Players:
Summary: Jakob, Rashmi and Travis run into a group of b..no wait, d-list villains.
Date: July 19, 2010
Log Title: Attack of the Crustaceans Crew
Rating: PG-13
NYC - Mutant Town
Mutant Town, also known as District X, has become a haven for mutants. This section of town doesn't care what you look like, accepting all mutants no matter what their appearance. Most of the businesses in this section of town are mutant run ranging from small convenience stores to clothing shops to restaurants to night clubs. The buildings here aren't the high rise buildings you might find in mid-town but most are about 5-6 stories high. Mutant Town might not be the most luxurious section of town, in fact it's fairly run down, but this section of where mutants are safe and welcomed regardless of race, religion and culture.
It's a Sunday afternoon in Mutant Town and like most New York Neighborhoods, people are out buying groceries, eating out for an early Sunday dinner, walking dogs and just doing the daily weekend grind, even in this heat. On this particular block of Mutant Town, Travis walks with his large jacket on, designed to conceal four out of six of his arms, and is enduring the heat with trouble. Which is why he's heading towards a small burger place in hopes of getting some lunch that isn't Barnes Academy cafeteria food and getting out of the heat for a bit.
With her new job starting tomorrow, but the employee manual only *just* memorized, Rashmi managed to put off the clothes-shopping portion of her needs until the very last second. Combined with her recently-awakened interest in the quality of life in Mutant Town, the redhead has decided to add what little she can to the local economy, and with a bag in each hand and humming a quiet tune under her breath, she makes her way through the crowds, slowly winding her way back to the streets surrounding Hell's Kitchen.
Unsure how Travis had managed to talk him into this Jakob had a full sweater, hood pulled upand around his head with a Celtics basketball hat worn underneath it. Both of Jakob's hands were shoved into the pockets in the front of it while he strode, his eyes skimmed from left to right while walking, what would someone from his past think if they saw him walking around in District X, especially along side a kid with six arms. "I cut a deal with this guy I met in Battery Park, he's hooking me up with some burned copies, I got Bitch Slap in there… we should hit that up when we get back." Rambling in general to keep his mind clear.
At least for Jakob's sake, Travis hides his extra arms and tries to look as normal as possible, and hey, it was his idea for Travis to hit the streets of Mutant Town to get out. "Bitch Slap?" He asks kind of confused as to what that is. He smiles and shakes his head as they keep on walking.
Not to far from Rashmi, Jakob and Travis there's a loud sort of repetative 'thoom' sound and with each sound the street vibrates shortly. As the 'thooms' get closer, there is a a large explosion that seems to send bricks flying into the street, hitting cars, windows and anything else in it's wake. There's a large dust cloud in front of the Mutant Town Savings Bank.
Sudden loud explosions are, by their general nature, startling things to hear up close. Shopping bags hit the sidewalk as Rashmi crouches to cover her ears, her surprised yelp lost amid the general cacophony. The reaction is a reflexive one, however, and it's not long after that the bags are scooped up, her long red hair waving like a pennant behind her as she hurries *toward* the Bank, rather than away.
"Yeah, Bitch Slap, that thing you'd be scary at if and when your balls drop, but think lots of titties and guns." Jakob gave Travis a skeptical look. "B-Rate movie badassery." He continues on. Stopping as the first vibration and 'thoom' was heard, then a second. His spine tensed and he cut off his words hands drawing out of his pockets as his gaze sweeps over to see bricks erupting across the street. "Man… so knew coming here would have something like this happen."
Well any sort of retort is cut short by the sound of the explosion and there's a tensing from Travis as he looks around. "Shit." He says as paranoia gets the worst of him. "I blame you." He says to Jakob as he starts looking around to see if stay and helping or running like a bitch is a good idea.
The source of the *thooms* is revealed as there is a man in what appears to be a Crab Truck. He's in a large compartment and there are three legs that come out from each side and two large claws on the front of each hand. He moves swiftly down the street…sideways. As the dust clears there is a girl in a pink costume handing bags of money out to a man in red armour with two large claws for hands. "Great, Crab-Man got here just in time. Colony! keep look out while me and Mighty Shrimp clear this bank out." The Lobster looking man says. Colony just stands there in a large overcoat and hat as he looks around, waiting to see if any heroes show up.
A redheaded Hindi girl walking home from a shopping trip, in most cases, is a pretty poor subject to include under the 'Hero' heading. However, with the almost-rhythmic rattle of thick paper, Rashmi does indeed plunge into the fading haze of dust and pulverized mortar, a half-dozen spheres fading into view, their faint blue light easily tracked as they whirl around her. "*What* do you think you're *DOING?!*" is her outraged opening line.
