| Bedlam Boys | |||||
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| What: Heroes take on some creepy images from the past with a touch of madness thrown in. | |||||
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It is night in the lower half of the island. In Chinatown, the community is alive and vibrant. The scent of sesame oil is in the warm air that rushes out of the various restaurants as the doors open and close. Fresh market vendors are still out even as the sun is setting, and the displays are full of the common and exotic as far as produce goes. The streets are starting to thin out of people as folks are either heading home or out to dinner. The sun has set and the street lights are dim mixing with the reddish glow from Chinese lamps hanging in display windows.
Chinatown was not always Chinatown, however. This used to be a section in town known as Five Points and was packed with immigrant workers from all over the world coming to the shiny new city. It was an area of violence, gangs, hard liquor, ladies of the night, gambling, and just about any other kind of vice one could look for. The jails were packed and the cops could be brutal. There was also a mental hospital in the area that wss not really known for its good and fair treatment, but rather straps and straight jackets. Perhaps not all of those spirits of the past are resting easy these nights.
There have been murders happening in the Chinatown area for the past couple weeks. All the victims have died of knife wounds, and brutal attacks at that. They seem to be in the quieter alley ways of Chinatown. The police have had little to go on. The only thing that seems to be a clue is that often a young man is scene in the area. Sometimes he is carrying a large butcher's knife; sometimes not. He is often reported surrounded by....well, the reports differ. They say young children, etheral ghosts, fairies, or demons.
Captain America is down in Chinatown tonight. He is up on a fire escape at the moment where he can see the main strip and into a few alleys. He has been patrolling, switching positions along the area every thirty minutes or so. Even the red, white, and blue can be hidden by the shadows or the alleyways at night.
Keith, a.k.a. Vorpal, is here tonight to look into the murders as well. He had talked to Patrick about it, and he had decided that he would work the street level using his powers of illusion to present an idoneous victim, while his fiance in Iron Spider guise could follow from the rooftops, invisible, if he so desired.
The cat was presently walking dangerously close to dark alleyways and the shadier side of the sidewalk. Instead of a purple cat, however, everyone saw a young woman just barely out of her teens. She walks with her arms huddled close to her body, and her steps are cautious. She seems visibly unnerved, but her build is rather frail, not the kind of person who would be able to put up much of a fight.
And that's exactly how Keith wanted to present himself to lure the killer. Or killers. Bobby Drake hasn't heard of any murders. No, he just recently left the X-mansion and has struck out on his own in the city tonight. He had a date at a restaraunt in the area but that ended with him getting a drink thrown in his face when his date realized he was a mutant. So he's not in the best of moods as he walks along tonight. Hands in his pockets, he's strolling back towards a subway so he can head to where he's staying and hoping tonight isn't how his whole time away from the mansion will go.
Chinatown is an interesting place. Lunair likes it there. People don't run away from her, and no one really seems to mind if she's odd. Not even wearing the odd, nearly gothic lolita outfit she's trundling along in. She even has a parasol over her shoulder. Yup, just an odd tourist. Yes siree. If she were any odder, a mathematician might call her irrational. It's a bummer the place she buys her tea from seems to be closed today, but the murders have caught her attention. She /likes/ a good deal of the people here and things that ruin things she like /should be dealt with/. Her face gives her away as someone with whom something is terribly amiss (aside from her fashion sense). She looks distant, gazing over a battlefield somewhere long lost. Hmm. Alleyways...
She lets herself drift near the entrances of the alleyways, peering into them. Her path unwittingly takes her near Keith and Bobby, staring blankly down another alleyway, as if maybe it held an answer she just has to wait patiently for.
"How'd you get past the guard?" the voice says from out in front of a street vendor serving authentic egg rolls. "Well," the voice answers, "to tell you the truth I lied a little."
Peter's quotes come from a movie made long before he was born and about a different Chinatown entirely. He doesn't seem to care as he slides his backpack up farther upon his shoulder and makes his way down the streets, munching upon an eggroll. To the rumors he's been a little less than oblivious, but not completely involved. He honestly doesn't give it a second thought as he makes his way down the sidewalk.
