Marvel: Tomorrow MAX (Chapter 11)
Title: Marvel: Tomorrow MAX
Chapter 11: No Matter Who You Are
Author: V5_Vendetta
Fandom: Marvel Universe
Disclaimer: Crapsack future mine, general universe template Marvel's
Principal Characters: Audrey Hopkins/Arachne (OC), Karin Kusanagi/Fearless (OC), CSA Avengers (OC), Force Works (OC), Redeemers (OC)
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Star-crossed lovers reunite, but the world around them is spiraling into chaos.
The night before . . .
Fearless and Trance swung and leaped through the city of Denver. They knew Arachne was somewhere within the city, but they had no way to tell where. Fortunately, both Fearless and Trance had considerable tracking abilities, and being in the same city as Arachne increased the chances of them being able to find her. Of course, their chances had just gone from “slim” to “so-so.”
It also helped a great deal that they were going camouflaged, Fearless using the circuitry in her suit to render herself invisible to the surveillance drones and Trance using his Other’s stealth capabilities. This enabled them to pursue their shared objective while minimizing the possibility of interference on the part of super-powered goon squads.
As it seemed like they were getting nowhere, Fearless suddenly sensed that they were getting very, very close. “Trance.”
“I feel it, too, Karin.”
“Good.” She landed. “Now we just need to figure out a way to get inside.”
The two stood in front of a mountain face. “It’s a hologram. Reinforced by an energy shield. Anybody who comes here will think it’s just a mountain.”
“How do you think we ought to get inside?” Trance asked.
Fearless withdrew her batons and snapped out the energy lances on both. “We ask politely.”
“Hmm, that might not be polite enough. Swords tend to intimidate people, and the ones who aren’t intimidated think you’re out for a fight.”
Fearless simply prodded the holographic mountain with one of her baton blades. The force barrier simply pushed back against the baton blade, allowing it no purchase. Fearless pushed harder, testing the limits of the force barrier even as the barrier seemed to be testing her limits. She pressed the hidden button on the baton, extending the blade further. Finally, the barrier gave way, or rather entirely dissipated.
“Hey, lady, you might wanna watch where you’re pointing that thing,” a simultaneously gravelly and airy voice remarked from the other side of the mountain hologram. “Somebody might think you’re happy to see them.”
“Who are you?” Fearless asked.
“The guy who lives in this place. By the way, your girl’s dying to see you.”
A red-gloved hand reached out from the mountain hologram and pulled Fearless inside. Trance immediately sprang to follow, performing a barrel roll and coming up on one knee with his web-shooting arm extended. “Let her go.”
“Relax, Spider-Man 2099, she’s not in any danger,” the red-gloved man, actually a red-and-black-costumed man, said. “And by the way, could the writer of this piece of crap be any more uncreative with your costume? Ripping off another Marvel future line, but then that’s how we got CSA Spidey, so . . .”
“What are you talking about?” Trance asked, utterly baffled.
“That’s just Deadpool being Deadpool,” a rasping voice remarked. “Don’t mind him.” Trance, Fearless, and Deadpool turned to acknowledge the source of the voice, a man with black hair swept into points on either side of his head and dressed in a short-sleeved black-and-dull blue leather uniform. “Hey, kids. Name’s Wolverine.”
“Wolverine,” Trance repeated. “You mean, like . . . the X-Man Wolverine? The Avenger Wolverine?”
“Long time ago, kid,” Wolverine replied.
“Where’s Arachne?” Fearless asked.
“Resting up,” Wolverine answered. “We’ve been training her.”
“For what?”
“Combat survival - stealth, close-quarters fighting, combat tactics, the works. She’s actually pretty good.”
“And she’s going to be his new cute teenage girl sidekick!” Deadpool piped up.
“Wade? Do you want me to get Wirework?” Wolverine asked.
Deadpool just gave Wolverine a sidelong look that suggested he’d stick out his tongue if his mask wasn’t on. Of course, the bulge in Deadpool’s mask suggested he was trying, anyway. “Bring her on. I can take her. I took her ten different ways. . . .”
“Not something we really need to hear,” Trance groaned.
“Who are you supposed to be?” Wolverine inquired.
“Trance. Call me Trance.”
Wolverine scoffed. “You were really straining for a name, weren’t you?”
“It’s not my fault. Most of the good names are taken,” Trance answered.
“Where is she?” Fearless asked.
“You want me to take you to her? I will,” Wolverine answered. “Huh. Lovesick teenagers. Nothing like ’em.”
“Whoo! Lesbotronic make-out!” Deadpool cheered.
“Will you shut the F#$&% up?” Trance growled. “Goddamn, you’re annoying!”
“You’re even more annoying,” Deadpool answered. “Guy in love with a girl who doesn’t even respond sexually to males. How laudable. I mean, how laughable.”
“You’re a dick,” Trance muttered.
“Yes, I have one, kid! Do you?”
“Come on,” Wolverine grumbled. “Before somebody kills ’Pool.”
