2013.09.23 - Namor Drops In

Dressed only in a pair of green scaled briefs and a gold belt with a trident on the belt buckle, Namor was soaring in the skies of Metropolis, the city he tried to destroy a scant four months ago. It was not something he did often to be sure. But today he was seeking something specific. Not something to destroy (but the new reports of him destroying a factory in Columbia had just stopped being in the news,) something he was told to seek out.

Unknown to many, Namor had been going on walk-a-bouts on the surface. In one such thing, he "saved" Jennifer Walters from the Yancy Street Gang. At the end of their encounter she told him that if he ever wanted to talk he should come see her at the Baxter Building, home of the -Fantastic Four!- They even had tours that showed people around.

But Tours were not for the Avenging Son of Atlantis. No, instead he landed on the rooftop. Unaware that any unauthorized landing on the roof of the building would activate the alarm and the automated defenses.

She-Hulk was finishing up with a shower when she heard the building's defenses go off, "CRAP!!!"

She-Hulk went charging down the residential halls, "CRAP CRAP CRAP."

She slammed her bedroom door behind her, loud rustling and banging could be heard. A few moments later Shulkie stepped out of her door in her Fantastic Four uniform, no shoes (for speed, not like she really needs them) and wet hair.

She placed her hands on her hips, "Okay folks, look alive! Er, what's going on?"

Sue Storm startles and looks around briefly when the building's alarms start blaring, promptly setting aside the vacuum cleaner she insists on using despite Reed's having hired a maid service. Using her force fields to travel more quickly than on foot, she zips through the hallways toward the central courtyard and looks around. "Jenn? I'm heading up to the control room to see what's going on. I suspect the HERBIEs are going to start gathering here any moment." And then she zips toward the stairwell that leads up to the hangar and more 'business-like' parts of the Four's residence.

Toiling away a black costume Ben Reilly was trying to fix the fancy costume Reed gave him. Thanks to a dead to rights lightning blast by a big thing named Validus, the suit's circuitry was fried. So inch by inch Ben was tweaking and repairing what he could. "Cel. Can you hand me-" GONG! GONG! To anyone outside of his room they would have suspect he was just playing an episode of Doctor Who really really loudly and the Cloister Bell just happened to be going off at the time. Weeks ago Cel swapped out alarm songs to make the apartment feel a bit more, "Homier." Cel, short for Celery, was a H.E.R.B.I.E. unit once called Five, named and based around the fifth Doctor, from Doctor Who, in both voice and personality. He even had a little magnetic piece of celery that clung to his chassis and didn't fry his circuits.

Zooming by Ben yelled at Cel, "That's the Cloister Bell!"

"OF COURSE IT'S THE CLOISTER BELL! AND IF YOU DON'T MIND I DON'T NEED SOME SKINNY IDIOT POINTING OUT EVERYTHING HE SEES TO ME! THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!" Cel yelled and tossed a light blue and dark blue costume at Ben. "COME ON!" The bot whooshed out of the apartment leaving Ben to change.

Slipping out of the jogging pants and old Beck T-shirt Ben put on a Fantastic Four Uniform that featured a Spider with a four in the symbol of it. People could have called him the Midnight-Blue Spider instead of the Scarlet Spider given the costume.

Jumping out of an apartment window Ben started to scale the building muttering, "It's not the color that makes the Scarlet Spider but the unprepared wise ass behind the costume that makes the Scarlet Spider." He knew deep down this was going to be some kind of Mantra in the future. Thankfully Reed installed several scanners to recognize Ben so they didn't see him as a threat as he made his way up.

The odd sound of whirring wheels cause a man at a computer terminal to turn.  Looking to his little tin dog Reed Richards smiles, takes off his lab coat and is quite intrigued. "Good dog." He was never one to wait and see, unless he had to let a lab run its course. But otherwise he was always an explorer, scientist wanting to see what is ahead. And as soon as the Baxter's 'Cloister Bell' sounding intruder alarm sounded and the position of said intruder was pinpointed, Reed was off to see who exactly it was who pulled him away.

