The Sinister Susans

A tremor from the lab startled Johnny and Ben, forcing the two to jump out of their seats out of instinct when they heard another blast that shook the building.

“What’s going on?” Asked Jo-Venn, he and the rest of the kids getting to their feet when they heard another quake, this time one that included a flash of light from the lab’s doors.

“Looks like Sue and Reed got problems.”

Waving his stony hand over to the kids, gesturing them to hide behind the couch, Ben slammed his hand and fist together. “Eh, get back kids, let the grown ups handle this.”

Seeing the Human Torch and the Thing storm down the halls towards the Lab and see what the trouble was, the four children traded looks of worry.

“I hope they can handle things.”

“Don’t worry, Mom and Dad probably have a handle on things.”

*

Susan did NOT have a handle on things. Not one bit. It surprised her; She could hold back an entire tidal wave with her willpower alone, she had contained explosions in the palms of her hands, made entire cities invisible and had at times been called a goddess by entire civilizations who met her and her friends. But none of that meant anything against these six women. The one with bird wings took to the air and screamed, creating sonic pressure waves so severe Susan could see the metal floor by her feet outside her **** field warble and buckle from metal fatigue. Peeling away in thin layers like the skin of an onion. The one with the lightning bolt motif levitated off the ground and raised her hands above her head, channeling a ball of electricity that arced towards the Invisible Woman. The moment the bolt of electrical energy struck her, Susan gasped and nearly fell to one knee. It was like someone was taking the entire electrical grid of the entire city and blasting it at her.

Wincing her eyes closed from both the intense sound and electricity, she looked over to where she found her **** husband coiled up in one of the mechanical arms of the woman still sitting there casually with her leg crossed and her hands together, imperiously. She was scared for him, scared for what these women were going to do to him if she couldn’t stop them. She wanted to cry out for help, but she feared the second she made the effort, her concentration would break.

The lights in the lab exploded from the electrical overload, and the portal behind the group of invaders began to fluctuate and lose definition, which the octopus woman noticed as she turned her attention to the portal and back to the electrical themed villainess with a scowl.

“DOLT! That’s our only way OUT of this reality. Do you intend to strand us here?!”

“SHUT UP! I know what I’m doing!” Hissed the other woman, the static charge coming off her body becoming more erratic with her outburst.

“Oooooh, looks like Holly Homemaker is still holding out!” Laughed the goblin flying circles overhead. “Hey Mysterio, why don’t you show her a magic trick?”

Confused, Susan looked to the robed woman who took a step forward and struck her staff to the ground. An echo of wood hitting metal echoed out as if it were the only sound in the room, then the entire world turned to pure insanity. Vertigo struck her instantly as the floor began to split apart into concentric rings spanning out from her forcefield, spinning in opposite directions from each other, where the spaces in between were infinite darkness. Falling completely to her knees, Susan thought she was going to throw up. She completely lost track of what was up or down as the whole world spun like a top, with flickering images of the six watching her fumble even while trying to hold back a constant lightning bolt and sonic blast at the same time.

“HA ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaa… Now THIS is what I call a thrill ride.” Chuckled the Blue Goblin, her voice a hideous cackle over the mayhem.

Looking up through the spinning rings, Susan could see Doctor Octopus hold up Reed like a trophy with her tentacle, the end of it opening like a three fingered talon with sheer thin fingers enclosed around Reed’s head.

“I’ll make this very simple little lady.” Explained Doctor Octopus, her poise never changing as she sat and observed the Invisible Woman on her knees. “Give us everything you have. Your achievements, your inventions, your patents, everything of value to your scientific endeavors. And in return, I won’t do anything permanent to this man.”

Unable to keep off the barrage, Susan was running out of options. Whoever these women are, they were as powerful as she was, AND there were six of them. Breathing hard, Susan was shedding tears as she tried to keep conscious.

“Better choose quickly.” Giggled the Blue Goblin in a sing-song voice. “Permanent is coming VERY quickly.”

A blast of flame blew out from someplace Susan couldn’t see, but it was enough to break the illusion enough to see that the robed woman had been knocked off her feet and was trying to douse the fire in her clothes. The rest of the Susans backing away and looking to the entrance to the lab.

“Hey Keebler elf!” Called out Johnny, his hands generating more plumes of intense flames to throw another blast. “You can leave now; we don’t want your cookies anymore.”

“Yeah! You’z ladies came to the wrong house!” Warned the Thing, sizing up the ladies and instantly spotting Reed in the clutches of the ringleader with four tentacle arms. “WRONG House!”

Finally getting to her feet with her hands crossed behind her, Dr. Octopus prepared her other limbs with her hostage hanging nearby.

“Suzanna, be a dear and throw your weight around. I dislike the look this one is giving me, Goblin, kill the snarky little fireball for me.”