Sue Storm is in Chinatown for the tea also, and like Lunair she's a bit bummed that the place is closed. However, unlike the oddly dressed young lady, she has NOT been keeping up with current events and is completely unaware of what's been going on. Shame on her. She turns away from the closed tea shop's door and instead of just going invisible and floating away on her force fields, she opts to walk for a bit. Maybe she can find another tea shop still open.
Patrick, known also as the Iron-Spider, was more than happy to help Vorpal when they spoke together of the murders in China town, especially since he had heard about them himself already from a few contacts he had made in the area. While making sure that Vorpal and him had a plan he even gave the feline man a list of things to shop for, and told him of a few stalls to use his name at, for the sake of keeping up the undercover image...that and replenishing the ginseng and white Shimeji that they were out of.
Invisible the Iron-Spider bounces along the rooftops and fire escapes following the young woman that Vorpal is presenting himself as. He keeps the equipment built into his suit scanning, listening in on conversations as he passes them picking up police band radio, reading body temperatures and running random faces through facial recognition software and more just to see if anything gets a ping.
Near where Vorpal is walking, several small children suddenly appear. They could have come from around a corner, but it would be hard to pinpoint where they had come from. They laugh and chase each other along the sidewalk seeming to effortlessly miss the few pedestrians that are walking on the streets. One marks them as truely different is that they are not Chinese. They are not Asian at all, but rather blond children. Their hair is long and their outfits are dirty with what could be coal dust. It is hard to tell if they are boys are girls, but most likely a mix. They are also barefoot, but seem to have no trouble with the sidewalk of the city. They are running towards Keith, Bobby, Lunair, and Sue now.
"Come see! Come see!" they call in high pitched childish voices. "It is almost dinner time!" One moves near the woman that Vorpal appears to be. "Oh, please. You must come to dinner." The little girl waves for Vorpal to follow her. "Don't look so scared. This is the best time of day."
Cap shifts in his watch position and notices the kids. It is the first odd thing he has really seen tonight, but overall it doesn't strike him as that strange. Still, he straightens up and checks the straps on his shoulders to keep his shield on his back for now.
"What are you doing out.... without your parents?" Vorpal's voice comes through. The illusion works in all dimensions except the tactile one, so he sounds like a young woman, and to finer noses her scent definitely identifies her as such. He frowns and starts following the children, out of a sense of curiosity and worry. What were these children doing out in the open like this, at night? And why were their clothes stained with coal? This was a puzzle, and the cat had learned never to discard potential pieces right away.
Besides, he knew Patrick was keeping an eye on him. So he follows.
Bobby might ping as odd to scanners considering that he's considerably colder than normal people. He doesn't pay the kids much mind until he hears them. Frowning slightly, he arches both brows. "It's it a bit late for you kids to be out? And I just had dinner..." he trails off, looking around for any signs of parents. Or hidden cameras for some prank show.
Her parasol keeps her shaded! Is nice. Lunair pauses. There's a blink at the young lady and the kids. That's a gaggle of children alright. She pauses in her steps. Wait. Those don't look like the regular kids she might offer a rice or moon cake to (mmm, mooncakes) in passing while they tell her about who they beat up in a video game. Did she get past that level? She just sort of blinks again. Hmm. Her distant expression shifts a little. Who are they inviting to dinner? Kids don't normally ask strangers to dinner. She seems uncertain as they run towards her and the others. She glances over her shoulder. Wait. That's - is that Sue? Information is making her hesitate a little. Wave politely. Then - see if Sue notices the kids, too. Lunair is a perfectly normal metahuman, and seems pretty usual. "Um. Are you allowed out after sunset? But dinner sounds nice." She'll go with it. Even if she might get punk'd or something when they douse her with water balloons.
A street or two down, Peter is continuing his walk. After plopping the rest of the egg roll into his mouth, he decides he needs to wash it down. Thai iced tea sounds great, and all, but he's not sure where to get it. Instead, he decides to just get a cola from a convenience store.
He pays for it promptly, thanking his luck he had enough wadded up cash left in his pocket. Instead of heading out the front way, Peter ducks out the back and into an alleyway that is more of a direct shot toward the subway that will take him back to Queens.
