2011 04 06 Heckle The Crime Fighting Crow

Log Title:
Heckle, the Crime-Fighting Crow

Characters:
Namor, Spider-Man, Black Widow, Phantasm, Spider-Woman

IC Date:
6 April 2011

Location:
Seaport and Civic Center - NY

Brief log summary::
Trouble sprouts up over at the Seaport

Rating:
pg13

There is no TS in this log::
Yes

Post your log::
-==[ Seaport and Civic Center - New York ]==------

The South Street Seaport is one of the biggest tourist destinations in New York - in, at least, that it covers the most space. The area features some of the oldest architecture in Manhattan, much of it renovated and still in use; the preservation goes so far as to include a section of cobblestone street, lined with shops, bars, and restaurants. Most of the shops are admittedly high-end chain stores, hideously overpriced, or both. The top floor of Pier 17, a three-story mall, is crowded by cafes offering the best view of the East River, the museum ships, and the nearby Brooklyn Bridge.

This area also houses the Civic Center, the heart of New York's government. Tourists may be inclined to pass by City Hall, the Municipal Building, the Hall of Records, and most of the city's courthouses, but nonetheless, this is where the city is actually run.

<+view used>

Another early morning in New York, the city starts to come to life as the bridges light up with traffic, and the sun starts to creep over the horizon. Low-hanging clouds leave a steady drizzle of rain droplets in the air, giving a steady sheen of moisture to the cement and steel of the city. People start their early morning commute, flip on their television sets, and begin the day.

Only to have the television set blare a warning to them.

"Repeat, a large creature of some kind has emerged from the East River and is currently in the process of attacking the city! The mayor has declared a state of emergency and ordered police to evacuate the area! If you spot the creature move quickly away from it in a reasonable manner!"

And of course this news catches one Peter Parker as he busily hops on one foot while pulling on his costume and trying to brush his teeth at the same time. "Ah great, real slip shod job there Parker." He grabs his backpack, pulls on his booties, and in four minutes flat is out the window swinging towards the scene of the devestation.

Namor happens to be flying by overhead when he seems something that even he knows doesn't belong in the streets of New York. He descends to rooftop level, approaching the creature but stopping several blocks away, staring.

Jess was up, drinking coffee, and watching the news when the TV decided to ruin her morning. Well! A few minutes later, she's suited up as Spider-Woman and gliding from rooftop to rooftop towards the area. Yeah, not being able to actually fly kind of stinks.

It doesn't take long, of course, for the Avengers to be alerted to the emergency. Most of the active team is off elsewhere at the moment, but that doesn't stop Black Widow from speeding out of the mansion and taking to the rooptops to cut across to where the creature has been spotted. She'll spot and be spotted by others at sky level, and nods to the familiar faces as she leaps to the rooftop closest to the thing to have a look.

When the heroes arrive on the scene, the view that greets them might take them aback. Far below, seemingly /oozing/ out of the river is a creature of nightmare. Almost thirty feet long and wide, but terribly hard to gauge its true size as it is constantly flowing and shifting like some enormous amoeba. Pseudopods extend forth, lashing out with violence and mayhem. Around it there are shattered cars, a crushed newsstand, and a mass of people all rushing about. It's semi-translucent skin gleams with the slickness of the rain and its own disgusting juices, giving a hint of dark silhouettes within of people most likely having been absorbed.

It flows forth, at times seeming larger, at times smaller. Yet around it are still civilians, people taking pictures, the New York Lookie-Loo in strong evidence. It moves further up onto the roadway, surging towards a pair of large housing projects.

As for Spider-Man, for once he's relatively unnoticed when he comes upon the scene. Landing in a crouch upon a water tower, he surveys the scene. Grimacing, he murmurs to himself. "This thing coming out of the mess left over from Lizard's lair, yeah just too much of a coincidence." He mentaly kicks himself, then _swings_ down into action. One person in the way of the creature finds themselves saved by a webline to the back and a sweeping swinging last minute toss. The wallcrawler lands and hollars, "The heck is wrong with you people? Get clear!" He turns on the creature, both webshooters up. He starts to fire, trying to apparently build some sort of impediment to the giant amoeba with a wall of webbing.

