Robbing the place blind!

Ignoring the clarion alarms blaring overhead as they raced down the halls back to the brig, the Fantastic Four found the mechanical doors to the chamber ripped from their brackets and laying on the floor. The overhead lights spitting sparks, forcing the Invisible Woman to conjure a barrier over their heads to act as an umbrella to protect them as they checked the guards on the ground, finding them all badly injured.

“You poor souls…” Lamented Reed, crouching down to check if any of the three were still alive, frowning when the two he looked to were still and cold. “You didn’t deserve any of this…"

Looking around, Johnny picked up an inhibitor collar, unlocked and yawning open in his hand. “Looks like they got out and left these behind.”

“Well, hopefully they’ll come in handy if we come across…”

The third man Reed checked over woke up with a start and clutched at Reed’s arm, wheezing as his eyes scanned the ruined brig as if looking for someone, his frightened gaze going wide at the sight of the Invisible Woman. “Great Scott! You’re still alive man! Hold still, we’ll get you some help before…”

His eyes still focussed on the Invisible Woman, the guard pulled Reed close, whispering into his ear before passing out. Leaving Reed to gently lower the man’s head and pat his shoulder. “He’s still alive, just ****.”

“What did he say Reed?” Susan asked, bending down at the waist to check on the man.

“The invisible man wore gloves because he couldn’t see his hands… The Invisible Man…” Confused, Reed scratched at his chin, deep in thought before he snapped his fingers and stood back to his feet after collecting the discarded collars from the floor around them, gathering them in his arms. “Come everyone, I think I have an idea how to stop Susan’s worst selves.”

***

The six made their way down the halls, led by Doctor Octopus who had a perpetual grin on her lips, her arms folded back behind her while her mechanical limbs propelled her forward. Behind her, the rest of her group followed casually on foot, seeing SHIELD agents and soldiers nearby taking positions but not daring to make a move. Not while they held their director hostage on their way to the main storage bay. By the time they got there, the lot stood before a large mechanical door, one that held a scanner and keypad at the right side of the door blinking idly for code clearance to be entered.

“Well now, here we are.” Spoke the delighted woman, bringing her prisoner over to the console at the door and pressed his face unceremoniously at the optic scanner. “Do hurry and let us in Director, the sooner we are gone, the sooner you can check on your crewmen.”

“If they’re still twitching…” Condor spoke under her breath, picking her nails and getting a chuckle from the rest of the ladies there.

Giving the women a stern frown, Fury looked to the rest of the guards keeping a safe distance, unable to act while he was their prisoner. With his options slim, he got up to his feet with the metal tentacle still wrapped around his waist, and pressed his hand onto the palm readers, then stared into the ocular scanner with his good eye. For an uneasy few seconds, the computer chimed in the positive and a hiss of air from the vault door slowly began to open, leaving Doctor Octopus to smile as she pulled the man back to hang behind her like an accessory and scuttled her way inside the vault.

After several steps together inside the vault, the SHIELD guards slowly followed, not wanting to have their director be alone with them. But the second they approached the threshold of the vault; they were stopped by an invisible barrier at the door. Keeping them from getting inside.

“Nuh uh… This is a PRIVATE get together, stay outside.” The multi-armed woman called over her shoulder, waving back at the SHIELD crew as she and her posse walked deeper into the vault. Ignoring them struggle to break the barrier as the group walked deeper into the vault. Finding a manifest sitting on a crate, Doctor Octopus skimmed through the list and whistled with delight. “My oh my, quite the candy shop you have here…”

The door eventually hissed shut, resealing itself to keep everyone out in the hallway from coming inside. The moment it was, a mechanical tentacle reached out and crushed the controls, making it permanent.

Stopping at the middle of the vault and looking around the collection of weapons, equipment and devices SHIELD had in storage in the helicarrier, Dr. Octopus wrung her hands together. All around him the rest of the Sinister Susan hoisted what they could in hand, all directed by Doctor Octopus who read off the manifest in her hand like she was shopping at a bulk retail store. While she was distracted, Fury found the portal his men had brought back, the one she created using stolen equipment.

“So what? You’re just going to take what you can carry and run off into the exit you made for yourself?”

Looking over to the portal she built, Susan snorted. “What? THAT?”

Raising herself off the ground, she scurried her way over to the portal she created back on the island with stolen equipment from Stark industries… And pushed it over to crash into broken parts on the floor. The act making the rest of her team laugh as their leader turned and folded her arms behind her back.

“It was a lovely art piece but I’m not the sentimental type.” She smiled. “But it got your attention, AND… Ah, here we are!”

Pulling out a small device out of the wreckage with one of her tentacles, the woman raised it up to give a look over, pleased it remained intact. Narrowing his good eye, Nick Fury found it looked like a remote control, but to what he had no idea.

“Come along Fury, this little shopping spree has been dragged out for too long already. FIVE FINGER DISCOUNT TONIGHT LADIES!”

