Brief Title:
Don't Stop
Characters:
Spider-Man & Krista
Scene Runner/Watcher:
IC Date:
06/07/2012
Location:
East Village - Manhattan
Summary:
Spidey & Krista stop some jewelry thieves, Spidey tortures everyone with his singing
Social or Plot:
TS:
No
Log:
[ East Village - New York ]
The East Village is not a neighborhood in the sense that many others are; instead, it's a name cooked up by real estate agents and salesmen in fairly recent times to try to convince buyers and renters that the area - formerly part of the Lower East Side - was, in fact, as trendy as Greenwich Village. Thus, the East Village is less an entity in itself than a gradual blending between Greenwich Village and Alphabet City.
Fifty years ago, the area played host to the Beatniks; forty years ago, to hippies; thirty years ago, to punks. Now it's largely either undergoing urban renewal or gentrified into unrecognizability, though the landmark club CBGB's can still be found here (operating, at the moment, in utter defiance of its current lack of a lease).
A couple of hours past the middle of the day, and New York is in full swing. The city is humming along, the crowds and throngs moving on the sidewalk steadily with a good number of umbrellas seen from far above. It almost looks like an entirely orderly ant farm when the watcher is high up. Occasionally a New Yorker will glance up into the sky, an errant helicopter passing by, or even on the more rare occasions there's a cape flying his rounds.
Today, however, far off across the cityscape perches the Amazing Spider-Man. Sitting upon the edge of the Chrysler building's rooftop railing, he looks down upon the city and tilts his head as he considers his daily planner.
"Classes all done. Check. Papers graded. Check. Mailed Aunt May's bills. Check. All set!"
He leaps off the side of the building, twisting in the air as he falls... falls falls... one arm darts out to fire a webline. There's a /thwip/ as he fires, then catches his descent. It's converted into a smooth arcing swing that hurtles him back up into the sky.
Not having a car, nor the excess fundage to take a cab and forget the subway. She tries it occasioanlly but only ends up getting knocked around by large snakey people. The way to get around if you can't fly, or swing on webs is by bike. That is exactly what Krista is doing. She weaves in and out of the slow going cars only rarely using the lane that is supposed to be for bikes but usually used instead for people to double park.
Across the city for Spider-Man, but across the way for Krista she'll hear the tell-tale trilling alarm of an aged alarm system wailing its complaint to the air. Glass shatters, and then there's the sound of several gunshots fired. A woman screams.
The crowd outside of a storefront scatter, people running in all directions to get away from the alarm and the sounds of gunfire. The signage out front of that store proclaim proudly, 'WE BUY UR GOLD + JEWELRY!' There's even a guy in a clown costume out front of it with a sign that he's spinning around with an arrow to point towards the store. Of course he beats feet when the gunshots are heard.
An alarm she could ignore. Glass shattering, no big deal. But gunshots followed by screaming, well something has to be done about that. With traffic as bad as it is now, it is going to take any police responsers to long to deal with the issue.
Being so close, Krista turns her bike to ride it between two cars and hops from it and onto the sidewalk in front to the burgalized jewelry stop. She gives a slight shudder at the clown as he runs off, muttering about how all clowns are EVIL. She will take a moment to look into the store through the window before she does anything.
Inside the Jewelry/Pawn Shop the people are definitely traumatized. There don't seem to be any injuries beyond one of the shop owners, a large swarthy looking man with a huge beard, clasping his hand which must've been cut by some of the broken glass. Inside his wife holds him and is applying steady pressure with a towel to it while she hollars at her son who must be in the back, "Call 911, call 911!"
The voice from the back calls back, "Doesn't the alarm?!" To which she snaps back, "What are we made of money?! No! Call 911!"
Of course then Krista's attention might be drawn to the side door of the corner store that's swinging open, most likely the direction the bad folks went.
Seeing nothing but the apparent owners in the store Krista scans the area and notices the swinging door. She may be small but she can move, not with superspeed or anything, but faster than one would expect from her size. She runs in the direction that the robbers seems to have gone in. Probablly down an alley between two buildings?
At first glance... they've disappeared. But then from high above a pistol seems to drop right out of the sky... or rather from the fire escape up above. When she looks up there they are, six guys, all dressed in clown masks and black suits. They're climbing upwards fast, running up the fire escape's wrought iron steps, sometimes missing a step and clanging loud.
One guy's looking over the railing, his red nose and blue eyes almost forlorn as he reaches after the fallen pistol. One of the other robbers grabs his shoulder and snaps, "Leave it, let's go!" They've got a head start on Krista, that is for sure at the least.
