916/Getting To Know You

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Getting To Know You
Date of Scene: 01 April 2020
Location: Staring at Titans tower, ending in central St Martin Island.
Synopsis: Gar's plan was so simple - spend some time socializing with Kate to see whether she and he will gel, because Gar wants there to be a Titans again. Bring Terry, Colette and Kian along. Eat Churros. Then Spider Robots happened, and Gar's plans seem to have suddenly moved rather faster than intended.
Cast of Characters: Gar Logan, Terry O'Neil, Kate Bishop, Kian, Colette O'Connail




Gar Logan has posed:
    Group outing!
    At least, that's what it felt like for one Garfield Logan, who also felt equal parts giddy and unsure.  Over the last number of days, there were a few things going on that led to more activity at Titans Tower.  First, it was standing up to Raven and showing some spine, getting her to come down a bit from the idea of nobody else being allowed there.  This has led to Kian at least being around from time to time as other details are worked out with him.  Kate, also a recent visitor, seemed very interested in the concept of the Titans starting back up again.  Colette and Terry, two of the people more instrumental in helping Gar get back to a better state of mind, were of course around as well.
    The goal for the day?  Just hanging out, doing something normal, getting to know each other better.  No costumes, at least in Gar's case, sticking with the casual clothing.  It didn't feel like official Titans business.  Not yet.  It wasn't a patrol.  It was just some socialization.  "So I was thinking we could go down to one of the boardwalk areas and get some food, and just see what we're all hoping to do with this.  How does that sound?"  The future was so bright, he needed shades.  It's also very sunny.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    "The boardwalk sounds good, I could kill for some ice-cream!" Terry says.  He was determined not to miss the first outing of the potential rebirth of the Titans.  Even if things were still not back to normal and he was still wearing those silly bike gloves….
    But his story made sense, right?  Cut himself during parkour, wears the gloves so as not to disturb the bandages.  Totally reasonable, right?  Right?
    It's very sunny, which suits Terry just fine—as he is also wearing sunglasses.  Only in part because it's sunny.  90% because, since last night, his pupils had become slitted and he couldn't get them to come back to normal.
    "Say, I wonder if the churro stands are out already…."  Because there's a silver lining to everything, and churros were a perpetual silver lining.

Kate Bishop has posed:
    "I wondered about the timing," Kate notes dryly and then looks down at her outfit.  I mean, she thought about wearing her civilian clothes but when she learned it was an outing with Garfield, Gary, and evidently this is also Kian whom she just met.
    Let's just say Kate Bishop's identity as Hawkeye would be out in record time if she was just walking around with Beast Boy and Kian because they definitely stand out in their own ways a good deal.  One is a known celebrity and Titan on the island the tower in on.
    So sure while they may be intending to get churros she is not going as Kate Bishop.  "Churros sound good, Gary."  This may now be his name forever.
    She glances over to Kian though hard to say how amused she is with her sunglasses on.  "So you're Kian.  I go by Hawkeye."  Pause, glance at Gary, then smiles.

Kian has posed:
    To Kían it sounds… like a lot of syllables he doesn't understand.  He picked up 'I' and 'we' and 'and' and not a whole lot beside.
    Also, this walking places is a little odd—one might walk across the room, or into the kitchen, but if one is actually going somewhere, one flies.  Of course.  Oh, wait, right.  Poor Ert' people can't do that.
    So he sticks close to Gar for two reasons.  One is that Gar—even just briefly—was the most normal thing he's seen since his life went crazy several weeks ago.  And the other is that Gar is accustomed to the ki'thar, more than anyone else, having been able to use it himself.
    He tries to keep a finger or two on Gar's elbow, therefore, so he can understand what's going on.
    It's only partially helpful.
    "Hwat iss bor'wal'k?" he asks in his entirely inadequate English.
    He whips around to blink at Kate, hearing his name—even if it's not pronounced quite right.  "Kían takh" he affirms, nodding once and bowing very slightly in greeting.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    There are always different ways of looking at things.
    One is that there is life at the tower.  This is what this little socializing excercise proves: Gar, Terry, Kian, Colette and Kate.  Five whole people.  Last time there were five people at the tower actually talking to each other and not screaming recriminations was probably before Doomsday.  The mood here is definitely friendly, even somewhat celebratory.  The tower does not feel like a lonely place any more.
    Another, more pragmatic view is that there is no Titans.  Not yet.  Kian, the alien visitor, his here for a secure place to stay.  He has powers, but is he the hero type?  He probably barely understands what the Titans were, let alone what they may be.  Terry and Colette have been pushing for the revival of the Titans, each in their own way and for their own reasons, but neither of them claims to be a hero.  Gar and Kate may be the starting point of something new, but they have yet to even go on patrol together.
    A third is that it's a sunny day, there is ice cream and churros to eat, and the future can take care of itself.
    "There's a really good churro place on the north beach," Colette offers.  "Twenty minute walk."  She's in the sunglasses camp too, because it's bright enough to have an excuse to wear them.
    "Boardwalk, Birdy Buddy.  It's a place for walking around and having fun.  Somewhere to go and relax."  Colette turns to Kate, and gives a short, apologetic shrug.  "Kian's English is a work in progress.  If you need to explain anything complicated to him, touch his shoulder.  He's a contact telepath.  However the more he has to rely on English, the faster he'll learn."

