2326/Bare-Knuckle in the Park

Bare-Knuckle in the Park
Date of Scene:	04 July 2020
Location:	Central Park
Synopsis:	Spider-Man and a strange woman face off against a trap and a next-gen Spider-Slayer.
Cast of Characters:	Spencer Smythe, Zora Vukovic, Peter Parker

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Spencer Smythe has posed:
Spider-Man destroying his Slayer was a slight that echoed across Dr. Spencer Smythe's mind. For weeks, bitterness at NYC's "favorite" web-crawler had been boiling within him. Luckily, the Don's contract was still open, so Smythe had an excuse to send out a second model after the Web Crawler. Tonight at Central Park was were Smythe's newest model would wait for the dammned Web-Crawler. Luring him would be the job of his loyal henchmen, and a new one, a movie buff named Tony, had a seemingly brilliant plan.

It was dark at the baseball dugout and a group of 15 men in baseball uniforms were gathered around, one of them holding a briefcase. The bizzare part were their faces, which were all painted with a variety of horrific looking designs. Smythe had recently started a rumor that a real version of the Baseball Furies from the Cult movei The Warriors were popping up in Central Park, and even had his men beat a rival gang with baseball bats in Hell Kitchen just to cement this rumor.

Tonight, Smythe let lose a rumor that these "Furies" were meeting with a group of Tombstone's boys to buy drugs, which was a lie. In reality, these Furies were meant to lure Spider-Man into the grasp of his newest Slayer.

Zora Vukovic has posed:
    Zora...is completely unaware of Smythe's cunning plan. Really, were she to see a gang dressed as they are, she'd assume it's normal for America. But then she's got a somewhat skewed idea of how bad gang violence is in the United States anyway. Today, she's dressed down...which in this case is her trying out these American jeans, though she's still wearing a loose tunic over that, embroidered in green and gold along the collar, hem, and bottom of the sleeves, with knee-high motorcycle style boots, her long hair pulled back in a loose ponytail, her purse over her shoulder as she cuts across the baseball diamond. Her mind is on other things...so she's not entirely paying attention to the odd gathering nearby, assuming at first they're just a sports team practicing late at night.

Peter Parker has posed:
The word is out. And Spider-Man, through the kind words of one of his friendly informants (an escort who was rescued from a rather vicious client) had dropped the word of a drug buy in the Park. Near the southweat lake, which gave a lot of avenues to approach and escape.

Since the tall buildings tended to end where the forest began, Spidey was hopping from tree to tree at the periphery, hoping to scope out the group before doing his Spider-Thing. All the web cartridges were full, he's anodized the web-shooter to lessen jamming/fouling, and he had enjoyed a warm dinner with MJ, so he was feeling ready to go.

He landed on the roof of the shed where the boats were stored at night, looking around for the Baseball Bat Boys.

Spencer Smythe has posed:
As the Baseball Men waitied for Spider-Man to show up, a lone small, Dragon-Shaped drone hovered overhead. Smythe peered through the screen the drone was projected back in his lab, and gasped in surprise and horror when a woman started to walk acros the field. This was not part of the plan at all, a civilian would complicate things. Smythe immediatly pressed a button on his desk and said into the lead Baseball Furies earpiece,

"Get her out of here now, she will spoil everything!"

The leader grunted and began to walk towards her, letting his baseball bat drag on the ground, scrapping across the ground in a form if intimidation. Once he got close to her, the Baseball Player said in a raspy, deep voice,"

Leave.. Field.. Now."

Zora Vukovic has posed:
    Zora slows to a stop as the man with the bat intercepts her, raising a brow. Mind, she doesn't look particularly intimidated, though she is wary. She's never been one to back down easily, but on the other hand, she has been avoiding causing any public trouble while in New York that might inadvertedly trigger a response from local heroes. Or villains.

    So she takes a few steps back, saying in a Latverian accent as she holds up her hands. "Okay, fine, no trouble..."

    As much as it makes her grit her teeth to do it.

    On the other hand, it certainly looks like the gang leader is menacing her!

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man spots the disturbance and frowns. Oh...there they are, and it looks like we got a lookie-loo.