Krista kicks the gun off and under a dumpster. She has no moral issue with the thing, but having never used on before, she is better off leaving it alone. She climbs up on the dumpster lid to reach the fire escape ladder and climbs up to begin racing up the steps. It's times like this she is thankful that her physical therapist pushes her so hard on the exercise.
It's definitely punishing for someone with such tiny legs to have to rush up those steps so quickly, and to try to keep up with the men... really good cardio. Yet it's to her credit that she's able to clang-clang-clang up the steps and even close the distance somewhat. She'll even get close enough to hear one of the men say to one of the others. "I think we got some kid chasin' us."
To which one of them replies, "School's out then," And when Krista is able to get sight over the lip of the rooftop she'll see one of the men trying to take a bead on her with the pistol.
That is, of course, when Spider-Man arrives.
One moment he's nowhere to be seen, the next he's dropping out of the sky like Icarus fresh after visiting the sun, only with the help of a webline to arrest his fall.
There's a blur of red and blue, then a /BOOT!/ as the pistol is kicked out of the man's hand, followed by the trilling sound of what is regretfully known as Spider-Man's singing voice.
"Just a small town girl," He flips over the men, and lands against a brick chimney upside down. He looks at the men even as another is drawing a pistol.
"Livin' in a lonely world," He ducks as the pistol bucks a few times, rounds firing wide. Spidey flips to the side, "Took a midnight train goin' anywhere!"
Pulling herself over the edge, Krista frowns at being once more mistaken for a child. Sure she may be the height of one, but really, that is where the resemblance ends. As she hops from the ledge to the roof proper another gun skids to a halt at her feet. This one she doesn't ignore though, not when the there is a slim chance of the perpatrators could still manage to get it and use. As Spidey has the would be thiefs well in hand she picks it up gingerly by the handle and squeezes the barrel in her fist, effectively squishing it so no bullets can be fired from it, before throwing it at the man who is raising his gun to shot at Spider-man. She aims in the general head area.
She makes a face when Spidey starts to serenade, as much at the singing as at the song choice.
The gun /BONKS!/ right off the side of the man's head, sending him careening down onto one knee as he rails with a, 'YOW!' The other criminals have their attention focused mostly on Spidey.
"Just a city boy," Spider-Man flips over the head of another, twisting in mid air to land behind him and lash out with a whirring fast low-kick that takes the man's feet out from under him and sending him down in a tangle of limbs with one of his other compatriots. Spidey's already moving back out to leap and catch onto a low-hanging radio antenna atop the building. "Born and raised in south Detroit."
Another mug starts to bring up a weapon and aims it at Spider-Man, the hammer clicking back yet suddenly fouled by a /THWIP!/ of webbing. "He took a midnight train goin' anywhere!"
The man who went down from Krista's throw grimaces and gets to his feet. He turns, spotting Krista and snarling, "Yer gonna get it kid!" He starts to run straight at her.
Krista doesn't have much experince in crime fighting and her combat skills are virtually, no they are really nil, but even she knows that you don't run straight at someone when your on a rooftop. That's just basic common sense. She stares at him as he rushes her and then sidesteps at the last possible second, turning as he passes her so that she can watch him pass. She may even be nice enough to grab him back the clothing if he doesn't stop in time and starts to go over the ledge. Okay, she will stop him from going over the edge, but she won't like it.
It's almost comical how the thug's arms windmill right at the edge of the building. When his fall is arrested he staggers back two steps and breathes a sigh of relief even as he brushes an arm over his brow. "Thanks," He says to her, then to properly pay her back he winds up for a haymaker of a punch right at her jaw.
Meanwhile behind those two, Spider-Man's rolling past the last gunmen's wild weapons fire. Bullets PING and ZING past the acrobatically maneuvaring Spider-Man. He twists, rolls onto his back, then kippups just in time to avoid a ricochet. A webline fires even as he sings, "A singer in a smoky room!"
The wallcrawler twists around a punch that's thrown by one of the clown-faced men. "Smell of wine and cheap perfuuume!"
Another webline fires with a thwip, snaring a second thug's arm. Spidey then flips back over that heavy radio antenna and promptly uses it as the fulcrum to string up those two perps by their arm, yanking them up as he says, "For a smile they can share the night!"
Thus leaving him only with one thug in front of him still conscious, the other still trying to land one on Krista. Which is good since Spidey thus has a captive audience. He lands right in front of that thug and splays a hand out towards the man even as his other closes into a fist over his heart, his back heel tapping out the time to the song in his head. "It goes on and on and on, yeah!"
