Marvel: Tomorrow Knights (Chapter 10)
Title: Marvel: Tomorrow Knights
Chapter 10: Poisoned Fruit
Author: V5_Vendetta
Fandom: Marvel Universe
Disclaimer: Marvel's fictional universe, my characters
Significant Characters: New Warriors (OC), Venom-symbiote, Cuayin (OC), "Brooke Theran"/"Callisto"
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The New Warriors take on "venomous" foes, while Cuayin begins her quest to "redeem" the world.
Cuayin and Brooke reemerged in the Amazon. “Beautiful place, isn’t it?” she remarked. “Have you ever seen it before?”
“Let me go!” Brooke shouted.
“Can’t,” Cuayin replied. “You have to be taught.”
“Taught what?” Brooke asked.
“I’ll show you.” Cuayin telepathically linked herself to Brooke. See the truth. See it.
Instantly, Brooke’s mind was overwhelmed with visions of S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists experimenting on her body, juxtaposed with visions of the false reality she had lived in at the time. The false reality had been a simulation created by a neural interface to keep her docile while the scientists modified her genome. Even worse, the false reality was a kind of training ground to teach her how to be a proper weapon for S.H.I.E.L.D.
“Who am I?” she asked forlornly. “Who am I?”
“Callisto,” Cuayin replied. “That is your name now.”
“Callisto.” She smiled. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”
Cuayin concentrated for a moment and bound the molecules surrounding her body together to form a red-and-white dress with a Chinese collar. She looked at the newly named Callisto and bound the molecules surrounding her body together into a sleeveless black costume with a white spider encompassing most of her torso. “Now we’re dressed for the occasion.”
“What occasion?” Callisto asked.
“Redeeming this world,” Cuayin replied. “Do you know how to use your powers?”
“My spider-powers? Yeah,” Callisto answered.
“Then let’s go.” Cuayin grabbed Callisto’s arm and teleported with her.
Back in the United States, Gyrich looked up from his desk at a brunet man dressed in a black suit. “Can you track it?” he asked.
“Yes,” the black-suited man replied.
“Then go,” Gyrich snarled. “Take your best troopers and get it back.”
“Will do,” the other man answered.
Beneath the Taylor Foundation, Night Thrasher examined the symbiote Arachne had forcefully separated from one of the Thunderbolts’ operatives. Ultrasonic and infrared frequencies served to keep the creature from trying to escape its cage, which furthered Night Thrasher’s examinations. At first, he wondered why the CSA hadn’t modified the cloned symbiotes to be more resistant to that particular weakness. Then he realized that the CSA probably wanted a more controllable living weapon.
“How’s it going?” the Black Cat asked.
“Actually, it’s going quite well, Lynx,” Night Thrasher replied.
“Why are you keeping it around, anyway?” the Black Cat asked.
“I’m keeping it around because it’s better than letting the CSA have it,” Night Thrasher replied. “Or anyone else who’d be interested in this thing for less than savory purposes.”
“Do what you need to do with it, but hurry.” The Black Cat shuddered. “That thing gives me the creeps.”
Night Thrasher smiled underneath his mask. “That’s understandable. It scares me, too.”
Suddenly, the proximity alerts went off. “Well, bang me sideways,” Archaeida remarked from her perch on the ceiling.
“Who is it?” Slipstream asked, speeding in.
Night Thrasher checked the security footage. “It’s . . . Venom. Seven of them. One for each of us.”
“How did they get here?” Incendiary asked.
“Some kind of tracking ability,” Night Thrasher replied. “It must be genetic; any tech tracers would be blocked by our systems.” He looked to the rest of the New Warriors. “Get ready.”
Seven Venom Troopers entered the New Warriors’ headquarters after fighting past the security. Each had a different color to their symbiotic suits; the leader was dark red, while the other six were dark gray, dark violet, dark green, indigo, teal, and reddish pink. All seven looked like they meant business, but only a few of them actually had their teeth flashing; the rest had their mouths closed like a typical mask.
