6248/Green Monster

Green Monster
Date of Scene:	17 May 2021
Location:	Bushwick <Mutant Town>
Synopsis:	Mania visits Mutant Town. Things get a little crazy with a plant-based mutant as Iceman lends a frosty hand.
Cast of Characters:	Andi Benton, Bobby Drake

---

Andi Benton has posed:
Mutant Town is home to a number of very...interesting people. That's one way for Andi Benton to look at it. Some of her friends are interesting, as well. /She/ is, to some. Especially to those that know her. This is because of the symbiote more than anything else, but Mania is a side of her that has felt more a part of her than a separate entity over the past year or so, and some things she wouldn't have considered normal by any means are becoming less abnormal little by little.

Mutant Town is the place she's chosen to patrol tonight, or at least take a break in and have herself a meal. It's a cheesesteak atop an apartment building, obtained as Andi, currently being devoured by Mania in all her inky black-suited self. Some mutants walk the streets below, and at least in this area they can do so without needing to keep obvious signs of what they are under wraps.

Bobby Drake has posed:
Bobby comes to MT as often as he can. If he's not visiting acquaintances and friends - alumni from the school or people he knows otherwise- he is supporting some of the local businesses with his custom. Truthfully, he has been avoiding running into some people he knows- specifically, Julio. His graduation is coming up, and he doesn't really want to talk about his plans after graduation. He knows his plans do not include him at all, so it's best to not deal with that.

As it happens, he is exiting a coffee house, a cup of hot chocolate in his hand as he takes a lazy, slow stroll. He is not particularly worried about the edges where it is dangerous to walk- Iceman has faced demons and survived. Muggers are very little concern.

Just as it happens, a young man is also walking up the street, but he seems to be distracted, walking with uncertain step and not seeming to know where he is going. Clearly, something is on his mind. His appearance is relatively normal, except for a slight green pallor to his skin, and his bushy hair has a slight... ferny look to it.

He seems to be holding a very heated text conversation on his phone, and thus seems completely oblivious to the fact that he's walking towards an area where not a lot of people walk. Where there is one or two furtive shadows looking out from the alleyways.

Andi Benton has posed:
From up above, Mania watches and surveys the scene below.

//Why are we waiting here, Andi?//
<<Because you wanted to find something interesting and a place like this is as good a place as any?>>
//Oh. Yes. That is right. When does it get more interesting? We have seen many buildings like these before.//

The answer might not be long in coming. Their attention shifts toward fern-head guy, and the all-white eyes squint in that direction.

//He is not paying attention to what is around him.//

Andi leaves the observation unanswered. Instead, she decides to move a building or two closer, and Mania silently hops across without need of webbing.

Bobby Drake has posed:
The young man is, indeed, not watching where he's going. Bobby, on the other hand, stops to talk to someone he recognizes, and thus he exits the vignette momentarily.

The young man, on the other hand, is clearly headed towards disaster. It's the split second between the moment when he's walking, and when he's grabbed and dragged into the alley by a large, burly figure. No-one on the street saw it, distracted as they were.

Lucky for him, there are eyes elsewhere that witnessed it...

Andi Benton has posed:
<<Is it interesting enough for you now? Look.>>
//We saw, Andi. Someone grabbed the one with the strange hair.//

And that's all it takes for Mania to cast out a line of webbing that carries her down in an arc toward the alley below.

"We saw that. Nobody drags others into alleys with good intent. Now why don't you let him go, or we can have some fun." There is a moment where the dual voice, feminine and strangely alien at the same time, stops and consider things, and the eyes shift to focus more directly on whoever's in there. "We were looking for some fun."

Mania makes a show of cracking her knuckles, and the spiky bits to her arms and legs appear to bristle slightly. There is also that big white spider on her torso, front and back, but she certainly doesn't look like any Spider-Man.

Bobby Drake has posed:
The massive man who had pulled the smaller man into the alleyway freezes at the sight of Mania. In the dim light it is obvious that he si some sort of mutant with the ability to incorporate some sort of rock-like nature into his body, his craggy form looking imposing and terrifying.

