Unanimous Winner: Get the gear from his truck.
Number of voters: 13
"You're next, psycho!"
Uh-oh. He's yelling at you, specifically. He charges up his fist as you dash around to the back of his van, causing him to divert his aim downward so he doesn't hit his ride. The blast ROCKETS him upward into the air with a "NO!" and he comes CRASHING down on the hood of a nearby car! Luckily, the rear doors are unlocked, and you fling them open as sounds of fighting continue from the other side of the van. You rummage through the open box first, finding branded pieces of Stark tech alongside similar, more rudimentary items. You tear through more boxes and find modded firearms, ammunition, and more mixed tech. You're startled when a loud CRUNCH shakes you from your task, and you look around the van to see Bling pulling herself out of the shattered windshield.
"Now you ruined my ride! You BITCH!"
"I'm gonna ruin more than that, you dirtbag!"
She charges back off into combat, and the man notices you and his open van doors behind her. He gets a desperate look on his face and charges to meet her, firing his gauntlet down suddenly to give him enough lift to soar right over her head and land into a roll in front of the van. He rounds the side of the van and runs bodily into you, knocking you down before he scrambles to gather specific items into the open box. It's not the most graceful means of attack, and you're a little embarrassed at how easily you go down... but the guy is like, twice your size. You begin picking yourself up off the floor just as Speedball comes soaring in overhead, BARRELLING into the man just as he gets the gauntlet up to defend himself and sending him CRASHING into his own gear! Guns and ammo go spilling out around him, out the back of the van and onto the asphalt. Robbie leans down and offers you a hand up.
"You OK, Fortune?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Is he... out?"
"I hit him full-force. He's lucky he's not dead. I'm lucky he's not dead..." his face darkens as that thought hits him, and the two of you look into the van to hear him groan and shift with a small amount of relief. Speedball turns back to you. "You're OK, though, right?"
"Yeah," you smile gratefully at his concern, "everything moved so fast... I barely had time to think!"
Unfortunately you hear that high-pitched whirring again that signals the powering-up of his tech, and you and Speedball both are THROWN into the trees! You SLAM into one, HARD, the impact knocking the wind out of you and causing your vision to go blurry. You hear Robbie crash through a few branches and fly well past where you are. It's hard to focus, but you see the man emerge from his van, plant his feet, and then use two gauntlets to shoot himself into the air, out of your fading line of sight. "He's gone," you tell yourself, and you switch your focus to staying conscious. There's a faint buzzing that keeps shifting into a keening whine, and you just want to drown in it. Just release yourself and fall into the dark oblivion it provides... shut it off and sleep... sleep will make you feel better... sleep will clear up the numbness in your shoulders and the soreness of your back... your eyelids flutter... were they closed before? Are they now? You see something bathed in the moonlight above you... someone... it looks like Quentin, but he looks different.
"Come on, Vilina, no sleeping on the job."
You attempt a smile at his joke and manage a loose nod that probably looks more like your head lolling. Fighting the tingling in your shoulders you push yourself up onto your hands and knees, reaching out blindly for his hand to support you while you get to your feet. The world spins a bit and you lean against the tree to help stay semi-vertical. It's comfortable, and provides something firm to stretch your back against. You don't think you're that injured; sore, certainly, but everything that should hurt hurts and not bad enough to inhibit movement very much. You're a bit more concerned about your head. You crane your neck back and roll it from side to side to see if there's any pain, then chance opening your eyes. Staring upward you see exactly how much worse things could've gone for you, as only a foot up from where bark and twigs are blasted off from your collision with the tree is a short, sturdy, sharp broken branch. You take a deep breath to steel yourself, swallow, pull your hood back up and push away from the tree. The world does not spin. That's a good start. You're not sure where Quentin went... maybe to check on Robbie? Why didn't he say anything? You look around to see Speedball strolling up. He looks relieved to see you standing.
"The... first couple branches built up momentum so when I finally hit the ground back there I just sorta bounced off... you OK? You look a little..." he moves his hand in an unsure wobble.
