5904/A Tale of Two Vases

A Tale of Two Vases
Date of Scene:	10 April 2021
Location:	A highrise corporate building in NYC
Synopsis:	Knox's bad luck streak continues when he encounters the neighborhood's favorite wallcrawler. Another vase is lost, but the thief remains free.
Cast of Characters:	Peter Parker, Knox Kennedy

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Peter Parker has posed:
It's Saturday night, and like Elton John said, it's all right for fighting.

Spider-Man has had a busy night. The Financial District seems to have no shortage of petty street criminals (making it unsafe for the business criminals) and Spidey has been keeping pretty busy. He remains alert, though. Spider-Comm hasn't picked up anything in the last five minutes, and he'll give it another five before heading north towards Midtown.

The Big Apple. As far as he knows, he's the only hero-type to patrol all five boroughs, and he wouldn't have it any other way...

Knox Kennedy has posed:
Knox Kennedy is very selective in his targets though greedy business tycoons always have a way of making his list. Ruthless bankers and cutthroat wallstreet brokers in particular really get the twenty-something's hackles raised.

Today his target is a fat cat who sells penny stocks to little old grandmas seeking to improve their retirement situation. This particular paragon of capitalism has an impressive art collection in his high rise office. Thus, a shadowy figures takes advantage of the twilight hours of NYC scaling down the side of building with claws formed of solid umbra.

He checks a note taped to his arm and mentally counts the number of floors above him. His mouth muffled behind a mask which covers half of his face, he murmurs, "Three more floors to go."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man is going around the Chase-Manhattan building and is about to pass the Damage Control skyscraper when something catches his eye.
He's not immediately sure what it is, and slows down to land on the side of the Damage Control building. He does a scan of the buildings around him.

Intial scan shows nothing amiss. He doesn't have an Iron-Man-level sensor package, but it does handle cursory scans. Vis-rec software has a number of links. But nothing is jumping out at him.
Nothing at all...
He paused. Take it as the Big Picture. What Doesn't Fit?
It took him a few seconds more before he realized. It was the shadow on the office high-rise. It wasn't a large shadow.
But with the ambient lighting from the buildings and billboards, that shadow shouldn't BE there.
He fired a webline and swung towards it for a closer look...

Knox Kennedy has posed:
Further down the side of the building scales the burglar until he's level with the office window of his quarry. Extending a palm toward the glass, he lowers his mask to speak, "Shades of the ether, the nothingness that devours. Consume from this world that which is and to make what will not be. Eat of distance. Shorten journeys between places dark."

Tendrils of shadow emerge from his palm and writhe through the air passing through the glass. They slither through across expensive carpets, beneath an antique desk, and finally up pedestals of marble. They pool beneath artifacts of lost civilizations.

The thief shimmies to his left where the building is darkest, the sun opposite of the corner of the edifice. He reaches into the building's shadow and a vase likewise disappears into a pool of umbra. The thief produces the same vase, nods his head, and carefully slips it into a backpack.

At present, he is unaware of the swinging hero coming for inspection.

Peter Parker has posed:
What the heck?!

Spider-Man lands on the billboard and looks down at the shadowy guy clinging to the side of the wall. He's...REACHING into another shadow, and then pulls a vase from the darkness, sliding it into a backpack.
It was a magic trick worthy of Zatanna Zatara, but where did it come from?

His answer came from the silent alarm from the living space in that building. Something had been removed, and a pressure-plate sensor had detected it sudden absence. The call for security had gone through automatically - the owner was apparently still at his office.
Oh, well, time to get closer.

About five seconds later, a voice came to Knox. Surprising because it WAS a voice, outside the 20th floor, and ABOVE him.

Spider-Man waves to Knox with one hand. "Uhm, nightly withdrawals are handled at the CORPORATE office, pal."

Knox Kennedy has posed:
The thief is just about to reach into the shadow a second time when he hears the voice. A sound of irritation passes his lips as he tugs up his mask. He gazes upwards with irises of purple to see the costumed hero of some renown. "I think the corporate office can handle one less artifact of colonial conquest, don't you Spider-man?"

He adjusts his backpack to ensure the vase is secure. "Don't tell me you are on corporate payroll. That wouldn't be uh... very heroic." He adds as he adjusts his footing. The shadow of the building lashes his hands and boot soles to the concrete edifice keeping him stable, while he sits in a squat almost mirroring the man in red and blue.

Peter Parker has posed:
A quick Internet search brings up the owner of the place, and the name and face appears in the mask's HUD: Jordan Wilson, lead broker for PennyStocks.com, a bargain-basement brokerage firm. He has a pretty good idea how Wilson was able to afford this place, as well as the vase.

"Buddy, I'm not on any payroll. Truth is, I'm so poor I can barely pay ATTENTION." Check the web cartridges. Still green. "And I'm going to take a wild guess. Robbing the rich to feed the poor? Doing something morally right and legally wrong against someone who's legally right and morally wrong?"

Knox Kennedy has posed:
Knox rolls his shoulders in a shrug. "Something like that... It's a long story, but normal jobs are hard to get and a guy has to eat. Rob the morally corrupt, feed a few empty bellies including my own, and then stuff a mattress for a rainy day."

He gives the hero a thumbs up of appreciation. "You get points for being a vigilante that asks questions first."

