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Another night in the big city and the streets are hopping. Some evenings things are quiet, the people get out of the theaters and plays, restaurants do a steady stream of business, and nary a moment of chaos is seen beyond the standard ebb and flow of the traffic through the streets. Sometimes it can really seem like the citizens of New York are a peace-loving and positive people. And then there are nights like tonight.
It had started with a fire on 5th Avenue. A high rise office building with a roaring flame jetting out the side of it. A tendril of smoke reached towards the heavens and a pair of ladder engines rolled up to try a rescue. That had been crazy for a while, but luckily nobody was hurt. The Spectacular Spider-Man had showed up on the scene and hustled out the three office workers before anything bad could happen to them beyond a bit of smoke-exhalation. Though, of course, the cops threw down on him and he booked it.
Then there was the high speed chase through the streets as a pair of kids in swanky leather jackets rushed from one side of the island to another in a souped up hot rod that luckily didn't end up wrapped around a lamppost. Instead they found themselves webbed up and yoinked out of their seats as Spider-Man leapt into the driver's side and jammed on the brakes a split-second before it would have crashed into a large display window in Macy's. Of course the cops threw down on him after that too, but again… hasty retreat.
Only now, just as The Wild Bunch is letting out of the movie theater, a guy is running down the sidewalk with a woman's purse in his hand, looking frantically over his shoulder as he runs into a family of three, sending the father to the ground and causing him to whirl around wildly. But the mugger gets his feet right, lines up and breaks into a run again even as there's a /thwip!/ of sound, the light thap-thap of feet landing upon a lightpost and the voice of the city's protector piping up, "You can't believe how in the mood I'm not, buddy."
Psyche is hurrying down the street, a few folders with papers in it as she tries to avoid the movie goers coming out of the theater. Of course the man running with the purse looking more at the Spider Man than common pedestrians doesn't see the well placed foot that causes the running man to trip and fall with the purse at hand. Native American, she stands out a little from the crowd. She's wearing well-worn jeans and peasant shirt, not looking at a threat at all but the man is mad that the girl tripped him and he has a gun, which he pulls from his waist.
Most people would cower or beg for their lives as a gun is leveraged against them but the calm, thoughtful girl looks down at the man, "Please…drop your weapon." She's not afraid, no, she's calm as if facing down a gun is something quite normal in the girl's life.
Hitting the ground hard, the man skids to a stop, palms scraping the cement and he rolls around quickly to bring his gaze locking onto Psyche at first. The barrel of the weapon is brandished, wavering rather wildly as his wide eyes affix upon the young native American woman. His brow furrows then he snaps over his shoulder. "Back off! Back the hell off!" His voice is ragged even as he grabs the purse closer to his side. Yet already he might get some hint of little mental itches and scratches upon the surface of his mind, perhaps natural, or perhaps inspired by the young woman before him.
But even as that firearm is raised, there's another /thwip!/ as Spider-Man's voice lifts, "Can't let you do that, pal." Suddenly the gun is yanked out of the man's hand sharply and gets webbed with a splat against the wall of the theater building. Flipping forwards, the vigilante lands in a three-point crouch, lifting his mirrored lenses up to reflect the mugger's features back to him.
"Screw you both! Get em Ricky!" And it's at that moment that the mugger's partner breaks out of the crowd and goes straight for… Danielle?
Psyche is assured the man in front of her is taken care of by the masked vigilante, and then turns to watch another man run at her. She doesn't get into a fighting stance, she doesn't cower. She just stands there quiet, canting her head and looking at the man with narrowing eyes. She had only started to affect the man with the gun when the other superhero had stepped in but this one, he gets the full effect of what Psyche can do.
Ricky comes to a dead stop just as he almost hits the girl and drops to his knees, curling up in a ball like a baby and crying as if the world is over. Psyche looks down at him, not smiling as he cowers and pisses his pants. It's really quite odd, almost like the man is disturbed.
