Doing Good

[websnextdoor]

The AV field can only protect the Nexus so much.

Sure, it makes sure no one's hurt for the most part unless it's broken. And that does cut down on a lot of crime. Kinda hard to murder someone, or rob someone at gunpoint if there's no real threat to the victim. But petty theft? Pushing someone down, taking their shit, and running off? That's a huge crime problem in the Nexus. Especially with hundreds of doors to flee to other worlds and PINpoints to get back to a safe house of the thief's choosing.

And wouldn't you know it? Petty theft is one super hero's bread and butter specialty. Webbing a thief up doesn't hurt them and it keeps them from pointing away long enough to call in the sheriff or his volunteer officers to scoop up the criminal. It does leave some stolen goods unaccounted for though. Which is why there's a friendly Nexushood Spider-Man calmly walking through the plaza with a handbag and some kind of weapon in each hand. A ways back is a struggling reprobate webbed up good and snug to a tree.

Every now and then he stops and holds them both aloft.

"Hey, anyone missing these? Does anyone know who had their stuff stolen? Is there a lost and found in the Nexus?"

Comments

[sweetcandygirl]

A masked vigilante! He is a lot different than Batman. Such bright colors. And they are red and black! Harley has to stop herself from getting all excited when she sees him.

He is doing the hero thing by returning some stolen items.

Huh.

She is awfully tempted to claim the handbag as hers. Even though it is not.

Gosh. Doing the right thing is difficult at times.

"That is really nice of you." She places her twitching hands at her side. Will he recognize the signs of a recovering criminal? "Returning things to their rightful owner."

[jarheadclan]

Really? Somebody stole his knife? Really? Who sees a Na'vi warrior carrying a knife as long as a human's arm and says 'yeah, I want to steal this'?

...okay, yeah, it is kinda cool. But still.

He's retracing his steps, ready to bare his teeth at whatever moron thought it was a good idea to take his stuff, when he finally spots it. In the hands of some skinny little red guy who doesn't seem to have any problem waving the heavy knife around as obviously as possible.

Prooooobably not the thief then.

A little relieved (and disappointed that he doesn't get to growl at anybody), Jake approaches the little dude. "Yeah, that one's mine there."

[websnextdoor]

Something's got his Spider senses a-twitching here. Peter's not so practiced with them yet to figure out what exactly is setting him off and he's naive enough to not even think about the lady chatting him up as the potential source of said niggling feeling that he should be on guard.

He turns around instead to make sure the criminal is good and secure--and he is! No problems there. Huh.

"Trying to at least. This place is way bigger than it looks, you know?"

[websnextdoor]

Whooooooooooa that is a big blue dude. Thankfully, it is a big blue dude wearing clothes because not every species in the Nexus feels the need to cover up and that's a really awkward lesson to learn for Spider-Man here.

Big Blue Dude is pointing at the giant blade he's waving around in his left hand and you know, it definitely looks like it fits the guy. Best to toss it and catch it by the blade so as not to offer it with the pointy bits toward it's owner. Manners, this hero has them!

"Here ya go. I was really surprised someone nabbed something that big and clunky but looking at you, I sorta think it's probably neither of those things to you."

[sweetcandygirl]

When the masked hero turns to check on the criminal behind him... Harley tilts to the side to see what he is looking at. Huh. Is that man covered with... webs?

She smiles at Spiderman when his focus returns to her. Her famous 'trust me Batman' smile.

"I have a theory that this place is endless."

[websnextdoor]

"Well, folks say traffic in NYC is endless too but somehow folks still drive day in day out and manage alright. There's gotta be a beginning and an end to everyplace, way I figure."

Unless there's magic involved and that's definitely not off the table here. He's seen evidence of that first hand already. Hmm. This lady's theory could have more weight than he thought.

"There's way more petty thieves around here than I'd have figured, by the way. Does this place have a police or anything?"

[jarheadclan]

What Jake's wearing could absolutely be called clothes. Covers all the important bits, right? Meets minimum standards of modesty and everything. He is, however, not wearing shoes. It's summer, man. No boots 'til snow.

