Monkey See, Monkey Poo

[johntaylor_pi]

Characters: John Taylor & OPEN
Time: Day Time
Location: Shedd Aquarium
Content: Rumors of demonic monkeys have reached Taylor and he's bored enough to go see what this monkey business (GET IT) is about.
Format: Starting in prose. Can go to actions if you like
Warnings: Evil monkeys, Flying poo, and...probably cursing
Note: There can be multiple

Comments

[legallygreen]

There had been snow in New York all winter long for as long as she had lived there, but Jennifer had never been in the midwest for the winter. It was delightful, for a time, to have all the snow, to go out and get the tall boots that kept her feet warm and helped her tromp through the icy whiteness. She had pulled on an angora sweater and jeans, then her white wool coat over that, and topped it off with a pale blue hat sporting floppy rabbit ears.

Her long hair was pulled into loose braids, one on either side of her head, spilling out over her shoulders. She was taking a walk, one long enough to keep her warm, and mostly because she needed the exercise. It was impossible to go running in the snow the way it was piled everywhere. Hands tucked into fluffy blue mittens that matched the hat, she was quite comfortable as she approached the Shedd Aquarium, having heard about the odd things going on there.

While she did not see any demonic monkey creatures hanging around, she did see a figure of a man standing there. Lifting one mittened hand, she waved before speaking.

"Hello there! Wonderful weather today, isn't it?"

[johntaylor_pi]

"If you like snow," he muttered before turning to greet the woman. Her voice was familiar but John didn't use phones so much so he didn't have the ability that some people had to recognize voices over it. She was a small woman and looked like she could use a pair of skis to go along with that outfit. The term 'snow bunny' fluttered across his mind before he dismissed it. John didn't like to think of himself as sexist and wasn't going to start now.

"I'd keep your voice down though. There's supposed to be some demonic monkeys around and in fact a small group of them are just inside the entrance," John said, indicating the aquarium. Sometimes he was surprised at the things he could say with a straight face.

[legallygreen]

He muttered something, making Jennifer assume he did not share her sentiments about the weather. But it was too much of a wintry wonderland to not feel in high spirits. There was also the horrifically cute hat and gloves she had found. In New York she would have never dreamed of wearing them, but here, it was not as if she had a reputation to maintain.

"Yes, I'd heard something about interesting problems around the Shedd Aquarium. I came to take a look around."

He seemed familiar, but she had met so many people in the past weeks that she was having a hard time putting faces with voices. She approached him in her own winter whites and held out a hand after pulling back the mitten top to reveal functional glove fingers beneath.

"Jennifer Walters."

[secondcity_npc]

There is a shriek from somewhere to the east of the Aquarium.

[johntaylor_pi]

Oh, so that's who this was. John took the hand by the contact was brief. Not for any particular reason, John just wasn't a very touchy kind of guy. "John Taylor, we've spoken."

He was about to say something along the lines of Jennifer going home now because whatever was here didn't look nice. It wasn't that John was against women fighting, he was in a relationship with a woman who would shoot him for just thinking that. However, he knew nothing about Jennifer and as far as he could tell without using his special third eye, she was pretty normal. John just didn't like getting normal people involved in this kind of thing.

"This might be---," he was cut off as a shriek resounded nearby. "Damn. I hope that was random."

[legallygreen]

"Oh yes..."

Jennifer shook his hand quickly, but her train of thought was broken off as she heard the shriek of something to the east of Shedd Aquarium. She glanced back at John with a slight smile, shaking her head a bit.

"It's never random. Well, I'm going to go check that out. Stay behind me if you come with. And...don't be shocked if I do something weird. I didn't like the sound of that and I'm certainly not going to let some defenseless person walk in on whatever made that noise."

She shrugged her shoulders and began hoofing it through the snow, heading for the eastern side of the aquarium. It was rough going in places, the snow hiding bumps and cracks in the sidewalk, but she managed to not look too incompetent.

[johntaylor_pi]

John was rather taken aback by her sudden leadership in the situation. Well, perhaps he had misjudged this Jennifer woman, wouldn't be the first time. "Where I come from weird is practically the accepted norm," he replied before following her through the snow. He wasn't getting left behind, it had been his idea to investigate in the first place!

The snow was a little easier for him due to his height but since he wasn't used to tromping through the snow it had its own perils. John wasn't following the whole 'stay behind me' thing because that wasn't his style. He didn't quite pull ahead of Jennifer but was certainly keeping pace with her. "I did notice a patch of them that way when I did a scan of the building. Their practically all over it."

[legallygreen]

"Good, then I shouldn't bother you a bit."

Jennifer slipped off her glasses and tucked them into a pocket in her coat. She reached up and pulled off her hat, pushing it into a pocket, and her gloves as well. There was no doubt in her mind that there was something going on, with the sound of that scream, and she was not going to ruin her new winter wear right away.

She began unbuttoning her coat as she got to the corner of the building and stopped, looking around. "Well, they've got to be close and I have no desire to walk back home in the snow without boots, so I've got to take this stuff off now."

