2013.06.19 - Trans-Dimensional Downtime

Sometimes, it sucks to be a mutant.

Arnold Katzman, a Jewish fellow estranged from his Upper West Side family, has fallen on rough times. He lost his job with the MTA, and hasn't been able to hold down a steady job for over a year. Now he's broke, his credit with the banks overextended, and on the run.

From the mob.

Poor Arnold went with the loan sharks when he couldn't even get a check cashed at the Check-N-Go. The loan sharks sent their cronies after him, and he took to the streets, leading them into Central Park shortly after 1:00 am. However, when the first bullet struck his arm, this late bloomer's X-Gene sprouted to life.

SCHHPAAANNNGGG!!!

From Arnold's outstretched hand formed a series of blue and purple energy bands, knitting together in the stewy, humid evening air. A large sphere formed around those who chased him, trapping them within its clutches. They ran to the end, banging their fists and guns upon the strange energy, but were unable to escape.

Then... the cops came.

-Disturbance in Central Park!- -All units, respond, we have a meta on the loose!- -I need backup, right now!-

Chasing the sound of police sirens and gunfire are two X-Men known as Shift and Channel. The African's boots pound through the dying grass, breathes pumping deeply as he chases down the police officers who, one group after another, become trapped in the strange, half-sphere-shaped energy prisons dispatched by Arnold Katzman.

"Put your mask on!" cries Shift, while stretching the mask over his own face mid-stride. "We're catching up!"

A conveniently placed statue is clear one moment, but crawling with a spider the next. "Seriously, Mamma Spidey always said, nothing good happens after midnight." He lets out a dramatic sigh. "It's way past my bedtime."

Using his powerful legs, Spider-Man leaps out over near the blue energy and lands with his legs splayed wide and an outstretched hand in front of him, the other ready to shoot one of his webs. "Blue and purple? Who's your tailor, Louis XIV?"

Spider-Man tilts his head and looks off to the side, as if speaking to someone. "It's not my best work, but they all can't be gems. Seriously." Announcement: Teferi shouts, “Jobs have been compressed. Please check '+myjobs' and '+events' for updated job numbers.”

Mask being slipped on (she really needed that cool suit Ben had promised her, dangit), Channel keeps moving. The teenager then gets an idea. "Hang on Shift". She picks up the pace just a little bit and hops into the air, taking flight. Why would she take flight? Well, she could fly about one hundred miles per hour and had been doing a lot of aerial manueverability training with Carol. She also knew Central Park ridiculously well for a newcomer (relatively speaking) to New York City.

That might have something to do with a certain team's headquarters being located there. But she wasn't bringing that up.

Back in the present, the teen reaches out to grab Shift and kicks it into high gear. The energy spheres surrounding the policemen get drained by Channel, if possible, and she uses that energy and some random magnetic energy to charge herself up to full strength as she attempts to reach the mutant, even as Spider-Man appears to join in the chase. Well, things had just gotten serious, now hadn't they?

Well, come on now. Shift can fly too! It's just... a bit different, and he's nowhere near that fast. "Whup!" he verbalizes, before intentionally loosening his molecules a bit so that he's lighter to carry. Once Jocelyn has reached full speed, Shift turns into a speeding cloud of black smoke, carried along with the utmost ease by the teenaged jet above him.

The oddest thing is, Channel finds that the energy is able to be absorbed, but it cannot be stopped. The energy is trans-dimensional in nature, and those inside are finding themselves trapped in a place somewhere between this world and another. That energy is sourced from another dimension by Arnold Katzman's X-Gene, and as such, it's existence in our world is somewhat... different.

Poor Arnold just has no idea what's going on. He's just scared, and knows that his hands are shooting these energy beams at people and stopping them from hurting him.

Soon enough, Arnold is no longer being chased by cops, for they have all been trapped in those spheres. Trapped and safe, but unable to do anything about him. Arnold skids to a halt and slams his back into a large tree trunk, taking a few deep breaths before Spider-Man's voice causes him to shriek.

