668/Non-Hulk SMASH!

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Non-Hulk SMASH!
Date of Scene: 21 March 2020
Location: Drug Lab, Brooklyn, NY
Synopsis: An epic meeting is in the cards as Spider-Man meets Smasher while confronting the White Rabbit.
Cast of Characters: Peter Parker, Isabel Kane




Peter Parker has posed:
Curiouser and curiouser...

The warehouse was spacious, but the motif was...curious. The people working the various chemical stations were dressed in jumpsuits that looked like playing cards (and no two cards the same). Low-level workers were number cards; underbosses were face cards. There was a statue of a large anthro caterpillar with human arms and a doleful face watching over the area.

Mutant Growth Hormone was a thriving business, and this lab was part of the main operation on the East Coast.

In the warehouse office, a man dressed like the King of Hearts was pleading with the figure behind the desk.
"Please! Didn't I improve production by twelve percent across the board?"
The figure scowled. "Yes...but you didn't come through with the latest shipment until 24 hours AFTER the deadline. You made me LATE!"

The figure leaned forward, the rabbit ears tilting forward, the blue eyes focused and intense. She swung a gold railroad-style pocket watch on a thick chain in slow circles.

"YOU KNOW I HATE BEING LATE," the White Rabbit intoned darkly.

Isabel Kane has posed:
Well, she'll /really/ hate Isabel, then. The white-and-black clad young woman with the high-tech sunglasses had not been in New York for long, but she had already figured out that there were plenty of people there whose primary interest was in making the city better for them ... even if that meant making it worse for everyone else.

Unfortunately, she wasn't terribly subtle in her approach. Just flying down out of the sky to touch down in front of the warehouse, and ripping the door off its hinges only to toss it away to one side, wasn't the sort of entrance that was likely to end up with most of the perpetrators captured -- quite a few were likely to slip away, if the thought occurred to them.

But still. It was a start.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man was pretty calm and collected.
He had been aware of the lab for a couple of days, and had picked tonight when most of the gang would be here. MGH was a high-society "designer drug," used by powerlifters and upper-crust people looking to build power and muscle. A popular actor had been busted with it while on the set of a crime drama shoot in town, and Spidey had followed that thread back here.

And he was getting ready to seal off the building, get inside, use a STUPID amount of webbing, and catch the White Rabbit.

...and then someone in a black and grey costume went full Leeroy Jenkins on the loading-dock door.
Hoo, boy.
Spider-Man fired a webline and went to work.

The shriek of metal as the steel door had its warranty VIOLENTLY voided, everyone flinched, the White Rabbit included. She looked around, then out the office window. Her lips curled into a hateful grimace.
"GO TELL ALICE!" she snarled at Tweedledee and Tweedledum, two large mercs who had, until now, enjoyed a rather cushy job. Room, board, a tiny cut of the proceeds, and all the MGH they could inject. So by the time Smasher made her presence known, they were pretty bulked up, nerves singing with energy.

The two men bolted out of the office and down the stairs, yelling, SNICKER-SNACK!"
People throughout the warehouse dropped tools and grabbed guns.

Isabel Kane has posed:
Isabel hadn't spent a lot of time fighting evildoers so far. Training, yes. Actually fighting, not so much. Maybe she would have been satisfied with just breaking up the lab and not capturing all the perpetrators; or maybe she just didn't know how any better way to handle it. Either way, now she was committed, and here were two exceedingly juiced-up hooligans ready to throw down with her, and a whole bunch of people about to start shooting. This wasn't going to end well.

She was still getting the hang of shifting rapidly back and forth between powers, and as a result, she wasn't taking much in the way of chances: so the first hail of bullets ricocheted harmlessly off her. She even managed to duck under the first strike from the taller (by millimeters) of the two MGH-enhanced legbreakers. The second one, though ... with the second one, she wasn't so lucky.

This was going to hurt.

Peter Parker has posed:
There are a LOT of bullets heading towards Smasher right now. There is the matter of TweedleDee being in close proximity, but as a wise man once said, one should worry less about the bullet with your name on it and more about all the ones addressed to OCCUPANT.

The downside is that Dee is not so bulletproof and gets tagged by about ten bullets. TweedleDum, on the other hand, is not following his namesake and isn't being so Dum, jumping to the side of the hailstorm.

On the upside, that means everyone is looking at her and no one is looking UP. Through the sudden thunderstorm of lead rain, she can see gunmen at the other side of the lab suddenly being plucked from the ground and pulled up into the rafters above the flourescent lights. And it was happening fairly rapidly.

Isabel Kane has posed:
Oh, dear. Isabel wasn't exactly going to lose any sleep over Dee getting shot, but it wasn't what she was -- pardon the pun -- aiming for. At least the hail of bullets managed to help her avoid getting walloped by either of the two augments. High-velocity pieces of lead everywhere wasn't going to be healthy for anyone over the long term, though!