Namor hovers in the air for a bit, then leans forward and speeds in towards the source of the disturbance. He thinks he's high enough in the air to avoid the creature's flailing limbs…though there's also a certain amount of reckless pride that sends him this close. Frowning in concentration, Namor reaches out with his mind, trying to establish contact with the monstrous form. If it's an ocean-going creature, or even some mutated variant, he might be able to communicate with it.

Finally! Jess makes it to the scene, landing atop a nearby roof and gets a good glimpse of…What in the..The costumed woman shakes her head slightly and mutters under her breath, "This is not going to be fun. Or clean." She glances around, noticing Namor, and then looks back to the creature, shaking her head again as crackling green bio-electricity flares to life around her arms.

Black Widow quickly takes in the scene and the… thing oozing along. She makes a bit of a face, and shakes her head slightly. "Ah, New York…" she says quietly to herself. She watches as people are helped out of the way or do it on their own, then gets close enough to study it better. First, she peers carefully to see if any of the person-type shapes inside look like they're still alive. Then, she watches carefully for any apparent reaction to electricity, and fires a sting at the thing.

The giant creature's mind flickers fainty at the edge of Namor's consciousness. He can sense it, perceive it. A thing that is barely there, barely aware, with primarily only one driving goal. One single thought that resonates in its mind.

CONSUME!

Two slivered orblets blurble to the surface of the creature's flesh, then flicker open and becoming apparent as eyes. They focus upon the hovering Sub-Mariner for the time being even as it moves forwards inexorably to Spidey's hodge-podge webwall.

The surging membrane of its flesh suddenly gets a jolt from the burst of the WIdow's bite. It doesn't seem to cause it to shift direction, or realize it's been attacked, perhaps just a measure of dosage or the thing is truly unaware of something like pain. It knocks over a nearby ice cream cart, another newsstand, a pseudopod lashes out and grasps a man whose fate is grim for within the body of the amoeba none of the still forms seem alive.

"Folks, for real, run!" Spider-Man shouts over his shoulder as he sprays web after web in the direction of the surging amoeba. He espies Namor and calls out, "Umm, heya your highness, sir." The webshooters start to sputter even as the wall starts to strain with the pressure of the creature surging against it. "A little help?"

Namor jerks back slightly at the thoughts he picks up from Spoor. Then his head twists to regard Spider-Man. Finally he nods. "Very well." He drops down to grab at a likely handhold. His face twists in disgust even before he touches the thing. "But only because you asked so politely."

There's a faint frown as Natasha sees no apparent reaction to the shock she gave it. Nor any sign that the things within are still alive. With that in mind, she dials up her sting to its maximum and tries again. Even if it doesn't register pain, it might disrupt the thing's ability to function. At least a little. Hopefully. She's very aware of Spider-Man and Namor's activities, of course, and aims well away from them.

The large creature seems to take notice then of Namor touching it. Part of its surging tumultuous form rises up forming a pseudopod with which it attempts to lash out at the Atlantean. The strike is strong, powerful, but not particularly quick and likely to leave a crater wherever it strikes.

Yet it continues its advance upon the apartment building, flowing over the wall of webbing in part, and then causing some of its threads to snap in staccato fashion. It makes a loud blurbling roar of defiance as Widow's blasts slam into it, pseudopods whipping around and smashing. It's only when one of the tendrils light upon the fallen ice cream cart that its advance seems to hesitate. Another tendril, then another each converge on the source of the spilled contents of that cart, absorbing it up rapidly.

"I'm outta webs!" Spidey announces, spinning around he costs the city of New York a few grand more by slamming a foot into a lamppost. The thing crashes down only to be caught by Spider-Man and used as an improv baseball bat that he starts smacking at tendrils and tentacles one after the other.

Namor crosses his arms in front of his torso, taking the brunt of the impact on his forearms. The block works - mostly. While Namor is more or less unharmed by the actual blow, the force pushes him back and across the street, smashing into the side of a building there. A small cloud of smoke and a patter of falling masonry momentarily obscures him, but then a hand grasps the side of the hole in the wall his body has created. A winged foot braces against the edge next, and then finally he launches himself back into the air above the streets. "Look!" he points at the tendrils that are distracted by the ice cream cart. "But what can it mean?!" Apparently Namor's royal dignity won't allow him to suggest that the monster likes ice cream.