"Oh no," comes a voice from the front of the Shift-cloud, which starts to reform into a human man again. "Dat's not good!"

Arnold's hands come up, pointed toward Spider-Man.

"Toss me!"

Once free, the African solidifies himself and goes dive-bombing for an area somewhere between Katzman and Spider-Man.

Spidey looks over at Channel and her entrance and straights a bit, almost sauntering. "You know, there's a joke in there somewhere about that, but not even I'm going to ma--"

"Uh-oh," Spider-Man says as Arnold's arms point in his direction. "No time for love, Dr. Jones!"

Though it's probably no use, Spider-Man begins to do backwards leaps as if some sort of ultra-bendy gymnast, attempting to get out of the way.

That was some messed up energy. Channel wrinkles her nose a bit, and aborts her attempts at freeing the officers for now. "I can't stop the energy. Something otherworldly about it". That's about as much as Channel can explain before there are further problems. At Shift's command, Channel unleashes her own version of a Fastball Special, throwing Shift to the area between Katzman and Spider-Man. The teenager decides the best place to be, in this situation, was going to be BEHIND the guy with the crazy otherworldly energy prison powers. She zips right behind that tree and attempts to grapple Katzman, specifically intent on keeping his hands from moving if at all possible.

"Calm down. We are not going to hurt you," the teenager says firmly. She'd been listening to how some of the other X-Men negotiate in the middle of a crisis, and was having a go of it herself. It may work. It may not. All Channel knew was that she wanted this guy to NOT be flinging nasty energy prisons all over the place.

It's all just a little bit too much for poor Arnold Katzman.

Spider-Man is doing backflips. And, Christ on a Cracker, it's Spider-Man! Then there's another superhero-looking-type speeding toward the ground like a bullet, who slams into the ground hard enough to kick dirt and grass up toward Arnold's face.

"Ahhh!" he cries, and lifts his hands to shield his eyes.

When Channel grapples him, he just lets loose. Those bands of energy form in his fingers, and then there is a massive sound that pierces the ears of all four.

SCHHPAAAANNNNGGGGG!!!!

Following a brilliant flash of light, all four find themselves trapped inside one of Arnold's glowing dimensional prisons. However, Arnold's eyes have rolled back into his head, and he slumps to the ground, unconscious.

Shift climbs to his feet out of the hole, dusting himself off a bit and spitting some dirt out of his mouth. When he notices Arnold falling to the ground, his shoulders slump and he lets out a sigh. "Maybe dat was a bit too much," he admits.

Inside the energy prison, the air is still and sound doesn't seem to echo at all. Further, the outside world seems cut off. The sounds of the city and approaching sirens are blotted out. In fact, from inside the sphere, one can't even make out the surrounding trees, outcroppings, anything.

Shift runs over toward Arnold. Crouching down, he presses his fingers up against the man's neck, checking for a pulse. "He's alive, strong, just... out."

"Great," Spider-Man says as his last spring-back might have sent him clear. He reaches up to push on the energy bubble, but decides better of it, as it suddenly reminds him of one of those blue electricity lamps that kill mosquitoes. And Spiders.

"Fools to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am-stuck in the middle with you." The fools seem to be Arnold and the fuzz. Spidey gives an upwards nod. "So, uhm, I'm pretty good at science and all, but I'm downright confuzzled. Anyone got any ideas." He nods to Channel, tilting his head, "Come here often?"

"Might have been a bit much, Shift," Channel agrees easily, though there isn't any blame assigned. The guy was overwhelmed. This likely would have happened anyway, she suspects. "This energy is something otherworldly. I couldn't free the officers by draining it. I could pull it and use it, but not actually drain it. Not sure what'll happen if I try it here. I could free us, or it's just as likely I'd collapse it in on us. Might be safest to left him rest for a bit and calm down," Channel says as she looks around with her energy sight. "The other ones have started to dissipate though. I suspect this one will too, but it's the strongest of them all. No idea how long it'll be until we're free if he doesn't have some way of shutting it down when he comes to".