He fires another webline and swings around the boat house to catapult himself towards the field. He lands lightly on the top of the fence, perching on it, then says almost conversationally, "Hello, guys. You must be the home team?"

He glances to Zora, then waves. "Hi. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man."

Spencer Smythe has posed:
The Baseball Men all turn in unison when they hear Spider-Man voice. However, they don't say anything, just stare at Spider-Man creepily, completley forgetting about Zora. Suddenly, one of the men raises his baseball bat and charges at Spider-Man, swinging the bat at him in the process

Zora Vukovic has posed:
    Zora is...not expecting a Spider-Man. "Ah...hello....look out!" she says as she sees the first gang member with the bat charging at Spidey from behind, automatically falling into a combat stance herself without thinking about it as she tries to shove the leader away from her.

Peter Parker has posed:
"Who, him?"
He reaches his arm out towards the guy with the baseball bat, and...

THWIPP!
Suddenly the man is missing his weapon as Spidey tugs on the webline and tears the bat from the man's hand, catching it and eyeing it. "Barry Bonds?" He looks at the de-weaponed guy. "You didn't pay MONEY for this, did you?"
He tosses it to the side. "Look, guys? Just go away. The deal's all bollixed, anyway. If you stay here, you're going to get webbed to the ground, and in funny poses, too. You'll be FAMOUS on Instagram."

Spencer Smythe has posed:
The Baseball Men all stop to stare at Spider-Man yet again, not saying anything. The leader, who was shoved to the ground, got up with a snarl aand raised his abt, as if about to clobber Zora, but stopped with a tilted head, as if listening to something. Suddenly, he grunted and gestured to him boys, who all began to walk away from the two, dropping their bats as they did.

But, before you could celebrate, you hear fain buzzing, familiar faint buzzing. Suddenly, both Zora and Spider-Man are greeted with machine gun fire as a group of skinless, small, robotic dragons fly out from the night sky. These were the drones that accompanied that Robot weeks ago. As this is happeneing, a robotic roar fills the air as two tress in the distance suddenly collapse, revealing a huge, robotic spider.

As the drones attacked, a very familiar voice echoed out from the robot, it had the same Upstate New York accent as it said rather smugly,

Hello again Spider-Man, I see you have been acquianted with my new Slayer. This one, i assure you, will be your death!"

As he said this, a laser appeared from the Spider's back and fired at Spider-Man

Zora Vukovic has posed:
    Zora blinks confusedly as the leader suddenly drops the bat and runs away, along with the rest of his group. "You apparently have a formidable reputation..." she says, looking to Spider-Man, then blinks as she hears the buzzing. "...or they were a distraction." she says as the machineguns open up, turning and running for the dugout to shelter, snatching up one of the dropped bats as she makes for cover!

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man's Spider-Sense goes to red-alert status, and he jumps from the fence, not looking beck as the area is peppered by gunfire. Bullets are easier. Speed of sound is only 750 MPH...
And then it SQUALLS in his head and he junks right as the laser lances past him, leaving second-degree burns under the seared suit along his side. Because speed of light is still 186,000 miles/second.

He grunts in pain as he rolls along the ground. A part of his brain tells him to stay down, but the rest of his brain responds that if he lays down, he will be charbroiled where he lays. So he gets to his feet again even as the database brings up the last entry on the Spider-Slayer.

Ahhhhh, CRUD.

Spencer Smythe has posed:
Smythe let's out a whoop of joy in his lab. He had finally managed to lay a blow on the irksome Spider-Man. This celebration quickly turned to annoyance when he got back up. Smythe then sneered as he said into the microphone, and towards Spider-Man,

"That is not all this Slayer can do, you will find this model is an improvement over the last one."

Suddenly, the robot spider's mouth opens and a stream of webbing suddenly fires out towards Spider-Man.

Meanwhile, the drones were now focused on Zora, firring their bullets at her, not to kill of course, but to keep her in her cover and way from the fight.

Zora Vukovic has posed:
    Zora definitely is showing the reactions of someone used to being shot at...that is, not cowering, but running to get under cover as quickly as she can in a back and forth pattern to throw off the following aim.

