38 minutes…

That’s how long it took for the Helicarrier to get its feet back under it after a small band of super powered Susans lead by a vampire queen ravaged the vessel for their prize, and for the entertainment of the monstrous revenant who had them all spellbound. Minutes after the vampire had been dealt with, SHIELD guards had surrounded the mess hall and barked orders for everyone to surrender when Fury called them all off, being helped to his feet by the Invisible Woman and surrounded by her compatriots. As far as he was concerned, He had seen enough of what was going on to know who the real threat was, and she was a pile of dirt on the floor. Repairing the damage and following Fury to the bridge of the Helicarrier, the group of women had been guided to and gathered around a table where a holographic display of the city was in full view for everyone there to see.

The Invisible Woman and the SHIELD director conversed over how to stop her two remaining evil counterparts, all the while her other doppelgangers stood uneasy, looking over their shoulders at the small army of armed guards keeping an eye on them with their weapons trained on them.

Turning her attention to the Susans standing around the table listening in, the alien Susan tilted her head with a façade of a smile and rested one of her hands on her succubus counterpart, noticing she looked uneasy with such attention on her. “First time?”

Giving the woman a soft smile and a shrug, the alien did the same, making the alien smile a sad grin. “ON my world I was held in the raft for a while… And not for the wrong reasons either.”

“I nearly pulled New York city into hell, before I was saved. Now I’ve been saving others to make up for it.”

“Shh…” Blinking up at the cybertronian who was **** to crouch in the space so that her head wasn’t hitting the ceiling, the towering robotic woman had a delicate finger to her metallic lips, making the two be silent while Susan planned on how to save her family and friends.

“So, the ones running the show is a Victor Von Doom version of you and a psychopath in BDSM garb?”

“Susan Von Doom and Malice.” Susan explained, her arms crossed as she looked over a holographic map of the Baxter building. “They have possession of our family, but the REAL danger is they have the multi-verse portal. With that they can go to any reality, or worse bring someone or something here that could be even worse than who attacked your crew.”

Exhaling and looking down at the display, Nick Fury tapped at a control pad and focussed on the floor that made up the Richard’s apartment complex. “So, why did they want you? The vampy goth version of you was pretty specific in bringing YOU back with her.”

“Somehow… When Reed first turned on the portal, there was a surge of energy and I got caught in it, I’m kind of like a magnet to it now, whenever we turn that thing on and I’m near it, it focusses on the Susan storm of whatever reality we check out.”

“So why would that make you important?” Asked Maria Hill, darting her eyes from the Invisible Woman to the other different versions of her around the table display. “I mean, another reality is just another reality, right? Why focus on just you?”

“The witch is consumed by her own ego.” Spoke up the Canoness, returning a stern look to the SHIELD agent who asked. “She believes herself to be the TRUE face of us, that she is the standard we should all follow.”

“So, the bitch wants to look into a multi-dimensional mirror and hope her reflection looks like her? That’s fucked up!”

Crossing her arms over the plate of her armor, the Canoness seemed to soften somewhat as she turned her attention to the other Susans in the room. “Madness requires no reason, only intent.”

“So how do we stop your evil twin? If you’re right, then she has all your powers and knows how to use them in ways that would make Carnage proud.”

“Let’s not forget the other one, the countess.”

“Yeah. The other one might be a mad dog off the leash, but that one is the brains of the outfit.”

“She claims she killed her husband, her version of Dr. Doom on her world. That makes her something to take seriously.”

Some of the guards whistled in surprise to hear that but kept their eye on their ‘visitors’.

“So how do we proceed? Charge in guns blazing?” Asked Fury, reading the map of the Richard’s home.

“And get everyone killed? Sorry Fury, I was hoping for the Avengers to be here, they’d probably stand a chance against them.”

“We’re not a bunch of rookies Mrs. Storm, we can handle ourselves.”

Hearing the wendigo snort, the animal woman’s ears perked to the sounds of **** rifles cocking and waved her hand to the guards who raised their weapons just a bit higher in her direction. “Sorry, no offense.” Looking down at her other side, she found the model looking over the black dress of the vampire she had slain, checking the dress over and wiping what dust was still on it. “Why are you still holding that?”

Looking up at the wendigo, the model made a face and pressed the black silk dress against her chest and stomach to show it off her figure. “You like? I figured I earned myself a souvenir, honestly who is going to believe I killed a vampiric version of myself? Besides… I wonder if it fits me.” Looking down at the dress and making various faces of inspection as she wiped the dress down, the supermodel looked up after hearing Nick Fury clear his throat.

Seeing the woman hold up the dress against herself, Susan leaned back and tilted her head, a grin forming on her lips when she started to get an idea.

“What?”

“Say… Done any acting along with just looking pretty in front of a camera?”

Crossing her lower arms in front of her and taping her chin with a clawed finger in thought, the alien Susan smirked as she too got the same idea as her other self. “I see where you’re getting at, a little white make up, some contacts…”

“What?

“Maybe bleach her hair platinum blonde… Some fingernail extensions.” Mused the Succubus, her tail swishing behind her like a cat’s tail.

Looking back down at the dress, the model’s eyes went wide, and that version of Susan threw the dress onto the table with her hands up. “Nu uh… NO way!”

“Well it seems like the perfect idea… She DID plan on killing one or two of you for kicks, so they won’t be expecting YOU missing when we got back.” Explained Maria.

Clutching the empathy ray like it was a comfort doll, the former sex **** looked to all her sisters who each began to grin at the same idea they were all having. “What are you all planning?”

“I think we’ve got a way of getting close enough to save everyone.”

An agent at the controls called the sub-director over to his console, getting the woman’s attention as she quickly went to the holographic display table at the center of the room and changed what was being broadcasted.

“What’s going on Hill?”

“Sire, you need to see this!”

The focus went from the top floor of the Baxter building to the rest of the city of New York, with a live camera feed of what was going on in Manhattan. “What the fuck…?”

The entire city was changing, transforming, reshaping before everyone’s eyes. Skyscrapers that were once glistening spires of glass and steel, began to squirm and ripple like shivering flesh. Their surfaces becoming dark and black, covered over in polished gothic brickwork ridged with spines and blades while gargoyles and hellish looking faces sprouted from corners and edges overhead, or moulded out of the stonework to yawn out with screaming faces looking down at the streets below. Massive chains of black iron linked between the buildings overhead where electrical lines and light posts used to be, and the streets became squallers of blackened marshes, riddled with briar thorns and towering plants of razor branches and blades leaves that grew from what used to be the greenery and trees.

“What the hell is going ON down there?!”

The populace was not oblivious to the changes spreading around them as their city very quickly twisted and shifted into a dark nightmare realm of shadow and pain. Spires and towers grew from the buildings and structures like chaotic weeds, harsh black stoned walls erupted from the pavement and separated streets from each other and cut power and water lines in their appearance. Just as it seemed the nightmare had reached its plateau, the skies darkened with pitch black rainclouds and the yawning mouths of the stone effigies, the laughing gargoyles, and the statues that were once monuments wracked into poses of agony, they all began to spew boiling hot blood from their open mouths and rained agony down to the streets. Thousands fled from the madness of it all. Panic spread like wildfire as thousands of people could only hide under make-shift structures and watch as their homes and city were quickly being transformed into a hideous bladed citadel… With the Baxter buildings as its central spire.

Watching the nightmare play out, the Susan clutching at the empathy ray, held it ever tighter as if it would protect her.