Sounds of the City [Spidey]

[Gambit]

The streets were relatively peaceful in the wee hours of the morning. There was still the steady background noise of the city, but that was more like a calming static to those who had lived there long enough. To newcomers it was probably deafening, even during the least active hours. Somewhere in the distance tires squealed and a horn blared shortly after. Yet another near-miss, the driver would fume for a minute or two about the idiot that cut him off or something, but it would be just another funny story in the morning.

Gambit meandered down a particularly quiet street, no solid destination in mind. He'd started off with the idea of heading home for the night, if one could really call his tiny apartment home. It wasn't much, but he never stayed in one place long enough to care where he lived. The important thing was that it was cheap.

He'd left his old coat back at the apartment, but the night was nice enough. He kept his hands in the pockets of his jeans, one resting lightly on the deck of clear playing cards that were always there. The mutant was never truly unarmed, he could charge anything with an explosive bit of energy. He simply favored cards.

Tires squealed again, closer, though this time they were followed up by the distinct sound of crunching metal. Gambit winced, it didn't sound like a bad crash, but even at low speeds there was a high level of danger. To help or not to help, that was the question. While pondering over the dilemma, he rounded a corner and found himself face-to-face (so to speak) with the crash site. He shook his head, just a little fender-bender. Nothing major.

[Spider-Man]

Spider-Man was just coming back 'home' after a long night of patrolling. He hated staying up this late, but every time he thought of calling it a night, his aunt's voice echoed in his head. "With great power, there must come great responsibility," he heard her frail voice say to him again and again. Besides, after all he'd done to harm the world, he couldn't just not help someone in need, especially with his powers. So, Spider-Man would just sigh, sling a web, and swing through another part of the city. He would like to visit her, but Weapon X would be watching for that.

It was at this time, that his Spider-Sense tugged at him, warning him of some danger. Experience told him, it wasn't an immediate, personal danger, but rather, a possible in the future kind of one. It was almost like when a person subconsciously notices someone suspicious entering a convenience store, just before that someone robs the store..similar, yet much more insistent. As he approached where his Spider-Sense was tugging him, the 'buzzing' grew more insistent, and "There!" he said quietly to himself when he spotted it. A middle-aged, blonde man with a buzzcut, carrying a duffle bag, and sweating profusely as his eyes darted around. Spider-Man let go of his webline, did a forward-back flip and shot a shorter line, bringing him in faster toward the man. The man was exiting the building when Spider-Man, flung himself at him, almost as a diver would dive into the water. They collided, rolled and came to a stop with Spider-Man atop the man, holding him up from the ground a little by his shirt collar. "What did you do?" he asked the man. "The man's eyes widened, darted around, looking at the gasping bystanders. "N-Nothing" he stammered, and to Spider-Man's surprise, he flung Spider-Man off him as if Spidey were a fly and took off at a run. Spider-Man's Spider-sense buzzed a loud warning, making him instinctively jump fifteen feet into the air and swing a webline outward just before the nearby building exploded in an odd, quiet way. Fortunately, firetrucks and EMS services were aleady near for some other reason. Spider-Man chased the man, whom was running on foot, while he was swinging through the air.

Between the explosion, the firetrucks and ambulances, and the man running through traffic, there were several collisions. Spider-Man ended his swing, let go of the webline, flipped forward and angled his legs to dart into the man's back, slamming him into the back end of a car. If the blonde were a mere human, it would likely have crushed the terrorist, however, the terrorist merely grunted and stumbled forward, still trying to escape. "I don't want to fight you Spidey!! You're not one of them!!!" he screamed as he ran. "One of them? One of who!?!? Spider-Man said as he chased the man, jumping over cars, flipping over innocent citizens. He shot webbing at the man, but, amazingly, the man dodged. The man was increadibly fast.

The man screamed back "One of them! One of those freaks! Y'know, mutants!!" he said the words as if spitting out some vile-tasting substance. This truly confused Spider-Man, as this man showed some sort of powers. "Aren't you a mutant or something!?!?" Spider-Man yelled at the man, finally managing to snag him against a web he shot ahead of the man. This caused a little fender-bender near the man called Gambit. The terrorist screamed at the insinuation that he was a mutant. His eyes had filled with rage and he turned before completely falling into the web and launched a fist at Spider-Man's head. "How DARE you! I'm not some filthy mutie!! I had to take drugs for these powers so I could make the muties pay!! They don't belong here, they're against god's will!!" Spider-Man dodged the punch, barely, mostly due to his Spider-Sense.

