The cat's out of the bag

“What are you going ON about?” Whispered Moon Dame, peering over her shoulder every now and then while she and the others sat around the couch watching television with the kids.

Valeria found her behaviour strange, seeing things that weren’t there, answering questions she couldn’t hear.

“Oh, what’s this?” Asked Susan, picking up a small glass cube with a button on one of its surfaces.

“I made that for a toy mom, you remember. I showed you it last week. It creates a flower based on your personality.”

“Does it now?” Pressing the button, the cube lit up briefly, giving off a rainbow of colours over its entire surface, then holographic vines began to grow from the cube and coil around the woman’s fingers. The vines and leaves were… Black. Pitch, dark and riddled with thorns and bristles, the winding ivy looked almost like barbed wire, while the flowers that bloomed were just as black, with red interiors… Like the open mouths of a snake. “Ooh, how lovely.”

A knock at the door had all four versions of Susan lean over to see the front door knock again. Looking over to the owner of the house, Susan Storm put down the toy and got up to her feet and looked to her kids.

“Who’s at the door?” Asked Franklin, looking down the hall towards the front door.

“Franklin, Valeria, go to the safe room, Now.”

Following their mother’s word, the two kids ran down the hall to the back of their home and pressed a button to the wall, where a panel opened to let them inside. Waiting until the saferoom door sealed shut, and the knocking becoming more insistent, Susan Storm finally answered and opened the door to see who it was. There, standing at the door, armed and ready were a squadron of SHIELD agents looking sternly to the woman at the door.

“Hello, can I help you?”

“Susan Storm. Director Nick Fury has sent us to gather your variants and bring them to the Helicarrier for processing.”

Stepping back, Susan allowed the group of men to enter her home where the rest of the Susan Storms got to their feet, looking on in confusion when several of them pulled out cuffs and inhibiter collars to have them all arrested.

“You three are to come with us back to the helicarrier, please do not resist and you will not be harmed.”

“Hey, wait a minute. Is that even necessary?” Asked Lady Anti-Venom. Eyeing the SHIELD agents as she backed up when one approached her with an inhibiter collar.

“Just co-operate ladies, it’ll be easier for all of us involved.” Explained the Invisible Woman, stepping back to give the SHIELD agents room to take her variants away.

“We CAN go willingly. You don’ have to put all that on us.” Complained Daredevil, brushing an agent’s hands away when he made to wrap a collar around her neck and immediately every armed agent aimed their weapons at the three women.

“BY ORDER OF SHIELD YOU THREE ARE ALL UNDER ARREST! YOU WILL COME WITH US BACK TO THE HELICARRIER WHERE YOU WILL ALL BE PROCESSED AND DETAINED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!”

“Now just a damned min…”

The click of weapon safeties going off silenced Daredevil then and there. Slowly raising their arms in surrender, the trio watched on as the arresting SHIELD agent spoke into his intercom in his ear.

“Headquarters, this is extraction team. We have the three variants of Susan Storm and the Invisible Woman at location, we are… What? What do you mean the Invisible Woman is already on the helicarrier?!”

Everyone turned their attention to the Invisible Woman, who stood blinking back at that bit of news with the same look of confusion. Even the three Susan variants didn’t know what was going on, even when Susan simply shrugged and smiled. “Well then…” Her smile soon grew manic, almost reaching ear to ear while her eyes went wide and wild until her irises were pin sharp. “I guess we’re done pretending then.”

Gripping the kitchen table counter behind her with enough strength her fingers actually dug into the marble like it was clay, everyone flew into a panic when the woman ripped the entire kitchen counter off its foundation with just one arm and flung the entire thing at the SHIELD agents. Gunfire blew out over the entire living room as the ton of metal and stone pinned the men and women against the opposite wall. Crushing them in the impact.

Daredevil shielded herself from the debris blasting out from the collision, and barely had time to react when she felt something click around her neck, and suddenly everything went numb. Her sense of smell, hearing and touch felt so muted when a hand grabbed her throat and a finger press at the divot of her upper lip with a ‘shush’.

“Nu Uh... NO peeking!”

The inhibitor collar was active around her neck and stunted her heightened sense. Even if she could sense her coming, she was just so fast, so inhumanely fast. With the same inhuman speed, the blind heroine found herself hitting a wall a split second after the mad woman picked her up by the scruff of her costume and tossed her aside like a rag doll. The impact leaving her **** before she tumbled to the ground.

“AAAAAAAGH!” Moon Dame lashed out with a battle cry, taking a swing at the false Invisible Woman with a pair of blades created from solid invisible light that would have taken the attacker’s head clean off her shoulders. Instead, the imposter ducked and dodged each blow. ACTUALLY ducked the attack as if she could see them and stunned her further when she struck Moon Dame in the wrists and grabbed her by her throat. The vile imposter’s smile menacingly wide as she hoisted her off her feet.

“Monster! Fiend!” Moon Dame wheezed, struggling against her iron grip. “I KNEW you were not the real one! I’LL KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU’VE DONE HERE!”