Gar Logan has posed:
    Gar Logan truthfully wasn't sure what this was going to be.  It was a group of people—well, one not even exactly a person—who in some cases hadn't even met before, or only had one or two encounters up to now.  Just going out to do something felt like a nice, casual way of building up toward more.  He has no qualms about Kian needing to maintain some contact to keep up the connection, since his English is a struggle.  "Yeah, ahh… what Colette said.  It's a place where people go to have fun, eat a lot of unhealthy food, and stuff like that.  Right up my alley."
    He's got an eye on Kate, in her Hawkeye costume, and he murmurs, "Maybe I should have dressed up for this too."  The thought is cut off as something that's got him thinking leaves him to ask, "Wait, why are you calling him Gary when his name is Terry?" as he points toward the one with that name.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    Terry smirks and glances over at Kate.  "Churros do sound good, don't they, Hawkgirl?"  This is where he would lower his glasses and wink, except he can't because cat-eye, so he instead puts an arm around Gar's shoulders.  "You should have dressed up.  In your black and purple, you two would be twins," he says, gesturing towards Kate.
    "Gar, this means that you're going to have to ease up on the puns around Kian.  English as a language is confusing enough as it is without adding that particular feature.  Wait until he's mastered a few things before you start the animal puns, maybe."

Kate Bishop has posed:
    "Yeah, no horsing around with the poor guy." quips Kate helpfully as she continues to walk towards the promised land of churros and ice cream.
    "As for dressing up… I just am in no way ready to have this conversation with my dad.  He would flip his shit and I would never, ever, ever hear the end of it.  He really despises superheroes for some reason… not like JJJ reasons but man… not good.  At all."
    She smirks over at Garfield and Terry.  "Because his codename is Gary… I figured i would use it to help keep his secret identity intact right?"

Kian has posed:
    Kían can't say any of that was clarifying… although he does gather that food is involved, and he doesn't object to that.  "Iss… nnh.  Bor'wal'k iss for eat?  Yis."
    He takes Gar's elbow. {Do I have that right?  It's a public place for food?}  Terry might 'hear' that, since he's in contact with Gar.  The mental "voice" sounds like Kían's speaking voice, except quite a bit more facile.  Like he's not only used to communicating mentally, he rather expects to be able to.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "Really Gary, I mean Terry, you're asking the man to go against his nature.  Garfield not making puns?  Might as well ask the Earth to stop spinning."  Colette's just adding to Gar's Gary/Terry confusion, because Colette.
    But wait!  "Terry was with me when I met BetterHawk, Gar.  Following up another possible lead on his dad.  We were doing the whole fake names thing to avoid any kind of trouble like the last time, and Terry introduced himself as Gary."  Colette to the rescue.  Words, incidentally, which should make people worried.
    "Okay!  Churros.  I suggest…."  Colette's words are interrupted by the howling of a siren going past the bridge, and she waits for it to pass.  It's an interruption that would have provoked more than a pause in the conversation, three years ago.  "I suggest we walk and/or fly over there and…."  Another siren goes past, another brief pause in Colette's suggestion.  "Find out what delights they have to offer us.  Definitely churros, but last year there was this little Italian gelato stand, and if they…."
    By the time the third siren is heard screaming past, the thought of what that implies cannot have escaped any, except perhaps Kian.  If these five were Titans, they would surely have leapt into action by now.  Colette has fallen silent, but words as yet unspoken hang heavy in the air.  Big mood.
    There is the sound of a sharp crack in the air, and a rumble.  The windows of the tower shake slightly.
    "That was an explosion," Colette says carefully, eyes on Gar.  "Mid-island I think.  Under a mile away."

Gar Logan has posed:
    "He doesn't even have a secret identity!" Gar exclaims, gesturing with both hands out.  He's got guys practically hanging all over him, what with Kian keeping up contact to make the mental side of things easier, and Terry getting closer as well.
    {Of course you can eat,} he answers Kian, a note of confusion in there before the sirens start to distract.  "What was that?"  Then, the boom and shudder.  "And what was that?"
    Suddenly this just started to feel a lot more like a Titans outing.  Gar freezes again, but this time it's only for a moment.  "That was pretty close!  Kian, fly with me and be careful!  We need to find out what caused that!  The rest of you… uh, you might have to drive!"  He's already changing, into what else but a hawk.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    And the phone comes out.  A few taps on an app brings up a map.  "There's a bike library spot just up ahead.  I'm showing five are still free so… if we run we might be able to get them."  Because of course he's going wherever the news were.  He was working for the Daily Planet, and Lois would not be amused if he missed the first instance of what could potentially bring about that headline: Titans Together.
    "Unless you have an Arrowmobile you can summon with an app?"  Terry grins at Kate, and starts running in the direction of the bike library, assuming no-one else comes up with a better alternative.

Kate Bishop has posed:
    Kate pinches the bridge of her nose under her sunglasses.  "No.  No I do not.  I have an excredibly expensive motorcycle built for this shit back at the tower cause you know… we were taking a leisurely walk to get churros…."  She pops him lightly in the shoulder with jab.  "Rent us those bikes… and lets hustle…."  Because yes she is going to arrive at her first potential disaster with the Titans on a rental bike… this is like some sort of Disney movie about teenagers from the 90s at this rate for the Disney Channel.  They even have talking animals.

