Spider Search [Topic/closed]

It was a dreary day in New York City. Looking past the towers that brought in chilling wind shears, a grey sky loomed over the city, impeding the sun’s warm rays from heating up the already blisteringly cold weather. It had not snowed this winter, instead a heavy fog lingered over the town. It limited sight to nearly a block. The only proof that the world existed beyond the fog was the faded street and stop lights. A car would pass though occasionally, but not many traversed through this part of town.

Which was a young girl’s reasoning for taking the long way to her target. The girl wore a dark jacket, the hood pulled up to hide her noticeable hair, and the baggy fabric to hide her feminine frame. It wasn’t like she dressed like an emo out of pure hatred and self loathing. But rather, she would rather keep a low profile if possible. Point one, she has stolen from quite a few people in this part of town. Point two, when she did go to steal, it would be better if any witnesses did not see anything noticeable about her. Especially if she is resorted to using her powers. Didn’t want the superstitious idiots coming out of the wood works to either claim she was a demon or the messiah.

A majority of the time, people would not mess with someone dressed in black. Of course there were always idiots who want to pick a fight. For example--

With a sense of forewarning from her power, the girl was able to dodge the first swipe that was aimed for her head, and managed to roll out of the way to dodge a well aimed punch for her kidney. Back on the ground, she got sight of her attacker. He too was wearing black, yet oddly wore white pants of all things. In an instant, she remembered this loser.

”God damn it Blake. You are an idiot.” The girl cussed, not bothering to continue the fight.

”Aw, Gwyn~ You missed me?” He asked, holding out a hand and gave her a wink. Gwyn took his hand and pulled herself onto her feet before giving him a pointed look.

”I missed you almost as much as I miss a swift kick in the ass.” She responded sharply, brushing away the dirt from her clothes and pulling the hood back up to cover her hair. Gwyn turned on her heels and kept walking, reaching in a pocket for her pocket knife. It wasn’t like she was actually going to use it on her…’friend’. She just liked giving him a hard time.

The teen jogged to keep up, shoving his hands into his pockets. ”At least you missed me~ It has been a few months--I told you that reform school wouldn’t change me.” Amber eyes rolled behind her eyelids and did not respond. ”So which house are we hitting?” Blake questioned, walking backwards, dark inquisitive eyes stared at her, a smirk adorning his face.

”We?” Gwyn quipped, eyes glancing away from him and to the line of houses and apartments. Despite the buildings having an almost cookie cutter appearance, there was always something to distinguish the buildings from each other. One building was made out of dark brick, one had tan brick with bright red window shutters. When she wasn’t busy casing houses, Gwyn would walk down streets just to look at the houses.

One day.

”Yes! We.” He seemed to insist, breaking her out of her sightseeing. It was a nice part of town. Gwyn figured he would appreciate it too, being from the same ratty part of town she was from. They held a staring contest for a moment. Blake began to pout, his bottom lip jutting out.

”Aw!” She began mockingly, mirroring his pout. ”The little blue bird of happiness is gunna sit on your nose and shit all over your lip.” She emphasized her point by flicking his bottom lip. Blake put his lip back, but it seemed it was not the end to their argument.

He stamped his feet and stopped in front of her, face to face with Gwyn. His brown hair was slightly tossed after their tussle. Which mostly involved her dodging and him throwing the punches. ”Come on I have been dying for some adrenaline in my life. Reform school was so boring. Have mercy on a old soul.” His whine made Gwyn’s eye twitch.

”Blake, you just got out. You are rusty, and you will only mess it up for me. I’ve been monitoring this place for a few weeks now. I won’t let all my effort go down the drain with your idiocy.”

”Okay, but what if I just kept a watch out?” He offered, watching her face pause in consideration. With a sigh, she nodded, muttering something along the lines of; ‘I swear to whatever, if you fuck this up, you won’t even make it to the cop car. I’ll kill you.”

Within a few minutes, they had arrived at their destination. An expensive looking house, and with the darkening night sky it meant that sight was even more limited. With a quick explanation of the timing, she slipped into the house by the back door. She had 30 seconds to input the code-- which she new because the old lady who lived there had yelled it to her husband when they were leaving for brunch. Apparently she had forgotten to activate it. Which was why she decided to case the place. Silly old people.

