Owner	Pose
Kaine Parker	The spirit of Latino communities is a powerful one. Strong cultural pride and rich traditions can be a rock bed upon which to build new lives. It can also be a great source of conflict. All societies have their dark sides in which a criminal element can fester to exploit the shadows and harvest profit from the desperation of good people. El Barrio is place where these forces often collide. Where the casual eye goes to the amazing food that attracts tourists to part of Uptown Manhattan, the wary eye must keep a close eye on the alleys and back streets. Unknown to the average pedestrian, a proxy war is being fought between elements of Mexican and Cuban cartels. Hidden in a dark shadow cast between tall Manhattan edifices, two gangs bearing vibrant colors face off with each other wielding a variety of melee instruments. Some sense of honor has left modern firearms out of the armories of the opposing forces. The two individuals with the most machismo stare down each other face to face. They scream and boast in Spanish littered with the unique slangs of Mexico City and Havana. Higher in the alley, there came upon a spider. He is not from the neighborhood, and he is not friendly. His body suit is an angry red, his mask and shoulders black with glaring red eyes. A red tattered cowl and cloak drape across his upper torso. While he has many similarities with Spider-man, he is definitely not for anyone who takes a moment to really pay attention. He lurks and listens. He had a contract to fulfill.
Terry O'Neil	Unlike your Unbirthday, your birthday only comes around once a year- that in and of itself makes it rarer and worth more insofar as Wonderland is concerned. Unbirthdays are a dime a dozen, whereas the true connoisseur Wonderlandean collects only the rare and the exquisite. The Loss Specialist, for example, had been known to bribe people with favors and rare monograms written by Immanuel Kant in one of his rare hallucinatory dream-visits to Wonderland, to the point that they would willingly give up their birthdays to him so that he might amass them. So successful was he that, eventually, because of the sheer numbers in his collections, birthdays became devalued and were worth less than Unbirthdays. Despondent, he let them all free to flutter back to their original owners who were quite upset, having grown accustomed to the idea of not growing old. In any case, the O'Neil cousins happen to have birthdays only a few days apart from each other, so Terry O'Neil- known to the world as both a reporter for the Daily Planet /and/ the Cheshire superhero with the Titans- has decided to take his 'cuz out for some mutual birthday treats. And where else but here, where the food is simply to die for? "Trust me, Ape," the Cheshire says, walking down the street with April in full Cheshire mode, not bothering with human seeming at this moment, "You're going to /love/ the empanadas con queso I ate here last week. Lois gave me the dir-" He pauses, ears swiveling as his fine hearing starts picking up on the shouting somewhere down those alleyways... Not that you'd need Superman's super-hearing to pick /that/ up. They sure are not making an effort to exactly hide it. "... by the prickling of my ear, something wicked now lies near." His feet almost have a mind of his own, taking him in the direction of the nearest alleyway. "... I should check that out first. Just in case, you know." He glances back at April. Any considerate family member would tell his cousin not to come, to stay back and stay out of danger. But also any considerate family member would tell her cousin not to go poking down in dangerous alleys and walking towards the sounds of /something/ brewing. But this isn't your standard family. These are the O'Neils, and different rules apply to them.
April O'Neil	"I believe you, already. Goooosh." April says with a heavy sigh as she is tying her yellow hoodie off around her waist. Wearing a dark blue tanktop over blue jeans with torn out knees, and some black boots with small heels, April is enjoying the nicer weather, her dark auburn hair flowing loose around her shoulders as she walks alongside her Cheshire-flavored cousin. "IT's rare that we get such good food too that isn't pizza flavored." She mutters. "Which is why ya had no trouble convincing me to come along this far north." She says over to him now with a grin, her hoodie tied off by its sleeves around her jeans waistline. AS she looks down to grab her phone out of the hoodie pocket though, Terry is making his little rhyme and going down that alley. April looks up, looks confused, and trails after him. "Wait, what?" She asks, phone in hand now. "Is this a short cu----" She trails off, as she sees up ahead what is transpiring. "Oh sweet lord, why..." She says in a tone suggesting her mood that is going to quickly tank. "Please tell me this is a community reinactment of something historical..." She dryly says then.
