16287/East Side, Beast Side!

East Side, Beast Side!
Date of Scene:	09 November 2023
Location:	East Side
Synopsis:	Arachne and Agent Venom meet.. and find themselves on opposing sides. Arachne runs off with the prize.. this time.
Cast of Characters:	Julia Carpenter, Flash Thompson

---

Julia Carpenter has posed:
They'd had a date set for tonight. A Pokewalk with Rachel in the neighborhood, some stir-fry at the house, and an exclusive showing at the Carpenter house of The Goonies!

Instead, she'd gotten an alert from work about a break-in at Landau Labs, a biological research lab in the East Side.

TXT: SO sorry, I have to cancel. Work called. Cascade failure of a critical system, I have to put in some OT to stop and fix. Raincheck?

Julia suits up, admonishes Rachel to not open the door to *anyone*, gives her a kiss and a bowl of popcorn, then promises to be back in time to make the stir-fry. Webbing off from her terrace, she starts slinging her way towards the East Side while getting what information is available from her employer.

Genetic research that shows great promise for boosting healing and regeneration. Animals tests have been showing improved success rates. Suspected that break-in is being perpetrated by The Lizard. Expect a fight.

Letting out a small sigh, she gives the okay and shuts off her comms. Black ops means no recording, and Valerie wants THe Lizard brought back to The Commission 'for interrogation and charges'. Not that Julia fully believes this anymore, but she has to at least make the attempt to stop the break-in. And, in this case, maybe he's better off at The Commission, at least then he can't hurt anyone.

She arrives at Landau Labs, clinging to the side of the building and crawling around to see what she can see.

Flash Thompson has posed:
TXT: All good. Running a little behind myself. Have to get lesson plans together for next week. :raincloud: :checkmark:!

Flash had assumed that Julia had gotten Rachel a sitter. And since he wasn't doing anything else, he eyed the backpack in the corner. Going over to it, he opens it and sighs. "Let's try this again. From the top."

He sticks his arm in, and the alien symbiote crawls along his arm before engulfing him as it forms the chinatenous armor of Agent Venom, rising him off the ground as 'legs' form beneath the stumps of his knees.

When they finish, Agent Venom rolls his shoulders and glances at a mirror. "Looking good!" he encourages himself.

Swinging out the window, the symbiote started to make his way along the buildings towards the East side. As he moves along, he catches a shadow and redhair.

"Oh great, now you're seeing her everywhere." he chides himself - before a second glance. No, that's a black and white suited spider person with red hair. Not knowing who she is, Agent Venom sets off in pursuit, but keeping his distance to try to figure out where she's heading to.

Julia Carpenter has posed:
Julia doesn't notice that she's being trailed... but then, she lacks the typical Spider Sense anyways. She peers into a window, a rare light turned on in the building. Bingo! There's The Lizard, gathering up up thumb drives and vials of viscous liquids, some look like blood. Samples? Sighing, she glances around for an easy entry point, then ends up crawling up two floors to get to the roof access.

Crossing the roof, she approaches the door. Popping the lock is no problem, there isn't a steel door made that's been able to stand up to the enhanced strength of the Spiders. Glancing around the area, she slips inside and starts making her way downstairs towards where The Lizard was spotted.

It's an easy trip, everything is quiet, closed up, and dark. She sticks to the stairwell until she reaches the right floor. Then it's a matter of popping another lock, wincing this time at the sound. Slipping through the door, Julia goes low, crawling her way along the floor towards the lit up room.

Flash Thompson has posed:
As Agent Venom lands on another roof, opposite of Arachne, he crouches down. Still weird to have legs again. But as he sees the Lizard passing by a window, he frowns. This wasn't just going to be a trail and observe missions after all.

Pulling up his phone, there's a quick message.

FT> Julia, how do you feel about late show movies on the couch? Going to be late.

After sending it, he slings across to the ground floor and comes in through the freight side of the ground floor. It's easier access as he starts to make his way up towards the lit room. His hand reaches into one of his many pouches and drops a small device into it.

Pressing a button on the side of it, it reforms into a handgun and he dials it in for taser rounds. Standing in front of the door, he hypes himself up for a moment. No different than going door to door for insurgents in Fallujah. He lifts his foot to kick in the door...

...on three.

Julia Carpenter has posed:
Julia freezes in place when she feels the vibrations of another person moving with purpose towards the Lizard's location. This could be bad. If someone else is hunting him, then she needs to lay low and pick her moment.

Scuttling backwards, she falls in behind a bank of servers and takes a moment to check the silent buzz of her phone. Smiling, she responds to the text and tucks her phone away again. Peering around the corner of the server bank, she watches from a middle distance.

TXT: Sounds good to me. I'll make our family recipe popcorn.

Julia Carpenter has posed:
Julia freezes in place when she feels the vibrations of another person moving with purpose towards the Lizard's location. This could be bad. If someone else is hunting him, then she needs to lay low and pick her moment.

Scuttling backwards, she falls in behind a bank of servers and takes a moment to check the silent buzz of her phone. Smiling, she responds to the text and tucks her phone away again. Peering around the corner of the server bank, she watches from a middle distance.

TXT: Sounds good to me. I'll make our family recipe popcorn.

The Lizard himself is still rifling through the test tubes and reports in the lab, moving much more carefully than one would expect of a giant anthropomorphic lizard with a giant tail. He even has a satchel that has a small refrigerated section for the test tubes, the reports and thumb drives being tucked into the body.

