Mutated Spiders

July 02, 2015:

Spiders are loose at a water treatment plant… Simmons, May and Spider Gwen address it

New York

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions:

Mood Music: None.


Fade In…

What happens when Joker Venom gets into the wildlife? Well, the answer is it depends on the wildlife. Body chemistry is different in these creatures and it all gets a bit weird. Sometimes they get drunk or pass out or sometimes it doesn't do anything at all.

So what happens when a spider infested water treatment plant (eighty million rather poisonous orb weaving spiders) gets spiked with Joker Venom?

Well, the first answer is that the plant doesn't have a spider problem anymore. That's the good news. The bad news that its because they're swarming. En masse. They've already torn through a couple of warehouses and they're getting dangerously close to a residential section of Long Island. So many spiders they blacken the ground for, well, thousands of square feet. Three people have died already that are known about, thanks to a spider venom/smilex cocktail and it's gonna get a lot worse if someone doesn't do something.


Ryden is out cruising for a place to put his shop. Or, he had been. Then night had fallen and he'd become distracted and ended up wandering over towards the residental area of the island.

This time its just coincidence he arrives in a place he can be of use. Swarms of drugged dangerous spiders are certainly a problem but not something that has anything to do with magic, or needs recording as a vital part of history or piece of knowledge. He'd been meeting real estate agents so he's dressed more normally for a change, new blue jeans and a blue silk men's dress shirt. His ever present traveling pack hangs from his back and he's also wearing a grey hooded cloak beneath that. He could almost blend in. Startled by the sudden panicked shouts of the group of people running by as he rounds a corner, Ryden stops and looks ahead. At first he doesn't see anything, not looking at the ground because really, when has an army of toxic spiders ever been a thing?


Spider-Gwen. Spider-Gwen. Does whatever a spider can. Spins, a web any size.

Gwen was humming along to herself as she did some webslinging near the warehouses trying to find Joker thugs to beat up for information when she saw the massive swarm of spiders, "Nope."

"I've got to be dreaming. This is totally not real, I'm having a nightmare about that Shift creep." Gwen reached up and pinched her own chin.

That hurt.


Jemma Simmons, SHIELD biochemist, has received a heads up about somethings happening at the water treatment plant. Getting her field kit together, including her safety goggles, the young biochemist heads to meet Agent May at their transport. "Agent May, I came as quickly as I could…" she pants a little as she comes to a stop.


Melinda May is waiting for Simmons at the top of the ramp into the quinjet's passenger area, and as soon as the biochemist is aboard she returns to the pilot's seat and they're off as soon as seatbelts are buckled. "What progress have you made on the toxin collected from Gotham? We're likely going to need whatever you've figured out so far. ETA, three minutes."

That means the quinjet is being pushed to the limits of its operational capabilities.


Unfortunately… Gwen is not dreaming. She is sitting there. Watching spiders absolutely swarm over the streets approaching an apartment complex. This is not going to go well. The most surreal thing is that there's a pair of ice cream trucks following them. Belting out that annoying music that they use to summon hundreds of hungry kidlets. Are these spiders being… herded?


Gwen sits at the top of the building when she notices the ice cream truck and puts two and two together. Doing what any sensible person would do, she ran or at least she wanted to. With a sigh she started web-slinging towards the trucks.


"A little, Agent May" Simmons settles into the Quinjet not getting too comfortable. "I have something, but the properties of the samples I was given… seemed a little unstable." Which means the next sample could be different. But, she's got some ideas on how to test this.


"Then get it ready. We're field testing it right now. There's a two hundred square meter swarm of orb spiders down there affected by that substance. Multiple causalities, collateral damage. And they're moving fast." May glances back over her shoulder toward Jemma. "Be ready."


And that tinny ice cream truck music just goes on. And on. And… someone opens the side door of the van and in place of the usual counter there appears to be a pintle mount. For a light machinegun. And then the other one opens up to reveal the same. One of them tracks in on Gwen, the other on the quinjet. Both open fire at about the same time.

Fire would work really well on these spiders. Or raid. Or… something. They're crossing bridge now, swarming over at as machinegun fire chatters overhead and someone laughs over the ice cream truck speakers. "Why! It's a Spider come to stop the Spiders! And SHIELD. I do hope the Low Fat Bat has come out to play!"

Something really needs to stop that Swarm. Whatever Jemma's got, it'd better be good.


Gwen does her best to evade the machine gun fire relying on her spidey-sense to guide her as she shoots webs and performs stunts of aerial acrobatics.

Her path takes her crashing into a warehouse window due to a bit of clumsiness and while she's recovering she takes a moment to consider her options


Simmons has created an aerosilized compound that needs to be sprayed over the field of spiders. Fitz had made some modifications to the Quinjet a little while ago to allow for 'crop dusting' - he tends to do things like that - and the biochemist is already fitting the cannisters with her compounds to it.