With a roar not unlike that from a lioness, the tanned amazon lunged for Ben with a pair of knives in hand. Barreling into the Thing and surprising him in how strong she was. Smiling more wickedly, the blue skinned goblin woman reached into a satchel hanging from her shoulder and hip, pulling out a handful of miniature jack-o-lanterns and thumbed the dimples that made up their stems, causing the eyes and mouths to glow menacingly as she threw them at the Human Torch.

The cascade of explosions **** Johnny to cross his arms to block them, his eyes squinting at the dark noxious smoke they gave off. Coughing when the mist began to cling to his burning body and cool off his flames.

“Wha…?”

“THIS Keebler elf has some new flavours for you hot stuff, straight from the fucking treehouse!”

His flames doused, Johnny fell to the ground confused just as a gloved hand gripped at his throat and pulled him up, hanging from his chin as he gripped at her arms to keep from suffocating. “Huh… How?!”

Waging her finger in a ‘tsk tsk’ motion, the Blue Goblin’s eyes were manic with sadistic glee, her toothy smile threatening to split her face as she squeezed her fingers tighter. “You aren’t the only Human Torch I’ve buried.”

“BEN! Little help?” He wheezed, finding her strength inhuman.

“Hey I’z gots problems of my own Johnny!” Winced the Thing, grappling with the woman who matched him in strength and had him pinned to the wall. It took all he had to keep his hands around her wrists and prevent her from using those knives on him. Despite the fact his stony skin could handle even cannon shells, he could actually feel the tips of those knives nick at his wrists as if they were just bare skin.

“You will make a magnificent trophy.” Said the towering woman with a thick Russian accent. Her feline eyes narrowing into his baby blues with the same fury as a predatory cat denied its prize. “Like so many others…”

Looking up from her prone state to the rest of her friends and family fighting for their lives, Susan looked to the Octopus woman, her smug grin all she could see as she still had her husband in her grasp.

“This can end very quickly if you cooperate. The choice is yours.” Still seeing the Invisible Woman keep up her shield while being blasted by sound and electricity, the goggle wearing villainess sighed when she found Susan would not relent. “It’s always the same with the others.”

With the claw of her tentacle still wrapped around Reed’s head, the man was just stirring when he found the metal claw grip at his skull and began to squeeze. The situation becoming worse as the spellcaster in the group filled the room in a twisting illusion, making it look like the walls and furniture were melting like butter.

She was going to lose Reed; she was going to lose everyone she cared about to these… Sinister Susans. She had no idea how to save everyone as she kept up the forcefield to protect herself. Looking down at her hands, she spotted the watch Reed had given her, the one that nullified her presence to the portal she could still see in the corner of her eye. Her proximity to it meant that if she turned it off, other versions of herself would start pouring through. But there would be no idea whether these new versions of her would help or not. Hearing Reed cry out and grasp at the claw over his face, she didn’t have a choice and reached out to press a button at the watch’s side.

A flash of light from the portal blinded everyone there, the shock wave blowing everyone away from the portal as the shockwave finally turned it off with a dying whir of energy. Getting up from the floor, Susan looked around to find everyone had been stunned from the shockwave, getting up to her feet, Susan cried out when a metallic limb reached out and grabbed her by the throat, pinning her to the wall.

“You insolent little… We can’t go back now! All because of you!” Propping herself up by her other tentacles as the rest of her team got up from the floor, Dr. Octopus breathed in sharply and calmed herself down, stroking a finger over her hairline. “No matter, we can always make repairs. Until then, I think my compatriots would like to indulge themselves. Ladies?”

“I SAY WE BURN THE FLESH OFF HER PRETTY LITTLE HEAD!” Sneered the electric themed woman, her hands conjuring arcs of electricity and glaring a **** stare back at the Invisible Woman.

Looking back with a toothy grin, Dr. Octopus shrugged innocently. “Who am I to refuse? Take what you all want, spare nothing, perhaps this little endeavour can be…”

Gasping when a bundle of webbing blotted out her vision, the tentacled villainess crawled back, tugging at the webbing at her eyes as the other five women looked around for who attacked her.

“You ladies chose the WRONG place to break into.” Called out a voice as Ben got to his hands and knees and felt a pair of arms help pull him back up.

“That’s what I said Su…” Looking to who aided him, Ben found a woman wearing a full body skin-tight suit, one that had the emblem of a thin legged black spider on the chest. “Suzie?”

Another pair of women came into view, one wearing an all white and black body suit with a white cape in the shape of a crescent moon, her face covered in a black mask and hidden under a white hood, her hands twirling a pair of silvery knives after she helped up Johnny and stood between him and these invaders. The other was a woman in a blue suit with white gloves, boots and a scarf around her mouth, her hair in a ponytail coming out the back of a mask that had stubby horns over her forehead and obscured her eyes. Reaching into a holster by her hip, she produced a pair of blue batons that sounded heavy. Turning her attention to Reed where Susan quickly came to his safety and pull him away to regain his wits, the devil themed woman turned her head back to the Sinister Susans.

“I’m going to give you ladies only one chance and you blew it when you tried to harm Reed, GET! OUT!”