[Gambit]

Once he was satisfied that no one was in any immediate danger, his attention shifted to the cause of the chaos. That black-suited spider boy he'd been hearing about and what appeared to be some sort of criminal. Now, he was fully prepared to let the masked 'hero' go about his business, but the blond just had to go shooting off his mouth. Being one of those so-called 'muties', he couldn't help but take offense at such a statement.

Gambit changed course, away from the alley he'd pointed himself down before he'd spotted the source of the commotion, and calmly made his way over. God's will, what did this hyped-up human supremest know of God's will? Gambit sat himself on the hood of a parked car, mere feet from the terrorist and pulled the deck of cards from his pocket. He shuffled absently, watching the cards "That's funny, now. 'God's will.' Seems t'me you de one goin' 'gainst de powers that be." Gambit glanced up briefly, staring up at the stars for the tiniest of moments before turning back to the cards. "I was born dis way, an' you..." Gambit allowed a slight chuckle to escape, "You disregardin', changin', what you were born with t'eradicate somethin' natural as breathin'."

His eyes, ruby-red and glowing softly in the dim light, finally locked on the terrorist. "Now, I don' put much stock in dis 'God' business, really. Prefer de theory of evolution, m'self." The shuffling stopped and the mutant held up a card, ace of hearts. The bit of clear plastic gained a soft reddish glow as Gambit charged it. "Mutants....well, we jus' the next rung o' de ladder, de next link in de chain, no?" He spared a glance at Spider-man, not really apologizing for butting into the fight, more like gaging the other man's reaction to this over-juiced human.

[Spider-Man]

Spider-Man continued dodging the terrorist's blows, often twisting and bending at odd angles, as if he were a body contortionist, warming up for a show. He didn't want to take the blonde guy out just yet. Spider-Man still needed to find out if any others like him were around or planning anything. Spider-Man doubted that this man planned, drugged himself, and executed this terrorist act all on his own. "What drugs?!?"

The man, kept punching, kicking, and, at times, even biting at Spider-Man in his rage. He became increasingly angrier and belligerent. "What?!" The man seemed confused, and was growing frustrated that, even with his enhanced speed, he could not land a blow on Spidey. "Mutant Growth Hormone. It comes from those freaks. I've disgraced myself, but I'll have my revenge." He yelled, and threw a punch that nearly laid Reilly out, but Reilly jumped backward, two fingers touching a car's hood, and used the hood to launch himself into a back flip up onto the hood, and kicked the blonde man in the face. While the terrorist stood stunned, a new player entered the area.

Both Spider-Man and the terrorist paused in their battle. They listened as the man talked with some sort of strange accent. Spider-Man looked at the supremecist and said, "He's got a point y'know. You're the one that changed 'God's will' by using this..mutant growth hormone.' You need to stop before more people get hurt, mutant or human. Where did you get the drugs? Are there others like you?"

The man yelled in frustration, "You! You're just like them! The muties that killed my sister! I'll kill you! You won't get anythnig from me!" THe blonde man's eyes lit up, charging with power. And he screamed. releasing a blast from his eyes. Spider-Man dodged..mostly, he got a little singed on the back of his right thigh, "Ow! Hey Ahhnuld! Watch where you point those things!"

[Gambit]

Leave it to the heroes to try and talk sense into the fanatics. The speech was as predictable as the blond's reaction. Trying to appeal to their sense of morality or compassion rarely worked with those humans who dove over the edge, into the source of their anger. Gambit watched the little fight, finally letting the charge on the card drop and shoving the whole deck back in his pocket and stood. With the human's attention on Spider-man, there probably wouldn't be a better chance.

A couple quick steps brought him up close enough and he threw a solid kick at the back of the guy's head. The force behind the move was more than enough to knock out a normal human, but this guy, pumped up on growth hormone, would probably just drop and have a little trouble moving for a while. That is, of course, unless he miscalculated.

Just in case, he dug his trademark extendable staff from another pocket, letting the thing snap open to it's full length. Gambit assumed his defensive position as soon as both feet were back on the ground "I'm so sick o' listenin' t'you arrogant types. Y'think your cause'll outweigh what y'do t' de people 'round you." The mutant shook his head, still keeping his eyes on the blond, "The idiocy o' the human species is an amazin' thing."