Venom-Red glared at the New Warriors. “Hand over our brother. Now.”
“How about . . . no?” Night Thrasher replied.
“Have it your way,” Venom-Red snarled. With inhuman speed, he attacked Night Thrasher, while the other Venom Troopers went after the other New Warriors.
“It’s a bad idea to tangle with me if you’re gonna wear that,” Incendiary taunted Venom-Teal.
“Why’s that?” Venom-Teal asked after knocking Incendiary into a wall.
“This!” Incendiary shouted, hitting Venom-Teal with a fireball, causing the Venom Trooper to drop to the floor screaming in pain.
“Good one, Incendiary,” Prowler commented as he fought Venom-Gray. He turned the wrist cuff on his primary hand and punched Venom-Gray, the sonic pulse accompanying the punch causing the Venom Trooper to cry out in pain. Prowler turned the boot cuff of his primary leg and kicked Venom-Gray, triggering another sonic pulse to keep him off-balance.
Slipstream ran in circles around Venom-Green, battering the Venom Trooper with super-speed punches. Venom-Green simply took the punches until he spotted an opening, which he took. He grabbed Slipstream by the wrist and spun with him, using the speedster’s own momentum to throw him into a wall.
Venom-Violet and Archaeida fought a vicious hand-to-hand battle, exchanging blows with a speed and force that would have killed ordinary humans. A blow from Venom-Violet that missed Archaeida’s head put a huge dent in the reinforced wall behind Archaeida, who flipped over her and whirled into an aerial kick. Venom-Violet caught Archaeida’s kick and twisted her ankle to the point of spraining, prompting Archaeida to spin a psi-web in Venom-Violet’s face and thus force Venom-Violet to let her go.
Archaeida webbed up a splint for her ankle and swung on a psionic web-line into Venom-Violet, tackling the Venom Trooper. The two females wrestled viciously, until Venom-Violet kicked Archaeida off her. Archaeida flipped and landed gently on the wall, so as to not hurt her ankle worse, assessing her options.
The Black Cat and Venom-Indigo fought brutally, the claws more than just out. Venom-Indigo slashed at the Black Cat with her claws, while the Cat retaliated with claw swipes of her own. Both combatants gave no quarter and expected no quarter, attacking each other from any and all possible angles. A kick from the Cat struck Venom-Indigo in her stomach, knocking her back. Of course, Venom-Indigo back-flipped onto her feet and retaliated with a brutal punch to the Black Cat’s mouth, causing the feline femme to spit out blood and a tooth.
Themis was holding off Venom-Rose with telekinesis. No matter what the Venom-Trooper did, there was nothing she could do to get close to Themis. Finally, Themis dropped her after having suspended her in midair for what seemed like an eternity. She stared deeply at Venom-Rose, perceiving the molecular bonds between symbiote and host body . . . and severing those bonds with a multitude of psychokinetic scalpels.
Both symbiote and host screamed in pain at being parted, but Themis could care less. This symbiote was joining the one Arachne had stripped from the Thunderbolt formally known as Venom. If the host had something to say about it, that was too damned bad; the symbiotes had done enough damage.
Unfortunately for Themis, the symbiote’s scream had resonated with the other Venom Troopers, who abandoned their present foes to go after her. Themis smirked and contracted her telekinesis into herself, using it to boost her nervous system and reinforce her muscles. Even with this, she wouldn’t be a physical match for the Venom Troopers, but she’d be a good enough fight to stay alive for a while.
Themis flipped into the air and came down with a brutal kick to Venom-Red. She extended her telekinesis into a blade and slashed Venom-Gray while blocking a punch from Venom-Violet. Venom-Green fired a restraining web at Themis, only for Themis to dodge and kick him. Venom-Indigo came after Themis and the two exchanged blows, Venom-Indigo’s coming harder than Themis’ did. Venom-Green came up on the other side of Themis and he and Venom-Indigo double-teamed Themis.