Sue Storm does indeed notice the children, as well as the strangely nervous young lady they're addressing, and the Kaylee-esque woman who turned to look at her. Yeah. She's picked up on the weird, and with a nod to Lunair she starts walking more briskly to find out what it means.
Random packs of small children running through the streets in China Town is not too strange a thing, even though most of them avoid Iron-Spider when in his civilian ID after he caught one and held him upside down by his ankle while trying to pick his pockets. The fact that the kids are all blonds though, that is odd. Given Vorpal's tendency to be a magnet for the weird Iron-Spider can't be sure that they have anything to do with what they are investigating but, one mystery is as good as another so long as no one dies.
There is a slight vibration on a fire escape just below Captain America, as if someone as agile and light on his feet as Cap had landed there and was hanging off of it. No one there is visible though, except for maybe a small distortion in the shape of a person watching the young woman being lead off by children.
The presence of a number of metahumans, including at least one that was known to Iron-Spider and friendly to him, that are noticed by the scanners get noted and set up with the systems to keep an eye on them just in case.
The little kids continue to dart in and out of people as they had back towards where they had come from. One or two are in front while others now begin to run further into the crowd near Lunair and then Sue. All the while, they begin to sing. There are no words, but simply "La la la," over and over again in a whimsical melody. One little girl, the youngest by the look of her, comes over towards Peter and just stands there watching him. "Whatcha doin'?" she asks sounding like she has lost a tooth or two. "Come to dinner." She waves Peter to follow and then is scampering away again. One thing that is odd, that someone may notice, is that not one of the children has actually touched anyone or anything. They seem to be able to weave back and forth quickly, and merely ask folks and talk; not pull or drag. The ones in front seem to be heading for an alley two blocks up away from the main business. The street lights near that alley are broken and the shadows are darker there.
Cap perks up as his intuition and the vibration tell him someone or something is near by. He pauses for a moment to look around, but he doesn't want to lose sight of what is going on at the moment. He leaps out of the fire escape, catches the bottom of the last landing to slow his descent, and then drops to the ground quietly. He moves to stay close to the wall as he eases forward towards the street.
He certainly felt like Alice being lured towards the rabbit hole. Vorpal kept moving towards where he was being guided in his disguise, playing the innocent all the way through. "Wait, where are we going?"
Oh boy, the shadows. Yeah, anyone with a survival instinct higher than a ferret's would probably be wary about that, little kids or not. But he was determined to find out what these kids were doing "Alright, alright, I'm coming, I'm coming..."
Bobby just frowns as the kids run off. When he sees there's more and other people following them including Sue Storm, Bobby makes a face. "Oh what the hell?" he mutters, starting to follow as well. If there's trouble, he can lend a hand.
Huh. Lunair blinks at them. She tilts her head. She just doesn't seem to know what to make of the kids. She shrugs, keeping her parasol hefted over her shoulder. Sure, why not. Your sense of survival tends to go out the window when you do what Lunair does. Odd, though. Don't little kids tug at your leg when they want things? She saw it on TV once. Maybe they're just really polite. Whatever the case may be, she frowns at the busted street lights. It's good cause for concern. She nods to Sue and resumes following.
"Sorry kid, already ate." Peter gives the young child an odd look and makes in the other direction. But just then, he see something out of the corner of his eye.
Is that Captain America?
The good captain is very rarely doing the sneaky. If so, trouble is definitely afoot. And if trouble is definitely afoot, it's time to get changed. Peter ducks back into the door and scans quick to make sure he's not on camera in any way before entering the bathroom. Gosh, they need to clean this place.
When he slips out, he does so along the ceiling and in far different garb.
Sue Storm catches up to Lunair in far fewer steps than should be considered reasonable, and her glance toward the parasol-toting woman are clear. She smells fish. And, without skating on her force field any more, she starts walking a little faster. It's increasingly worrisome.
Iron-Spider hmms, and ducks to the side as Captain America drops just to make sure his position is not given away by taking a super soldier to the middle of his back. That would be embarrassing to all concerned, and Vorpal would never let him live it down if it happened.
