12408/Terrible Thing That Happened to Your Outfit

Terrible Thing That Happened to Your Outfit
Date of Scene:	12 August 2022
Location:	Hell's Kitchen
Synopsis:	Angelo and Jessica run into the dangerous Skein! It almost leads to being skin off their bones!
Cast of Characters:	Natasha Romanoff, Achilles, Jessica Drew

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Natasha Romanoff has posed:
It's a rather icky day over in Hell's Kitchen. Hot, muggy, steaming. The air seems almost oppressive and everyone outside for even a few minutes is bathed over in sweat. The area is exhausting to be about in. Everyone who can is spending as much time as possible around air conditioning and something cool. Some children are playing over in the street as water sprays from some fire hydrants.

Achilles has posed:
    Muggy. These people have no idea what muggy is like. Growing up on the Mediterranean Coast was all about muggy. Angelo lives in Brooklyn these days, but he ranges all over the city when the need arises.

    Today, he was checking in with a local police Captain he'd met when he was doing some work with a NYPD detective. He made an ... 'impression' on the Captain, and today was post-office beers at Luke's. Stepping out of the bar, Angelo shook hands with Captain Dickins, and the two of them are parting ways... each turning in opposite directions.

Jessica Drew has posed:
    Apartment hunting in the heat is grueling, no matter the kind of metabolism you possess. Hell's Kitchen is only a mile from the agent's Chelsea apartment and still relatively affordable, if you consider anything in New York affordable. This is not Ohio where you can buy a McMansion for the price of a NYC one bedroom.

    The agent showing her places and Jess have had enough for the day and part ways on the street near Al's corner store. Ice and cold drinks is plastered on the front window and that is enough to draw the agent into the store.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
As things go along the street, there's a sudden sense of.. Weight. In a metaphorical way. The veteran Greek warrior would not have an issue with it (wussy New Yorkers). What happens first is that up ahead Jessica would see someone running desperately. It's a fellow agent going as fast as they can. Cuffed to one wrist was a briefcase latched over on a manacle.

Achilles has posed:
    Weight. What weight? Angelo pulls out his phone and checks his text messages while walking down the sidewalk. The running movement catches his eye, and his phone lowers. I mean, running at top sprinting speed draws attention on the New York sidewalks.

    Sure, he sees it a bit later than Jessica. And he just stands there staring as his brain tries to make sense of it all.

Jessica Drew has posed:
This is an official day off, they exist. Jess is not constantly on-call the way some professions are. In the split second before she makes a decision to intervene; she selfishly realizes this is not going to be a relaxing day looking at apartments albeit a hot one; she recognizes the face of the running man from the corridors of SHIELD, and, she uses her super hearing to listen for the distant wail of sirens.

     A last minute decision this morning had put Jess in green chinos and an orange tank top, she knows better than to wear sandals in the heat in NYC, even a spider mutant can get blisters. So, instead, comfy high tops with cushioned support.

    "Randal!" she calls, and breaks into a run past him, toward who ever is on his tail. From the corner of her eye, just as she gets into gear, she sees Angelo and barely has time to raise a hand before she is past him.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
The Agent sees Jessica and goes to yell over at her, "Please, help!" Moving to rapidly try and turn to head towards her. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be quite capable of turning on a dime. The result would be twisting his ankle as it would snap like a twig in ways that Achilles might find rather familiar. The Agent hits the ground, briefcase, heavy and metal clattering next to him with a *CLANG* as it would clatter.
    What would follow him would be a woman that was wearing an outfit that seemingly -flowed- with her, like some sort of magic. Exotic by her look, seemingly asian, outfit of the 'somehow monomolecularly attached to her' style.
    The woman would floata long, ankles a half inch off the ground, "Randal, was it? What did I say about screaming? It's not nice. I asked you for something simple and you ran." She would twist her hand up in the air..
    Randal's outfit was a standard 'civilian' SHIELD jumpsuit for agents going out in public not in full uniform. Casual business attire. What would -happen- is that his clothes would shift, turning to like a porcupine's nest of spikes pressed in agaisnt all of his body.