Kian has posed:
    Kían was actually airborne before Gar's order—the safest place to be in an earthquake is Not On The Ground.
    "Kya, takh, kário!" he says.  Colette might understand most of that.  If the birdman is surprised by Gar becoming a hawk, he doesn't show it—apparently he's accepted Gar's rhy'thar at face value: he can become a birdman, he can become a hawk, okay, no problem.
    Also, Kían did receive some emergency response training with Imperial Emergency Services, and even got to use it once when a severe storm tore up a couple estates not far from his own.  He shoots skyward, rapidly scanning the area for what looks like it might have been responsible for the tumult.  After all, even in the most carefully organized technological societies, accidents can happen.  Maybe not very often, but they can happen.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    The column of smoke rising into the air over St. Martin Island makes the source of the disturbance easy to locate.  As soon as Garbird and Kian are in the air they know where to go, and within moments of heading that way they can see something big is up.  There are several helicopters in the air—a couple from the police and a press chopper, hovering over a junction in one of the busier sections of east-side, an area of mid-rise buildings housing prestigious architects offices, research labs, art galleries and the like.
    The lights of police cars reflect a miniature fireworks display in the glass frontages, all around the junction—typically for a large police operation, they are at this point mainly concerned with blocking the junction off and clearing the area.  Clearly there's a large police presence here already.
    Smoke pours out of one building, from a gaping hole in the glass frontage that exposes two stories of office space—bent I-beams and exposed floor sections show the damage is more than broken glass.  There may be injured people inside.  On the building opposite, perhaps the cause of the damage, a spider-like robot with a leg-span of a good fifteen feet clings to the wall with eight robotic limbs.
    "You're fucking kidding," Colette says to Terry and Kate.  "Bikes?  Better off heading back to the lot, 2.0 has her bike, I've got my car.  We'll be there quicker that way.  Hope you're ready to take some photos, Terry, because that thing about how you're going to document the rebirth of the Titans?  That starts today.  And by the way?  Do not get out of my sight, okay?  Could be dangerous."

Gar Logan has posed:
    Whatever the mode of transportation for the others, Gar and Kian are quickly closing the distance en route to the damaged area.  The helicopters and police response, not to mention the big hole in the building, make it easy to see where they're headed.  He angles closer to Kian and says, for he can still speak normally even like this, "Stay back!  I'm going to go see what that is!"  Maybe they'll need to fight it.  Or, getting people to safety might be the better play.
    But… what the heck is a big robotic spider doing here, and why is it doing that?

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    Terry gives Colette a look, and smirks.  "What's the matter, Col?  You don't bike ten miles every morning before work?  I'll see you at the disaster area!"
    He'll keep in her sights, when he gets there.  Of course.  Stubborn cub reporter to the end, he races for the library and rents a bike for each one of them, in case they do decide to follow him instead of going back for their fancy vehicles.
    Why can't he get a fancy vehicle?  He's going to have to talk to Lois about it.
    When he does finally arrive, with a bit of sweat on his brow, he pauses and stares.
    "…of course. It's a gigantic effing spider."

Kate Bishop has posed:
    "I was planning to ride the bike back to the Tower's lot not a mile to the scene…" she notes, sulking.  Even if that wasn't her plan until Colette points out that the lot is closer than the scene.  Good save Kate.  Good save.
    Either way she hustles back to the parking lot of the tower and swings herself up onto her bike.  She takes a moment and secures her sword, quiver, and batons.  Very fast precision like she has practiced this a lot.  Which she has.
    Wtih a roar leaving Colette and Terry to take Colette's car she takes off, also a bit of a tire squeal.  Yeah, she is going to break some speed limits.
    She considers picking Terry up when she races by but… no, he might get into danger that way.  Best to keep the cub reporter safe.
    She slots the bike in between two of the cop cars that are trying to deal with it.  "Woah… okay giant spider… awesome!"  Turning the bike to come to a very fast stop there, planting her leg down as she draws her bow off her back and… hm, she fishes an odd looking arrow out.

Kian has posed:
    Well, there's a problem with Gar's shouted warning: Kían's extremely limited command of English.  Kían keens something that sounds like actual birdspeak—if Gar can understand it, it might sound like, +Like me! Be like me!+
    He tries again in what little English he has: "No un'er's'tan!  Be Akiár!  Ki'thar!"
    How much does Kían not understand?  Well, he doesn't stay back.  The Gods only know what that thing is, but Kían knows that the poor Earthers can't fly out of the way of it on their own.  So he's prepared, if necessary, to do that for them.
    It's not really part of his Imperial Emergency Services training, but it's a logical extension of it.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Getting closer, Gar can see that the large spider is not alone.  The street below is crawling with smaller spider robots.  There are, thankfully, few civilians around—the police seem to have managed to get most of them clear by now, but there are a few scattered groups who have climbed onto the roofs of cars to escape the robospider hoard.  How effective that is likely to be in the long term is a worrying question, given how well the larger one is clearly able to climb.  The fear they are displaying is a message that doesn't require translation into Akiar.
    A group of police with riot shields are trying to move towards one such cluster of car-bound civilians in a wedge formation, while others behind a barricade of police cars fire on the smaller spider-bots in an attempt to clear their colleagues' path.  It's slow going.
    It's very hard to get any sense of what is actually happening here.  There's a considerable amount more destruction visible at ground level, with several building showing significant damage.  One appears to missing most of its frontage at ground floor level.  The spiders don't appear to be targeting anything in particular at the moment, rather seeming intent on general destruction.  There are several bodies lying on the ground, unconscious if not dead.  Cars, street furniture, building frontages and pretty much anything at reach are being torn into by the horde of smaller spiders, using sharply bladed front legs to tear through metal and smash glass.  It's chaotic.
    With a closer view, it can be seen that the large spider clinging to the side of the building has some kind of turret mounted on its head, and the turret is swiveling around to target the helicopters.
    Colette pinches the bridge of her nose when Terry rushes to the library, ignoring her advice.  She gives a shake of her head and watches him go.  Kate gets a shrug, and she leaves the pair of them to it, standing there as the pair of them run for their chosen modes of transport.
    When Terry arrives on the scene, he's met by a police officer holding out a hand and ordering him, "Turn around and go the other way sir, we have closed off this area."  Beyond the cop he can see a small group of people in lab coats talking animatedly with a cluster of senior-looking officers at the barricade line.
    "We're with the Daily Planet," Colette says from behind Terry.  However she got there she has no sweat on her brow, though she does have a dark look on her face.  "Show him your card, Terry.  We'll stay out of your way officer, just want to get up to the barricade line to get some photos."
    Kate arrives at the southern branch of the junction, while Colette and Terry are at the western end.  The barricade line is thinner here, and while she does get the same 'turn around' treatment, she's roared past that officer before he's finished the sentence.  Stopping her bike between two of the cars in the barricade line, she attracts the immediate attention of the cops on the line.  One with the stripes of police captain yells at her, "Get back!  Or you're under arrest!"