"This uh… wow, I'm at a loss for words." Jakob manages before he is pulling out his cell-phone, dialing 911. "Yeah, operator… we got a robbery here on…" Naming off the street and location. Not bothering to seek cover beyond the lip of the building beside them, describing the suspects and what was going on to the voice on the phone as Rashmi moves in. While he was speaking he leaned down and picked up a brick his fingers rolling it around before he got a firm grip on it.
"Oh shit, what is that girl doing?!" Travis asks Jakob seeing the Red Haired girl running over but then she displays superpowers and he takes a deep breath. "Damnit, Jakob, should we just let her handle it on her own?" After all she is a girl, and all by herself, he can't let her get hurt. Travis starts to take off his jacket and waits for an answer before heading it.
As Rashmi speaks, the man in the red armour and large claws turns to speak. "Hey, it's payday and the banks were closed, so we just figured we'd help ourselves, now run along girly before you get hurt." He says as The man known as Colony starts to move closer as Mighty Shrimp hangs on to some of the bags of money. Behind Rashmi, the sideways moving Crab-Man speaks. "Hey Lobster-Claw, want me to squish the hero?"
Rashmi's lips purse in evident displeasure, eyes narrowing as she glances over her shoulder at the sidewinding Crab-Man. "*No,*" she says, the spheres orbiting her body beginning to speed up, creating eddies in the dust cloud. "That's not your money, you have no right to take it, and *you will put it -back.-*" At her final word, a pair of spheres detach from their orbit, arcing outwards toward the burglar behind her at speeds normally found on the slower class of highway.
"No clue but I'm getting really hungry for some Sea Food. Maybe we can distract them long enough for the police to show, So… lets back her up." The phone is closed and Jakob takes aim, sadly Lobster-Claw doesn't have a completely human anatomy from the looks of it but he should still be able to pin-point a softer location to lob this brick off of. Taking aim at a crease in armor between neck and head he hurls forward, his strength amplified in the process to about triple it's normal lift, muscles tear and pull but the effect is what should count the brick launched with some praiseworthy accuracy. Distraction time.
"Can't leave a damsel in distress." Travis says with a smile as he rushes forward, he goes to lunge out and grab one of the small legs of CrabMan with one of his middle arms. Seeing that it's all metal he just concentrates and tries to freeze the metal hoping that it can cause the metal to becoem brittle and snap.
The two spheres lunge out at Crab Man and hit the guy in the armoured 'truck' leaving two nice dents in the cab of the vehicle. "Hey! Stop throwing pebbles at CrabMan!" He yells in third person as he sweeps a front claw back to swipe at Rashmi. As Jakob gets closer, he'd be able to see that Lobster-Claw is just a man in a suit and there are joints in the armour. As he goes to attack, the strike hits Lobster-Claw, hard, and he gets a bit stunned. There's a yell from Might Shrimp as she beings to grow in size to about fifteen feet tall. "Stay away from him!" She yells at Jakob as she swings a foot back to kick Jakob. As for Colony, he falls down to the ground in a cascade of tiny pill bugs, there are thousands of them that scatter across the ground towards Travis.
"I'll stop hitting you when you *put* *that* *money*—oh ew, Ew, EW!!" Hopping back to avoid the swipe of the large armored claw, Rashmi turns her head just in time to see Mighty Shrimp grow, and the Colony… disperse. With a look of utter revulsion on the redhead's face, a trio of spheres clack against the asphalt and begin to grind outward against the road at a much lower velocity, sweeping away any pillbugs caught in their path as she slowly makes her way toward the giantess. "…*When* did dressing up like shellfish sound like a good idea, anyway?!"
"Crap" Is all Jakob can manage before hes diving into a combat roll across the cement his hood falling away while he picked up the only thing he could, two more bricks."Big feet is really un-attractive on girls. You know that right?" He shouts at the lumbering Mighty Shrimp. Not able to focus on anyone else right now as he aims at her enlarged face letting both bricks fly, keeping his strength amplified.
"I dunno Red, I think around the same time that anyone decided dressing up in a silly costume and decided to be a super hero or villain." Travis says as he thinks there's some ridiculous looking costumes out there. He goes for the next leg he can grab to try to freeze that one as well.
