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It was a great afternoon. Lightly overcast, still warm enough. Central park was… only half covered in crazy crystal spiders that tried to eat you. On the upshot the other half still looked pretty decent. The Masked Marvel was bounding over the treeline and aiming at the tree- nope! off the tree and could he? YES! He caught the edge of the fountain and flipped to a stop. "Whoo DANG those things are bitey!"
"You're telling me," Kai says. He's working on breathless, crushing one of the smaller spiders underfoot while he whips around and stabs another through its middle with one of his twin knives. Another scuttles toward him, and he kicks the thing into a tree, whereupon it shatters. For a little guy, he packs a punch. It's only when he gets some breathing room that he sees who just descended upon him, and he smiles broadly. "Hey, Robbie."
Speedball was having TOO much fun at this. "You know, Kai…" He was winded from being thrown around but he wasn't fatigued. Amused, but far far from tired. "When I said maybe it's time I got out and meet up with a gal with a nice set of stems? I didn't mean four sets of em. You you um," He pointed to another scuttling spider coming upon Kai "You got a lil somethin on ya there pal." Helpful Robbie. Very helpful.
Kai laughs. "You need to be specific, man. The cosmos digs playing tricks." He twists this way and that and finds the thing tearing into his chinos. "Son of a…" He grabs the small thing and crushes it in his fist. Which only draws more. "I used to love the park before it went to Hell," he says. "All these new groups moving in, driving down property values." When one of the medium spiders lunges at him, he yelps and sidesteps, then brings both knives down on and into it. Then he pulls them away from each other with a quick jerk. "They're good practice though. Behind you."
Speedball laughed and saw one darting at him and lept over it. Hitting the gorund again triggering the chain reaction in him activating the speedball effect sending him back up into the air. Overhead he crabbed one of the spiders the size of his torso and held on, or rather it held onto him. Coming back down he tried to position the spider to get crunched between he and the ground, and did, with a satirfying CRACK! "Kai this is not Hell. I seen one of those things and it was goooooey. Bad breath too, except for the lady runnin the place. GOSH she was pretty unlike- ACK! Leggo my hair!" The spider was still tangled with him and the twitching part was traying to either eat his head, or crawl away as they were hurdling through the air leaving a trail of bubbles in his wake.
Kai watches Speedball's adventures in spider wrestling. Crack! He winces, then laughs. He watches the bouncing, and when a little spider scuttles up, he stomps on it without looking away from the shenanigans. "I don't miss the walking dead, I'll tell you that much. He shies away from a trio of little spiders that come at him. Staaahp he's trying to have a conversation. Those things get formidable when they start to gang up on one. Finally, he stops talking long enough to stab, kick, slash and stab again. "Were you around for the walking dead?"
Speedball was pretty high up and, well this might be why he enjoys his job. falling into the concrete from several yards up didn't seem to phase him a bit. "I… no… how do they…" Talking at lower altitude was making this difficult. "Walk when they're…" over the fountain until he fell on the spider enough that it cracked and he flung it into the trees. "So arthritic?" Up he went again and yelled, "Put em closer together!" If he was in any danger? Yeah he was completely unaware. And with that HOP HOP HOPPED with a crunch, Crunch, CRUNCH! landing on them before skidding to a halt. "WOOOOO! Yeah I thienk we can totally play people pinball with these. That was fun. Kai, whyidn't we get spiders sooner?"
"There was no room for spiders when we had zombies," Kai says. When Speedball says to put them closer together, Kai waves his hand at the fountain and the water burbles up from it, forming an arc overhead. Then he brings his hand down in a sweeping gesture and it washes the smaller spiders off their legs. He guides the wave so that it circles in on itself, cresting and crashing. Then he guides it back to the fountain, leaving in his wake a pile of spiders. He got the little ones at least, and knocked on the size of a small dog off its balance. "Is that better?"
Speedball laughed, "No room? That sounds like too many shoes, not enough closet." He stayed grounded long enough to jog to a stop. "Seriously? Dead people walking around? That sounds awfully unsanitary, man. Why would anyone want them to do that? Isn't that some kinda, what're those things, health code violations?" Clearly he was messing with Kai a bit, but they won. The park was a little cleaned up. "Man we did pretty good today. You alright?"
