Night at the Museum

From her perch at the ceiling, Susan could see 8 armed men wearing body armor guarding over the hostages they took when they stormed the building, two were at the window while another screamed profanity at the police outside. Looking out the windows of the museum ready to shoot at their leader’s word, and by the way he was screaming up a fit at the policeman with the bullhorn, he wasn’t a patient guy to begin with. She didn’t have a lot of time. Crawling over the ceiling and down the wall where the hostages had been tied up and guarded, none of them saw the near invisible spider woman make her way down to the ground and silently make her way on toes and fingers to the person at the back of the group and start untying their hands.

Wha…?”

“Shhh!” Susan whispered into the man’s ear as she set him free. Checking his clothes, he was one of the unarmed security officers for the museum’s front door, probably the first one the group tied up as they rounded up everyone else and tossed them all behind the front desk. “I’m here to rescue you all. Who are these nut jobs?”

“I don’t know…” Whispered the man back, keeping his hands behind him, now that they were loose. “They call themselves the ‘Bite of the Hydra’ or some shit. They say they want the Red Skull to replace the president, or they’ll start killing off hostages.”

“Honestly…” Scoffed Susan, sneaking her way over to a woman sitting next to the guard and undoing her hands from behind, her chameleon camouflage still up as she did. “Where do these loonies come from? Did someone turn over a rock and let these cockroaches out?”

“Who… Where ARE You? I can’t see you.” Whispered the woman, feeling her wrists now free but making sure her arms were still behind her.

“Story of my life. You can call me your friendly neighbourhood Lady Anti…”

“WHO’S TALKING?” Barked a wild-eyed gunman who cocked back his rifle and aimed it at the hostages. “THE NEXT PERSON WHO OPENS THEIR DAMN MOUTH WILL BE TALKING OUT OF A HOLE IN THEIR FOREHEAD!”

Whimpering at the show of ****, the hostages looked away, making Susan narrow her eyes angrily at the gunman as she crawled her way away from the hostages and made ready to strike the moment he turned away.

“IT IS TIME MY BROTHERS!” Called the leader of the group, turning to look to his cohorts. The man wore military body armor spray painted with the emblem of the Hydra skull and tentacles with red spray paint, wearing a black hood over his head with eye holes and the red skull painted crudely over where the face would be. “THEY HAVE TESTED OUR RESOLVE AND WE SHALL SHOW THEM WHAT HAPPENS!”

“FROM THE HYDRA’S TEETH WILL A NEW ARMY BE MADE TO CONQUER ONCE MORE!” The rest of the group called out in unison, their arms up over their heads as they cried out “HAIL HYDRA! HAIL HYDRA! HAIL HYDRA!”

“YOU!” The leader pointed to one of the hostages at the front of the group sitting behind the main desk, pulled up to her feet, the woman whimpering as she was marched forward to face the imposing man as he pulled out a pistol from his belt and aimed it at her forehead. “YOU WILL BE THE FIRST!”

Getting her hands up to web the man up before he’d pull the trigger, everyone was startled by the crash of a window breaking overhead. Staring up they spotted a red baton hit the opposing windowsill, spinning after the impact to fall to a heavy clank to the tiled floor of the museum lobby. Hesitantly approaching the red metallic truncheon, one of the goons picked it up, finding it to be custom made, blood red in colour… And sporting brass emblems of a devil at either end.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know… A stick?” Looking back at it, the rod began to give off a strange heat, the air smelling like ozone, and with a pop in the air that made his ears ring, the lights in the lobby all went out at once. Completely blinded in total darkness save the flashing lights of the police cruisers outside, the Bite of the Hydra stumbled about, their firearms aimed at anything that made a sound in the darkness. “The hell?!”

A cry from one of their men snapped their attention to the scream, where they heard a gun go off, then go silent with the sound of a metallic crack of a pipe.

“SHOW YOURSELF!”

