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The glass was broken. The alarms were sounded. Creel grabbed a handful of diamonds and gold from the upper class jewelry store, before marching his way out through the front door, ignoring the shrieking people who are fleeing away. By all accounts, he appears to be a mundane thug, although a particularly big one; wearing a large voluminous grey sweatshirt, hood down and revealing his bald head. Black cargos segue into simple shoes, before Creel just… parts his fingers, letting the glittering items clatter to the sidewalk, beyond one diamond. "Tch. I don't even need my powers to rob a city like this. Let's see how long it takes for a response." One… two…
*
Anya had been in the neighborhood doing some window shopping, and it doesn't take long for to duck behind a dumpster in the alley and reemerge as Spider-Girl. Swinging out of the alley she perches on top of a lamppost across the street from Creel and aims a webline straight for the precious gem between his fingers. "Hey big guy, I don't think that belongs to you."
*
Julie is, meanwhile, by one of the bigger news stands: it's time to catch up on hot-rod magazines! In all the events of late last year, she'd forgotten to have her subscriptions switched back home. She's just pausing over a newspaper headline, when the glass smashes and… Uh, oh, it's that big guy again, and this time, no chance of putting him to something productive. She whoas a bit, to the news-vendor. "Looks like someone knocked over the jewelry store there."
*
Nobody immediately around is surprised by that, most likely. The alarm within the jewelry store is blaring, and a few people have slipped into phone booths to further call the police on top of it. Creel is busy rolling the diamond around, contemplating, before a swish of webbing snatches it and pulls it out of his hands. "Oye!" He turns to face Anya, thumping his chest with a fist. "Possession is nine-tenths of the law! …I know you. You're that Spider-Girl. Ugh… small fry." He then starts looking around the rest of the skies hopefully. "Wanna just take the stuff and I'll walk? I can try this again later."
*
Julie peeks out around the corner of the place, whistles a bit as a genuine costumed heroine comes swinging into view being all… costumed and swingey.
*
"No deal, bandido," Anya says calmly, pocketing the diamond for now. "You broke the law, and, well, a lot of glass and stuff. You're gonna sit right here and wait for the cops." Without even coming down from the lamppost Spider-Girl unleashes a stream of weblines intended to both wrap Creel and stick him to the ground, the newspaper machine, and the fire hydrant near him. "Hey you!" she calls over her shoulder, to Julie by sheer coincidence. "Can you call the cops?"
*
Julie ahs. "Ah, sure thing!" She casts her eyes about for the nearest un-taken phone booth till the news-stand vendor hands her a handset. "Err, thanks."
*
"Alright." Creel states matter of factly, as the weblines slither out to wrap around him completely, sticking him to the concrete. He made no attempt to resist, nor is he trying to break himself free. "I'd like some more witnesses, if you're gonna make a thing of this…" Either he's completely delusional, or there might be more to him… a spider-sense sure would be handy!
*
"Huh," Spider-Girl says, tiling her head to one side. She's obviously confused, even behind the half-mask. Her mouth quirks into a thoughtful expression. "I… was not expecting that. Why are you robbing this place anyway? Doesn't seem like you wanted the gems. You're a big guy - you could get on any construction crew in town. Do some honest work. Why not something like that?"
*
Julie is meanwhile, on the line with the cops, "Oh, I guess you know about that, then. Yeah, really huge. I, ah," Puts her hand over the mouthpiece and peeks back around the corner, there. "Hey, yeah, there's more than one way to make a name for yourself there, big guy, you know!" She chimes in. Says into the phone, "Ah, nothing, but, ah, I think someone in a costume is trying to talk him down."
*
"Hah. I'm beyond work. I'm beyond anything!! You hear of the Absorbing Man?!" One person in the crowd gasps, which seems to thrill Creel. "Yeah! That's me. If you know what's good for you, you'll give up and scram! I ain't after no-nothing weak girls!" He wriggles a little, but it's clear he's not strong enough for /that/ much webbing to escape.
*
Apparently that's a sufficient button for Anya. Or maybe a couple of them. "Yeah, I guess it makes more sense to just give up than to let everyone see you get beat by some 'weak girl'," Spider-Girl says, a sarcasm in her voice. Then she shrugs, mugging for the crowd. "Oops, TOO LATE." Swinging across the street, she perches against the wall about 10 feet above Creel's webbed head. "Spider-Girl: one, Adorable Man: zero." She puts her hands together and shakes them above her head like a winning prizefighter. Some of the crowd even chuckle at her antics.