Mika Yang	Well, its Sunday. No school, no EMT work, and no interviews by any media! This means that Mika can go out, and enjoy being 20 years old! And well, several of her american friends have mentioned getting food form this area before. That Mika just HAS to try it. So, here's Mika, a 20 year old Chinese Japanese girl, eating a street taco. With a fork. Yes. She's not used to eating food from other areas of the world, and still working on some things.     Mika takes a sip of her tea as she takes another bite of the taco. As she does this, the woman sees a couple of people running down an alley way with bats. This makes the young woman blink a little bit, before she gets up, and starts to follow the group.     Its not long before she's standing on the edge of the gangs looking to fight. Mika stays on the edge, and spots...Terry and April. She blinks a little bit before she carefully makes her way over to the pair. "If I am not mistaken, you are Miss O'Neil? Is this currently a working story that you are reporting?", she asks carefully. Mika looks over at Terry, and bows to both of them. "My apologies, I did not see your cousin there as well.", she says.
Kaine Parker	The two apparent leaders continue their stand-off, the occasional commentary comes from their respective gangs to hype up their side. Its a game of morale building and threat giving. Secretly, some hope they can scare off the other without having to bring lead pipe to skull. Others, hope for the violence. A way to validate themselves and prove their worth to their respective gangs. The tension rises. The hope of a peaceful conclusion quickly erodes. The tall man from Cuba brings back a fist to take a swing... only to have his wrist ensnared by a loop of impossibly thick spider silk. He is lurched into the air with a scream, enough force behind the tug to dislocate his shoulder. He is soon face to face with the red eyed spider of a man. Spanish expletives echo through the alley as everyone turns their heads upwards. After a few seconds, the Cuban gang makes a few fruitless attempts to throw bricks and pipes. The spider instinctively avoids them while whispering lowly to the Cuban leader. Only Terry is able to pick up the conversation, "While this is really about business, its really a pleasure you piece of shit. I saw what you did last night." His right hand glows with heat, moist on his palm evaporates as steam, and then a burning hand is applied to the gang leader's face. A blood curdling scream echoes in the alley, the man grabs the hand and flails, pleading for mercy. The Cuban gang assumes the Spider is on the side of the Mexican cartel. Unable to get up and help their leader, they do the next best they can do... they charge their opposition, hoping for vengeance. Terry, April, and Mika are mercifully ignore for the moment, but its only a matter of time before people begin making the wrong assumptions about allegiances.
Terry O'Neil	The Cheshire cat is taken aback momentarily by Mika. "Er- how do you do. I'ma fraid you might want to get to cover, this is about to get-" And then there is a black and red spider-guy thwipping. "Messy. Or not. It looks like we have a friendly neighborhood spide-HOLY SHIT!" Or not. The Cheshire cat can smell the burning flesh. Esto no esta bien- nada bien! "Okay, scratch that, we've got a psycho spider-" He quickly tears off his trench coat, which in some corners of New York would get him arrested, if he weren't wearing his hero uniform underneath. He curses briefly under his breath, remembering that he is wearing the Spider-HUD contact lens in his human shape, so it is not available to him as the Cheshire, otherwise he could have tried to communicate with this dude directly- If he even was part of the Spider-fam. He's not sure at this point. "Hang back!" he says to April and the civilian as he leaps forward- into a Rabbit Hole, that opens close to the red-and-black spider. His aim is to try to tackle him off the guy, in the hopes that it will stop him from turning the dude's face into steak tartar. He is not opposed to letting gangsters feel the pain, but the Titans have a non-lethal approach whenever possible. "Dude, chill!" Of course, if this guy is a spider, that means he probably has that thing that tells them someone is coming for them. Which means then /he/ will be a target, but at least it would take care of his first priority, right? He hasn't quite thought about what he will do /after/ that. This is why Donna often yanks his ears about not planning ahead enough. Then again, he hasn't had the benefit of being trained by immortal warrior women who perfected the art of war, so-
April O'Neil	April is whipping her phone up on to camera mode to instantly put this up to her social media feeds! She has to do a double take on Mika before she can stammer out a response to the young woman. "Yeah-, I mean, I guess? I dunno what this is, but it looks like its gonna be bad, for everyone involve---" There goes Terry. "Terry! Be careful!" He's gone. "Ugh." April emits then as she starts to do what SHE does best in situations like this, and that's quickly step off to the side to partially hide herself behind a smelly dumpster. Activate April Crouch Mode! The reporter lowers down, but keeps her eyes up, blue pupils focused on the fighting as she keeps her phone up too. The News can't be stopped after all. Get the footage out to the people! "Be careful." She warns Mika as she glances over to her too.