Glancing over his shoulder down toward the street, he hums pensively. "So, wall crawler, how about you let this slide? Or, we make a good show of a chase so you can have your limelight while I make a daring but narrow escape. Hell, give me an address, and I'll even buy you a pizza with the proceeds. One poor guy to another."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man shakes his head. "Sorry, pal. If you know anything about me, you know I can't be had for a price. I'll give YOU a deal. You hand over the vase and the rabbit, and anything ELSE you pulled out of whatever hat you have, and I'll let you off with a warning. Option B means a lot of chasing, catching, cocooning, and handing over to cops, and I do THAT all night, nearly every night. You choose, buddy."

Knox Kennedy has posed:
The thief lets out an exasperated sigh. "Ah, well... Nothing personal, but if I gave up every time I ran into a vigilante, I'd be much poorer... and significantly skinnier. Think I'll just have to take my chances that there is an option c." He pauses, "You've got my respect though. So, I'll try to do this where no one gets hurts."

Spider-man will sense immediate dangerous in the brief moments before Knox pulls at the shadow of the building with his hand. A net of inky blackness is drawn and tossed at the wallcrawler, and if by some miracle he catches the hero by surprise, the strength of the net is akin to rawhide. A problem for most, but likely just a distraction for a superhuman.

After the net is tossed, the thief just... falls, letting gravity do the work of accelerating him nine meters per second away from his opponent. He yells against the rushing air around his ears, "YOUR LOSS. I WOULD HAVE SPRUNG FOR PREMIUM TOPPINGS."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man's Spider-Sense flares immediately. Getting caught in any kind of net would likely mean an express ride to the street, with no brakes.
Spidey jumps from the side up and outward, the net landing where he was. He also goes into freefall, but he has a few tricks up his sleeve, too. Literally.
As he catches up to Knox, he debates the whole thing. Wilson could afford to lose it. Insurance would probably cover it. And if he's stealing to feed himself and others...

No. That's what soup kitchens and F.E.A.S.T. are for. Stealing is wrong, and always has been.
"'Scuse me," Spidey calls to Knox as he gets within ten feet, "...but is that your Final Answer?"

Knox Kennedy has posed:
Knox's stomach growls at the thought of delicious melted cheese and pepperoni. A vast improvement of the meals of his childhood. The prospect of dinner being more important then the apparent plummeting to his death from a New York skyscraper, one might guess he does this often.

Strategically, Knox made sure he was falling within the shadow of the buillding, the dusk's sun dropping further below the horizon. Before he acts, he childishly pretends to turn an imaginary crank next to his gloved hand. A few second later, his middle finger is fully extended in unmistakable but very rude reply to Spider-man's question.

Abruptly, the shadow of the building is harvested into a construct of a glider, the inky material catching the wind and redirecting the thief's terminal velocity downward to a speedy escape vector above the streets of New York. "I'll eat a breadstick in your honor!"

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey spares only a fraction of a second to regard Knox making a glider out of...well, DARKNESS...and changes his flight path from Brick to Glider.

Well, THAT'S new...
THWIPP!
The webline holds, and one second later, Spider-Man also converts from Brick Mode to Webslinging Mode, which means he is gaining on the slowly-descending Knox.

Let's see...this gap? Nahhh, the next gap is best.
About two seconds before Knox flies between two buildings, below the bright kliegs of a billboard advertising STRAIGHT TALK WITH J. JONAH JAMESON, a silvery web appears where there wasn't one before.

Apparently Knox isn't the only one who can conjure things out of nowhere...

Knox Kennedy has posed:
Knox isn't an amazing acrobat of a flyer, so when the silvery web appears before him, all he has time for is quick vocalization of 'Shit' before he sinks into the construct of silk like it was a trampoline. It springs back with him nicely stuck. Back and forth he wobbles until he stabilizes.

He doesn't struggle, he just groans and murmurs a few more profanities. "Second vase this week. Between Human Torches and Human Spiders, how does a guy eat in this town?"

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man slowly descends in his usual style--upside down, feet on the webline issuing from his web-shooters, until he is eye-to-eye with Knox.

"All right, Captain Midnight, here's the deal. I'm going to bring this vase back. Hand it over to security, which is most likely there by now. Hopefully, they are bright enough to understand that because I'm bringing it BACK means I didn't steal it in the FIRST place. Don't laugh, it's HAPPENED."
He holds out his hand. "Just hand it over. When I get back, you and I are going to have a little CHAT. Until then, just lay back and enjoy the view."

Knox Kennedy has posed:
Knox raises an eyebrow at the vigilante. "If I was free enough to hand you the vase, I think I'd be doing a little more to escape. It's in the backpack."

He shifts his body and exposes his back to the wallcrawler so he make extract the stolen good. "Sure, a little chat. I'll just wait here and stare at JJ's advertisement and smell car farts until you swing your merry way back."

Once Spider-man is on his way, Knox will leverage a trump card. His costume itself is composed of the same shadowy material of his other tricks. Where its contacting web, he will allow it to dissolve. Freeing himself, he'll descend to the street on an inky tether. The backpack is left behind, evidently not being manifest of darkness like his other tools.

That backpack is the only evidence left behind that Spidey ever caught the thief. The chat would have to wait for another time.

Peter Parker has posed:
Well, it wasn't too bad. The guards were happy to report the recovery, and one of them even thanked him. So that was a refreshing change.

He felt pretty good as he headed back. Captain Midnight didn't seem like a bad guy. Well, a thief, but a moral one of sorts. Maybe he can take the guy over to White Castle, maybe they can...

Spidey slowed down as he approached the web. Nothing but a backpack.

He sighed heavily. "...Well...so much for White Castle. Crap on a cracker."