880/Under Cover and Darkness

Under Cover and Darkness
Date of Scene:	31 March 2020
Location:	East Side
Synopsis:	Spider-Man gets a visit from a vampire and a very curious universe.
Cast of Characters:	Peter Parker, Singularity, Blake Riviere

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Peter Parker has posed:
Monday night. 11 PM.

What a lot of people tend to forget or gloss over about police work is how TEDIOUS it can be. Few cop shows portray the mentally-taxing hours spent doing paperwork, or sitting in cars for hours staying alert and watching for what they need to see.

Spider-Man is currently dealing with that right now. He is on the roof of the Shadow Run apartment building, with a laser microphone aimed at a particular room in a building across the street. The building is owned by a Silvermane shell company, and this is surveillance on a budget. A tablet is attached to the mike, and is dutifully recording any sounds from the meeting room behind the pane of glass. He is doing his best to stay alert.

Right now, that involves him sketching out the layout of the Spider-Suit he'd LIKE to have. If he ever got the money...that wasn't wiped out after ConEd and the City took their bites out of it for the trash collection...

He was pretty sure Riri and Shuri never had to worry about being able to afford Trash Day.

Singularity has posed:
    What's that, in the sky! It's a bird! (Wait, a glowing one?) It's a plane! (It's glowing blue, in fact.) It's Super-no, he's dead at the moment. And doesn't glow blue.

    Instead, it appears to be a petite blue girl who is flying over the city....really, flying, then vanishing and reappearing around the city.

    Singularity, you see, is looking for her friends. Not that any of them will remember her now, considering her timeline is...well, reset. But she's still worried about them, because they are still friends to her, and she wants to make sure they're all okay.

    Also she's pretty fascinated by this whole material plane, especially the heroes involved, so she keeps getting distracted watching superheroics in action. Or sometimes participating. They're everywhere!

    Like there! Person in a costume!

    And so she blinks out....and a moment later there's a little *poink* and a blue flicker and flash as she reappears right next to Spidey, peering over at him. "Hello!"

Blake Riviere has posed:
An hour from midnight probably had most people in their beds...most, but not all. This was New York after all. For Blake Rivere? It might as well have been noon. The sun might not be fatal to her, but habits were habits for the Vampiress. Dressed as she was, the black and red of her dress, the ribbons in her hair, she was probably a fairly striking sight for those who saw her, but the woman wasn't out seeking a meal or to socialize in some club this evening...she was just enjoying the moonlight....right up until the moment there's a streak of glowing blue light moving across it. Huh.

By the time the Spider with the sketchpad found himself being addressed, a light swirl of mist began to form atop the rooftop behind the pair...mist that coalesced into the form of the young woman tilting her head and blinking at the pair. "What are you doing?"

It was almost asked as if she believed her own presence to be completely 'normal'.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man jumped. He couldn't help it - one moment alone, next moment, glowng blue girl! Add to that the fact she didn't trip his Spider-Sense, and well...that's a bump up of the blood pressure.

And speaking of blood and pressure, a shadow separates from the other shadows into a dark-haired young woman with a Victorian vibe to her. Well, either Victorian or Victoria's Secret (like she HAS any secrets LEFT).

What is disconcerting is that the Goth girl is tickling his Spider-Sense. Very light, but still unpleasant. Not an imminent threat, but she is dangerous.

"Uhm...hello, there." He glances uncertainly from Blake to Singularity, then says, "Well...maybe we ought to introduce ourselves first before I say what I'm doing? I'd kinda like to know who I'm talking to..."

Singularity has posed:
    Yes, Singularity is still getting used to the concepts of personal space and not scaring the heck out of people when she just pops in next to them. At least she didn't try to give Peter a hello hug as well! But that's reserved for the friends she remembers.

    Her pupilless eyes widen a bit as Peter jumps, then turns to the goth girl as she arrives. "Hello!" she repeats, this time for the other person, waving to her cheerfully. New people! And she turned into mist! At some point, unless she's usually mist and this is her first time being a girl, which is also neat and Singularity wants to be welcoming to her new state of matter.

    "Yes! Heroing." the blue girl notes, pointing to Spiderman, then to Blake. "...heroing?" she says curiously. She's not in the kind of costumes she's used to seeing, quite, that would make that point definite or not.

    She grins at Peter though. "Yes! Names. Friends." She points to herself. "Singularity."

Blake Riviere has posed:
"Skulking then?" Blake questions, the faint 'Queens English' of her accent hanging onto her words. "Or is it lurking? Most people would be uncomfortable with someone spying on them from the rooftops." Seemingly, she'd ignored Peter's first request entirely for a moment, instead lazily bringing one hand up to tap against her lips with one red-painted nail in thought. "Especially by someone in a mask..."

