Cat and Mouse

Hiding behind a wall and looking over the corner to watch a squad of SHIELD guards march their way down the hallway to respond to the invaders, Susan and the others waited until the coast was clear and peaked out of their hiding spot, looking around for a way out to get top side. Overhead the alarms continued to blare but did nothing to muffle out the cries and gunfire in the distance. Looking behind her, she found her two normal compatriots scared out of their wits.

“Hey, it’ll be okay, we just have to get back to the Fantasticar.”

“And go where? You said the Avengers could help! Now there’s no one and we’re being hunted!” Sulked the model, leaning against her other sister who clutched at the empathy ray like it was a conform doll, her eyes already in tears.

“Hey! We can get through this; I’ve been in tougher spots before.” Said the Invisible Woman as she squeezed her hand over the woman’s shoulder. “We can get through this together.”

Immediately the model slapped her hand off her shoulder, her face contorted with fear and frustration. “I’m NOT you! I’m just some washed up beauty queen who gets her picture taken, I’m not some space travelling superhero!”

Frowning, Susan grabbed a handful of the woman’s blouse and pulled her in close. “Now you listen here! You are stronger than you THINK you are, all you need is a little push in the right direction. That’s the REAL difference between us, no one pushed you to be more than a pretty face.” Letting the woman go who collapsed to the floor next to the other woman, Susan frowned down at them both and looked over her shoulder to check if the coast was clear.

“Come on! If we’re lucky we can get off this tub and try the X-men.”

Looking up with confusion, the sex **** hugged the device in her arms more tightly. “The who?”

“Let’s get out of here.” Grabbing their hands, Susan guided them out the hall and tried to navigate their way back topside. Darting carefully from one hallway to the next, the trio navigated further until they were **** to duck into the doors of a large space that looked like the mess hall. Shushing the two women with her, Susan and her sisters ducked under a table and watched out the doors to see another squad of SHIELD guards running armed and ready to deal with an attacker. “This would be so much easier if I could go invisible, I’d have kept us hidden and just strolled out of here back to the…”

Wincing and guarding her face from an explosion that rocked the three of them back onto the floor and sent tables and chairs flying as debris, Susan looked up to her ears ringing and the blurry image of several SHIELD guards fighting off an attacker and using the mess hall as a defensive position. Guns blazing, they fired back at the unseen attacker, only for them to be shot back with something that had the driving **** to knock them off their feet and send them reeling like tumbleweeds, giving off a boom comparable to a thunderbolt with each shot.

Heavy footfalls echoed out over the gunfire from the guards, gunfire that grew fainter with each booming shot that sent them across the mess hall and caused Susan to wince. When her vision cleared, her eyes looked up to the terrifying sight of the Canoness Susana storming into the ruined space with a buzzing chainsaw sword swinging in one hand and a pistol so big Susan couldn’t believe the woman could hold it, let alone fire it single-handed. A swing of the blade cleaved a rifle in two that was aimed at her from the side before a swift kick from her armored boot sent the guard back, folded in half from the sheer ****. No doubt the crunch Susan heard was the man’s spine when he collapsed against the wall.

The ringing in her ears finally died down and her vision cleared, looking up at the armored warrior woman turning her attention down to the Invisible woman with a look of intense rage in her eyes, her face stoic and laced with contempt.

“Heretics…”

Turning, the Canoness sheathed her blade and kept her bolt pistol trained on the woman on the ground, her face unreadable but her eyes still livid. Hearing a moan nearby, her eyes darted to the other two Susans getting up after the blast, looking up to the armored woman with stunned confusion before fear finally settled in, and they backed up to hide behind Susan Storm.