Trance and Fearless followed Wolverine through the underground base of Excelsior’s Vengeance, Deadpool tagging along and making random comments along the way. One of the more notable comments was, “You have a shape-shifting organism bonded to you, you can do some pretty funky stuff with it.”
“Like . . .” Trance prompted, simultaneously curious and dreadful.
“Tentacle hentai!” Deadpool cheered.
Trance groaned. “I shouldn’t have asked.”
“You’re right about that,” Fearless sniped.
Another of Deadpool’s scintillating remarks happened to be something along the lines of, “If you’re the Girl Without Fear, does that mean you’re not afraid of anything?”
“Literally, yes,” Fearless replied. “Brain damage.”
“So a fully functioning brain would know fear . . .” Deadpool mused. Then he regained his psychotically jubilant demeanor. “And that’s why you and I would make a great pair if you weren’t jailbait! We’re both wrong in the head and thus completely immune to the debilitating effects of ‘sanity!’”
Fearless wanted to put her head in her hands and possibly weep for her remaining sanity. Only sheer willpower stopped her from doing exactly that, keeping her guided on her course. Frankly, the only thing that made it worthwhile was that she was going to see Arachne again. Beside her, she could tell Trance was looking forward to the same thing, judging by the quickening of his heartbeat. Hers was quickening, too, so that was all well and good.
Deadpool didn’t stop his insane chatter, though; he just kept going with the line, “Trance? Trance? That’s even more idiotic than that guy who named himself Grunge!”
“Will you please stop making fun of my name?” Trance asked. “I don’t mind that you’re named ‘Deadpool.’”
“Hey, Deadpool is a badass name,” Deadpool protested. “Besides, it has special meaning.”
“Like what?”
“I’m not telling you that! You haven’t earned it!”
“Really?” Trance’s tone was a sarcastic drawl.
“I would, except then I’d have to light you on fire and leave you in a room with Miley Cyrus at maximum volume with surround-sound,” Deadpool answered. “I’ll do it, too; I roll like that.”
“We’re here,” Wolverine cut in. “Come on, ’Pool. Let’s leave the kids alone.”
As Wolverine and Deadpool slipped away, Fearless knocked on the door. “Leave me alone, Deadpool . . . I’m not in the mood . . .” Arachne’s voice murmured from the other side.
Fearless could have cried, she was so happy just hearing Arachne’s voice. “It’s not Deadpool.”
The door opened, revealing an unmasked Arachne in a sleek black suit resembling Julia Carpenter’s Omega Flight costume. Her face was as kittenishly cute and dainty as ever, but her jaw had a firmer set and her eyes were different. Not the unnatural coldness Fearless had seen when she was in the grip of the symbiote, but glinting like the blade of a restored sword. The glint turned into a brighter shine when she saw Fearless.
“Karin . . . ?”
“Audrey . . .” Fearless removed her mask and pulled Audrey into her arms, holding her tightly. “Don’t ever do that to me again.”
“I won’t,” Audrey whispered.
“Swear,” Karin murmured, sounding like she was about to cry.
“I swear . . .” Audrey whispered, tears beginning to stream down her face. “I swear . . .”
Karin pulled back slightly to look at Audrey and kissed away her tears. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Trance cleared his throat. “. . . I’m here, too.”
“Troy?” Audrey asked. “Is that you?”
Trance willed his Other to recede from his head, exposing Troy’s face to Audrey. “Well, as long as we’re all going unmasked . . . hey, Audrey. Nice to see you again.”
Audrey tackled Troy into a fierce hug, the strength and adhesive ability Troy derived from his Other being the only things keeping him from falling to the ground. “I guess you are happy to see me.”
“You bet,” Audrey replied. “How’s Jenna?”
“She took you disappearing pretty hard,” Troy answered sadly.
Audrey’s face fell. “And let me guess, so did my family.”
“Yeah,” Troy confirmed ruefully.
“Don’t sound so sad. You’re not the one who ran out on them.”
“Just promise me, when all this is over, you’ll come back home,” Troy murmured.
Now . . .
Avenger Spider-Man dodged a swipe of Callisto’s finger-talons and swung his own at her. She grabbed him by his wrist and squeezed, which merely triggered Spider-Man’s spinnerets, resulting in a spray of webbing to the lower half of her face. Undeterred, Callisto ripped her web-encrusted mask off, fully exposing her face, and swept her leg out to trip Spider-Man, who jumped over her leg and attempted to kick her. Unfortunately for him, she grabbed his ankle and used it as leverage for a throw that sent him flying out the window of Stark-Kurosaki Tower.
Spider-Man was not the only one in dire straits. Blitzkrieg was fighting the Peruvian woman, called Lightning, which turned out to be an all-too-appropriate appellation. The Latverian girl, Talda, was fighting Iron Man, who had discovered the hard way that her silver suit was really metal liquefied and reshaped into lightweight combat armor. The bandaged woman, Sylph, had wrapped Warbird in those same bandages, which turned out to be magical seals that restrained her power . . . and would do the same to anyone else wrapped in it. The braced girl, Saint Overture, was fighting Captain America hand-to-hand . . . and using her braces to deflect his shield.
