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Picture it:
Central Park, 1964
Only commons in the state without a peaceful evening.
Many things happened in Central Park, most of them terrible and someday Nickelback. For now it was inter-dimensional crystal spiders that seemed rather ceaseless in their efforts to make the park dangerous and oogie.
While the overturned Taco Truck (how we mourn they loss) was removed from the copse of trees, at least one of the masked crusaders who were seeing that out returned. The Masked Marvel, a.k.a. Speedball, was trying to express to Stark, "You missed it. It was crazy I think something literally ate the taco truck. That's dangerous. I mean what if there were kids looting that?" Always the altruist.
"I liked that taco truck," Tony says, and he frowns at the spot it used to be. Looks like this place could use a little Avenging, what with these interdimensional crystal baddies destroying things good and just people love. Like access to tacos. "Someone needs to come through here and clean up this place," he says. "Don't we have any hocus pocus types who can close the door that keeps letting this stuff in?" He walks along in his fine suit, looking damn good in it, like he does.
It's a bird! Its a plane! Wait, wrong universe. No, its a meteor. That, or a fireball. Its fast and bright and it rushes through the air, and then its slamming into the ground nearby… only the flame vanishes right before he touches, and Johnny Storm lands deftly and takes a few steps to spin out his momentum. He's dressed in his dark Fantastic Four uniform, with the F4 over his heart, and skin tight leather-like substance that scientomagically doesn't burn. He looks around then, taking stalk, "What's up? I got the message."
"Oh, hey, the guy from the taco truck," Mike says as he strolls on through the park in his jeans and a t-shirt. He has no particular suit, nothing unusual appearing about him at all. He does, however, seem to recognize Speedball. "How's it going? Did you guys ever figure out what happened to it? The driver's alright, by the way. He was pretty banged up but they took care of him."
Kitty stops to look at the assemblage of people before asking against her better judgement "Taco truck?" she suspects her life is about to get weird again.
Speedball sighed and was actually a little down about this replying to Kitty. "Yeah. I think something ate the truck." He paused and blinked at Tony then Kitty, then Tony again, "We're not supposed to tell that part to the civvies are we?" A grin warmed widely, "Heeeey. J-Storm, If you're hungry you are pressed out of luck, my man."
Robbie was surveying where the taco truck went to being there were now scorch marks where the truck was and there were not any before. The hippie blonde glanced to Mike looking genuinely relieved, "Awww that's good news. That was impressive or, I guess, muy impressive." He said with some mock hubris, "Reyes is teaching me word-a-day Spanish."
Tony looks at those gathering around him. "Are any of you old enough to drink legally?" he asks. "When did I get sat at the kiddy table?" He waves a hand then. "Never mind. This taco truck, what's the rundown?" He's kidding, right? He's not going to bring all his resources to bear to avenge a taco truck, is he? He glances from face to face. "I don't know most of you. Tell me your names, it's easier for me to forget them that way." And he just assumes people know who he is.
Johnny glances at Tony, giving him a loooong look, "Don't even pretend, old man." He flashes a grin cocky enough to have its own zipcode. But, seeing Mike arrive, he nods over to him, "Hey, Mike. Mike, this is Tony. Besides Steve, I wanted you to meet him. Uh, specifics of that conversation can be had in private later." He squints at Speedball, "Uh, hungry? I don't go looking for food in a uniform. I go looking for trouble, man." But he shrugs a moment later. "Anyone need blowing up around here?"
Mike Matthews grins over at Johnny and then says, "Hey," when he's introduced to Tony. But then he nods when Johnny mentions that it's a conversation to have at a later date. He gives a nod of his head and makes his way over to where the group is gathered, letting Speedball give the rundown of what happened. "I only helped the the driver to the hospital, so I'm not sure what happened before I got there or after I left."
Kitty edges closer into the gathered group, taking in the scortched patch of earth where the taco truck once stood. "What eats a taco truck?" She wonders aloud.
Speedball snerked at the Torch, "Man, your people don't bring you pretzels? I'll tell you what. Best part about working withthe Defenders. The people of Harlem they looooove to cook for the fella that keeps their bodega from burning down. I have never gotten that treatment when I've been thrown into a hellmouth." You know, like you do. There was something for street level heroics he loved. Most of it was found on a menu somewhere.
Okay so the question came up twice now. Robbie offered as best as he could, "Soooo, best I can figure, or thought I could figure someone in a car went tearing through here and flipped the truck initionally. Yeah, some people can be major jerks and this happens. That it went into the trees? Weird, right? When yours truly came back to investigate I moticed there were large bite marks in teh truck. And now? Burn mark and no truck. So that's unfortunate, but I heard in the chatter downtown like two other food trucks went missing? This ain't okay."
Tony winks at Johnny. "Yeah, okay," he says. He eyes Speedball, vaguely annoyed as he asks, "Who eats food trucks?" Only from him it's rhetorical. He catches sight of Kitty and says, "Come on, now. You're in the conversation now. You can join us. We don't bite." He nods toward Robbie and adds, "This one might jump up on you or chew your slippers but he's a friendly boy." Mike gets an upnod.
"Oh, people try to give me gifts all the time; I just don't take them, buddy." Johnny chuckles softly, shrugging one shoulder, "I'm Johnny Storm. The Future Foundation is happy to feed me." He gets a bit more serious as he looks over towards Speedball's report, "Just so we're clear, since I'm the fire guy around here; I in no way had anything to do with burning away the trunk. Someone always tries to blame me for the fire stuff."
"The driver was pretty beat up and he didn't have a whole lot to say at the hospital other than something incoherent about something hungry," Mike says, "And then he was unconscious again. But from what we've seen there's been all kinds of big things out here in the park so, I guess one could take their pick as to what might have hauled the truck off. But where does one hide three food trucks in a park? Is there a pond big enough to pull them into? A tunnel underground?"
