| Thwarted Kidnapping |
| Summary: | While patrolling, Iron Spider-Woman stops an attempted kidnapping in Hell's Kitchen. |
| Date: | 2016-08-27 |
| Related: | Follows (2016-08-26) Lunch Date with a Mars vs Venus Moment |
| NPCs: | Brian (a homeless man and attempted kidnapping victim), three thug kidnappers (Fredrico, Ivan, and Rico), |
| Scene Runner: | NA |
| Social/Plot: | Plot |
| Players: |
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The Streets of Hell's Kitchen - Early Morning
Brain pushed his shopping cart down the back alley. He smelled, his clothing was filthy, and he didn't care. The city dump trucks were scheduled to service this section later in the morning. This left him a few hours to grab recyclables and whatever working bits of appliances he could from the residential dumpsters. He parked his cart next to a big green metal shed with the yellow and green "Waste Management Services" logo printed on it. Sliding the green door to the side he climbed in, not caring who saw him. There wasn't much here. He systematically ripped open the plastic bags and threw the aluminum cans out. Most of it was "wet" garbage: cardboard, Styrofoam, food. He hated the food, it would dry and cake on his sleves.
A blue animal shelter van was slowly circling the block. "Hey esse', we need at least two more if were gonna make quota for tonight's fight." The driver, Rico, said to his partners as he scanned the neighborhood. The thugs in a truck, but they didn't quite look like normal gang bangers. Rico - a scarred faced Mexican. Ivan - a Burley Russian immigrant, and Fredrico - Rico's quiet cousin.
"We'll find em. Just keep your eyes peeled. I don't think the Devil works during daylight hours, but word is some spider chick in a hoodie is working the streets now too." Ivan rolled down his window and lit a cigarette, scanning his half of the seat. "Hey over there. Isn't that homeless Brian? The diver?" he motions as they pass the service alley between the buildings.
"Sure is. That old man is worthless. No one is gonna miss him" A pounding thumping came from the back of one the trucks many stalls. "SHAT UP!" Rico shouted as he pounded his fist against the steel cab. "Or I won't let you out and you can bake in there!" Rico shook his head as he circled the block one last time to pull down the service alley.
Brian wasn't sure what happened. One minute he was looking over what appeared to be a fully functional, if not severely used coffee pot surrounded by a mountain of garbage, the next moment he had a chord around his neck and was being dragged, almost lifted through the open sliding depository on the waste management bucket. "Arghk!" Brian's fingers clawed at the tight chord around his neck and his eyes started to buldge.
"Work with me you dirty old bastard, come on out of there" Ivan sneered as he grabbed the homeless man by the beard and finished dragging him out onto the asphalt. "Hold him steady Rico. Let me check his teeth. They pay extra for good teeth." Rico maneuvered the pole to pin Brian's head against the ground. Ivan took a knee and lifted Brian's upper lip. "Nah, most of em are rotted. They gonna shatter if he gets punched in the face."
"That's allright. He a mangy mut then. We can still get one or two fights out of him." Rico said, "Go get the back stall open and we will get him in."
High up on the rooftop Jones, a big fat man with a hair lip and a one-size-too-small Spider-Man T-Shirt was watching the scene unfold through a pair of binoculars. "Oh Shit! What the fuck is that about?" He looked around the skyline for anything moving. He had a big white flag on the end of a broom handle with a poorly spray painted black and purple spider mask on it, hoping desperately to wave it at somebody, anybody. Where the hell was a Super when you needed it. He glanced back to the scene in the alley and re-adjusted the camera he had on his tri-pod for better focus on the scene below. After that he started scrambling, "Where the hell did I put my cell phone?" Checking the skyline, his pockets, and the surrounding area, the little white flag looked like it was lazily spinning in circles.
Saturday Morning, August 27th.
The rays of morning sunlight cut though the translucent curtains to wake MJ on the sofa in her apartment's living room. She moves to the bathroom where she splashes water on her face to wash away the dried trails from last night's tears. She then stares at herself in the mirror for a few moments before changing out of her t-shirt, shorts and white bikini swimsuit and dons a sports bra and Spandex bicycle shorts before putting on her 'working suit'.
Again she looks at her reflection in the mirror observing how the red and gold armor both conceals her identity and leaves nothing about her physique hidden. She then departs her apartment though a window, counting on the armor's active camouflage to hide her activity until she has put some distance between home and herself.
