The bar with no name.

It was night across New York city, the sun had already dusked behind the palace of skyscrapers and the streets had lit up with streetlamps and automobile high beams.

Somewhere in New York city, there is a bar, a bar with no name. This bar’s location always changes over the years, it’s location only found by word of mouth. It’s owner unknown… Even by the staff who work there. The where, who and how of the bar is always fluid, but the WHY is always constant. A sanctuary for the mask and cape wearing crowd to step away from the insanity of the outside world and indulge in the insanity of the drinking table. Nights on end, dozens of costumed villains would step in to have a drink, play a game and laugh the week off. To blow off steam so long as it didn’t lead to a coroner at the end of the night.

A well-dressed man in a black suit stood at the front door, the bouncer keeping his eyes open as he checked people coming in for a drink. Making sure the crazier of New York’s worst and most wanted didn’t come in. In was a sanctuary for the criminal element that ran around in bright coloured spandex… Not complete psychopaths. So, it was not entirely his fault when he never spotted the door behind him open of its own volition, remain open for several seconds before closing. Leaving him no more aware of what happened then he would a night’s breeze.

The bar’s interior was packed with patrons and dancers and drinkers and players who sat at their seats sipping from their drinks, talking about the so and so escapades against the latest hero team or vigilante. Not one of them ever noticed an empty booth suddenly become occupied by six women who all sat around the round, polished marble table. All of them save one looked furious.

Raising one of their hand to get the attention of one of the servers walking through the crowded bar, a well-dressed waitress stood at their table and flipped through a note pad, taking their orders… And occasionally raising an eyebrow to some of the requests.

“Okay then one kraken rum on the rocks with a serving of calamari tempura for the lady of the hour, one galaxy cocktail for the wizard LARPer over here, one neon nightmare with… a couple of AA batteries. A vodka with three servings of our fried chicken. Witch’s brew hard lemonade for the scary lady at the back AAAAAND a glass of milk for the designated driver.”

Watching the waitress leave, Dr. Octopus slowly turned her attention to the elderly one of their group and her order. “Ulcer again?”

Condor shrugged. “Sore throat.”

“Isn’t it funny? In every universe, in every New York, there is always a bar without a name. Somethings don’t seem to change, no matter the variations.”

“We’re STUCK here!” Growled the taller woman in the group, tracing a fingernail over the marble surface of the table and scratching a thin groove, like her nails were as sharp as diamonds. “We are stuck here because of YOU!”

“You promised us that we could reap the benefits of our multi-dimensional counterparts, now we’re trapped in this reality and on the run!” Hissed the crone, hunched over with her metallic wings folded up behind her to give her space in her seat.

The others began to hiss and murmur until the leader of the group raised a hand to silence them.

“I have not betrayed your trust in any way shape or form, and no… It was not my fault we are stuck here. Unforeseen variables will always muck up a plan. But my plans are ALWAYS in motion, always improving with each new stimulus to accommodate for.”

“In other words, you’re making it up as you go…” Chuckled the goblin, folding her hands under her chin as she smiled and eyed her compatriots. “No complaints on my end, plans only take you so far.”

“I HAVE FUCKING COMPLAINTS.” Sneered the electrically charged woman at the end of the table, static electricity arcing from her hair and between her fingers when she slammed her fist at the center of the table. “HOW DO YOU EXPECT US TO GET BACK HOME?”

“Indeed!” Barked the green robed woman as she pulled her hood back to reveal her face, heavily marred and blistered with burn scars. Yet despite her appearance, her poise was overdramatic, thumbing the staff she kept in hand and made a hand gesture over the crystal ball it had at its pommel. At the center of the table, a plume of purple fog poured out from the orb, and begun to take on solid shapes, replaying the entire scene back in Reed’s lab like a recording, or hologram. “My performance was blundered, BLUNDERED I say, by the stumbling of your machinations! Now we are stuck in this backwards world where my talents are wasted. The magical arts of Mysterio the Magnificent squandered… Not even a single applause.”

“What do you intend to do?”

The goggles wearing Susan Storm didn’t react to either of the two women, her eyes transfixed on the 3-dimensional recording playing out in front of her on the table thanks to Mysterio’s staff. Her eyes focusing on the Fantastic Four and their sudden aid when the Invisible Woman pressed something on her wrist.

“Not a surprise to anyone at this table, I have a plan…”

Suddenly a pair of her tentacles had snaked their way from under the table to snip and grab either woman by the face, pinning them down headfirst to the table’s surface while the others chuckled at the display of power.

