2014.01.12 - Spiders and Birds and Speedsters, Oh My!

Related Logs: A Rare Afternoon in the Hood

On a long view, the webslinger soars downward and then back upward until he cuts loose of the line and lands with a light grace upon a rooftop somewhere in the outlying boroughs of Queens. He breathes heavily. Having this many enemies is difficult business. Risky business. But after knocking down the Rhino and living to tell the tale, Spider-Man is feeling pretty good about himself. He looks down to his wrist to check and see if his shooters are at an acceptable level.

As Spider-man lands on the roof a flock of pigeons is scared into flight. After circling their roof for a few moments they settle back down, as far away from the man in tights as they can. One of them takes a couple of hops along the roof's ledge coming a bit closer to Spidey and twisting its head this way and that to examine him.

"Hey, you're Spider-Man," comes the voice of a diminutive blonde teenager who wasn't there a moment ago, yet somehow, is now standing a short distance from Spider-Man. "You're the hero the Bugle keeps referring to as a menace...which is it?" Looks like despite her smallish stature the girl isn't really familiar with being afraid, as after all, if the Bugle is right, her life could be in danger just approaching Spider-Man.

Spider-Man tilts his head. Funny. His Spider-Sense didn't go off. Perhaps that means this one's not bad. Perhaps she's blocking it. Perhaps she's some sort of all powerful mutant alien sent here to destroy the lives and minds of every single person on the planet or maybe...

She's just a chick.

"Well," Spider-Man says with a shrug of the shoulders, "What do you believe?"

The curious little pigeon, along with all the others take fright again as Kiden appears on the roof, this time deciding there are way too many humans around for their comfort. The flock disperses in all directions but a few seconds later a raven comes winging over the edge of the roof and lands on Kiden's shoulder, letting out a series of caws that almost sound like it says, "Hi Trouble."

"From what experience I got, I mostly believe only what I can see with my own two eyes..." Kiden murmurs, "so, seeing as I'm not dead or anything, safe to say the Bugle is full of bull?"

Then a raven swoops down low, and comes to a landing on Kiden's shoulder, as she remains frozen in place, staring in surprise, as she greets the bird with, "hi there."

Spider-Man nods his head to her and would smile if his mask would show it. "Well, that's kind of the feeling I get as well. They're always after me lucky charms. Them. The police. Sally Jesse Raphael. It's a whole thing."

Kiden chuckles as Spidey shows his penchant for humor, "you seem to take it in stride, you're also pretty funny, I like that. A lot of the heroes are all serious like." She extends her arm to shake hands if Spidey would take her on it, "well, that settles it then, you're a good guy. Glad I got that cleared up."

The raven hops off Kiden's shoulder, flaps up to the little hut that houses the rooftop access for the building and perches on its ledge. The it shimmers and melts into a golden, amoeba-like blob the grows and turns into a Gabriel, wearing a black t-shirt with a stylized Spider-Man mask on it in white lines and jeans. "Well, that seems to happen a lot with the Robin Hood type heroes. In my mind it just makes it all the better for getting the fan girls." The last comment accompanied with a wink at Kiden.

"Me too!" Spider-Man exclaims, giving Kiden a shake of the hand. "Glad to find another supporter against the 'Man.' Because 'the man' is always trying to keep me down, dig?" But when the raven hops down off the shoulder, Spider-Man backs up. "Getting fan gi--who's that?" Spider-Man says with outstretched finger.

"The man *is* trying to keep everyone down," Kiden agrees with Spidey, before the raven hopping off her shoulder and transforming catches her attention and she shakes her head, "I didn't know you could do that, Gabriel...but seeing as you're here...how about my $100? You were never there for the coin challenge, I came looking for you."

Gabriel blinks for a moment as someone ask him to pony up $100 then laughs. "That's true, fair 'nuff." He starts digging into his pocket then frowns a little bit as he remembers his jeans aren't really jeans, considering he left the house as a pigeon today. "And I agree, the Man really does try to keep us all down. I'll have to keep owing you that money since I have nothing on me right now. And I am Gabriel. Nice to meet you Mr. Spider-Man."

"Charmed," Spider-Man says absently as he watches the two, who seemingly have a previous relationship. This is...odd. Carrying on about this whole thing with a raven that became a human and a punk rock chick who approaches superheroes with disregard to her safety. "Uhm..miss...Who are you? Who are both of you?" Dancing fingers point between Gabe and Kiden.

"Figures...long as you remember you owe me," Kiden offers with a grin, and as if to show proof, she takes out a quarter from her pocket and starts to twirl it between her fingers, before flipping it in the air and grabbing it mid-air, only to place it back in her pocket. She then bows with a flourish before Spider-Man, "I'm the illustrious Kiden Nixon yo." She then points at Gabriel, "and that over there is Gabriel, AKA Mr. Robin Hood Man."

Gabriel hops off his perch. As he lands on the detritus that covers most roof tops he winces and looks down at his bare feet, mumbling, "Shoes, can't keep forgetting the shoes..." and then walks over to Spider-Man laughing as Kiden basically reads his minds, "As Trouble said, I'm Gabriel and I was going to steal a line by introducing myself as your friendly neighborhood Robin Hood but she beat me to it."

"It's spectacular to meet you both. I'm especially lucky that out of the hundreds of heroes out there, I'm pretty much the poorest one there is. Therefore, I have nothing to fear by meeting a Robin Hood. Who turns into birds. And stuff." Spider-Man ends it with a nod of understanding.

