Log Title:
Not Your Night, Ninjas
Characters:
Spider-Man, Phantasm, Dajan
IC Date:
1/22/2012 - after midnight, before 6 am, after the events of 'The Death of Flint Marko"
Location:
The Bowery, Downtown Manhattan
Brief log summary::
Ninjas, Naughty. Spidey, Spectacular! Phantasm, Protective! Dajan, Disconcerted!
Rating:
pg13
There is no TS in this log::
Yes
Post your log::
It is late. So late that it's also early. Most sane folks have either gone to bed or are just several hours away from waking up. This leads to a quiet period within the city that even those patroling the area might think things to be slow. It's those times when people still up may even seem to relax. And yet, situated outside of Phil's Diner, resting his feet on the edges of a metal green trashcan, a Raven sits, seemingly fidgiting in an odd manner. Wing bent back, the tip of one of the feathers seems to rub against the back of the bird's head as it frowns. Such a dejected looking bird. That's not quite a relaxing form at all.
Dajan has just finished up another shift. It wasn't Brenda who called out this time. It was Kiffany. But extra shifts mean extra money. Extra money means eventually having enough for a real tiny apartment rather than the super-tiny boarding room room she has now. She steps outside of the diner and allows herself a long stretch, then, realizing how late the hour is, tunes her hearing up. Not sensible for a woman to be walking this neighborhood alone without an advantage. Dajan is starting, finally, after years of being told otherwise, to think of her mutant abilities as an advantage. Thus with heightened hearing, she begins to walk the few blocks it'll take to get her to a subway station that goes her way.
The sound of the waitress exiting the restaurant alerts the Raven to a presence nearby. Wing lowering quickly, the bird's head turns, looking towards Dajan, beak dropping slightly as recognition sets in. Ruffling himself a bit as he watches her start to make her way off, his feet shift on the edge of the trash can before he jumps off. Wings spreading once more as he flies up to a lamp post, following her.
So terribly late at night, the city that never sleeps is at least dozing a little. So much of it is quiet, relaxed, the casual travellers through the night hearing little of the noise that typifies the great city of New York. Sure there's occasionally a distant horn honking in the night, and the rare yowl of a neighbor's cat. But then in this particular neighborhood amongst these few night-owls, or birds as the case may be, a curious sound might catch one with the ability to perceive it.
Some distance off there's a thap-thap-thap of light footsteps padding across a rooftop. Quickly, hurried, and many are these footsteps. Should one look up what's left of the night sky that isn't hidden by the glow of the city is at times blotted out by the flicker of dark silhouettes cutting across the skyline. It just so happens that their movement have them slice across the sky, several stories above Dajan and the itinerant bird.
Two silhouettes land with barely a sound, and behind the mask a brow furrows. Eyes narrowing, one man in black turns to the other, makes a single gesture… then points towards Dajan. Something short and quick is said in quiet Japanese, '«No witnesses possible!'
And with that, several shadows drop from on high.
Dajan, with the hearing tuned up, hears the footfalls and freezes, tilting her head this way and that to try getting a better idea of where they came from — or if they're approaching her. But this city has wacky acoustics, thanks to all the tall buildings, so while hearing better gives an advantage, at this quiet hour, the buildings bounce it around too much to give her a solid idea of where the sound originates.
"Nngh," she grunts, frustrated, and begins to pick up her pace since she has no way of determining whether those footsteps belong to friendly feet. She snugs the belt of her coat closed a bit better, and glances around, nervousness spurring the motion as she moves.
Keeping watch over Dajan as she makes her way to what Phantasm presumes to be her home, the watchful bird is keeping watch for possible threats. But being that he's more accustomed to mugger types, his attention is more geared to things already upoon the ground. The opening of alleyways the areas immediately behind and in front of the woman are very much under the bird's scruitiny. So it isn't until those ninjas land that the bird takes note of them. Lets see, dressed up, faces hidden and seemingly sneaking up on Dajan. Yeaaaaah this doesn't seem like a friendly run-in in the makings. The bird leaps off the lamp post, his height allowing him the ability to divebomb towards the small of the nearest ninja's back. Beak first and with a silence that would make a ninja jealous. Heh.
A trio of men in black land softly some distance from Dajan. There's a bare whisper of sound from them as one draws a silvered blade from its sheath. One nods to the other and a padding jog is started as the shadow warrior starts a quiet dash towards his victim. It's a movement well-practiced in the precision of his motion, a cross-cut that would disembowel the target cleanly and end life with a minimal of sound in the return strike. Yet it's a strike that never lands.
