Fear and Loathing in New York

To describe what was going on at the New York police station was in a single word… Insanity.

The walls were melting, dribbling down in molten, liquid clumps that pooled kaleidoscopic colours and textures on the floor like raw paint. Any definition or structure the building possessed had warped and dissolved as if plaster, metal, and brick became like wax under the light of a hot lamp. Paintings and framed photos on the walls came to life, the portraits rotting or twisting into the faces of monsters and ghouls laughing at anyone looking back at them, landscapes becoming windows to nightmare hellscapes that drew the viewer in… Or worse, those same nightmares clawed their way out of the paintings to wreak havoc through the precinct. Demons, imps, and monsters screeched and snarled, hopping between desks, or flying overhead clawing at the hair and heads of anyone still standing who wasn’t on the floor screaming and soiling themselves in terror. Winged creatures chased police and criminals alike across the office spaces of the precinct, leaving many to fire out wildly at the snarling, drooling monstrosities in the futile attempts of stopping them, while others cowered in the hidden corners of office desks and under chairs begging silently for the hell, they were in to end.

Looking up, the ceiling began to crack and fall apart, torn open from some churning storm overhead, revealing a swarm of winged creatures so abundant they blackened the storming skies. But that was just in the background of a hideous monster as big as the police station itself hoist the roof up by its elongated clawed fingers while opening its porcine jaws to laugh and reach into the police station, snatching up a police officer who screamed and fired up at the monster to no avail.

***

“Some of my BEST work yet…” Nodded the hooded woman, levitating three stories over the streets in front of the police station and waving her staff like a conductor’s baton where the crystal ball at its pommel continued to create the illusion she maintained. She could hear the screams and gunfire coming from the building and the chaos outside of it. “Oh yes. Hunter Thompson would be proud of THIS trip.”

Mysterio smiled at the illusions she conjured to drive everyone in the building and everyone else for an entire city block insane with terror. It didn’t take much really, a combination of holographic projections, thrown voices and projected sounds across a large area, some lighting… And a weaponized hallucinogen released into the air so that all of it feel all so real. All around her, people were screaming and panicking to a nightmare playing out all around them. hysterical episodes were playing out all around her, with hundreds screaming or huddling under vehicles or last-minute shelters, hiding from the monsters plaguing the city or the intense acid trip playing out all around them. Some had simply relented and fell to the ground rocking back and forth, mumbling out prayers for it all to stop.

Looking up to the sound of what appeared to be a VTOL coming down to land, Mysterio’s smile grew almost devilish as she watched the vehicle land in the chaos happening all around them, a squad of SHIELD agents stormed out to aim their weapons up at her and bark demands at her.

“Surrender NOW! Or we will… We WILL open fire!” Declared the lead agent, his brow sweating as the landscape warped around him. The sky becoming a roiling storm of colors, the buildings taking on grinning faces with legions of monsters pouring out the windows to scurry down the walls and around the ground. Looking down at his firearm, the barrel came to life in his hands, becoming a viper that hissed and snapped at his glass visor. “I… I mean it.”

“Sigh… No one is a fan of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas anymore.” Lamented the green robed woman as she raised her hands over her head, her smile never leaving her lips as she twirled her staff in her hand like it was a magical wand. “So be it, if you do not wish to experience that film, then allow Mysterio; MISTRESS OF ILLUSIONS to grant you something NEW to experience!”

A flash of light erupted from the crystal ball, the act forcing the SHIELD agents to fire at the floating woman, only to find their guns firing streamers and confetti up into the air, and Mysterio to explode into a flock of doves. Almost instantly the hellscape around them transformed completely. Buildings that a second ago looked like brick and mortar monstrosities returned to normal… Then became something completely different. The roads shifted, becoming yellow brickwork. The buildings becoming crystalline and green like pure emerald that made it almost blinding to focus on. The skies became clear, with different colored clouds, and swarms of flying monkeys where before it was bats and demons.

The squad of SHIELD agents were baffled as the city went from a terrifying acid trip to a homage to the Emerald city in the Wizard of Oz in seconds, the final thing that caught their attention was the robed woman appearing again high up in the air and then riding her staff like a broomstick before pulling her hod back to reveal her blistered and burn scared face, her appearance turning green as she placed a witches hat over her head and cackled like the Wicket Witch of the West.

“GET THEM MY PRETTIES! SIEZE THEM! SIEZE THEM!”

Seeing the swarm of winged simians swoop down from the skies, the SHIELD agents fired wildly until they were out of ammunition, using their firearms like clubs to fend the flying apes away and failing miserably. Well outside of their field of expertise and quickly losing ground as the madness intensified, the Agents fled back to their ship. Stepping out of the dark and applauding the illusion of her as the Wicked Witch of the west, Mysterio’s smile threatened to split her scarred face.

“The classics can never be beaten.”