With half a dozen small robots in tow Reed arrives on the roof. With his head cocked to the side and his eyes squinting, Reed is trying to recognize the man on his roof. "Greetings and welcome to the Baxter Building. Home of the Fantastic Four." Subtle and standard greeting. Always a good way to start. "My name is Doctor Reed Richards and who might you be?"

The man on the roof turned around, it was a man that Reed had seen once before, in person. It was when a giant whale monster attacked all of Metropolis. He was the Sub-Mariner, the news reels from the 40's would have been enough to identify him, and Reed was there trying to fix things as he Namor tried to destroy the city.

He looked Reed in the eye and said, "I am Namor, the Avenging Son of Atlantis."

Namor girded himself against any coming attacks, "I ask who you are."

The various HERBIEs told her just enough about the new intruder. She-Hulk quickly made her way to the roof and stood next to her close friend, "Woa! Um. Namor."

It was true, she /had/ encountered him outside of a crazy superhero event and he seemed pretty chill then, "This is Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic. Er. Hi."

While she had invited him to visit her home with the FF, she still wasn't quite sure if he was about to throw a giant whale into the place. You never know.

Sue Storm made it to the control room in time for the sensor there to indicate that Reed had gone straight up to the roof with several HERBIEs, Jenn was just arriving there with still more HERBIEs, and Ben was going up the wall and nearly to the roof himself. Huffing out an irritated sigh, she again uses her force field to travel way faster than would be considered normal (or likely safe for any furniture in her path) and makes her way up to the roof, though she's clearly going to be the last one there. Even D is going to beat her up there.

Moving up the building Ben leaped onto the rooftop. His gaze went to Reed, to Jennifer (it may have lingered a little too long here given the nature of her costume), then to Namor. "Wasn't this the guy that invaded metropolis with a giant fish monster?" He looked between everyone, "And why is he on our roof?!"

Cel had made it through with the crowd and looked on near Ben. "I don't think he's up to any good." The bot floated and just watched Namor. The Atlantean had the floor in Ben's book.

As Namor asks who he is, Reeds mouth opens, but closes. Cocking a brown brow and giving the man the oddest quizzical look, Reed looks side to side to the HERBIEs next to him. The two HERB Units, numbered '4' and '8', both look back and shrug their little cybernetic arms much like someone who has no idea what to say would. Blinking Reed looks back to the Avenging Son and is about to repeat himself, but is luckily saved from it as Jennifer and Ben show up.

Looking to costumed arachnid Reed shakes his head, but is smiling. "Now now Be... er Spider. That is no way to greet a guest." Yes he is a guest, possibly, we'll see, maybe. As he turns his attention to his green hued teammate, Reed smile turns into a smirk. "Jennifer, if you plan on having visitors it would be proper if they came in through the lobby."

"I thought I would be welcome here," Namor says a bit annoyed by the floating HERBIEs and the alarm that his enhanced hearing could here, "But it seems that I am always correct, those of the Dry, will always hate those of Atlantis."

He looked at She-Hulk and frowned before turning his head back at Reed, then to the Scarlet Spider, "Apparently, Jennifer Walters is wrong."

Namor turns his back to Reed and the HERBIEs.

She-Hulk stepped forward. She certainly didn't want the guy to go destroying another neighborhood, "Namor, c'mon. You've had a history recently of..not nice things. And popped onto our roof. Our security system reacted,"

She looked to her personal favorite 8 HERBIE, "He's cool. At least I think. And Sue, if you can hear me he's cool."

She looked back as Namor, "He's my guest. Namor, meet the Scarlet Spider. Well, in a non-punchy sense."

Sue Storm finally arrives on the rooftop, sees the frowny expression on Namor's face and says aloud for the building's systems to pick up, "Cancel security alert." The distant alarms stop immediately, and she ghosts closer on her force field, moving to put herself behind D... too many other HERBIEs up here for her comfort level. "Welcome to the Baxter Building, though Reed is correct. It's usually easier on all of us to stop by for a visit by using the main front doors." She doesn't mention the furnitureless patio set into the side of the building for flight capable people because, well, it's already been mentioned. This guy had a WHALE. EATING part of New York.

D, the only HERBIE with a female voice, starts barking orders and herding as many others back inside as will bother to listen to her. "Oy! You with the scarf! C'mon, back inside, bosslady said alert's cancelled."