"I'm fine," you nod, "I... might have a concussion. But otherwise I think I'm OK. Where's Quentin?"
Speedball looks around, then ahead, and points to the van. "There he is. Talking to Spider-man."
Weird that he'd just walk off like that without saying anything... or did he and you were too dazed to hear it? The pair of you stride out of the treeline and into the parking lot.
"Oh, good!" Spider-man manages to convey relief even through his mask, "Kid Omega said you guys were OK, but when the connection went down I started to get antsy." He still seems a bit antsy, and suddenly unsure of what to do with his hands? He settles for folding his arms across his chest.
"Sorry about that," confesses Quentin, "I had to do some mental damage control to make sure your panic didn't spread across the whole team. It's... a lot more difficult to keep intense emotions and thoughts like that while I'm maintaining the network. Something to work on, I guess."
"I'm just glad everyone's all right." Kitty's arms are folded around herself, too, but less like Spider-man and more like she's too cold. It's a decently balmy night, so you don't imagine that's actually the case. "I told R-- Speedball to put me down so he could get here faster. And then when I got here, you guys were gone..."
"I'm pissed that jackass got away," grumbles Roxy.
"Yeah, well, it's not scot-free. There's a lot of stuff in this truck that'll give us a good reason to try an' track him down."
"Tonight?" asks Elvin, pounding his fist into his open palm.
"Nah, not tonight," Spider-man shakes his head. "I need to talk to Mr. Stark and the police... and this guy's too jumpy. I'm worried if we pursue right now he'll do somethin' desperate and get people hurt. We'll let him cool his heels and see what information we can get from... all this," he gestures to the load of guns and tech practically spilling out of the destroyed boxes in the back of the van. "Cops're gonna want statements, but after that I think we should wrap for the night. That cool with you?"
Everyone agrees without hesitation, even Rage and Bling. You have no idea how much pain she, Speedball, or Spider-man are in, but you know you have concerns about yourself. The rush of stopping this guy from... whatever he was doing with all these weapons and Stark tech was one hell of a high, and you're sure your actions tonight kept a lot of people safe, but when the adrenaline died down and you had to fight to keep yourself from passing out after being thrown into a tree... well, both a medical career and being a super-hero have their obvious ups and downs. Your mind stays pretty lucid while speaking with the police and on the trip home in the back of a cop car... something you almost don't have the presence of mind to enjoy for its novelty. Almost. Before you let yourself sleep you stop in with the Phillip J. Coulson Memorial Academy's medical staff, who are waiting for you when you arrive. They give you some painkillers and suggest you stay away from bright screens for the weekend, but if you have a concussion it's fortunately very minor.
About eight hours of sleep and a few pain pills later, it's Saturday and you're ready to try and enjoy the rest of your weekend. There are messages in your phone from an unknown number who turns out to be Spider-man!
Spider-man
Hey! It's... uh... the guy from last night.
Spider-man
The one in the costume, not the one with the shockwave thing.
Spider-man
Can't say too much over text, obvs, but talked to police and Mr. Stark. We're figuring out how to follow up on everything.
Spider-man
If your squad is down, we'd like to bring you guys in on it 'cuz you did so well out there.
Spider-man
Might be a few weeks, dunno yet. I'll text everyone else to get a consensus. HMU!
You're a bit too groggy from sleep and pain to be very coherent, but you respond in the affirmative and set about your day. After a light breakfast you take stock of your surroundings. It's early afternoon. A lot of stuff happened last night. Your schoolwork is done. You have the rest of today and tomorrow to yourself before it's back to the grind.
What Do You Do?
[ ] Talk to Bling!
[ ] Talk to Rage.
[ ] Talk to Kid Omega.
[ ] Talk to Shadowcat.
[ ] Talk to Speedball.
[ ] ... talk to Spider-man?
[ ] Explore the campus.
[ ] Meet with Gwen about exercise regimen.
OOC: If you guys have any specific things you want to talk about or questions you want to ask a character, please mention it along with your votes. I will try to take them all into account when/if you next talk to that character, even if it isn't the winner of the current vote.