*
Julie is peering around the corner again, whoaing again at Spidergirl being all on the wall and everything. Creel, she's never seen in action, really, just knows he's huge and strong.
*
"…" Slowly a vein begins to bulge on Creel's head. Teeth clench together hard enough for a creak to be audible. He attempts to tear out of the webbing to absolutely no avail. "You—You think you WON?!" He writhes a bit more, before suddenly shifting. A few moments later, his clothing and face shift to the smooth, slightly pocked concrete sidewalk below. He can move his arms enough to grasp the webbing in front of himself, and with effort begin ripping it. "I'll show you what the Absorbing Man is about!!"
*
"Round 2, ding ding ding!" Spider-Girl singsongs from her perch. More weblines stream out, now including the wall and a lamp post, trying to make Creel into some kind of extreme caterpillar pupa. "Look, buddy, it's nothing to feel embarrassed about. I've been doing this for years. You just can't go around breaking other people's stuff, you know?"
*
Julie gets off the phone with the police, decides to hunker down behind several stacks of newspapers. Peering around there again, she starts casting her eyes about for… Anything that might be useful. How? Who knows.
*
The webs continue to pile up, until the boosted strength of the concrete, somewhere in the area of eight tons, is no longer sufficient. He makes another noise of annoyance, trying to get into his pockets but failing. Is—Wait. Is he actually TRAPPED?! For a few long moments there's a string of impotent curses that is disgustingly anti-feminist, before he begins panting heavily. Then he blinks, looking at the webbing once more. Fingers clench… and then a moment later, the sticky whiteness flows over his body. Before his mass begins to grow, absorbing the webbing into his form, the areas attached to the surroundings and ground unraveling as he rises to about eight feet of… Coccoon Man? "That ain't gonna WORK!"
*
"Ew, gross!" Spider-Girl says in disgust at the writhing mass of webbing beneath her. "Well of course you'd have to /cheat/," she quips, before thwipping back across the street to assess her options. She turns briefly to Julie and the random folks who figured it' d be more fun to watch instead of run to safety. "Hey, you guys gotta get safe. Vamonos!"
Turning back to face Creel, she says, "Just be careful, that stuff sticks to everything." Like the oblivious motorist trying to park their car right in front of the busted out jewelry store. Did they not even /see/ the 8-foot tall spider web monster?! Anyway, the car is stuck there, and the man driving the car looks suddenly terrified about what he's done. "Ah crap…" Anya mutters.
*
Looking down at his strange fingers, Creel then focuses his attention back towards the Spider-Woman. When the car impacts him, he looks down with a smirk. "Don't worry about me…" Suddenly the crimson metal of the vehicle ripples out where the webbing is touching; after a few loud tears, his lower feet similarly turn into concrete. "Worry about YOURSELF!!" He thrusts out, and his arm STRETCHES at remarkable speed, fingers splaying out a few meters in an attempt to slam her into the building she perches, getting his goo-webbing-limbhand stuck either way!
*
Julie hrms, "OK, I guess that's the absorbing part. Dramatically, she pulls out… A dollar bill! "Hey, buddy," she says, to the newstand guy, "How's about a few of those Pepsi's?" The fellow looks surprised indeed, but pokes up from his own cover to hand over a few bottles. Dizzy doesn't open one, yet, just sends a pair of them… rolling inexorably along the sidewalk toward where Creel is. Likely unnoticed, along with a bit of a 'whrrrr' sound that seems to come from them. They're headed for… under big guy's feet!"
*
"Whoa!" Anya shouts, barely ducking out of the way of Creel's tendril. Some of it actually brushed her suit, but it looks like Anya might be the one thing this stuff doesn't stuck to. "Nice try, but you got no string on me," she says, looping around the tendril and finally setting her feet on it. Balancing, she sprints down the line and aims a big kick right at Creel's newly gooey face, but doesn't stop to see how he does. She's up in the air again, mid-front flip aimed, aimed at sticking a landing on the wall above Creel. Either she's too distracted to notice, or hasn't grokked exactly why Julie is tossing pepsi-nades.