For a moment things seem frozen even as the initial runner draws back a fist as if he were about to clock Spider-Man. But then suddenly Ricky's on his knees, eyes wide and a pained look on his features. And then he suddenly keels over. Guys don't faint? Dames do, right? "Did you see that?!" A voice from the crowd offers.
Another voice cries out, "They're gonna kill 'em!"
"Mutants!"
"She killed that guy with her mind!"
And suddenly things start to take an ugly turn. "Call the police!"
Nobody starts to crowd in yet, though Ricky's partner is scrabbling back trying to get into the crowd. "Hold on a sec, buddy." Abruptly there's a splat of webbing gluing the mugger's foot to the ground and causing him to stumble. But The wave of the crowd's displeasure makes Spidey take a step away, back to back with Psyche for a moment as he clears his throat and then tells her. "Uhh, tell me you didn't kill that guy, right?" He asks first.
"No…I didn't kill him," Psyche tells him softly, "I only showed him a mirror to his soul." Apparently Ricky isn't a really nice person by the look on Psyche's face, because she sees what the victim sees reflected back at them, "He should be in prison. Where he belongs." And then everyone around her starts freaking out, yelling mutant and pointing at her. She doesn't try to stop them or defend herself. She just quietly stands there, a little confused at the moment why they're so angry. Psyche was so sheltered by her grandfather and all her time at the school, this home schooled girl hasn't been around normals so it's confusing at first why they're so afraid. She helped stop the bad man. Her confusion is written all over her face.
"Yeah this… isn't really my scene, man." Spider-Man's voice is filled with trepidation even as the crowd starts to move forward. He reaches around Psyche's waist if she'll allow him and he says. "Please don't show me the dark recesses of my soul if you would, please. I'm gonna get us outta here."
And, unless she decides that this guy in a mask and spider-suit isn't trustworthy, well he's going to try and get them both out of dodge. First by grabbing her hip and pulling him towards his own and then with a webline fired up towards the corner of the building. If it takes hold and then tightens with that thwip-snap, he'll tell her, "Hold on!" And launch them into the air.
Psyche turns and looks at him, and because his intentions are not hostile, she doesn't not show him any mirrors. Instead she tightens her hold on her papers, and lets the man fire them out of the angry mob that's forming. She keeps the folders tight to her chest while the other one is holding him close and she ducks her head into his neck and closes her eyes because being swung about on a building with no safety net is a little scary for the young mutant. Her fist is in a death grip on his costume.
It's a rush of movement, one moment on mother earth safe and comfortable… and then the next suddenly rocketing up into the air like the snap of a bungee cord slingshotting them into the sky. It's just a blue, the city skyline flashing by as they leap upwards… then hang there for a time… until another webline fires and suddenly they're moving forward, swinging smoooothly through a long arc and leaving the crowd behind. Perhaps a few invectives are hurled to chase after them from behind, but little more than that.
It's only once they're around the corner, another, his arm holding her safely to his side… that finally he stops to land lightly upon the edge of an old brownstone apartment building. He'll set her down comfortably there, moving back two steps and smiling wryly behind the mask. "Sorry about that, but figured it was better than… you know, the alternative."
Psyche kept her eyes tightly closed at first but then as they flew along the cityscape, she opens her eyes and they were wide with wonder as she watches the building wiz by. It's like flying in one of her spirit dreams but it's her real body that is clinging to the man in the spider costume and getting bungied from building to building. When he does finally stop, she does gives a flushed look, "It's okay…I know you didn't have a choice. They were so angry at me. Even though it was the man that was trying to hurt people." She seems puzzled, "The Professor warned me about being active…but I…I…can't help what the mirror shows. I only reacted out of reflex." She then looks down at her folders to make sure that everything is still there.
"Hey," Spider-Man spreads his hands before her as if trying to offer some explanation, "People get weirded out by things they don't understand. New Yorkers they know what a guy with a gun or a mugger does. But some gal who looks at you funny and makes you keel over… now _that's_ dangerous." He gives her a nod and steps back. "But don't let it get to you. People can be squirrelly… but not everyone's likely to flip out."