But nowhere near as imposing and terrifying as Mania.

"What... the f-"

Suddenly, he swings the young man around, seeking to use him as a human shield of sorts. "Back. The. Fuck. Off!" the large man roars, one massive hand grabbing the hostage by the neck, and another by the arm. The young man is trembling, eyes wide open in terror.

Andi Benton has posed:
"Oh, did we scare you? Not so fun when you're the one who's scared, is it?" Mania taunts the big, rocky guy as she takes a step closer.

//What is he, Andi?//
<<Fuck if I know, but we can't let him hurt that guy.>>

As the would-be kidnapper uses fern-head as a shield, Mania's hands come to rest at her hips and those eyes just narrow visibly. "Yeah, so here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna let him go right now, or we're going to teach you a little lesson about playing nice. You can't just get your rocks off on others like that without consent."

Has she been picking up on Spider-Man's jokes?

Mania adds, "So what's it gonna be?"

Bobby Drake has posed:
It's Mania's lucky night tonight. This particular goon has some interest in leaving with his limbs intact, and he's not too busy trying to come up with a rejoinder to the very Spidey joke. Instead, he takes several steps back, towards the entrance of the alleyway.

"I'm... just going to..." three steps. Five steps. Six.

And then, he moves. His movements are fast and strong, and before the young man is aware, he is sailing through the air in a trajectory that will seriously injure him upon landing... if nobody intevenes.

Obviously this is a distraction, as the man turns around and makes a run for the main street, running at full tilt...

And into the path of one Robert Drake. "Hey! Watch it!" the blue-eyed mutant shouts at the last second, managing to dodge the incoming bulk, which speeds past him.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania moves a step closer after his first three back, then another. There is suspicion in the body language, anticipation. The other one is acting evasively, stalling.

Suddenly, it happens. The one with the leafy hair and the green tint to his skin goes airborne, and the rocky guy moves to barge past her.

In one motion, Mania leaps over him, springing higher with a hand pushing off from his head, and in that same motion she sends out dual lines of webbing. The first goes toward the one sent flying in an effort to slow his path and save him from injury. The second seeks out the fleeing rock dude.

It might just be that some of it flies wildly in Bobby's direction. "Look out!"

Bobby Drake has posed:
"Look out? Wh-" Bobby spots the webbing just in time to duck, as the strand reaches its target and tangles up the fleeing goon. In the opposite direction, the flying victim is stopped from damaging impact by the timely use of webbing. However, he does not seem to be in a good state, psychologically, as he appears to be in shock. He doesn't make a sound as his landing is eased by the webbing.

"Whoa, whoa... what's going on?" Bobby asks, recovering his footing and looking at Mania, finally able to give her a good look.

And there's a pause, because she makes for a very intimidating presence. "... What did this dude do?" he asks, gesturing towards the man who is currently writhing on the ground, webbed. His strength is not sufficient to break from those bonds. "You lool like you're with the Friendly Neighborhood team... am I right?"

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania's attention seems able to split between the two different directions those in the alley headed in, interestingly enough. It shows in how she takes a couple steps toward the one who was sent flying, while also sending another burst of sticky webbing at the 'bad guy' without looking directly at him. It's more of a glue-like blob meant to splat against his legs and bind better.

Now it's Bobby who draws a glance, at least based on the direction her head turns, and there isn't much of a face currently visible. It's mostly featureless. "That guy," she points to Rocky, the finger tipped with a claw, "grabbed that guy," now she points to the green one, "and pulled him into the alley. We decided to get in the way. And..yes. You could call us the Friendly Neighborhood Mania." Even if the style looks a lot more Venom.

At that point, she approaches the one who'd been grabbed, head tilting curiously. "Hey, you all right?" Fingers are snapped in his direction.