“Well aren’t YOU a feisty one” Giggled the mad woman as she grabbed Moon Dame’s wrist in her free hand when she tried to create another khopesh blade, holding her arm so tightly the woman thought she heard the bones in her wrist break. “As much as it would be fun to pull the arms and legs off you like the bug you are, I’ve got BIGGER plans.”

Tossing her up into the air, the lunatic grabbed Moon Dame by the ankle in mid throw and swiftly turned around to slam her back down like a baseball bat over the coffee table with enough **** to pulverise it in the impact. Rolling onto her side and coughing blood, Moon Dame looked up to the hazy, blurry image of the god Khonshu calling out to her before it became the fake Susan Storm smirking down at her, kicking her in the head to knock her out.

“Now… Where’s that…”

An inhuman screech filled the air, just as she was body tackled by Lady Anti-Venom and pinned against the wall, the strength of the impact was enough to crumble the plaster and crack the structure as the enraged symbiote wearing woman lashed out. Her face a toothy mask of rage as she swung blow after blow against the woman’s face. But with each impact, the fake Susan only seemed to smile wider, even began laughing before she got a leg out in the beating and kicked Lady Anti-Venom back so hard she went through a wall.

“Ha! I KNEW I forgot one.” She chuckled to herself, getting to her feet, and looking down to brush herself clean. Making her way through the ruined living room, she looked down at a SHIELD agent that had survived her opening attack. Seeing the straggler crawl free of the wreckage and try to reach for his earpiece, the Susan bent down to pluck it out of his ear… With his ear attached and crush it in her hand. “Oh no you don’t, I want this to be a fun surprise.”

Moving out into the kitchen and towards the gaping hole in the wall, she found Lady Anti-Venom quickly recovering from the attack when the imposter raised her hands and simply brought her hands together. The gesture having the room implode with incredible **** by a contracting bubble of invisible light, reducing the space of the room to just 3 square feet.

“And the bug goes squish…”

“BLUE GOBLIN!” Screamed Moon Dame from behind, bringing down a spear tip at the back of the woman’s skull, only to be blocked by a wall of invisible hard light created by the cackling woman.

“THAT’s my NAME!” The Susan variant chuckled, turning to face the injured but still fighting Moon Dame who struck and swiped with her invisible spear, trying all she could to get through the wall, but to no success. “Now YOU are just encourageable, I admire a fellow Susan with a healthy dose of bloodlust.”

“I WILL SEE YOU DEAD FOR THE CRIMES YOU COMMITED HERE. WITCH! BEFORE THIS NIGHT IS DONE, YOUR HEAD WILL BE ON A PIKE FOR ALL TO SEE.”

“Ooh-ho! Maybe I’ll save that fate for another Reed to add to my collection.” The Blue Goblin smirked, revealing a necklace of wedding rings she had on her. The sight of it made Moon Dame beyond furious as she screamed and struck at the invisible barrier again, the impact causing the walls to shake and tremble from the **** of her powers and rage, but it was never enough.

“JUST FUCKING DIE!!!”

Her next strike met nothing but air as she lost her footing and fell forward. The Blue Goblin, faster than she could react to was already avoiding the spear tip and reached out to click an inhibiter collar onto Moon Dame’s throat and a sharp pain slammed through her back and out her chest with enough **** to crack the tiled floor. Looking down, even though it was invisible, a blade of hard light had pierced through her, impaling and pining her up to rest on her knees before it went away, letting her drop to the ground.

“You first…”

***

Huddled together in the safe room of their home, Franklin and Valaria traded looks as they heard a fight outside.

“What do you think is going on out there?” Franklin asked, the two left in the dark when the camera feeds to the living room went out before the pair could entire their saferoom.

Darting her eyes from one ruined camera feed to the next, Valaria sat and worried. Her mind racing. “I don’t know, those SHIELD people didn’t look so happy.” Looking down, she thought about what she had seen before they were both rushed into the saferoom. Moon Dame seemed… Distracted about something. Something so bad even Dare Devil noticed it. Maybe one of the variants of our mother was not good.”

“but which one?”

Her train of thought was broken when they both heard a knock from the door.

“Kids? It’s me! Your safe now.” They heard their mother’s voice from behind the metal door. “Please, open the door. Let me in.”

Hesitating, Franklin got up from the floor and opened the saferoom door. The moment it fully opened, both children smiled in relief to find their mother standing there, falling to her knees, and pulling them both into an embrace. “Thank GOODNESS you two are okay. I was so worried about you.”

“What happened out there mom?”

“Shhhh…” Susan hushed, hugging the two closer to her and standing up to her own feet with then close to her. “Don’t worry about that right now, just follow me and we’ll ALL be safe.”

Franklin and Valeria reciprocated the hug, keeping close to their mother. Neither of the two could see their mother’s face contort into a manic smile that threatened to split her face.

“Let’s get out of here, your mom has a wonderful idea For your father…”