Iron-Spider watches the people being lead along, and Cap following them, for a second before taking a flying leap to the building on the other side of the alley way and bouncing back and forth along the walls keeping at just the right place in the middle where he can keep tabs on everyone.
The fact that Iron-Spider can see the kids, but his suit's sensor equipment cannot has him just a little on edge. He is really starting to wish he had some way to communicate with Vorpal easily, maybe as soon as they can find a moment he can get the cat to ask Dr. Richards about designing some kind of ear piece for him so he can relay that kind of information.
As the kids leave the streetlights and lead people along, the area around everyone seems to subtly change. The streets are still there. Buildings are still there, but they are different. The smells are different. Less sesame. More stale beer in the street and bad sewage. A light mist hovers over the ground, not really obscuring anyone's sight, but just there. The kids duck into an alley. As they do, a man steps out of alley. He is about average height maybe a hair shorter. He is dressed in a hospital gown, but an old looking one at that. His hair is buzzed short to his head so no idea what color it is. He is white, but gaunt and coal dust is all over him too. He does have a pair of jeans, which actually look modern albeit too big and ripped now. It is his eyes however. They gleam with a madness almost as big as the massive chefs knife that is in his hand. "Children," he says with a laughing glee, "you have brought me giants. Well done." He swings the blade back and forth for a moment before launching himself towards the woman that Vorpal is pretending to be with a maniacal laugh.
Captain America hurries along and is towards the back of the group, but is there as the city changes around him. He blinks for a second as perhaps the city appears, while still different, perhaps a little less different than it might to some others. "What is..." then he hears the laughter and rushes forward, but is too far back to help Vorpal yet.
" You are wrong, man. You're no longer the predator here. There's a new cat in town. "
The woman melts away as if she were nothing but a dream, and in her stead is a very muscular purple cat-man dressed in a bodysuit. Which makes him either a superhero or a very disoriented and misplaced surfer. It becomes clear, though, when the cat flows into the Tiger stance and a glowing, purple bo staff materializes in his hands. Vorpal attempts to thrust the end of the staff at his attacker's solar plexus to keep him out of the knife's distance, as well as to push him back.
" There will be no more unbirthdays for you! "
You paged Iron-Spider with 'And the new "City Scape" is also not really showing up on scanners.'
Hanging towards the back of the little group, Bobby looks around at the assembled people. So far he only sees one that can protect herself...until he sees Cap. The mutant's eyes go wide and he has to squish a little bit of internal fanboyism that revives from his teenage years. He concentrates on the matter at hand when the man in the gown appears. Eyes land on the knife and the temperature in the area starts to drop. He grits his teeth and starts to move to try to help the fake lady but then Vorpal appears and Bobby almost trips. He recognizes that cat. "Okay, this is just getting weird."
Blink. There's a sue! Her eyes widen a bit and she nods. She seems to think so, too. ... this just got kind of odd. Lunair's mercenary senses are tingling (or those might be survival instincts she's long since ignored). She glances around. Sniff. Hmm. She pauses at the mists. Those - were those there before? She blinks. Huh. Lunair moves a little faster, then - there's a guy. In a hospital gown. Lunair doesn't like hospital gowns. Oh no. One eye's a little more wide than the other. She's fighting back a sick, sinking feeling of fear and phobia mingling with an old hatred. She does however, notice something rushing for Vorpal. Wait. A purple - what now. Was this a Dr. Suess she read once? She doesn't remember much about /then/, nor does she care to, but she's pretty sure there was a lot less knives and horror than this.
But she should help the purple cat. Still, it's gonna be tough with the fellow in close range. She's also loathe to out herself, but the man did say /giants/ plural and Lunair is still twitching a little from that hospital gown. Seeming to reach over her shoulder, and setting her parasol against the side of the building, she pulls a naginata from seemingly nowhere over her shoulder. Better temporarily outed than dead, right? Now she has a bonk end and a pointy end!
"No wait!" exclaims Spider-Man. "I've seen this one! At the end, Leonardo DiCraprio wins. I love this one." Spider-Man looks around. "I guess we should get to fighting, eh?" He shrugs from his perch on a nearby wall and swings across, looking for a place to attack.