As the remaining Venom Troopers surrounded Themis with blows from all sides, the symbiote that had been bonded to Venom-Rose crept toward its host, only to be halted by the Prowler. “Don’t think so,” the masked man taunted, twisting the wrist cuff on his gauntlet and slamming his hand onto the symbiote. Electricity spread from the gauntlet, shocking the symbiote into helplessness, much to its host’s very vocal despair.
“You . . . you’re killing her!” the host screamed.
“No, I’m not,” Prowler replied stonily. “I’m stopping ‘her’ before you and ‘she’ can do any more damage together.”
With a burst of telekinetic force, Themis threw all the Venom Troopers off her. The Venom Troopers were scattered but not deterred, willing themselves back to their feet to fight her again. By then, the other New Warriors were assaulting them. Night Thrasher was on Venom-Red, hitting him with fists engulfed in black-edged lightning. The Prowler fought Venom-Gray with sonic pulses from his gauntlets, while Incendiary disabled Venom-Green with a stream of flame. Themis and the Black Cat fought Venom-Violet together, while Archaeida and Slipstream double-teamed Venom-Indigo.
At that moment, the proximity alarms went off again, prompting Night Thrasher to flip away from Venom-Red and to the computer. “Who’s the intruder?” he asked the computer.
“Intruder identified as pre-Registration super-criminal Venom,” the computer replied.
“Venom?!” Night Thrasher exclaimed in shock.
At that moment, a figure burst into the New Warriors’ headquarters. It was humanoid in shape and coated in what looked like black liquid metal, a white shape resembling a black widow spider emblazoned on its chest. It could have almost been mistaken for Spider-Man in his black costume, if not for the jagged shape of the lenses and the multi-fanged mouth beneath those lenses.
“Thieves!” the creature snarled. “You have stolen from us and you will pay generous restitution!”
Venom-Red looked upon the creature with fright all over his body language. “Oh, s#$%!”
“‘Oh, s#$%’ is right,” Archaeida remarked. “Better start praying for mercy.”
“We don’t pray for mercy!” Venom-Indigo roared, attacking the Venom creature, who easily repelled her assault.
“We’re taking back what’s ours!” the Venom creature roared, biting Venom-Indigo in the neck. Immediately, the symbiote began to flow into the Venom creature, unwillingly separating from its helpless host. Once the cloned symbiote had been absorbed into the Venom creature, the creature threw the host aside, while keeping a sizable chunk of the host’s flesh in its mouth . . . and swallowing.
“I think I’m gonna lose my lunch,” Slipstream remarked.
“You and me both,” Incendiary agreed.
“Incendiary, cauterize her wound!” Night Thrasher ordered. Incendiary scurried to do exactly that, while Night Thrasher pulled out a pair of battle truncheons and extended ultrasonic energy blades on both. The masked man went on the attack against the symbiotic creature, slashing at it with his sonic blades. The Venom creature roared in enraged agony and struck Night Thrasher hard enough to knock him into the container of the primary Venom clone.
Prowler twisted the cuffs on both wrists and blasted the Venom creature with electricity, repelling it somewhat. Once the blast died out, though, the Venom creature recovered, attacking the Prowler, who could not move fast enough to save himself from being body-slammed by the monster. The Prowler could see, however, that the monster had eaten the clone once hosted by Venom-Rose.
“You think we ought to help them?” Venom-Gray asked.
“We’re not helping them,” Venom-Red snarled. “We’re saving ourselves!” That said, he attacked the Venom creature, Venom-Gray and Venom-Violet following him into battle. The Venom creature roared angrily and swatted them aside, going for the more helpless symbiotes. Just as he was about to put Venom-Green out of his misery, Venom-Gray tackled him.
“Back off, gruesome!” Venom-Gray snarled.
“Gladly!” the Venom creature roared and tendrils from its mass wrapped around Venom-Gray, digging into him and absorbing the cloned symbiote. The creature cast the former Venom-Gray aside and pulled Venom-Green into a chokehold, suckers on its hand biting into the living matter of Venom-Green’s symbiotic suit and absorbing it, leaving Venom-Green normal and helpless. The creature threw Venom-Green aside and was about to go after Venom-Teal when restraining webs bound it.