    What is more unusual is why Spider-Man is busy dealing with the BIG spider, she abruptly whirls and sends the bat spinning through the air, aimed at one of the hovering dragons. It's got a good bit of pepper behind it! Enough to smash the side of a car if it connects...but it's also not the most aerodynamic of weapons.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man jumps. It is a good jump, easily clearing thirty feet, and enough to get over the Slayer's webbing.

He lands on one of the legs of the large robotic spider, which annoys him. He is angry that someone used a spider to cause this kind of havoc, because JJJ is going to have a FIELD day with THIS tidbit.

Spider-Man looks at the two large eyes, then hangs on to the leg with his feet as he sprays webbing into the "eyes" of the thing.

"THAT is for stealing my schtick!"

Spencer Smythe has posed:
The voice audibly cries out in anger as webbing covers the Spider's eyes, it appears that whoever is behind this menace didn't think Spider-Man would go for the eyes, since the webbing isn't slidding off like last time. As one of the drones is smashed to bits, the others fly away and begin to fire at Spider-Man, and guide Smythe in the process.

Suddenly, the laser aims for the leg Spider-Man is hanging on to and fires.

Zora Vukovic has posed:
    Zora suddenly doesn't have anyone pursuing her, peering out from the dugout, then as the dragons turn to go after Spider-Man and again, no one is looking at her, she picks up another bat, taking aim. Then heaves it, sending a second spinning at another of the dragon drones from behind. Maybe Smythe will think it got webbed up or something if it goes down?

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey jumps from one leg to the one behind it. He didn't waste time bemoaning his he SHOULD have a better suit, because that's not going to help at all...

He suddenly leaps onto the back of the giant spider, looking over the surface of the body.
Because all machines need to have access panels to the inner workings...

He moves to the left to dodge the peppering of bullets along the metal skin, noticing with both interest and concern that they are leaving holes in the metal plate...

Spencer Smythe has posed:
As yet another drone is destroyed, the drones continued their assault on Spider-Man. As Spider-Man continues his athletics, he would notice something on the robot's "belly", a small access panel. The Slayer continues to fire it's laser, and the ocassional web as the voice yells out,

"Hold still damn it!"

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey crawls along the underside to get away from the gun-drones. "Actually, aren't you supposed to be yelling, 'I'm-a firin' mah laser!' or something to that..."

He paused as he spotted the access panel.
"...effect."
He reached out, got a good grip on the panel, then YANKED as hard as he could.

Spencer Smythe has posed:
The voice just yells out in anger, obviously falling for the classic Spidey trick of angering his foes. As the panel is ripped open, the drones automatically fly under the Robot and begin to fire, and are accompanied by the voice yelling out, " No! No!"

Zora Vukovic has posed:
    Well. So far so good...whoever is running those robots is definitely focused on killing Spider-Man. Perhaps this is one of those strange American copyright cases? She's heard the legal battles get brutal. That said, she snags a last bat, flipping it end over end to catch it, only to watch the small remaining drones just murder the large one.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man saw the drones coming for him, then feinted right, then forward. The drones started firing, and...

He caught a bullet in the belly, the armor-piercing shell passing through him an inch above his left kidney. But the rest went where he thought they would go...through the opened panel and into the robot spider, free to shred anything they went through.

Because you need to worry less about the bullet with your name on it, and more about all the ones addressed to OCCUPANT.

Spencer Smythe has posed:
The robot started sputtering and parts of it exploded as the second Spider-Slayer met it's ultimate destruction. The final words you hear from the voice, at least for now, were a series of swears as he said,"

Damn you! I'll be back, and my next Slayer will be your death, i swear on it!"

The Slayer then exploded, sending flaming metal parts scattering all over Central Park as the remaining drones suddenly flew away from the Park, and into the night sky.