The rest of the sinister six cheered as they hauled their loot, meeting back with Doctor Octopus as she moved deeper into the vault. Confused, Fury remained silent as he was dragged with the woman, making their way over to where Reed Richard’s portal device was sitting at the far end of the vault, a lone tentacle reaching out and flicking a power switch on the remote she possessed, and it made it thrum back to life.

“Like I said back at the brig, it would have taken dozens of people with doctorates just to TRY and understand Reed’s work, let alone replicate it! Sadly… I’m not one of them. Also I lied.”

Turning around to face the SHIELD director, the woman’s face became stern and serious.

“My Reed was a brilliant man, but he was also not a very DRIVEN man. He holed himself away for weeks in the laboratory working on ways to crack the world open… but never having the gumption to profit from it. The patents he gave up, the formulas he could have made money on. He even missed out on that shuttle experiment we were all invited to pilot. BY YOU of all people! And because Reed was squeamish and didn’t have the gonads to say yes, some dumbass airplane pilots were there instead and become the Terrific Three.”

Breathing in sharply and closing her eyes, Doctor Octopus put on a mask of a smile again.

“For years I wallowed as the trophy wide of a super genius who got off on nuclear fission than his wife in garter belts. But it wasn’t a total loss… He mastered interdimensional transportation years ago, and when he finally found a way to choose which reality he wanted to go to on command with this fancy little doodad linked to the dimension hopper back in my home reality…” She gestured to the remote she had in her hand. “I cracked his head open with the base of a microscope and took it for myself.”

The four other versions of Susan chuckled at that confession as they gathered more from the storage room for them to take with them back to their leader’s reality.

“Ever since then, I’ve gone from world to world, learning more about myself along the way… Funny how the lot of us Susan Storms end up married to that dolt the same way I did… Even STRANGER is they got powers out of it while I didn’t! But you know the old adage. When life gives you lemons… Take those lemons and cram them down life’s throat and demand a rum and coke!”

Turning around, Doctor Octopus grinned back at the hoard her crew had amassed, ready to take back with them. Equipment, devices, inventions and supplies she personally picked from the vault’s manifest that. Raising her hands, even her remaining mechanical ones up to the air over her head, she began to levitate off the ground and their booty, now orbiting around her.

“I am now the most powerful being in all of creation. I have the power of the multiverse in the palm of my hand!”

“Reed? Remember all those times I threatened to kill you if you didn’t get out of the lab to see me?” Called out a voice in the vault, making everyone look around in confusion until the invisibility was lifted and the Fantastic Four appeared, ready and willing to fight. “I didn’t mean it like this bitch!”

The five villainesses readied themselves for a fight, with their leader folding her arms behind her imperiously with a stern glare that would have been better seen on her hostage.

“Impossible… How did you get in here?”

“We snuck in before you even noticed, my wife is very good at it too.” Reed answered, contorting his body to inflate his fists as large as his body. “One of the MANY reasons I love her.”

Flashing her husband a warm smile, Susan looked back at her five variants with confidence. Her focus on the woman keeping Nick Fury bound behind her.

“You ladies broke into our home, threatened our family and tried to make off with my husband’s work. You are going to pay for that.”

“Yeah!” Called out Johnny. “Someone’s not coming to the barbeque this weekend!”

Getting into a stance, the five evil women made ready to fight the Fantastic Four. With Electro and Condor taking to the air, while Kraven and Mysterio readied themselves for a scrap.

“Do you not remember our first encounter? We had you on the ropes in your own home… Nice place by the way, VERY cozy.” Smirked Doctor Octopus. “Perhaps you need another thrashing to remind you who the superior Susan Storm is around here.”

“Yeah? Well that was BEFORE we figured out your tricks toots.” Snorted the Thing, slamming his fist into his palm, and giving Kraven a dirty look.

“And learned a few more while we ere away.” Reed piped in with a grin.”

Sneering back at the man, Doctor Octopus’s claws snipped erratically. “I’m starting to see why the Blue Goblin enjoys killing so many of you. Perhaps I should make a hobby of it too.”

“Suzie.” Reed spoke up to his wife.

“Yes dear?”

“Give her hell sweetheart.”

“Love you too Reed!”

Raising her hands over her head, Susan appeared to conjure a barrier, a bubble, anything to protect her loved ones from the oncoming attack. What she did instead was close her hands… And take out all the overhead lights. Leaving them all in darkness.

***

Outside the vault doors, the SHIELD guardsmen could hear heavy impacts behind the door crashing and banging into one surface after another. Almost like a roller derby or some terrible warzone was being played out on the vault floor.

“Come here hussy!” They heard the Invisible Woman call out angrily. “You got a LOT to answer for!”

The lot of them traded looks and winced when they heard one slam after another impact the reinforced walls. Several of them with enough **** to be heard from across the other side of the ship!

“GUESS WHAT TIME IT IS LADY!” They heard the voice of the Thing call out from the other side. “IT’S CLOBBERIN TIME!!!”

Small tremors shook the Helicarrier and caused overhead lights to flicker, making one of the guards whistle, impressed when an even worse one rocked the boat.

“Sucks to be THOSE ladies in there…”

“Yeah, no shit!”