Mika Yang	Mika blinks a little bit as she looks up. She take a deep breath as she watches everything unfold. And then there goes the party. Everyone starts smacking each other. The woman kinda blinks a few times as she starts thinking about all the injuries, and calmly backs away to pull out her phone. "Yes, this is Mika Lang. Yes, I would like to report multiple injuries as I think I'm looking at a gang fight in...Where are we again? Well, either way, just trace this location. Yes, We'll need...5, maybe 6 transports.", she says over the phone. "Sorry, got to go, about to get attacked.", she says.     Mika hangs up the phone as one of the gang members rush over towards Mika and April. He's swinging a chain in the air. Mika shakes her head a little bit before she calmly walks up towards the guy. As he goes to swing the chain, Mika dives just inside his arm, so the chain can't hit her. She throws a few quick punches to his ribs, then gives his shin a sharp kick to drop him to a knee.     Mika looks at the guy's face for a moment. "Give me that before you hurt yourself.", she says. The guy says something likely very rude to Mika in spanish. Mika blinks a little bit. "Ummm, I don't know what he said, but it soundly very rude.", she says. The woman picks up a trash can lid, and hits him over the head with it. The guy falls over, and Mika picks up the chain, rolling it out a bit in front of her.
Kaine Parker	The rumble ensues on the street as the Cheshire cat bends space and attempts his rescue. Terry is correct that the Spider has that same patented spider-sense that keeps him out of harm. However, even with superhuman reflexes, the close proximity of Terry makes completely successful evasion difficult. He gets the result, at least partially, of what he desires. Kaine releases the face of the gang leader, his flesh baring an angry handprint smoldering as he tugs himself out of the way of Terry's tackle. With a web line still around his wrist, the gang member remains partly bound to the Spider who plants himself nearby on a brick wall. His voice is very similar to Spider-man's for those familiar with the web crawler, yet it lacks the warmth or playfulness. He points at Terry, "Butt out before you get hurt. This doesn't concern you." April gets a couple of quality action shots sporting Spider-man's new look? Well that's exactly how J.J. would describe it, but maybe the reporter can discover the finer details. There is a story trail all the way back to Salt Lake City if she further investigates later. A series of events involving burned faces on individuals involved in organized crime. After Mika fends of an assault from one of the gang members, he clutches his shin and yells, "Chinga Tu Madre." before he's silenced by a trash can lid. The chain is hefty in her hand. A newly arrival group, late to the fight, witnessed the whole thing. They sport lead pipes in each hand. They charge Mika.
Terry O'Neil	Had Ben just completely /lost/ it? "What? This /does/ concern me very much. If you are who I think you are- this isn't-" Woosh. He ducks a bat. "-look, talk after we've gotten these jerks caught-" a glowing flamingo croquet mallet, a construct of pure roiling chaos magic, appears in his hands and flares in an arc of glowing purple as he conks the gangster who tried to hit him with it. The man goes down with stars floating over his head. Literally, "but no maiming. I mean it!" And then the Harley Quinn School Of Fighting comes into full display, as the Cheshire cat smacks another weapon off a man's hands by mallet swing, then leaps at his next opponent, wrapping his legs around his head and shoulders in order to use him as a reluctant, flailing mount as he delivers more mallet blows left and right at the gangsters coming for them. The one he is riding reaches out to try to yank him off him by his tail, and the Cheshire *conks* him over the head lightly with the handle of his mallet, "Hey! Not until the third date! I'm a gentleman!"
April O'Neil	April reacts to seeing Mika's display with big eyes. She just draws in a breath then. "This is what I get for skipping Ninja school." She mutters before looking back to the screen of her phone. She's got it primarily focused on the Evil Spider. She has to shake her head at the display too. "I guess Jameson was right about him all along. These Spiders are ... nuts." She's seen a few of them out in the wild in recent time, but knows next to nothing about them beyond whats seen in the public eye. The fight is put up online, streamed live, and April checks the Police scanner to see if any cops are on the way yet, otherwise she's shooting out a signal for them to get sent to her location... She's a pro at this by now, and at least she's not being kidnapped this time! Dumpster hide!
Mika Yang	Mika blinks a few times. "Ninjas? I do not do ninjutsu. My mother taught me Aikido. My father is a Wing Chun Grand master. I came to the United States to learn how to be Paramedic.", she tells. The woman shakes her wrist a little bit. The chain seems to move in a matter that she approves of. The men with the lead pipes charge her, and she steps back while shaking her arm in an odd manner.     The edge of the chain seems to hop and skip for a second before it snaps up, smacking the guys in the legs and thighs. Mika does a few other motions with her arm and wrist, making the chain seem to dance and strike her opponents. She makes a slashing motion with her arm, and tries to smack both gang members in the face with the end of the chain. The woman smiles lightly before taking a few steps back. "Miss O'Neil. Is this common in this area? Random fights?", she asks. Yes, Mika just asked that. One might get the opinion she isn't...very street knowledgeable.