5-6-4-7

After a horrifying moment, the beeping stopped and the green monitor blinked a phrase. ‘Status: safe’. With a smile on her face, the girl made a break for the upstairs bedroom. Gwyn expected the couple to be back in an hour. They always went for tea around this time and got back an hour later. Apparently they only went for the food--which was free.

Gwyn quickly cleared out the second floor of any valuables that they may not miss at first glance. For example a pair of gold earrings that held a thin layer of dust on them. So on she went, plucking items that would go unnoticed. That way an alarm isn’t raised immediately, and a majority of the time no one noticed. All the better for her.

Once she figured it was enough to get she and her family though the next few weeks, the girl reset the alarm. She closed the back door quietly and took a glance at the sky. The sun was almost down, it was time to go. Hit with a feeling of giddy- she leaped off of the stairwell and landed with a roll and finished with a dramatic pose.

”Let’s ditch this popsicle stand, Blake.” Gwyn braced herself for a witty remark, yet when confronted with none, she rose to her feet and searched around. ”Blake?” She whispered, thumbing her pocket knife. With each step she jingled, the stolen valuables revealing her position. ”Blake you motherfucker, this isn’t funny. Get into gear and let’s go. We don’t have time for this.”

A feeling of danger overcame her once again, amber eyes flashed in the dim light, and Gwyn took to searching wildly for the source. This was the worst kind of feeling.

”Please tell me I’m not in a horror story.”

It was bright. It was noisy. It was dirty and crowded and it held a funny smell to it, and she'd already lost track of the number of crazies she'd noticed walking around from the moment she'd stepped off of the plane.

She really had missed this place.

Brailynn tapped away at her phone as their small rag-tag group wandered on; a guardian and two students, and probably not a single one of them full-well knowing exactly what they were doing. They were sent to hunt down some girl in a city full of ten million people, given nothing more than a name, a picture, and a clue-in to start to hunt her down in the shadiest pawn shops you could find, as if that were some sort of rarity in a City like this. They hadn't even been able to narrow her down to one particular town or area. A sly one, she supposed. It was amazing they had even found her in the first place.

The blonde stopped in front of their eighth visited pawn-shop that morning, ready to barge in and ask for more clues, if that would do them any good; they hadn't had an ounce of luck so far. "You know," she mused, clicking her screen off. "I was starting to wonder if it would have been a better idea to split up, but does it matter much at this point?" Her hazel eyes flickered up to the other girl, Arbor she thought her name was. Not that she could leave them alone anyways.

Money was a commodity. Whether Arbor liked it or not, her bank was made up of pennies, coins she didn't want to spend, and she had been living off cafeteria lunch for months. She needed money, at least a little, the prospect of cake from the cafe or ice cream from the dessert shop creeping into her mind. Just a little money. And maybe she could fight a cool monster in the meantime... The girl had been in good spirits until she had approached the bulletin board of missions and found only one pinned up, the names listed below it sparce. She had to get some girl. That was it, some punk in New York City. Arbor had the mind to spit on the page or rip it up, but as she began to gather saliva in her mouth, ice cream once again danced through her head, in just a spark, a moment that caused her to pause. Dejectedly, the girl scuffed the ground with her sneaker and spit the wad onto the cement. She scratched her name on with a nubbed pencil, the only one she had on her.

She walked a pace behind Brailynn, eying the people of New York, a city she had never been to. In fact, she had never been to a city larger than Madison. Her eyes fluttered from narrow and bored to wide in her own effort to look unimpressed, a glob of gum pressed flat to the girl's cheek. They were just buildings. What was so cool about them. Pulling the orange hood of her bubble vest over her head, she shoved her hands in the pockets, the sharp ting tang ting of pennies spritzing up from the apertures like bubbles from a soft drink. Her feet had begun to hurt from checking from pawn shop to pawn shop with no luck, and Brailynn's suggestion didn't keep her from tightening her concealed fist. "Do we even know where to look? This bitch could be anywhere." She didn't fancy searching every crevice of an 8-million-strong metropolis to find one dumb kid for the remainder of the night. The thought of scouring alleyways late into the night sent a wave of regret through her. It was already dark out.

