[center]With Muchos Help from [@DocTachyon] We Proudly Present...[/center] [center][img]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YYRw8fNlTMc/WS7os0sjymI/AAAAAAAA1CU/0U37v2bqWSEARLAtl1DJmlJf1-erLHrAACK4B/s1600/ted_kord____the___real___blue_beetle_by_spidermanfan2099-d4qhf7q.jpg[/img][/center] [sub][h3][color=SKYBLUE][b]M A N H A T T A N , N E W Y O R K[/b][/color][/h3][/sub][hr][sup][color=darkgray]Present Day | C’mon man, pay attention. Manhattan New York[/color][/sup] The Skywire kept retracting, carrying Ted in a seated position up towards the hull. As the end of the wire approached the moondoor opened automatically, and Ted rode the cable all the way inside the Bug. The hatch closed and Ted gingerly stepped down from his perch and ran to the pilot’s seat to take full control. Ted quickly turned the craft down 7th Avenue to give chase to one of the swarms, he needed to ascertain just how bad this situation was. Citywide? Statewide? A national threat, or was it contained to the isle of Manhattan for now? The cloud of metal was far ahead and kept surging onwards. Ted pulled up to better his view and watched as the swarm split up at Washington Square Park, with half turning West towards Greenwich where it maintained perfect formation and joined up with half of the other swarms which had been travelling parallel down 8th and turned back North. He saw a huge rising smokestack in the distance between the high rise buildings downtown near City Hall and the new WTC developments. And the slightest glimpse of smoke coming from far off Staten Island at the horizon. They weren’t leaving the island. At least not to the South. They were turning back on themselves as if to paint Manhattan with mayhem. Ted assumed the smoke must be coming from a blaze started by crazed affected citizens. [color=SKYBLUE] “That’s— A relief, I guess?”[/color] Ted turned to the console and hit some buttons, suddenly the police band broke into his cowl’s earpiece. The Blue Beetle winced at the sudden burst of cacophonic chaos blasted into his ear. Too focused. New York was madness and he was hearing a city’s wails for help. He changed the band for a wider scope, picking out a National news network, and re-routed the audio to the cockpit’s speakers rather than just his headset, to get a proper sense of the situation and turned the Bug around up 5th Avenue to go back towards Central Park and Ground Zero of this catastrophe. As he completed his turning circle he saw similar smoke rising from the horizon over Brooklyn, and similar smoke rising from the Park, it was then that he put two and two together. These weren’t just the symptoms of the infected population. They were the cause, and its root was greater than just what he saw on the video at Central Park. Now he had a decision, but it was barely a choice in the first place. The people who did this [b][i]WERE[/I][/b], maybe still [b][i]ARE[/I][/b], at Central Park. If there’s any hope of ending this at the source right [b][i]NOW[/I][/b] and limiting casualties, its there. The Blue Beetle steeled his resolve and accelerated down 5th Avenue past the Flatiron Building, urging the Bug onwards through Midtown. Then he felt it. Resistance coming from the undercarriage as if someone was suddenly yanking on the Skywire, which was impossible. It was fully retracted. Seconds later there was a [b]CLOMP![/b] As if someone jumped on the hood of a car and started walking around. Followed by a sharp knocking. Ted flicked a button on the console to bring up a camera from the rear of the roof of the Bug to see the source and saw Spider-man in his telltale Black Suit crawling around looking for a weakspot in the roof’s plating. [color=#507de5]“I really hope you’re on my team, dude.”[/color] Spider-Man searched for any divots in the plating, signs of an entry hatch. [color=#507de5]“If not, you’d better leave the keys in the ignition for me.”[/color] Ted frantically yelled into the cockpit’s radio handset, which came out of external speakers [color=SKYBLUE][b]“Hey! Hey! Stop that! It’s expensive! Give me a minute, I’ll get the damn door!”[/b][/color] The Blue Beetle hit an overhead button and the sundoor slid open, revealing a curious Spider-Man. The other hero moved and wormed inside, like a sheet of black fabric sweeping over the interior of the Bug. It was the first time Ted had seen him since that day in New York. He'd read the Bugle articles, everyone had, but there was something to be said about seeing the real deal. His muscles were tight and wound under his costume, and he crouched against the ceiling as if it was the ground. Even this close, Ted [i]still[/i] couldn't make out how he did it. There were no obvious devices about his ankles, no humming of power cells or distortion of magnetic fields, he simply stuck. Maybe he was a mutant after all. The spider scanned him up and down from tremendous silicate lenses stretched over his eyes. [color=#507de5]"Sweet digs in here, man. But if you're another spider-themed superhero, I'm suing."