Jake doesn't bother hiding his grin as the little guy effortlessly flips the knife, and reaches out to take it by the handle. "Thanks." And yep, in the Na'vi's hand, it sure looks a hell of a lot smaller. Or better proportioned, anyway. He slides it easily into the sheath across his torso, marveling once again at the fact that somebody managed to yank it off him in the first place. "Somebody's eyes were bigger than their wallet. Not exactly the subtlest thing they coulda taken."

[sweetcandygirl]

"Ya from New York? I just recently moved to Coney Island." In case he had not noticed the Bronx accent she has. "We might be neighbors!!"

"Petty thieves in the Nexus..." Hmmm. Harley has ideas now.

"You should check with Katsuya on the whole policing thang."

[houmaprotector]

For better or for worse Alec has accepted he's attuned to this green now as well as his own and he can't tell when he wakes up if the annoyance, the unusual feeling is his green or this green. It's a strong feeling, whining - his human sense of self would find it annoying, like a bratty child.

Except, except he is the avatar of the green. It's protector, it's God of sorts, and the loud whining and yelling appeals to far older instincts. Instincts that flare up and that he finds himself agreeing with. Yes. This is a problem. Yes, he'll deal with it, and the humans scuttling out of his way with concerned looks get nary a second glance as he spots a being swathed in...spider web.

spiders. No. Catepillars? One that big?

What he does see is a human being...of sorts? In a red and blue costume holding things before he begins to unhook the thief from the webbing with gentle roots.

Worthless metahuman creatures. "...Always...destroying trees." nope. Won't have it. He begins prying the webbing apart, impressed with it's stickiness, "...Not on my...watch."

[websnextdoor]

"I mostly work in Queens, yeah. Can't say I blame you for hanging around here though. Coney Island during tourist season...even saying it makes me shudder."

Spider-Man has no idea who this Katsuya person is but if he's with the police then maybe he'd best find out about the guy. He nods at the info.

"Any idea where to find this guy?"

[websnextdoor]

Stylistically too, the blade definitely seems like it belongs on this guy. Spider-Man is practically beaming inside that costume. Good deeds done! Stolen property being returned to rightful owners! Today is a good day.

Definitely.

What could possibly go wrong?

"Really. I mean I can't even blame you for leaving it around who was gonna be able to lift that thing just randomly when most of the folks around here are human?"

[websnextdoor]

"Hello? Do these belong to anyone? Rest assured the criminal has been safely securrrrrrred hey! Hay wait!"

Spider-Man is quick to web the stolen goods safely out of the way (against a wall this time) before he hurries over to where the giant plant man he'd met before is currently working to brute strength the webs he's taken great pains to design.

"That guy's a criminal, dude! I kind of need him tied up until the cops show up to arrest him. What're you doing?"

[sweetcandygirl]

"I fit right in at Coney Island during tourist season." She playfully adjusts her bright neon suspenders with another grin.

"Yep!" Isn't she helpful?

[houmaprotector]

A criminal?

Alec wants to respond rationally - explain how annoying trees can be (it's a birch tree that bitches. A bitchin' birch. Get it?) but all he can manage is annoyance. A criminal? The last of the webbing falls away and Alec's arm snakes along the criminal's body, wrapping him up in vines.

The man begins to scream. Not an "angry" scream or a "oh no not again" scream. The scream of someone terrified by his predicament, someone who regrets his life choices and will never, ever, do it again if he can help it.

"This." One viney hand reached for the webbing, "This chokes trees. I heard this one cry out asking for my help."

The vines around the criminal tighten and his noise becomes animal like in nature. These creatures of the red. Pathetic.

"Your exploits aren't worth you harming the green and it's power."

[chiron_survivor]

A young woman is moving about from couch to table in the Plaza, peeking under them and poking at the cushions. Clearly she has lost something, and the odd coin or wrapped candy she's finding doesn't appear to be it.

She looks up at the voice and blinks in recognition. Spiderman! Or... a spiderman at any rate. This one doesn't sound like the other one she met. No matter! He's one of the few superheroes she's aware of, and he's even asking about lost objects.