Feeling like an ass Scarlet Spider made a "Cut it out," gesture across his throat to stifle Cel. Scarlet was going to move forward but Jennifer beat him to introductions. "How's it going?" he extended a hand to Namor. "People are touchy about others walking and landing across their roof tops. Trust me!" A smile pulled on his lips under the mask, "Same thing goes for yards. People get more defensive of yards too. Keep that in mind."

"You gotta learn to give people a chance. Trust them first and let a situation play out a little before you judge them. If you go in thinking badly of people you'll turn any little thing into what you're already thinking. Trust me. I used to think Spider-Man was a bad guy if you can believe that given," he gestured down at his own costume. "I was worse than J. Jonah is to him. Then I started to clear my head, toss aside my preconceived ideas and let the situation hit me. He and I haven't seen eye to eye, but I can say I respect him now." Again he was trying to offer an olive branch to the spurned Spock-look-a-like that bore more muscles.

Did he just...? Reed looks to Sue, Ben, Jen '4' and '8' who both again shrug. Thanks boys you are extremely helpful. Reed takes a moment to let himself take in the moment. What ever you are planning just don't do it Reed, just don't... "Now wait one moment, Mister Namor, was it?" Never mind. As Reed speaks he stretches and put himself in the other mans range of view. "I hate no one. Atlantean, mammalian, nor avian. I am a man of science in search of the truth in all things. Hate is for those with closed minds." Reed pauses before finishing. "And to tell you the truth: I have no idea who you are." He may remember the fight, but at the moment the details slip his collective recall. And yeah now that you think about it, that reply might not been be a good choice of words.

And that was a breaking point for Namor. He had seen this man as he tried to destroy Metropolis. This man had lead the likes of She-Hulk and Scarlet Spider and the Invisible Woman against him. And then Reed Richards didn't remember him. Even now, Namor remembered every opponent he had ever faced, to say he was unremembered meant that he was not worthy to be remembered.

The frown grew even more hate-filled as his brow wrinkled to match his lips. He turned towards to Reed, "You don't remember me?"

The wings on his ankles started to flap quickly, and just as fast Namor had grabbed Reed and threw him... threw him with such strength that Reed flew past the edge of the Baxter Building's roof and was now in free falls.

Namor turned to what he knew would be hostile forces now and smiled, "Imperious Rex," he said quietly, for Namor, that meant battle was joined.

The benefits of joining a team is that your teammates have strengths that you do not. Her immediate reaction was to jump after him, but she knew that Sue could catch him, or Reed could become his own parachute. Either way there was something else she could do.

She ran forward and punched towards his face with the full force of her strength, she knew he could take it, "What the /hell/ is your problem, Namor?"

Sue Storm gasps. "Reed!" A force field shimmers into existence to try and catch the man before he ends up in free-fall, but even as that happens Sue's eyes focus on the scantily-clad Atlantean. People have seen Reed go all protective over Sue many times. But how often do they see Sue become the mommabear? This, right here, right now, is one.

Even though she's wearing yoga pants and an over-sized, exploding TARDIS t-shirt instead of any kind of uniform like the others, when her eyes narrow it's clear she means business. Another force field shimmers into translucent existence directly behind Namor in an attempt at keeping him from dispelling any of the force of Jenn's punch by flying through the air under his own power or otherwise.

Seeing Reed fly over the edge didn't fill Ben with concern. Reed was a living Stretch Armstrong, he would be fine. Ben fired two orbs at Namor trying to web a cocoon around the man. "You need to relax," Ben said trying to be calm. He would fight but at the moment the Scarlet Spider preferred piece. "This is only making your goals to be treated as an equal that much worse." If it came down to it Ben would fight. He would only join the fray if there was no other solution.