Arcane was not taking this lightly. Manipulating quantum strings of chance and fate, Arcane telekinetically threw Sylph at a wall, although Sylph quietly dematerialized . . . and rematerialized behind Arcane. “Nice try,” Sylph mocked. This simply got Sylph a nice quantum blade in her shoulder, courtesy of Arcane’s knife-hand strike. Sylph grabbed Arcane’s wrist and squeezed it hard until Arcane was almost ready to scream. Fortunately, she was saved by a well-timed interruption from the Hulk.
“Hulk smash squishy witch!”
Of course, even that turned out less than fruitful. While Arcane was free of Sylph’s grip, Sylph herself had deflected the Hulk’s attack with an energy shield that turned into a battering ram that knocked him outside Stark-Kurosaki Tower to join Spider-Man and Callisto. The former had saved himself with web-slinging, and the latter had swung after him. At that particular moment, though, they were both momentarily interrupted by the rapidly falling Hulk.
“Now where were we?” Sylph asked Arcane.
“What do you hope to gain by doing this?” Captain America asked Saint Overture.
“Freedom,” Saint replied harshly.
“Freedom from what?” Captain America prompted.
“From the country whose flag you so proudly wear!” Saint snapped, swinging into a punch which Captain America caught. Undeterred, she kneed him in the stomach, but his grip on her fist remained strong. “You’re bullies and you’re proud of it. You happily boast about how you’re the strongest civilian and super-powered military in the world and you display that strength at every opportunity by beating smaller, weaker nations into submission! You only need to look across the ocean from the tip of Florida to see what you have done to us!”
“If you’ve been wronged, it’s not something I support,” Captain America answered. “But this? Innocent people are going to die here.”
“No one in this blood-soaked land is innocent. Least of all someone wearing its colors.”
“Guilt by association. The perfect justifier of any mass genocide. What makes you any better than us, then?”
“My country has never been a victimizer. Now it’s your turn to be the victimized, to taste the fruits of your wicked labors.”
“I thought this vendetta of yours wasn’t about countries. I thought you just had a mad-on for men, period.”
“Our rage is directed at the oppressors, of which your country is the worst!”
“I see . . .” Captain America paused. “You’re utterly incapable of seeing past your rage.” He swung at her, which she blocked by crossing her braced arms, generating a photonic shield which not only absorbed the force of his blow, but even knocked him back as though it had struck him. He somersaulted in midflight, kicked off the wall he would have crashed into, and attacked Saint from another angle.
Meanwhile, in Denver, Excelsior’s Vengeance had found their way to the wreckage of Thunderbolts Mountain, seeing bodies strewn everywhere. None of them had died peacefully, but Wolverine didn’t feel sorry for them. They knew what they were doing, they knew how much damage they were doing, they knew how sick and corrupt they were. . . . This was justice, as far as he was concerned.
“Damn,” Patriot remarked.
“A tragic and senseless waste of human life,” Ravenclaw mused.
“Only a waste in that they actually lived as long as they did,” Wolverine answered grimly.
“Yes, but this catastrophic carnage . . . whether it was justified or not, this was an act of vengeance,” White Tiger observed.
“Sometimes vengeance is good for the soul,” Deadpool remarked.
“And sometimes vengeance blackens the soul,” White Tiger solemnly countered.
“Whatever,” Wirework said. “We need to find those people before there’re any innocent casualties.”
“We should see how the kids are doing on that front,” Wolverine suggested.
In the metropolitan area of Denver, Arachne, Fearless, and Trance were battling the wardrones. Fearless’ photonic baton blades sliced through the wardrones’ chasses, only for those chasses to regenerate. Arachne webbed multiple wardrones together and tossed them, but they tore loose from the webbing and flew at her. Trance wielded symbiotic bladed tendrils against the wardrones, piercing and cutting through their chasses, only for them to regenerate and attack anew.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the wardrones were supplemented by a sonic cry that rattled and agonized all three teen superheroes, two because of their symbiotes and the third because of her senses. “That noise!” Trance roared in a dual-layered, inhuman voice. “Someone stop that noise!”
Fearless struggled to her feet, and lashed out with her chain-blade, managing to stop the sonic wail. Both Arachne and Trance managed to get up, and they and Fearless looked at their opponent, a slight girl in skintight blue-and-black with white-streaked pink hair. Beside her was a girl in lightning-accented dark blue with paler blue hair and a cloaked girl.
“What’s this, the Amazon Brigade?” Trance sardonically wondered aloud.
The blue-haired girl dashed into an attack on Trance, only for Trance to block her strike and retaliate with a kick. The blue-haired girl blocked Trance’s kick and half-flipped, half-swung into a kick to Trance’s head, which Trance blocked with a kick of his own. The two twisted together, blocking and countering each other’s strikes at superhuman speed.
The cloaked girl vanished, only to reappear behind Arachne and wrap her cloak around her. “What the -?”
So . . . so dark . . . so cold . . . what is this place?
“Arachne!” Fearless shouted. Before she could go after the cloaked girl, she felt a strange queasiness, like her internal organs were being shaken.