*
It takes a few seconds for Creel to shift the webbing on his stuck hand into the building beneath and remove himself, during which Anya manages to rush along. His free hand does swipe at her, but with the lack of bombs and awkward dimensions, it's fairly harmless. He eats a kick right in the face, twisting it around almost 180 degrees. A step backwards follows, disoriented, before it rights itself. "You stupid little…" He then steps his concrete-laden foot down on a Pepsi bottle. Which splashes over the concrete, as expected. Doesn't seem he noticed. …Well, looks like his absorption power is not active 100 percent of the time!
*
Julie hrms. "Concrete feet, there goes that idea." Ducks back again a moment, as sirens seem to start approaching.
*
"Language…" Anya calls, admonishing the brute's linguistic near miss. From her perch up on the wall, Anya fires fresh weblines again, aiming for Creel's big blocky hands across the street. It looks like her plan is to yank them back straight at Creel's own face, if he's not able to get his noodly web-arms under control. "You gotta give this up, big guy. This is no way to live."
*
The webbings flit out and impact Creel's wristial area, and the sharp yank does send it whipping about. It smacks his face in a Stooge-esque matter, getting the concrete stuck upon it. This not only blinds him, but it's also really annoying. There's an angry roar, before suddenly concrete ripples from his face and up his webbed forearm. This allows him to yank them apart, although he's still rather disroriented…
*
Julie glances over at the increasing concrete-ness etc, and around toward anyone else lingering, or ducking for cover, as she hears more sirens, "Awlright, everyone, I think it's time to clear out, it's gonna be artillery before you know it." She's commencing to grab anyone reluctant and herd them away.
*
"Look, I can get you a job down at the docks, easy," Spider-Girl says reasonably, even though it's through gritted teeth as she wrestles with the brute. She thwips a big piece of loose concrete from the rubble strewn about at this point, and swings it at Creel's head like a rock in a sock. "Just gotta do some time for messing up that shop, then I got you covered. You don't have to fight the whole world all the time." It's good that Julie is clearing the gawkers out, since she's swinging that concrete webline like a long ranged flail.
*
"I'm done with being another nobody." Creel states, before bringing up his half-concrete forearm. The rubble impacts it with explosive force, sending him staggering backwards, the limb badly damaged. "Done with being a chump. You don't know what it's like… Ain't gotting no talents outside hurting people! Aren't you supposed to embrace your gifts?!" He then thrusts both hands down, sinking them into the asphalt. "You don't got a prayer of being me though, girl. You gonna run away?" People don't need a lot of encouragement to be herded off, as the police begin to arrive and screech to a stop, exiting vehicles with pistols and shotguns at the ready. Creel's only about nine feet tall, but the strange mix of webbing and concrete is a bit… monstrous.
*
Julie is, however, sort of turning on a heel once everyone's out of the line of fire. Calls out, "Hey, hey, don't let *no* one tell you that's all you're good for, guy. They're the ones who really think you're some kind of chump. Looks to me like you could do *lots,* if you wanted to try something else."
*
"No, don't shoot!" Anya shouts at the cops. Of course, she doesn't have any authority with them, but it's what she says anyway. Followed by, "He hasn't hurt anyone yet!" With her concrete chunk smashed to bits, she looks around for something more durable to use and spies a dumpster in the alley across the street. She thwips it and pulls it into the street, but it's going to take another moment of leverage to get it moving properly. "Yeah, what she said," Anya grunts through the effort, agreeing with Julie. "My guy at the docks has two mutants on payroll already. You got options!"
*
"Only one I'm gonna hurt is you, toots." Creel states, before suddenly asphalt ripples up his arms and covers him head to toe. He begins to grow then, expanding in mass, much of the street beginning to vanish and cave in to reveal the sewers. Cars go askew and slide towards the new hole, as he spreads his arms and starts drawing in the sidewalk. Random pieces of metal. An entire car gets sucked in, mashing up along his right arm in a twist. He's a fast growing boy, it seems. "Why should someone capable of THIS… waste their time struggling in the damn Docks?!" The police aren't shooting, mostly since it doesn't seem readily apparent if that would even DO anything to him.