Gar Logan has posed:
    Flustered for a moment, it takes Gar concentrating to go directly from hawk to Akiar in midair, just long enough to beat his wings a couple times and tell Kian, {Be careful!  Don't get too close but help the people down there!  I don't know!  Just don't get hurt!}
    He flies off at that point, back in a bird form so he can get to the street faster, at which point he tramples through a grouping of the smaller spiders as a rhino.  "It's not exactly Bowling for Dollars, but it'll do!"  Without shifting back yet, the animal calls out to the cop trying to deny the arriving Hawkeye, "I'm Beast Boy of… the Titans!  She's with me!  What happened here?  We can help!"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    Terry flashes the credentials—and he would be lying if he said he didn't get a thrill from it, and quickly gets to the act of documenting the events.  Video footage for the website, with some snapshots here and there.
    "Are those bodies…."  Terry frowns, focusing on them.  "Someone needs to get them out of there.  If they're alive…."  He blinks a couple of times but continues shooting, the scope of the destruction somewhat mind-boggling.
    "Who the hell creates killer spider robots, Colette?" Terry asks.  Probably knowing very well that the answer would be a laundry list of names.

Kate Bishop has posed:
    "Thanks BB," calls Kate and glances back at the cops.  Honestly, she had intended to just ignore the cops calls at her entirely.  Like she usually has to do.  The whole cry of being with the Titans though is super exciting.
    So yeah she leaves her bike up near one of the cop cars and surveys the battlefield.  "You should gore the big spider on the building if you can BB.  I'll start to sweep the little suckers…."  She fires off one arrow, two arrow, three arrow, four, aiming for the ground mayhem spiders with relatively normal arrows to see what happens.  Well super sharp bodkins for armor piercing out of one heck of a bow.  Still.
    "Shout if you need backup… big… that thing is liable to take out a helicopter… go get 'em, Tiger!"

Kian has posed:
    {I don't plan to get hurt!  Don't you, either!} Kían 'sends back before Gar swaps back into the form of a regular—if green—bird.
    They don't have spiders as such on Kían's world, but there are comparable creepy-crawlies.  By and large the birdman was indifferent to them: bugs do an important ecological job.
    Ones this size are another matter entirely.
    Kían makes a quick assessment—who's in the most trouble that he has the best chance of getting to safety.
    He knows his own speed and agility… he doesn't entirely know how heavy an Earth person is, but he knows in an emergency he can carry two Akiár'yw—not long, but long enough to get away from trouble.
    So without giving it much more thought, he dives to extract one of the groundlings who climbed up on a vehicle.  Makes sense—even if they can't fly, they try to get into the air as best they can.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    The smaller spider bots are no match for the foot of a green rhino, and Gar leaves a trail of wrecked robots in his wake.  However, the streets are crawling with these things, and they have very sharp blades.  Even with the thick skin of a rhino to armor him, Gar's legs are taking some punishment.
    "Titans?" the cop who had stopped Kate replies to Gar.  "What are you talking about?  There is no Titans any more.  They quit!"
    An older officer with the gold leaf of a bureau commander puts a hand on the captain's shoulder.  "Son?  You're talking to a green rhinoceros.  Try using your brain for once.  That's Beast Boy."  He gives a small nod to Kate, then calls out to Gar, "Your idea is as good as mine, Beast Boy.  We're still trying to find out, but right now we're mostly worried about containment."
    "Wild guess?" Colette replies to Terry.  "Those guys."  She jabs a thumb in the direction of the lab-coated group talking to the officers in charge of this end of the junction.  Colette and Terry are not close enough to make out much of the conversation, but a few words get through: "Emergency relief… earthquakes… hardly intended… shouldn't be… hacked…."
    Kate's armor-piercing arrows make short work of four of the smaller spiders.  Regular arrows might not have, but the hardened points get through the spider's shells, and the internal workings are obviously fairly closely packed in there.  However, it's clear to her that she's going to run out of arrows long before a significant dent is made in the horde.
    Kian swoops down on one of the cars with three people sheltering on it.  The babble of panicky English from the humans defies his attempts to understand it, but one thing that does get through is that they seem really glad to see him.  One of them, a female, pushes a smaller male towards Kian.  He's not quite certain of these things yet, but it appears to be a younger human, perhaps the woman's son.  The child is about the same weight as an adult Akiar—perfectly easy for Kian to take to safety, but he's probably going to have to limit himself to one human at a time.  At his speed, he should be able to get the car roofs cleared in a matter of a couple of minutes, though.
    Kate's suggestion to Gar that he target the large spider is pre-empted by the large spider deciding that the giant green stomping thing is the biggest threat.  The spider's turret swivels and a small missile impacts on the ground just by Gar's feet.  The blast is enough to knock RhinoGar off his feet, and it hurts.  It's lucky it wasn't a direct hit.
    From the building that had lost the entirety of its ground level frontage, the shape of another of the large spiders emerges.  It steps into the street, crushing several of the smaller spiders beneath its limbs.  Another follows it out, turret swiveling for targets.
    "Fuck.  Terry, stay here.  Do NOT get into trouble."  Colette gives him a punch on the arm, not enough to hurt, but enough to mess up a good photo he was about to get.  Then she runs off, getting behind some of the police cars stopped further back, and out of sight.

