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L.A.
Presents: |
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The morning air in New York is stiff and uneven. People rushing to their tasks of work, business, leisure or so forth, make their transport valiantly through the busy streets and sidewalks. Though one of the newly founded citizens is walking the sidewalks with bizarre new senses and abilities. He confidently strolls down sidewalk with a hat on carrying a small duffle bag with some clothes. As he stops at the crosswalk, he looks up at the WNYZ News Studio and then crosses the street. Meanwhile in the very same studio, a young reporter waits nervously outside the office of Max Malone’s office. She reaches into her purse and pulls out a small hand mirror. She checks and double-checks her make up and hair making sure there is no error in her appearance. Then most abruptly she hears a loud and consistent yelling of a man inside the office. She turns to look inside but the blinds of the office are shut and blind her from view. The wild and lashing screaming of the man makes Winona even more nervous as she waits to enter the office. Suddenly, a young man walks out of the office throwing his hands in the air and storming off down the hall. Max-No good lousy reporter! The next time you come back here, bring me some news that is actually worth a damn! I can use your story to wipe my ass as toilet paper! Damn idiot…. Winona swallows her pride hard and tries to speak but nothing comes out. Max-*sighs* Are you Winona Smith!? Winona-Ye…….yes. I am Winona Smith, sir. Max-Good, step into my office. Or as the no good reporters call it….Hell’s Oven. Winona manages to get strength and courage to stand and walks into the office. She first notices pictures of great stories that plagued New York City in the past and present. Max walks around to his desk and sits down in his chair. Max-Sit down, it makes me nervous when people stand while I am sitting. Winona quickly sits down in the chair in front of the desk. Max reaches into his desk and pulls out a pack of cigarettes. He takes one cigarette out and lights it. He takes a toke of the cigarette and exhales a large cloud of smoke. Max-Hope you don’t mind me smoking, but if you did I was going to smoke anyway. I saw your footage of the Man Spider attack downtown. Winona-Yes sir, I just happened to be there at the time of the incident. Max-Yes, as I recall you were suppose to be there for Traffic Reporting, right? Winona-Yes sir. Max-You know, I always say, “great stories are not found, they are invented”. You invented and improvised in the line of fire. For this, you should be rewarded. Winona’s entire expression changes as she hears the response to Max’s comment. Max-You know Miles Charity Ball that occurs here in New York City every year? Winona-Well, yes! Every reporter would give his or her soul to get the scoop at that ball. WNYZ only gets 2 invitations. You and an employee of your choosing Max stands up and hands Winona an envelope that is the size of an invitation. Max-Wear something that would make Halle Berry look like a mutt. Winona excitedly snatches the envelope and stands up. Winona-Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! I will not let you down Mr. Malone, I swear! Max-Good because of you do, traffic reporting will seem like heaven if you screw this up. Believe me, I make good on my promises, Ms. Smith. Now here is my credit card, go get you a dress. Remember, Halle Berry………mutt. Winona bursts out of the office grinning from ear to ear. She waltzes down the hallway dancing and skipping in complete glee. Winona-That ballroom isn’t going to know what hit it! Back on the streets of New York City, Darnell continues his tour to Rachel’s apartment. He closes his eyes and sniffs the air taking deep breaths. He reopens his eyes and grins and makes a left at the corner. Darnell-*thinks* Heh, wait until Rachel sees I walked all the way home from the hospital. She is going to think I cheated and caught a cab. This is going to be funny. Wait a sec, I don’t even have to walk! Darnell laughs to himself when suddenly that alarm-like feeling goes off in his head and he stops walking. He looks around and notices two big, husky men standing in front of an alley. Darnell-Hmm, let me concentrate a little bit harder. Darnell focuses his hearing ability and hears a faint cry coming from that exact same alley. Darnell-*sighs* Darnell crosses the busy traffic street over to the alley and walks up to the 2 men. He gives a smart-alecky smile at them and begins to speak. Darnell-Whooooo, man I really need to use that alley man. It is just number one, I promise. Guy1-No can do friend. You should try that store over there. Darnell-Come on man, I am about to go in my pants playa! Give a brother a break. Guy2-Hey, either take your ass over there, or pee on yourself! Darnell smirks and gives a sly grin. Darnell-Okay, you asked for it… In the alley, a teenage girl is crying as five men surround her. Hank-You know, you pay us each week for protection and we provide that. Not a lot of people will even do business with muties like you. Aquia- I was going to pay you… Hank-Oh really? Is that why you put the police on us? Or why you moved and we happen to find you? Don’t lie to me because it