Thankfully, Singularity's excited literal glowing has her blinking and looking towards the introductions of both name and 'heroing', another thing that has her raising an eyebrow. "I am Blake," she offers, apparently lacking a 'nickname' or 'alias' of her own. Not every person with superpowers has one after all!

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey nods. "Okay...you're Singularity, and you're Blake. I'm Spider-Man. Now, what I'm doing up here is a little surveillance work. So if you could both keep the noise down to a low roar at most?" He points over to the building the ledge faces, with the tiny black cylinder pointed at the side of the building. "I think the guys are trying to sleep. Looks like they're going to the mattresses on a recent development."

He continues to watch them, seeing how they react. Not the time to blithely accept them up here if one...or both...is planning to accost him or warn the bad guys across the street.

Singularity has posed:
    The shimmering blue girl immediately scoots over by Peter and crouches down, all Mission Impossible style, watching the indicated building with extreme seriousness! "Sleeping. On mattresses?" she repeats, nodding firmly. In the sense that she probably has no idea what Peter means. But she's being helpful!

    As Blake speaks, Singularity cocks her head, peering up at her. "England." she says after a moment. "Pip pip!" She beams at Black. Communicating with her in her native language!

Blake Riviere has posed:
Well, Blake wasn't immediately running to warn the 'bad guys' nor attacking Peter...so that was probably a good thing. Instead the vampiress simply raises an eyebrow and glances towards the building itself. "And these 'guys' are what exactly? Bank robbers? Enforcers? Jaywalkers...?" she trails off before Singularity's 'eager' address has her shaking her head with a soft little sigh, that hand at her cheek coming up to her forehead for the slightest of moments before lowering to be clasped in front of herself.

"What have these men done to draw in a masked 'hero' attempting to spy on them?"

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey smiles slightly. Singularity seems so eager.
"It's an old slang term. When mobsters were gearing up for some major fight, they would set up 'outposts' in their territory and set up soldiers of the crime family. Usually rent apartments or houses. Anyway, they would try to fit as many bare mattresses as they could for the soldiers to rest while they waited to act. So, 'going to the mattresses' became the term for setting up a place to house soldiers for a major offensive." He points to the building. "The building belongs to a top mob boss, capo di tutti capi - boss of all bosses - named Silvio Manfredi. Known colloquially as 'Silvermane.' The fact that he's old with white hair works in his favor. I'm listening to find out what their plans are. Right now, the only mention is of a mob boss who was caught skimming...stealing money from a mob bank. Also known as a 'money-room.'"

Singularity can get a good look at the costume he wears. Durable clothing, but it has been patched and sewn together in various places. The stitching is becoming frayed at one point along the arm. The suit has seen a lot of action.

Singularity has posed:
    Singuarity listens intently and nodnods when Peter finishes explaining. "Going. To mattresses." she says curiously. Tutti capo." She doesn't seem bothered by the costume being a bit worn...it's the person inside it that matters for heroes. She knows that.

    "Listening. For crime." she says thoughfully, resting back on her haunches. It's not like she's not following along, mind, it's just that...vocalization is hard when you're not used to trying to express concepts in noises. She's still getting the hang of it.

    She looks to Blake. "Bad. Men." she says seriously to her. Peter just explained this, but she wants to be sure she's getting it! She seems nice. Pretty! Clothes and rest of her. Odd energy signature, but that's interesting too.

Blake Riviere has posed:
"How positively Chicago-esque," Blake muses, stepping forwards now as her arms crossed under her bust. She'd moved closer, she'd made her way over towards the monitoring equipment. Gently shifting just enough to lean lightly against the railing, she looks back towards the spider and the glowing girl. "Bad men indeed..." she muses lightly, chuckling to herself.

"And you have those locations? Why not simply act on it?"

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man smiles wryly. "The thing is, picking the right time is tricky. Pick the wrong time, and it may end with fifteen mobsters webbed to walls and floors...but then they get hauled in front of a judge and post bail, and then they're out and about...only they know someone is watching, and opportunities melt away. Maybe a few low-level mobsters go to jail, but the operations themselves continue." He points to the tablet, which is doing voice-recognition analysis on the voices picked up. "Come in at the RIGHT time, and the RIGHT place...and you can stop a major operation in its tracks, catch them with evidence that implicates their bosses...and maybe give New York a chance to bring in the high-level bosses. A lot of study and info-gathering is involved."