Chris hadn't said much on the way there, nor as they checked the many pawnshops in the area. He had a sweatshirt on with the sleeves rolled down, mostly to prevent others from seeing his arm made from ice. His hands were shoved in the pocket and walked a short distance from Arbor and Brailynn. He wasn't sure how to approach either of them, so he resorted to just being the listener for most of the time. But when Arbor spoke up, he had to agree. "It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack," he muttered, unsure if the two older students could hear him. "How many more pawnshops could there possibly be?" he added, speaking up a bit.

New York, New York.

A bustling city filled with life and people in every direction, shops and markets wherever possible, and skyscrapers looming overhead and casting shadows onto the streets below. Different kinds of chatter melded together into an incomprehensible mess that no normal person should be able to distinguish, footsteps hurrying in and out without leaving any chance for those with more languid paces to catch up. Street lights, diluted by the mist, still managed to shine with an unexpected radiance to them. The Statue of Liberty, if one squinted enough, could be made out as a hazy block of green in the distance. In another time, on another day, this would've been the optimal conditions to participate in more shady, playful activities or for a nice stroll around the park to admire whatever scenery there was or to put one's mind at ease after a stressful schedule from work. Unfortunately, today was the best day for a murder or kidnapping to take place. Both of those tasks were ones he had to go through with before the end of the hour.

The information gatherers had mentioned that the target in question was planning to rob a particular pawn shop that day - why they failed to mention which one it was specifically, he wasn't sure. But it led to more of hassle, one that he didn't particularly feel up to managing. Nonetheless, orders were orders and testing the tolerance level and patience of his superiors wasn't the most ideal situation. He didn't like doing this sort of thing at all - it wasn't the kind of work he enjoyed being hired for -, but there wasn't much he could do to change his current occupation. It wasn't like he was partaking in crimes for his own good. Attempting to quit midway through was the worst possible outcome in more ways than one. Never mind the fact that the Force was a little more than upset with his lack of ability to keep track of one girl.

Upset was an understatement. A large one at that. They were furious enough that his own performance was deteriorating, and he couldn't figure out why necessarily. Was it pressure? Or the overwhelming workload? Or the fact that he had less leeway in what tasks he could or could not accept? I can't do this. If he could, he would avoid this as best as he can, as though it were a plague, a menace on the earth that would infect each and every person like a parasite when it came down to draining one's sanity. He knew better than that - he had to do this. Maybe if he repeated it enough times to himself, he'd be able to get over the fact that he had to kill someone. Again. Gray wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Cadence had complained about his intervention resulting in Barry being spared.

Quietly, he sighed, pressing the button on his Bluetooth earpiece. "Have you located them?" No response, and a brow taut in confusion. "Callum?"

"Gee, could you be any less impatient about all of this?" Oh, great. He angered him. It was strange, to say the least. For someone with such a soft and delicate voice, Gray would have figured he'd be more... demure. Especially given his appearance. Looks were too deceiving sometimes.

His hand juggled a grenade, taking care to not detonate it on accident. "My apologies."

"Mind your place. Don't want me reporting your insubordination, do you?" he replied, and with each word, his tone growing more and more condescending. "17 feet forward, then take a left. Your victims are over there." Callum continued in a matter-of-fact manner.

The younger boy couldn't lighten his mood up a little, could he? Actually, no, never mind. That was a bad idea. Making fun and enjoying murder wouldn't be any good. This was a 'business' relationship anyway. All they did was have Callum track down the targets, and then he would be doing... whatever other mission he was supposed to be on. "Thanks." Gray tried not to think about it too much, the sort of tasks Callum was assigned.

"Yeah, yeah. Just get on with it."

