15805/Elephants and Rhinos, Oh My!

Elephants and Rhinos, Oh My!
Date of Scene:	06 September 2023
Location:	Downtown Manhattan
Synopsis:	Rhino and Elephant try to walk off with an armored truck, they are thwarted by the trio of Spider-Man, Invincible and Prisma. Bunny gets a selfie!
Cast of Characters:	Mark Grayson, Bunny Macleod, Peter Parker

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Mark Grayson has posed:
Downtown Manhattan is always a busy place. A hub of commerce and the place to be if you want to get in a day's worth of shopping, food, and other ideas! It is also a great place for local heroes to patrol - and for Mark Grayson, it's a place to engage in a little hero worship. There's always an eye out for someone like Superman or Captain America. Because while he may be a superhero himself, there are others that are way more famous and experienced than him.

On a patrol in the skies above, the blue and yellow hero is keeping an eye out on things. When he's not looking down at his phone. Trying to make plans for something, apparently.

And it's that lack of attention that causes him to miss the armored truck that was in traffic, just as two large creatures approach it. One has huge ears, tusks and a trunk for a mouth, the rest of his build and skin is just like that of an elephant. The other is similar, except he has a large rhino horn and looks like a rhino. "Hurry it up!" the Elephant calls to the Rhino. "If we just pick up the truck and run off with it, we don't have to worry about heroes showing up!"

"That's a good plan!" the Rhino responds. "Especially around here!" he glances up into the sky, a glare as he watches for a certain red and blue form that is always messing with his plans!

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    While people are looking for red and blue forms, makes it difficult to see the pink ones on the street. That and she's short. And unassuming. And, y'know, holding an ice cream cone.

    Bunny was in her 'patrol pinks', which means pink leggings, the rainbow tutu skirt, and a light jacket over a spandex shell along with a backpack. She had just gotten a softserve cone and was stepping back onto the sidewalk, looking to her phone to answer back a text -- and instead, snaps a picture of The Rhino and The Elephant.

    And so, of course, she skates up.

    "Hey! You two *do* know you're jaywalking, right?" she calls out from the sidewalk.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man doesn't miss the two bruisers making a play for the armored truck. It's kind of hard /not/ to miss them. "Oh man, these two goons," he mutters under his breath. "Looks like they escaped the zoo."

Weblines *THWIP* through the air and Spidey fearlessly plunges off the side of a building. One short swing, an adjustment, and he lands in a four-point squat on top of the armored vehicle just as Rhino makes his observation.

"That's actually a terrible plan," Spidey says from above, forearms resting on his knees. "This isn't exactly a subtle ride." The webhead knocks twice on the top of the van.

Before Rhino can haul back to swing at him, Spidey whips two web-bullets at his face and springs off the top of the van, flipping over Rhino's head and landing behind him.

"C'mon Aleksei, even for you this isn't very original. Where's the dastardly planning? Where's the /villainy/ in this?" Spidey complains.

Mark Grayson has posed:
"Hup!" Lifting the back end of the truck, Elephant waits for Rhino to lift the front end, keeping the tires off the ground so it can't speed off. As he's holding it, his attention turns to Bunny as she comes skating up.

"Oh man, I ain't got time for fans!" he complains. "Can't you see my hands are full, I can't give you an autograph!" Because she's small, she must be a child looking for an autograph, right?

Rhino gets his side of the truck up and grunts. "Ignore the kid, we gotta get out of here!" he calls out to Elephant. That's when he feels the shift of the weight from Spidey landing on the top of the truck. "Gavno!" comes the curse from Rhino as he drops his side of the truck to start to go into a swing of a meaty fist.

They he's getting webbed to the face and spun around. "I'm not alone this time!" he declares.

And that is when Elephant drops his side of the truck and charges after Spidey, attempting to ram into him from behind. Which is never a very good idea. But Elephant has never fought Spider-Man!

Up above, Invincible finally notices the commotion and turns his attention to it, turning up the speed to make his way towards the grouping. He'll be a couple of moments.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "Yeah you guys aren't my type for my autograph book--" Bunny states as she lowers her goggles from her helmet. So fancy, and as SPider-Man shows up "He is though!" she cheers, and she pushes backwards, turns, and comes back in as the Elephant drops his side of the truck and tires to attack -- only for Bunny to raise one of her shields like a ramp and try to impromptu Elephant onto The Wall of American Ninja Warrior to try and trip him up!

