The Cat-burglar and the Canoness

Falling back with the intruding person in her arms, the Invisible Woman looked up in surprise to see her own face with a black latex domino mask looking back down at her, then wink with a grin and roll off her to get back up to her stiletto heeled feet. Whoever this version of Susan Storm was, she was covered from neck to toe with form fitting blue and black latex that looked like a perverse version of her own FF costume. Studded bands adorned her ankles, wrists, and neck, along with a topless leather corset around her midriff which accentuated her blue latex covered bust. The final motif to this costume were a pair of latex cat-ears poking out of her flowing blond hair and a cat’s face etched into the chest where the ‘4’ would be in Susan’s costume.

“What in the name of…”

“Me-OOOW! Either this kitty cat is tripping on catnip, or she just wandered into the wrong cat hotel.” Purred the latex wearing Susan, maintaining her grin as she eyed the other women in the room and to the exit of the lab. “Sorry girls, this cat’s gonna scat!”

Instantly going invisible, the intruder disappeared and tried to make a run for it, only coming to an immediate stop when she bumped into an invisible wall blocking the lab door. Johnny and Reed couldn’t see it, but they could hear the woman slap her hands against the **** field in futility before finally stopping and giving an audible huff of defeat. Quickly turning visible again, the latex wearing woman turned around and crossed her arms under her chest, a bored look of defeat on her blue tinted lips.

“You’re not going anywhere missy!” Threatened Sue, her hand outstretched and maintaining the forcefield at the door and keeping their new arrival in the here and now. “Anymore tricks and we’ll be putting a collar on you.”

“Oh I don’t know about that, no one’s been able to keep Cat-Woman contained for too long.”

Her smile becoming sultrier, the cat-woman raised her hands in mock surrender, getting a better look at her captures as she approached with an alluring swivel of her hip. But the closer she approached and got a better look at the women in the room, her arms slowly fell to her sides and the facade of confidence evaporated.

“Wait a minute… You’re me!” Turning her head, she found a stunned Johnny and confused Reed looking right back at her. “Johnny? Reed?”

Seeing his sister in skin-tight latex that was designed to show off her figure had the Human Torch press his hands to his eyes once again, flaming on his palms and fingers as he did so. “Yup… REALLY going to need therapy now.”

Huffing with annoyance, the wendigo at the back of the group crossed her arms and made a face of annoyance. “Great, another straggler.”

“Like we need any MORE of us to add to the mix, the place is crowded as it is.” Complained the Succubus, approaching the cat themed woman and holding her arm to keep her from leaving. Giving the cat-burglar quite the surprise to find she was stronger than she looked.

“I agree, Reed honey, can you turn it off?” Asked the Invisible Woman, and with a nervous nod from Mr. Fantastic, the man began setting dials to turn the device off. Looking into the portal one last time, Susan gave a look of disappointment that they weren’t any closer to solving this problem. Even as it began to power down, the portal showed one world after the other, a collage of realities skimmed past her eye, each one radically different than the other, all being closed off. “Guess we can consider ourselves lucky, at least we didn’t have anyone REAL bad come though.”

As if goaded by fate itself, another flash of light erupted from the portal before it closed, leaving the startled Invisible Woman to duck in fright when something big barged through. Landing heavily on her feet with a scrape of steel against steel, then spinning around on her heel with a pistol in hand that looked more akin to a compact shotgun darting in every direction, the buzzing screech of a chainsaw filled the lab as the woman brandished her chainsword to ward off the others nearby. Whoever this woman was, she was another Susan Storm… But that was the only similarity to draw from. Garbed in a heavily armored full body exo-suit, it was painted black with gold trimming embellished with golden skulls on the knees, elbows and heart of the chest. Latin was engraved throughout the entire carapace of the armor, with silver etched wings wreathed around a fleur-de-lis on either shoulder guard. Red robed sleeves hung from her shoulders with a matching red toga made of fine silk and etched with the same latin phrases at its hem. The woman’s hair was in a bob cut and bleached almost white, with a fleur-de-lis tattooed on her left cheek.

Stepping back from the woman as she gave everyone a murderous look that would have even made Malice flinch, the newcomer’s manic glare told everyone she would shoot on sight if anyone dared make a move.

“WARP-SPAWN FILTH! WHERE HAVE YOU TAKEN ME NOW?” Whipping the bolt pistol in front of the face of the supermodel, the woman fell to her knees and scurried back behind one of the others. Staring up at the wendigo, succubus and alien versions of the same woman keeping their distance from her, she sneered her teeth so viciously the warrior woman responded in what could only be described as pure unadulterated hatred. “DEMONS! XENOS! HERETICS! AND ALL WEARING MY FACE! DO YOU BELIEVE SUCH TEMPTATIONS WILL MAKE ME FALTER ON MY HOLY QUEST?! YOU WILL ALL BURN IN THE EMPEROR’S WRATH!!!”

“Susan wait!”

Snapping her attention to the voice that called her out and aiming her pistol straight at him, all the rage, all the hatred and murderous fury instantly evaporated to the sight of the man with his hands up slowly approaching her. Lowering her weapons and deactivating her chainsword, the two weapons fell to the floor with a heavy clank that surprised everyone in just how heavy they really were. Slowly staggering forward to meet his pace, she crouched slightly to meet his gaze once they were close enough to look face to face, the armor she wore making her taller than him by several inches.

“You… You don’t want to hurt anyone here, do you? Let’s just… Settle down, and we can talk about why…”

A little taken back, Reed felt the woman reach up with dark red leather gloves, he could tell that underneath, the fabric hid mechanical servos like the gauntlets to Doom or Ironman’s armor. gently feeling the contours of his face as she continued to look at him in utter shock, her demeanor continued to soften, showing the slightest hint of tears in her eyes.

“Reed?”

“Uhm… Yes?”

Slowly, the woman enveloped the man in an embrace, burying her face in his shoulder and began to weep, falling to her knees and dragging the man down with her to the floor. With her face close to his ear, he thought he heard the woman mutter whispers, or prayers as she held him close to her.

“Thank the Emperor… Thank the Emperor… I thought I had lost you… My sweet, dear Reed.”

Looking over the heavy shoulder guards of the woman to his wife, Reed slowly patted her on the back to soothe her while the others slowly gathered around them, utterly confused at the sight of the woman weeping over the man’s shoulder. When she finally looked like she was regaining her composure, Reed helped the woman back up to her feet, noticing the soft whirl of servos enhancing her strength and helping her stand with ease, nearly dragging him up with her. Turning her attention back to the others, her softened demeanor quickly turned sour and stern, eyeing the other women dangerously and gently keeping Reed behind her as if for his own safety.

“I know this is a bit of a shock but, my name is Susan Storm, we ALL are, you are from another reality, we’ve been trying to get the others home but… It seems you got picked up here instead. Can you tell us who you are?”

Breathing in sharply, the armor-clad woman took a step forward, only to bend at the knee and reclaim her weapons and clasp them at her sides, the hum of magnetism clamping them in place as she stood tall and proud down at her counterpart. “I am Susanna Stormbringer, loyal daughter of the Emperor and Canoness to the order of our martyred lady.”