Kai nods, wiping some sweat from his brow. "Oh, sure," he says with a grin that brings out dimples and a brightness to his eyes. "What's a few inexplicable crystal spiders between friends? I was just on my way to a bookstore when these little beauties came out of a tree and started making a mess. What're you up to?"
Speedball warmed that dimpled, infectious grin of his that just stretched ear to ear. "I'm up to being 6'1 and being most excellent. You canot's have a bad day when you look this sharp in a blue suit, friend." He took pride in that, but it was from enjoyment, not arrogance. "And possibly a pretty decent weekend if it pans out and, ya know, nothing sucks me into another dimension I guess." He paused and looked temporarily worried. "Woah, yeah that'd be a real bummer if I got eaten by a thing right now. We'll just have to not do that. On the upshot I finally found a lawyer who seems weirdly groovy." He looked around at the spidery crunchy ruin. "We totally need to hit a hot dog stand after this."
Kai looks up at Speedball and says, "So I see." He's a modest 5'9" himself, not tiny but certainly not as tall as his other superhero counterparts. His grin is broad and dimpled, cute as a button as he says, "And no, you cannot. Blue's your color." He claps Speedball on the arm. "I hope this weekend is full of a whole lot of nothing. I've got a bunch of nothing to catch up on." He gestures ahead, toward a spider-free patch of the park not far from the zoo. "There's a dog stand up this way, if you want to go get one? I think these little buggers are retreating." They seem to be receding. For now. Thwarted by New York's finest. "What do you need a lawyer for?"
Speedball gives Kai a hug picking him up and setting him back down. There is a pat on teh back to follow, "We are SO GOOD at this!" More exciting than pog or mowing the yard. "Eeeeh, my um… my parents are going through a thing. It's sorta ugly." His smile falters for a moment. it was more than 'sorta' apparently. "My parents are getting a divorce. It's sorta super ugly."
Kai laughs as he's picked up, and he hugs Speedball right back. He has no fear of what onlookers might think. It wouldn't be the first time he'd had to punch a homophobe. "We really are!" he agrees. "Ugh, I'm so glad to be fighting with someone groovy. The other night…" He just shakes his head. Then his expression goes puppyish, and he hugs Speedball again, clapping him manfully on the back. "I'm sorry to hear that, mate," he says. "Is there anything you need from me?"
Speedball furrows his brow and goes to shake his head 'no' but stops. Pausing he asks carefully, "If you are in teh area. Maybe check in on my mom from time to time. This all happened sort of cause of her trying to protect us ya know? She um… She like knows about me. Had to save her cause this total bummer of a guy tried to hurt her thiking if he killed some actress he'll get villain cred real fast. Well I stopped it with some pals and she was all woah, freaked out, but my dad? Old man blew a gasket. he's got a very low opinion of excellent people in cool suits savin stuff. Tried to throw me out and she wasn't having that soooo he told her to leave too. So I had a lead on this lawyer guy who is supposed to be a good guy. I'm making some decentt money at the lab, but I've been saving up this summer to like… help her out." A hand reaches for Kai's shoulder, "Can we not tell all that to the guys though? I don't like my mom feeling all bad about that. She's a good lady. She's got enoughto worry about… aloso what happened? What ungroovy folks?"
Kai nods and says, "Of course, mate. I'll take care of her." He scoops his hand through his curls and adds with a wink, "I'll try not to charm her socks off, but I make no guarantees." He smiles at the hand on his shoulder. "You can count on me. I'm discreet. You wouldn't think so, but that's part of the facade, you dig me?" He waves a hand then, and he heads toward hot dogs, tilting his head for Robbie to follow. "Broke up a child slaver's ring last night with a couple people whose idea of justice ran toward murder, and I found myself in the position of having to defend the life of a man whose living revolves around kidnapping kids. Not exactly the hill I want to die on, dig me? But principles are principles."
