already hopping up to grab Lockheed and phase the two of them down through the Sanctum and towards Narnia.

Spider-Man has posed:
"Yes, I lo-.." Spidey leaps up and off the wall, "Nah, keep working babe, I'll be home by dinner and you've got eons worth of catalogging to do.. I still can't believe you agreed to that!" Landing out of his flip on an empty school bus that brings him just a small bit below eye level with the massive Villain, "Alright, Rhino.. that's enough playing with legos. If you can't share your toys with everyone, you're going to be in time out."

He's still connected with Kitty, so she gets to listen to him work!

How adorable!

"STUPID SPIDER! We paid good money to crush you!" The booming voice of the villain says, followed the booming smash of a fist into the side of a Bus like perch! Peter is already gone, though, leaping over the top of the villain and firing a webline down against the point of the horn jutting out from the front of Rhinos suit. The momentum carries him in a short arch, then back up into a double kick.

"Someone's paying you to squish me? That's a big price ticket for a train you're going to miss, buddy friend!"

Shadowcat has posed:
"Oh yeah," Kitty says through the phone. "I'm just staying here. I'm definitely NOT squeezing into my costume, wondering if maybe I put on a pound or two and need some extra time in the Danger Room," she says as she pulls up the skin-tight attire. It's easy to phase out of clothing. Not so much into.

"Give 'em hell, honey," she says encouragingly as she hops on one foot, pulling a boot on while Lockheed swings down, grapping her shoulder and flapping as he helps steady the rapidly dressing woman. "Paying them to squish you? Sounds like you're helping the economy then. Suck that, Jonah," Kitty says as she pulls on a glove.

Spider-Man has posed:
"Right?" Pete says to Kitty as he sails out of the double kick, having knocked Rhino back a peg in the process. He's arms twist out to balance him in mid-air, knees bent, ready to fire another line down at the grey armored villain, "Menace, more like Middle management..." He jokes, just as his senses go off again.

This time, however, he has nowhere to go to avoid the incoming attack.

Which as it turns out is Victor Toomb in his full Vulture Gear. The sound of the hit carries over into the Bluetooth like being dropped on the floor and Peter's breathless grunt as the wind is knocked out of him.

"Okay! Looks like I'm popular today..." Being carried higher by the Vulture who doesn't say a whole lot right this moment, Pete watches the world grow smaller beneath him, "Let me guess, you're being paid to squish the spider?" A knee comes up into the Villains chest, just below his armored breast plate, and knocks him back and away to leave Spidey dropping back down to earth!

"CURSE YOU WINGED VILLAIN!" Wiggling a fist.

Truth be told though, this is a little nerve wracking... Rhino and Vulture working Together?!

"Babe, I have to go.. Things are getting spicey. I'll tal-"

The call cuts off as a long green, barbed tail snaps out of an open window towards him. It misses impaling his face by milimeters, but slashes across his mask and destroys the phone in his ear.

"Su destino ha llegado a la cabeza de la web!"

Shadowcat has posed:
"Spidey? Spidey!" Shadowcat says, using her earpiece comms as she phases up through one floor after another of the Sanctum. There are a lot more to go through than one would expect from the outside, and the contents of a few make Kitty gape.

She and Lockheed emerge through the roof, the dragon taking wing and Kitty running and jumping off the top of the tall mansion. "Spidey, you ok?" she says again as Lockheed swoops down and grabs hold of Kitty by the shoulders while she phases much of her body to lighten the load. Lockheed is more than capable of carrying a person, but it makes for faster flight if most of her is out of phase.

The pair are quickly zooming across the city, nearing the sight of the fight.

Spider-Man has posed:
Spidey is thinking quickly now.. this is no time for autopilot and... terrifyingly enough, jokes. Which means things are getting a little serious. And by a little serious, things are getting very serious. Three of his villains working in conjunction? That's presidence for disaster. The fact they set a trap for him, however, is even worse.

He's unaware that Kitty is on her way, nor is he able to communicate what's going on with his phone destroyed, but he suspects pretty strongly that she will be given the abrupt end to the call.. which means he has to mop this up quickly else she be in harms way as well.

A web fires at the metalic green tail, using it as an anchor, even as Scorpion retracts it, to hurl himself up into the air at vulture swooping in for another grab. His left wrist juts out, firing a ball of sticky webs in the villains face, then his wrist to gum up the left side metalic wings gears, and finally both to yank him free of the car hurled from the ground by a pissed off gray armored Rhino!