“Susanna… Please, you can fight this…”

“Heretics…”

Taking a step forward, the Canoness continued to aim her pistol at the trio, her eyes twitching with barely contained rage. “All of you are heretics! Consorting with mutants and demons… You ALL deserve to burn…” Pressing the barrel of her pistol against Susan’s forehead, it was then the Invisible Woman could see something in the tall, armored warrior. Her hand was shaking, and a trickle of blood dripped from her nose. She wasn’t fighting the rage, the hatred, she was fighting something else. “You all deserve to burn… You all…” Stumbling, she fell to her knees, slowly bringing her bolt pistol away from Susan’s face and aiming it to the side of her own head. “Heretics… Must… Be…”

Gently holding the woman’s gloved hand and moving the bolt pistol away from the side of her head, Susan looked into the tortured eyes of her doppleganger fight for all she had against something inside her, eating away at her mind. Dropping the bolt pistol, it fell with a heavy clunk to the floor where Susanna finally dropped her arms to her sides, her eyes shifting back and forth as her nose bleed continued. “I have betrayed the Emperor’s light… I have been ****… Corrupted… Corruption must be purged… I must be purged…” Tears now flowed from her eyes as the woman broke down.

“Who Susanna? Who did this to you?”

“EVERYONE GET DOWN ON THE GROUND AND PUT YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR FUCKING HEADS! NOW!!!”

Quickly storming in and training their weapons on the four for anything they might do; SHIELD had the mess hall surrounded.

“BY ORDER OF SHIELD YOU ARE ALL UNDER ARREST FOR THE INFILTRATION AND **** ON U.S. MILITARY PROPERTY AND THE **** OF SEVERAL SHIELD PERSONAL! YOU WILL REMAIN SILENT AND STILL OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE ON…”

The mess hall suddenly filled with darkness, flooding over the entire room like water and blotting out the lights until the entire room was pitch dark. Looking around and aiming their rifles everywhere just in case of another attack.

“Well, well, well, did you HAVE to make things so easy?” Purred a smooth voice in the darkness, the same voice as Susan Storm. “I was hoping for a chase, to taste your fear a bit before sinking my teeth into you. But then you had to stumble onto one of my toy soldiers… I mean look at her, she’s completely ruined.”

Screams then filled the mess hall as one by one the guards were plucked from the darkness, firing wildly, and crying out as something in the darkness snatched them up and fed off them, dropping their drained corpses to the ground until the only ones there were the four women. Susan held her two sisters close while Susana continued to sit on her knees, her face flushed and eyes shifting back and forth as she quietly muttered a prayer. After it all became silent, the shadows receded, pulling away to let light back into the room. There, standing at the entrance of the mess hall, with her entourage of brainwashed Susans behind her and Nick Fury held up a foot off the ground by solid shadows around his body and mouth, the vampire queen licked her lips clean of blood after feasting on the guards.

The other Susans stared down at the four with such murderous intent that Susan feared they could pounce at any moment. The massive cybertronian and wendigo towered over the others from behind, eyes wild with rage with red stains still over the beast-woman’s fanged lips. Seeing Fury struggle impotently against his bonds, the Invisible Woman slid back and made sure her dimensional siblings behind her were safe and alert. Seeing the others surround them, Susan eyes the vampire and tried to keep her attention only on her.

“What do you want… Susan.”

Smiling more darkly, the vampire combed her hand through her long platinum hair and let it cascade gently down her shoulder. “I plan to bring you back so we can turn the dimensional portal on… Or more specifically so we can see our reflections in it. Malice got a little power hungry in your absence and you KNOW her… Go big or go home.”

“So, she wants to see other versions of me?” Hiding behind Susan, the former sex **** clutched at the empathy ray, her hands sliding down until they felt the controls and the trigger to activate it.

“Other versions of US, don’t lump me into your own failures sister, if anything you’re a version of ME, one who still has a pulse… For now.”

“For now?”

Smiling more wickedly to expose her fangs and letting her eyes glow red, the vampiric woman giggled at the question, brandishing her hands to extend her fingernails into sharp claws. “Well… She said nothing about you needing to be alive to come back, and I’ve always wondered what my own blood tastes like. So don’t keep a girl waiting.”

Lunging towards the three with her fanged jaws open and her claws out, the vampire laughed as she charged towards them. Terrified, the version of Sue holding the empath ray closed her eyes and pulled the trigger.