The squishing of the pill bugs is the only thing that's keeping Colony from reforming at the moment. As for Jakob, the two bricks he flings at Mighty Shrimp hit her square in the face and with a scream she reals back, the girl has no defensive abilities. As for Lobster Claw, well, he brings back a claw and goes to hit Jakob in the back with it. CrabMan on the other hand, has two nice dents in his cab and two frozen legs. The first frozen one starts to crack and shatter as it starts to sway a bit.
"ENOUGH!" The spheres on street-sweeping duty rise from the ground, hurling themselves at full speed toward Lobster Claw's back. "This is stupid and pointless and you look *really ridiculous* and just put the money *down* already!!" The redhead's knuckles whiten around the handles of her shopping bags, the bank robbery seeming to be less an actual threat than a humongous pain in the butt and a perfect way to kill the buzz of a nice weekend.
Focused on throwing bricks at the super-sized Mighty Shrimp Jakob hadn't noticed Lobster-Claw had moved up behind him, struck soundly in the back. He 'whumps' out air to crack down on a knee upon the sidewalk, instantly one of his legs sweeps out in a harsh kick towards his assailant's ankle just as Rashmi's spheres launch at the man. Maybe they'd luck out and the villain would suffer both attacks. Following through he'd lunge to his feet out of trajectory of the red-headed mutant's retaliation, moving slightly slower than usual from the baseball like pound to the spine.
With two legs down, Travis takes a few steps back to help out his friends. "Wow." He says in regards to Rashmi's yelling, the girl's got a big mouth. He rushes to another leg to freeze that one as well, the more frozen joints the better.
The spheres slam LobsterClaw right in the back as the foot from Jakob catches him and there's in interesting effect as his leg jars and he jolts forward and falls to his face, his armour sparking a bit. Mighty Shrimp isn't doing so well her self as she starts to shrink down from a face full of pain. CrabMan though swings an arm down at Travis to catch him as the second leg snaps and he starts to fall to one side. Colony though starts to reform himself, the bugs pilling up to form the figure of a short man.
Rashmi beams a smile at Travis and Jakob in turn, grateful for their help… a smile that fades quickly into a glare, as the denuded Colony begins to reform. "*Look,*" she says, her spheres settling into a holding pattern around her body, "we don't want to hurt you more, and you don't want to *get* hurt. So just give up and stay put until the cops come, okay?" The girl has a metaphorical punch like half a dozen speeding cars, and yet clearly she'd rather talk these four down…
Rashmi beams a smile at Travis and Jakob in turn, grateful for their help… a smile that fades quickly into a glare, as the denuded Colony begins to reform. "*Look,*" she says, her spheres settling into a holding pattern around her body, "we don't want to hurt you more, and you don't want to *get* hurt. So just give up and stay put until the cops come, okay?" The girl has a metaphorical punch like half a dozen speeding cars, and yet clearly she'd rather talk these four down…
Jakob steps forward to stand on the back of Lobster Claw, in his right hand is another solid looking chunk of cement that probably weighed a good thirty pounds part of that refuse caused with the Crab's exit from the Bank. He tossed it up and down giving Rashmi a quick nod in return to the smile. Figuring Travis was handling himself and from the looks of it the three of them may have things under control. "Yeah, what she said… and if you try to grow again, I'll bounce another of these rocks off your face." His threat towards the Mighty Shrimp.
The swipe of CrabTruck just hits Travis there's a grunt of pain as he continues fourth. Once it falls and he rushes forward to get open the door so that he can grab a hold of the driver. The hand he touches him with causes people to feel really ill. Nothing deathly but dizziness, feverish and nauseous. "You okay over there?" He asks.
The sound of sirens start to approach as the three are defeated. Colony, well he disperses and the tiny bugs scurry away but LobsterClaw, Mighty Shrimp and CrabMan are all there to be arrested for yet another, attempted, bank robbery.
Rashmi grumbles to herself as the police arrive, setting the bags down and lifting an off-brand business jacket out, nose wrinkling as she starts beating the brick dust off of it. "This had *better* be clean when I start my job," she says, tone scathing as she addresses the subdued Lobster Claw. "I don't want to have to explain to *She-Hulk* why her intern couldn't be bothered to look decent her first day!" The clothes are dumped back in the bag, spheres fading away as the redhead takes a couple slow, calming breaths. Once decently settled, she approaches the first of the police units on the scene to give her statement.
As the cops arrive Jakob pulls up his hood back around his head again, a grin worn on his features as he moves to stand beside Travis' figuring it was only proper to stay and give a report. One of his own being thumbed out on his phone for SHIELD as well, digit moving quickly over keys as he spoke,"The hotty just say she works for She-Hulk?" He asks Travis amidst typing not sure if he heard it right. He released his mutant abilities and instantly felt the burden it had on his body, his stomach giving out audible protests and complaints. "Never a dull moment in freaktown."