A nod is given to Spider-Man. "Yeah. Central Park is one of my haunts," the teenager responds. Lots of people, heroes and mundane alike, spent a lot of time there. "I'm Channel, by the way". It was a good time for a greeting, as they might be here awhile. "Shame I left my deck of cards in my bag back home," she quips. "Far as I can tell is that we'll be fine. Just have to wait it out".

Standing to his feet, Shift looks around at Channel and Spider-Man. The irony of this whole situation isn't lost on him, and it shows in the way his exposed lips curl into a slanted smirk. "Did anybody bring marshmallows?" he asks, before canting his head toward Channel. "Sorry, Detroit. All I've got is de flask and cigarettes. You're getting -neithah-."

Following a brief moment of decision, the older X-Man reaches up to pull the mask free from his face, letting it flop down against his chest. He runs a hand over his bald head, as if brushing off dirt that wasn't there. Turning his head toward Spidey, he grins just a bit. "Name's Shift. Don't suppose you packed marshmallows in dere?" He nods toward the super-hero's ubiquitous costume. "Maybe some few beers? Sandwiches?"

"Spider-Man," is the response, before the webcrawler begins to pat himself down. His uniform leaves very little to the imagination. "Fresh out, sorry." He tilts his head at Shift, taking a renewed interest. "Wait, don't I know you from someplace?"

That's probably one of the most obvious introductions Channel has ever had, but an easy nod is given before she turns to Shift. "Not even offering the first drink to the lady? Some gentleman you are," the teen says with an obvious grin, or at least one that would be obvious if she took her mask off. She settles in for a moment, watching the two men talk about how they've apparently met. Channel, of course, recognized Spider-Man both from the news and from the throwdown a couple weeks back.

"SoHo," answers Shift. He casts a glance Channel's way. "Week ago, I think?" Back to Spider-Man he looks. "I helped take down de big guy. I'd have made an introduction, but, you had your hands full."

Not missing a beat, he snaps his eyes back toward Channel, while closing the distance between the other two. "When you turn 21, -I'll- be de one making sure you don't overdo it." He reaches out and play-punches the girl in the shoulder.

"She was dere, too," he mentions to Spider-Man, nodding his head toward Channel while reaching into one of his suit's pouches for the flask. The cap flips off, and he offers it to Spider-Man with a curious look. Does the 'Masked Menace' drink?

Spider-Man waves off the flask and apparently is grinning under the mask, "I never drink and sling." He thinks back to SoHo, trying to recollect everything. "Truth be told, I pretty much had my butt handed to me. Not gonna lie." He shrugs his shoulders, "Don't remember much. But, if we're all gonna die in here I guess we're dying with allies is a pretty good deal."

"Oh, you couldn't have missed me. I got hit by a dozen or so of Electro's blasts at point blank. Lit up the sky like it was the 4th of July," Channel comments. "But I got better". Huzzah for mutant healing abilities and magical healing potions! A grin is given to Shift. "Fine, fine. Suppose it's better you than some of the others," the woman adds with a shrug. She reaches into one of her pockets and pulls out a few protein bars. She flips one over towards Shift and one towards Spider-Man. "Not the best taste, but sure beats nothing. Got a few more if we're in here too long". At least someone packed some useful emergency rations and not a flask of alcohol!

So, at least some of Spider-Man's jokes are funny! Shift chuckles and throws back a snort before capping the flask and pocketing it. "Hey, it's happened to de best and worst of us," he remarks. He snatches the protein bar out of the air and looks pointedly at Channel. "I see you've learned some few things from my survival class. Points."

Spider-Man's remark brings about an interesting question. He looks around for a moment, frowning. "If dis thing is air-tight, we might have some few problems." He approaches the nearest shimmering wall, frowning in thought. "You said it was... 'otherworldly' enahgy?" he asks of Channel, before hesitantly extending his arm toward it. His hand de-materializes into smoke, and gently pushes into the shimmering energy. He immediately yanks it back, yelping, then peers at the smoke rising from his gloved fingers. "Damn!"