"Um... maybe?" Approaching shyly, she says, "I had a... a round little ball with me. Yellow with black stripes. About this big?" She mimics something the size of a baseball. "I think it might have rolled out of my bag, but I can't find it from where I was sitting."

Because some Team Rocket jerkface swiped it from her when she wasn't looking. But she doesn't know that.

[websnextdoor]

"I mean, you've certainly got A Look going on Ma'am."

Definitely the title to use because he's polite and heroic and not because he's like twelve and talking to any adult ever. His shoulders sag forward slightly at her unhelpful declaration in a definite show of frustration.

"So....could you tell me? Please?"

[websnextdoor]

Well okay the criminal is at least still secured and probably just wet himself if that high pitched squeal of terror is anything to go by. Spider-Man can't rightly blame him. He's grateful for the mask covering up his own wide eyed gaping at what's happening here.

Look not even super soldiers have been able to rip his webs apart. That's a show of strength that's pretty terrifying.

"I mean it's got bark? I didn't put it on any of the leaves or anything and it dissolves in a couple of hours. The tree was gonna be fine, you know?"

[websnextdoor]

"A ball huh?"

This Spider-Man definitely doesn't sound like the other Spider-Man Adia has met either, though he also doesn't sound any older. Is that a prerequisite for being Spider-Man? Being not really quite a man yet?

Peter sets down the weapon in his left hand gently and murmurs a very hushed 'sorry about this ma'am' before he opens up the bag in his right and rifles through it carefully looking for a ball like the one being described.

"Nothing in here. But I can help you find it no sweat. Was it signed or anything? Where did you last have it?"

[jarheadclan]

"Man, tell me about it," Jake grumbles, though there's enough of a smile pulling at his lips that it's pretty obvious he's not really mad. "Most stuff's human-sized around here. I tried getting a Coke the other day and they gave me like a thimble. Had to make it a bucket or it wouldn't even be worth it."

[sweetcandygirl]

"Hey...." Harley protests. Her look is the best. Thank you very much.

She was sort of hoping to get to know this masked vigilante better. But just like so many others... he wants to find the proper authorities.

And she has done good for the Nexus... however, very little who were involved in the Halloween fiasco actually talk about what happened. As for the spring revel, half of the people involved in that chaos now remember a different experience. Harley knows that she shouldn't want attention if she truly is walking the heroes path. It reminds her of all the missions for Suicide Squad that no one knew about.

Sometimes she wonders if she should go back to being a villain. She got a lot of attention during that time in her life.

Harley jolts out of her inner thoughts. She should do the right thing and take him to where he wants to go.

"He usually can be found at the Nexus Café... ya'know the one where Ice Bear is a chef? Here... let me show you the way."

[websnextdoor]

She definitely doesn't Look like anyone out of the ordinary. Eccentric perhaps. But not like a hero or a villain. Though Peter's spider sense will not stop screaming at him and it's making the teen every kind of anxious. He doesn't know what he's supposed to be so worried about but it's definitely adding to his eagerness to see this through.

"A cafe? Who's Ice Bear? Wait you don't mean an actual bear right?"

[websnextdoor]

"More of a Pepsi guy myself when I drink pop. You can't hardly find a place that serves Coke in Queens unless you go to a big chain kinda place."

The occasional McDonalds run does mean an occasional Coke but it's not exactly often.

"Wait, are..are you from Earth? Where'd you learn to like Coke???? The Nexus?"

[sweetcandygirl]

"I do. A polar bear, in fact." Harley gestures for Spiderman to follow him towards the Nexus.

"He makes the best food in the whole Nexus."

"And we should find Katsuya there. He is a good protector of the Nexus."

[jarheadclan]

Damn, this dude is young. Or just incredibly enthusiastic. Jake grins down at him. "Yes and yes. From Earth originally, but I didn't have any kinda soda until I found this place. Not a hell of a lot of food options back on my Earth. Some guy did try inventing an algae beer once but it was awful."

[gorogorogoro_chan]

An odd-looking gentleman pushes his way through the crowd grinning and ... giggling a little?

"Oi! Oi! Yer fuckin' Spider-Man!" he declares gleefully. "From the TV show!"