Without waiting for another response, the connection had cut off, reduced to nothing more than static. Gray only heaved another sigh before making his way, following the directions that he had been provided. Dark clothes never stood out in this sort of environment; anyone who wore them were immediately deemed to be part of some sort of business or company, formal attendance. His usual get-up wouldn't have flown in the city, though, but he kept the cape for a reason that he was unwilling to admit out loud. Scare the hell out of the spider girl to get her to join the Force or something by killing her friend. If anything, he'd say that was counter-productive and unlikely to work, but what did he know? He didn't bother doing a check on her before this.

Upon arrival at the site, his eyes found a boy whose stark white pants stood out like a beacon, especially with the contrast against the black hoodie. Gray was certain that was a boy, and for whatever reason, he was idly hanging out as some sort of watch. A very, very bad one, and for a moment, he considered telling the guy to leave and run before he got involved. Common sense and reasoning hit him in a quick wave, and before he could hesitate any longer, he stuffed the grenade into his pockets, drawing the gun. Within seconds, he pulled the trigger and a body dropped dead.

At that moment, he found more blood stained on his palms.

A feeling of danger emanated from her right. Nearly everything in her body begged her to head in the other direction, but she ran toward the sound. Possibly out of spite for her abilities, but also in order to find her friend. Rounding the corner, she felt her foot slip on the grass of the back yard. Gywn fell, but quickly caught herself with her hands. The grass was slick, dark, and--warm? Heart pounding in her chest, she lifted her hand from the ground. Blood was smeared across her hand. The girl leaped to her feet as if the blood itself was acid, wiping it on her pants. Her amber eyes flickered up. A body lay a short distance away, and an unmistakeable use of the white pants confirmed her fears. A man stood a few meters farther, gun in hand.

"Yeah, a horror movie."

On instinct, her pocket knife was out. Gwyn took a quick moment to realize that she had brought a knife to a gun fight. Bad idea. Pushing away her fight instinct, she channeled her flight. The girl took off in the other direction, the blood on her shoes were wiped away as she ran. The fence blocking her from making it to the front was nothing. She had spent more than enough time running away from police, and it always seemed like the fences got them. Leaping as high as she could, the girl pushed with one hand and was able to fling herself over the chain link fence.

Knowing the best way to get away is in the city, she took off towards the center, away from the neighborhoods and into the business district. The place where she would normally sell her findings. Gwyn was fairly fast on her feet, as she had to be to live in the city that is always moving. Occasionally, she would shoot webs over her shoulder in an attempt to deter the man from following. Perhaps he'd be so confused or scared about the webs that he'd stop, or get tangled in them if she was that lucky.

With people up ahead, she shot a sling above them at a street light, and pulled. Her feet left the ground, soaring over their heads for a short moment before landing in a roll. A shot of pain laced her ankle, as if she was just stung by a jellyfish--or rather what she imagined it felt like. Gwyn rolled to a stop behind the three people, gripping her ankle like a lifeline. "God damn it. Now of all times?" She asked rhetorically, gritting though her teeth.

A flat expression fell across the girl's face. Sure, it was true that the school hadn't exactly gave them the best information to go off of, but it was better than nothing. Brailynn held back a sigh, rubbing at the back of her neck. "You two are so... cheerful." New Yorkers were lively. They were friendly. They were, well, assholes at time, yes, but they weren't stoic and broody like these two. She'd almost thought of this mission as a sort of potential vacation. She should have known better. She should have known from the moment she'd recognized Arbor's face, really.

The blonde leaned back on her heels, throwing her hands behind her head. "Something will come up sooner or later," she mused. "This city is full of surprises."

As if on cue, a few low pops rang off in the distance. Gunshots. It was almost a surreal sound to her. She had hardly left Beata's sphere in years and had to remind herself that, in a neighborhood like this, it wasn't exactly an evening outlier. "Come on, let's hit up the next place -"

The slightest creek of steel echoed from above them. Lynn twisted around, spotting a girl of all things, swinging from a lantern and leaping straight over their heads, landing a harsh roll unto the pavement behind them.

Surprise, surprise.

"Hey!" Brailynn was quick to move, not wanting to waste this golden opportunity stuck in her own awe, rushing to the stranger's side. Damn, what was her name again? The paperwork burned away in her pocket. "Hold up, are you alright?"