    "Allez-oop!" Bunny calls out, trying to balance her ice cream cone in the process.

    "He's got a point, *literally* boosting the armored truck?" she questions.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey's eye-lenses widen in alarm when Bunny starts to intervene, moreso than with Rhino taking a swing at him. With an inhuman flexibility he drops flat on his back, knees almost touching the ground. The asphalt digs into Spider-Man's shoulders through his thin costume, but it doesn't deter his focus. It's impossible to not hear Elephant's ground-shuddering steps; he looks upside-down behind him as Elephant's path is abruptly detoured at a skyward vector. Thinking fast, Spidey webs up Rhino's horn and yanks it down with a hard tug. He's not so callous as to gore Elephant, but he definitely sets up a near-perfect midair collision with the two titanic goons crashing heavily into one another.

"Aww, Aleksei! Did you make a new friend?" Spidey shoots backwards, skimming a bare inch over the ground, and kips up off the ground with just a touch of his hands.

"Hey, kidding aside-- you should get somewhere safe," he tells Bunny with a slightly sterner tone. "One wrong step and you'll end up with more than a broken toe!"

Mark Grayson has posed:
Just as he was in the middle of his charge, Elephant smacks into ramp and travels upwards, crashing through the wall and totally was on his way into going into Kool-Aid Man, when Spider-Man swings Rhino around with a whoof of air.

The two Titans slam into each other in mid-air, crashing to the ground in a pile. "Get up!" Rhino yells at Elephant. "If we both rush him, he can't stop us both!"

Elephant pushes to try to seperate himself from Rhino. "I don't know who the brat is, but she did something to make me go in the air. She might be one of those moo-tants!" he calls back out to Rhino.

"Mutant! She's not a cow." comes a voice from above as Invincible rockets in, slamming into Elephant in the mid-section. Elephant goes tumbling down the street like a bowling ball, slamming into parked cars and parking meters, damaging at least three of them before coming to a halt.

He's still working on the collateral damage issue.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "For serious? I've gotta get a Standard Uniform set up -- I helped take down Kassidy!" Bunny protests as she slows her backwards skating "One wrong step and I'm street pizza, I get it!" she answers back, her visible skin getting a gasoline-puddle quality to it as she looks to Spider-Man with a hopeful look -- and then Invincible arrives.

    "Oh hey, now we're a party!" she calls out, and she skates ahead of Elephant to provide a handy stop-point with another shield to halt his forward momentum into more parked cars.

    "Just have to make no seriously wrong moves, right?"

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man doesn't stand around to trade blows with Rhino. The skinny webslinger dives, dips and dances, those massive fists missing him sometimes by mere inches. Every near-miss drives Rhino deeper and deeper into a maddened rage. At one point he plays shoulder-fake with Rhino, standing behind his back and turning so smoothly with him that the baffled Rhino loses sight of the Spider-Man.

And then Spidey dodge-steps between Rhino's trunk-like legs and delivers a floor-to-ceiling leaping uppercut to that grey jaw with enough force to put a car on a building roof.

"SHORYUKEN!" he shouts.

Then he spots Elephant flying backwards from Mark's blow and winces at the property damage. He leaps away from Rhino and starts hastily trying to web Elephant down against Bunny's construct, laying the silken material down pretty thick.

"Hey, it's Invincible, right?" Spidey calls up to the yellow-and-blue hero. "11/10 for delivery, top notch. Just try to keep from wrecking any more cars, this is a working-class neighborhood."

Mark Grayson has posed:
Elephant slams into Bunny's shield and starts to push himself groggily to his feet. He glares at Invincible. "I remember you." he snarls, getting ready to charge, but before he can get going with momentum, Spider-Man's webs are pinning him to the ground and using his weight to pin him down to the ground. "Dammit!" he calls out, trying to struggle against the webs - but yeah, Spidey makes those ultra-tough.