Bobby Drake has posed:
"A mugger, eh? Well, luck's run out. Just in case that doesn't hold you..." A construct of ice bars surrounds the man. He looks like he could punch through them easily, but the reality is quite different... these bars are extremely tough. And it's only a taste of what might be coming if he wants to test Bobby. Fortunately, that is not the case and he remains immobile for now.

The victim opens his eyes, which are wild with terror, and unfortunately the first thing he sees is Mania. She isn't the most soothing of sights, and in an altered state of fear, it is terrifying. "N-no, I- help!" the young man says, it's almost a whisper, but what happens next comes with a roar.

The alleyway explodes with vegetable life. It is amazing that in the spot of a heartbeat, urban brick and concrete suddenly become a verdant jungle growing by the second, spilling forth in rapidly-growing trunks that push out at anyone in the vicinity. At the same time, vines spread out to hug the adjacent buildings, covering them with verdant green and flowers, sprawling into branches that criss-cross every available surface. quickly covering doors and windows and most surfaces in a matter of seconds.

"Oh no, this is't good-" Bobby calls out, trying to reach Mania, pushing through stalks and trunks. There is no sight of the young man so far- it's easy not to see him, surrounded by this aggressive verdor. "Ouch!" a line of red blood crosses Bobby's arm as a thorny plant rushes past him in the expansion of the green. A second later, Iceman is in his ice form, and thus impervious to that harm. "Watch out. This garden isn't playing nice!"

Andi Benton has posed:
"Neat trick," Mania tells Bobby while still looking at fern-head. There's /got/ to be a way she can tell! "You must be a blast at those all-ice clubs and shit." The voice still carries that duality to it, like there are two parts to the whole.

Spoiler alert: that's true.

Hands then go up in an attempt to express peace toward the one in a panic. "No, look. We tried to /save/ you. We aren't here to hurt you like that other guy. Just--"

The sentence has no chance to finish, replaced instead by a "Holy fuck!" as the drab, dirty alley suddenly teems with color even if most of it is simply green, tearing up the ground and growing rapidly along the sides of the two buildings. "That's..whoa, watch it!"

A moment before a thorny vine shoots past Mania, she's ducking away from it as if she knew it was coming before it did. Spider-Man can do something like that. As Bobby becomes all ice, eyes that are already widening do so a little more. "We have to get him to stop!"

Bobby Drake has posed:
"We do!" Bobby calls out, as another burst of verdor almost buries him in a tide of green. Using his ice platforms, he manages to get some elevation, and from there he can see how fast and how wide the spread is. He whistles.

"He's in panic mode and going haywire! We've got to find a way to calm him down before-"

And that's when, out of the impromptu jungle, a tall and willowy figure rises. It's comprised of wood and branch, leaf and sap, and it looks like some sort of forest golem. It begins to run, the vegetation parting as it does, speeding towards the main street in what is clearly an attempt to flee, but without much premeditation. It is sheer panic.

"Before something like that happens," Bobby says.

Andi Benton has posed:
//Andi, we have not seen anything like this before!//

"Yeah, neither have I!"

The response may seem odd, since it doesn't appear to be tied to anything Iceman just said. In the heat of the moment, she just answered aloud rather than inside her head with private Mania conversations. She doesn't realize it, because action is fast becoming the name of the game again. "We could..um, damn. What's going on with him?"

Mania has not seen a mutant's powers going wild like this. Not even anything between Andi and Mania has been as serious as this as far as control is concerned! "And are you making ice platforms out of thin air? That's crazy!"

So says the woman with a symbiote bond and ties to the spider guy.

As the taller, woody 'golem' tries to bolt, she calls back, "Webbing him is only gonna make it worse! Does this happen a lot around here?" Force doesn't seem like the right way to play this, so she web-lines her way back into the street in pursuit, calling ahead, "Out of the way! Mutant gone wild!"

Bobby Drake has posed:
"It's a thing I do," Bobby replies with a slight smirk, "Just like you do the crazy webbing thing. Look, I think-" but Mania is off to warn the public- and that's good! But something long-term needs to be done, and fast! Swooping in on one of his platforms, Bobby catches up to Mania.