One stride, two strides… three. Then there's a rustle and a /whumpf!/ of sound as something inordinately _heavy_ slams into the back fo that ninja. It sends the man careening to the ground, his arm jutting forward as the blade skeeeetters across the ground to end its slide at Dajan's feet. Should she turn at that moment she'll see the fallen form, the two others perhaps thirty feet away at the mouth of an alley. A curious scene to behold, indeed.
A skittering metal noise — that's not a /good/ sound. Dajan definitely has to do a quick whirl around at that. Seeing a blade stopping at her feet, the girl has two reactions. The first, unprintable — somebody around here had a bladde. The second spurs her to pick the thing up carefully by its handle. Seems that somebody disarmed somebody. But now she has a weapon of her own. Comforting, as she sees shadowy forms in the alley. She doesn't call out, though. She can't tell whether those other forms disarmed the fallen one, or are in cahoots with him. Mental note: work on tuning the vision next! She backs away, holding the blade out in front of her as if it were a warding wand. Sword training is not easily come by in Thibodeaux, Louisiana, see.
As the Ninja gets knocked down, the Raven's head pops up from the back of the off balance ninja, his purplish black feathers coordinating quite nicely with the ninja's attire it seems as the fabric likely looks like it just bulged up. The bird's head turns, looking around for any friends of the one knocked down. Spotting two others, the bird shakes his head. Oh please let that other mutant have some offensive or defensive ability. He starts to move towards the other two ninja but pauses, instead remaining where he stands starts to shift into something a little less visible. "Leave her alone." A voice growls.
The man upon the ground quickly whirls, twisting, recovering, trying to gain his feet in a smooth kippup that would be the envy of any Hong Kong stuntman. The other two dark shadows across the way reveal their own silvered blades, weapons sliding from their sheaths soundlessly as they begin to advance upon their fallen brother and the target they have just been tasked with, yet there is something hesitant about their movements, wary. Something struck down their comrade, something they are utterly unsure of at the moment, and something with a voice.
And as matters begin to loom with the portent of ugliness, the severity of the situation growing clear to all those involved, another voice lifts to interpose itself.
"Just tail these ninjas he says. They're just a scouting group he says. Won't hurt anyone he says." There's a blur of movement, a flicker almost faster than the eye as diving from the sky a red and blue figure darts across the way to land in between the ninjas and the tanto-brandishing Dajan. "Buncha hooey."
And there, without any of usual fanfare is the Spectacular Spider-Man, landed in a half-crouch with one hand bracing him on splayed finger-tips. He looks up, mirrored lenses reflecting the image of the three ninjas back to them as he says, "I tell you guys, me and DD are gonna have words, seriously, for reals."
It so happens, Dajan does have a defensive capability — a little one. She can't use it in conjunction with the hearing tweak, so her hearing returns to human normal. No great loss. She wasn't getting much out of it at the moment. She stiffens as someone says to leave her alone, grateful that means somebody is not a bad guy in this rapidly more dangerous situation. Her fingernails lengthen and harden into claws, even while she continues to hold the handle of her acquired weapon.
And then — like the urban legend and song say, it happens. Like a streak of light, he arrives just in time. "Spider-Man?!" Dajan gasps, startled, but /not/ so startled that she drops her blade in her relief. No time for geeking out like a tourist. But she hasn't quite remembered she should probably /run/ either.
With the ninja closest to Dajan getting up again, the now unseen Phantasm's attention switches to him, if only because of the proximity to to Dajan, who they seem to want to hurt. He moves to shove the ninja back down. "Stay down." The voice snarls, "This is NOT your night."
In the Ninja Academy one is not taught how to defend oneself from a bird with the proportional strength and mass of a human, and so when Mike's dream form hurls itself into the belly of the one recovering ninja he goes down like a bag of potatoes, landing hard against the wall.
There's a quick glance from the man in red and blue, then his voice lifts again. "That's me, and oh hey, Dr. Strange's familiar, hey there!" Spidey mistakes Mike's identity, or perhaps doesn't and is just trying to be funny… well ok he finds it funny. His attention snaps back to the other two men in black pajamas not occupied by the weight of a heavy raven.
"So what's it gonna be fellas, gonna be sensible or…"
His words are cut off when there's a roaring shout that comes from the two men in unison. It's an entirely uncharacteristic, 'KIYAI!!!' they sound as they charge, one going high, the other going low.