Gar Logan has posed:
    "Ow!  Crap!  Stop it!"  The rhino kicks at the stabbing, slashing robots, because that still stings!
    The officer's words cause the rhino to stop just long enough to say, "Not all of us quit.  We… ack!"  Another slice along the leg.  "That is really getting annoying!"  There are questions Gar wants to ask about the injured, unconscious people, but the shot from the bigger spider sends him tumbling, skidding a few feet.  At least he landed on a couple of the stabbybots.  Serves them right.
    "Okay, I'm not playing around here any more."  Kian's doing his thing, Hawkeye is having some success but with dwindling reserves, and hopefully Terry and… hey, where'd Colette go?  No time to think about that.  The rhino gets back to its feet, but it's not a tiger that goes charging at the first of the larger spiders.  It's a big ape, intent to tear its legs off one by one with its immense strength!  "It loves me!  It loves me not!"  Damn thing better have eight legs!

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    "I don't get into trouble!" Terry says, heatedly, as he tries to adjust his camera for another shot after Colette got the last one all blurry.
    He frowns, because it's a little hard to get the shot just right.  And there are so many spiders—
    "Gar, look out!" he says, barely a whisper that is unheard in the din, but it will probably get picked up in the video (he'll have to edit that in post).  He breathes some more when the green shapeshifter takes charge and goes ape.  The redhead is relieved to see Gar isn't freezing.  That's good.
    He tries his best to get shots of everyone—Kian flying, Hawkeye doing her arrow thing.  He moves with a careful gait, trying to capture angles… and then he swivels to capture the spider on the side of the building.
    "You know," he says to no-one at all, "This is both exciting and terrifying.  I'll have to ask Lois if this is how she feels…."

Kate Bishop has posed:
    Well crackers.
    "IS There A Central Computer for this bullshit!?" she yells in the general direction of those scientist types frantically talking with the cops even as she runs along keeping moving to avoid those terrible little robot spiders.  Leaping onto one to crush it with the force.  "Good job BB!" about the ripping a leg off.  She is nothing if not encouraging about this.
    She pauses on top of a car and thinks about her arrow options.  Well crap.  She fishes one of the arrows out that is distinctly not like the others and draws it back.  The fletchings are not the dark purple with subtle coloration shifts to denote the trick arrows.  This one is purple with bright crimson streaks.  "Well… here goes… well nothing," she says to herself and launches it right at one of the other two big spiders that doesn't have a giant ape ripping off limbs.  She is aiming for what looks like sensors to her untrained eye.
    This arrow is the one explosive arrow she managed to filch from Older Hawk's supply.  She isn't trusted with a quiver of these things yet for good reason.

Kian has posed:
    Kían makes quick work of the evacuations—it's pretty straightforward work, at least as long as no one tries to fight it.  And, he keeps his mind behind his own eyes despite the physical contact.  He remembers that most Earthers don't like it.
    Out of harm's way to behind a wall.  Repeat as necessary.  Always keeping half an eye on the robot monsters.  His tavár'yw have seen his kan'thar, his wings.  Gar has 'heard' his ki'thar, the telepathy.
    If one of those legs wanders too close, they just might get to see his rhy'thar.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Garilla's charge is met head-on by the spider. It raises its two front legs, waving them in the air in challenge, and then the two are locked in a battle that shakes the ground.  Rear feet slash at the green ape, while he grapples its forearms, trying to tear them asunder.
    As Kian brings the first rescuee to the ground, several humans come rushing forwards to take him from his hands.  They're wearing some kind of a uniform, and the large vehicle behind them has a flashing light on the top which he has come to recognize is some kind of symbol of authority.  Judging by how they treat the boy, it's an easy guess that they serve some kind of medical purpose.  This may be a good area to drop further rescuees off at.
    Another pair of people approach Kian.  One is holding some cylindrical object in her hand, which she thrusts towards him, while gabbling excitedly at speed.  Kian can barely make out a word of it.  The other is carrying what Kian can guess is some type of photographic apparatus, but it's distinctly larger than Terry's.  One of the probably medics interposes himself, remonstrating angrily with the woman holding the cylindrical object, then waves a hand at Kian and says something the Akiar can understand.  "Go!  Get the rest!"
    The dark smoke billowing from the hole in the side of the building seems to lurch, and a dark blob detaches itself, hurtling towards the spider on the side of the building opposite as if the smoke itself were joining the fight.  The blob hits the spider with a sharp detonation, blasting one of the spider's limbs to junk.  It scrabbles for purchase with its remaining limbs, but a second blob crashes into it and knocks it off.  It falls to the ground with a mighty crunch, the remaining legs waving feebly in the air.
    Kate's arrow flies true.  It smacks into what look like a cluster of lenses on the 'head' of the second new spider, and a moment later it erupts with a satisfying boom and the sound of cracking glass.  The spider reels, staggers, and starts twisting and turning, helplessly.  Its turret whirrs, but it clearly can't find a target.
    The epic battle between spider and ape seems to fill the junction.  The ground shakes.  Garilla forces the spider back, slamming it into a car.  The spider moves its rear legs up, scrabbling for purchase on the car, and pushes hard.  The weight of the spider bears down on Gar, bringing him down onto his back, spider on top of him.  With a mighty roar that echoes against the canyon walls of the street, Gar wrenches with all his might and tears the spider's front limbs from its body.  Sparks fly against his fur and the spider emits a high pitched whine.  It's rear legs flail uselessly, and with a powerful kick of his legs, Gar flips it and tears into it.
    It all seems to be going so well….
    And then, two more spiders appear from the building, marching side by side.  Behind them a third—this one with a hooded figure riding on its back.  Then the spider with its sensors disabled by Kate's arrows starts firing wildly in her general direction, missiles crashing into the line of police cars, forcing her to leap out of the way.  The shots bracket her—and then the turret seems to find her….
    The two lead spiders of this second wave immediately start firing—one stands in the middle of the junction, firing missiles at the north barricade, where Kian has been sheltering his rescuees.  Police behind the barricade open fire on it, but they're struggling to make any impact, and avoid the danger of exploding missiles.  The other advances on the western barricade, firing as it goes.  A series of explosions tear into the asphalt and into the cars, and Terry is lost in a cloud of smoke and debris, his fate unknown….
    The ground by Gar erupts in an explosion of flying asphalt, knocking him from his victim.  The third spider marches towards him, legs poised to attack.  The hooded figure mounted on its back rises up, holding a wicked looking spear.  The head of the spear crawls with a fine webbing of miniature lightning….