It's all seconds counting down and dangerous situation building into a nightmare for commuters and foot pedestrians as debrie rains down towards the sidewalk.

His wrists rapid fire webbing to catch the bigger chunks before it can fall and hit anyone, with the buick suspended up against the side of a wall in a little blanket of white web.

Once more the Spider is on perch, quickly scanning the street, when his senses go off again...

The shock that hits him in the back nearly takes his breath away, Electro hovering mid-air above him sending volt after volt of electricity down into the vigilantes shoulders.. Until his grip on the wall gives way and he's falling towards the street below.

Shadowcat has posed:
Lockheed's sharp eyes spot the brightly lit zaps of Electro and he wings over like a dive bomber dropping in from the sun. "Get Spidey," Kitty tells the purple dragon, and when his diving form is above Vulture, Kitty phases the rest of her body to drop her free of Lockheed.

She unphases for a moment, going into class sky-diver mode. "Gotta time this right or you'll both go splat," she thinks to herself as she falls right towards Vulture from above.

Shadowcat grabs Vulture's body, phasing him but leaving his aerial rig behind. The two of them fall together, resulting in screams of panic from the villain who suddenly finds himself without the ability to do anything but fall.

Kitty pulses her phasing, just a few molecules going solid, enough to interact with the air. Normally it would allow her to walk on air, but in this case it just slows their fall to something less than lethal.

When she's about fifteen feet up, Shadowcat lets go of Vulture and lets him fall to the ground normally, while she remains phased and disappears out of sight underground.

Lockheed? He flaps his wings into his dive, darting down faster than a person call fall, reaching out to try to grab hold of Spiderman and arrest his fall.

Iron Man has posed:
A group of robotic drones overhead circle once in a spiral, and then jet out in persuit of the wayward bus. It isn't mysterious whose drones they are: they are all covered in the very clear 'Avengers' logos, to mark them as Stark tech. These, perhaps, are the first wave of a response from said Avengers: a clear clue that if the villains would prefer not to tangle with the big boys, they may want to finish what they were doing and get out of dodge!

For now, the drones are focused on the bus, to try to catch it safely.

Spider-Man has posed:
'If you are struck by an overwhelming sense of Religious fear, don't be alarmed. That means you are only human.'

Wait no, that's some other clowns movie.

Peter isn't completely unconscious, just drifting in and out of it after the electric light show put on by his always favorite shocktrooper hovering in mid-air above him. He only barely registers the purple dragging beating wings to bring him in close enough to grab hold of his costume, but grins behind the half mask he's wearing (it was torn pretty badly by Scorpion's tail), "Heeeey buddy... Was I dreaming?"

No, Pete, you are not dreaming. You're falling.

The sidewalk ending, while not as lethal as it would have been without Lockheed, is no loss painful for the Dragons intervention. Spidey bounces off the concrete, which is never a good sign, and rolls over towards cowering pedestrians looking on as New York City's neighborhood hero is being thoroughly troused by a group of villains. But he's a New Yorker! A hand goes out to them, patting them back inside the coffee shop they were standing infront of behind an overturned table, "It's all good guys, everything's fine.. this is f-"

Vulture smashes to the ground, but Rhino smashes into action, grabbing hold of Spidey with one big meaty fist and hurling him across the street like a frisbie to smash against a concrete wall. "-ine..." groaning. "Guys, you..." MOVE. Spidey rolls to the side as a metallic tail stabs into the plaster where his head had been. "...aren't su-" MOVE! He flips upwards into a hands and feet crawl that alters his entire perception against the bricks as Electro throws balls of energy raining debrie down on the sidewalk.

The bus, full of passangers, having been hurled in the air by one massive Rhino trying to dislodge Kitty until she phased, is caught by the Drones and kept afloat.. There are screams of terror at first, but then a roar of elation when their certain doom is altered to mostly inconvenient comute.

Also tons of aerial photos for friendbook.

So that's a plus.

Shadowcat has posed:
Shadowcat suddenly pops up above ground again like the earth was at trampoline lightly tossing her back up. She lands on her feet again, solid as she takes stock. Seeing the bus-turned-missile looks save, she turns her attention back to Spider-Man and his not-so-amazing friends.

