6035/Of All The Rooftops In the City She Had To Swing Onto Mine

Of All The Rooftops In the City She Had To Swing Onto Mine
Date of Scene:	24 April 2021
Location:	Morningside Heights
Synopsis:	Venom and Ghost Spider run into each other while each are surveilling a hospital.
Cast of Characters:	Eddie Brock, Gwen Stacy

---

Eddie Brock has posed:
Eddie Brock had gotten a lead on some drug dealers. Not your regular street dealers, these instead were dealing in pharmaceuticals. While that included a lucrative opioid business, the contents often scooped up by addicts, it also included other more specialized medicines.

Actually tracking them down hasn't gone very well though. Tonight, Venom is crouched on the corner of a building, watching a nearby hospital. St. Luke's.

   <<Eddie>> "It's possible they might move them out in just a duffle bag or even pockets. Though a few of these quantities I heard about, I'm hoping they'll have some boxes or something. Just keep an eye out for anyone looking out of the ordinary."

Venom gives a soft, deep rumbling grunt. "This is boring work. I hope they show. These men are evil enough I can have them, yes?"

   <<Eddie>> "That's only a 'maybe' buddy. I mean stealing from a hospital ain't good. But I don't know they are being evil enough to be worth that. But hey, you have to admit we've been eating better lately."

Venom's lips draw bag, his teeth showing in his grin. "That's because of Gwen. I'll give her the credit."

   <<Eddie>> "Figures. Well she deserves it so I'm ok with that."

Gwen Stacy has posed:
Finals usually bring a frenetic activity to ESU. The kind of activity that Gwen certainly isn't immune to, which means she has been somewhat sparse in the various changes going through her life right now. Namely Eddie. But she knew he understood. Those same finals also brought a sense of anxiety and panic to many. The fear of failing. To some it meant reaching out for drugs, either for performance or to relax.

Amanda, her lab worker (One Eddie had met when he visited the labs with Maddie) had fallen to prey to it. Prey enough that she was currently in the hospital. Gwen had begun to investigate of course, first through the street rats but also without much success. She knew there was a link to the surrounding hospitals, and so she was moving in on St. Luke's to do some surveillance. Perhaps catch a criminal red-handed.

Ghost Spider lands on the side of a building near the hospital, feet and hands gluing her to the wall and she looking down and around, the earbuds blasting some music to her ears. 90s music this time. Garbage!

Eddie Brock has posed:
An ambulance pulls up to the hospital, lights flashing but siren off. As soon as it is stopped, the driver pops out, hurrying around to the back where the door is already being opened by the paramedic inside. They pull the stretcher holding the patient out of the back. They extend the legs and one of the men pushes the patient inside, while the other goes back to the ambulance to drive it forward and park it where it won't block the unloading zone.

Venom's eyes watch it all closely. They are more interested in people leaving than arriving. While he's watching, movement in the night sky catches his peripheral vision. He looks over and sees a figure swinging in a familiar arc, flying through the air the last few dozen feet freely to stick a landing, literally, further along to the side of the building that he's sitting on the rooftop corner of.

"One of the Spiders," he grumbles deeply, his voice having an edge to it. "The one that hit me in the face with the sign." He smashes a fist into the other palm, the sound not the loudest, but perhaps enough to carry.

   <<Eddie>> "Yeah well she's not fighting you now. Let's leave that in the past? We're here to find the bad guys, remember?"

Gwen Stacy has posed:
Ghost Spider remains glued to the wall for a moment, watching, studying. But then she moves again, almost like a spider really, on hands and feet, body swaying as she travels to a more advantageous position to keep watch. A position that appears to have something in common with Eddie. Because it's the same!

So soon enough she is getting close. Close enough that she can spot the dark figure there. The size and posture is telling, even if they are in the darkness. But at *least* there doesn't seem to be any rings and bells going off on her danger sense. Which at least is a positive, just a very tenuous line of latent aggression in the air that she can scent out of the man.

"What are you doing here?" Some suspicion on that tone under the mask. Not that she expects Venom to be a high-rolling drug dealer. Just not something she can imagine the creature to do. But still, for it to be here. Something is up...

"Prowling hospitals in search of targets to eat is low, even for you." Not a drug dealer, but maybe she is thinking something worse! That's what happens when you eat people in front of her. The woman flips in the air, landing on the ledge of the rooftop, squatting down and appearing to be ready for a rumble if it comes down to it. Shoulders seem tense.

Eddie Brock has posed:
Venom's eyes track the black, pink and white costumed hero as she moves closer. Eddie hasn't done much research on her yet, though he saw the articles in the paper about the drive by shooting, and their ensuing fight.

   <<Eddie>> "Gotta admit, that's a gorgeous costume. Wonder if she made it herself or got like, Janet van Dyne to design it. What do you think"

Venom's thought back is silent, yet still to Eddie he can hear the Klyntar's menacing tone in it. "No!" It makes the man inside chuckle. Inside.

Venom's large head tilts to the side, grinning in a way that show his sharp teeth. "If I were looking for someone to eat, I'd be outside a gym. Or maybe a Jenny Craig," he says in his deep, eerie voice.

He looks away from Ghost Spider, back down to the hospital, where a car has pulled up, a man hopping out to run inside, yelling about his wife in labor. Venom looks back to the female hero. "I'm here to stop bad people. If they are here. There. I'm a hero!" he claims.

Gwen Stacy has posed:
Damn right it's a Janet van Dyne. Talk about friends in high places! But it's not as if Ghost Spider goes around telling it to everyone. At least until she has met them for at least five minutes. What? She is proud of the costume!