Patroling the streets in the morning is different than her normal morning job but it serves a similar purpose for her physical activity. She finds herself heading towards Hell's Kitchen and is taking a break clinging to the wall of the alley Brian is in, camouflaged from sight, when Rico and Ivan's van enters it.
When the assault begins, unseen by Jones, she leaps into action, dropping the camouflage mid leap and popping all four of her spider-arm waldos moments before she hits the ground where the three men can see her. She then speaks, in Iron Spider-Woman's electronically masked voice. "Unhand the man and surrender now if you know what's good for you," she says.
There is a momentary pause from all three of the standing men as they take in the Iron Spirder. Ivan points a finger at Brain, "Stay the hell down." He barks as he rises to his feet. Rico drops the pole and puts his hands behind the back, half obvious and half casual. Fedrico just stands next to the open door to one of the impossibly small dog kennels built into the back cab of the truck.
"Really?" Rico questions with a thick Hispanic accent, "You's don't want any part of this chica. Run along. We got you covered if you wanna play. You ain't no cop."
Iron Spider-Woman stands from her crouched landing and begins to advance on the trio. "Do stay down sir," she says to Brian much more kindly than Ivan did before saying, "You wish I was a cop," to the trio as she beings to rush the nearest of the thugs rather than trying to restrain them with webbing.
Rico scrambles backwards as he pulls a white cylinder from his back waste band and tosses it in the dead space that the Iron Spider is rapidly trying to close. Somewhere in New York a street vendor was selling these things as "Anti-Super" equipment. They were marketed that super hero's had super hearing, and the flash and noise would mess the Super up more than those using them. They were just normal flash bangs, but a lot of street level thugs were buying the myth. *Chink* the spring loaded arm of the canister pops off before rolling onto the ground, its second and a half chemical delay started.
Ivan back peddled as well, pulling a Taser pistol from his front waste band, hoping to shoot the costumed vigilante at point blank as she was rushing him. Fedrico just stood there and watched. He didn't seem particularly moved to action. He was waiting to see if his cousin and the big Russian would be able to handle this on their own.
Unsure what the flashbang actually is, MJ aims at it with her right hand and *thwiiip* covers it with a large wad of webbing with hopes it will help.
And then she is in point blank range of Ivan and the taser prongs tap the surface of her armor and bounce off, falling to the ground ineffectively discharging against the asphalt. At the same moment she swings left upper cut towards Ivan's jaw, pulling her strength so as to not instantly shatter his jaw if she connects but not being gentle either.
Ivan was expecting the Iron Spider to drop after firing his pistol. The moment of hesitation left him flat footed and unresponsive to the quick strike that landed. His knees visibly buckled and caused him to stagger like a drunken boxer. The Russian was seeing white specks and his ears were ringing.
Rico moved sideways as he pulled a pistol from the front of his waste band. A desert eagle: .50 caliber, gold and silver plated with etched line art. The mark of a Latin Kings gang member. Facing to keep some distance between him and the two pugilists with Ivan to his left, he aimed center mass on the iron spider to fire off an aimed burst of two rounds. Fredrico started opened one of the kennel doors and reached inside, his arm pausing for a moment getting a solid grip on whatever is inside.
A muffled *pamph* is heard as the flash bang causes the webbing over it to expand slightly as it explodes. It is otherwise ineffective as MJ had hoped.
Rico's aim is true and the bullets hit Iron Spider-Woman near her sternum. First one *ting* and then the next *ting* impact and ricochets off her armor.
The first ricochet passes though the muscle of Ivan's left thigh before partially burying itself into the asphalt behind him while the second impacts the van door near Fredrico's hand *thunk*.
Ivan is lucky as no major blood vessels are cut by the ricochet. There is a spray of blood as the deformed ball of metal punches its way out of the back of his flesh however and he collapses to the ground, screaming in pain and grasping at his bleeding leg.
Inside her suit, MJ triggers a signal to call emergency services, counting on not being here when they arrive or being able to depart quickly to avoid police interrogation.
Guns being a serious concern, Iron Spider-Woman turns her attention to Rico and says, "Shouldn't play with guns," as she runs at him intending to knock the gun aside with one of her waldos right before tackling him.