“And I do not like it when my subordinates question me on that matter!” Looking down at Mysterio, the woman winced, feeling pinched by the clawed end of the tentacle holding her skull down. “When you came to me, you were just a washed-up actress who was ruined in an explosion, her career just as much in flames as her body, I gave you the technology to be a walking amusement park! At least show a tinge of gratitude…”

Turning her attention to the electrical woman trying to send a current of electricity up the metal tentacle, it didn’t do so much as cause a tingle. “And you. When I found you, you were a flickering ghost of a woman bouncing off power cables to stay alive, NOW you have the power to feed off entire power grids, back in your home reality you would be ruling the masses like some thunderbolt tossing goddess and this is how you repay me? A temper tantrum like some spoiled child?”

Sharing a gaze with one another, Mysterio and Electro relented, the fight in them gone as they both murmured an apology that only Dr. Octopus could hear. “We’re sorry.”

Smiling, she let go of their skulls, the claws of her tentacles snipping shut like shears and recoiled back under the table. “Good. Any other objections?”

The rest of the women at the table made various looks of compliance. Their responses making the giggle wearing woman smile. Seeing the waitress return with their order, her smile grew.

“Wonderful, THIS calls for a celebration.”

Getting their orders and taking their drinks, each of them partook in their drinks and meals. Each of them looked nonplus or disgruntled still from the ordeal. "You seem to have no qualms about this set back." Pointed Dr. Octopus to the Goblin, the only woman smiling at the table as she sipped from her smoking cocktail through a straw. She looked like the other Susans at the table, give or take, but with pointed ears, sharp teeth, slate grey skin and an overexaggerated nose and chin, giving her a wicked witch appearance. But the woman wore her appearance with pride.

"What set back?” Chuckled the goblin faced woman, leaning back in her chair and playfully twiddle her thumbs at the table. “Everyone else in your pretty little girl-scout troupe are in it for one thing or another: power, money, ego.” She pointed to her team mates playfully, getting a frown from Electro and a growl from Kraven. “They're just upset that they can't go home and enjoy their haul. But not me! I told you what I was after when you invited me in all those years ago. And what was THAT do you remember?"

Her face going sour, Doctor Octopus sighed. "You told me your only motivation was you could kill as many Reed Richards and his teammates as you wished."

Smiling wickedly, the Blue Gobling reached into her chainmail and blue linen tunic and pulled free a necklace lined with a collection of wedding rings clinking against each other between her fingers.

"Correctomundo! And this little blue goblin has quite the treasure chest of mementos thanks to you." She giggled, eyeing each one in her possession. Many appeared the same; a gold band with a humble diamond on top, others were made of exotic materials such as platinum, tungsten, there was even one that was a ring of pure diamond, as impossible as it looked and sounded.

"Why keep the wedding rings?" Asked Kraven, the women taking a sip from her vodka after eating some of her chicken wings.

Pulling the necklace back under her tunic, the Blue Goblin grinned back at the tall, Russian huntress, twiddling her thumbs again playfully as she leaned in with a grin that looked better at home on a shark.

"Because the deepest wound is the one inflicted to the heart!"

“You are a monster; you know that right?” Kraven accused, eating her chicken wings.

“Says the man-eating lioness to the goblin… Sigh, bored now. My drink is missing something.” Getting up from her seat at the booth, the Blue Goblin made her way to the jukebox at the bar, checking the songs listed with idle distain until she found one that caught her eye. Pressing the song on the list, the bar clientele paused when they heard the music go from a club beat to a hard grungy song by Marilyn Manson. The slow beat making the woman shift her shoulders and sway.

‘This world doesn't need no opera, we're here for the operation. We don't need a bigga knife… A bigga knife. Cause they got guns, we got guns, we got guns… we got gunssss… We got guns, you betta run… Ya betta run, ya betta run, ya betta run…’

By now she had pulled her hood down to free her long and stark platinum hair, letting it flow with her head swaying to the beat, dancing provocatively to the crowd watching the goblin woman. One man caught her eye staring, making her grin as she crooked her finger towards him. His friends elbowing him to join her on the dance floor as he finally stepped forward and was pulled towards her by her inhuman strength. Pressing her forehead against his, she guided his hands around her waist and took the lead.

‘Killing strangers, killing strangers, killing strangers so we don’t kill the ones that we love…’

Immediately, without giving the man any preamble, the Blue Goblin pulled him by the hand towards the men’s washroom door, eliciting cheers and whistles from his friends as he chuckled nervously and was pulled into a furious kiss by the goblin woman just as she kicked the door open behind her and dragged him in with her. The rest of the Sinister Susans watched, noting the woman had plucked a skewer from a nearby glass off a table before going to the washroom, each of the ladies smiling knowingly as they sipped from their drinks and waited.

Minutes later, only the Globin stepped out of the washroom alone, fluffing her hair with her free hand as she sashayed back to her seat and placed the skewer into her drink… Along with a pair of eyeballs impaled through it. Taking a sip

“Ahhh, THAT’s better. Thought I was missing a couple of ‘olives’ for my cocktail.” Looking to the rest of her compatriots, they all gave the goblin woman a knowing smirk when she gave the punchline. “He only had eyes for ME, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaa.”