To Arbor, the pops only added to the backdrop of a city. In especially urban areas like New York City, they were as ambient as bird tweets or car alarms past midnight. She let them by without much of a blink, ready to drearily accept whatever failure of a plan Brailynn had to offer. They were going to be there for hours, she had already decided. The sun would rise before they had any luck, if the pawn shops didn't close first.

These thoughts pervaded, at least, until a shadow stretched over them, a long slender shadow, one of a human figure with tendrils extending from the limbs. Or were they...webs? She looked up as the girl came crashing down, following her descent with a curious twitch of the wrist, a cold-nosed sniff. The girl withdrew her hand from her pocket, flicking a coin into the air and snatching it as it plummeted, saying nothing. What was there to say? 'Nice one, jackass?'

Rather, Arbor looked on, like a passerby watching a hobo do a trick, letting the big girl handle whatever formalities she had fooled herself into applying for. The crickets backdropped her boredom, as well as her silent relief.

Chris was a little anxious after hearing the gunshots, but then Brailynn suggested looking in another pawnshop. Thankfully a girl seemingly swinging on a web went flying over the three of their heads and landed hard, although she still managed to stick the landing. He raised an eyebrow, figuring this was the person they were looking for. "Y'know, the last time I saw something like that, my mother was showing me an old superhero movie she watched as a teenager." he said. "Something like Arachnid-Man or maybe it was Spider-Dude." He shrugged, knowing that he didn't get the title right.

ooc;; sorry about the wait! didn't realize it was my turn at all
He had been hoping, at the very least, that his other target wouldn't walk into the scene while he still had his gun out. Needless to say, she had already seen him, looking almost prepared to fight with a small knife - one he could easily disarm from her - before bolting in the opposite direction. Smart girl. Noticing her disadvantage was something, but being able to swallow her pride and flee when she knew she couldn't win was another. That was not a bad quality to have in anybody, though Gray couldn't put his finger on why Argona's Force wanted to look for her in the first place. Her gift made her similar to an old superhero that most people didn't know in this time of day, and while her talent for stealing and being able to think ahead was rather outstanding, they already had plenty of rogue thieves in their syndicate. Was it her athletic prowess or something else?

Oh, whatever. Spending all of this time loitering around the crime scene would mean he would lose track of the ginger girl, though he didn't worry too much about it. Killing her friend was enough; if he could, he'd let her get away and report back another failure. If only it were that easy, though. Slipping his gun into its place, Gray leapt onto ground level before sprinting after Audrey, drawing his butterfly knife as a substitute. A chase on foot wasn't something he wanted to do, seeing how it'd be too easy to lose her in the crowds of New York, but headquarters thought it would be fitting to assign him the task and give him no communication back. To prove himself as useful again, they said. He should've known better.

The few webs meant to deter him would've worked on any normal criminal - they'd be caught off-guard without knowing what to do and subsequently lose track of her. Unfortunately, almost anyone else wouldn't have knowledge about the secondary layer hidden away from the rest of the world, and she got stuck with someone who happened to have files about her. Slashing and hacking away at the silky threads did little to stop his progress, though he hadn't bothered to accelerate his pace in precaution that he missed one swing and screwed up, supposedly.

Just as Gray turned the corner, he saw two girls and a boy near his target, and he immediately backpedaled. Ah, he lost his chance for now. Walking up and pretending that he was just a friend of some sort wouldn't do, seeing that Audrey had gotten a number of glimpses on him. The possibility that they were students from Beata as well made things a bit more worrisome; it wasn't night time yet. With a quiet sigh, he rubbed a finger against his earpiece before opting to leave. No point in sticking around any longer for the time-being.

Her eyes shot up to the oldest of the group, who had rushed to her side. Gwyn sat up while still clutching her ankle. Muscles tense as if she was ready to spring away at any moment. It wouldn't be that hard to run, she figured, bracing one hand behind her on the ground. The police always had a hard time catching up. Why would these kids be any different? Gywn knew she had to hurry, the man could still be following after... Her eyes flickered back at the direction in which she had ran, a figure was strolling the other way. Did he not want to follow now that there were others around her?