High up on the New York skyline, two building down, Jones was excited and frantically adjusting his camcorder to catch the action. He forgot about his cell phone the moment he noticed the newest spider person. This footage was killer! But the spider he was getting footage off was NOT Spider-Girl. He was disappointed but still excited. This one had a cooler looking costume. Her costume wasn't as 'revealing' as his sweet heart, but it didn't matter. This was going to go big! His channel was going to pay the rent this month!
Fredrico pulls whatever was in the back of the van out and hurls it at unnatural velocity at the Iron Spider. Rhianna, a portly heavyset woman in homeless rags shrieks at the top of her lungs as she is turned into a human propelled bean bag. "Run Cuz." He says loudly, but without much emphasis.
Rico's face winces as his pistol is forcibly knocked from his hand. The hit was jarring and he reflexively tries to scramble a few more feet backwards at the fast moving Iron Spider. He hears his cousin's word of warning and begins to make motion to turn and bolt. If Fedrico says run, it's time to run.
Blind sided by Fredrico and the unwilling Rhianna, Iron Spider-Woman uffs as the homeless woman hits her in the back and slams her off center into Rico.
The impact causes Rico to spin and trip at the same time. He keeps to his feet only barely by frantically wind milling his arms but his momentum is gone.
Iron Spider-Woman goes down with Rhianna on her back. She quickly crawls out from under the heavyset woman and scrambles to her feet. No longer amused in any way, MJ fires off two quick shots of webbing: *thwip* one at the van, gumming one of its wheels to the ground, and *thwip* the other at Rico's right ankle which, with a jerk, she pulls his foot out from beneath him causing him to uncontrollably crash face first into the ground. Another shot *thwip* at him adheres him to the asphalt as she turns her attention towards his creative cousin.
Fredrico opens another door on the van and drags out another homeless victim. This time an emaciated girl, somewhere in her mid-teens. He has her by the belt buckle in his left and his long fingers clutching the back of her neck. She is shrieking and screaming but effortless to break his grip. "You get that crap off my cuz, then you and I can tango. Or this little one is gonna be on your hands Chika." Ivan and Rico both are squirming on the ground trying to orient themselves against the painful injuries this little scuffle has caused.
MJ doesn't move towards Fredrico or his cousin. As distant sirens begin to be heard she calmly says, "Sounds like you don't think you can take me on yourself, otherwise you'd take me out and rescue your cousin yourself," to the thug, trying to apply some psychology to the situation and - hopefully - get the emaciated girl out of danger. At the same time, she begins recording the situation, making sure the thug's face and how he is threatening to injure the girl are centered in the frame.
Fredrico is unmoved. "You never messed with a real Cholo before have you Chika? I want my cuz outa here. I can take your Punta ass out. Do it." The shrieks turn to a whimper as Fredrico tightens his grip. Ivan is still out, but Rico has regained some semblance of coherence and has taken out a switchblade to the stringy goop around his ankle.
Brain and Rhianna huddle up against opposite sides of the alley and start crawling away. Rhianna is starting to cry and bawl and Brian is muttering "Oh Shit! Oh Shit!" to himself over and over again.
The sirens are getting closer so MJ takes a calculated risk.
"I'm sorry about this, sister," Iron Spider-Woman says to the girl and shoots webbing at Fredrico and is victim.
*thwip* The first glob of webbing hits the thug in the face, covering his eyes and one of his nostrils in the gooey substance. *thwip* the other impacts the girl's bare arm as the end of a strand extending back to Iron Spider-Woman.
Between the surprise of webbing in his face and the slight adjustment of his victim when she's hit with webbing Fredrico's grip on the girl's neck falters for a moment. MJ takes advantage of that moment to pull on the strand to yank her away from her abductor with insufficient force to cause serious wiplash (having learned from her husband's hard lesson in their shared past).
As MJ catches the girl she asks, "Anyone else in the van?"
The girl shakes her head as Iron Spider-Woman sets her down and then leaps up onto the second story wall of the alley as police and ambulance vehicles turn into the space between the buildings.
Iron Spider-Woman crawls up to the roof top unseen by the police or EMTs as they draw their guns on Fredrico and care for the wounded respectively. At the edge of the rooftop, before firing a webline to swing away on, MJ catches sight of Jones and his camcorder. She salutes the vlogger and then *thwip* the line is shot and she swings away into the city.
Jones smiled and waved back in disbelief. The giant man falls flat on his but, wide eyed and relieved. That was so close! That little girl almost got waxed and all he could do was watch. He leaned over the side of the building to puke.