Zora Vukovic has posed:
    Zora winces as she sees one of those bullets punch through Spidey's torso, before the droid explodes, pieces going flying as she reflexively ducks. AS she pops back up as pieces rain down around her, she breaks cover, running over to where Spider-Man is, leaning down, with a semi-professional eye on the wound. "You need to dodge better..." she says with a frown. "Let me see...I can bandage it..."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man rolls with the blast, being sent to the far side of the baseball field, rolling to a stop. He groans as he hits the fence, then pushes himself to a sitting position against the fence as Zora arrives. "Hang...on..."
He reaches into the backpack and pulls out a plastic medical kit. As he opens it, it appears to be suspiciously well-stocked, even with a medical stapler and 10-gauge medical thread for stitches.

"Uhm...thanks. Let's...tally up the damage. GSW, left side, in and out. Energy burn, right side. One...two...four...five moderate lacerations from...shrapnel. Hoo boy..."

Zora Vukovic has posed:
    Zora frowns. "You need to dodge better, as brave as that was." she says, pulling up Pete's shirt, then starting to go through the medpack, pulling out a pair of gauze pads that she layers up, then sets one at the front and the other at the back, before wrapping a pressure bandage around his middle to try and keep what blood there is inside his body. She frowns at the burn, getting out the burn salve and bandaging it as well, before she gets out the tweezers for the shrapnel. She seems to be used to treating these kind of wounds, at least. "Do you usually get attacked by random spider robots?"

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey's breath hisses between unseen teeth before he relaxes slightly. "Nahh, this...this guy, he's got a real mad-on for me. No idea why...but sometimes that's how it is." His entire body shudders for one moment before relaxing again. "I seem to hack off complete...strangers."

He takes a deep breath. "I...noticed the bullets were armor piercing, but I knew I had to make sure that most of them went into that Spider-Slayer. And if it meant taking a bullet to keep it from killing me...or someone else..." He shrugs. "Besides, I heal kinda fast. I should be...ow...back in good health by tomorrow morning." He grins under the mask. "So...sometimes you have to take the hit."

Zora Vukovic has posed:
    Zora grunts a bit at that, then nods slightly. "Sometimes you do." she agrees. "You're fortunate to be able to recover from such things. Many would not." She straightens up, offering a hand to help Spider-Man up to his feet, then steps over a bit to a nearby waterfountain she uses to rinse off her hands to clean them off. "At least you are prepared for such things."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man gets to his feet...slowly...but packs up the medical kit and stuffs it back in his backpack. "I'll mend. Besides, at least I learn from my mistakes."
He limps slightly as he follows Zora. "Thank you, by the way. You are pretty good at patching people up. Are you a nurse, or EMT, or a doctor? You've got a fairly shiny spine about that sort of thing."

Zora Vukovic has posed:
    "...no. I just grew up in a place where you needed to know how to deal with the wounds of war." Zora says, flicking her hands slightly to get some of the water off them then wipes the water off on her jeans. "A...shiny spine?" she says curiously, looking unsure what that means.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey chuckles. "A little slang. It just means you have a strong backbone and that you can handle risk." He adjusts the costume, then says, "The main thing is, I appreciate what you did for me. I just wanted to say that."

Zora Vukovic has posed:
    "I am what I was forged to be." Zora says simply, nodding. "And you are welcome? You are definitely the first person I have been required to treat for bullet wounds since I arrived here." she says with dry amusement, her hands on her hips. "A shiny spine, hmm? I will have to remember that."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man nods, then looks over to his left as he sees red-and-blue blinking lights. "Cops. I'm not sure if you want to stick around, but I'm getting out of here. This is NOT going to look good for me and I look terrible in handcuff jewelry."

He fires a webline to a light pole, then looks back to Zora. "Good luck, Random Citizen." He gives a wave, yanks downward, and with a somewhat-mighty "...ow..." he is off and webslinging away toward Midtown.

Zora Vukovic has posed:
    "...so. That is the Spider-Man." Zora murmurs to herself, as she watches him leap away. "He is formidable, as my lord has said." A purplish glow runs through her eyes, as she lifts off, floating up into the air. "Hmm. But not invulnerable." She rolls over in the air, then rockets away. It would be unfortunate if someone with Latverian diplomatic credentials was found in the middle of a super fight, after all...