Of course, while she wasn't suffering any harm, she wasn't really doing much, either. So when she caught sight of the gunmen being dealt with by someone else, she was quick to take advantage by making herself even more of a target. "You can't hurt me!" she yelled out, picking up a steel barrel and hurling it at the feet of some of the closest shooters. "Throw down your weapons and surrender!" Okay, not terribly convincing, but that wasn't the point -- all she wanted was to keep their eyes on her.

Peter Parker has posed:
Sometimes, you have to give props to showmanship.

The "cards" keep shooting, stuck in the mindset of "shoot it enough, it will go away." Definitely been watching too many action flicks. They may be good chemists and workers, but have no sense of urban tactics. Dum, on the other hand, is thinking they are all mad here and is opting out of this jabberwocky. He tosses his gun and heads for the opened doorway, hoping to make it out before he catches a stray bullet.

However, it IS giving a chance for a certain White Rabbit to see where this is going and try to escape this. She bolts down the stairs as the gunfire begins to thin out. She come out around Spider-Man's left flank in time to see the Knave of Diamonds go straight up as if he suddenly developed the power to fly...

Isabel Kane has posed:
Up until now her distraction had worked pretty well -- and indeed, she was still catching bullets with her face even as Dum bolted for freedom -- but now Smasher had a decision to make, and not a lot of time to make it. If she went after Dum, the Rabbit might get the drop on her unlikely partner. Unlikely, considering who she's dealing with -- but possible! If she dealt with the Rabbit, then Dum might get away. If he were smart and fast. Again, unlikely, but possible.

No time to waste -- because Isabel doesn't think to switch to superspeed so she can mull it over a little. Inexperience. But the decision could only go one way, and so she stepped in close to the nearest of the shooters, picked him up, and threw him at the Rabbit. Easy enough even without deactivating her invulnerability. Not hard enough to hurt either of them much, but hopefully enough to get the latters attention.

Peter Parker has posed:
There are quite a few candiidate, and suddenly the Three of Spades is picked up and thrown at the White Rabbit. He doesn't so much have the flight characteristics of Flung Playing Card. It's more like Set of Thrown Car Keys.

White Rabbit points her umbrella at Spider-Man as he is webbing up the Ace of Spades, smiling as the trigger for the concealed rifle pops out. She aims...

And then, oh, hey, flying henchman.
White Rabbit is bowled over by the body of Three of Spades, both of them hitting the ground and rolling. Spider-Man's Spider-Sense was still rising when Smasher's throw negates thje threat. He looks over in the direction of the Rabbit and the UFO (Uncommon Flying Object) and then hops over to the railing above them.
"Ouch...looks like you got played, you Wascally Wabbit."

It is about this time that the "cards" start running out of ammunition. Almost all of it is in the wall behind Smasher or flattened and on the pavement around her. They don't even seem to realize it until the gunfire peters out, half of their number are now Spider-Pinatas, and the target is still standing.

Isabel Kane has posed:
That was about the best outcome Isabel could have hoped for, and relief was evident in her expression -- as much of it as could be seen, at least. Thanks to the goggles and the cowl, that wasn't all that much.

With the shooters suddenly a good deal less shoot-y, and their numbers cut at least in half, she felt a little better able to take some proactive measures. It worked so well once, so she moved up to one of the remaining cards and picked /him/ up, this time holding him high over her head. "I said, THROW DOWN YOUR WEAPONS." This time it might carry a little more resonance, especially with the way she was willing to wave her prisoner menacingly at anyone who looks like they may not be prepared to go along. One good set of car keys might well deserve another.

Peter Parker has posed:
The remaining "cards" shuffle backward uneasily, then look towards the rear of the building...

...where Spider-Man is webbing White Rabbit and Three of Spades to the ground. Yeah, no help there. Suddenly a jail cell doesn't sound all that bad.
Guns clatter to the floor, and then they raise their hands, one by one.

Spider-Man walks forward, head tilted slightly. He spots what used to be TweedleDee and grimaces. He had been hoping for a bloodless victory, but it looks like he had doubled down on a stupid choice and lost everything.
Spider-Man looked to the group, then clapped his hands. "Okay, everyone, cards face down." As they move to lay down on the ground, he looks back to Smasher. "Hey there..."

Isabel Kane has posed:
Isabel had set her latest victim down again to allow him to comply with Spider-Man's instruction -- set him down gently, even. Fortunately, he took the hint with alacrity, and that gave her a chance to look for -- oh. Her face fell when she inspected Dee with the vision-enhancing powers of her goggles and found out what she probably should have known already.