There's a flicker of silver in the night, the blades slicing through the air in blurring flashes, the light from the streetlamp barely catching them as the weapons turn and move. Whispers of movement are heard as the three figures weave together in a rapid flow of strike and evasion. For a time the blades seem to be everywhere. A high strike at Spidey's chest causes him to lean back almost preternaturally flexible, then a slashing low cut tries to hamstring him and he flips up, back, rebounds off of the wall, lands.
There's an instant when one of the men tries to dart towards Dajan only for a /thwipp!/ to be heard and he's abruptly yanked back and then laid out by a heavy haymaker that makes a resonant /crunch!/
Dajan's tuned hearing gives her enough to know that there are now /two/ friendly entities or people looking out for her. She honestly does consider running, but that could lead to a chase scene, and spread out the adversaries her heroes are now trying to handle. And didn't Spider-Man mention something about Daredevil? Who knows how many heroes may turn up, but who knows also if the ninjas have reinforcements ninjaing around in the shadows or something? Indecision flickers through her expression, but it's gone in a heartbeat, replaced by a serious, determined expression. One hand frees the belt of her coat, letting it fall open to the cold and reveal her silly waitress outfit. But if things require her to use her ability, she's at least prepared now.
The one who has gone down and stayed down? Well, he's going to be explaining himself. By the time Dajan reaches the fallen ninja, she's hoisted his unconscious form up to sitting. Two hands are holding the blade loosely against his throat for when he comes to. Two hands are using her belt to tie the Ninja's hands behind his back. Wait, /what/?!
Phantasm lingers back, allowing for Spider-Man to deal with the further back ninjas. Remaining upon the ninja on the ground, he keeps watch for any other possible threats coming near the waitress. But upon her exposing her outfit which likely resembles an outfit similar to some random anime heroine, Phantasm doesn't take the time to consider the irony as he steps off of the out cold ninja. If he were visible surely there'd be a bit of a blink of expression for the sight before him as she handily handles the ninja attacker. Okay then. Well, in that case. Phantasm turns to assist Spidey, bringing the full force of his ability to an unseen strike aimed to one of the sword weilding ninja's stomach. There's no holding back. As he stated. It's not their night.
Half on the sidewalk and half in the gutter, the fallen ninja that just got clocked by Spider-Man is clearly out. The other, however, has not given up the fight. He reverses the grip on the blade, twists it around, then darts back into the fray with Spider-Man.
And even as Dajan and Phantasm secure that fallen foe, the wall-crawler is talking. "I don't suppose you're in the mood to tell me what this is all about?"
He leaps up, just over a slicing stroke aimed at his chest. He catches a lamp-post, swings around it in a smooth arc and then perches there for an instant. "Though I suppose you're not feeling chatty at the moment. Well mayve after you wake up then." And with that he /drops/ feet first right as the man's turning to face him, timed in the instant there's that barely visible blur of motion as Phantasm's heavy form /slams/ hard into the mans abdomen. There's a thud/thump/crunch and suddenly the fray is over.
Dusting his hands off, Spider-Man gains his full and not really that considerable height as he looks back over at the restrained ninja. "You folks alright?"
Dajan crouches there, with her sole unconscious ninja. She is looking a little wide-eyed, white showing around her irises — an indication this is not something she does every day, and that she's at the minimum a little freaked out. She just sort of cringes against the wall, so as to protect her own back, and holds onto her limp captive. "I … I'm okay," Dajan quavers, looking Spidey in the … uh, mask-lenses. She tries to present the strong front, but this is a little outside her depth.
Phantasm, who is located upon the other Ninja's chest now turns, looking to Spider-Man as he's looking towards Dajan. "They were going after her." Phantasm supplies, the Raven's form becoming visible once more as he hops over to stand on the Ninja's head. Because it's a funny sight and likely a more embarassing sight should any of the ninjas be actually awake for this. The bird's head turns, glancing towards Dajan curiously, "You know these assholes?"
From behind the mask, Spidey cocks a curious eyebrow at Phantasm… then turns to look at Dajan. Sure it's difficult to perceive his facial expressions, but if one were to look closely enough it's there. Resting his hands on his hips, "Oh hey, Raven fella. Been a dog's age." He says this casually enough as he turns to consider Dajan.