only pisses me off even more! Aquia-Please don’t, don’t hurt me… Guy-Hear that man, she don’t want us to hurt her. The group of men laughs. Hank-Well, we are going to get a payment and we are taking it now.. He gives her a dangerous glare and smile. Aquia-Please! No! Darnell walks up with his hands in his pockets. Darnell-Wow, all you big good lucking guys and one girl. Sheesh, aren’t you guys a bunch of hounds? Hank-What the hell? Where did hell are those two idiots!? They were supposed to be watching the alley entrance! Darnell keeps walking until he is directly in front of the girl. The blue-skinned girl looks up at him as she continues to sob in tears. Darnell-Damn she is only about what, sixteen? Hank-Doesn’t matter how old she is now, because she is going go grow up real quick in a minute and you are going to get hurt if you don’t get your ass out of here. Darnell-Ooh, so feisty! Only one thing playa, what DID happen to those other two guys? Hank gets a very weird look on his face as him and the other men look around the alley suspiciously. Darnell-Heh…heh…heh…why don’t you all ask them. He points up and the men gaze above their head to reveal a startling revelation. The two men that were in front of the alley way are hanging upside down by web lines unconscious. Guy-Ah damn, he is a mutant! Darnell-Ahh! Really? Where!? Let me see, five of you and one of me… Hank-Well, get him! Two of the men charge and Darnell does a backward flip into the air. He lands on the alley side building and sticks to the wall. Darnell-Wow, it is kind of lonely up here, you two come and join me. Darnell aims his arms and shoots two web lines at the men. The lines attach themselves and Darnell yanks the lines sending the men soaring towards him. He leaps from the wall and clotheslines them in mid air sending them pummeling into the ground knocking them out. Darnell-Man, I wasn’t even trying… Hank-Don’t you idiots have any guns? Guy-Didn’t think we would need any for her! Darnell charges at one of the men and jumps over him. He lands behind him and sweeps his legs from under him. While the man is still in the air, he catches his leg and swings him into the other man sending both of them soaring to the to other side of the alley. Aquia-Whoa… Darnell-Heh, that was easy. Hank pulls out a gun. Hank-Those dummies did not have a gun but I do. Darnell grins and begins taunting for him to shoot. Hank smirks and shoots the gun but Darnell is able to dodge it and begins making a slow advance towards Hank. He shoots another bullet but Darnell is able to out maneuver that also. Darnell finally stops and places his hand on the barrel. Darnell-Think you can hit me now playa? Hank pulls the trigger and the bullet enters and exits Darnell’s hand. Darnell falls down and yells in agony. Hank-Dumb ass, and now I will finish what I started here with you girl… Aquia-Please no, stop Hank! Hank slaps the girl and she falls down. As he turns around, to his surprise, Darnell is standing there swaying his finger back and forth in a taunting motion. He holds up his wounded hand to Hank’s view and it begins rapidly healing itself. Darnell-Mmm, just like new. Hank is stunned by the sight and nervously tries to pull the trigger again. Darnell kicks the gun out of his hand and grabs him around the throat with one hand. He lifts him and begins to talk very lowly. Darnell-If I even catch you within breathing distance of this girl or any other mutant, lets just say that is little squabble will be child’s play. He hurls Hank into a garbage dumpster and closes the lid. Aquia-Wow, you are amazing! You are no regular mutant! Darnell-Thanks but the truth is I don’t know if I am a mutant or not. Aquia-My name is Aquia. I owe you my life! Darnell-Heh, my name is Darnell. You don’t owe me anything. Just make sure you go home, okay? Aquia jumps up and hugs Darnell tightly. Darnell-Ack! Okay, okay! You are safe now playa. Just go home okay? Aquia-I will never forget you and what you did for me. Darnell-It is cool, but could you stop hugging me? I think my lungs are being suppressed from air. She lets go of Darnell and he leaps into the air and sticks to the wall. He waves back at her and begins crawling fast up the wall. He approaches the top of the building and leaps from the over the side. He stands over the building and looks up at the higher skyscrapers and grins. Darnell-*thinks* Damn, I use to be afraid of heights… Darnell gets a glimpse of memories of the Man Spider swinging through the air and then he looks up at the sky. He gives a nervous grin and then leans forward. He freefalls towards the ground and then suddenly aims his arms at the side of a building and shoots a long web line towards it. The line looses its slack and Darnell swings sharply sideways. He lets go of the line and soars through the air towards a flag post. He grabs the post and twirls around it with great agility. He swings off from the post, and shoots another web line and gains momentum to swing higher into the air. He sniffs the air and swings around a corner onto another street. He lets go of the web line and freefalls again and notices the on looking pedestrians looking up into the air. Darnell-Damn, maybe I should have worn a hockey mask or something. He shoots another web line and swings onto a building. He