No she wasn't expecting to get hit, so of course her head snaps back and stumbles a few steps back as the fist impacts against her jaw. Luckly for Krista she is not only tiny, but also tough, so there might be also be a crunching noise from the guys knuckles since hitting her could be similar to hitting a brick wall. She puts a hand to her face and opens and shuts her mouth a few times. She might be tough enough to take it but it still hurts "Right. You hit me now I assume its my turn?" she tells him before she takes a large step forward and punchs him in the gut. Not only is she tough, but she is also strong.
The man's still reeling from the impact of his hand against Krista's ultra dense noggin. He holds it out in front of him pained as he looks at her accusingly while slowly turning on one foot. "Agh, what the hell!"
Then she draws back and /whud!/ right into the bread basket. The guy positively curls around the impact of her punch and staggers back, all the wind knocked out of him. Just in time for a webline to /thwip!/ and attach to his shoulder then _yoink_ him backwards to slam into the last thug that Spidey is serenading.
"Strangers. Waiting!"
He flips over the two men to land in front of Krista, landing lightly on both feet and then miming a march in place as he adds, "Up and down the boulevard." He gestures with one splay-fingered hand over his shoulder and fires a mass of webbing which just serves to cover both of those fallen men, leaving the last of the thugs all trussed up neatly.
Then spinning away from her he gestures openly towards the world as a whole, "Their shadows searching in the niiihiight!"
He snaps a hand back towards Krista and gestures, "Take it!"
The young woman's mismatched eyes follow the badguy as he doubles over and is subsequently pulled backwards into his badguy comrades. She moves her jaw a few more times, pressing on it, though she knows its fine. Her silver eye, locks onto the singing Spider-man but the green one does not, its still looking at the pile of badguys. When she is gestured to though it comes into line to looks at the wall crawler as well.
There is a beat between her cue before she flings her arms out and sings, "Don't stop, beleiving, ohh-ohhhh." though her singing voice is much more pleasing than that of Spidey's.
"Close!" Spider-Man says levelly as he rests his hands on his hips, then turns to look over the mass of restrained criminals. He looks back towards her and cocks an eyebrow from behind that mask. "But no cigar."
There's the sound of muffling and grumbling from the various men, those still conscious. Spidey glances over his shoulder then looks back at her. "Then again, probably like, way before your time. But good catch!" He steps over to crouch on the side of the building, casting his gaze up one way, then down the other. He catches sight of what he wants to see, that being the squad cars rolling up on that jewelry store and the police officers getting out to speak to the proprietors.
Waving a gloved hand, Spidey gestures down there. "Heya fellas, up here!"
"No, "Close but no Cigar" is a totally different song from what you were singing." Krista says stifling a laugh at the overall incident. Moving over to the ledge she leans over it to look down at the police gathering below. She then turns and goes to the roof access door that leads into the building to open it up since she doubts that the police will come up the fire escape "And I advise that you stick to the crimefighting, singing is not your thing. In fact it might be considered cruel and unusual punishment.
Holding his perch there upon the edge of the rooftop, Spidey cocks an eyebrow at her over his shoulder, hardly noticeable behind the mask however. He makes a small 'hrmf' noise then looks back towards the approaching police officers. "Everybody's a critic."
He straightens up then and looks, "So hey, you..." He seems for a moment to consider saying something, one hand up as he points at her. He pauses then perhaps thinks better of asking and just says. "You mind dealing with the cops? They tend to not really like talking to me."
Looking down the stairwell right inside the access door, Krista waves a shooing hand at him "I can imagine." she says, as she turns to come back out onto the roof and wait for the police "Yeah sure. I think I know one of the anyways, from the other day, a different robbery." she leans against the open door swinging it a little in each direction.
One of the thugs under the clown masks offers groggily, "She's right man, you were totally off key."
To which Spider-Man reacts by pointing at him, "Hey. You. Zip it."
The vigilante then turns back to Krista and eyes her again, probably puzzled a bit. She's small, not quite a midget, and something wacky about her. But then again this town is wacky, and really it's none of his business. He holds up a hand, "Thanks for the assist, in any case. Seeya around!" As he says this he turns around and fires a webline up towards the building opposite this one on the other side of the street. The next moment he's leaping off the rooftop and swinging across the way.
With Sider-Man leaving the scene it is up to Krista to deal with the police. Something she has been doing a lot lately, between large snake people in the subway, cafe robbers and now jewel theives. The cops flood onto the roof top, taking the burgalers into custody while petite Krista gives them the story.