*
Julie is on the move, since, well, that docks idea wasn't likely to work, and grabs a couple of stacks of newspapers from beside her newstand, tugging them by the bands. Then, whoas as sidewalk starts slipping toward Creel, and she starts swinging around by them by weight. Oddly, she doesn't fall down as where she is shakes. A few turns around her own axis, with a whrrr, she says, "Well, then, why don't you… Check the want-ads!" Flings each in turn with surprising force for such a little lady, toward Creel.
*
Anya has been around the block. She's been superheroing for four years and change, seen all kinds of mess, and dealt with the worst of the worst. But Creel's question brings her up short. The dumpster grinds to a halt in the dirt and gravel revealed as the asphalt is taken up, and she just crouches on top of the stalled container. She cocks her head to one side, genuinely confused. "Why would someone who can do what you do just want to hurt people?" The quips and sarcasm are gone. She's just stumped. She's also a sitting duck. She doesn't even flinch when the newspapers whiz by. They must not have registered as a threat since they weren't aimed at her.
*
The newspapers fly through the air. Stick to Creel. …Get absorbed. She very, very slightly added to his mass, and is now an accomplice to his crimes. Arms ripple upwards, able to reach the buildings on either side of the street now. He's some strange golem now, random bits of architecture being drawn in as people are pushed further back. "I don't wanna hurt PEOPLE." He then reaches down to grasp a car, crunching it in slightly. "I wanna hurt YOU!" He twists and hurls it at Anya, with better speed and accuracy than a being his size might display. Despite the huge mass, he does not appear to have slowed down in the slightest. "The name of the game is RESPECT. People respect power. Look at these damn countries. They'll pay and kill outta the NOSE to get it!!"
*
Julie meanwhile, has to scrabble for intact sidewalk, not feeling particularly guilty about material Creel would likely be munching anyway at this rate, …she does however, have a moment to alter the otherwise accurate throw of a car by turning it off-balance in fright. "Heads Up, there!" she calls out to Spideygirl. That must be why she threw an arm out that way, as she scrambles over some more possibly-about-to-sink debris before grabbing some cover.
*
Anya snaps back to alertness as the danger grows (literally). But it's a close thing when the car comes her way, and with Julie's help Anya just manages to spin out of the way, only getting clipped by the side mirror. She arcs through the air in a sailing backflip, and it looks like she's favoring her left arm, the one that got clipped. But her right fires yet another webline at the fire hydrant near the jewelry store where they started. High pressure water sprays everywhere, though a bit of sogginess probably doesn't slow down Creel much. Also, it doesn't look like the hydrant is circling back around at Creel exactly. What is she aiming at?
*
Feeling he's gotten big enough, Creel yanks his hands out of the ground, which form fingers once more. He then begins to march forward, stepping across the hole in the street he created. Police are scattering backwards, abandoning their cars at the moment and making sure everyone is giving him a wide berth. A spray of water does sprinkle all over him, but he just laughs. "You starting to lose your aim, girl?!" Stepping forward, the monstrous form then snatches out, fingers spreading in an attempt to catch Spider-Girl! "I'M ABSORBING MAN! AND THE ONLY REASON THIS CITY AIN'T LEVELED IS SINCE I DON'T FEEL LIKE IT!!"
*
Julie is just glancing up, she's just been brushing up on electrical power for reasons related to Mutant town, and ohs, a minute, ….this could get messy. Glances around the ground for how far the water's spreading, climbs up on the trunk of a taxicab just in case. "Well, that's something."
*
And WHAM BRRZZZZZZZT. Anya has to hold her ground as she fights the centripetal forces she has brought to bear with the fire hydrant, which ends its travels buried in the power transformer just behind the giant Creel-golem. She pulls hard and the whole sparking power pole comes crashing down on top of him, hissing and zapping as it meets the wet materials all around. But to make this happen means she's not able to get out of the way of his grab. The tiny dynamo will have to fight her way out of his grasp, and will get just as much of a shock as he is.
*
The transformer smacks against Creel without a whole lot of force. Luckily, the water seeping into him doesn't reach down his arm to the spider-girl. His strength is well over a couple dozen tons, well beyond what she can do. But electricity whirls and snaps over the huge man, and he begins to spasm with a loud cry of pain. Before suddenly whirling out the fist holding Anya, and punching it into the side of a building. Hard. Then yank her back out in a spray of debris across the street and sidewalk. "SYKE!" He shrugs away the electrical discharge, falling at his feet. "Cute attempt, baby. Mighta worked, if there was an inch of flesh anywhere on me!"