Sue Storm moves more quickly right along with Lunair, though a look of 'What?' is tossed Peter-ward. That almost sounded like Ben. Nah, couldn't be. Then the SMELLS hit her. UGH. She almost immediately is an extra four inches off of the ground, and upon seeing the knife-wielding man going after Keith ghost-zooms toward them using her force fields. Anyone who's not seen her do that before might be kinda creeped out, because her hair doesn't even move. She stops behind and above the purple felinoid, ready to put a force field between him and CrazyKnifeMan the instant it looks necessary.
Iron-Spider does not like the change in the area around him as he clings to the sides of a building. It is an unknown and one that could lead to any number of highly dangerous variables. He would pull back and observe, comparing what he sees and what his suit sees, as is fitting to his training before intervening except for one little detail, Vorpal. The cat man can take care of himself, but whats the point in being backup if he does not act as such.
Even as the young woman starts to change and becomes the purple feline of justice known as Vorpal there is a faint but unmistakable sound for those that have heard it before. *Thwip* From somewhere up high a sudden line of webbing shoots out of nowhere aimed for the armed man's butcher knife in hopes of hitting it and trying to yank it out of his grip.
"you shouldn't play with knives." A slightly distorted voice rings out from above as the air shimmers a second and the Crimson clad hero known as the Iron-Spider shimmers into existence clinging to the side of a building using his feet and two of the four spider like robot arms extending from his back.
The bo staff of Vorpal hits square in the chest of the man, but just passes through as if he wasn't there. There is a cackling laugh as the knife swings in a parry to strike the staff. It just clangs when it is caught by the web. The knife appears real enough as it is yanked from the man's hand and clatters against the...cobblestone? street. He hisses in anger and his eyes grow wide so that the white is clearly seen all around the iris. As if on command, the little children reappear. The singing begins to become laughter. Child like and happy at first, but quickly taking on a hint of madness too. Their eyes disappear into dark spots on their faces. The color drains and their legs just sort of flow together and trail off. They begin to pulse with wild colors and are suddenly zipping around. Colors zoom at Sue behind Vorpal and towards Iron Spider. A few more circle around a broken street light as if trying to decide which of the other heroes to attack next.
The Crazed man simply side steps and allows Vorpal's staff to drift out of him as he makes a move to reclaim his knife.
Captain America is coming up behind Sue Storm and Vorpal, but even he is caught flat footed and amazed as the children begin to change. One color zooms by Cap on its way towards Sue and he cries out. Where it had touched him, it looks like something had tried to take a bite out of his arm and costume.
Vorpal takes several steps back, eyes growing wide at the clearly supernatural nature of this manifestation. Colors swirl towards Sue and Patrick... and...
Whoa, is that Captain America?
"...I don't know who do you think you are... but you are not killing anyone tonight, beast!"
The Cheshire cat summons an enormous anvil, purple and glowing as his own Bo staff disappears, and drops it down towards the knife, hoping he can trap the knife where this... apparition can't use it.
"Miss Storm! Spider, watch out, get out of the way of those lights!"
"Okay, time to get to work," Bobby yelps when he sees all the action happening. He takes a breath and armors up in his icy armor. "Iceman on the scene," he declares, letting loose a blast of ice and snow at some of weird colors to see what happens.
Huh. That's different. Lunair seems relieved as the man doesn't attack. But then, it's Captain freaking America near Sue and Lunair's eyes widen a bit, as it seems he's gotten a bit taken out of him. Okay, definitely not something to mess with if these things take a bite out of /him/. She stares blankly at the children and this mandess. The man in the hospital gown still makes her sick to her stomach. The colors zooming around definitely have her attention. Hmm. Dismiss naginata. Get a LIGHT SABER! Color beats color right? In this case, it's purple, but that's just because if it's good enough for Mace Windu, it's good enough for her. Or she just didn't think about it. For now then, she'll take an experimental swing at a color (not too near someone, mind). Eat light saber. "Oh," And there's an Iceman too!