Singularity has posed:
    Singularity nods again, frowning a little thoughfully. "Catch. When. Commiting. Crime. Not before." she muses. "Not. Crime. Yet." She mmmms, looking a little unsure. It's not how she's seen criminals be captured in the past, but then, they were generally blowing things up at the point she saw people dealing with them. Committing crimes first makes sense. She nods firmly. "Waiting. Good." She settles back to sit, wiggling until her back is against the AC unit behind her.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man nods. "This is the tedious part, sadly enough. Watching, waiting, listening. However, if you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer them to the best of my ability." He points to the building. "Most of them are asleep, but you never know if someone might talk in their sleep."

Singularity has posed:
    Singularity perks a bit at that. "Looking. For friends. Carol. Alison. Nico. Medusa?" she says, hopefully. She's found Jennifer so far, but the others, she's not stumbled across them as of yet. "Carol. Flies. Shiny fists? Alison. Sparkly. Lasers. Nico. Magic stick. Medusa. Grabby hair?" After all, he's a hero...he might know where they are.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man looks thoughtful. "Nothing immediately comes to mind. But...I can take down the information, do some searching, and if anything comes up, I can tell you." He takes out a notepad from the spider-themed backpack, then begins writing in it. "I can look up the names and such...only..." He looks up to Singularity. "If I do find something, how would I contact you, or signal you?"

Singularity has posed:
    The starry blue girl thinks about that for a moment, then perks, pausing to...well, reach into her chest. This coesn't appear to bother her much! Her hand just seamlessly disappear with a blue flicker, then emerges holding a burner phone. "Phone!" she says cheefully, handing it to Spider-Man trustingly. "Can ring?" It's...got a full battery charge. Wherever it was.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey blinks. Well, that was different. He might ask about who and what she was...but that seemed a little rude to ask as of right now.

He takes the phone, gloved fingers moving quickly over the keys, posting his spoofed number, his name, and tilts the phone to take a selfie of him to set the contact picture before saving it. He hands the phone back to Singularity.

"It looks like it handles texting as well, so if I find something, I can send you texts and links and you can see if what I send helps, or if I missed something."

No explanations why he's too busy, or not going to do busywork finding strangers he does not know. This is the only way he knows how to react to someone asking for help...

...namely, by giving it.

Singularity has posed:
    Singularity blinkblinks. "Texts?" she says uncertainly. She knows you can talk to people through it! But other things...well, she hasn't really poked at it. Obviously she should do that more, she decides. She doesn't seem to expect Spider-Man would drop everything to find her friends, but then, her tone didn't indicate intense concern either. Her friends are out there, she's sure of it. She just needs to find them. "Thank you." she says politely. "Can. Help?" She points towards the other building. It never hurts to help! Or so a wise cartoon cat said on the TV once.

Peter Parker has posed:
Help? Well, he'd never turn down help, but it depends on the type of help needed, doesn't it?

"Well, Singularity, what would be helpful is knowing what you can do, first of all. Different abilities help in different ways, and what can work in one situation may not work in another. But knowing what you can do shows me what's in your metaphorical 'toolbox,' and we can see which tools can handle which tasks best."

Singularity has posed:
    That draws a faint frown of thought from the blue girl as she considers how to try and fit very large topics into relatively small sounds. "Teleport." she says after a moment. "Can see. Can teleport. Teleport. To people." She points to herself. "People. Singularity. Knows." She foats up into the air, drifting so she's peering at Peter upsidedown. "Fly!' She mmmmsm. "Teleport. You. Others. All together." Her noise wrinkles cutely. "...bigger. Inside?" she offers after a moment, looking a bit helpless as she searches for how to describe it.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man tilts his head, thinking. Behind the mask, the gears are turning. He remembers how the phone appeared and diappeared.

"Okay...let me know how close I am. You can travel, instantaneously, to people you know. Something about them, your connection to them, is why it works. Okay..."

His mind is interesting in the way it works.

"Bigger inside than outside. There's a popular television program about people traveling in something that is bigger inside than outside. They call it the TARDIS. Stands for 'Time And Relative Dimensions In Space.' So...where you put the phone. There is a space there. Extra-dimensional. Big enough for people to fit inside it. And when you travel...like an Einstein-Rosen bridge. When you move, the exit point moves." He nods his head slowly, then looks to Singularity. "How did I do? Was I more or less accurate?"

Singularity has posed:
    "Yes! Doctor." Singularity says excitedly, then cocks her head, thinking it over. "Travel. Anywhere. I know. See. Sense?" she says curiously. "Yes. Wormhole. Or teleport." She taps her chest. "People. Inside." She considers, searching for the term, then points at herself. "Universe." she says firmly. "All inside. Can be. Outside. Or Inside."

Peter Parker has posed:
The idea of a sentient female universe is a little beyond Peter's imagination, but he does have quite a few theories. "All right...that's a little confusing, but maybe if I stick with simple questions..."

And what is discovery if not baby steps?