[Spider-Man]

Spider-Man saw Gambit do a kick at the back of the guy's head, and tried to distract the blonde guy, "Shooting at your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man? That's just wrong! Hey blondie! You'll have to do better than that to stop me!!" Spider-Man jumped around, doing a kind of acrobatic dance using all his abilities flitting from car to car in front of the powered-up terrorist. However, the blonde man must have 'heard' Gambit coming and dodged just enough to only receive a glancing blow, which he apparently didn't feel, and his glowing eyes glared at Gambit and fired their blasts.

Spider-Man fired webbing at the man, trying to throw of his aim, but the man, shrugged off Spider-Man's pull and yanked him into the air, toward himself. He raised a fist to hit Spider-Man in the face, but Spider-Man managed to twist and flip around, kneeing the terrorist in the ribs and using his momentum to yank on the extended arm, flipping the man down to the pavement.

Spider-Man saw Gambit extending his staff andn odded his head in approval. He paused, listening to what Gambit had to say as he tried to wrangle the man into a subdued position. At the 'idiocy of the human race' comment, he began to argue, "Hey, I'm hu-" but he stopped. Spider-Man had stopped mid-sentence because he realized, that as a plain vanilla human he had created monsters and killers without even realizing it. He shook his head as the man wiggled free and blasted 'eye-rays' at Gambit again.

[Gambit]

Eye rays. Why did the flunkies always get the eye rays? Gambit just barely managed to dodge the first blast, but the smell of burnt cotton told him he was going to need a new shirt. While the terrorist was distracted fighting Spider-Man, the mutant took the chance to plan his next move. With the slight-of-hand achieved only by master thieves, Gambit slipped a card from his pocket and fed a charge into the plastic.

The second time the human performed his little eye-blast trick, Gambit was ready. He side-stepped the beams, spun, and brought the end of his staff down toward the back of the man's head. Simultaneously slipping the charged card in the terrorist's pocket. Gambit moved back several steps, just in case his staff had missed. Either way, the human had about ten seconds before the card would reach 'critical mass', or whatever term one prefers to use, and blow. It wouldn't be a large blast, per se, big enough to cripple the man, yes, but not enough to take out a building or something. Gambit was reasonably sure Spider-Man was either tough enough to survive if he was too close, or smart enough to keep a safe distance away.

[Spider-Man]

Spider-Man was still grappling with the insane man when his Spider-Sense started blaring at him to jump away. Without a second's hesitation, he jumped 10 feet into the air, and flipped backward, about ten more feet, away from the man. As Spider-Man landed on a car's hood, he felt the blast buffetting him, and dodged a stray bit of debris.

When Spider-Man looked back at where the man stood, he couldn't believe his eyes. The terrorist had a gaping hole in his side, and stood up, shrugging off the blast. The human fired another blast from his eyes, but it was...diminished somehow. Then, Spider-Man saw why; the charged card that Gambit had used had caused a piece of debris to take out the man's right eye.

Spider-Man came in on that side, the terrorist's right, and used webs to pull himself in faster and faster and came in at the man like a speeding missile. He used his sticking ability to grab random bits of debris from the earlier portions of the battle and threw them at the man, blocking some of the eye blast. Spider-Man spun and flipped around, dodging the diminished blasts. Spider-Man managed to hit the guy in the exact same spot in the back of the head, that Gambit had. That finally brought the man down...for a second anyway. Spider-Man was about to continue pounding the terrorist's head in, but stopped when he noticed something strange. The man was bleeding, well, rather, he was sweating blood through his pores. And the man seemed less powerful all of a sudden. The terrorist started screaming in pain and writhing on the ground, as he bled out.

"What the hell!?" Spider-Man attempted to stem the blood flow with soem webbing, but it became obviously pointless. Also, there was no love lost for this terrorist, Spider-Man simply wanted him to survive to question him. The man's eyes then imploded, and sprayed the street with yet more blood. Under his mask, Spider-Man nearly gagged. The smell of blood was bad enough, but there was a stench of chemicals mixed with it that would turn any stomach. The man continued bleeding until he was nothing more than a husk of skin and bone, his muscles having liquified. Completely lost, Spider-Man turned to Gambit, "Any idea what the hell happened?"