smirks and climbs onto the balcony. He notices the window is open and crawls in. He jumps and adheres to the ceiling and proceeds to crawl to the living room. There sitting in the living room is Rachel and Josh looking over what seems to be read outs from an analysis. Josh-These readouts show multiple results, Rachel. Only some of the characteristics from the Man Spider will be present in Darnell’s DNA. Rachel-Yes, but he is going to be trying to bleed people and drink their blood? She winks her eye at Josh and points up at the ceiling. Darnell-Ha ha, very funny! Rachel-I see you are adapting to your new abilities? Darnell shoots a web and descends slowly from the ceiling upside down. Darnell-I guess you can say that. Rachel-I did not know your abilities were so advanced! You even manage to track down where I lived from the hospital, how? Darnell flips down from the web line and walks over to Rachel and sniffs her. Darnell-Your perfume, I can smell it a mile or two away. It is strange, but somewhat cool. Josh-Seriously Darnell, how do you feel? Darnell-I don’t know how to really explain it. I don’t really know all my abilities yet, most of my using them are coming from instincts and my memories as the Man Spider. Josh-Well as far as we can tell Darnell, you will not be mutating into a Man Spider anytime soon. So no, eight arms and multiple eyes and hairy fur for you! Darnell-Good, hate to know that I can have a full body mustache. The telephone suddenly rings and Rachel gets up from the couch to answer it. Rachel-Hello. Yes, this is her. Umm, I think I can find him. Okay, I will be there in a few minutes. Thanks, and good bye. Rachel hangs up the phone and walks back over to the couch. Rachel-That was the lab, Josh. We have to go and pick up our Ball tickets. Josh-Damn, I forgot all about that! You going with us, Darnell? Darnell-Yeah, like I would miss a great party. Josh-Yeah, all the important people of New York City is going to be there. Including Mr. Miles! All those women… Rachel smacks Josh behind the head. Rachel-Come on lover boy, we better get there now. We will be back Darnell, stay out of trouble. Darnell-You know me, Mr. Cool. Rachel and Josh leave out of the apartment and Darnell rushes to his room. He looks through the closet and finds a small bag. Inside the bag is a hooded pullover sweatshirt, a pair of gloves, some baggy sweatpants, and small black scarf. Darnell-Damn, who would have thought I was going to use my stealth bag. Always prepared that’s me. Darnell quickly changes clothes and looks at himself in the mirror. The all black and partial red outfit gives him a stealthy appearance. He pulls the hood over his head and ties the scarf on the lower part of his face only revealing a small part of his nose and his eyes. He hurries to the balcony and hops onto the railing. He leans forward and sniffs the air. Darnell-Now, where are you. *sniff sniff* Ahh, there they are… Darnell jumps forward and freefalls and then swings away through the air. Meanwhile, in a lab on the dockside of New York, Eric Croft is typing mildly on his computer. Eric-Hmm, the experimentations are the best yet. I these bats are amazing, though they have not had any DNA sharing, the radiation has made them quite enhanced. He gets up from the computer desk, and walks over to the cages containing the mutant bats. They growl lowly and their eyes glow a bright red. Eric uses a clamping device and grabs one of the bats. He pulls the bat towards him and makes sure the clamp has a good grip. Eric pulls out a syringe and inserts it into the bat. The bat screams loudly and Eric draws the radiated blood from the bat. He uses the clamps to push the bat back into the cage and lets the bat go. Eric walks over to his DNA Transmutation Machine and places the vile of blood into the machine. He walks to the control panel and begins entering a series of codes. The machine lights up and begins rapidly changing the blood. Eric grins insanely and powers down the machine. He opens the small door to the machine. The vile and its contents glow brightly as the transformation to some kind of even more radioactive mutated bat blood. Eric picks up the vile and looks at it attentively. He stares as if the blood was taunting him, and his eyes open widely. He opens the glass vile and suddenly drinks the blood. He throws down the vile and breaks the vile and yells in agony. He begins throwing test tubes and other various items off the counter of the lab and falls to the ground. The bats in the cages begin, squawking loudly and then become silent. Eric stands up from the floor completely changed. He walks over to the bats and laughs in a sadistic and ominous laugh and flies off. Deep in Brooklyn, Darnell perches over a building sniffing the air. He jumps from the building and begins web swinging again. He wildly swings through the air when suddenly his newly dubbed “spider sense” goes off. He stops swinging and adheres to a building. He looks around and doesn’t notice anything. Darnell-Hmm, that is strange. Suddenly, an out of control transit bus hurls around a corner knocking down a newspaper stand. Darnell-Man, you have got to be kidding me! The bus collides into moving cars and keeps its rampaging momentum. Darnell pauses for a minute and then reacts. He swoops down on top