There was no answer to Brailynn's worried question, instead, her mouth opened to a sharp remark to Chris's remark. "It is Spider-Man, dipshit." Honestly, Spider-Man is the easiest character to remember. Her annoyance was lead to the fact that she still read those comics. Mostly because she found it as an interesting way to learn about what her powers could possibly do. Definately not because she enjoyed the stories or anything... Being a hero would be cool, but it doesn't pay well. Quite honestly, she needed the money from her thieving lifestyle to get dinner each night.

Gritting her teeth in pain, the girl stood up, brushed herself off, and turned away from the group. "Don't tell anyone about this." It all still felt a bit numb. While Blake wasn't a super good friend of her's, it still felt weird that he wasn't there.

Brailynn chewed away at her cheek, glancing for a moment behind them and looking quickly back towards the girl, as if she'd disappear at the blink of an eye. With a power like hers, the Guardian wouldn't have put past anything. She shrugged toward the back alleyways, giving Arbor a slight nudge, a quiet command to keep an eye out. "Wait, your name is Gwen?" She called out quietly. If nothing else, besides the obvious, she looked just liked the girl in photos.

The girl was about to leave. No fucking way, after all that time searching, was this bitch going to walk away like that. Arbor was ready to fight this chick, to drag her with them, but a nudge on the shoulder brought her back to reality.

She wanted her to be look out? That was fucking lame. The vested girl shook her head, kicking at the concrete and mumbling a curse under her breath. There was no action, no excitement for her. After waiting hours to find this chick, she now had to look the other way and say nothing. If Brailynn lost her, she wasn't going to help.

Of course, something else made haste in catching her attention. A figure had been walking up, casual but nevertheless from nowhere, from around the corner this spider cunt had come from. Arbor tensed. She flicked a penny up into the air, snatching it on its pathway down, leaving it in her grasp just in case. The girl nudged Brailynn, pointing her chin to the passerby. He wore dark clothes and an earpiece. It wasn't the early 2000s anymore...

Chris raised his hands towards the girl, exposing his Ice Hand, as a silent apology. He knew how nerds could get when someone got a fact wrong. He was that nerd sometimes. He looked between the Guardian and the older girl and watched their signals. He followed Arbor with his eyes and noticed the same guy that she did. The Summer looked back to the girl with spider powers to make sure that she didn't try to run. Not that he could do much, but maybe he and/or Lynn could convince the girl to come back to Beata with them. Arbor didn't seem like the friendly type, even from the short time he had spent with her.

They knew the target's name, and from the looks of it, were without a doubt, students from the gifted academy. Shit. Fighting 4-on-1 was doable for a select number of members in this ragtag group he had been a part of for heaven knows how long, but he knew better than to engage in this kind of combat, especially when he had no back-up nor his usual weapon of choice. Never mind that his gift flourished at night when everyone's dreams sprung to life. With a complacent sigh, Gray shoved his hands into his pockets, shooting a glance at the group of students.

One boy, two girls. The boy sported an arm made of ice with dusty white hair and cool blue eyes that first followed along the path of the small, Asian girl with an orange hoodie and a stony expression masking her features; her hand clutched something within it. Finally, the oldest was a girl with pale-colored locks and eyes. He didn't know their gifts, besides the guess that the boy had ice-related powers - and it was less of an educated guess and more of the answer being right there in his face -, which put him at even more of a disadvantage. If the academy had anticipated Argona's Force intercepting their mission, then the students in front of him had to be powerful.

Clenching his eyes shut, Gray walked past them to merge with the masses, forcing himself to calm down internally. He wasn't stupid enough to forfeit his life in an engagement that he would undoubtedly lose, no matter how close the match would be. He wasn't someone like Faith, who controlled a network of shadows, or the unknown girl who ate souls for breakfast. His capabilities didn't match the speed of Ed nor could he have a range extend as far as the field that Scarlett held at the mansion. Were there one or two opponents less, he could handle it. But four was ridiculous. It wouldn't surprise him if he was pitted into a failing mission on purpose.

God, those students better not stop him from leaving. Keeping it simple would be nice. The area wasn't secluded enough for them to use their powers, anyway.