4101/Ruins of a Crime

Ruins of a Crime
Date of Scene:	11 November 2020
Location:	Ruins -- Roosevelt Island
Synopsis:	Ghosts, Manias, and Spideys stop a human-trafficking ring...but limits are tested.
Cast of Characters:	Peter Parker, Andi Benton, Gwen Stacy

---

Peter Parker has posed:
Another night in the city, but in an isolated place. The island is parked between Manhattan and Queens, and is set up near the southern tip. It is a place no one goes at night.

Which makes it perfect for many clandestine operations. Tonight, it is a waypoint for some decidedly sketchy activity.
The man running this show wanted to drop off the load in Brighton Beach, but SOMEONE happened to drop the wrong word in the right ear, and this was the backup drop site.
It was going to be rough, but there were two panel trucks on the way, and they would soon have 48 new girls to populate the brothels and sweatshops, and Miguel Cordova would be 500 grand richer.

One of the two trucks was riding a little heavy, though. Probably because of the unexpected guest.

<Comm-wide: Spider-Man reporting human trafficking operation, Roosevelt Island. Anyone nearby?>

Andi Benton has posed:
"We are close."

It is Mania's voice, the dual combination of female and something else. Spider-Man has found her to be reliable so far, for the most part, but there is always that sense of not knowing exactly what you're going to get out of her. Some days, control still wavers.

She adds over the comms, "Did you say human trafficking? Like, slaves?" As the last word is said, there is a detectable drop in tone, as if carrying a threat. Surely not for Spider-Man himself.

Mania webs her way toward the small island. It is a source of a memory for her.

Gwen Stacy has posed:
Ghost Spider was out on patrol, at least she was about to be. Standing on the ledge of an apartment complex with her white hood back down on her shoulders while pulling on her white mask over tucked blonde/pink tressed hair. An earbud beneath was playing music quietly beneath the mask, They say, oh my god I see the way you shine... take your hands my dear and put them both in mine.

After flipping the hood up, Gwen is airborn and swinging, reading the comms message with a little quirk of her brow and an aerial twist to change directions towards Roosevelt Island. *THWIP*, whole body twisting and contorting around turns to bring her quickly to top speed.

<Comm-Wide: That's a hell of a way to start a patrol... Human trafficking. Ghost Spider inbound, as well.>

You know you stopped me dead while I was passin' by..

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man set up a waypoint based on what Emilio had told him. A guy hanging upside down 200 feet up will be VERY talkative, especially when all the blood is running to his head. Mania's coming as well, and she...doesn't use the augmented-reality headset, so he added an address for her as well. The current name gave a sub-name: Blackwell's Island/Hospital Island, for the ruins of the Smallpox Hospital.

"My ETA is 15 minutes. Let's meet at the northeast corner of the hospital, seeing a good vantage point there. Be sneaky.>

Andi Benton has posed:
"We are closer."

It's the exact same answer Mania first gave, just altered slightly. She swings her way over toward the bridge that rises above the island, using it to aid in her descent. The last time she was here, she didn't even know how to do the webbing, did she? It's so different now.

Then, the building. The same building where she met...someone they might hear about before the night is done.

Be sneaky? Do spiders have eight legs? She takes up a position allowing her to see all, expressionless as ever given the current look.

Gwen Stacy has posed:
"I can do sneaky." Gwen assures over comms, releasing out of a swing and running along the side of a wall into a leaping fired webline that cuts her around the corner at speeds that would turn most peoples stomach.

"I'm pretty close, maybe four or five minutes.. save me a sandwich.." Whether this is direct at Andi/Mania or Peter/Spidey is anyones guess. She certainly isn't clarifying the matter.

The lights of the building are just visible in the distance, following the AugRea to guide her directly to the waypoint Petey has set.

Peter Parker has posed:
Mania gets there first, but only just. About thirty seconds after she lands, she sees two large panel trucks drive along the access road leading to the southern tip of the island. She can also see the red-and-blue figure laying flat on the roof of one of them.
It's Spider-Man, all right, but the suit looks different. Like a glossy finish to the fabric.

As the truck passes below Mania's position, Spidey leaps up to land on the stone arch that used to support a roof. He looks around, then spots Mania.

"You beat me here. Ghost said she should be here any second, then I'll give a short rundown of the situation."

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania watches, waiting for a sign of what she's supposed to be on the lookout for. She is unmoving, like a creepy gargoyle in the spot she's taken up for the time being.

Then, in come the trucks. "We see you," she reports over the comms again. "You are looking very shiny tonight. Why? Was your usual costume torn and you had to visit a fetish club or something?"

/She/ finds it highly amusing, anyway.