of the bus and then crawls on the side of it. He approaches the side door and snatches it off the hinges. He flips inside the bus and notices the driver is slumped over. Darnell-Everybody calm down! The passengers of the bus scream in fear and Darnell picks up the driver and hurries him to a seat. He rushes back to the driver seat and presses the brake but no response. Darnell-Damn it, just great! Passenger-Oh no, look! We are going to hit them! Darnell looks ahead and sees another bus stuck in the middle of the street and is on a crash course for them. Darnell tells one of the passengers to take the wheel and he flips out of the bus and web swings ahead. He swings and lands in front of the broken down bus. He then jumps to a building and begins spraying a barrage of webbing from one side of the street to the other. He continues spraying until there is a massive spider web. He then swings back towards the speeding bus and lands on top of it. He pops his head into the broken doorway. Darnell-Everybody brace yourselves! He quickly enters the bus and yells for all the passengers to get on one side of the bus. The passengers rapidly comply and Darnell makes a giant spider net down the middle walkway of the bus. Darnell-Everybody on the web…now! Darnell hops back onto the driver seat and sharply turns the steering wheel of the menacing bus. The passengers all now stuck to the web net like trapped flies, bounce back and forth but safe to the sticky net. The bus continues screeching sideways down the street and collides onto the massive web that was formed by Darnell. It gives a slight kickback bounce and the bus is now at a ceased position. The passengers on the bus yell in relief that the horrifying course has now stopped. Darnell checks to see if the driver is still breathing and then turns to the passengers. Darnell-An ambulance is on its way, I can hear the sirens. Have them to cut you down too. The passengers yell numerous comments of gratitude and Darnell waves at them and swings away. Darnell-*thinks* Wow, I can’t believe I actually just did that! It just…well…damn. He continues swinging through the city. He continues to sniff the air and adheres to the side of a building. He sniffs the air and then grins. Darnell-Mmmm, Brooklyn… He leaps from the building and continues his way towards Brooklyn. Meanwhile, somewhere on the lower side of Brooklyn in a warehouse, an unconvincing group of men in black suits sit at a huge table laughing and chattering away in a conversation. Mikey-You know, a lot of us think that mutant protection is a way of profit, I see it as a way of control. Those mutant freaks should be made into examples. They should be ridiculed, outcast, and made in nothing more but sad and repressed memories. Though in this situation, there can be money made which we have successfully administered. They pay us, we protect them and ridicule them. If they don’t pay us…well… One of the guys at the door brings in a huge black trash bag and throws it on the ground. Mikey-Need I say more? The group of men laugh and cheer on Mikey. As they laugh, Adam and Rick enter the warehouse with the money they collected from Eric Croft. Mikey-Ah, Adam and Rick…how was the good doctor? Rick-Crazy as ever man, but he paid us. Mikey-Good, good. He is a good patron. And the job he wanted you to do? Adam-Had no problems, no problems at all. Mikey-Good, didn’t want to have to do this to you… Two big guys drag in Hank and hurl him to the floor. Hank barely gets up to his feet and falls again. Mikey-See Hank here let a little girl beat the hell out of him and a few of his men. This is NOT acceptable. Hank-It…it…wasn’t…just a girl. There was…another…mutant. Mikey gets up from his seat and walks over to Hank. He gives a very cold stare and looks back at Rick and Adam. Mikey-If you should ever, and I mean ever fail to do your job… Mikey pulls out a gun and shoots Hank right in between the eyes. Hank bodies pummel to the floor and the 2 man carry him away. Mikey-Well, I think you boys get the picture. Can’t have the mutant freaks think we are losing our edge…at anytime. Adam and Rick look on in silence with their mouths wide open. Mikey walks back over to his chair and has a seat. Mikey-Now to real business, what is our new business? Darnell-*echoes* How about my business? Everyone gets up from their chairs and looks around. They pull out a various amount of firearms and look around. Mikey-Well, it seems we have a visitor. Where are you friend? Don’t be shy, dying only happens once. A sinister laugh echoes through the warehouse, but it is Darnell laughing. The men continue looking around to see him. Mikey-I see you have a sense of humor, but how do you expect go get out of here alive? There are about 35 men in here and only one of you. A deep silence ensues Mikey’s last comment. Suddenly, a faint whimper is heard from afar. One of the men run to see but the doorman is gone. Darnell-Your chances are getting better, there is only 34 of you now… Mikey grins but still feels uneasy. Suddenly, a body falls onto the table and smashes it. The men look on and see that the doorman that disappeared is wrapped in webbing and is unconscious. Man-Damn it, he is a mutant! Darnell-Ohhhhh, that looks like that hurt. Who is up for round 2, I know I am. To be continued… |