There's a slight nod from Natasha, when the creature looks unhappy at the larger electrical charge. She's still watching the scene as a whole from her vantage point on the rooftop, and when she catches Peter's call that he's out of webbing she shouts towards him "Break food carts in front of it!" She can't imagine it's specifically the ice cream, after all. Just the bio-mass. She looks up then, to try to gauge which electrical line needs to be severed and exactly where, for a live line to fall on the thing. The poor city. They hate hero-caused black-outs. It can't be helped though. She needs more power. "Namor! Help distract it! We can't let it keep moving!"

The drawback of a television giving the warning is when about as Phantasm, That's one of the last things he'd be doing. So it is by sheer luck that he is out here. This may not be the Chelsea area, but damn it all he was bored, thugs tend not to bother during the early morning hours, and a nice across city flight in the early morning seemed like a nice way to end his time out and about. So gracefully the raven flies along the skyline, wings spread out as he majestically glides, GLIDES the meta says, GLIDES. And then the bird looks down. "What the f-<beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep>?!" Well, so much for high class flying. Curious, the bird comes in closer.

Though still surging forwards against the webwall, a significant portion of the creature's bulk is distracted, being pulled around to slurp up the remnants of that ice cream cart. It finally gets enough mass over it to completely engulf the thing, leaving a smeared slimy trail of gunk behind it.

Then the electrical cord snaps as Widow snaps it with a perfectly aimed shot. Again the creature makes that blurbling roar as it extends a whipcord thin tendril in the direction of Black Widow, her attacks apparently having gained its notice enough for it to decide enough is enough! Luckily the heroes have distracted the creature enough and delayed its advance that most of the civilians are clear of the mayhem.

"Wha?!" Spider-Man pauses in mid swing as Namor's words reach his ears. He spins in place to see the fate of the poor ice cream truck, then /WHAMS/ another tendril with the lamp post. "Could be sugar? High caloric? Energy?" He throws that out there even as he _leaps_ over a tendril that slashes at his feet. He flips to the side, landing upon the crumpled form of a volkswagen, still brandishing his weapon.

Black Widow does seem to have a talent for being aggrevating, when she wants to be. That tendril whipped in her direction is noticed, but not completely avoided as it lashes her way. She's sent skittering across the rooftop, though comes to a stop on her feet. "Ow." she remarks conversationally, that being the only outward sign she allows that it might have injured her a little. She's immediately back to the ledge and trying to drop a second line on the creature.

Coming close enough to rest upon a lamp post that is still standing, the curious black bird glances to the group that is gathered around this, thing. Alright time for an inventory of what we have here. Hero, hero, hero, hero, bird. Hmm. The head flicks towards Natasha's situation and beady eyes narrow in an unnatural manner. The wings spread as the Raven starts flying towards the creature as fast as it can, aiming for one of the eyes. Beak first. This may get gross.

More electricity is sent coursing through the creature's form as lights begin to flicker out all around in the neighborhood. It roars again, bubbles of mucus bursting forth from what passes for its mouth, its expression of pain redoubling as the little raven stabs reapeatedly into its sensory orblet, causing it to pop with a wet sickening sound.

The climax of pain is enough to trigger it into a flurry of reprisal. Tentacles and tendrils lash out in all directions, flailing in an instinctive response to shatter and smash the things harming it. The street takes the brunt of the impact, concrete cracking and cars hurtling up into the air.

"One sec!" Spider-Man drops the lamp post with a clang, leaping to the side and breaking into a dash. Moving and leaping and bounding, he rebounds off a wall and /smashes/ through the front window of a local coffee shop. The wallcrawler disappears from view, apparently leaving the fight to the remaining heroes for now.

While Natasha does feel badly for the electrical mess she's causing, she'd feel worse if she let this thing eat more people. She does look concerned, watching the bird peck at the icky thing, but what was she going to do about it? Obviously, it wasn't a normal bird. Spider-Man's sudden retreat doesn't even cause her to bat her eyes. The last thing Peter would do is just leave a battle. He just doesn't do that. She trusts then that he has good reason for running off for a cup of joe. Her higher priority now is to not get squished by the flailing of the thing. She moves fast try to to avoid it, but she also doesn't move too far off. Better it targets her than any remaining civilians.