Shadowcat picks up a brick and throws it, beaning Rhino in the back of his head, just trying to distract him. "Hey you, why don't you pick on someone your own size!" she yells at him. When he turns to look at her, Shadowcat gaze up, up, up at the very large figure. "Clearly I meant, like, Hulk," she tries to explain before darting away acrobatically to avoid a traffic meter that Rhino rips out of the ground and swings down towards her like a club.

Iron Man has posed:
"I don't know if you're on the communicator," Tony Stark comments, after a quick little search and hack job. He knew Peter's phone information anyway, it's barely an effort by his AI. "So we'll do this. Dodge and weave a little while, stay off the pavement, kid. Got a few battalions of drones on the way."

Indeed, the Stark robots are coming in now, from the other section of the city, and beginning to redirect traffic and people to safety, spread out in a response net over the zone.

Spider-Man has posed:
Pete's phone is wrecked, but he still has the Avengers communicator he wired into his masks electronic mesh, "Oh hey, Mr. Stark..." He sounds dazed, concussed even, definitely way too happy given the situation at any rate. "Yeah, this is out of hand, you think you can send some drones to pick up Reginalds? I promised Kitty dinner..." Yeah, definitely concussed.

Thankfully his Spider senses don't require him to be fully cognicent of what's going on and his body responds by muscle memory! Scorpion tries to gore him again with the barb of that metalic green tail, but manages to get it stuck in the brick. It provides the perfect perch and spring board for the Wall-crawling vigilante, who runs up the segmented armored appendage into a flighty haymaker punch that ... misses, but he tried and that has to count for something!

What it -does- do, however, is alter the playing field for Electro! Who, still trying to zap the spider, hurls a big gob of electricity at one of his own teammates! Spidey is gone by then, of course, because web shooters, swinging away.. Scorpion, is still stuck.

He jerks around spasmodically as the volts hit his armor and dangles from the side of the building still smoking a little from the high energy attack. "Estúpido enchufe de luz!" Said in a daze, "Who are you calling Estupido?!" Electro responds!

Now we know why they don't play well together.

Scorpion is getting his senses, but Rhino has plenty. Hurling the meter at the phase shifting acrobat like a javalin, "STOP RUNNING SO I CAN HIT YOU!"

He's not the sharpest spoon in the drawer.

Shadowcat has posed:
Shadowcat is dodging like crazy, trying to not let Rhino quite realize her power yet if he didn't spot what happened to Vulture up in the sky. She rolls aside as the chunk of concrete at the end of the parking meter slams into the ground where she was a second earlier, sending up little shards of concrete to cut her suit.

"Tony, Tony, Tony, good to hear you," she says. "Spidey took a bit of a hit on the noggin and eep!" She dodges to the side, but it was a feint from Rhino. He whirls about and then swings overhead.

A cloud of dust goes up where he pummels the ground with the impromptu concrete hammer. It clears and there's no sign of Shadowcat. He looks around as if wondering if he squished her, but there's no blood.

Suddenly he sinks down into the ground to his waist as a pair of hands reach up and grab his cankles and pull him down. A moment later Shadowcat pops back up above ground and does a spinning kick to his face. It isn't enough to do more than briefly phase him, and she scampers away, looking for Spidey to see if she can help while Rhino has to bust himself out of the concrete.

Iron Man has posed:
"Yeah, you'll need to keep your teeth to chew that, so, priority on dodging, alright?" Tony answers, but his voice is more focused than the joke's content. He's well aware the two are in danger, joking aside.

As promised, more drones are coming down, and attempting to harry the villains, to draw their fire. Rhino gets two of them behind him, opening fire with short range repulsors. Tony's switch into Iron man isn't instantaneous, after all, but the robots are no small addition to the fight.

Spider-Man has posed:
Electro sees a target in the form of drones and opens fire on them with both barrels. Palms out flat hurling projectile gobs of electricity in wide arcs across the opens pace towards the repulsor flight machines! He's shooting ducks, though, and turning circles in his own flight while trying to get a better angle, so he's effectively out of the combat.

Pete has a Scorpion to contend with.

Landing on the roof in a roll that ends with him sliding face first against the gravel, Spidey pops back up to his feet as if gravity means nothing to him and spins around to face the massive figure of the armored Scorpion clawing his way up... Blood oozes out of the corner of Pete's mouth and one of the eyes of his mask is torn away so that he's staring with a Big blue, if blood shot, eye. "You messed up date night.." He informs Mac, balling up his fists and moving in in a foot to foot hop, that has him leap off the third and twist enough to fire a pair of webs in at the villain to clear the rest of the distance with a hard yank. His body bends backwards out of the way of the snapping Tail, applies a little web to the end to connect it to a stairwell, and goes in to CQC mode, kicks, punches, and backflipping uppercuts!