Kaine Parker	The Spider in Red stares. "Don't confuse me with my brothers." While Terry is busy inflicting chaotic and somewhat zany justice upon the warring gang members, Kaine tugs on his web line and begins to put the gang leader on a spin cycle. With a dozen or so tons of torque applies upon the line, the angry Spider conjures some serious radial velocity. Physics does the rest as Kaine lets go, the gang leader's trajectory somewhere into the sky as he goes arcing over a nearby building with a scream. Unassisted, he will surely die when gravity catches up with him. Kaine calls out, "I hope you think about what did you did in your last seconds. I'll send Camilia's family your regards, asshole." With April acting as a clear non-combatant, she doesn't track any real unwanted attention. Everyone has bigger concerns. While Mika defends herself expertly causing a couple of men to clutch their chain bruised faces, a gathering critical mass of attention does form around her. It doesn't go unnoticed by Kaine. A few thwips of web lines disarm gangsters in her proximity, creating new openings. Even Terry receives a few assists in direct contradiction to this spider's violent tendencies, a few individual in the Cheshire Cat's back arc are leg tied with webs, falling to the concrete. Sirens echo up the street from the distance. The authorities alerted, they'll be arriving shortly. Some gang members perk their heads up and one calls out, "Ahi vienen los caballitos, mejor nos vamos de aqui!" Some are too wrapped up in the fighting to notice, but others drop weapons and start fleeing the alley.
Terry O'Neil	"Brothers? Oh my god there are /more/?" Vorpal exclaims, backflipping off his reluctant Silver and taking him out of commission with a powerful kick to the solar plexus. And then Spidey just YEETS a guy. "Oh for fuck's sake, webs!" Vorpal calls out in expasperation and a Rabbit Hole opens up under him, swallowing him hole. Dropping him out of the sky in a route that's set to intersect the flying gangster. "Espero que con esto aprendas la leccion, pendejo!" he says, flipping into some of the functional Spanish he learned, before another Rabbit Hole opens up to catch them both. And then they emerge from the floor, near Vorpal's original departure spot. The Cheshire cat lets momentum take its hold as they shoot up, and once they have both stopped- him looking as dapper as could be /reclining/ in mid-air, arms behind his head while the gangster screams and flails like a very bizarre balloon- another Rabbit Hole opens up to drop them to ground level, sans splat. And then a wave of chaos magic erupts from the Cheshire, summoning the nearby dumpsters and trash to wrap themselves around the gangster and pin him to the wall. The cat points at him, suddenly looking nowhere near as jovial or as friendly as he usually looks, purple light streaming out of his eyes and his mouth as he says to him: "Si te escapas, te como el alma- ME ENTIENDES?" And then, after gauing the terrified man's reply, he snaps back to face Kaine, now that the others are fleeing- some are not, but the magically-animated croquet club he throws into the air, and which shoots towards them with a mind of its own, should keep them occupied. If the very competent martial artist who by his cousin doesn't take care of them first. "... okay, what the hell? If you are /this/ murder happy, maybe your suit is riding up too much."
April O'Neil	With Mika revealing a bit about herself, April flutters her eyelashes. "Wow. Okay. Well. Good on you, Go-getter!" She fires back moments before her cover is removed, and some bodies come flying against the wall where it was. This, of course, has April screaming in surprise and backing up in to a fire-escape ladder that lowered down behind her in the ruckuss. She turns around to look at it, then look UP it before she starts to quickly clammer up it! Up, up, and awa--- Nope. The ladder comes down as April tries to climb it, and about half way up it impacts the ground, then falls completely free, and April squeals again as the ladder now slams down against a pile of trash cans. Now she's just perched on it on hands and knees. She opens her eyes to look around. "I'm still on the ground." She mutters as she starts running along the top of the ladder that is now a ramp over the trash! Quickly she crawls over the garbage and tries to jump over it. The sounds of PD sirens has her looking out toward the mouth of the alley. "Ha ha, help is on the way." She says back to the fighters.
Mika Yang	Mika hears the sirens, and the guys that are coming towards her. She coughs a little bit. She takes a few steps back. "Ummm, gentlemen? The peace officers are here. I think it might be best if we all went our seperate ways?", she comments. The woman starts to back peddle towards April. No more Martial arts fun time, police are here. Last think Mika needs is her studio hearing about her being in a gang fight. Stuffy security is stuffy!     The young woman takes a deep breath, and stays in front of April. For now, she's playing the innocent little international student, since the cops are almost here. She's ready to defend herself, but only enough so that the cops don't put her in jail! "Officers! In here! HELP!", she yells out.