“Stop right there!” Venom-Red shouted.
The Venom creature screamed furiously and ripped its way free of the remaining Venom Troopers’ webs, pulling them closer to it in the process. The creature punched Venom-Red and thrust its knee into Venom-Violet’s solar plexus. Both Venom Troopers collapsed in red and violet heaps on the floor, only for Archaeida to telekinetically bind the molecules floating around the creature into restraining webs. The Venom creature roared angrily and ripped its way free, charging Archaeida. Slipstream intercepted the monster, moving into a high-velocity assault on it. The monster howled in outrage and impaled Slipstream on a sharpened symbiotic tentacle, throwing him aside.
“Slipstream!” Incendiary shouted, having taken care of the former Venom-Rose and now running toward his fallen comrade. He began cauterizing Slipstream’s wound, helping it to heal even faster than Slipstream’s accelerated metabolism would allow.
Themis formed telekinetic blades and began slashing at the Venom monster. Unfortunately for her, the monster reacted quite quickly to the assault, striking down Themis with a vicious backhand. Themis simply bounced to her feet and blasted the symbiotic creature with telekinetic force. The telekinetic blast knocked the Venom creature backward.
The Black Cat and Archaeida double-teamed the symbiotic monster, ricocheting off every nearby surface as they struck him. The monster lost patience after several strikes from each and grabbed both young women with symbiotic tentacles. “We will swallow you whole! And spit you out as part of us!”
“No thanks!” the Black Cat snarled and sprayed the Venom creature with a gas from her glove. The creature bellowed in fury and threw the two young women aside, as Night Thrasher moved back into the fray and assaulted the creature with his ultrasonic energy blades. With a brutal slash from both blades, the symbiotic matter parted to reveal human flesh beneath. Of course, the symbiotic matter reconstituted itself as soon as the blades were withdrawn, so Night Thrasher slashed it again, and again, and again, attempting to force the monster to withdraw or release its host.
Venom-Red and Venom-Violet attacked the Venom monster from multiple angles, using speed, agility, and raw strength to the best advantage possible. The Venom monster impaled Venom-Violet with symbiotic tendrils, sucking her cloned symbiote into itself and then throwing the now-helpless host aside. Venom-Red screamed in rage and swung into an attack on the monstrous symbiote, only to be grabbed by the creature.
“You . . .” the creature snarled. “Become part of me!!!”
Venom-Red struggled within the clutches of the creature, but the creature proved too strong even for him and absorbed his symbiote, leaving him human and helpless. The creature threw him aside and sprang at the still-helpless Venom-Teal. “No!!!” the former Venom-Red screamed as the Venom monster consumed Venom-Teal’s symbiotic suit. The Venom monster turned its attention to the clone still being contained by the New Warriors.
“Damn it . . .” Prowler snarled. “How do we stop this bastard?”
“Incendiary,” Night Thrasher called. “Roast this mother#$%&. Prowler, use the shocks. I’ll use the ultrasonic blades.”
“All right,” Incendiary said. “Let’s just hope we don’t kill the poor bastard behind that monster’s face.” He summoned flame around his hands and projected that flame at the symbiotic monster, causing it to scream in pain. Prowler twisted the cuffs on his wrists and fired electrical blasts out of both gauntlets, adding to Incendiary’s fire attack. Night Thrasher lunged at the Venom creature and impaled it with the ultrasonic blades. The combination of assaults forced the symbiote to retreat, melting away and fleeing the New Warriors’ base.
“What do we do now?” Black Cat asked. “We’ve got seven CSA bastards who know where we live. We’ve got a crazed symbiote on the loose. And we’re gonna have to do something about all of them.”
“What are you suggesting?” Themis asked. “That we kill these people?”
“They would kill us,” Black Cat answered.
“Doesn’t mean we have to kill them,” Themis retorted.