"Sorry! Sorry." Invincible offers quickly in apology. "I was trying to grab him and take him skywards, but I didn't realize how much momentum I built up." However, his attention turns to Bunny. "Thank you for the assistance, Prisma of the Young Avengers!" he adds quickly. Because she needs that name recognition and street cred, yo.

The crack of Spider-Man rocking Rhino's jaw is heard throughout the black with a resounding *KRAK!*, the Rhino stumbling backwards several steps before his heel hits the edge of the curb and he falls over, landing on his back, clearly knocked for a loop.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "It'sOkayIGetIt" Bunny answers back as she forms a ramp with one of her shields and hops up to a street light to keep herself out of the way of Rhino and Elephant, the pink-clad patroller swinging herself around once before planting the area between her skatewheels on it and hanging out a moment to catch her breath and stay out of the way of the heavy hitters.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey webs up Elephant's feet last and webs him up from a heavy steel trellis overhead. Strong is strong but it's really hard to wrestle out of webbing when you're hanging upside-down with your legs straight and arms at weird angles. The webhead finishes hauling Elephant up and secures him with a grunt of effort, then backflips off the trellis and lands on the pole next to Bunny like it's the simplest task in the world.

"I say we give him the ol' one-two-three," Spidey remarks to the Dynamite Duo (tm). "You, uh--" he looks at Bunny, gestures, then flexes his hand apologetically for not knowing her name. "Miss. Can you mess with his footing? That's the biggest advantage he has." He looks at Mark, eyelenses flickering. "Then you and me, we give him the ol' rope a dope," he explains.

Rhino's getting up-- Spidey takes a couple short breaths to pump himself up and leaps towards Rhino's position, laying down webbing ahead of him to try and bind up the big bruiser's arms.

Mark Grayson has posed:
Invincible isn't going to do the introduction again. At least not right now. It wouldn't be couth. Instead, his attention swivels to Spidey and gives a nod. Rising off the ground, he twists his body around to take in Rhino, one fist smacked into the palm of the other and he waits to react when Spidey gives him the cue.

Just as he's about to get off the ground totally, Rhino feels the now familiar tug of webbing pinning his arms to the sidewalk. "I vill crush you like bug you are!" he calls out as he pushes himself, trying to get to his feet, but is more than open to Prisma's shields tripping him up.

Elephant, in the meantime, is out of this fight -- currently up in the trussle, goosied up in his cocoon. Who knows, maybe he'll come out with wings, like some deranged Wuzzle.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "On it!" Bunny replies from her vantage point on the streetlight, and she drops, catching on one of the prismatic planes of her shielding, and then picks up speed, weaving around the flotsam of the wreckage.

    "You know last time I tango'd with a Rhino, he smelled better." she quips as she turns, skating backwards and begins to build her shield like fancy stairs, just horribly uneven, different heights, back and forth and one appearing in front of his face to smoosh it very gently for the Maximum Confusion factor!

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey works a big circle around Rhino, aiming webshots into the gaps in Bunny's shieldwalls. Rhino roars and fights but it's hard for an irresistable force to get going when it can't even get traction.

The shield to the face was a nice touch, too.

"Okay Invincible, let's get him!" Spidey dives in from overhead and swings in a big arc to give Mark a more direct path of acceleration. When Mark goes high, Spidey goes low; when Mark goes low, Spider-Man goes high. All Rhino can do is scream in blind rage, pummeled from every direction and unable to take a swing.

"Photo finish!" Spidey shouts at Mark, and springs around under Rhino. Once more he webs up Aleksei's prominent horn-- and just when Invincible shoots forward to deliver a final cross to the jaw, Spidey helps by yanking Rhino's head forward to *SMACK* right into Invincible's fist!

"Oooh, and the quarterback is toooaast," Spider-Man shouts, and bounces back to on top of a utility box to watch Rhino try to shrug off THAT one!

Mark Grayson has posed:
Once he has the cue, Invincible launches forward, accelerating rapidly as he closes in on Rhino. He makes sure not to get in Spider-Man's path as he goes high, laying a flurry of massive haymakers against Rhino's hide as he punches and then he loops up high, swiveling in mid-air to gain momentum.