It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt and as Cap takes one in the arm, Spider-Man becomes very concerned. He takes up a defensive position on the ground, splaying his legs out and bracing himself by a hand. "Uhm. Guys? I always thought ghosts weren't real."
Sue Storm is rather concerned by the crazy man's apparent intangibility, but when the children become colorful streaks of weirdness and bite-marks she is honestly a bit freaked out. Floating quickly sideways so she can see Captain America more easily, she watches the color-blurs and tries to catch one in a force field before it can reach the Star-Spangled Chew Toy.
Iron-Spider's feet and mechanical spider legs come loose from the wall letting him drop several feet before sliding back to catch himself again in order to avoid being hit by the first of the children to come after him. "Vorpal, have I said how much I dislike magic since we fought Baron Samedi?"
The Iron-Spider does a quick flip from one side of the alley way to the other aiming his wrist at the dropped knife before the anvil drops. Well, with that there he does not need to try and web the weapon to the ground now does he?
The normally serious member of the Spider family can't help but try at least a small quip in the one, the only, the Original Spider-Man's direction. "It's only the friendly ones that are not real, lucky for us this is more of a poltergeist."
The anvil crashes down on top of the knife and Tom Bedlam slams into the anvil. He curses as he cannot seem to break through it. His eyes grow wilder, and he snarls and snaps with his teeth. Suddenly, he drops down into the earth and cannot be seen for the time being.
Streaks of color fly and dart around. The spot where Iron Spider had been becomes shattered masonry with chunks of brick falling to the sidewalk. One color is suddenly stopped in midair and falls to the ground; a victim of Iceman's blast. A closer inspection will reveal a small figure with wings and wicked teeth as the illusion of the phantom child dissolves away. Likewise, as Lunair strikes with the light saber there is a high pitched hiss as a fae goes spinning like a Spitfire with a wing struck. Sue is able to catch the one that is near Cap and it looks like a rabid hamster in a bubble as it seems to bounce around in nothing within the field. Still, there are more lights zipping this way and that and several go straight at Spider-Man who apparently doesn't believe in fairies. Not that his non belief will do much in this case. Tinkerbell, they ain't.
"Looks like you are right, Spider-Man," Captain America says as he looks at the frozen fae on the ground. He glances between Peter and the Iron Spider. "Err, Spider 1," he corrects. He kneels down next to the frozen figure not much bigger than a Barbie doll. "They are creating illusion."
" Illusions? Then let's return the favor!" Vorpal says, and suddenly goes invisible-- clearly unnerved by the Big Tooth Man Who Can Phase Through The Ground. He jumps up and beings to float, as an illusory copy of himself is left behind...
But that is not all. Suddenly, all the heroes find themselves replicated several times through illusion. Vorpal's illusions are a curious thing, too- each one is infused with part of his Will, so that to telepaths and other creatures the illusions themselves have psychic presence.
He keeps his night-seeing eyes peeled for the reappearance of the Bogeyman, though, and he keeps that anvil where it is, to keep the man's weapon in a safe place.
"Spidey! Tinkerbell at six o'clock!" Vorpal calls out through one of his illusions.
Iceman pumps a fist in the air when he sees his blast hit. "Chill out!" he quips at the frozen fae. "Yeah, no ghosts. Just Tinkerbell's rabid cousins," he adds for the Spiders. The sudden replication gets a blink and a laugh. "Hey, who've bringing all these handsome guys to the party has good taste," he comments, firing an icy beam to try and freeze another of the faeries.
Light saber works! Phew! Lunair blinks as the spot Iron Spider had been, with chunks of brick falling. And then faeries falling out of the skies. Weren't these things cuter before? Then again, she seems unfamiliar with the fair folk, who apparently not at all fair. Ahem. She makes sure the one she struck is /staying/ out of the fray. "This is just -" Surreal, horrifying and funny all at once. "..." Are those girls wearing the same dress as her? Aw, snaps. "... do I look that strange...?" She wonders to herself. Oh well, she's going to make sure to take a potshot at another fairy. Take /that/, pixie stick to be!