Speedball looks to Kai with a warm grin patting him on the back. "I dig. Really appreciate it too. Man you'd like her. I totally get all my good looks from her. Just… don't like sleep with my mom. That's way weird for me." His nose wrinkles but feet stop dead in their track blinking, "No way, you serious he kidnaps and sells… people? I- wait defend how Kai?"
Kai says amiably, "I am fruity as an orchard, my friend. Your mother's virtue is safe with me." He figures these people are going to be fighting at his side, it's best to know where they stand with him sooner rather than later. Then he nods as he says, "Sure, I'm serious. Still investigating it, but we took a half-dozen kids out of their van and got them home." He sighs, shoulders sagging a bit. "I didn't let her murder him. I didn't do it for him, I did it because that's not who we are, and when we start letting it slide, we become villains."
Speedball arches an eyebrow, "Oh no way? Hey right on, good for you, Kai." No hard feelings with Robbie apparently though there was a pause, a blink, and a supportive nod to follow. He wanted to hear more on the issue of child-knapping. It was, as he might refer to 'a biggie'. His pale face wehtn a bit ashen. "What, no. God… holy- are the kids alright?" Looking to the ground he took a moment. That was… big. Real big. "Yeah we're not supposed to, we're supposed to be the good guys. There's police and lawyers and stuff for that. We can't… we can't let people like my old man be right about us."
Kai says quickly, "The kids are fine now. We're following up on the leads the guy we nabbed gave us. It's really bad, but it's also pretty street-level stuff so I haven't tried to assemble the troops, at least not without knowing more. It's not right, people just kidnapping kids." He frowns. Nope, Kai cannot approve. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not friend to the pigs or the Man, but, yeah, that's our system."
The pair are walking through the park toward a hot dog stand. Kai did say he would come to the store, but Kai also gets distracted. This time it was by crystal spiders that have torn his chinos and messed up his hair. He looks like he's been through a scuffle.
Loki comes walking from the other direction. He's holding a book in one hand, and a cane in the other, though he seems to be walking juuuuust fine. He's wearing a gorgeous, rich, suit, and a scarf that looks warm and woolen with a houndstooth design. When he notices Kai, he slows and observes who the elf is with, grinning just slightly on the approach. Oh how he loves watching the other in his natural friend-making element.
Speedball walks alongside Kai, hands now flapping at him while attempting to make the kinetic forces around himself break the seal that was his suit that protected him like a fancy candy shell. Slowly it subsided though the golden dancing orbs around him still cling to the space around him. That's got to be fun at parties. Trippy. "Look, I'm presently no huge fan of the state, but we have to work together. Sort of loses the point if we become like…well…the."
Kai's eyes brighten at the golden orbs, and he says, "Ooh, what is this? This is neat." He tries to touch one of the golden orbs. "You're like a living lava lamp, man. I dig this." He pokes at the orb thoughtfully. "Like the bad guys," he says, "I'm with you. We're not the judge and jury; I just wanted to get some kids home, maybe figure out how to keep the baddies from getting hold of more."
In a suit as fantastic as Loki's, worn by someone as fantastic as Loki, it's hard for Kai not to notice him. Did he say he was fruity as an orchard earlier? Two guesses who he's into and the first guess doesn't count. His features soften as he spies the man with the cane, and if it were that kind of universe, he would have cartoon hearts fluttering around his head. "Serrure," he says says, and he waves.
Loki continues his calm walk and smiles a little more when Kai waves, then comes up even with the men. "Good evening, Kai. Kai's friend…" he arches a brow in question, a dark elegance about him as he tilts his head. He extends the end of the cane out to lightly thwack Kai in the thigh, his grin turning crooked.
The bubbles looked like light but had mass like a soab bubble that changed elasticity but didn't pop. The comparison with being a lava lamp caused him to laugh widening his grin. "Yeah I guess I am huh? We- Oh hey now have a moment. It's all groovy man." He gave one of the bubbles a flick sending it sliding out of the way much like a lavalamp would. A hand shot out to Loki. "Robbie. Sweet coat man. You in a rock band or somehtin?"