"I don't think he's going to listen to arguments while he's in panic mode... but I have an idea. How strong can you get him webbed up? He's obviously got vegetable affinities... if we can get him slowed down, and then lower the temperature enough... but we have to first restrain him enough-"

The forest golem glances against a building as it runs. It's not large enough to cause serious damage, but it does damage the facade. In its flight, it does try to avoid any incoming cars, but the odds of that being maintained while in the throes of panic are slim...

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania swings along no different from Spider-Man, or Venom for that matter. The webbing is different, but only if one knows how.

"We were not sure if that was smart, but we can make.." A realization follows. "We have not really tested how much we can make." There's a first time for everything, and the poor mutant on the run may become a guinea pig.

Getting ahead again as the cosmetic damage is made to the building, Mania lands and directs denser amounts of webbing from the hands at the golem. It thickens, wraps, binds, and it looks like it will create a cocoon around the guy by the time she's done. "Sorry! We didn't want to have to do this! We know you're scared!"

Bobby Drake has posed:
"Good job! Now to do my part!"

Bobby is aware that people have gathered. Even when there's danger, you will always have rubberneckers, which is why crowd control is important, as well as nullifying a threat. The crowds might not be appreciative of the tall ice walls that are instantly erected to isolate them from danger as well as block the view, but c'est la vie. Consistently lowering the temperature, Bobby tries to drive the panicked mutant into some sort of light hibernation, and hopes that he is correct about how the mutant might react.

It takes a little while, but not being able to free himself from all of the extra webbing causes the golem to stay rooted to one place, which makes the localized cold more effective.

Eventually, the golem begins to shrink in size and, finally,splits open to reveal the young man within,looking sluggish but pacified, and not just a little embarrassed, red touching the green of his skin. Almost as if by magic, the spontaneous vegetation that had sprung up begins to wilt and waste away.

Andi Benton has posed:
No limits seem to be reached just yet, but there is a sort of rippling over Mania's body that suggests a level of exertion that goes beyond the norm, however this may not be clear to the average bystander. Focus is kept up, a cautious approach following as she keeps an eye on Iceman while he takes over to cool the situation - and the mutant - down.

It works! Even Mania holds a breath as the greenery reduces, and the mutant within makes a reappearance. "How did you do that? That was nuts, but..cool!"

Remembering the appearance that spooked the guy before, she scans the surroundings and tells Iceman, "If you keep up the walls.." Then something happens. The mostly faceless visage begins to peel back, tendrils visible as it retreats enough to reveal the head and face of a young woman with purple hair and multiple piercings. "See? This is me. It's like a costume, but more."

//We are not a costume, Andi!//
<<I know that! Stop being huffy! That's the easiest way to explain it to people who don't understand it, though!>>
//...fine. We will accept it for now. But we are so much more.//

Bobby Drake has posed:
"I figured that, well... cold freezes the cells in a plant, it interrupts the pathways for nutrients and water to flow. The trick was to do it without damaging him..." he stops on his way to the young man, and blinks at Andi.

"Oh... wow. That's cool!" he says, "Nice to meet you. But you'd better put the... look back on. I need to drop the walls so we can get him some medical attention. I don't expect he's seriously injured, mostly just dazed, but it pays to be careful."

Andi Benton has posed:
Just like that, the visage is back in place. "We did it to let him see that we are not just scary and creepy. And you can call us Mania." Yes, it's an organic, living costume, which may or may not be obvious by this point depending on what Iceman is familiar with. Symbiotes are not the most common knowledge. Not even the truth of Venom might be known yet.

There is an actual gentle way that Mania offers to help the mutant back to his feet. "We should get you home, and..we aren't a mutant so we don't really know what happens next, but we hope you know someone who can help you."

In the moment, some of that could come from Bobby, but further discussion may be required once the situation is all dealt with, including the rocky one...unless he's escaped by the time they return.