Once Spider-Man has left the truck and found his way closer, the look in her all-white eyes gives away the wide grin she'd probably be showing...if she had a mouth right now. Then, they narrow again when shifting toward the trucks.

Gwen Stacy has posed:
Pulling up the tail end is Ghost, landing in a crouch near where Spidey is perched with her hood falling back off her head turned to regard the area around the vantage Pete had picked out for them to observe their destination.

"Gosh, Spidey... you need us to finish this up quickly so you can make it for your audition for American Idol?" A playful thumb back over her shoulder and half turn as if the audition is at a building just there behind her.

"Shiny suit like that, I'm thinking you're going for some old school Backstreet? NSYNC?"

Pregnant pausen to eye the shiny of his suit...

"Okay, Menudo.."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey sighs melodramatically. "New suit. Better weave. Tougher, insulates from heat, cold, and energy extremes. Especially electricity. And it's the respect of my peers that keeps me going, I tell ya."

He takes a deep breath. "All right. Down to business. In about ten minutes, a ship is going to offload 40-50 women for the Little Odessa crowd. A trafficker named Miguel Cordova had them shipped in from Bogota, Colombia."
He activates the emitter in the right lens, and a picture of a transport ship appears. "I sent a drone in. Seems like 15 people, not including Cordova. He's the bagman. He's handing over the payoff to the traffickers. The best option seems to wait until the women are in the trucks. That's hard evidence, and it ALSO will keep them out of the line of fire."

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania grows eerily silent after giving Ghost Spider an exaggerated waggle of the fingers in greeting. She is listening to what Spider-Man has to say about the situation, and what she's hearing...she does not like.

Judging by the narrowed slant to her eyes, even the line forming where a mouth belongs, showing sharp teeth and a tongue, no, she does not like at all.

"We will deal with Cordova," is all she says, like a predator staking a claim to its prey.

Gwen Stacy has posed:
"That's not creepy." Gwen says for Mania's slit of a mouth full of teeth and tongue, but she sounds more conversational than creeped out. Point it out, move along, listen to Spidey.. and nod understanding.

Almost exclusively in that order.

"If they have Cordova, I'll run interferance on the trucks once the women are loaded up. Soon as those ladies are off the boat on the docks, we've got evidence aplenty, but we have to make sure they're out of harms way." On that they all seem to agree.

That and that human traffiking is gross.

Important to note that.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man nods to Ghost, but glances over to Mania. "I can see what you are thinking. Scare him. Scare him so bad he soils himself, if you want. But hurt ONLY as much as you have to. No more. If he's a link to the Kingpin, we need him alive and able to talk."

A boat horn is heard, once.
"It's game time. The moment the doors close on the panel truck, get moving. I'll draw fire, they seem to not like me very much."

Andi Benton has posed:
"He'll talk," Mania promises. "He'll tell us everything we want to know. And thank you," she adds, flashing Ghost Spider an equally-as-creepy grin before the mouth disappears again.

Attention shifts toward the boat on the way in, and it looks as if something ripples along Mania's back. The symbiote getting ready, maybe. Ready with anticipation.

Whether she knows much about the Kingpin, that didn't get addressed.

Gwen Stacy has posed:
Double thumbs up at Mania...

"Keep it creepy." Point, thumb up, winky behind her mask at the mostest dark Spider.

Extend right to Petey pie. "You got it boss." Gwen crouches on the ledge, raises her hood, and gets ready for the fireworks to begin. "Dance for me, dance for me, dance for me... ah ah ahhhh..."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man nods as Ghost moves off to the east. About eight guys there...should give her something of a workout.

Spider-Man moved along the roof towards the wide area between the ruin and the waterfront, pausing at the corner to gaze down at the current activity.

It's lively down there. More people than expected - 16 here, not including the eight whose criminal careers are about to take a serious downturn, courtesy of the Ghost Spider.
They are in the process of marching the women out of a shipping container on the ship and across the dirt road to the two panel trucks. The men are armed, but one of them, dressed like he's going to a Broadway show after this little larceny, is on his cell phone.

"That one would be Miguel. Probably making another deal while closing this one..." Spidey whispers to Mania.

Andi Benton has posed:
"Did we tell you we've been here before?" Mania asks Spider-Man once Ghost Spider has separated from them to deal with her own side of things.

A clawed finger gestures toward the ruins of the building. "We were exploring, when things were newer to us, and we found someone else here who was like us. They said they..met in a sewer. They suggested the chocolate."

But, chocolate instead of what? Has Mania filled Spider-Man in on that little urge yet? Hard to remember for sure. So many things have been happening.