"Holy moly!" Spider-Man exclaims as the group of baddies heads towards him. Each wrist spits out a short stream of web as he's approached and before they get to him, Spider-Man pulls back and launches himself down by their legs and in between a pair of them. "Missed me, missed me...but you can keep your lips to yourself!"
Sue Storm stares in amazement at the tiny being she actually managed to catch, then keeping that soapbubble cage firmly in place she floats down to where she can speak with Captain America. "Did you ever put fireflies in a jar as a kid?" Hopefully, it's a reference the tall hero can understand but the poltergeist can't. "Maybe we can jar them all with the one I've already caught." Another force field pops into existence a bit away in an attempt to catch another of the fae zipping about.
Iron-Spider nods his head at Captain America. "Iron-Spider, and an honor to meet you in person at last." He says before moving as if he was going to do the drop again like he did before but instead bounding away from the wall and doing a flip before landing on the ground. Just in case any of the pixies had taken a second to learn from his first move to avoid them.
"The Super Soldier handbook was remarkably sparse on the subject of pixies. Anyone have intel on weaknesses, tactics, or a good suggestion on how to proceed?" He asks before letting out a pair of quick shots of web fluid in the direction of a pair of the glowing colors hoping to hit the little fae inside, or at least give him information enough to calibrate his targeting systems better. *Thwip* *Thwip*
There is the sound of metal scrapping coming from under the anvil. It is slow, but building speed. Suddenly, the handle of the knife is starting to appear from under the anvil. Fae contine to dart around like lights at a rave, but they are starting to get thinned out a bit. They get slammed into the ground by Spidey, and Iceman gets another couple. Another crashes into the unseen "jar" of Sue and looks dazed in its long brown jacket even as the jar closes. The fae do try to catch Iron Spider doing the same thing but just crash into the wall again. One gets too close to one of Iron Spider's tentecles and brushes it. Not enough that Iron Spider would even really notice probably, but suddenly the fae just bursts into flame with a high pitched shreak.
Captain America nods to Iron Spider. "Good to meet you, son." He turns to glance at Sue. "I grew up in Brooklyn, ma'am. Unfortunately, there were not a lot of fireflies running around in the streets, but I understand the concept." His head whips around as the fae explodes. "Your arms there, Iron Spider. You got something about them that is out of the ordinary?"
Vorpal suddenly appears above Captain America and Iron Spider, dropping his invisibility as he speaks. "Iron! Oh heavens, I am an idiot!... the faerie folk are supposed to be weak to iron. It kills them on impact!.... EVERYBODY, grab some iron...wherever you can find it!"
Easier said than done, in some instances. He drops to the ground next to Captain America "...Captain.. it's an honor... I'm Vorpal, this spidey's partner..."
Vorpal hasn't been paying attention. If he were, he would notice that the knife's edge is moving. Something he could have solved with another anvil. But right now, he's too distracted by his realization. "...we need some Iron, and fast... um... where do we find some ready sources of iron? I forgot my collection of medieval weapons in my other tights..."
"I'm Iceman, not Iron Man," Iceman calls to Vorpal, backing up towards the others so they don't have to yell to communicate. "I don't have any metal but putting tjem on ice looks like it's helping," he says, firing another beam.
There's a blink as she notices the fae burst into flames near Iron Spider's arms. Lunair seems surprised. "It is pretty awesome to - um, help." Hey, she hasn't pulled out a rocket launcher yet. This is comparatively non-violent as she goes. "It is an honor," She manages. Wait, iron. That makes sense. Didn't she hit some guy over the head with a wrought iron po-- ooohh. Yeah! She dismisses her light saber, taking a deep breath. And lo! An iron naginata. Lunair seems to favor longer weapons (she's not overcompensating, okay?). Alanis Morrisette, eat your heart out. There's enough iron here - wait. Ahem. She's just going to poke at a fairy. "Er... did you need an iron sword?" She asks, helpfully. She'll hand one over if asked.