Achilles has posed:
    "I bet that costume only stays on due to static cling." mutters Angelo as he cringes with the aftereffects of watching that ankle shatter. He shakes his head and starts to walk forward casually. He figures that body language and sudden moves get more attention... so he's just not doing that.

    He -does- hook his thumbs in the belt about his waist... the ICER holstered behind his right hip. His hand is close, but not drawing it yet. Randal is it? He looks to the agent and is hoping that he can help before the guy gets himself hurt worse.

Jessica Drew has posed:
Spider reflexes stop Jessica on a dime, she pivots in place laying down rubber on the burning sidewalk. Randal screams, the high piercing scream of someone porcupined from head to toe. People gawk and someone holds up a phone to record the incident.

Stopping the scantily clad woman is paramount. Two silver filaments twip toward her, both low, wrapping around her ankles. Like a wrangler stopping a calf in a rodeo ring, Jess braces herself and pulls her arms back.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
What's happening to Randal is that he's having several hundred barbs picking into his skin all over his body, and each little twist and spasm has them dig in all the more. Hundreds of spikes thrusting in, retracting, spiking again.
    Jessica is able to rush over to grab the woman, whom would grunt, "Who are you, some good Samaritan?" She would tense up, then smirk, "/Was/ one." Right as Jessica's outfit would start to constrict around her, turning to if not sotpped like bars of iron trying tos trangle her as her choker would turn to a garotte!

Achilles has posed:
    *CHUFF* comes the sound of a suppressed ICER firing. When Jessica conveniently provided a distraction by making herself a target, Angelo did a smooth move that ended with him on one knee, sidearm aimed with extended barrel suppressor emitting a dendrotoxin laced round. Then a second and a third. He doesn't take chances when he can -see- powers in use.

    "Get Randa to cover." he says calmly as he keeps the weapon aimed just in case.

Jessica Drew has posed:
    The days of being robbed in the subway or on the street are long past in most of New York City. So, wearing a gold chain, modest but of good quality is no longer an invitation to being mugged. Jess likes the glint of gold against her lightly suntanned skin.

    The small vanity of wearing gold against her skin is nearly the end for her when it becomes a garotte that bites hard into her neck. She gasps, reflexively taking a deep breath. The chain is too tight for her to wedge her fingers behind and is already slicing into the tender skin.

    She turns at the familiar chuff of ICER fire and falls to her knees, struggling for breath, one hand raised in Angelo's direction.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
The sudden twist of Jessica's attention in the direction of Angelo gives just a hairs breadth of warning over to the attacker. Her outfit snaps off, and reforms over to a thicker material, weaving in and on itself to transmute itself to a small block of ceramics as the darts would fire, them ricocheting off the improvised armor. What it does however is forces her 'grip' to release Jessica, giving the Spider-Woman a moment to catch her breath!

Achilles has posed:
    Smirking as the specialized bullet/dart shots slam into the improvised armor, Angelo quite literally drops the handgun. It clatters to the sidewalk as a bow appears in his hand. Interesting side note... armor designed to stop soft projectiles like bullets... almost -never- have the ability to stop sharp things like knives, swords... or arrows.

    And so, like some Saturday morning cartoon.. when he reaches for the bowstring, it appears along with an arrow. So a sharp celestial bronze arrowhead comes racing in at high speed towards the villain even as Angelo's green eyes flicker to Jessica. When he sees that she has been released, he keeps firing. If he can keep this idjut on the defensive, then maybe they stand a chance.

Jessica Drew has posed:
    Despite her immunity to pain, pinpricks of darkness dance before Jess's eyes and her heart hammers in a vain attempt to pump blood to her brain.

    -Release-

    With a retching cough, air surges back into her lungs and she slips her fingers behind the now deadly chain.