As usual the look on Reed's face as he's picked up and tossed is quite something to be seen. "Oh my?" he says just before being tossed off the side of the Baxter. Everything seems to go into slow motion as he flies through the air. The options open up for him. One: Reaching out to the edge. Two: Spread out you body to become glide... Woah! Wait Sue caught me. That's my girl. This is quite new. -Fantastic Four stand down.- Reeds voice comes on over their intercoms. -I'm alright thanks to Susan. It was my own fault.-

Namor smiled as Reed fell until Jenn hit him in the face, it was like a normal hit between two people. Namor's own invulnerability made it so Jenn could only hit him at an equal level. Honestly, Sue's force field was the only thing to make him feel it more than just a hit by any other surface dweller.

He frowned again as he turned to She-Hulk, "The man didn't remember me but I remembered him. He can turn into anything, he'll live. He will reach terminal velocity and then expand his drag force to slow himself."

That's when the Scarlet Spider's impact webbing hit him. Namor looked at it all, "I came here to speak with Jennifer Walters, and all I've experienced is hostility and violence from you all."

He looked over to She-Hulk, "I will not use the term Dry because you told me that was a racial slur, that it made it sound like I hated you all."

He smiled at the Scarlet Spider for a moment and then turned back to She-Hulk, "I suppose, captured is the way the surface would wish me these days. I am after all, a terrorist and a villain. Tell me, do I go to Guantanamo Bay, or does your nation have a more secure place for those with superpowers.

She-Hulk got the communication from Reed, and thankfully he was stopped in time, "Yeah but you know what we take more offense to, being thrown off buildings?!?"

She glanced over the edge, seeing that Sue had indeed saved him, "Get over yourself, you act worse than a Hulk."

She gave Namor a look and then turned her attentions fully to Reed was moved into safety.

"Jennifer, would you mind if I escort your guest here back to his ocean?" Sue is still giving Namor that dangerous narrow-eyed stare as her force field that caught Reed brings him safely back to the rooftop at the same time as the one that has been behind Namor changes shape to wrap around the Atlantean and try to restrain him.

"I just think the guy in the Speedo that tosses someone off of a building needs to relax a little," Ben said still not hitting Namor. Restrain the man (was he a man?) Yes. Hurt him? No. "I don't think you're a terrorist or an ego. I think you're someone with a chip on their shoulder who has seen the world not bend or bow the way he wishes it to be. Nothing more than an overgrown child throwing a temper tantrum because he didn't get the toy he wanted from the store because someone told him 'No' for the first time in his life." And yes Ben just compared someone of arguable nobility to that of a child. Ben remembered all the cries that one day in Metropolis. Seeing Namor throw a man off a building for not remember his name was a bit childish to him. Well, childish mixed with super powers (a bad combination). "I just speak for myself and not the team. Maybe underneath all that ego is a good person, but I've yet to see it. Maybe if you walk into some place, have no opinions of anyone before you enter, walk in proper and don't throw people off of buildings everyone will think you're a decent guy. Until then you're just going to look like a jerk," Ben said and leaped off the building, "Come along Cel!" At the moment the teenager didn't want to be around Spock's immature cousin. Luckily Ben didn't close his window and slipped back into his room.

As he returns to the roof Reed hops off the invisible platform and moves towards Sue. "That was quite interesting. Reed says about his flight. Susan did you realize that one of the panels is point-six centimeters off? Oh yes all is forgiven and forgotten. Typical Reed.

Namor ripped his way out of the Scarlet Spider's Impact Webbing like it was paper and looked at everyone. He glanced at the Fantastic Four and said, "I apologize for my actions today. I should have approached your home in a way that was not seen as hostile."

He looked at Reed and added, "And I am sorry for my outburst. Emotions run hot among my people, with me they run twice as hot because of my... mixed heritage. And I have the issue that my kingdom... does not remember me anymore It's... frustrating. And Jennifer Walters told me I could come to her when I needed to talk. We've faced each other in battle a few times now, and we even joined battle together."

He glanced at the Scarlet Spider and frowned, "I will just assume that the talkative one does not speak for any but himself, so I will ignore him."

"There is no need for an escort, Susan Storm. I can show myself out." Sue's force field took a lot more effort to break away from, but he could manage to push it away from his body. With that, he flew into the air, he had reached out to the surface today, and felt like his hand had been slapped away.

But he was now a bit more intrigued by the Fantastic Four in general, and Jennifer Walters in particular. They were not related, but they acted as a family. That was something he could understand.