2013.04.28 - Retro Mecha Wonderland

Downtown Metropolis is quieter than usual, given that it's a Saturday, but it still seems busier than most small towns put together. Down on the street people are going about their daily business. Outside the headquarters of Empire State Bank, the people are no exception. That is, except for one man dressed in an unseasonably heavy coat leaning against the side of a parked truck and glaring warily at everyone who passes him by.

High above, swinging between the glittering steel and glass canyons that is the fabulous Downtown area, Spider-Man makes his rounds. Patrols are a lot easier on Saturdays, after all. No classes and nowhere to be but up here.

One of those that are currently on the ground moving about is Ulrik Magnusson, his bright blonde hair sticking out from under his flatcap. Today he's dressed in a loose light blue shirt and black jeans. He didn't think it was necessary to wear a jacket since by his standards it is quite warm out. The unseasonably heavy coat fellow doesn't get a glance really. So many people wear heavy coats when it's pleasant since they weren't used to true cold weather. Humming softly to himself, a guitar strung across his back in a nice heavy duty case to protect it from the weather.

The man in the heavy coat glares at Ulrik as he walks by, wary of him. A moment later he seems to make a decision, turning and striking the side of his fist against the truck. Then, all at once, everything goes crazy.

The roller door on the back of the truck rattles up, revealing four men in dark clothes and gas masks armed with what look to be automatic weapons. They immediately rush out of the truck's gloom and towards the entrance to the building it's parked in front of. They pay no attention to the pedestrians who stop, stare in shock or even run away in terror. One of the men at the door calls back over his shoulder:

“Bring it out!”

The truck shakes, shuddering on it's axles as something very heavy inside it moves. Emerging from the back is what appears to be a large mechanized suit, hydraulic pumps sliding with each movement while a burst of pressurized gas hisses from the vent on it's back. A clear, glass bubble where the head should be reveals the smirking face of it's pilot.

Leaping from the truck with enough force to crack the pavement, the man in the suit lifts both of his arms to level them at the door. An ominous hum fills the air, diodes blinking vicious red as he charges up … something.

When the mechanized suit lands it shakes the ground a bit causing Ulrik to have to adjust for it. He does note the the blinking diodes pretty quickly and he lifts a hand and generating a wall of blue light in front of the suit,"I'd recommend anyone who doesn't want to be pulled into this to begin with the running." He calls out in accented English. He's hoping that his barrier will be enough to slow down whatever this thing is going to do long enough for a real hero to show up and take the thing down. He considers making an hologram of Superman coming out of the sky but isn't sure that would be enough here.

The man in the suit turns his head, looking baffled at the sudden appearance of Ulrik and the wall of light. He'd expected capes, not a normal-looking guy wielding light. Nevertheless, he pulls the trigger inside the suit and the cannon fires a burst of plasma that erupts forth with the hope of busting through the force field and the bank door in turn.

The four men with rifles positioned by the door glance back over their shoulders, dumbfounded by the sudden turn of events. One of them, more vicious and quick thinking than the others, lifts his gun to fire at Ulrik. Before he can, however, a strand of webbing ensnares the barrel and draws the weapon off into the air like a slingshot. Disarmed, the man can only gape in horror as Spider-Man plunges out of the air to land a two-footed kick on his chest.

"C'mon guys, banks aren't open on the weekends,” Spidey jibes, already moving as the other three open fire at him, “Even I know that!”

Well having an illusion of Superman might not work, Ulrik makes multiple holograms of himself appear after a few moments. The plasma strikes the barrier of light and changes colour for a moment as it intercepts the plasma. While it doesn't survive the blast of the weapon, it does manage to be enough to stop the blast from getting through. "What do you think Spider-man? Do you think the retro look of the mecha should be scrapped? I think that style was scrapped normally about four years ago because it didn't work well." He says as he makes another barrier, this time right in front of the barrel of the cannon.