    It breaks and slithers to the ground. Faster than the eye, Jess arrests the fall and stuffs it into her pocket. From a kneeling position, the mutant agent lifts both hands. Bio-electricity, her "venom" blast, flares in lurid green and bathes the woman in neon green.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
The woman attacking the group is focused mostly on her target. The few seconds that she had gone to focus on defense had given Jessica time to put out a massive jolt of bio-electricity, which sends her staggering! On Randal's outfit, the spikes all suddenly flatten, and he no longer seems like a man who hugged it out wiht Pinhead. Skein goes staggering backwards from the energy blast, stars in her eyes as the arrows would shoot forth! She goes to scramble for cover, whipping a hand out to yank two passerby.. Their clothes would knot around them like whip-braids as she would move to sling them around in front o fher like shields!

Achilles has posed:
    And the arrows don't stop. However, Angelo -does- rise to his feet, and move at a walk. Two steps, arrow shot. Two more steps, another arrow shot. The most reliable way to save the bystanders is to put down the person harming them. Angelo does not ascribe to the theory that if the bad guy takes hostages, then you need to give up and let that target have the control. Taking away all control is the -only- way to do things. If the bad guy kills people, that's on them, not on him.

    So he's closing as he keeps shooting. But he does his best to make eye contact with Jessica between shots, and using his eyes and head to gesture, he suggests... up and over. Rooftop flanking maneuver.

Jessica Drew has posed:
    In a fluid movement, Jessica stands, and gives Angelo a high sign. Then, she kicks off her Chucks and springs to the wall of the building behind the craven woman, holding innocents before her as a shield.

     Upside down, she crouches with ease on the vertical above a shoe repair shop sign, her black hair flowing forward around her face as she showers the criminal with another venom blast. It licks her back, englobing her head in a glowing haze.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Skein is fast by normal person standards. She's alert, in shape.. But she's having to split her attention between two -very- fast, agile, and -experienced- fighters. She's focused over on Angelo, unable to keep her human shields up fast enough to take the arrows, and she's having to scramble away and drop them to evade.
    This sets up Jessica right over behind her as the venom blast hits Skein and she drops to the ground, twitching and barely conscious as her body would erupt with the bio-electric energy jolts.

Achilles has posed:
    Indeed, the human shields are not what they are attempted to be used as. Angelo moves and aims over one, to the left of another. He's good at placing shots where he wants. He's no Hawkeye, but he sure doesn't suck.

    When Jessica puts the woman down, he moves in and dismisses his weapons before drawing out a set of zip ties. "Nicely done." he says to Jessica as he restrains the woman. "Let's call for a pickup, and see if Randal is okay."

Jessica Drew has posed:
    A crowd is gathering and cell phones bloom over them like flowers bobbing over a summer meadow. Rather than crawl, Jess takes the fast route down and flips feet first to the ground, landing in a crouch, one hand to the sidewalk.

    "Nicely done," she echoes with a lift of her chin and a brief, bright smile to Angelo.

     Assuring herself that she is indeed unconscious and no longer a danger, Jess reaches down to check her pulse, while Angelo efficiently zip ties the woman's hands. She collects her shoes.

     Police sirens wail to a stop at the curb. The two human shields, both badly shaken and in bewildered tears, are helped by people in the crowd.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Skein is down and unconscious. The restraints should hopefully slow her should she wake for a moment for the two to zot her again a few times. Randal is in a rough state from those numerous piercings that went through him. He's been nearly carved up. But he did what he was expected to do; keep his cargo safe.
    Medical attention arrives promptly, as does pickup for Skein.. And whatever the contents of the briefcase were that the agent nearly gave his life to protect.
    Jessica still has time to get back to looking for places to stay!

Achilles has posed:
    "So. Those shoes comfortable?" asks Angelo as he notices Jessica retrieving them. He smirks a bit and shrugs, "I'm just glad that she didn't decide to give my pants the shrinkage treatment. Yikes... I never wanted to sing like Frankie Vallie." he adds as he shakes his head.