Don't screw with Date Night.

Shadowcat has posed:
Shadowcat leaves Rhino behind for the drones, and the delay of the concrete entrapping him, to keep him under control while she focuses on Electro. She looks around the street for something to make use of.

A car door is phased off a 2021 Mini Cooper, Shadowcat lugging it over to a fire hydrant. She phases the bolt and suddenly water is jetting out of it off to the side. She grabs hold of the car door on either side of the hydrant, puts a foot on the hydrant and then leans back, braced against the force as she moves the car door into the stream of water. The water angles up and right at Electro, suddenly dousing him as he is in the midst of shooting out more electricity at the drones.

Iron Man has posed:
The drones near Electro adjust their locations, tempting now, for the electrical villain to send an arc through them. It's just a perfect shot, to potentially nail all of the frustrating little drones if he unleashes a big single burst.

The 'problem' with it is that just as the drones line up, conducting the electricity - the last member of the chain shows up.

Iron Man.

The electricity surges over, soaked smoothly by the Avenger, and his uni-beam flares into overcharge. This will hurt.

"Oh hey. Thanks," Tony says, coolly, charisma thick even with the suit blocking his face. He adjusts and aims the amplified shot downwards at the Scorpion below in a slow, easy low pass, headed to intercept.

"Need to bench you for a bit, pop a squat," Tony assures Peter.

Spider-Man has posed:
Pete flips back away from Scoprion on a hand plant, when the Villain yanks his tail free and sprays bits of plaster over the pair of them like little tiny knives! "Ouch, owie, that hurt big guy!" Spidey slides in the gravel, looking like he took the business end of a truck... One arm curled up across his side, likely broken ribs, blood oozing from his mouth and one eye completely red... likely a detached retina. "I'm fine, Mr. Stark!" He's fought with worse!

If not for the concussion.

Electro was not prepared for Iron Man... His eyes go wide just a half second before the Uni-beam smacks him in the chest and he hurls down against the roof like a falling star! There are no wings of the Angel to guide him gently... no Lockheeds to cushion his descent! Only bricks.

They are unforgiving.

Pete watches Iron Man swoop in towards Scorpion, the big green villain snaps his tail out, but he is no match for the Avenger.. at least not this one!

"You brought your friends... but so did I... and Mine are waaaay b-AGH!"

Pete was mid-trash talk, holding his ribs, when a spear tip just out of the right side of his shoulder. Fired from a high powered crossbow launcher mounted on the edge of a building a block away, Kraven the Hunter watches through the scope fixed atop the weapon with a big grin. "Tag... you're it." The Hunter groans quietly, abandoning the weapon and his perch in a quick descent down from the roof with the arrival of Avenger support.

Peter drops to his knees, left hand holding to the spear shaft sticking out of his right shoulder, hard expression of agony on his face.. Then falls, turning to land on his side.

Iron Man has posed:
"Painkillers from the medical unit. Get him to the infirmary; priority on that and evacuation," Tony orders his AI. The drones come to swarm Peter, to protect and transport him out of there. Iron man himself has some retribution to deal out to the villains that are still within range: which, considering the surveillance, may be most of them.

Iron Man moves to assist Kitty, after making certain that Peter's en route to getting help. The blasts might be extra aggressive when it comes to retribution on the villains, but Tony's emotionally invested, here.

"I want full support to get these guys arrested," he adds, triggering off a few of his plans he's worked out with the police. "Sooner the better."

Then back to comms: "Kitty, if you want to follow Peter, I've got this."

Spider-Man has posed:
Peter isn't in any condition to object and probably wouldn't even if he were. The situation dictates he be extracted... a situation that he's never been in.. but thankfully he's not conscious when the drones swarm around him to both protect and carry him to medical attention, carrying along a spear with him as he's carted to safety.

The rest of the villains are no match for Iron Man and the drones he's called in to assist him. Each is rounded up, Star Labs sending armored units to assist with apprehending the Metahuman and/or Armored villains on Tonys word. It's short order that has the scene, mostly, under control.

The only one to escape is Kraven, walking down the street with a huge grin and his hands in the pockets of his black slacks. He'd tagged the spider, drawn first blood.

The Hunt was on.