"Ready when you are Agent May" Simmons takes a seat next to May, she wants to see how this exercise will work. If it doesn't, they'll resort to fire.


Melinda May nods to Simmons and then there's the shrill warning of incoming fire. "Brace," is all she manages to tell Jemma before she has to force the quinjet to slew about almost violently to avoid the machine gun fire (or at least make it miss critical parts of the vehicle). She fires a missle back at the ice cream truck, then banks the jet nearly on the tip of its wing to get into proper spray deployment vector. "Now, Simmons." Well, unless the biochemist got tossed about. Then she'll trigger the aerosolized compound herself. She just can't promise the same level of accuracy since she's already multitasking.


The first detonation of the canisters sprays a water-like mist over the spiders and causes them to skitter back because anditdote or no, they don't like water. And then they're being crop dusted. The mass of spiders kind of huddles together. Clearly they're confused now. The drugs are being counteracted. Maybe another run on them? One of the ice cream trucks detonates in a fireball and the other is rapidly abandoned, still playing that annoying music.

Inside the warehouse, Gwen crashes into… webs? A whole crapton of them. A lot of webs kind of everywhere. There's no way the spiders should have been able to set them up that fa- wait. Did someone hear… clicking?


Gwen struggled to get herself free from the webs in the warehouse the clicking sound only encouraging her to work faster, "This is not happening." As soon as she's able to get free she will try to escape and head in the opposite direction of the cropdusting.


Getting the first dose of the aerosol is released, Simmons manages to keep her seat - just - and records the spiders responses to it. "Another run, if we can please, Agent May" this time she's ready for the Quinjet to be fired upon.

"I'm going to want to get a sample of those spiders as well." Simmons really isn't asking for much at all!


"Sure. Fine." May knows the chances of that are really NOT good, but if she can make it happen, she will. This time instead of banking around, the quinjet's VTOL capabilities come into play, slowing the jet to a near standstill and allowing it to turn and start the next run much more quickly. Oh, and while they're headed that way, she aims to make that second damned ice cream truck SHUT. UP. ALREADY. Yeah. She's totally calm. Can't you tell?


As Gwen makes her exit she can see a large set of glittering compound eyes behind her, but they don't give chase. Up near the Quinnjet, which does blow up the other ice cream truck, the spider mass breaks apart and scatters but not before Jemma is capture several. The analysis on these should prove to be enlightning. And probably a bit horrifying.


Gwen looked over her shoulder at whatever the mutated thing was that the eyes came from and scrambled up to the rooftop. She tried to signal the quinjet, but she didn't have flares.

She started to fire webs at it, not trying to hit it before waving her arms around frantically.

She was sure that the 'low-fat bat' would love to deal with the problem inside, whoever she or he was!


"Thank you Agent May" Jemma actually looks happy… icky, spiders not withstanding. "Now I have a live sample, we can see what we're dealing with." Glancing over to the Agent piloting the QuinJet "Do you think this was that Joker person?"


Melinda May sees movement out of the corner of her eye, and since the second ice cream truck is already rubble she glances, then stops and turns the quinjet toward the source of the webbing. Now she sees the individual waving and maneuvers them closer. "I'm sure of it. Now, if you would, please go open the bay door."


There's a clicking noise in that warehose still. Gwen can hear it. But it's getting fainter. As if… somehow further away? Which probably isn't good. The good news for Gwen is that the Quinnjet is nearly on top of her and the bay door seems to be opening.


"Of course, Agent May." Simmons stows her spider samples in her field bag and makes her way down the Jet to open the bay door. Waiting there, she looks at the figure, a politely bemused look on her face. "I think Agent May would you like you to join us."


Gwen seems a bit hesitant and explained, "As much as I'd love to, I was just trying to let you all know that there's some kind of gigantic spider inside of the warehouse and maaaybe you wanted to deal with it since it's a little out of my league." Of course Gwen could hear that it was growing fainter, which may have meant it was fleeing but it was still worth a chance to try and get it helped/caught/saved/dealt with before it ate a small suburb of people and birthed 100s of babies.


Melinda May sets the quinjet to hover in place and turns to look at Gwen and Simmons. "Do you think you can get a tracker on it?" She nods to Simmons, clearly indicating to the biochemist to give Gwen a tracker if she says she can.


It's definitely withdrawing. There must be some way it got into the building from below. Unless it somehow spawned in there in some nightmare. Or mutated from one of the smaller, normal orb spiders. There might, just might, be time for Gwen to slap a tracker on it. If she hurries.

So many icky webs. Wait, she's spider woman!


Gwen takes the tracker from Simmons and nods to May, "I'll do what I can. Catch up another time and try to cross your fingers that I don't get eaten."

She nods to the pair and slings away and tries to catch up with the giant spider to put the tracker on it.

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