Luring out the other Susans

Watching batter pour and sizzle on the pan, Susan sat and watched from a distance while HERBIE did all the work. Turning her attention to the far window, she found the Canoness starring out into the city like a statue, her face a permanent scowl as she looked down at the morning bustle down in the street. Sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of coffee in hand, the Invisible Woman watched on as more and more Susans staggered through the hall, yawning, and scratching at her hair the same way she would when she would wake up.

“Morning ladies… Sleep well?”

“Hmm…” Replied the Cat Burglar, still in her latex costume and squeaking with every step when she turned and collapsed into a seat at the couch. Folding her arms together, the woman rested her chin over her arms like a pillow and pouted. “I stayed up too late… I need another cat nap.”

“Poor kitty cat…” Smirked the Invisible Woman, taking a sip from her coffee. Hearing HERBIE set the plates at the table and move the pancakes over for the guests just waking up.

“Morning Mom!” Called out her two kids, making Susan smile and giggle as she turned her chair and pulled them both into a hug just as they took their own seats to eat breakfast.

“So, what do YOU two have planned for the weekend?” Asked the hologram, coming up behind Franklin as he immediately poured syrup on his pancakes, watching the two eat. The model and former **** joined them at the table, sharing a smile with their host and back at the kids.

“We’re inviting Jo-Ven and N’Kalla over to see a movie today.”

“Really? Which one?” Asked the model, taking a bite from a slice of orange.”

“STAR WARS!”

Some of the versions of Sue covered their mouths to keep from chuckling.

“Honey, their whole lives before being adopted was Star Wars, anything else playing?”

Both children shrugged until Valaria leaned in close to whisper to her mother. “To be honest mom, it was either going to be that, Money Ball or Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Math makes Franklin’s head hurt and I don’t want to spend an hour explaining studio copyrights to them all.”

Taping her finger against her lip, Sue looked over to Franklin eating and smirked when she heard Reed walk into the living room with her alien and wendigo selves in tow behind him, garnering some catcalls from the other ladies and making the man blush. “Morning Reed, do we still have our copy of Princess bride?”

“Hmm, I don’t know…”

“Oh, I LOVE that movie.” Gasped the succubus, poking her horned head out from the kitchen with a mug of coffee in hand, giving the wendigo room to take the pitcher for herself to drink from. “When are the kids coming over?”

“In a couple of hours.”

“Well then, we should have popcorn for such a flick, AND adult supervision.” Purred the succubus, getting a collection of nods from the other women present.

“Quite right sister, all in favour of having our kids watch a lovely romance?”

Very quickly every Susan’s arms raised over their heads.”

“What? MOM!” Cried out Valaria, wringing her hands together. “it was just going to be us.”

“YEAH!”

Leaning back in her chair and still smirking at her two kids, she looked back over to the hall to see Johnny stumble into the living room scratching his back and covering his mouth to hide his yawn. Bringing her hands up in mock surrender, the other Susans shared in the Invisible Woman’s mirth as she playfully teased her two children. “Sorry kiddos, the ayes have it.”

“DAD!” Cried out the two, looking to their father who sat at the living room couch and turned on the television.

“Sorry kids, I can’t win against your mother, let along a dozen of her.” Turning on the television, the news came up and instantly soured the mood of everyone there when it showed what was happening downtown.

“This is Craig Denning reporting from the edge of the violent mob that just… ERUPTED out of nowhere in Times Square this morning. There is no rhyme or reason to what is going on out here.” A live viewing of the fighting breaking out in the heart of the city filled the screen, revealing the utter chaos of it boiling away and driving everyone in the area insane enough to fight each other. “Whatever is affecting the people here seems to have a proximity as anyone who steps inside this brawl ends up joining it whether they wanted to or not, the authorities can only keep everyone else from getting inside after losing several officers to the rampage and hope to God it finally dies down, channel five reporters tried getting in close and almost intently Tina tried to attack her camera ma…”

Getting up from their seats, Reed, and several of the Susans there already knew and recognised exactly what was going on.

“The Hate Monger!”

“I thought he was in prison.”

“I thought he was dead!”

“Who?” Asked the model as she leaned over to see what was going on the news, even the Canoness turned her attention to the screen and the madness playing out downtown.

Not answering the woman, Susan got up from her seat as the Human Torch and Mr. Fantastic scrambled to attention, as did everyone else present. Reed stretched himself out of the living room and tried to get to his equipment. “I’ll get the Fantasticar ready, maybe if I can find the source of the frequency, I can cancel it out.”

“No! Honey, see if you can get the portal back up again, WE’LL handle the Hate Monger.”

Stopping and nodding from the hallway, Reed stretched out his arm to his lab and brought a device from his collection to place in her hands. The oversized contraption had some heft in Susan’s arms, but she quickly recognised it as the weapon they used to stop Carnage years ago.

“Just stay safe out there, we ALL know what damage the hate monger can cause.”

“Yeah… I think I’ll stay here.” Answered Johnny, a little anxious seeing a crowd of people red-eyed insane with rage. “I’ve been down that road and it isn’t fun.”

“Fine, stay here… You big fiery baby.” Scoffed the wendigo, scuffing up her brother’s hair in her clawed hand as she and the others made their way to the landing pad. As the Susans made their way out to deal with the crisis, the Invisible Woman looked over to the model, the **** and her two kids at the table.

“Probably… Probably best you all stay here.” Looking over to the Canoness, she closed her eyes and exhaled. “YOU on the other hand, you’re coming with us.”