Cloak threw Arachne out of her cloak, the symbiote half-receded from her body and Arachne shivering and curled around herself. Fearless ran to her despite her queasiness, kneeling beside Arachne, who looked up at her almost blindly. “K-Karin . . .”
Just then, Cloak appeared behind Fearless, ready to swallow her into the darkness that awaited behind her cloak. Fearless’ answer was to lash out with her photonic chain-blade, intending to cut Cloak apart for what she’d done to Arachne. Cloak merely turned immaterial, and reemerged behind Trance, about to swallow him when he grabbed Bluestreak and threw her at Cloak, causing Cloak to inadvertently swallow Bluestreak.
At that moment, Trance was crippled by agony running through his entire nervous system. It was like something was ripping him apart from within, cell by cell. “Who’s doing this?”
“Her,” Fearless answered, pointing at the pink-and-white-haired girl, Songbird, who had her mouth open as though singing.
In California, Force Works battled the Living Lightning woman, who was proving supremely hard to fight. Steel Spider’s reflexes were nothing compared to the Living Lightning’s speed. Lady Liberty’s photonic shield shattered from a strike by the Living Lightning, who had transmogrified herself into a lightning bolt. Living Lightning reverted to human shape for a fierce right cross to She-Bomb’s face, knocking her several scores of feet back. Jupiter and Whizzer attacked Living Lightning together, but her speed and strength far outstripped theirs.
“Who are you?” Jupiter asked.
“The Living Lightning,” the lightning-forged woman replied, striking Jupiter with a blast of electricity. Jupiter blocked her assault with a shielding matrix of electromagnetic energy. At that moment, Blur attempted another attack on Living Lightning, only to be countered by another lightning strike from her. Steel Spider extended his mechanical legs as a ranged attack, but Living Lightning zapped him with her very self.
“Spider!” Lady Liberty shouted, dashing to his side.
“Lib . . . stay away . . .” Steel Spider warned.
That was all he could say before his body suddenly sprang to his feet and punched Lady Liberty. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“It’s not me . . .” Steel Spider answered, even as his body continued to attack Lady Liberty. “She’s . . . she’s in my suit’s computers . . .”
“Then we’ll beat her out,” She-Bomb declared, kicking Steel Spider in the chest with enough force to send him crashing into a car. Steel Spider flipped out of the car’s wreckage and swung up on a pair of web-lines into a kick that She-Bomb blocked. That did not stop Steel Spider, who simply twisted to kick her in the head, only for her to duck under his leg. Steel Spider flipped into the air and came down in a fast punch that She-Bomb blocked by grabbing his wrist and throwing him. Steel Spider fired a web at a nearby streetlamp and swung on it, coming back at She-Bomb from another angle.
Whizzer sped into an attack on Steel Spider, who dodged and blocked all of his punches with reflex action that went beyond even the suit’s capabilities. Whizzer kept attacking, anyway, as the kind of over-clocking Living Lightning was forcing upon the suit’s systems would ultimately burn Steel Spider out and thus he only needed to outlast the other man. Of course, he mused to himself almost immediately after that particular thought, what was to stop Living Lightning from simply exiting Steel Spider’s suit once he’d expired and continuing the attack?
Suddenly, Steel Spider was engulfed in an electromagnetic matrix that seemed to be pulling something out of him. The matrix was blue, and the something that it was pulling out was a distinctly green energy. “Jupiter . . .” he groaned in realization, as the matrix pulled at the green energy, which began to take a distinctly humanoid shape. The shape struggled within the matrix, attempting to retreat inside Steel Spider’s armor, but the matrix made that increasingly impossible. Finally, with a flash of bright light, Steel Spider fell to the ground, and the matrix claimed its prisoner.
“What did you do?” he asked.
“Equal and opposite charge,” Jupiter replied. “Basic principle of electrodynamics, remember?”
“Yeah, there’s just one problem with that,” Steel Spider remarked.
“What?” Jupiter asked.
“I can’t move. I think she burned out the motor controls of the suit.”
She-Bomb grabbed Steel Spider and lifted him up by his head. “That better?”
“Uh, yeah. Now if I could move independently . . .”
Lady Liberty looked at She-Bomb and Steel Spider. “She-Bomb, get Spider out of here. The rest of us will take care of things here.”
“Sure, Lady. Come on, Spider. Time for us to go.” She-Bomb sprinted like a madwoman, carrying Steel Spider over her shoulder.
“I would say this is humiliating, but I don’t even have the energy to feel humiliated,” Steel Spider remarked.
“I’m saving your life, jackass,” She-Bomb retorted.
“And I’m very thankful for that.”
“Good.”
In Washington, D.C., the president’s limo was suddenly halted by a warp in the air in front of it. Out of that warp stepped four women, one of them Cuayin and the other three being Lesedi, Nthanda, and Atieno. Atieno extended her hand and shadowy energy flowed from it, forming a barricade around them and the president’s limo. Of course, that shadow barricade also claimed some of the Secret Service motorcade, including the PMD division.
“Hello, Mr. President,” Cuayin greeted. “Do you mind coming out of that limousine? I would like to speak to you.”