*
That's funny… There's almost a big sound of a dynamo *somewhere,* save the electrical sound would be absent if not for snapping power-ine discharges, at least until something trips a big breaker somewhere. The thing about Creel's spinning moves, is, the rotation doesn't *stop.* Creel may not be turning terribly fast, at first, but he's got an awful lot of momentum in his rotating that keeps turning. "AwRIGHT!" Dizzy barks, pointing an accusing finger at the guy. "That's ENOUGH, you WON, already, big guy! Now you let her down nice and easy. ENOUGH."
*
Ninety percent of Spider-Girl's tactics involve not getting grabbed, trapped, or stuck. That's her thing! Stuck in a golem's hand, massively outmatched in the strength department, Anya is having a rough go. She's not panicking, because she's a veteran at this stuff, but she is worried. This is about as bad as it can be. She feels a muted jolt of electricity, and is vaguely aware of Creel's rantings, but other than that she's pretty preoccupied with her situation. She's starting to pant in the crushing darkness of the golem's fist, and then they start whirling, like some insane carnival ride. She tries desperately to calm her breathing and her heartbeat, like she learned years ago, but to no avail. Darkness creeps in at the edges of her vision so she closes her eyes and bends all of her effort to pushing out against Creel's grasp.
*
Well, that's awkward. Creel had intended to start pounding Anya a bit for being so mean to him, but that's ruined when he begins spinning. He lets out a curse, but seems more confused and disoriented than anything. He slips in the electrified water and crashes on his back, allowing a moment for Anya to literally break a couple fingers off and slip free. Yet he immediately rolls over; there's no sign of mental dizziness or disorientation, outside the mental reconnection with up or down. "It's over when I SAY it is!!" he barks out towards Dizzy, attention now on her. "Now…" He then looks away. "WHO DID THAT?!"
*
Julie says, still a bit sharply, "I dunno, the ref, maybe." When he looks back, though, Dizzy's out of sight again. She's working her way around behind various cars in disarray. She basically expects Anya might be out. From another direction, one of those fire arm bells up on the walls rings out like the end of a boxing round. Convenient they're rotary, that way.
*
Spider-Girl tumbles from the giant's grasp and hits the wet ground in an undignified tumble. There isn't enough juice in the local grid to do her any harm so she actually gets a second to catch her breath, slumped back against that good old dumpster she left here ages ago. And while Creel is looking around for whomever spun him about, Spider-Girl spies a cop car flipped over and tossed aside. She smiles to herself, and then winces when she stands. She is badly beaten and bruised, but she's got one more move in her still.
Thwipping her way over to the cop car, she slips inside and grabs the dangling CB transceiver mic. "You gotta send those powered up cops to Times Square, right now!" She grunts at the chorus of 'who is this' and 'get off this channel'. "Crises don't get any cuter than this. Get here!" She pauses, and adds, "Spider-Girl out." As her strength wanes, she manages another thwip and hides herself behind the lip running around the top of a nearby building. There, she lets the shadow begin to hide her.
*
Creel begins to look around, but he's got pretty poor perception on a good day. So he instead beats his chest hard enough to be heard a mile away and laughs. "THERE YOU SEE IT FOLKS!" A few news people have come and are videotaping the destroyed block and Creel himself. "THE ABSORBING MAN CANNOT BE STOPPED BY YOUR PUNY SPIDER-GIRL. I'M ONLY PLAYING AROUND WITH YOUR HEROES… BETTER BEWARE!" He then leaps slightly, landing in the waterlogged hole in the street. Suddenly he crumbles, collapsing into a heap of random rubble. Metal rock, webbing, asphalt, that partially fills it. …Presumably that means he's gone now.
*
Julie is, meanwhile, slipping out of the vicinity, crouched among lines of stopped traffic, before joining any others staggering out of the immediate area. She glances back, not quite having caught where Spider-girl went when she swung away. She goes to stuff a hand in her pocket, then, hrms, finding a bottle there, and opens it. "Hrmph. What a way to get a Pepsi."