John had followed her, but he had not done anything as foolish as trying to get in front of her. That would have just irritated her. She sloughed off her coat and folded it, and began unzipping the tall snow boots. She could stand in the snow for a moment or two until the adreneline got pumping. Then she would not feel it at all.

[secondcity_npc]

The cause of the shriek runs past. It's a woman in a pink poodle skirt, which happens to be on fire. She's beating at the flames as she runs, but it's not doing much good.

[johntaylor_pi]

It was hard not to notice Jennifer taking off pieces of clothing next to him. Nothing major but it was a curious thing to do before a potential encounter with evil monkeys.

He thought about asking and was actually going to if a woman on fire hand't started running towards them. She appeared to be trying to beat out the flames but it wasn't working. "In the snow. NOW!" John rushed her and pushed her into the nearby snow hoping to smother the flames along with the frozen water to put her skirt out.

[legallygreen]

As the woman came running around the side of the building, Jennifer had been in the midst of yanking off her sweater. She was right behind John as he rushed the woman and threw her sweater over the pink skirt to smother the flames. She stood in the snow in her bare feet and her open jeans, her black undersuit coating her body.

That was enough adreneline to get her going. She felt her eyes bleed away to green, and even as she helped put out the fire on the woman, she had to back away from the conflict. Her body contorted and grew, her skin darkening to green. In a moment the petite woman with braided pigtails was gone and in her place was a seven foot tall Amazon with emerald colored skin and pine colored hair.

...So much for those pants.

She-Hulk stepped deeper into the snow and kicked upwards, a huge spray of the icy powder flying over John and the woman. If the sweater and the frozen water and his hands did not do it, that would.

[secondcity_npc]

Between the snow and John's tackle, the flames on the woman's skirt hissed and died, leaving behind an earthy scent no doubt familiar to anyone who'd ever owned a dog. She turned to her rescuers and opened her mouth, but her eyes widened and she pointed behind them and above. With another curdling shriek, she pulled herself up and continued running.

The source of her scream becomes apparent as a giant chunk of flaming...something flies from the roof of the Shedd Aquarium and straight towards Jenn and John's heads.

[johntaylor_pi]

John was glad to see the flames dying down. Jennifer's sweater was helping and as she backed away John grabbed it and batted the flames with the sweater. It seemed to be working as the flames died away leaving an earthy stench in the air.

Several things happened at once after that. The woman screamed again, pointing upwards before running off. John turned to see the commotion only to get buried in an avalanche of snow kicked up by a woman who was 7 feet tall and he was pretty sure had recently just been a petite lawyer type. On the plus side, the coating of snow now covering his body blocked the...unidentified flaming substance from hitting him directly. Didn't stop John from smelling it though. He choked back a gag, "Dead Boy has eaten things that smell better than this."

John swiped the tainted snow from his face and looked up towards the roof to see what it was. He had a bad feeling he already knew.

[legallygreen]

She-Hulk rolled out of the way of the flying monkey poo, only to see that John had gotten pelted with it. Thankfully the snow she had kicked up had protected him a bit, but there was nothing pleasant about it. She pulled him out of the direct line of fire, coming from the roof of the aquarium and closer to the building, wincing as the foul stuff got on her hands.

Near the building she picked up a wad of snow and washed off her hands, glancing upwards. "Well, I know where I'm going. If you want a ride, put your arms around my neck. I'm going the quick route."

[johntaylor_pi]

John managed to shake off some more of the bad snow before the green woman grabbed him and pulled him towards the building and out of the way of fire. At this point he managed to get a good look at her and, well, it wasn't that weird. About Par for the course by Nightside standards, people and not-people came in all colors there...literally. Some in shades that weren't, technically speaking, possible to comprehend.

He looked up towards the roof, "Well...if we're going up that way I'm glad I came prepared." John reached into one of his deeper pockets and produced a small red drink umbrella. It was, in fact, a miniature umbrella he had received at some point or another, probably from Alex's bar. Sure it looked ridiculous just sitting in his hand looking like it belonged in a very fruity beverage but John flicked it open and it popped out into a full-size red umbrella. "Ready when you are."

[legallygreen]

She-Hulk watched as he pulled out the umbrella and lifted one pine green eyebrow as John opened it to full size. Well that was certainly convenient. She walked over to the brick corner of the building, and looked the bricks over. The mortar between the large bricks was wide and well maintained, but sadly now about to be ruined.

She balled her hand into a fist and slammed it into one of the mortar crevasses. A second hit and the mortar broke away, leaving a decent hand hole. She did it again on the left side, and had her first set of hand holds, turning and waving John forward.

"Time to go up. I won't let you fall, John."

The Amazon grabbed him, hooking his free arm around her neck and made sure he could get his legs around her hips. Of course, in the process of this, her hand might have casually squeezed his right butt cheek as she made sure he was firmly in place.

"Oops. Hand slipped, hunk. I'm sure it won't happen again."

With a devilish grin, She-Hulk put her hands in the hand holds she had made, and began climbing the side of the building, pounding more hand holds into the mortar spaces as they got up higher.