Chapter 11: No Matter Who You Are
Author: V5_Vendetta
Fandom: Marvel Universe
Disclaimer: Crapsack future mine, general universe template Marvel's
Principal Characters: Audrey Hopkins/Arachne (OC), Karin Kusanagi/Fearless (OC), CSA Avengers (OC), Force Works (OC), Redeemers (OC)
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Star-crossed lovers reunite, but the world around them is spiraling into chaos.
The night before . . .
Fearless and Trance swung and leaped through the city of Denver. They knew Arachne was somewhere within the city, but they had no way to tell where. Fortunately, both Fearless and Trance had considerable tracking abilities, and being in the same city as Arachne increased the chances of them being able to find her. Of course, their chances had just gone from “slim” to “so-so.”
It also helped a great deal that they were going camouflaged, Fearless using the circuitry in her suit to render herself invisible to the surveillance drones and Trance using his Other’s stealth capabilities. This enabled them to pursue their shared objective while minimizing the possibility of interference on the part of super-powered goon squads.
As it seemed like they were getting nowhere, Fearless suddenly sensed that they were getting very, very close. “Trance.”
“I feel it, too, Karin.”
“Good.” She landed. “Now we just need to figure out a way to get inside.”
The two stood in front of a mountain face. “It’s a hologram. Reinforced by an energy shield. Anybody who comes here will think it’s just a mountain.”
“How do you think we ought to get inside?” Trance asked.
Fearless withdrew her batons and snapped out the energy lances on both. “We ask politely.”
“Hmm, that might not be polite enough. Swords tend to intimidate people, and the ones who aren’t intimidated think you’re out for a fight.”
Fearless simply prodded the holographic mountain with one of her baton blades. The force barrier simply pushed back against the baton blade, allowing it no purchase. Fearless pushed harder, testing the limits of the force barrier even as the barrier seemed to be testing her limits. She pressed the hidden button on the baton, extending the blade further. Finally, the barrier gave way, or rather entirely dissipated.
“Hey, lady, you might wanna watch where you’re pointing that thing,” a simultaneously gravelly and airy voice remarked from the other side of the mountain hologram. “Somebody might think you’re happy to see them.”
“Who are you?” Fearless asked.
“The guy who lives in this place. By the way, your girl’s dying to see you.”
A red-gloved hand reached out from the mountain hologram and pulled Fearless inside. Trance immediately sprang to follow, performing a barrel roll and coming up on one knee with his web-shooting arm extended. “Let her go.”
“Relax, Spider-Man 2099, she’s not in any danger,” the red-gloved man, actually a red-and-black-costumed man, said. “And by the way, could the writer of this piece of crap be any more uncreative with your costume? Ripping off another Marvel future line, but then that’s how we got CSA Spidey, so . . .”
“What are you talking about?” Trance asked, utterly baffled.
“That’s just Deadpool being Deadpool,” a rasping voice remarked. “Don’t mind him.” Trance, Fearless, and Deadpool turned to acknowledge the source of the voice, a man with black hair swept into points on either side of his head and dressed in a short-sleeved black-and-dull blue leather uniform. “Hey, kids. Name’s Wolverine.”
“Wolverine,” Trance repeated. “You mean, like . . . the X-Man Wolverine? The Avenger Wolverine?”
“Long time ago, kid,” Wolverine replied.
“Where’s Arachne?” Fearless asked.
“Resting up,” Wolverine answered. “We’ve been training her.”
“For what?”
“Combat survival - stealth, close-quarters fighting, combat tactics, the works. She’s actually pretty good.”
“And she’s going to be his new cute teenage girl sidekick!” Deadpool piped up.
“Wade? Do you want me to get Wirework?” Wolverine asked.
Deadpool just gave Wolverine a sidelong look that suggested he’d stick out his tongue if his mask wasn’t on. Of course, the bulge in Deadpool’s mask suggested he was trying, anyway. “Bring her on. I can take her. I took her ten different ways. . . .”
“Not something we really need to hear,” Trance groaned.
“Who are you supposed to be?” Wolverine inquired.
“Trance. Call me Trance.”
Wolverine scoffed. “You were really straining for a name, weren’t you?”
“It’s not my fault. Most of the good names are taken,” Trance answered.
“Where is she?” Fearless asked.
“You want me to take you to her? I will,” Wolverine answered. “Huh. Lovesick teenagers. Nothing like ’em.”
“Whoo! Lesbotronic make-out!” Deadpool cheered.
“Will you shut the F#$&% up?” Trance growled. “Goddamn, you’re annoying!”
“You’re even more annoying,” Deadpool answered. “Guy in love with a girl who doesn’t even respond sexually to males. How laudable. I mean, how laughable.”
“You’re a dick,” Trance muttered.
“Yes, I have one, kid! Do you?”
“Come on,” Wolverine grumbled. “Before somebody kills ’Pool.”
Trance and Fearless followed Wolverine through the underground base of Excelsior’s Vengeance, Deadpool tagging along and making random comments along the way. One of the more notable comments was, “You have a shape-shifting organism bonded to you, you can do some pretty funky stuff with it.”