It may be rude, but while Spider-Man has his attention for but a moment on Gabriel, Kiden seems to just disappear as if she never was there to begin with. One moment she was there, the next she's gone.

Gabriel tilts his head a bit to the side and chuckles as Spidey talks about him turning into a bird, "Oh, I can do better than birds. Birds are just an easy way to blend in. Like pigeons. They're everywh... where'd she go? First time I've seen her do that."

Spidey looks around with Kiden now having disappeared. "She normally does that kind of thing?" He shrugs his shoulders, guessing it's no more weird than anything else he's seen so far in this conversation. "Guess I won't ever go out to eat with her. She'll skip the bill."

Gabriel laughs, "You know what? She very well might. Then again, she probably wouldn't she seems to be a bit on the proud side. Not that I know her all that well." Turning back to Spider-Man he smiles a bit on the impish side and asks,"Do you want to see an even better trick than the birds? Take your glove off and shake my hand." He offers his right hand to be shaken as he mentions it.

"Oh, nononono, sorry brosef, that's a no can do," Spider-Man says waving his hands. "The gloves? They're not only a part of my motif, they're also part of my protection if you catch what I mean. They don't come off."

Gabriel rolls his eyes then chuckles, "And I so wanted to wall crawl..." then he melts into that whole golden amoeba thing again, which shivers like Jell-o for a second or two before Spider-Man is standing in front of Spider-Man. Spider-Gabriel does a quick soft shoe and ends up with a spread arm flourish and a "Ta-da!"

"Wow," Spider-Man says with a clap of the hands. "That's a pretty good trick. Can you turn into anything?"

Gabriel nods, speaking from behind a mask that up close doesn't look like cloth but rather more like skin, "Yup. If I can see it or touch it I can copy it... Deadpool is an interesting one to do it with, let me tell ya. But doing it through touch is always better." He doesn't really clarify his meaning on the last one even thought it seems there's more to it.

Sounds like it could be some fun around Halloween, time, am I right?" Spider-Man asks with a nod. From behind his mask he inspects, but doesn't come too much loser.

Gabriel sits down on the edge of the roof, looking out over the city spread out beneath and around him, "Enh, Halloween can loose a bit of its charm when you wear a costume every day. So? How'd Mr. Triple J come to hate you so much anyway?"

Spider-Man shrugs his shoulders, nonplussed. "To be honest, I don't really know. I think it started off as a thing to sell papers, and it grew to hatred over time. I'm not really sure what he's so angry about, I mean a guy with a Hitler mustache should sort of take care of his own house before complaining about the neighbors if you get my meaning."

G-Spidey tosses his head back and laughs at that comment, "You know, I never really thought about that. He really does have a Hitler-stash, doesn't he? Well, if it helps, you're actually one of my inspirations. I think you do fine work."

"Least someone does. The fuzz have been after me, thinking I murdered some immigrant guy. I tell ya, I can't catch a break." Spider-Man pauses and then nods, "Thanks man. Means a lot."

Gabriel tilts his head back again, this time to look upside down at the other Spider-Man on the roof, "Really? I'd be willing to help find the real killer if you need the help. I have some... contacts that could be useful."

Spider-Man shrugs, "Alright. The killer is a she, was working in Queens, and shot some guy named Federov. That's all I have to go on."

Pseudo-Spidey nods to himself for a few moments, clearly memorizing the details he's been given. "Well, not a whole lot to go on but at least having the victim's name might help. Federov... Was the guys Russian Mafia or something?" He starts to swing his legs a bit, as if he was sitting on a park bench instead of a the edge of a roof top dozens of stories up.

"Close. Shop owner; little deli. His pastrami was outrageously priced," Spider-Man offers with a tilt of the head. "What sort of underground contacts are you referring to?" Too far underground usually means sort of illegal and sort of illegal can mean bad.

Gabriel keeps looking upside down at the real Spider-Man as he takes a moment to consider his last question. A few seconds later he decides to trust the other young man and answers with, "Well, without using names, obviously, I'm willing to let you know I'm good friends with a few low-level Yakuza people that would probably be willing to ask some questions for me."

Spider-Man pauses a long time before he speaks again, "Yeah, well I guess I'll let you know. Thanks for the offer man."

Gabriel laughs again and smiles behind his mask at Spidey,"Hey, I'm not Yakuza or directly involved with them or anyone else like them. Too much bad stuff going on for all the wrong reasons with those guys. Yeah, I admit, I'm not above picking some pockets or stealing the random piece of jewelry from the uber-rich but I make sure the profit always go to people who need it. Or to the shelters. Or the free clinics."

"Right," Spider-Man says absently. It's clear he doesn't really agree with Gabriel's robbing from the rich and giving to the poor thing. "Well listen, man...Gabriel, it was nice meeting you. I gotta head home and stuff, Spider-Man's gotta shovel the spider-driveway and cook spider-lunch. It was nice meetin' ya though."

Gabriel nods and waves before shimmering back into his usual form, "Well, you have a good one. And if I hear anything I'll put the word out so you get it."

"Thanks, you too." Spidey gives a final wave before he drops off the side of the building, firing a web at just the precise time. The arc takes him upward where he fires a steadying shot, before firing still a third that sets him along the path Eastward.