“Yeah,” Spidey answers, moving quickly to disarm another gunman with a well-placed kick to his hand, “That suit is about as obsolete as it gets. Is that Windows 95?”

The man in the suit shouts a few choice words at Ulrik when the blast doesn't reach it's intended target. Whatever system is built into it to allow him to speak doesn't seem to be working, however, and instead he just yells in mute while the glass dome fogs up. He fires the cannon again, but the field does it's job and, with nowhere to go, the blast rips apart the weapon. The man inside is unharmed, but the gun is toast.

Furious, he reaches out the suit's other arm, a heavy-looking pincer, to clumsily try and grab at the guy with the light powers.

Yeah. The slow pincers aren't catching Ulrik, whose feet leave the ground and he leaves a trail of blue light behind when he moves having to drop the other holograms to do that little trick. "No. I think it might be DOS based." He says showing off his geekery. "I mean who would fire something when it is pretty obvious that it's blocked. Guess these guys graduated from the idiot's school of mecha usage. Maybe we should get them the Idiots Guide to Mechas?" He says lifting off the ground and seeming a bit at home in the air. "Those look a bit nasty."

“Or we could just, you know, break their toys and let the police sort them out?”

The last armed man at the door gives up, dropping his rifle and holding his hands above his head once Spidey has taken care of his compatriots. Being a fair and benevolent Spider-Man, the Wallcrawler simply webs the guys feat together and leaves him dangling from the side of the building they were moments before trying to rob.

The mechanized suit flails at the air, trying desperately to get a hold of Ulrik. When he can't, the pilot reaches out to grab at Spidey instead. The Web-Head flings himself out of harms way, catapulting himself off his palms to land on the suit's shoulders. He taps on the glass with his knuckles, craning his neck to get a look inside at the now red-faced and furious pilot.

“You're not so good at this whole wannabe Iron Man thing, are you?”

"Doesn't seem like it will be too hard to break their toys. They keep breaking them themselves." Ulrik says as he keeps dodging the mecha's pincer, when it decides to focus its attention on Spidey, Ulrik doesn't really think much of it and wraps on of the legs in a barrier that would cause it to trip if it tries to take a step.

"I am not sure that he's a wannabe Iron Man, I mean he does seem to be trying to make a withdraw from someone else's account." He points out as he hovers in the air. His body's covered in a light sheen of blue light, just a hint of colour,"So are we going to finish this thing off?"

“On it,” Spidey announces, jumping into the air long enough to let the clattering machine trip over the force field and land on it's face, “One sec.”

Landing on the suit's back once it's fallen over, the Web-Slinger holds an arm out towards the main exhaust vent. Several bursts of web later, the internal workings begin to chug and splutter as they're jammed up by webbing. In less than a minute, the suit is just lying there with the pilot trapped inside.

Spidey gives it a little kick for safe measure before looking up towards Ulrik when the sound of sirens begins to wail in the distance, “That's my cue.”

"I should probably be going as well." Ulrik says sighing a little bit."Well I'll be on my way." He says as he begins flying up higher,"Just one thing..." He says pausing for a moment,"Do you know how to get to NYU campus from here? I'm afraid I am quite lost again." He says blushing a little bit. A sense of direction is not something the blonde has been given. A lack of it would be much more accurate to describe his sense of direction.

“Just go north up Broadway and turn left on Fourth Street,” Spider-Man points out, launching a web that momentarily puts him in the air alongside Ulrik, “About ten minutes thattaway as the Spidey swings.”

He points to where Broadway intersects with Liberty Street and carries on up the island to Ulrik's destination. However, he doesn't wait to see if his directions stick or make sense. Even as he's giving them, the Wallcrawler is already swinging off in the direction of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Taking off at his top speed once he gets above the buildings, Ulrik becomes a streak of light for a moment before he's just a blue light in the sky. Who knows. The directions might just take or he's going to end up in somewhere else entirely. He seems to be heading in the right direction though.