Kitty puts her shoulders back and stands among the group. She seems to have made a decision, she looks calm, and more curious than freaked out at the concept of a truck-eating, hungry something. She looks around the surrounding park. "Not just where do you hide it, but how do you move something that big without being noticed?" Kitty turns to Speedball, "You said two other food two other trucks went missing? From where exactly?"
Speedball preened at Tony's backhanded compliment. He pointed to his chest at Johnny, "Seee I'm the friendly one. And don't worry, we know it wasn't you. Yeah you can scorch the pavement, but I'd think if you ate that many tacoes?" He tried not to snicker. Yeah, failing. "The scorch mark would be at least twice that size man." He knew he was likely going to get punched and was likely in his near future he was kinda happy he was fireproof.
He squint at Kitty tilting his head and then looked to Tony, "You two… are in cahoots I swear. Ummm I think, from what Sam the pretzel guya nd Mario the newsstand duder mentioned were south and southwest side of the fountain and bike path. There's a hill there but ya knooooow…I don't wanna be specist and say Mole People… but Mole People."
Tony shakes his head and tells Speedball, "You're all class." He shakes a cigarette out of a case he draws from his breast pocket. "Hey, Johnny, a little help?" He glances to Kitty and adds, "Are you part of all this madness or just a bystander? Either way, welcome to the madhouse." Then he quiets, gaze flitting from face to face as he listens.
Johnny eyes Speedball a moment, and laughs. He shakes his head, "Depends on if I went nova or not; if I went nova on the thing there'd be a lot of iron vapor floating around and a very focused little scortch ma—" Pause, "I am not arguing myself as guilty party here, honest." He blinks, glancing at Kitty, "What should we call you?" he asks, then adds, "… so this is a ring of food truck attacks? I think this is below Avenger and Fantastic Four paygrade. Are we sure this isn't something the cops should handle?" He looks around questioningly at everyone. He lifts a hand, and a very thing stream of fire streaks out from a finger to streak over and barely touch Tony's cigarette. He's fiiine with the pyros.
…anyone who knows Reyes would know what the incoming loud purr of an engine meant. Riding down towards moreso the central of town in his Dodge Charger, Robbie would be glancing about at the more-than-one individual that he recognized, and so, he pulls in, giving his engine a loud revv as he made his way to the side of the road where..ya know, he could park without anyone getting pissed. Getting out of his car, Robbie approaches the group, wearing that signature jacket of his (which strangely now has a black hood added on), with his hands in his jacket pockets. "…." he says when he looks to Tony Stark…which is saying absolutely nothing…except, 'holy shit it's Tony Stark'. But he looks to Johnny..then to Kitty…then to Speedball and Mike. "I feel like this is the start of a pun…" he says as he approaches, looking at everyone, but looks to Speedball and Mike again.
Mike Matthews just smirks a little bit over at Speedball and shakes his head, chuckling slightly. Then he echoes Johnny's question, "Unless there's something enormous eating food trucks whole, but again… where is it?" When he sees Robbie approaching, he gives the familiar man a nod of greeting and lifts a hand in a wave. "So, perhaps we should see if there's something large enough around hiding nearby that can haul off not one but multiple taco trucks." He looks around to those gathered, "Or we could leave it to the cops and go look for bigger trouble?"
Kitty shrugs, "The names Kitty. And if something is eating food trucks, then somebody has to get to the bottom of it all. I have a sinking suspicion that something hauling off or eating entire trucks is going to be above the cops paygrade."
Speedball warmed a grin to Tony and proudly said, "Dang skippy I am." Did he miss the part about dry humor and sarcasm or did people just not ever have a less than capitol opinion of him in his world? Must be nice to be so brazenly optimistic. "Eeeeh, maybe it's a puntastic day, except remember that truck thing? It disappeared, there's a scorchmark in it's play, Johnny here claims he didn't do it and frankly I believe em." He squint at the Torch musing, "I really do take you more as a Chevrolet guy and less a hot rodding food truck vendor type." He wiggled his hands back and forth as if to emphasize the boxy, unaerodynamic magnitude of that mental image. It was around this time that the ground started to shake and rumble. That would be great id this were Avengers West Coast division, but this was New York. "Yaaaaas c'mon Mole People, do not disappoint!"
Tony puffs the cigarette to life and murmurs, "Thanks, champ," to Johnny. "So mole people? That's our best guest?" He glances between Johnny, Mike, and Kitty. "Anything better than mole people?" He inclines his head to Robbie as if to say why yes, yes he is Tony Stark. "You said you helped out the driver?" This to Mike. Then, "Has anyone actually been killed or so far is it just food trucks meeting an untimely demise? Or a timely one in the cases of that pretzel stand. Sorry, but a man has to have standards."
"I'm going to scout." Johnny nods, and jumps up, and fire envelops him and suddenly he's surging up into the sky, and zipping around up there.
Crossing his arms faintly, He looks around…then Johnny does his 'flame on' thing and zips up into the sky. "…is it sad that's not the strangest thing I've seen today?" he looks then to everyone else. "Oh, Mole people. What have I been missing." he smiles faintly, before looking to Tony, giving him a little upnod at the inclination of his head. "Food truck thing again?" he asks curiously, looking about.
When the ground starts to rumble and Johnny takes off to scout, Mike looks at those gathered and says, "You all felt that, right?" He then says, "I'm going to go take a run around the park and see if I can see anything from the ground level." Because with Johnny in the sky and him between the trees, they should be able to find something pretty quickly, as far as he is concerned. He then takes off, heading into the trees to see if he can find the source of the shaking.