The wall-crawler starts to lift a hand, finger pointing at her as he begins to form a question, but his train of thought is abruptly derailed when the crumpled fallen forms of the ninjas begin to hiss and sputter, purplish gas starting to emanate from their prone bodies. It doesn't take long as their forms begin to disappear with a particular touch of sulphur to the air.
"Oh ugh, I'd forgotten they do this… ugh!"
"Me?!" Dajan squeaks, alarmed. "I … what would … /me/?" She shakes her head in confusion, one shaking hand reaching out now for the mask, a question in her eyes. "Not…I mean, maybe…" she pauses, hand above the ninja's head. "My family… they died recently, an' everybody thought it was a hate crime or an accident or somethin'… but mebbe not." And then she withdraws the hand, gasping, as her ninja begins to dissolve in purple gaseousness as well. "Augh! What in the …?!" She backs away, still holding onto that tanto blade, nonetheless.
The bird glances over towards Spider-Man. "Phantasm." He corrects, seemingly having forgotten he never gave Spider-Man his 'name' the last time they ran into each other. As they vanish, the bird is seemingly standing in mid air, "Do what?" His head looks down, and upon seeing the lack of ninja he drops to the ground. "Ok, that's just- What happened?"
The Amazing Spider-Man plants a hand upon the wall, pulling himself partially up it to perch there with the balls of his feet somehow maintaining his weight as he looks at them. "This particular clan of ninja have this…" He starts to explain then he stops and rubs the back of his neck with one hand, "Though hm, they aren't supposed to like ever make noise and such so might not… but then again they did do the whole smoke suicide thing."
Clearly he's thinking this through and finally he decides, "You know, I'm not sure." He answers this levelly. "I think I need to ask some ninja savvy folks." At that, he turns to Dajan and she's talking to the iconic image of that stockinged 'face' as he asks her. "Are you sure you're all right, ma'am? I can get you to the hospital if you need to." He takes a quick glance, as if making sure there are no tell-tale bloodstains, his gaze levelling upon her own perhaps to measure if she's in shock or not.
Dajan doesn't appear to be punctured or damaged, though she does, now that the ninja is gone, disappear those extra two arms back into her body. The waitress dress is going to need some seam repair but there's no tell-tale bloodstains. Only the knocking of her knees as she gets back to her feet. "No, I think I'm okay. I … I don't think I need a hospital, no." She shakes her head vigorously. "Promise I'll call my doctor in the mornin' if I feel oogy." If either hero has an ability to pick out a subtle lie, there it was. "But honest an' true, I'm not anybody any ninjas would be after. I'm nobody important."
Phantasm looks between the two before he struts on over. Because well, BIRD.
"I'll walk her home," he offers, moving over to collect the dropped jacket to fly it up to Dajan's shoulders. He glances over to Spider-Man once more, beak frowning for a few moments before he sighs, "Oh, were you following that whole thing with Sandman?"
There's a quick look between the two as Spider-Man seems to be gauging a decision. He gives no utterance or hint as to what exactly he's thinking, and that darn mask helps hide his thoughts all the more. One hand lifts to rub again at the back of his neck, but then he nods towards Phantasm. "Much appreciated, Phantsy. If you could that'd be super keen, I think I'm going to go see what I can see. This coulda just been bad luck, but I dunno…"
He lets that hang there for a time before he turns and starts climbing up the wall of the building. "Would love to stay and chit-chat, but ninja butt won't kick itself. Toodles!" That having been said he gets a fair amount of height, then ever so casually twists to /flip/ off the building into the air in a gymnastic move that would be at home amongst those acrobats of cirque du soleil. An arm juts out and he fires a web-line, snaring his fall at just the right moment to snap him forwards and into the air.
A few moments later and he's gone.
Oh…Oh!! Now that the bird has come out of the shadows and mentioned Sandman, Dajan recognizes him for the one from the other night, when she was at the Empire State Building. Him, she considers a friendly face, even if he is a talking reference to Edgar Allen Poe. She's so pleased to see him she nearly misses Spider-Man's flourishy urban Robin Hood exit.
"Thanks, for sure," she says as he brings her her coat back, and lifting one hand to wave to the other, departing hero. She dusts it off fastidiously, and checks quickly to see if it landed in anything … unfortunate when it fell off. Thank goodness for small favors.
The bird's head follows the departing hero. Oh well, he's sure the Avengers will eventually tell him. Eventually. The bird flies off of Dajan's shoulder, landing back to the ground before turning to look to her. He's quiet for a few moments before looking to where the ninjas used to be but the glance moves back towards Dajan. "I'll… keep small in case there are friends nearby, alright?"