As he rockets back down towards the pair, his fist cocking back, it comes out in a hard swing, assisted by Spider-Man's twist of Rhino's head and the resulting crash causes a small sonic-boom that shatters several nearby windows and sets off car alarms of those parked along the street.

Rhino stumbles. Staggers. He's beaten, defeated, and all it takes is Bunny sweeping him off of his feet with one last shield and down he goes with a resounding *THUD*.

Shaking out his fist, even if he doesn't really need to, Invincible smirks. "I think we knocked that one out of the park." Said fist is held up to Spider-Man for a dap.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    Bunny skates backwards with a 'woo!' of triumph, fists pumping into the air as she turns, her leg coming out to right herself as she gives a bright smile to Invincible, and gives a wave to Spider-Man... and realizes she's lost her ice cream, somewhere, in the fight.

    "Ah, hey, so, good to work with everyone!"

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man returns the fist bump and even behind the mask, there's a sense of a grin. Despite the intensity of the fight he's barely even breathing hard, just a slow and measured cadence. "Hey, I'm the pun guy around here," he tells Mark. "I've got dibs on puns in all five boroughs. Ask anyone."

Rhino gets the same treatment as Elephant, dangling head-down from a suspension truss and gift-wrapped for the Metahuman Response Team to collect. Once he's done Spidey casually swings back to the ground near Bunny and offers her a handshake. "Hey, I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to ask your name before. I'm Spider-Man," he tells her. The webhead looks between her and Mark, gesturing with an index finger. "Are you two together?" he inquires. "Or was it just good timing the three of us were on-scene at the same time?"

Mark Grayson has posed:
With the webbing done, Invincible smirks. "I only dabble in the puns, I defer to you as the master." he comments teasingly as they walk over to where Bunny is. "Spider-Man, may I introduce you to Prisma? She's a Young Avenger, but there's not much to the group, so I'm hoping to maybe find her a place to feel like she's part of a group." That may help answer if they're together or not.

Then he adds. "She's a huge fan of yours. And her birthday is in three days." He returns Bunny's grin, but he couldn't resist.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    Together-together? Together? PAtrolling together? Teammates?

    Omigod, are they *TEAMMATES*?

    PRisma gives an embarrassed wave of a pink-gloved hand.

    "Ah, Hey! Hi! We kinda previously briefly met a couple weeks back but it was kinda hectic --" she states, Brooklyn accent apparent as she jogs her thumb at the back of her "Was stopping for an ice cream. Covering my elbowpads with a jacket gets kinna hot, you know?"

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man stares at Bunny for a three-count, then softly bonks his forehead with his palm. "Of /course/, now I remember. The Carnage situation. I'm sorry, I got clipped in the head during that fight and some of the details are a bit hazy," he apologizes to Bunny. "Prisma. Got it." He looks at her face as if committing it and her name to memory, and nods once in affirmation once it's done.

"Oh-- uh, Happy Birthday," he says a beat later, looking back at Mark, then at Bunny, then at Mark.

Fingers point, cross, re-point. "Do... you guys want to get a selfie or something before New York's finest show up to put these boys in a dark hole?"

Mark Grayson has posed:
Walking over to Bunny, Invincible holds out his hand. "I can get a little height and get a better picture of you two together." he offers, looking around. "Since I don't see any Daily Bugle reporters around." A shrug of his shoulders at that.

He's more than willing to take the picture without being part of it.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "Nah, trio for the 'Gram!" Bunny whips out her phone, and her extending baton, and attaches the magnet back to the stick and then jumps on a piece of wrecked sidewalk "C'mon in and say 'Cheeese!'" she jokes

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man webs up to a pole overhead and dangles in the background while Mark decides if he's gonna get in Bunny's selfie or not. It's up to him-- and Bunny! Spidey makes a V-peace sign from behind Bunny's shoulder while the selfie clicks.

Once it's done he looks at them, not changing his position. "It was good to meet you both. And good job today, seriously," he congratulates them. "If you guys are ever in the area and need a team-up, let me know. Always happy to pitch in."

With a little salute, Spidey shoots a web over their heads and swings out over traffic, swiftly gaining altitude and somersaulting over a building and out of sight.