"What? Cat caught your tongue?" She sasses when Venom doesn't answer right away. What with all the inner monologues with Eddie! But at least she appears to not be intimidated. Or at least not outwardly. She knew she had barely escaped their last fight. By the skin of her teeth, or in this case by the skin of a neon sign in the face. Alas, the same trick wouldn't work this time. Probably..

"Glad to know that's the kind of places you go to eat. I will have to keep an eye out." The woman is slowly sliding down the ledge, one ballerina slipper meeting the ground then the other before she is up on her full height, all elegant, supple motions. When Venom announces he is here to be a hero she tilts her head to the side. Yes, even with her mask the doubt is visible. "What kind of bad people?" she asks, a glance given over to the car that just stopped.

Eddie Brock has posed:
<<Eddie>> "Drug dealers"

Venom eyes the female hero and says, "The worst kind of course. Maybe as bad as the man who shot at children that you kept me from," his deep bass voice says. "Though they may not even be here. This is boring," the immense black creature says, looking back to the hospital again. He isn't showing any signs of thinking Ghost Spider might attack him. Or maybe he's trying to make her think he doesn't think she's enough threat to worry.

A nurse comes out with a wheel chair, collecting the pregnant woman and wheeling her inside. A few moments later, a security guard comes out with the obviously anxious father-to-be, forcing him to move his car out of the Emergency Room's unloading zone when the man would rather leave it there and be inside with his wife.

Venom looks back to Ghost Spider. "And why are you here? Scouting more signs?"

Gwen Stacy has posed:
"Is that so? Well, people deserve a trial, no matter the crime they did. We are not supposed to be jury judge and executioner." Ghost Spider promptly says back to Venom, shaking her head a bit to herself, "Not that I expect you to understand this." clearly not much trust in Venom being in the side of good!

That spatial awareness continues to help her, she taking in the pregnant woman, then the security officer. All seems in order so far. Attention goes back to Venom, arms folding around her waist, hip slightly thrusting to the side, "But very well, I will bite. What kind of bad men?" perhaps it's the same she is looking for. That'd be something at least. "... Anything related to drug dealing?"

"And I am looking for clues on a few drugs that have been popping up in ESU." a beat, "The university."

Eddie Brock has posed:
"Why not?" Venom replies. "We were there. We caught them with the guns. They are bad man. Very very bad men," Venom tells Ghost Spider, but his eyes have gone back to the hospital, as if the conversation is of lesser importance to him.

Until she mentions drug dealing. Which usually is not what jumps to mind when one thinks of a hospital. Even, necessarily, when thinking about bad things at a hospital. "Yes. It is," he says, the symbiote speaking briefly.

After a few moments pause, the massive shoulders give a shrug. "Mostly medical drugs though. Not the kind of things college students would buy. Only some that make people high. More like things they grab when they can, but not the focus of their dealings," he says.

Venom's lips suddenly grow in a big smile. With enough jagged teeth to be unsettling to see. "So we are working together. This is a... what do humans call it? A team up?"

Gwen Stacy has posed:
It's not as if Gwen expects to convince Venom to part from his ways of eating his way through bad guys and good guys. But she can still try to. "Yes, they are bad men." she admits, "Doesn't mean we have to be as bad as them, does it?" Yet at the same time Venom looks back to the hospital so does she, one foot up and on the ledge, following the movements there, and this time not keeping her full attention focused on Venom. Perhaps a sign of trust. Or maybe she just doesn't expect an attack..., this time.

"Mmm, what is the focus of their dealings, then?" She questions. Perhaps this wasn't the right place for her investigation. But she was here now, might as well look into it. "And if this is an high-end kind of thing I imagine they will be doing something different than just catching stuff from the shelves and moving out." she considers it and gestures. "Let's go check out the staff exit." she suggests.

"If anything I imagine this would be some kind of inside job, which would mean they wouldn't be walking out through the front door with the product." her father has been teaching her a few things about police work!

At the call for a tem up there is a roll of her eyes, "Don't let it get to your head, big guy. Spiders are loners by nature. Just look at those black widows." she teases a bit, "But for now, we are." maybe until they find the next neon sign.

Eddie Brock has posed:
Venom rumbles softly as he looks down at the hospital. "Yes, high end. Medicines for treating cancer, rare diseases. Doses that are rare and cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars each, or even more. Some that are in short supply. Sold on some black market mostly," he says. After a pause as if he's listening to something. "Where rich men can buy the treatments even when the doctors say they are not the cases most in need."

The pure white eyes, so unlike anything human, not even having eyeballs seemingly, look back over to Ghost Spider as she suggests the other exit. "Alright. We will watch the other one," he agrees in his deep, slightly disconcerting voice.

He rises from where he's crouched, and moves to swing around towards the other entrance. "Why a spider? Why follow HIS lead?" Venom says, and there's a savage sound to his voice as he makes the reference.

Gwen Stacy has posed:
There's no doubt on Gwen's mind when Venom asks about why she follows his lead. Spiderman's. "The actual truth would shock you." she replies with a glance over her shoulder before she tosses herself out of the building, free-falling for a few moments before a web shoots out of her wrist, gluing her to the side of the hospital and she swinging in an arc towards it, going for that back exit, legs pulled up against her while she flies through.

"But let me just say that from where I come from .., I was the original one." Original one? Considering how known Spider-man is perhaps she was the original one in some backwater city. Maybe in Mexico or something... Though the accent appears that of a New Yorker. "What is your problem with spiders though?" she questions. "And why the hate for him?"

Another swing and they near the staff exit. It's not as lit up as the front one, a couple of doctors on the outside having some smokes (who said doctors follow their own advice?), along with a couple of nurses leaving their shift, heading towards the parking lot.