“Like . . .” Trance prompted, simultaneously curious and dreadful.
“Tentacle hentai!” Deadpool cheered.
Trance groaned. “I shouldn’t have asked.”
“You’re right about that,” Fearless sniped.
Another of Deadpool’s scintillating remarks happened to be something along the lines of, “If you’re the Girl Without Fear, does that mean you’re not afraid of anything?”
“Literally, yes,” Fearless replied. “Brain damage.”
“So a fully functioning brain would know fear . . .” Deadpool mused. Then he regained his psychotically jubilant demeanor. “And that’s why you and I would make a great pair if you weren’t jailbait! We’re both wrong in the head and thus completely immune to the debilitating effects of ‘sanity!’”
Fearless wanted to put her head in her hands and possibly weep for her remaining sanity. Only sheer willpower stopped her from doing exactly that, keeping her guided on her course. Frankly, the only thing that made it worthwhile was that she was going to see Arachne again. Beside her, she could tell Trance was looking forward to the same thing, judging by the quickening of his heartbeat. Hers was quickening, too, so that was all well and good.
Deadpool didn’t stop his insane chatter, though; he just kept going with the line, “Trance? Trance? That’s even more idiotic than that guy who named himself Grunge!”
“Will you please stop making fun of my name?” Trance asked. “I don’t mind that you’re named ‘Deadpool.’”
“Hey, Deadpool is a badass name,” Deadpool protested. “Besides, it has special meaning.”
“Like what?”
“I’m not telling you that! You haven’t earned it!”
“Really?” Trance’s tone was a sarcastic drawl.
“I would, except then I’d have to light you on fire and leave you in a room with Miley Cyrus at maximum volume with surround-sound,” Deadpool answered. “I’ll do it, too; I roll like that.”
“We’re here,” Wolverine cut in. “Come on, ’Pool. Let’s leave the kids alone.”
As Wolverine and Deadpool slipped away, Fearless knocked on the door. “Leave me alone, Deadpool . . . I’m not in the mood . . .” Arachne’s voice murmured from the other side.
Fearless could have cried, she was so happy just hearing Arachne’s voice. “It’s not Deadpool.”
The door opened, revealing an unmasked Arachne in a sleek black suit resembling Julia Carpenter’s Omega Flight costume. Her face was as kittenishly cute and dainty as ever, but her jaw had a firmer set and her eyes were different. Not the unnatural coldness Fearless had seen when she was in the grip of the symbiote, but glinting like the blade of a restored sword. The glint turned into a brighter shine when she saw Fearless.
“Karin . . . ?”
“Audrey . . .” Fearless removed her mask and pulled Audrey into her arms, holding her tightly. “Don’t ever do that to me again.”
“I won’t,” Audrey whispered.
“Swear,” Karin murmured, sounding like she was about to cry.
“I swear . . .” Audrey whispered, tears beginning to stream down her face. “I swear . . .”
Karin pulled back slightly to look at Audrey and kissed away her tears. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Trance cleared his throat. “. . . I’m here, too.”
“Troy?” Audrey asked. “Is that you?”
Trance willed his Other to recede from his head, exposing Troy’s face to Audrey. “Well, as long as we’re all going unmasked . . . hey, Audrey. Nice to see you again.”
Audrey tackled Troy into a fierce hug, the strength and adhesive ability Troy derived from his Other being the only things keeping him from falling to the ground. “I guess you are happy to see me.”
“You bet,” Audrey replied. “How’s Jenna?”
“She took you disappearing pretty hard,” Troy answered sadly.
Audrey’s face fell. “And let me guess, so did my family.”
“Yeah,” Troy confirmed ruefully.
“Don’t sound so sad. You’re not the one who ran out on them.”
“Just promise me, when all this is over, you’ll come back home,” Troy murmured.
Now . . .
Avenger Spider-Man dodged a swipe of Callisto’s finger-talons and swung his own at her. She grabbed him by his wrist and squeezed, which merely triggered Spider-Man’s spinnerets, resulting in a spray of webbing to the lower half of her face. Undeterred, Callisto ripped her web-encrusted mask off, fully exposing her face, and swept her leg out to trip Spider-Man, who jumped over her leg and attempted to kick her. Unfortunately for him, she grabbed his ankle and used it as leverage for a throw that sent him flying out the window of Stark-Kurosaki Tower.
Spider-Man was not the only one in dire straits. Blitzkrieg was fighting the Peruvian woman, called Lightning, which turned out to be an all-too-appropriate appellation. The Latverian girl, Talda, was fighting Iron Man, who had discovered the hard way that her silver suit was really metal liquefied and reshaped into lightweight combat armor. The bandaged woman, Sylph, had wrapped Warbird in those same bandages, which turned out to be magical seals that restrained her power . . . and would do the same to anyone else wrapped in it. The braced girl, Saint Overture, was fighting Captain America hand-to-hand . . . and using her braces to deflect his shield.