Attention shifts back toward the ship, and the container in question. White eyes narrow to a pair of thinner slits than usual. "He dresses fancy," is all she says of Miguel, and there's an anticipation to her posture that clearly tells of preparations to act.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man nods. "I think they might be worth seeking out later. It would be helpful to find out more about your origins...okay, that's the last of the people..."

He then saw the last three women...only there were more like kids than adults. If any of them were over 14, he'd eat his mask.

He doesn't think Andi or Mania is stupid. He did ask them once already to keep from resorting to lethal measures...
...but he could understand the reasoning.

"Ten seconds..." he says softly.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania remarks, "Maybe you already met them," but she leaves it at that. There are more important matters to deal with tonight, namely putting a stop to the child trafficking ring that's beginning to play out before them.

Those eyes get even thinner as she picks out the children being ushered around. So young.

//We cannot allow this, Andi.//
<<Don't worry. They aren't getting away with this. Let me handle it.>>

There is no response, internally or externally, from the symbiote save for a subtle rippling of..something over Mania's body, then she leaps away when Spider-Man gets to 'five' as she uses the cover of darkness to move closer in preparation.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man is off, but by only one second. At nine seconds, the panel doors are pulled shut.

<NOW.>
And the Spider-Man fires two weblines to snag the drivers of the trucks, yanking them and the keys to the trucks with them up to get cocooned and hung from the streetlight.
Miguel looks up at where the drivers disappeared to. He had seen the webbing, and put two and two together in a fraction of a second.
"SHOOT! It's SPIDER-MAN!!"

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania spots the webbing that is used to prevent the drivers from getting away. She lands close to the trucks and her fingers reshape into blades about a foot long, which she uses to not just puncture the tires, but completely shred them. It only takes a pass on each side to do this, ensuring those trucks really won't be going anywhere.

This then puts her within range of her actual target, landing after a flip over the nearest truck as she places her hands, back to normal, at her hips adjacent to the spiky belt. "Hello, Miguel Cordova. Tonight is your unlucky night. Would you like to know who we are?" No face to read from, except those eyes, those predatory eyes.

Peter Parker has posed:
Cordova blinks as Mania makes her appearance, then drops the phone and goes for his gun, a matte-black Mini-Uzi. The weapon of choice for dirtbags the world over.

The other guards are firing wildly into the air, but as Mania can see immediately, away from the trucks. Spider-Man leaps over the scattered guards, webbing a few of them down before landing behind them. The guns turn to follow the guy, until almost all of them (except for Miguel) are firing in the opposite direction of the trucks.

Now...all he has to do is not get shot...

Andi Benton has posed:
"Nothing to say? How rude." Mania takes a step closer, and as soon as she sees Miguel digging out his gun she acts. Tendrils lash out from her reshaping right hand as she gestures toward him, wrapping around the gun to yank it free and send it flying into the river. The left hand, still normal, grabs his fancy jacket, joined by the other once it's changed back again. This allows her to get /very/ close and personal with him, a line beginning to form where the mouth belongs. It stretches wider than humanly possible, and as it takes more of a defined shape Miguel can see rows of sharp, pointed teeth in there.

"We are Mania, and you made the biggest mistake of your life." That tongue slips out and begins to..caress his face, almost tenderly. "We can taste your fear." Whether he's showing it or not, Mania has already decided it is so..or will be so.

Peter Parker has posed:
Miguel has faced many enemies in his career. Drug dealers, arms merchants, coyotes from Mexico, mobsters...

But the one calling herself "Mania" was his first encounter with a monster from Hell.
Scenes from a thousand late-night horror movies, with names like SLITHER and THE THING and PROTEUS and ALIEN, seemed to flash through his mind.
But those were movie monsters on the screen. THIS was right here, right now...

When the tongue touched his face, he lost control of his bowels.

Spider-Man was hopping around like gravity was less a LAW and more of a HINT. As the seconds ticked by while he was "ghosting gunfire," he was firing his own "weapons" to gum up rifles, pin people to the ground, to the wall, or covering gun hands with clouds of webbing, rendering them useless...

Andi Benton has posed:
//Andi, let us eat him! He deserves it!//
<<No! We don't do that! I don't do that!>>
//It is in our nature, Andi! Why do you think we like chocolate so much? Brains have the same thing! Try it once and see. You will not want to go back.//
<<I said..I don't eat..people!>>
//You just tasted him. Think how easy it would be to spread our jaws and bite. Then he will never do this again, Andi. You know he deserves it instead of court, and a trial, and prison. We will be his judge, jury, and executioner.//

There is a visible hesitation in the form of the young woman with he symbiote, particularly when Miguel leaks all over his nice trousers. The smell is there, and the tongue is curling around his head. Mania tenses up, and if Spider-Man is checking in on things, he can see that mouth parting wider, spreading unnaturally, more than anything that should be possible.