Travis just follows his friends lead as it's his first time really dealing with this as he struggles to get back into his coat. "Wait..you're interning for She-Hulk?" Travis can't help but remember how hot the green woman was. "Hey…that was kind of cool, what you did." He says to Rashmi as he looks at Jakob and shrugs. "No, last time I came here I met two of the weirdest people, I think one of them was weirder than our roommate Teddy."
Rashmi flushes a bit, some of the irritation lifting. "Well I mean what was I *going* to do? Run? Then I'd just be keeping myself up all night trying to figure out what I *could* have done, but didn't. And then I'd just be a zombie tomorrow, and that wouldn't help anyone. But… yeah, I am." Transferring the bags to her left hand, she sticks out her right, smiling brightly. "Rashmi Franklin, by the way, and thanks for the help. Who're you two?"
"Jakob and… " One of his hands lifted and waved off the cell phone having been shoved away. Leaving Travis to introduce himself while he kneeled down to begin dusting off his jeans where they'd torn toying with the new flap for a moment before he stood back up, giving up on it. An elbow being tossed out at Travis, "Get her number dude."
Travis puts out one of his hands, having covered up the other four. "Travis." He says as he looks around. "This is just weird." The whole situation, he hasn't been involved in something like this before. There's a wince as the elbow hits one of his arms in the right spot. "Dude…" He says with a sigh. "Nice too meet you Rashmi."
Rashmi shakes the offered hand, her smile dialing up another couple lumens. "You too… And honestly? Don't worry about them. They were just *ridiculous,* not like some of the other problems that've been going on… Anyway. You two live in the city, or visiting?"
"Live in the city." Travis says as he stuffs his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, my first time really running into Super villains, I hope they're all not as retarded. But I just moved to the city recently, I don't really know it too well. I started going to college here middle of last semester." He doesn't say much more in regards to that, after all there are a ton of colleges in the city, he could go to any of them.
Rashmi glances over her shoulder at the crime scene, frowning deeply. "…Actually I'm pretty glad they're stupid. But I'm going to have to let Ms. Walters know about this, because if she tries to represent them it's *her* practice on the line, since I work for her… … Um. Anyway." Her head turns back to the boys, eyebrows rising. "You go to college here? Which?"
There's almost a little bit of a longer the necessary pause at the question of which College. "New York Coll..University." He says remembering the name at the last minute. "NYU, I haven't been going there too long but I don't really get a chance to explore the city much." Even though she says she knows She-Hulk Travis isn't about to mention Barnes, but having six arms…there are definitely some holes in that answer. "I actually met her once, she was a…very interesting woman."
Rashmi bobs her head. "Oh yeah. She gets a lot of flak for being a defense attorney, but that's part of why I'm happy to go to work for her. She wants to make sure *everyone* gets the same fair shake, you know?" An eyebrow rises at the hesitancy, nodding slowly as though she doesn't buy it for a second but will happily play along. "O-o-oh, New York *University,* right. I'm starting *there* in the fall."
"Hrm, same and such." Jakob manages as he grunted at Travis blurting out NYU, seriously there had to be a better cover for Barnes than the obvious universities. He tried to recall a briefing that mentioned it and fell dumb on it, memory lapse maybe. His stomach growled loudly a thim again and his left arm was numb, swollen around the shoulder from use. A hot shower was needed later on. "So going to our school soon eh? Good we need more eye-candy. Bout some grub while we're all playing 'meet your neighborhood freak'?"
Jakob's wording earns a raised eyebrow, but her free shoulder lifts in a casual shrug. "Sure, just give me a second…" Reaching into the bookbag at her hip, she pulls out her own cell, punching in a speed-dial number. A moment later; "Hi Mami! Just calling to let you know I'll be a little late. I met some people from the school I'll be going to, and we're going to have a late dinner. …Yeah… yea — no… No, it's okay, I've done my shopping for work, but I'll have to use the washing machine, is — yes… okay! Tell Papi not to worry, love you!" And the phone is closed and replaced. "Okay! So… where to?"
"Hey, are you injured?" Travis asks of Jakob before laughing in agreement. "Yeah, the place is kind of lacking in..well…please tell me you don't have any really weird personality quirks or anything." He says as he's hoping he doesn't find out she's a right psycho path or something. "Food sounds good right now, I think there's a burger place not to far from here? We can all hit that?"