Dajan nods. "It's awful nice of you to look out for me, yeah," she says. "I didn't think y'all super types did one-person-at-a-time type stuff." And then, after a moment's hesitation because her curiosity behooves her, "Oh — he's okay, then, Sandman?" She has no idea whether getting blown off a roof prone to high winds would scatter him beyond recovering. And even if he was mean, scary, and grabby, he thought he was doing his job.
"I'm not a super type." Phantasm replies, shaking his head as he simply walks alongside Dajan, wings folded in. "Just happened to be in the area when I saw them drop in." The question regarding Sandman causes for the bird to grow silent, head bowing down as his frown deepens. But considering the height difference, it's likely facial features of a two foot tall bird are not that noticable from Dajan's angle.
"You're a /talkin' bird/ who hits people like somebody my brother Andre's size," Dajan points out, extrapolating from the fact that some of those ninjas went down without Spider-Man touching them. "That's pretty dang super to /me/." She does, indeed, not see the hanging of Phantasm's head, but she does notice him going quiet. "Oh, no…" she murmurs, presuming the worst. "I'm… I'm so sorry."
The bird pauses in his walk, glancing up to Dajan at the apology. "Wh- No. He's alive." He pauses, "He'll be ok. Eventually." Flapping his wings, he comes up to land on Dajan's shoulder, a slight pressure landing upon her shoulder but no sensation of feathers against her face despite the proximity. "The guy you ran into, wasn't quite Sandman. It's hard to explain because I don't know all the details but, something was done to him, making him like that."
Dajan looks a little confused, but takes the bird for what he's saying. "Well, that's good news, then." She tries not to shrug since he's on her shoulder. "I'm glad if somethin' was wrong it'll be better soon," she says with sincerity. "An' I wanted to say thank you, too. To you."
Phantasm nods, riding along Dajan as she walks to her destination. "But that thing got removed." Phantasm adds. His tone changes as he continues, becoming a bit more hopeful, "And he'll be ok. Just needs time."
Dajan listens, and gives a hopeful little smile as Phantasm's explanation continues. "We'll I'm glad they fixed whatever's wrong. That means he's not likely to come try'n arrest me again if I ever run into him again…and what're the chances of —" She cuts herself off. "I have met an Avenger, an X-Man, one of the Fantastic Four, and now Spider-Man in the course of a week. I better not tempt fate." She gives a nervous little giggle, turning up the street to her little boarding house. There's a friendly lamp shining at the top of the stoop. "And you. Twice, even." She lets her other thread drop, presuming he's too modest to accept her thanks.
The bird glances to Dajan, giving a bit of a wry smile. "You live in New York." He replies, giving a slight chuckle, "If the chance of running into a super in the middle of what they're doing upsets you or scares you, then you might want to consider living in J-" He pauses, shaking his head, "Well, not IN New York. With pretty much every big name located here, the chances of running into one are very high." As it appears she is turning to her destination, the bird hops off, shifting once more. This time, in a more humanoid manner. Jeans and a hooodie with the hood casting an unnatural shadow over the features of the face. Hiding it. "If we run into each other again. Hopefully it'll be under a better situation." Despite the face not being seeable, the teeth within the smile becomes apparent. Despite the poe-ish appearance of the teeth, the way they're displayed aren't threatening. Just, offsetting. "You'll be good for the rest of the way, right?"
Dajan giggles. "Well, yeah, but I have only been here three weeks," she offers by way of explanation. "It doesn't scare or upset me exactly. Just wasn't expectin' super types to be wall to wall an' comin' out the woodwork like they have been."
She blinks slightly as he takes a more humanoid shape, and favors her with a smile. "That'd be nice," she agrees. "Between somebody tryin'a talk my secrets out an' now ninjas, a plain old 'how you doin'' would be … refreshin', almost."
The figure pauses giving a nod as Phantasm waits, glancing to the door that Dajan's paused outside of and then back to Dajan. "I'd ask now but, it's a bit late for that. Maybe later." He grows silent once more, looking to the door.
"It's all good, Mr…I mean, Phantasm," Dajan assures him. "I'm a lot better than I'd'a been without your help and Spider-Man's, and that's for sure." She gives him a salute with her new souvenir, and uses her key to unlock the door. "Good night. You get home safe, now." Yep. Definitely a southerner.
The smile widens a bit in knowing amusment to the last choice of words as he gives a nod, "I will."