Turning back to Spider-Man, she greets him with a, "Hi. I, um, I'm sorry if I messed this up for you." Her tone's apologetic, and she rubs the back of her head self-consciously. "I've been seeing this stuff all over the neighborhood this past week and when I saw the lab in here ..."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man sighs. "Look...first off, you can't unscramble eggs. What happened, happened. And I saw what happened, the guy had more guts than common sense. It's a tragedy...but you have to own what is yours. And considering that the rest are bruises, cuts, and maybe a broken bone or two, it could have gone much worse. Use it as a learning experience, Miss..." He pauses, then says with a little more sheepishness in his voice, "Uhm, what DO you go by? If you don't read the BUGLE or haven't been around town...the name is Spider-Man. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man."

Isabel Kane has posed:
She's not entirely satisfied by this answer, but he's right: there's not much she can do about it at this point. "I'll have to think about how to handle something like this. I didn't even think to /look/ for guns!" Or melt them in their owners' hands, or disarm everyone at hyper-speed, or ... well, it's not as if there's a Street Crime Fighting For Dummies handbook. She looks sheepish. "A little more patience will probably help."

Is she ... blushing? She's actually blushing. "Um. I'm a Smasher. Or I guess just Smasher? It's a little bland, but I guess so am I, so it fits. And sure! I read the papers. They say you're a deadly menace to society whose -- what was it? -- whose depradations are a blight on the streets of New York." She looks around, and observes: "Seems like they've got their head up their -- well, anyway."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man looks to Smasher, then sighs. "Yeah, people talk. I prefer to let my actions do the talking for me. I do a *LOT* of bad humor, though. That I freely admit to." He looked around. "Well, Smasher, we should call the cops, let them take White Rabbit and the whole lot of them. Although it seems you decked a few of these cards." He shrugs.

"Listen...I've been doing this for a couple of years. Want a little hero tutoring? Just basic stuff, how to handle utilizing what you have for street criminals, that sort of thing. Unofficial stuff, but...the more you know, right?"

Isabel Kane has posed:
"I just played the hand I was dealt," Isabel replies, deadpan. She pauses a beat, then decides, "Okay, no, not good, if I can't do better than that I should probably just stick with grim silence. I'll give the police a call and get our friends shuffled off to jail." Oh, Isabel. No, no, no.

His suggestion makes her brighten up. "Would you really? That would be great. They taught me -- I mean, I learned how to use my powers, but not really how to /make/ use of them. If that makes any sense?"

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man heard the comment, but it sounded like that was Her Business, and you don't ask about a heroine's Her Business. He nods thoughtfully. "So you know the basics of your powers, but you don't have any field experience. Am I understanding that correctly?"

Isabel Kane has posed:
"Exactly right," she says, apparently not worried about any of the perps nearby hearing her. Which might count as another mistake right there. "And I don't really know the city so well, either. I'm from -- not around here." Hopefully she means "Iowa" and not "outer space". "Well -- except for those critters a couple of weeks ago, but I think that was just bad luck. Wasn't my idea, anyway. But I'm getting sidetracked, and it sure seems like there's a lot more to it than just knowing how much you can lift and stuff."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man nods. He reaches into his backpack and pulls out a notepad. He writes down a phone number and hands it to Smasher. "Here. When you have some available time. Call me. We can set something up. I have a few places where we can train, practice, that sort of thing. We can analyze your powers, sort out the best ways to utilize them. How does that sound, Smasher?"

Isabel Kane has posed:
Not at all how she expected her night to go! But Isabel is happy to accept the note, saying, "Thanks! That'd be really nice of you -- I'd sure appreciate it. And you seem like you have this whole thing figured out pretty well." Her cheeks color a little again, and she hastens to add: "I won't take up too much of your time, I promise! I expect you've got a lot to do."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey chuckles. "Never trouble to help heroes do the right thing in better ways. It actually makes my job easier if you're effective at what you do, in the long run." He looks around. "Better make that call, if you haven't already. The webbing lasts for about an hour, and it would be a good idea to have those guys I hung from the rafter taken down carefully. Cops have a burr up their badges about me, so I should put on my boogie shoes. You got things under control from here?"

Isabel Kane has posed:
She nods. "I'll get right on it! And I don't have anywhere else to be right now, so I can stay and keep an eye on everyone until the good guys show. The other good guys, I mean. You go on and get where you need to be!"

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man nods...then extends a hand for a handshake. "Welcome to the heroing biz, Smasher. Glad to see someone taking the responsibility head-on."

Isabel Kane has posed:
A quick firm clasp of hands -- she's blushing again -- and Isabel gives a firm nod. Whatever she thinks about her performance today, she's not going to go fishing for reassurance by talking herself down. "Thanks. I'll do my best."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man nods, then raises one arm and fires a webline towards the high windows. "All anyone can ask of you. Take care."

And with that, Spidey is up and out of there, nimble as his namesake.

White Rabbit says sourly, "Nothing like a heroic killjoy to ruin a business."