Somehow, Mania can still speak aloud. "W-we..have to stop y-you. Can't let you..d-do this again.."

Peter Parker has posed:
Miguel senses the hesitation, even in his terror-filled brain, and he falls back on his one skill - negotiation.

"Look...if you let me go, you can HAVE the money! It's in the case. One hundred and fifty grand! It's YOURS! Just...lemme go, and we can call it even."

"It's blood money, Cordova."
That voice came from behind him, and he thought he was never so happy to hear the voice of Spider-Man in his whole life.
"Get this BITCH offa me, Spider-Man!"
Spider-Man's voice was quiet, but it had steel. "I don't control her, Cordova." He looked to Mania. "SHE controls HERSELF."

Andi Benton has posed:
Does she? Does Andi really control Mania? So far, it's been that way except for an incident or two dealing with the gang that was about to hurt her. It took intervention to talk her down from killing two of them at the detention center, but Andi was not very experienced yet. Surely she's grown since then, learned better control.

For the most part she has, but that doesn't mean she is /always/ in control of Mania. Seeing those children being herded into the trucks, about to be sent off to fates too evil to mention, has put the symbiote in a state of mind where it's out for blood and Andi is struggling to hold it back, struggling because a part of her can't entirely disagree with the idea. Why /should/ Cordova get to spend the rest of his life behind bars for such a heinous crime? He might be lucky to survive that, but it's beside the point.

"We don't want your money, Miguel. We just want you," Mania states, the dual voice low, menacing.

//Do it, Andi. Let us guide you. Nobody will challenge us again.//

"It's wrong! I don't want to!" she says, and it's aloud instead of inside their combined consciousness. It's more her voice than the dual one. The fingers go knife-like again, pushing through the material of Miguel's clothing until they dig into the skin, multiple points that draw blood at the chest and shoulders.

Then, that mouth extends above Miguel's head..and starts to slowly close, rather than quickly chomping.

It gives Spider-Man an opening he may have to take this time.

Peter Parker has posed:
Oh, boy...is the symbiote getting stronger, or just capitalizing on Andi's own feelings?

Time to intervene...dammit.
Two weblines strike Cordova in the back, and he is YANKED away from Mania. Miguel's wardrobe is ruined, but he lives to wear it another day.
He is turned around to see the disapproving face/mask of Spider-Man, and says, "Take me to prison! I'll spill! ANYTHING so that THING doesn't EAT ME...!"

Andi Benton has posed:
Those terrifying jaws hesitate, then finally slam shut...

Only catching some of Miguel Cordova's hair. He gets a bit of a scalping rather than being left headless, lucky for him.

But, he is out of range, separated from the finger-blades, but he is still more or less whole.

Mania stands there in a moment of confusion, the eyes shifting to match as they turn upward slightly, the mouth working itself open and closed a couple times, spitting out the hair. Steps backward follow, the hands reshaping to the way they normally are, and they feel at her face. Her expression becomes aghast and she quickly turns away from Spider-Man in apparent shame. "Fuck..fuck..fuck.." Still more Andi than Mania, appearances aside.

Her steps are abbreviated, erratic, and she bumps into one of the trucks before avoiding a stumble, a hand against it to steady herself.

//Andi..we..//

"No! Don't talk to me right now!" she blurts aloud again, hands against the sides of her head. Again, her appearance ripples, as if there's an internal struggle going on.

"I..I have to..to go," is all she trusts herself to add right now, refusing to let Spider-Man see the turmoil beyond what he can make of her body language. She casts weblines out, getting her up to the bridge looming over and across the island in record time, fleeing into the night, away from the scene, away from the one who's placed so much trust in her.

But she can't flee from herself, from the symbiote. It felt something she wanted, amplified it, and she almost went too far.

//Andi, we thought you..wanted..we wanted..//
<<Not now. Please, not now.>>

A longer pause within the combined mind, as Mania gains speed in a webline-aided dive through the city, until she lands in a dark alley and finds a corner to curl up in, arms wrapping around herself, withdrawing to some place inside.

//We are sorry, Andi.//

But is that the truth, or a lie?

Peter Parker has posed:
Cordova didn't see what was going on, but could hear it and looked scared. The hair was a loss, but he knew what he almost lost and came out lucky.

"What's her problem??" he asked Spider-Man.

Spider-Man had an inkling, but he wasn't going to share his concerns with this dirtbag. "Right now, Miguel...you better worry about YOURSELF."

He looked up as the party lights on the police cars could be seen.

Mania gets a message, converted to audio.

"Mania...after you get yourself together...we need to talk."