Another cry, this time behind the armed group’s leader had the man in a cold sweat as he heard another of his own get disarmed, taken to the ground and punched ****. Taking aim even though he couldn’t see, the ringleader opened fire. The gun flashes revealing something in the dark, something red and black with burning red eyes snapping its attention back at him and duck before it could be hit. Seeing what he saw, the others opened fire at the same area, hitting nothing but still seeing… Something move in the darkness.

Seeing their backs were turned facing this unknown threat, Susan took that time to untie the rest of the hostages and guide them blindly towards the double doors of the museum to safety. Looking back to the lunatics occupied with their assailant, one of them spotted their hostages escape and turned to fire. Raising her fists, Susan webbed the man up on the spot. The man struggled in the pitch-black webbing as he fired down at his feet, just as the red, horned being came at him front behind and cut at something on the man’s wrist, fleeing back into the darkness as the man fell, completely tied up.

Finding their hostages gone and being attacked from both fronts, the Bite of the Hydra began to fire wildly in every direction. Thinking quickly… And strangely on instinct, Susan shot out solid bolts of webbing that hit like a rubber shotgun shell. Knocking out the goons one after the other while the ringleader found something like a bola wrap around his neck and pull him back to the ground, followed by the crack of what sounded like a metal pipe strike his helmeted head.

Finally able to focus her eyes in the dark, as did everyone else either webbed up or beaten to the ground, Susan found the man who helped her stand to his own feet and place his truncheon back into a holster strapped to his belt and hip, turning his head to view her, she smiled when she instantly recognised his attire.

“I knew you had things under control Mommy Long Legs, but I’ve dealt with these types for a little while now, I knew their dirty little tricks if you managed to get them tied up.” Explained Dare Devil, the blind vigilante said crouching to pry open the jacket of the group’s leader to show he had several packets of C4 explosives, the trigger duck-taped around the thumb of the man’s glove, where the wire was cut thanks to a small knife in Daredevil’s hand. “Even if you had beat them, they’d have blown this place to high hell and everyone in it.”

“It’s Lady Anti-Venom thank you very much… Gah, I just want to punch out J.J in his big fat nose, no wonder Spidey hates him.” Scoffed Susan, crossing her arms. “He even patented the name, so I’m stuck with it.”

“I’ve got a friend that might help with that, its not the first time Jameson has overreached.” Matt Murdock grinned, checking each member of the Bite of the Hydra one by one to make sure they were alive and disarmed.

“How did you do that little trick with the lights?” Susan asked, pointing a wiggling finger up towards the ceiling.

Going over to where his other truncheon was left on the floor, Daredevil gave the top a turn to the right which made an audible click and the ceiling lights flickered back to life, illuminating the museum lobby once more. “You like it? My own personal EMP generator. Helps when I want the room to go dark if I can’t find the light switch.”

“Clever.” Susan smirked and looked over to the exit where the police were tending to the hostages and making their way to enter the museum for arrests. “Well, off I go to… What’s wrong?”

Daredevil paused, turning, and tilting his head as if confused. “I don’t know… It feels like it’s coming from…”

Cracks formed on the tiled floor at their feet, forcing the two to step back as whatever was under the floor was breaking its way through. The ground thumping with what sounded and felt like punches until whatever was below finally broke free with a single, spindly clawed fist. Crawling its way up and out, the thing that got up to its feet and shook its back looked right up to Susan and Matt, its glossy eyes soulless and unreadable.

“What the fu…?”

It looked like a human being, but its arms and legs were disproportionately long and gangly, forcing the creature to hunch like a simian, sporting a bloated malnourished stomach and almost boney chest, obscured by a ratty mane of dark brown fur or hair. But its most striking feature was the arachnid like face that leered back at the two with 6 insectoid eyes and dripping mandibles from its over stretched mouth.

By now the police had barged in and found the two heroes and their new arrival look over to the authorities, the clicking, spittle dripping fangs of the creature flexed as if to make a facial expression as the police pointed their guns at the thing and demanded for it to get down on the floor. Surprisingly it did as it was told, falling to all fours… Then from its back sprayed a noxious green mist that quickly filled the museum lobby.