"Well, you look great for a gal who went all splodey. But if Electro hadn't gotten you, he'd have gotten the others. Sometimes the cats who can take a lot of punishment gotta take it for us little guys, know what I mean?" Spider-Man pauses as Shift begins to talk about a potential lack of air. "Duly noted: Keep jokes to a minimum." He holds his breath for a little bit.

"Thanks, and yeah. Some of the others call that 'tanking'. Some online game thing," Channel responds. Then Shift goes and gets himself burned and she winces. There's a reason Channel doesn't usually blast Shift when they've got those rare Danger Room sessions together. Energy attacks aren't nice to Shift. It didn't look too bad though, but if Shift asks, she will heal it for him.

"I might be able to try and make it...bigger," Channel says, looking it over and thinking at the same time. "Stretch the walls out and manipulate the energy that way. Wouldn't that make the bonds between the molocules weaker, and let it fall apart faster? Like a piece of bubble gum?" she asks, glancing between the two of them. She didn't know if Shift knew if that theory was sound, but if her other teammate and Spider-Clone had similar knowledge to the real Spider-Man, she figured maybe some of those scientific brains would have crossed over, and this one might have some scientific brains too.

"Maybe..." Shift muses. He steps closer to the wall, then simply blows at it. A big, huge puff of air, which doesn't seem to bounce back. "I -don't- think it's air-tight!" he announces. "Didn't bounce back at me like a wall." Stepping back, he peels open the protein bar while turning around toward the others. "I mean, dat would make sense, right?"

At Channel's question, he looks between her and Spider-Man. He was a pretty smart guy, but one area he'd not spent much time self-teaching was in the world of molecular science. Aside from understanding how his costume works, to some degree, he's blank on this one. Instead, he takes a bite from the protein bar and stands with a fist up against his hip, ignoring the burn for now.

"Yeah," Spidey says with a nod. "I mean, I'm not sure how your powers work, Channel. If you can manipulate the energy without adding to it, you might be able to pop it. But, if you to expand it you need to add energy, we might just risk making it more explosive. I vote giving it a try."

Shift nods his agreement with Spider-Man. "Sure, have a shot."

Well, it was worth a try. On one of the walls. Channel focuses her energy and takes hold of the energy on one of the walls. She has to draw it in first, but as they're in this other dimension, that shouldn't be a problem. She then just releases it as part of the wall as a series of controlled bursts, attempting to stretch the wall out and make it, effectively, thinner and bigger. She uses her energy sight to measure her progress, and with luck, the wall should get a little thinner and hopefully it'll break down a little bit more quickly, if this all works correctly! Of course, there could be complications.

And complications there are! The sphere stretches and shimmers, growing visibly weaker, but then, Arnold Katzman begins convulsing violently!

"Wait, stop!" cries Shift. He runs over to Arnold, crouches down beside him, and checks for a pulse again. "Heart rate accelerated. I think he's somehow -connected- to it."

Meanwhile, the sphere is slowly becoming surrounded by man-shaped figures, with the blocky telltale signs of caps upon their heads. While their features cannot be made out from inside the sphere, neither can their voices be heard.

"Police," breathes Shift, who looks on with worry. He looks at Spider-Man for a moment, then Channel. "When dis thing comes down, we -can't- leave him here. He doesn't undahstand what he did."

"Well, that at least tells us that the energy is connected to him in a synergistic sort of way." Spider-Man winces under his mask and looks over to Shift. "The police aren't big fans of the ole Spidey-Man if you catch my drift. I might have to make a quick exit if they pull their guns." He nods vigorously, "Yeah, he seems like this is all kind of out of his control."

Once the guy starts convulsing, Channel stops with her attempts and nods. "Yeah. The connection was too subtle for me to detect it before," the woman says. "But it is there". The woman looks at Shift. "I can take him. You can evade the police easily enough, and unless they're carrying a lot more heavy weaponry than usual, I can carry him and keep him safe," Channel responds. A look is given to Spider-Man. "They'll have their guns, I'm almost sure of it. Standard procedure in something like this is to have the guns out and pointed at the object in a defensive position. Given ours is the biggest and strongest, the others will have broken down before ours, so they'll know what to expect, though they won't know who is inside".