“We’re just gonna have to move,” Night Thrasher said. “It’s better than killing them.”
“And in the meantime, we figure out where that symbiote came from,” Archaeida added.
“Good point,” Night Thrasher agreed.
The Venom monster crept through the sewers of the city. It was in pain. Those damned humans had hurt it, hurt it quite badly. It would take a while to heal . . . and it couldn’t spare the baggage of a host at this particular moment. Reluctantly, it separated itself from its host, a young man with a blond buzz cut, and continued its journey alone, leaving the young man dazed. It needed to find a stronger host, someone that would have the power suited to wearing it.
In the meantime, it needed sustenance, to accelerate its healing. It found its way into one particular pipe and emerged on the other side, through a kitchen sink in an apartment complex. It slithered out of the kitchen sink and went through the apartment, looking for its sustenance. It slipped under a door and crawled onto a bed, a bed presently occupied by a young couple. Once it was close enough . . . it began to claim its sustenance.
All Audrey Hopkins had wanted to do when she got home the previous night was sleep. Sleep and sleep and sleep and keep on sleeping until doomsday. It had been a tiring night, fighting the Avengers and the Thunderbolts. Granted, she hadn’t done that all on her own, but the opponents she’d had to face were quite exhausting. Worse, the battle had dragged out past her curfew, leaving Audrey to explain why she’d gotten home after her parents had. Judging by their reactions, she’d have to start coming up with more creative excuses for her absence.
Ironically, she felt great when she woke up. In fact, she felt so great that when she woke up, she flipped out of bed and ran up the far wall of her room up onto the ceiling. Then she dropped to the floor in an agile crouch, rising up with her fists in the air, and exited her room to begin her morning routine.
In the process of her morning routine, Audrey noticed some odd things. The first was when she was thinking of taking off her nightshirt so that she could take her shower, the nightshirt turned into black liquid metal that melted beneath her skin. The second was that when she wanted to get dressed after drying off, the black liquid metal reemerged and re-formed into the nightshirt. The third was that when she went to her room and thought about getting dressed, the nightshirt changed back into black liquid metal, coating her entire body this time, and formed into a black halter and nighttime camouflage shorts along with white socks and running shoes.
Audrey took a look in the mirror and whistled appreciatively at herself. With a brief chuckle, she left her room and walked down the stairway. Midway down, she gripped the bar of the staircase and pulled herself into an acrobatic flip over the bar, landing on the floor below gracefully. She sauntered into the dining room, where her parents and Kaye waited for her.
“Morning, everyone!” Audrey sang.
“Good morning,” Mr. Hopkins greeted somewhat mutedly.
“Morning, sis,” Kaye greeted.
“Morning, Audrey,” Mrs. Hopkins greeted. “Are you ready to tell us where you really were last night? Because these late nights of yours are getting to be more of a habit.”
“Study party,” Audrey replied airily. “Like I said. We just have so much fun studying that we forget the time.”
“You sure that’s it?” Mr. Hopkins asked skeptically.
“Yes. I’m. Sure,” Audrey answered, her eyes narrowing.
“Do not take that tone with me,” Mr. Hopkins reprimanded sharply.
“That’s fine,” Audrey said bitterly as she picked up a piece of toast. “I have to hurry before I’m late for class, anyway. See ya.” She left the house, eating the toast as she walked down the street and mumbling under her breath. “Nosy #$%&. It’s better that you don’t know. For your own safety.”
Audrey sighed. I really need to blow off some steam. Immediately, she broke into a dead run, a blur to anyone who saw her. As she ran, her clothes melted into black liquid metal and coated her body once again. The liquid metal spread over her head until it was completely covered and she raised her arm, a web-line shooting forth from the back of her hand. The line anchored itself on a tall building nearby and she pulled herself up into a swing.
The costume Audrey wore was matte black, its only distinguishing features being the standard vaguely teardrop-shaped lenses . . . and a white spider on the front whose legs connected to those of the identical spider on her back. The webs she was firing to swing through the city came from white rectangular pads on the backs of her hands. She didn’t know where the costume had come from, but she’d never felt more elated in her entire life.