Gar Logan has posed:
    Pain.  Definitely pain.  Even as a gorilla with more strength than any normal man or woman could possess, the fight with the one giant spider is a struggle, leading to more property damage, a back-and-forth affair that sees both of them taking damage.  Finally, fighting from underneath, the Garilla rips the thing apart and pushes the advantage, pounding it into sparking scrap with a triumphant roar, looking in Terry's direction as he remembers enough to flash a great ape grin and a thumbs-up.  Gotta do it for the camera.
    Then, things take a turn for the worse.
    In that moment, something detonates around that barricade, rubble raining down around the cub reporter.  "Terry!" he roars, but before he can get closer, he topples again and his eyes widen as someone riding one of those spiders comes toward him, that spear not looking good at all.
    Think, McFly, think!
    Green ape fades and shifts, replaced by something no person has ever seen before except in books and movies.  The hard, clubbing tail of an ankylosaurus lashes out at spider and rider!

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    Terry really doesn't see the danger until it is exactly upon him.  He is far too invested in what's going on with Gar, figuratively on pins and needles.  "C'mon Gar, don't let them—"
    And then he looks up.  Hello, spiders.
    Hello, explosions.
    The world explodes around Terry, and it would be incredibly cliché and rather even passé to say that time slows down around him and he can see everything in startling, clear detail—except that, yes, it actually does.  It's how Terry can see the fire blossom, the smoke billow.  It's how he can see the parts of the car that are flying directly at him as a pile of twisted metal that is about to wipe him out of existence.
    The fingers in his right hand relax.  His phone falls towards the ground.
    This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because Terry also starts falling towards the ground.  The unusual thing about it is that there is, actually, no ground under his feet to speak of.  Somehow, the young reporter finds himself in full free fall.  A jagged, metal edge misses his head by a hair.  He continues to fall.  His chin is now level with the ground.
    And now he is falling down a seemingly very long tunnel.  At least, he thinks it's a tunnel, because all he can see is darkness and glimmering light here and there, but there is ever so much air, so he must be falling a great way, right?
    
    Out of the darkness below him, two eyes suddenly appear, glowing like fireflies around slitted pupils.  Glowing, also, is an unsettlingly large grin.
    Terry tries to scream as the grin opens up.  His voice fails him, even as he plunges into that darkness below—
    It really should have been a memorable reveal—like Venus emerging from the ocean, half-shell and all.  This is not the case, however, and the startled and stumbling feline who suddenly emerges from the ground, thirty feet away from where Terry O'Neil was last seen enveloped by an explosion and a cloud of smoke, has nothing currently in common with that stately image—
    Well, I lied, actually, there is ONE element in common: both Venus and the feline are completely butt-naked.
    "What the FU—"  Terry, for it is actually Terry in there, glances down.  It is hard to tell whether he is more startled about the fact that he has
    a) Survived falling down a tunnel and being swallowed up by a giant grin,
    b) Turned into, apparently, an anthropomorphic salmon-and-red cat, or
    c) Emerged in nothing but his family jewels.
    If you ask us, our bet is D) all of the above.
    
    Okay, O'Neil, get it together.  You're a cat.  You knew something like this was coming, he tells himself.  There are also… things going on with his head.  Memories that are suddenly popping up, the same way that backed-up text messages appear in a chain reaction after the forgetful phone user remembers to turn airplane mode off.  But he's trying to ignore those right now, because he is naked, and he needs to figure out what to do.
    Fortunately, a storefront right across from him is sporting what he needs—a mannequin lies on the ground, mostly charred, except for a pair of cargo shorts.
    Terry makes a beeline for it and begins to put the darned things on, looking frantically around to see how the fight is going.
    Eventually he'll realize he doesn't have his phone with him.  His phone, miraculously, survived and it is lying on the ground, somewhere.