Now, there was a chance it would be SHIELD, but Channel didn't want to bank on that chance either. Plus they'd have far superior tools to deal with supers than the mundane police.

"Feeling's mutual, boss." Shift nods his head Spider-Man's way. He didn't have a good face with the police, either. By now, they probably even know his real name, which is why he wears the mask... and why he's always dressing up differently when wearing his civvies. One day, a hipster, one day, a ghetto thug, another day, a Wall Street fatcat.

"Well, as long as it's still -guns- dere using, I can distract dem. Just like Termintah 2." He holds up his hand and stands on one foot, doing his best (ahem, WORST) Schwarzenegger. "I sweah I will not kill anyone!"

Putting his foot down, Shift munches down the last of his protein bar. "Don't worry about me. Nevah had a problem with guns." Grinning, he turns his free arm into smoke. "Dey go right through me!"

The arm reforms, and he looks over toward Spider-Man pointedly. "So, what's your deal, anyway? X-Gene? Really bad series of sunspots? Injected by some mad scientist who -really- has a thing for arachnids?"

"Hey, thanks for the grub, Channel." Spidey pulls up the bottom of his mask and munches happily. "You know, this chick is pretty smart and a take the lead sort. She the leader of your duo?"

Spidey gets a wry grin on his face. "Close. Mutate. Radioactive Spider got me right in the neck. Straight out of a movie."

The mention of her being the leader actually gets a laugh out of Channel. "I'm about as far from being the leader as you can get," Channel says easily enough. "Shift and I are cut from similar cloth, but he's got more experience than I do. I just happen to be more gifted on the side of things like energy manipulation is all," the teen says easily. "And not a problem. Find it useful to keep some spares on me". She takes a bite of her protein bar as she waits for the field to come down.

"Oh. I should probably mention that I'm friends with Scarlet. At least I won't mistake the two of you, as your costumes are at least pretty different. He's got a different tailor". Though Channel figures that Spider-Man is smart enough to catch the meaning in the quip she makes.

Wincing, Shift reaches back to touch the back of his neck, feeling suddenly -decidedly- paranoid. "I bet -dat- stung," he empathizes. "We're mutants. X-Gene sort, apparently." That's right, Shift, play it down. "She's de brains of de duo, really," he admits. "Just a couple of kids from de hood who got smart and teamed up." A meaningful look is cast Channel's way. Might not be the time to tell Spider-Man about the X-Men just yet.

"Me, I can change into different forms of mattah. I'd show you liquid, but, really. De mud is hard to get out, so I'd rathah not."

"Scarlet?" Spider-Man shakes his head slowly, as if confused. "Like the lady from that movie?" He tilts his head as if trying to consider when Shift speaks. "Yeah, hurt pretty bad, but it worked out for me in the long run. His grin widens as Shift refers to Channel as the brains, "Well I wasn't gonna say anything, but she does seem pretty smart. Mutants? Cool man."

Ahh. So Spider-Man didn't know. Channel shakes her head. "My mistake, was someone else I was thinking of," Channel offers to the man. Maybe the place was doing odd things to her head? However, Channel wasn't going to tell Spider-Man that he's got a clone out there. "Yeah, the mud isn't a great look, Shift. Me, I'm all about energy. Seeing it and manipulating it. And healing," Channel offers to the Spider. "Speaking of, if you've got any injuries you need fixing up before we get out of here, I can patch you up," she offers to the man. "Free of charge, though you don't get the delicious hospital food and free gown".

"Yep," answers Shift. "All natural, evolutionary creatures here. No offense." When Channel offers to do some healing, Shift peels back the glove from his hand and holds it out to her. "Still stings a little."

The skin is red and charred. Bullheaded fellow, he is.

From the corner of his eye, Shift notices that some sound has started to come through the energy shell holding them hostage. With a wary eye, he looks around at the figures who have gathered. He stops counting at two dozen. "Looks like game time is coming," he quips. He reaches up with a free hand to pull the mask back over his face.