"Hey guys, social hour is not till quitting time!" Spidey exclaims as he fires a web shot in an attempt to pin that pesky knife back down upon the ground. "I hear drinks are half price and appetizers are free if you get in at 5." Sue Storm brings her two remote force fields together, like melding two soap bubbles into one, and then hastily starts collecting all of the injured, flattened, frozen, and otherwise incapacitated by the various heroes with a force field to add to the 'jar' so they can't resume causing problems. "Wait, what?" as everyone focuses on the iron aspect, she mentally slaps herself. She should totally have known that. But, all of her focus is going into catching and containing the little fae, so she doesn't notice the knife coming back into play.
Iron-Spider stares at the spider waldoes that make up his extra arms. "Carbon nanofibers and most of the same light weight composites that make up Iron Man's arm...Iron!"
Despite the fact that the mask of his costume does not manage to convey emotions the same way some people can there is the slight hint that he might be giving the kind of grin that would be more at home on Vorpal's face. "Old superstition about magic and Iron. Quickly his mechanical legs strike out aimed at several of the passing swirls of light while Vorpal asks his question.
He does stop to tap the feline's shoulder and then point in the direction of the nearest fire escape. "Right up there."
After pointing the cat at the nearest amount of iron he knows about the Iron-Spider vanishes. With the suit's invisibility on he starts going up walls and trying to hit any fae he can without them noticing.
The fae are quickly getting dispatched either through Iron legs, iron naginata, and Pokemon imitations. Others are being frozen or slammed into each other like ten pins which makes it easy to collect them. As the fae begin to be collected and dealt with, the illusion of the city is beginning to fade around them. The smell of sewage and beer is disappearing. The mist seems to be burning off. The cobblestone is becoming tarmac once again. The lights and sounds of the city begin to rush back. There is one thing left, however. The knife pulls free from the anvil a second before the webbing strikes the ground. Tom Bedlam ascends up through the ground with a wild look on his face. He does not look in control of himself as he screams a lunitic's cry and his hospital gown snaps around him. He launches himself at the nearest person which happens to be Sue. "NO! NO! I must feed them! I can't....I can't stay....I must....." His form is becoming weak too although the knife is still very solid for some reason as it lashes and swings at the young woman.
Captain America yells, "Look out," as he tries to get his own shield off his back in time to block the blow coming at Sue Storm.
"SUE!" Vorpal yells almost at the same time as the Captain. He reaches forward and tries to summon a shield to stop Tom Bedlam-- but just as the anvnil disappears, one of the remaining fae flies right into his hand. He quickly snatches his hand back, blood coming out of the bite as he loses his concentration and the shield that would have appeared never manifests, "#$#@@!"
Apparntly his earlier quip gave Bobby an idea. After his last beam, he concentrates and his icy armor changes and shifts until he's wearing a frosty Iron Man Armor. He lifts his hands as if he's firing repulsors and instead lets loose with more ice and snow. Yelling for Sue gets Iceman's attention and he looks over. "Whoa!" he yelps, forming up an ice slide and trying to reach Sue so he can try to carry her to safety.
Dispatching fae, the violent way! ... that's just how Lunair rolls. Kind of violently, actually. And now she's rhyming. The horror! Her eyes widen, as the thing goes for Sue. Well, maybe she can take a swing at Tom himself from the side and knock him down. Swing up, bring the blade down on him, preferably /before/ he gets too close. Failing that, it's time for more amusingly violent towards pixies time.
Sue Storm gasps and recoils in surprise, the normally invisible force field that's always in place around her kicking up a notch and turning a translucent blue, like looking through a moonstone. Otherwise, she doesn't try to dodge the attack from the... what is that, a ghost?
The knife strikes the invisible shield and is deflected right into the rushing impact of Captain America's shield. As the knife strikes the alloy, it shatters. Even as that happens, Tom Bedlam seems to lose his anchor on society. With a hidious scream, he is rapidly becomes nothing but a cold spot of air which quickly disappates. The world is back where it should be albeit with one big invisible hamster ball of webbed, frozen, and dazed fae. Bits of ash float on the wind from the dispatching of the little folk, but other wise no one around them is any the wiser of what has happened.
The cat shudders and grabs at his hand, checking to see how deep the injury was. "... Captain, correct me if I'm wrong, but we jut got attacked by fairies and a murderous ghost... Sue, are you alright???"