[/color] [color=SKYBLUE]“That’d be right. You drive around in a hotrod like this, all of a sudden you’ve got every two-bit wallcrawler out to make a buck stepping off the curb in front of you to drop a lawsuit.”[/color] The Blue Beetle quipped, not looking away from the display. [color=SKYBLUE]“I hope you don’t have family back in Staten Island or Brooklyn, because this thing is spreading fast. I just took this down to Lower Manhattan to see how bad it’s gotten and, the good news is it doesn’t seem to be spreading East or West off the island. Bad news is it looks like this isn’t just one incident.”[/color] Ted peered off to his right side to look for more smoke. Spider-Man flipped down from his perch, landing beside Blue Beetle. He was slighter than Ted had expected, built like an acrobat, or maybe a teenager who'd skipped his Wheaties. The teen hero reached down and his costume opened of its own accord, and he produced as Oscorp-Branded phone from the pocket inside -- fitted with a K.O.R.D battery-case, Ted noticed. [color=#507de5]"The island's full of bugs, at least up to Central Park, maybe further. [i]Probably[/i] further."[/color] [color=SKYBLUE]“So good news if you’re from Queens or the Bronx, I suppose…”[/color] [color=#507de5]"You got me pegged, Boston blue."[/color] Spider-Man tapped at his cracked screen, pulling up a Bugle article. [color=SKYBLUE]"...Beetle."[/color] Ted said, turning and quickly offering a hand, before retracting it just as fast to retain control of the Bug. [color=SKYBLUE]"Boston's Blue Beetle. And you'd be Spider-Man."[/color] He quickly returned to piloting the aircraft, looking straight ahead and trying to pretend the swerve didn't just happen. [color=SKYBLUE]“Annnnyway, can’t see to the West from all the Highrises to check out Jersey… but it’s Jersey.”[/color] [color=SKYBLUE]“--So[/color] [color=#507de5]how[/color] [color=SKYBLUE]much[/color] [color=#507de5]worse[/color] [color=SKYBLUE]could[/color] [color=#507de5]it[/color] [color=SKYBLUE]get…?”[/color] The pair said together. [color=SKYBLUE]“Right? Right. That was my thinking. Robots would only go a couple miles inland, get sick of the tolls and turn around and come back.”[/color] The Blue Beetle joked. [color=#507de5]"Ol' pointy head probably doesn't want to tangle with those mutants they've got on the shore. But that's a good question, what do you figure the range on one of those bad boys is? And then is it the bugs or the towers that's important?"[/color] Spider-Man asked. He put his phone on the dash, there was a livemap of confirmed tower locations, plus superhero sightings superimposed on top. Wonder Woman and Supergirl in Central Park, with more dots and logos cropping up across the city by the minute. They zoomed past Bryant Park, whilst Ted’s hyperactive memory thought back to the question that he first said to Janet Van Dyne about her husband’s work. And how she had rephrased it to Hank. [color=SKYBLUE][I]“I guess I was going to ask about whether he finds it easier to work with more complex individual nanodrone programming and a central processor which can then delineate--”[/I][/color] [color=yellow][b][I]“That’s OK, hun. Ted here was just telling me what he thinks of your work. He was curious about your programming the nanodrones and whether you preferred complexity in the programming within a central processor or more autonomous individual nanites with a broader rule-governed framework.”[/I][/b][/color] Ted shook his head as if to clear it and the memory away from his current thoughts. [color=SKYBLUE]“It’s both. The question is to what extent. I’ve a feeling I know the answer to that, but I've got to be sure. I need to get down there and have a look at one of them. I have a friend who’s worked with nanotech. There might be maybe six people in the world who are capable of doing what I’m worried about, but if I take out the towers cold and I'm wrong-- Have you seen that episode of Black Mirror with the robot drone bees?”[/color] [color=#507de5]"Yeah, not really a great alternative to the Kingsman thing we got going on."[/color] Spider-Man said. He took a moment to appraise the technology of The Bug, in the readouts and boards of buttons that defined the main console. [color=#507de5]"Unless K.O.R.D or someone dropped a hell of a showstopper, I'm guessing you built this thing yourself. Figure we lock down one of the towers and you see what makes it tick?"[/color] [color=SKYBLUE]"Sorry pardner,"[/color] Ted said, putting on an Old West lilt to his Boston brogue, [color=SKYBLUE]"I picked up the last kit from RadioShack before they went under."[/color] Spider-Man flicked the map, enlarging a quadrant. [color=#507de5]"I'm supposed to have a hot date with the X-Men by Herald Square, and the Bugle says there's a tower in Madison Square Garden a few blocks away, seems like a fit."[/color] [color=SKYBLUE]"Pity they only just dropped these things in today, or the Knicks could have blamed it for all of their lockerroom troubles..."[/color] The Blue Beetle jibed, turning the Bug down an alley to head back to the Garden. [I]The X-Men... I wonder if they ever had anything to do with Tora? Or Bea?"[/I] Ted thought to himself.