Moon Dame

The guest bedroom was… Quaint. Fabricated in short notice thanks to HERBIE and how malleable the household interior could be thanks to the relative reality generator that made up its layout, it served its purpose well. There was a single bed with a nightstand, a matching dresser across from said nightstand with tasteful decorations here and there. It almost appeared like a cut and paste hotel room in a drive in somewhere.

“I am aware of my duties…”

Sitting in the bed of the offered room she was given by the family of the house, Susan Storm sat and looked down at her feet in the light of the moon shining down on her from the window. The light of course was artificial, the building’s interior was much larger than the exterior would have any visitor believe. But it suited the woman’s purpose as she stared off at the wall in front of her impatiently, her face a look of anger before she took to her feet.

“I do not need a lecture my lord; I know my duties. But SHIELD has…” Narrowing her eyes, she looked down at the tracer braced to her wrist and sighed. “Yes… I understand.”

Stepping out of her room and heading down the hall to the kitchen, Moon Dame pulled back the sleeve of her wrist where the tracker was located, her eyes set on what she had to do. But the moment she turned the corner, she stopped dead in her tracks to find a surprise waiting for her.

“Had a taste for the ice cream too huh?” Grinned Lady Anti-Venom, hanging upside down from a cobweb of black webbing from the ceiling while eating from a bowl of chocolate ice cream in her hands, the tub of the rest sitting on the counter nearby as she ate another spoonful. “Do you want a bowl? It’s still cold.”

“No, I need to leave this place.” Susan answered, looking through the drawers of kitchenware until she found a tenderising mallet. “And I am duty bound to guard those who travel at night.”

Spreading her hand out over the counter, the one with the tracker around her wrist, she was about to do something serious when a strand of black webbing caught the mallet before it struck down.

“The HELL are you thinking?!” Hissed Lady Anti-Venom silently, putting down the bowl of ice cream, her mask enveloping her face like liquid when she dropped from her perch to stand on her own feet. “What? Are you so **** to be free you’ll break your hand if it means squeezing out of that thing?”

“If I must…”

Hidden behind the featureless surface of her symbiote, Susan made a face of disgust and confusion, her black rimmed eyelets being the only thing to express her confusion before she pulled the mallet out of the woman’s hand and put it back in the drawer.

“Yeah… No… I have a less permanent solution.”

Showing by example, Lady Anti-Venom raised her arm to show off her own wristband tracker, the black plastic and metal bracelet was practically solid and seamless when clasped around her wrist. Then, her arm began to lose definition, becoming almost serpentine until the device simply slunk down the now thinner limb to roll onto the kitchen counter, still beeping silently and no worse for wear. Flicking her wrist, her arm returned to normal.

“Ta-da!”

Narrowing her eyes, Moon Dame snorted at the display. “That’s good for you, but what help does that do for… hey!”

Grabbing the woman’s wrist, the symbiote poured over her arm and bonded over her entire hand and forearm, then before her eyes she watched as her fingers and palm slithered into a thin tendril and simply shook off the tracker like a loose-fitting pipe washer before regaining her hand’s form and the symbiote retracted off her. Looking her hand over, it was completely unharmed, as if nothing had happened.

“There you go, and while you are out there being an alley cat in the middle of the night just remember to come back to me so we can put that back on you.”

“Thank you.”

“Yeah… Don’t mention it.” Letting the symbiote peel away from her face, Susan took back her bowl of ice cream and ate a spoon full, her eyes fluttering at the flavour. “Seriously though. Keep your mouth shut about this or it’ll be BOTH our tight little asses in some SHIELD prison somewhere if they catch you.”

Finally showing a smile, the robed woman pulled on her mask and donned her hood, making her way to the door where she spoke over her shoulder, just as she turned invisible. “There will be no fear of that.”

Stepping outside into the cool night air, Moon Dame looked up to the crescent moon overhead and breathed in deeply. Her arms outstretched as she took in the night around her, invisible to everyone who was still walking down the streets late at night. Stepping over an invisible disc of hard-light, Moon Dame took to the sky, and began her patrol through this unfamiliar home city. Spending her time keeping her eyes peeled and looking through the vast metropolis, everything seemed so familiar, yet unfamiliar at the same time. Madison Oval Gardens was Square Gardens here. Their Chrysler building looked silver instead of bronze, and little Spain was nowhere to be found. But there were things she did remember, things she did recognise.

Like the scream of someone begging for help.

She heard the cry a block away and below from where she stood up high in the air unseen, floating her way quickly to where the cries were still heard as she watched a couple cornered in an alleyway by a local street gang. Giving a silent prayer, Susan let the invisible disc under her feet evaporate, and go into freefall.

***

“Where you goin you two?” Chuckled one of the gang members cornering the couple at the back of the alley, a dead end they’ve used countless times to corner targets walking down that street.

“Yeah! All we want is to have a little fun too!”

“Please, we don’t want any trouble… We just want to…”

“I SAID WE WANT SOME FUCKING FUN!” Pulling out a revolver and aiming it at the heads of the scared couple, the gang hooted and cheered, riled up for what was to come next. “So, lets have some fun.”

Aiming for the woman hiding behind her boyfriend’s shoulder, the two were fearful for their life when they heard a gunshot echo out through the alleyway. Then… nothing. Stunned in confusion, everyone looked back at the pistol in the man’s hand, the bullet he fired stopped in mid air just inches from the barrel. Moving the gun to aim again, the bullet moved along with his aim, blocking him from making another shot. Firing again, the next few bullets stopped right next to the first bullet fired, a cluster of lead floating just in front of the barrel.

“What the fuuu…”

“Come ON Johnny! Shoot’em already!” Barked one of the gang members in the group.

“I CAN’T man! Somethin’s…”

“THIEVES! MURDERERS!” Spoke out a feminine voice, seemingly from everywhere. “YOU ATTACK THE HELPLESS AT NIGHT, ALL FOR THE MONEY IN THEIR POCKETS AND THEIR LIVES FOR… ENTERTAINMENT.”

“Where the FUCK are you bitch?!”

“IN MORE CIVILIZED PARTS OF THE WORLD, THIEVES WOULD HAVE THEIR HANDS CUT OFF.”

Looking back to the couple, they… disappeared. Not escaped, that was impossible. Instead, they simply blinked out of sight. The moment they did, the gang were startled when one of their own still confused with his pistol screamed when his hand fell off his wrist, still gripping the gun as if it were sliced off. But there was no blade. Falling to his back screaming in pain, the rest of the gang panicked and tried to escape but felt something unseen grab at their ankles, preventing them from fleeing.

Looking up from his prone spot on the dirty alleyway and clutching at the stump where his severed hand once was, in between the screams and bouts of agony, he looked up to see the crescent moon overhead, somehow getting larger before his eyes. It wasn’t until he could also make out more that he realised it wasn’t the moon. It was a woman falling from the sky to land on top of him with a crescent shaped cape perfectly taking the moon’s shape just as she landed on his chest. Immediately crouching down, Moon Dame grabbed the scruff of his jacket to have him look up at the black masked woman wearing a white hood, her face obscured save for the hot glow of her eyes staring down at him.

“Would you like to know what they did to murderers?”