Kate Bishop has posed:
    Not Good.
    Dodge.
    Not Good At all
    Run run Dodge.
    "Stupid… smart enough… spider… to generally aim in my former position…."  Yeah, Kate really should have thought of this as she realizes it has her pretty much bracketed.
    She does a wild leap and tumble.
    There is no graceful popping back up to her feet when the missile explodes where she was just standing… she is flung clear into a cop car but at least she wasn't where the missile went off directly.
    Also it turns out Kates bounce off cop cars with a thud noise.  Nothing like a rubber ball.
    "Fuck." she mutters laying there for a moment not posing much of a target.  Though at least she isn't where it was shooting blindly anymore.  "Get up Kate," she orders herself.

Kian has posed:
    "Khe!"  Attacking the area where Kían had just brought people to safety appears to genuinely anger the little birdman, and that blue glow of his flashes out as he whips around to glare at the one that had launched missiles.
    About Kían's rhy'thar.  It encompasses the electromagnetic, weak, and strong nuclear forces.  Now, electromagnetism is easy, everyone deals with it every day.  And the weak force is important, but not terribly relevant right now.  The strong force, on the other hand, is called that because it's quite strong—and breaking the intranuclear bonds it makes releases a great deal of energy.  The kinds of energy releases that make mushroom clouds if one isn't careful.
    Fortunately, Kían is careful—and very angry.
    This is actually something he worked on with the researchers back home, and he learned this: you can get quite a detonation by just converting a few ten-thousandths of a gram of matter, any matter, into energy.
    Let's see what happens when those ten-thousandths of a gram are inside the carapace of a robot spider.  It's bad enough that someone has programmed a robot to attack sentients—this one had the gall to attack sentients Kían himself had just worked to protect.
    "Kya!"

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    DinoGar's heavy tail swings around in a killing arc.  The spider-rider leans forwards, and the spider leaps over the swinging tail of doom.  He hurls the spear forwards into the ground an a powerful electric blast explodes from the tip, flipping the green ankylosaurian onto his back.  The dinosaur spins slightly, like a wronged turtle.  As stubby dinolegs scrabble for purchase, the spider leaps again, straddling Gar.  Two arms raise up, ready to stab into the soft saurian underbelly.
     The spider emits a high-pitched electronic squeal of triumph, pitched just right to draw the attention of feline ears.
    "Get up, two-point-oh," Kate might, in her mild daze, have thought she was hearing an echo of her own voice, but there's only one person who calls her that.  As her senses recover, she sees that Colette is crouched on the ground right next to her.  Colette's hands are held forwards, and enshrouded with a blackness that mushrooms out in front of the pair into an umbrella of darkness, six feet across.  "Get up and start firing.  Target the turrets first, then sensors."  There's a sudden, scarily close boom, as a missile impacts on the shield of darkness Colette is covering the pair of them with.  Colette grits her teeth and draws a deep breath.  "Quickly, please."
    Rising up over the line of barricading vehicles, Kian spreads his wings wide, angry bird glaring at mindless spider bot.  The spider raises its front legs, beating the air towards him, and the turret swivels and elevates to meet its challenger.  The police behind the barricade resume firing at the spider, but the bullets seem to do nothing to stop it….
    The streets echo with a terrible booming as the Kian's target simply bursts, raining small fragments of metal across the junction.

Gar Logan has posed:
    Gar thought he'd have the armor and strength necessary to bash the spider into pieces, but it was kind of a one and done move, being too slow to react to the leap over.  The burst of electricity is enough to actually disrupt his concentration a moment after he's stopped turning, and with the spider overtop him he sort of blurs back into his normal self, too weakened from the surge that ran through his body.
    "Go ahead… try it," he tries to roar at the spider and the figure controlling it.  "The rest of the Titans… will stop you.  Nightwing… and Starfire and Raven… and Dove and… ow…."  Is he flashing back?  Have his circuits been scrambled?

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    Terry is now wearing cargo shorts—which is painful in and of itself not only because those things are an abomination, but also because Terry now has a tail and the person who designed the damned things clearly did not.  Still, with his modesty preserved, and hopefully no videos that will surface on YouTube.  He has more important things to worry about, such as the fact that his phone is missing.  There's footage there.  Also, the explosion made him lose his bearings on the fight, and he needs to know what the situation is like.
    He moves by instinct.  Although he was an excellent parkouriste, the Terry that climbs the lamp post to get a better view of things moves as if climbing were as effortless and as easy as walking.  His body seems to be a lot stronger now.  But that's something to investigate later.  From his high vantage point, he can see how everybody is doing, including—
    "Gar!"
    His heart stops for a second, seeing Gar on his back and in direct mortal danger.  He is way too far away to help.  The distance from his lamp post to that spider is simply too great, and there is not enough time.  In a moment of sheer panic and anger, he yearns to cross that distance by any means necessary.
    The hooded figure is in for a surprise, as a tear in the fabric of reality opens up behind it and deposits a somewhat surprise, but also completely and excessively irate feline onto the back of the spider.
    "YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
    The hooded figure might turn around at the booming voice that explodes behind it—a baritone voice that is not like Terry's usual tenor.  Terry's upper body flexes and coils like a snake before exploding outwards, the feline delivering a blindingly fast punch, fueled by protective rage and adrenaline.
    The hooded figure falls off the spider, fluttering robes flapping in the void before the figure lands with a thud on the street below.
    He's probably not dead.
    But there's the matter of the spider, which suddenly starts moving aimlessly, seemingly having forgotten about Gar.  The cat looks relieved.  "Oh, thank goodne—"
    And then the spider circles back and starts heading for Gar again.
    "Oh no motherfucker you don't!"  The Cheshire cat looks for something, anything that looks vaguely like a control center.  Seeing how close they are to Gar, he gives up and decides to punch the ever-living shit out of the thing, because that always works.
    Stragely enough, just as his fists make contact with the metal, something else seems to surge from him—a purple light that coruscates across the spider's shape for a moment.  And then, the next moment, there is smoke, sparks and fire as several sections of the machinery decide to short-circuit for some reason, halting the spider mid-stride.
    "Did I do tha—"
    Terry doesn't get to finish his question, as the Spider topples slowly onto its side, away from Gar, but towards the ground, quickly!
    Terry falls off and is about to fall to the ground himself when he fervently wishes to be somewhere else, anywhere else but here—
    Just before he hits the ground, though, another hole opens up and swallows him up.
    And just like that, he's gone.
    