Arcane was not taking this lightly. Manipulating quantum strings of chance and fate, Arcane telekinetically threw Sylph at a wall, although Sylph quietly dematerialized . . . and rematerialized behind Arcane. “Nice try,” Sylph mocked. This simply got Sylph a nice quantum blade in her shoulder, courtesy of Arcane’s knife-hand strike. Sylph grabbed Arcane’s wrist and squeezed it hard until Arcane was almost ready to scream. Fortunately, she was saved by a well-timed interruption from the Hulk.
“Hulk smash squishy witch!”
Of course, even that turned out less than fruitful. While Arcane was free of Sylph’s grip, Sylph herself had deflected the Hulk’s attack with an energy shield that turned into a battering ram that knocked him outside Stark-Kurosaki Tower to join Spider-Man and Callisto. The former had saved himself with web-slinging, and the latter had swung after him. At that particular moment, though, they were both momentarily interrupted by the rapidly falling Hulk.
“Now where were we?” Sylph asked Arcane.
“What do you hope to gain by doing this?” Captain America asked Saint Overture.
“Freedom,” Saint replied harshly.
“Freedom from what?” Captain America prompted.
“From the country whose flag you so proudly wear!” Saint snapped, swinging into a punch which Captain America caught. Undeterred, she kneed him in the stomach, but his grip on her fist remained strong. “You’re bullies and you’re proud of it. You happily boast about how you’re the strongest civilian and super-powered military in the world and you display that strength at every opportunity by beating smaller, weaker nations into submission! You only need to look across the ocean from the tip of Florida to see what you have done to us!”
“If you’ve been wronged, it’s not something I support,” Captain America answered. “But this? Innocent people are going to die here.”
“No one in this blood-soaked land is innocent. Least of all someone wearing its colors.”
“Guilt by association. The perfect justifier of any mass genocide. What makes you any better than us, then?”
“My country has never been a victimizer. Now it’s your turn to be the victimized, to taste the fruits of your wicked labors.”
“I thought this vendetta of yours wasn’t about countries. I thought you just had a mad-on for men, period.”
“Our rage is directed at the oppressors, of which your country is the worst!”
“I see . . .” Captain America paused. “You’re utterly incapable of seeing past your rage.” He swung at her, which she blocked by crossing her braced arms, generating a photonic shield which not only absorbed the force of his blow, but even knocked him back as though it had struck him. He somersaulted in midflight, kicked off the wall he would have crashed into, and attacked Saint from another angle.
Meanwhile, in Denver, Excelsior’s Vengeance had found their way to the wreckage of Thunderbolts Mountain, seeing bodies strewn everywhere. None of them had died peacefully, but Wolverine didn’t feel sorry for them. They knew what they were doing, they knew how much damage they were doing, they knew how sick and corrupt they were. . . . This was justice, as far as he was concerned.
“Damn,” Patriot remarked.
“A tragic and senseless waste of human life,” Ravenclaw mused.
“Only a waste in that they actually lived as long as they did,” Wolverine answered grimly.
“Yes, but this catastrophic carnage . . . whether it was justified or not, this was an act of vengeance,” White Tiger observed.
“Sometimes vengeance is good for the soul,” Deadpool remarked.
“And sometimes vengeance blackens the soul,” White Tiger solemnly countered.
“Whatever,” Wirework said. “We need to find those people before there’re any innocent casualties.”
“We should see how the kids are doing on that front,” Wolverine suggested.
In the metropolitan area of Denver, Arachne, Fearless, and Trance were battling the wardrones. Fearless’ photonic baton blades sliced through the wardrones’ chasses, only for those chasses to regenerate. Arachne webbed multiple wardrones together and tossed them, but they tore loose from the webbing and flew at her. Trance wielded symbiotic bladed tendrils against the wardrones, piercing and cutting through their chasses, only for them to regenerate and attack anew.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the wardrones were supplemented by a sonic cry that rattled and agonized all three teen superheroes, two because of their symbiotes and the third because of her senses. “That noise!” Trance roared in a dual-layered, inhuman voice. “Someone stop that noise!”
Fearless struggled to her feet, and lashed out with her chain-blade, managing to stop the sonic wail. Both Arachne and Trance managed to get up, and they and Fearless looked at their opponent, a slight girl in skintight blue-and-black with white-streaked pink hair. Beside her was a girl in lightning-accented dark blue with paler blue hair and a cloaked girl.
“What’s this, the Amazon Brigade?” Trance sardonically wondered aloud.
The blue-haired girl dashed into an attack on Trance, only for Trance to block her strike and retaliate with a kick. The blue-haired girl blocked Trance’s kick and half-flipped, half-swung into a kick to Trance’s head, which Trance blocked with a kick of his own. The two twisted together, blocking and countering each other’s strikes at superhuman speed.
The cloaked girl vanished, only to reappear behind Arachne and wrap her cloak around her. “What the -?”
So . . . so dark . . . so cold . . . what is this place?
“Arachne!” Fearless shouted. Before she could go after the cloaked girl, she felt a strange queasiness, like her internal organs were being shaken.