Spidey nods to Channel, "Seems like a pretty cool power set to me." He grins at Shift after throwing the last bit of bar into his maw. "None taken. I'm like the PED user of heroes. Man made in a lab, baby. Just call me Barry Bo--" Spidey too pulls his mask down and gets in a defensive position, low to the ground, in an impossible showing of flexibility.

With a sigh, Channel reaches out to put her hand on Shift's. It'll only take ten seconds or so for her to fix his hand up. That wasn't too difficult as she manipulates her own life energy and mingles it with Shift's own to heal him. "There you are. Good as new," the teen says to Shift. "Next time, ask me a bit sooner. You know I can do that," Channel points out with an easy shake of her head. She was used to this.

Then the statement about the bubble coming down is made, and the teen, who never removed her own mask, slips the rest of her protein bar in her pouch and goes to scoop up the man who got them all into this mess.

She glances at Shift briefly and considers snatching his flask. The man might need something to drink, after all, when he came to. Nah. She could always pick something up along the way. The girl then just hovers in the air, waiting for the bubble to come down so she could fly away quickly.

"Come on, Detroit," quips Shift. "You've seen me take worse!"

Always defending his stubbornness.

Shift dashes over to Arnold, taking a moment to check the tourniquet on his bullet wound. There's still a bit of bleeding, but he'll survive. When Channel takes him, Shift speaks briskly and with a sudden show of authority. "You remembah de D&P Warehouse in Brooklyn? Bring him dere. Grab de case marked '48' from de north supply shelf, use one of de pre-loaded syringes to keep him sedated. We don't want him to hurt himself or anyone else. I'll call Jean..." Then he turns to observe Spider-Man. "...and keep de cops distracted until you both get away."

Walking away to place himself in the middle of the circle, Shift takes a few steadying breaths and looks onward as the shimmering energy starts to trickle away. "Nice chattin' with you, Spidah-Man," he offers, before setting himself in a marked position, ready to run at the cops when that wall comes down.

"So, y'all got this covered then, right?" Spider-Man says to Channel and Shift a bit worriedly from his lowspot on the ground. No clue who Jean is. Between Jean, Scarlet, and Channel, this is like a red-haired extravaganza. Good thing Pete doesn't know. "Ditto, Shift. You and Channel take it easy breezy. We'll see you on the flip side."

"Yeah. I know I have," Channel responds with a roll of her eyes at Shift. Seriously, mutants were so stubborn about taking their injuries.

"I got it Shift," she says. "And yeah, we got this covered. Good meeting you properly," the woman says to Spider-Man as she waits for the walls to come tumbling down. Then she'd be flying away to the designated warehouse to follow Shift's commands.

"Yep," assures Shift to the Spider-Man. "Just, you know, get away, fast."

As soon as the cops become visible, Shift does his thing. Always the distraction. He screams at the top of his voice, and goes running straight at the cops!

"Freeze!"

Moments later, guns are being discharged, and all of them are firing at Shift. The bullets go right through him, but before he reaches the officers, he skids around and looks to see where Channel and Spider-Man have gone.

With a grin on his face, Shift says to the cops, "See you fellas at de coffee shop."

He leaps into the air, turns into a cloud of smoke, and disappears into the night sky.

"Baconbaconbaconbacon...ITS BACON!" Spider-Man says as he leaps into the air upon a lamp pole that lights a walkway. He catches it with his feet, and holds one hand between to brace himself. "Well, it's been swell. But I got a about a zillion spider-babies at home I need to get to bed. You'd never believe how many kids a Spider has to feed. It's reedic." THWIP! A line goes off towards a nearby building. Now you see Spidey, now you don't.

Channel will have taken off into the sky, and she was emitting enough infared energy that she'd drawn in to mask herself from any pesky cameras that wanted to get a shot of her or her traveling companion. She wasn't too concerned if the cops saw her or not. They couldn't make her and tie her to any known hero, not in this costume and not with the little bit of power she'd displayed. Flight, as a power, was reasonably common. And she'd just make her way to the warehouse, sedate the guy, and then return to base.