    SEVERAL THOUSAND MILES AWAY:
    Blue skies.  Impossibly blue ocean.  White sands and sunlight, with nary a living being seen for hundreds of miles.
    The hole that opens up spews out a flailing, flying feline.  The cat, screaming, hits the ground, skids across the sand, and eventually ends up face-down in it.  A second or two later, he raises his head and tries to focus his eyes on the line of palm trees and deep wilderness that seems to stretch on forever.
    And then he loses consciousness.

Kate Bishop has posed:
    Well that is a thing, and it explains a lot about the whole teleporting that one time and shady… hah… business Colette seemed to be up to about pulling the team together.  Okay maybe not really but Kate's ears are ringing right now and she is a little sour on robot spiders at this point.  "I do not have a quiver full of those explosive tips," she notes as she rolls over and then pushes herself up as quick as she can.
    By god she is definitely going to be shaking explosive arrows out of Clint later for situations like this.  Make it rain, older Hawkeye, make it rain.
    Right now though she fishes around and pulls out an… suspense is killing everyone… two arrows… okay this should actually do it just be clever.  It looks similar to all the other trick arrows just the fletchings are different subtly.
    She quickly takes off running moving out from behind the wall of darkness since she can't see through it.
    The first arrow flies straight and true into one of the turrets barrels and she doesn't stop to watch.  She is still racing and making a big old target out of herself by running right at the Spider assaulting the western barricades.  The second arrow flies right down that turret's barrel when it swivels to decimate her as well.
    She comes to a tumbling stop.  "Wait for it."  And… when the spiders both to go fire the next volley of missiles, one at Colette's shadow wall and the other right at Kate something very much goes wrong… they explode dramatically like they just suffered the world's worst backfire.  "Putty arrows for the win!" shouts Hawkeye triumphantly.  Then a softer, "I am so smart.  S-M-R-T."  Yeah she knows but she is riding so much adrenaline right now and is giddy that worked and she isn't dead.
    Also she isn't the most mature all the time.

Gar Logan has posed:
    Gar Logan looks around, but it's hard to focus.  There was a whole lot of voltage from that zap.  If only he'd thought ahead to be an electric eel… oh well.
    That thought drifts through his head as the mechaspider above him prepares to wrap the job up—haha, get it?—only for something strange to show in his fleeting field of vision.  Something feline, colorful, almost naked, and in a daze Gar giggles to himself.  "Pretty kitty."
    Then, after more things happen above him and the dude with the spear is messed up and the spider topples nearby, he squints as it sure as hell looks like 'Pretty Kitty' just up and disappears.  Yep, he's already off in dreamland, then his eyes close to complete it.  He's out.

Kian has posed:
    Although he'd be loath to admit it, that was oddly satisfying.  Kían regards the wreckage, and looks for more people who need evacuating and… oh.  The incident seems to be over.
    He circles about, looking for his friends—Gar is easiest to spot, and Kían spirals down to help him up… or call for help lifting him up, if he can't manage it on his own.
    He keeps a hawk's eye out for the others—he's spotted Kolét, and Kéit… but hasn't seen Téri yet.  Worrisome, especially under the circumstances.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    The spider rider hits the ground with a painful crunch, and instantly the horde of minispiders whirrs to a stop.  The chaos wave from the 'Pretty Kitty' does strange things to the spider's insides, things that forensic scientists in the Metropolis PD are going to find very confusing indeed.
    Kate moves out from behind the shield, firing, and fires again before she's taken a dozen strides.  Whoever programmed these things did not take putty arrows into account, and the results are spectacular.  Her victory shout rises over a near-silence, just the sound of the final whirrs of the upturned spider's legs to accompany it, and then that noise too dies as the spider flails its last.  Kian drops down out of the sky by Gar, just a few feet away from Kate.  Colette, and Colette's shield, have gone.
    After all the violence and noise, the entire junction seems swathed in a silence that is almost oppressive.  It feels like nobody is even breathing.
    And then suddenly, all around voices erupt.
    Cheering voices.
    Behind the barricades, the crowds surge.  The police come out from cover, to contain the crowds, insisting everyone stay back until the area is secured.  The journalists Kian had a brief run in with have to be physically held back, the woman's voice audible over the hubbub.  "Daily Star!  Daily Star!  Let us through?"
    In the wreckage of the western barricade, there's less enthusiastic voices.  An ambulance crew works their way through smashed vehicles, helping the injured.  Keeping out of their way, Colette scours the area for any sign of Terry, but sees nothing.  She sighs, then notices something bump against her foot.  His phone.  She picks it up, gives another look around, and steps into the shadows of a building.
    From the southern barricade, a single voice rises up above the general hubub.  "TITANS!"
    One of the cops ahead of the barrier flashes a broad grin to where the remaining two standing are helping get the unconscious Gar up.  He punches his fist in the air and echoes the cry.  "TITANS!"
    On the eastern barricade, a couple of onlookers have managed to scramble onto the hood of one of the police cars, and they join the refrain.  "TITANS!"
    Soon, it's all anyone can hear.