His final task seems to be to check the computer for anything he might have missed on the initial sweep. Thus far, he doesn't seem to notice that anyone else is in the building, leaving him a tempting target for an ambush.

Flash Thompson has posed:
'One...' Then his phone buzzes. Pause. Checking it, Flash smiles and a quick message back to Julia.

TXT: There's a family recipe? I must be special.

'Two...' His leg comes up and he murmurs to himself, "Prosthetic symbiote, don't fail me now."

'Three!' His leg slams into the door. The door is dented, wrenched from its hinges and flies across the room, slamming into the server bank near where Arachne is standing, knocking several of the machines over. "Crap!" He clearly did not know his own strength.

"Lizard, drop the vials and raise your hands!" Clearly, he still has some of that military mentality left, his voice mixed with the symbiote's just enough that it may muddle it to Julia's ears who is behind that faceless mask as he fires off several shots, and she can see the taser rounds strike and spread electricity over Lizard's body.

Julia Carpenter has posed:
Her phone buzzes silently once more, but she'll have to check it later, there's about to be a fight in here. Even as Agent Venom's foot connects with the door, Julia is moving, she knows where it's going to end up. Leaping upward, she winds up on the ceiling, crawling along as he uses a... gun? A symbiote using a *gun*?! Now this is unusual. Almost as unusual as a symbiote that sounds more like a cop than a frenzied eating machine.

Lizard is fast. He couldn't keep up with Spider-Man if he weren't. He manages to move quickly, avoiding the first few shots.. but he can't avoid them all. The last two tag him squarely in chest and shoulder, making him shriek in a hissing fashion as he hits his knees. "NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Julia makes her move, sending out a magenta-tinged webline to wrap around the barrel of the gun, giving a hard yank to pull it from Agent Venom's hands. She's not trying to get it for herself, flinging it aside with a clatter as she drops to the floor and rises up to face him. "Mind if I cut in? I *was* here first, after all." Moving around towards the Lizard, "I'm afraid I need to take him with me. He's wanted by The Commission for federal crimes."

Her voice is made somewhat deeper, huskier, more like a femme fatale from an old movie, thanks to a small device along the throat of her mask that shifts the vibrations in her vocal chords just enough to help disguise her voice. But she can't really hide her scent, unfortunately. And that's something he may pick up on.

Flash Thompson has posed:
Fortunately for Julia, Flash was not wearing the symbiote when they met. So her smell is safe for now. As the first couple shots went wide, Agent Venom is able to track and follow and anticipate where his shot to take down Lizard is.

And just as he tagged the Lizard, he reaches up to tap his comm. "Target downed, bringing him in..." the rest is cut off as Julia yanks the gun away, which she was able to easily do because he really wasn't /expecting/ Julia to attack him.

Though he suddenly leaps forward and slams into the ground between Lizard and Arachne. The outline of his 'eyes' narrow as he regards the young woman. "Rude." he rasps, a webline shot out to grab his pistol and yank it back to him.

"He is wanted by the Agency I am working for, which supersedes your Commission and whatever crimes he may have committed against him." His head tilts, as if he is hearing something. "You're just going to have to wait a few minutes."

Julia Carpenter has posed:
"Excuse you much.. you interrupted MY bust. So how about you run along now and you can let your boss know that the CSA doesn't appreciate being snooped on." Julia doesn't look impressed when he leaps down in front of her. A smirk touches her lips, "Unless you *like* getting your ass kicked by a girl."

Even as she taunts him, she's already working, building up the weblines behind him that will wrap around Lizard. Two lines attach to the floor, creeping towards Agent Venom from behind. They aren't harmful. In fact, they're specifically meant only to restrain, and likely briefly at that.

WHen he shoots the line to retrieve his gun, Julia cunjures up a samll webbing right in front of him to splat against his face, covering his field of vision in magenta-colored webbing. She runs right at him, as if to barrel straight through, then drops suddenly down to slide between his legs.

Coming back to her feet, she calls the ends of the weblines around The Lizard to her hand and calls out, "Sorry, but I don't have time to waste on you, got a date to keep. Maybe next time, big guy!" Then she's running for the bank of windows facing the East River, clearly intending to simply crash through them, taking her prize with her!

Flash Thompson has posed:
"I don't know if you're expecting me to get angry..." Agent Venom starts to say, before suddenly his spider-sense is exploding in his head before the two lines grab him and he realizes he's getting bamboozled!

He pulls at the lines, just as he gets a faceful of webbing. There's a loud snarl as he grabs at it and he prepares to launch after Julia and the Lizard. She would be realativity easy to catch, what with all that extra weight.

"In pursuit." he snarls into his radio piece.

>>Stand down.<< the voice tells him back. >>We will handle the Lizard on our end.<<

Agent Venom frowns internally, watching Arachne depart across the rooftops and he pulls back. "Fine. Next time." he promises as he shoots a line to head back towards the school. He can still make in time before it gets too late.

Julia Carpenter has posed:
Expecting to be chased, preparing for a fight over The Lizard, Julia conjures a webline mid-air, spinning around... only to see that she's not being chased at all.

"...huh. Really expected him to put up more of a fight... that's... kinda disappointing." Giving a small shrug, she smiles, "Alright, lets get you back to the office, so I can unload you and get back to my life."

Julia slings off into the night so she can drop off her capture and get herself home in time to get cleaned up and ready for a visitor! She'll also respond to the text, finally.

TXT: Definitely special. Also, finished up sooner than expected, will be home in 20!