Kaine Parker	Kaine face palms and growls in irritation. "Fuckin' boy scouts! Its on your head when that piece of shit hurts someone else." In truth Kaine is angry for two reasons. Justice isn't served, and he had a contract out on that particular gang member. Two birds, one stone kind of opportunity. Zero results now. He takes a few leaps back and forth between the brick walls of the alley, ending up perched at the top of the same fire escape April failed to scale. The tattered red fabric whips behind him settling as he turns to face Terry once more. The ganger leader finally passes out from trauma and pain within his crib of dumpsters and trash, last sounds a brief whimper. Everyone else has finally caught on that the police are not far. The wounded groan on the ground clutching arms, heads, or legs. Anyone who can still move on their own two feet is beating concrete on their way to avoid arrest including those intending to assault Mika. "Stay out of my way. Last warning." Kaine offers with a middle finger and then hops onto the roof top to avoid confrontation with the police. He starts a slow walk along roof tops, muttering in irritation about how poorly that all just went.
Terry O'Neil	"... if he had a gigantic hump of a shell and only three toes, I'd swear this was Raphael in yet another disguise," Vorpal mutters. Reaching into thin air, he opens a Rabbit Hole and gets something from his desk back home. "You go," he says to the little cardstock rectangle as he writes something across its back with pen, "And get in his way." He flicks it into the air and it immediately catches chaos magic. The business card flits across the air and up to the rooftop, leaving a trail of purple sparkles until it runs out of juice, stopping right in front of Kaine and it flutters to the ground. On the card is his name and phone number, with a 'Dude, WTF? Call me' scrawled across the back. Down at street level, he exhales and looks at the scene. There's the young woman who was kicking ass, now clearly switching into hapless victim mode-- that's a routine he knows from the time when he used to have a secret identity... or, at last, he had something to hide. He glances at April and Mika, making sure they were unharmed, and then he rubs a hand across the back of his neck. "Right. I guess I'm going to get stuck with giving the statement." Because he can't just up and leave, being a member of the Titans. And with April having streamed the thing. He hoped she caught the bit where he climbed onto the guy and used him as a horsie, though. Harl would get a kick out of that. He walks down the alley to meet the police. "... so... Empanadas... tonight?" he says to April, knowing this is going to take a /while/ to sort out. He gives Mika a quick wink of complicity.
April O'Neil	And at the mouth of the alley now, April is standing there looking in to her own phone camera. She is smoothing out her tussled hair around her face and smiling at the device. "Well, there you have it, folks. A real honest to goodness gang war battle on the mean streets of New York. You saw it here live... April O'Neil, on the scene. Check out the rest of my videos for similar content, and debates on super heroes, and what value some of them actually offer to the city. Such as Spider-man. What a jerk, right?" She asks before signing off with obligatory social media tag lines. She then sighs heavily and grabs up her hoodie off the ground. She walks toward TErry, toward the cops, and sidelongs to Mika. "Welcome to New York. Where this kinda stuff breaks out every five damn minutes..." She says with a faint smile while sorting her bright yellow and white hoodie out across her lap.
Mika Yang	Mika coughs a little bit. "Well, I now understand why my studio insisted that I have a security team with me in public. I came out for these...tacos. So odd to make a sandwich like this. We do not have these things back home. Though, I do love KFC and McDonalds.", she says. The woman sees the Paramedics coming on scene, and one of them stops, and walks over.     "Hollywood, what are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be at home studying?", he asks. Mika coughs alittle bit. "Just had to get some air, and try these tacos.", she tells. Hollywood? "Either way, I can help with transport.", she says.     "Right, you never had tacos before.", the older paramedic says.     "I grew up in Japan. I know more about fried chicken then these tacos.", she tells. The woman mutters as she works on a few gangers. A few gangers seem to be getting mouth bandages..."If you want, I can pay for your meals today, for helping me out of that situration.", Mika tells. The woman blushes a little bit. "A thank you.", she says to Terry and April.
Kaine Parker	Snatching the card out of the air, he grumbles, remembers the number and promptly destroys the card by burning it between his fingertips. A moment later, Kaine is on the street and walking up to a taco stand. Clearly in a bad mood, he does his best not take out it out on the vendor. Ordering a couple of pork street tacos, he doses them with sriacha enjoying the extra spicy. Biting, chewing and observing, he becomes part of the crowd gawking as the paramedics and police begin their work. He avoids staring at Mika, April, or Terry though he definitely keeps the trio in his periphery while he scarfs. Mentally, his thoughts are a cacophony. The voice of Doctor Warren cackles within his mind, "I always knew you were a failure."