Stepping her way up to the Invisible woman with the sound of her armor stomping over the tile work, the Sister of Battle eyed the other Susan and passed her by. “You have called me to duty, I shall answer.” Stepping past Reed, the Canoness gently rested a gloved hand over his shoulder and continued down the hall to the flight deck.

*

The flight to the center of town wasn’t a long one, minutes at the very least. The Fantasticar did a fly over Time Square, getting a view of the fighting down below and keeping to a high enough altitude not to get effected by the Hate Monger’s influence. Touching down in front of the police blockade that cordoned off the riot up ahead, the officers looked up to see the brightly painted blue flying machine land in front of them taking up as much space as a small bus. Stepping out and grouping up to address the police on sight, Susan looked behind her to the sound of a revving engine to find a gorgeous blue sports car drive up to them at high speed, feeling alarmed until it fell apart and rebuilt itself into a woman rolling into cartwheel before getting to her feet to stand shoulder and waist taller than even the wendigo in their group.

Tilting her hip and resting her metal hands at her sides, the autoboot smiled down at the group of women, practically showing off her new chassis like she was showing off a new dress. “Like the new look?”

Stunned silent and tilting his cap up to look up at the mechanical woman, the officer in charged changed his attention to the Invisible Woman cradling a machine in both hands with what had to be her identical sisters behind her. Remembering the situation, the cop raised his hand and stopped the ladies from going pass the barrier. “Whoa there, I can’t let you all go in there ladies, it’s a madhouse in there.” Pointing back to a line painted on the road and sidewalk, he continued. “We managed to spot where the madness ends and begins when this all started, if you go in there, you’ll all be at each other’s throats.”

“It’s okay, we’re here to help. We brought something that might calm down the people in there.”

“I’m sorry but I can’t let you in there, some of the city’s best went in there and right now they are either insane or dead, I don’t want that to happen to anyone else.”

“Please, all we have to do is bring this device to the area of effect and it’ll cancel it out…”

Caught off guard, the Canoness Susanna plucked the machine out of Susan’s hands and marched her way past the police officer in front of her. Her face firm and expressionless as she passed over the barrier and made her way into the screaming, yelling, smoke filled warzone up ahead.

“WAIT! STOP!”

Susan and the others tried to follow to stop the armor wearing woman until the rest of the police stepped in to stop them from taking another step. Seeing the woman continue, Susan called out to her. “SUSANNA! YOU NEED PROTECTION FROM THE HATE MONGER! I CAN…”

“THE EMPEROR PROTECTS SISTER.” She called back over her shoulder. “AND I DO NOT RUN FROM A BATTLE.” Continuing her march with the empathy ray in her hands like a rifle, the Sister of Battle disappeared into the smoke up ahead. Minutes passed with no sound save for the screaming and yelling from within the riot up ahead. And then… It all stopped. The screaming and yelling for over an hour was so intense that it was nearly deafening. But when it all ended, there was just silence.

“Did it work?” Asked the alien Susan, trying to look over the police barrier to find the smoke clearing. “I don’t know…”

Stepping forward and walking over the barrier, the autoboot woman approached the marked line where the hate monger’s effects reached, without hesitating, she stepped over the line and felt… Nothing. Turning around and looking back at her dimensional copies, the tall Cybertronian woman shrugged.

“She did it.”

Transforming back into a luxurious sports car, the rest of the Susan and police crossed the barrier and followed vehicle in to see what was going on at Times Square. What they found was a warzone still burning but all the fight had been taken out of everyone. The sight was haunting; finding friends cradling friends in their laps weeping as they tried to stemmy bleeding or tend to injuries they inflicted on each other, a mother cradled her two children, all three of them bruised and injured as they held each other tightly. Couples sporting black eyes, cuts, and scratches stayed close and kissed as if the act would erase the last hour of insanity that had gripped the street and each other.

All around them, store fronts were blown open and smouldering or on fire, cars were upturned, and fires could be seen scattered everywhere along with the bodies of people **** and laying on the ground. Once they were able to, the paramedics who tailed Susan and the others quickly moved towards those in critical condition. The succubus was right there with them, moving from one person to the next and healing them with her touch and affection, kissing the mother they passed seconds before over the forehead and her two kids to reverse the injuries they caused to each other.

Up ahead, they found Susanna Stormbringer, standing at the heart of it all with the empathy ray in hand, looking around with a stern face that betrayed the relief in her eyes. Seeing the woman look back at her, Susan crossed her arms and grinned, despite the scene around her.

“I’ll admit, you’re crazy, but your brave.” “And here I thought you’d probably shoot someone in the face coming in here. You DO realise I could have protected us in a bubble that would have blocked out the effects of the hate monger.”

“You fear your own rage as if it would consume you, I had learned LONG ago to harness my hatred, focus it into a weapon I can wield and wield alone.”

“Well, glad to know that Reed’s invention still works, you should have seen it when we used it on Carnage and his band of psychopaths, Shriek was trying to give kisses to the cop cuffing her and Carrion wouldn’t stop hugging…”

“It did not work Susan Storm.” Explained Susanna, returning the empathy ray to the surprised Invisible Woman. “As soon as I had reached the heart of this maelstrom of madness, it ended.”

Slightly taken back, Susan looked around all the pain and misery around them, utterly confused at the damage caused with no answer or reason for why.

“Why? Who’d do this?”

“Or why?”