Kai murmurs, "Coooool," at the bubble as he pokes and prods it. Then he's thwacked, and he grins at Loki so broadly the dimples almost double. He's not hiding his infatuation very well at all. Is he even trying? Well, he's not pouncing on the dark-haired fellow, so maybe. "We were just fighting crystal spiders from another dimension," he says. "I'm glad I left Kevin at home. They would've eaten him."
Loki takes Robbie's hand after a moment's pause. "Yes. I am in a band. You have a good eye. I am the…guitarist. Serrure." He offers with a crooked smile. "Crystal spiders from another dimension? That sounds so unfortunate for the other dimension. Now, what will the families of the spiders do? Ohhh, alas, mother never came home from war…her children will be orphaned."
Speedball held up both hands. "They were pretty great. Maybe yay big. Heck, I think there's a few over there if you want one. I kinda want to keep one acause they're pretty neat, buuuut I'm sure it'd try to eat my cat in my sleep. Then the cat would start winning. It'd be loud, then there's neighbours." He took a breath doing all the math. "Yeah that's a bad idea giving a cat in a perpetual quantum state things to play with at 4 am." Loki's words gave Robbie pause and the science hippie grinned, "Awww, that's way cool of you man. Worrying about their little buggie families and stuff. Pretty certain they were constructs, but hey if you want to take them back home beeeee my guest. I'll get you a gift bag for em and everything."
Kai nods sadly and tells Loki, "It will be a loss felt for generations." The usually soft-hearted elf has not quite found anything about the crystal spider to be endeared to. Just look how they savaged his chinos. "You know, if Ma didn't want the children to be orphaned, she shouldn't have eaten Pa." To Speedball, he says, "Your cat could most definitely beat up my dog. And Serrure here is quite the humanitarian." He comes to stand beside Loki, shoulder nudging him lightly, because he can't pounce him, darn it.
Loki eyes the little bubbles Speed is making and he tries to reach out for one, curiously. "It seems you do not lack for cat toys…" inadvertantly referring to himself, too. "What is this you are doing? Is it magic?" His arm hidden, behind Kai, he puts his fingers at the small of the elf's back. "No injuries done to you, Kai?"
Speedball was not finished transforming back but, you know, it worked for Tony Stark. He answered honestly withs a shrug. "Compressed kinetic energy in an inert phase suspended, presently." He considered the further question looking from Loki to Kai and back shrugging, "Some consider science magic. It's an interdimensional energy. One heeeeck of a trip there, Kai, lemme tell you."
Kai shakes his head and says, "Nah, I'm all right. I took worse yesterday when…" Oh right, he didn't mention that earlier. "So I was after some people who were kidnapping children, and I got shot at close enough range I got a bruise." He pats his chest. "But it's gone now." He pokes at another golden bubble. Hee hee. "I like trips," he says. "I go on them all the time usually without leaving my room."
Loki shakes his head slowly, "I have seen him in a trip in his room. Its quite amusing. I like to throw spoons at him, or create illusions of small creatures in clothing, just to further mess with him." Loki teases, possibly joking and also possibly not! He glances at Kai to see if he remembers any of that.
Speedball grinned wider and ran his fingers through his lonk hair. "Man that sounds like a crazy party man. This one was through one of them side dimensions. Got tore aparts lots. Scary at first but it happened so fast. I got the hang of it. Scared the hell out of the cat though. You know how hard i is to catch him when he ets out? Kinda insane." Two fingers slid towards Loki, "Cautionary tale my friend. Mind keeping extra dimensional pets."
Kai peers at Loki. "That was you? I thought Kevin brought friends over." Which would explain him telling the illusionary creatures 'absolutely no poker' because 'this is a house of art.' The important thing is no one ended up portrayed painted on velvet. Kai turns to look at Speedball. "You need to be careful, man. I like you in one piece. That's my favorite Robbie version."
Speedball patted Kai on the shoulder apparently not being weirded out by him being 'fruity as an orchard' as he says. "It's okay. I'm pretty everything proof. Trust me, I ain't goin anywhere, much to the chagrin of many."