One eye down, now for the other! The Raven flies back, finding a bit of diffculty as its works to dodge the tendrils. The head shakes, flicking off some of the moisture as it rights itself, trying for the other eye now. Is that bird grimacing?

It continues to lash back and forth, tendrils whipping through the air and shattering walls, smashing the street. With a pulse of almost palpable rage it /surges/ forwards and finally breaks the webwall utterly, starting to hurtle itself straight at those large housing project buildings. Some of the denizens inside screaming as they realize that their homes are no longer safe.

It's in that moment that from inside the coffee shop bursts the Amazing Spider-Man. He dashes out, a huge industrial sized garbage bag slung over one shoulder almost as if he were Santa Spidey. He lands some distance behind the creature, /thuds/ the bag down heavily, then hollars up. "Widow! Need a bunch of puncture holes in this bag!" He dashes off just in case she doesn't hear him, looking for something sharp and pointy to stab the darn bag with.

Fortunately for Peter, Natasha's hearing is exceptional. When he calls for holes in the bag, she obliges with a more precise and dialed down series of shots at it. It's not easy given she's also trying to avoid those tendrils, and one does smack into her as she has to focus on firing for a moment. It sends her into a wall, not at least she doesn't go through it like Namor did.

When the next opportunity presents itself, Phantasm flies towards the second eye to poke through it as well. The words from Spider-man go unheard for the moment as he's a tad distracted with the task at hand. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. Icky ick ick…

The large creature starts to extend two large pseudopods forwards, as if deciding to try and absorb the apartment building from either side. It 'rears' back, tremendous form jiggling and shaking as it launches several tentacles to latch onto the lowest floor, some whipcord lean tendrils attaching to lower balconies.

Another eye goes pop, covering poor Phantasm with a bit of goo. But the creature does not seem blind as abruptly another three eyes surface to the top of the fleshy creature, and what is more a pair of… nostrils as it tries to /suck/ the avian into its body with a rapid draw of pressure. An evil fate indeed!

As for Spidey he gets clear as many shots slam into that industrial garbage bag, causing small puffs of white to burst out of the container. Over his shoulder, Spider-Man gives Natasha a thumbs up and then grabs hold of the neck of the bag. He runs forwards and with no hesitation /slams/ the bag into the back portion of the creature, causing another big white cloud of haze to burst forth.

Weirdly enough that seems to get the thing's attention.

The puff of white from the bag causes Natasha to smirk. There are a few quips she could make, but that's really more Spider-Man's forte. Instead, she lets him distract the thing while she turns her attention towards the pseudopods. She dials back up, then focuses a steady stream of electricity at one of them in the hopes it will partly let go of the building.

If Phantasm was able to actually feel the change of pressure, perhaps the creature would get what it might have been expecting. But the Raven continues fluttering about, shaking off the more visible and slightly more influential gooey presence. With the approach of more eyes, the bird flies up a bit, glancing down at it. "Oh you've got to be kidding!" The bird cries out, giving a shake of the head as he shakes his birdy head before flying back down. Shifting in form as it spreads out its now forming, claws in its approach. Honestly there's no telling what type of animal this is supposed to be right now. Maybe some winged… bobcat drawn during a Curt Swan drinking binge? Whatever it is, it's clawing.

The creature's pod is shocked with an intensity. Natasha can almost see the thing vibrate with power and then it starts to smoke. As if it touched a hot stove, the tentacle snaps back, absorbing into the monster's body with a wet slurp of sound. Though that's more of a reaction given to the electrical energy than to the slicing clawing winged bobcat creature. As when it's attacked at such close quarters it tries to encircle, engulf, and absorb as if enjoying its prey being feisty.

Another /whammo!/ of the bag is given and another cloud of white powder bursts forth. Spidey then hops back and draaaaaags the bag along the ground as he starts to _run_ away from the creature. Since in that instant, with the absence of the bag, the creature's attention suddenly does a u-turn. It /surges/ forwards at a surprising speed, chasing after the wallcrawler and all the while lapping up that smeared white trail of powder.