Cloak threw Arachne out of her cloak, the symbiote half-receded from her body and Arachne shivering and curled around herself. Fearless ran to her despite her queasiness, kneeling beside Arachne, who looked up at her almost blindly. “K-Karin . . .”
Just then, Cloak appeared behind Fearless, ready to swallow her into the darkness that awaited behind her cloak. Fearless’ answer was to lash out with her photonic chain-blade, intending to cut Cloak apart for what she’d done to Arachne. Cloak merely turned immaterial, and reemerged behind Trance, about to swallow him when he grabbed Bluestreak and threw her at Cloak, causing Cloak to inadvertently swallow Bluestreak.
At that moment, Trance was crippled by agony running through his entire nervous system. It was like something was ripping him apart from within, cell by cell. “Who’s doing this?”
“Her,” Fearless answered, pointing at the pink-and-white-haired girl, Songbird, who had her mouth open as though singing.
In California, Force Works battled the Living Lightning woman, who was proving supremely hard to fight. Steel Spider’s reflexes were nothing compared to the Living Lightning’s speed. Lady Liberty’s photonic shield shattered from a strike by the Living Lightning, who had transmogrified herself into a lightning bolt. Living Lightning reverted to human shape for a fierce right cross to She-Bomb’s face, knocking her several scores of feet back. Jupiter and Whizzer attacked Living Lightning together, but her speed and strength far outstripped theirs.
“Who are you?” Jupiter asked.
“The Living Lightning,” the lightning-forged woman replied, striking Jupiter with a blast of electricity. Jupiter blocked her assault with a shielding matrix of electromagnetic energy. At that moment, Blur attempted another attack on Living Lightning, only to be countered by another lightning strike from her. Steel Spider extended his mechanical legs as a ranged attack, but Living Lightning zapped him with her very self.
“Spider!” Lady Liberty shouted, dashing to his side.
“Lib . . . stay away . . .” Steel Spider warned.
That was all he could say before his body suddenly sprang to his feet and punched Lady Liberty. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“It’s not me . . .” Steel Spider answered, even as his body continued to attack Lady Liberty. “She’s . . . she’s in my suit’s computers . . .”
“Then we’ll beat her out,” She-Bomb declared, kicking Steel Spider in the chest with enough force to send him crashing into a car. Steel Spider flipped out of the car’s wreckage and swung up on a pair of web-lines into a kick that She-Bomb blocked. That did not stop Steel Spider, who simply twisted to kick her in the head, only for her to duck under his leg. Steel Spider flipped into the air and came down in a fast punch that She-Bomb blocked by grabbing his wrist and throwing him. Steel Spider fired a web at a nearby streetlamp and swung on it, coming back at She-Bomb from another angle.
Whizzer sped into an attack on Steel Spider, who dodged and blocked all of his punches with reflex action that went beyond even the suit’s capabilities. Whizzer kept attacking, anyway, as the kind of over-clocking Living Lightning was forcing upon the suit’s systems would ultimately burn Steel Spider out and thus he only needed to outlast the other man. Of course, he mused to himself almost immediately after that particular thought, what was to stop Living Lightning from simply exiting Steel Spider’s suit once he’d expired and continuing the attack?
Suddenly, Steel Spider was engulfed in an electromagnetic matrix that seemed to be pulling something out of him. The matrix was blue, and the something that it was pulling out was a distinctly green energy. “Jupiter . . .” he groaned in realization, as the matrix pulled at the green energy, which began to take a distinctly humanoid shape. The shape struggled within the matrix, attempting to retreat inside Steel Spider’s armor, but the matrix made that increasingly impossible. Finally, with a flash of bright light, Steel Spider fell to the ground, and the matrix claimed its prisoner.
“What did you do?” he asked.
“Equal and opposite charge,” Jupiter replied. “Basic principle of electrodynamics, remember?”
“Yeah, there’s just one problem with that,” Steel Spider remarked.
“What?” Jupiter asked.
“I can’t move. I think she burned out the motor controls of the suit.”
She-Bomb grabbed Steel Spider and lifted him up by his head. “That better?”
“Uh, yeah. Now if I could move independently . . .”
Lady Liberty looked at She-Bomb and Steel Spider. “She-Bomb, get Spider out of here. The rest of us will take care of things here.”
“Sure, Lady. Come on, Spider. Time for us to go.” She-Bomb sprinted like a madwoman, carrying Steel Spider over her shoulder.
“I would say this is humiliating, but I don’t even have the energy to feel humiliated,” Steel Spider remarked.
“I’m saving your life, jackass,” She-Bomb retorted.
“And I’m very thankful for that.”
“Good.”
In Washington, D.C., the president’s limo was suddenly halted by a warp in the air in front of it. Out of that warp stepped four women, one of them Cuayin and the other three being Lesedi, Nthanda, and Atieno. Atieno extended her hand and shadowy energy flowed from it, forming a barricade around them and the president’s limo. Of course, that shadow barricade also claimed some of the Secret Service motorcade, including the PMD division.
“Hello, Mr. President,” Cuayin greeted. “Do you mind coming out of that limousine? I would like to speak to you.”