He steps back again and turns his head towards the distant theater they just left, not able to see it but there's no jingle-jangle from his spider-senses so that at least is good. He turns back towards her, his costume still a bit soot-marked from the fire earlier and he does smell a bit like smoke and… a burnt tire? Gross.
"Though you might wanna lay low a bit."
Psyche nods softly as he explains why they were afraid and murmurs, "I…I haven't been around many people." She bites her bottom lip and then looks at her watch, giving a sigh, "I'm late…" She tries to give a half smile, "To see my lawyer. I have an appointment." She then takes a moment to pat her jeans and find the business card, "Matt Murdock…it's in Hell's Kitchen." She gives a shake of her head, "Do you know where I could go to get there from here? I wasn't able to keep track when you moved us and while I need to stay low like you said…I can't miss the appointment."
"Hey, it's on the way." Spider-Man turns to the side, lifting a hand to rub at the back of his neck, "I can get you over there. But if we run into that guy in the jammies who hangs out there, you have to explain to him that I'm not intruding on his turf and all that, alright?"
As Spider-Man speaks he's already walking along the edge of the rooftop like some tightrope walker, pausing to lean over the edge to make sure nothing is far below them. He then turns back towards her offering his hand even as he extends the other arm the other way, getting set to get his swing on. "Should take two shakes. But…" He tilts his head to the side, quizzical. "Are you sure you wanna go there this time of night? Rough neighborhood."
Psyche nods as he mentions he might be crossing lines to get her there, "Oh…I will. I mean…I don't want to get you in trouble." And then since he seems comfortable, she tightens her grip on her folders again and then takes his hand, "And I couldn't get away from the school earlier so I had to make a later appointment." She gives a half smile, "I…I don't usually have a problem with others. If I had been thinking, I would have just bended things so they didn't notice me but he had taken her purse and I couldn't ignore that just because I was late to an appointment."
"Nah, hey." Spider-Man pulls her close again but he's already turned his head away, looking in the direction his arm's lifted. "Most people in a situation like that… they wouldn't have done anything. I mean you had the chance to do something, to try and help." There's a small smile behind that enigmatic mask, though it's hard to discern in the night and behind the fabric, yet she can probably hear it in his voice. "So that makes you aces in my book."
There's another light, "Hold on!" And with no further ado he /leaps/ off the side of the building with her, dropping down… down down until at the last moment the roller coaster plunge is arrested by that webline zipping out and snaring the lamppost's cross bar, causing them to /swing/ around sharply and hurtle upwards back into the sky like a firecracker. Another line fires, and they begin that steady jolting lurching pace of swing after swing.
No great acrobatics are attempted as they swing down through the valley between buildings, slicing through the night and looking like little more than blurs of motion against the skyline. Over his shoulder he'll tell her, "By the way the name is Man. Spider-Man."
Psyche smiles when he gives her a compliment for trying to help, "Thanks…" She holds on tight as she leaps off the building and drops them down. She feels her stomach where her heart is suppose to be as he jerks them up in that crazy rollercoast of web shooting. She doesn't let go of him or those folders as they move towards Hell's Kitchen where her appointment is. And hwne he tells her his name, she replies with her real name, "Dani Moonstar." She holds on close, but there's a trust there that the man won't drop her on the ground.
It doesn't take too long, all things considered. A handful of minutes, a few long wending swings that leads them across the island and eventually ends at the elevated train station just at the edge of Hell's Kitchen. It's there at the landing that he sets them both down, the webline in his hand slowing their descent. He looks around and offers, "Well, here we are, Pismo Beach and all the clams we can eat."
He gives her a nod, "Getting home is on you though, Dani. I got a date with a chili dog that has my name on it." Spider-Man steps back, hands lifting a bit as if to make sure she's all set. "You got it under control from here?"
"I do…thanks," Dani tells him with a smile and then impulsively moves over to give him a quick hug, "Thanks…I really I appreciate it. I had a hard time finding someone to take my case and things are such a mess with my grandfather's estate after he died. I'm hoping the lawyer can help me figure out things out." She gives him a wave and a smile before starting to rush off to her appointment.