There's a look of some satisfaction when the pod recoils from her shock, but Black Widow doesn't spend any time enjoying the small victory. The big, icky thing is still there, after all. She sees it then trying to engulf the odd little… not really bird, and frowns as she's immediately in motion to try to get to where she can try to grab the intended prey with her grapnel and get it out of there. Fortunately, there's a sugary line of bliss now distracting the bad thing. Hopefully that will help.

With the visible cues making themselves present, Phantasm moves its claws back as it swats at the creature, pushing against it. Finding one paw going under the surface, Phantasm pauses, giving a growl, which doesn't seem birdlike, catlike, or whatever like this thing is supposed to be. The eyes close as the grapnel passes through the disformed winged bobcat thingamabober as he instead ends up falling through the creature towards the ground. Wings wrapping around the critter in the process.

Sprinting now, Spider-Man is hotly pursued by the giant creature. He leaps over a shattered mini-van, rolls under a jack-knifed semi. All the while he drags the big bag of sugary goodness behind him through the nastiness of the day and makes a beeline for the river and the spot where the creature emerged. Over his shoulder he yells, "Namor, you Atlanteans have some place for those giant critters you always use to attack the surface?" Alright that wasn't a very politick way to phrase it. But unmindful of the reaction he skids to a halt at the edge of the river and then /heaves/ the bag open and into the swirling detritus of the east river.

The giant creature surges forwards, utterly focused on the sweet taste of the high caloric sugar and almost transforms into a rolling blurbling ball of motion. It almost runs right over Spider-Man in its rush towards the river… and then into it.

Namor, having been doing his own part to keep the creature distracted, might not be delighted with Spider-Man's choice of wording, but he does apparently have said giant critters available. Hopefully to that end, he flies immediately towards the water as the gooey thing is lured that way, and into it to see that everything's taken care of down there.

Meanwhile, Natasha recalls her grapnel when it goes through the strange flying thing, and is quickly in motion again. She follows the monster as Peter leads it towards the water, prepared to zap any appendages that reach out from it to other things along its way.

While Spidey, Natasha, and Namor do their thing to deal with the creature, Phantasm lingers on the ground, covered in goo. The cat thing grimaces as it stretches out its limbs, spreading its wings before shaking the stuff off in a manner reminiscent of a wet dog trying to dry off. "Bleeeech."

Standing there, covered in goop, masses of white sugar clinging to his uniform… Spider-Man looks a mess. Compared to the relatively clean Natasha he is definitely a sight. But he stands there on the edge of the river, arms akimbo as he looks down at the swirling water as Namor resolves the situation in his own inimitable way. When Natasha walks up beside him he looks over at her.

Indeed, young Spidey is a mess. There's slime dripping down from his gloves and boots, the white sugar, but what's more there's that smell… ugh. He lifts an arm to sniff at his underarm, then looks over at Natasha. "I need a shower." He looks around at the carnage, frowning to himself behind the mask.

Natasha, unlike the others, had the good sense to fight mostly from a distance. She doesn't even look like she wants to get near Spider-Man, covered with goo as he is. "You really do." she agrees, though there's a smile. "You're welcome to use the facilities at the mansion, if you don't want to track all of that home with you." she offers him then before looking down into the water. "Hm." She doesn't know exactly what's happening down there, but maybe that's just as well. She looks over towards where the other goo-covered thing was then, and asks Peter "Anyone you know?"

Done shaking, the creature comes out a lot cleaner than one would expect after being covered in such stuff. Giving a feline-ish glance over towards the other two, he gives a slight upturn of the chin before forming back into the form of the raven. A caw is given before he spreads his wings, flapping up towards one of the buildings. Vanishing before he even reaches the top.

"Yeah, that was Heckle, the Crime-Fighting Crow." Spider-Man looks after thoughtfully. Then he looks back to Natasha and says levelly, "Met him a few days ago, and ok so I maybe didn't get his name. And ok maybe he's a raven but…" That having been said at the offer of the use of the Avengers facilities he brightens up, "Oh hey that'd be great. But I'm all out of webbing so…" He turns and feigns swooning backwards slooowly, "You'll have to… carry me."

Black Widow keeps some of her attention on the bird, as Spider-Man replies to her. "Hm. Alright, then." she replies as she watches it fly upwards and out of sight. "Mutant?" she asks, though she's more interested in the suggestion that she carry Peter. She looks him over, icky as his costume is, then says "You are deluded." she notes then.

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