Cuayin and Callisto waded into an African battleground, observing the national forces fighting the guerrilla forces with complete and utter disregard for the civilians caught in the middle. “This carnage . . . will end. Now.”
Psychokinetic scalpels cut the nerves in the combatants’ fingers, preventing them from pulling the triggers on their guns. More psychokinetic scalpels prevented them from moving their arms at all. All looked at Cuayin in shock and outrage, wondering who were these palefaces that dare intrude on them. Cuayin glared at them . . . and cut them apart using the very air molecules that surrounded them.
Callisto gasped in horror at the carnage. “What was that for?”
“They deserved it,” Cuayin answered icily. “I looked into their hearts. Neither side gave a damn what happened to these people; it was a power struggle and nothing more. Now there’s no one to struggle for power.”
The civilians looked at Cuayin in astonishment, wondering where this woman had come from and how she had done what she’d done. She smiled and began to speak in their native tongue. “A new day will come soon, a day where you will never need to be afraid again. All who wish to join me in bringing this new day will be free to do so.”
The civilians looked at Cuayin bewilderedly. “I will leave you to think on it,” she said. “Come, Callisto. There are others that need us.”
Cuayin took Callisto’s hand and teleported away with her, reemerging in another battleground. This one was even worse, for a simple reason. It was a one-sided slaughter, with the all-too-human guerrillas overmatched by superhuman national soldiers. The guerrillas fought as hard as they could, but the speed and strength of these soldiers was far beyond their ken.
“What are they doing?” Callisto asked softly.
“What people with power always do,” Cuayin answered bitterly. “Perpetuate their own power by any means they deem necessary.”
With a simple extension of will, Cuayin slowed the time around her to a virtual standstill. It wasn’t a genuine freezing of time; to do that would completely immobilize the air molecules around her and everyone else and they would all suffocate. As it was, time was still moving, but the flow of it was like a sluggish river.
With time almost still, Cuayin moved through the platoon of super-soldiers, killing them with psychokinetic scalpels aimed at their vital points. Time resumed its normal pace, leaving the soldiers to spit up blood and fell dead and the remaining guerrillas to look at Cuayin with something resembling awestruck horror. Finally, one of the guerrillas, the apparent leader, walked over to Cuayin. “Thank you,” he said in his native tongue.
“Don’t thank me,” Cuayin spat in his native tongue. “You’re just as disgusting as they were.”
“You do not know what you are talking about!” the guerrilla leader protested. “We are freedom fighters!”
“No, you are not,” Cuayin answered. “Your side and their side are nothing but warring gangs of thugs. Real freedom fighters don’t rape the wives and daughters and sisters of people you think are traitors to ‘the cause.’” With a simple act of concentration, she boiled the iron in his blood, burning him alive from the inside out. He died screaming.
“Demon!” one of the guerrillas shouted, but by the time he got that out of his mouth, it was too late. He was dead from a telekinetic scalpel in his heart, delivered by the super-speeding Cuayin. The other guerrillas attacked her, but she cut apart their weapons - and them - with a speed that was by no means human.
However, one guerrilla had stayed out of the fray and now had his weapon pointed at her back, ready to fire. Then he ended up with a dislocated arm and a snapped neck, but Cuayin hadn’t done that. No, that had been all Callisto, moving with reflexes even she didn’t know she had to save Cuayin.
“Thank you,” Cuayin spoke upon finishing her work.
“I . . . I . . .” Callisto uttered, stunned at what she’d done.
“It’s all right,” Cuayin whispered, taking Callisto by the hand. “You did what you felt you had to do. And there is much we still have to do, if we’re to redeem this world, but we will not be alone in doing it.”
“We won’t?” Callisto asked.
“No.” Cuayin smiled. “There are many who thirst for the kind of justice that we will bring, the better world we will create. They will come to us.”